decoded_text
stringlengths 4.18k
47.6k
|
|---|
of the Dallas Police Association. "It's one of the hardest jobs in America. You have to make everybody happy, and it's impossible."Trump's odds of winning drop 12 percent overnight, poll tracking firm reports
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa., July 27, 2016. Trump said earlier Wednesday that he hoped Russia had hacked Hillary Clinton’s email, essentially sanctioning a foreign power’s cyberspying of a secretary of state’s correspondence. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” (Todd Heisler/The New York Times) less Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa., July 27, 2016. Trump said earlier Wednesday that he hoped Russia had hacked Hillary... more Photo: TODD HEISLER, NYT Photo: TODD HEISLER, NYT Image 1 of / 20 Caption Close Trump's odds of winning drop 12 percent overnight, poll tracking firm reports 1 / 20 Back to Gallery
Republican nominee Donald Trump has been closing the gap on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in recent weeks, but that changed in a big way Monday, according to the popular poll monitoring blog FiveThirtyEight.com.
As of Saturday, the blog - which synthesizes polling from around the country to predict elections - had Donald Trump as a slight favorite in the current modeling, at 50.1% to 49.9% chance of winning. The number does not represent the likely popular vote, but rather the likelihood of victory in the electoral college based on state-by-state polling. On Sunday Clinton edged back ahead as a 51% favorite, but by Monday Clinton was seen as having 63.3% to 36.7% advantage.
According to the blog, new numbers suggests Clinton is now narrowly favored in Florida, Iowa and Ohio, key swing states where she had trailed in recent days.
It's common for candidates to see a "convention bump" in the days immediately following the formal nomination process, but according to FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver, Clinton appears to be getting a much larger uptick than her opponent this cycle.
"Clinton will potentially exit the conventions in a stronger position than she entered them, perhaps also making up for some of the ground she lost to Trump earlier in July," Silver wrote Monday.
Findings released by Gallup Monday suggest that Trump actually may have lost support during the GOP convention, a phenomenon not seen previously by that polling group.
The GOP nominee has been put on the defensive in recent days following a verbal spat with the parents of a slain Army veteran which has rallied opponents on the right and the left. The tussle came on the heels of some controversial comments about national security and criticism of his convention, where his chief primary rival failed to endorse him.
At a campaign stop in Ohio on Monday, Trump tried to change the subject by raising concerns that November's general election will not be legitimate.
"I'm afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest," the Republican nominee told a town hall crowd in Columbus, according to the Associated Press. He told the crowd that he hears "more and more" that the election may not be fair.
According to FiveThirtyEight, Trump currently trails Clinton by roughly 60 electoral votes in current modeling.Recently, “grit” has received growing attention from educators and others as the critical ingredient to academic success.
Given our nation’s admiration for the rugged individual, it is understandable why we choose to glorify guts and grit. However, it is less clear why the idea has become such a popular explanation for success in education.
University of Pennsylvania psychologist and McArthur genius awardee Angela Lee Duckworth has convincingly argued that grit is a measurable trait that predicts student achievement. She has also suggested that all students can learn to acquire grit.
But an overemphasis on grit directs attention away from other factors that also affect student success.
Take for example Miguel Fernandez, a recent graduate from a small high school in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, N.Y. Miguel moved from the Dominican Republic at age of 8 speaking no English. He and six siblings were raised by a single mother, who supported them by working as a maid. Despite working while he was in school, Miguel was an A student who graduated near the top of his class. Clearly, these accomplishments suggest that Miguel possessed more than his share of grit; he epitomizes what can be achieved through sacrifice and determination.
However, instead of going to college Miguel now works as an assistant manager at a local McDonalds restaurant. Teachers encouraged him to apply to college without knowing that Miguel was undocumented and in the country illegally. All the grit in the world would not make it possible for him to get the financial aid he needed to pay for his college education.
By suggesting that a student achieves because she has grit, we are likely to ignore the hurdles that obstruct the path of students like Miguel who certainly work hard, but face barriers that limit their ability to experience success.
More often than not, we discuss disparities in student performance in isolation from other factors that contribute to them, such as inequity in per pupil spending. If instead of posing the problem as an “achievement gap” which reinforces the idea that individual effort is the key factor determining differences in outcomes, we acknowledged it as an “opportunity gap,” we might do much more to address the disparities that limit the ability of children to learn.
Social science research has consistently shown that public school students with higher-income parents are likelier to attain higher levels of education than their lower-income peers. The United States continues to have the highest income inequality among first-world nations, and all the grit in the world will not change that.
Unfortunately, a student’s demographic profile continues to be one of the best predictors of academic success and college-readiness. In 2012 the Annenberg Institute found that in 19 of New York City’s poorest neighborhoods only 10% of high school seniors graduated from high school college-ready. In the wealthiest neighborhoods the vast majority of students were college-ready.
The costs of allowing so many Americans to remain under-educated are daunting. Education should be considered an investment in a country’s labor force, where underachievement harms economic growth. Almost five years ago, a McKinsey study showed that if America could narrow its achievement gap between white students and black and Latino students, G.D.P. would be between $310 billion to $525 billion higher, or roughly 4% of total G.D.P.
Today, only one 1 of 10 American jobs are available to high school dropouts. During our most recent recession those regions of the country with better educated populations managed to recover more quickly than those with less. This is why it is important to acknowledge education as both an individual and collective concern.
Rather than focusing on grit, it might be far wiser to focus on the concept of agency. Like grit, agency involves action, but used by social scientists agency implies having the ability to act and affect one’s surroundings without glossing over obstacles created by structural inequality. Moreover, agency is not necessarily an individual trait. It can be applied to groups, schools, and communities that organize together to act for their collective interests.
For example, in 2011, a low-income public school located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn obtained the highest gains in literacy and math of any public elementary school in the borough. The school’s achievement is even more remarkable when one considers that 100% of the children came from families with incomes below the poverty line, 28% of the children were categorized as being in need of special education, and 40% of the children were homeless.
Undoubtedly, many of the children and teachers at the school possessed an enormous amount of grit, but what really explains their success is the collective agency they generated to contend with the significant obstacles they faced. The school actively responded to the academic and non-academic needs of children by expanding access to health services, building partnerships with social services agencies, extending the school day, and working with community-based organizations to address parent needs. In so doing, they improved achievement by expanding opportunity.
On Thursday, President Obama launched a new initiative to build “ladders of opportunity” for boys and young minority males. It is a program designed to lift through more than grit.
Fostering agency has the potential to be extremely powerful. Today, Miguel is still working at McDonald’s. But he is also organizing with other undocumented students to demand immigration reform. Rather than accepting his plight as inevitable, he and others are taking action at great personal risk to change laws.
Unlike grit, agency is about empowering young people to use education to take control of their lives. As they come to understand that knowledge is a source of power, students become more invested as learners and more able to see the relevance of school in shaping their future outcomes.
Teach a kid to catch fish and you’ve taught him how to feed himself.
But don’t stop there.
Help her to understand why the river is polluted so that she and her friends can organize to get the river clean and make it possible for the entire community to eat too.
Pedro Noguera is a professor of education at NYU and the director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education. Anindya Kundu, a doctoral student in Education at NYU, contributed to this column.My secret Redditor came through for me! After having been shirked on my previous exchange, it was wonderful to receive such a wonderful gift from the Emerald Isle. Little did I know that this gift would, in the end, perform a minor miracle.
The contents of my box were so delicious that even the box itself wanted to eat it! I received the package in fair shape, but upon opening the box I got to unwrap stickiness. All three of the bottles had popped open (two of the jar tops were bent; looks like the post office played cricket with the box).
But fear not, for the fates were kind. In the end about 95% of the product was intact, in the jar, and still tasty! I can't say thank you enough to my kind Reddit gifter. You have been wonderful to me!Israel warned Hamas it will step up its offensive in the Gaza Strip in 36 hours if they do not cease rocket fire. UN chief Ban Ki-moon arrived in Cairo in a bid to broker a peace deal between the two sides as the threat of a ground invasion looms.
Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told IDF radio the time left before Israel escalates its attacks can be measured in “hours, not days.”
"We are at a junction," Steinitz said. "Either we go toward a calm or toward a meaningful widening of the operation… including a possible move to achieve complete military decision."
Israel has demanded that Hamas cease firing rockets into Israel for a period of “several years” and that they stop the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. The conditions are part of a six-part proposal put forward by the Israeli government at negotiations with Hamas in Cairo.
In addition, the proposal asked that Israel be allowed to hunt down terrorists in the event of an attack or if it obtains information on an imminent attack. An Israel official told AP on condition of anonymity that a diplomatic solution was preferable, though they would “escalate” if diplomacy did not “bear fruit.”
The official maintained Israel was not looking for a “quick fix” which would result in renewed militant activity in the near-distant future. He also said the Israeli’s wanted “international guarantees” Hamas would not rearm or use Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula as a staging ground for future attacks.
On Monday Hamas’ official Moussa Abu Marzuk said Hamas would not accept the creation of an Israeli "security belt" in eastern Gaza.
Later in the day Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal told a media conference in Egypt "we don't accept Israel's conditions because it is the aggressor." Instead, Meshaal said Israel should lift the blockade of Gaza before the two sides can move forward. Hamas has also called for a cessation of IDF targeted killings.
Hamas Leader Khaled Meshaal gives a press conference at the Journalist Syndicate building.(AFP Photo / Gianluigi Guercia)
Meshaal reiterated the Islamic resistance movement has no interest in an escalation of the ongoing conflict in Gaza, though Israel must be the party to stop the war since they started it. He says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had initially called for a ceasefire, a claim which Israel denied.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Cairo on Monday in a bid to aid Egyptian efforts to mediate a ceasefire between the two sides. Ki-Moon is set to meet with both Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday.
Eighty four percent of Israelis support the ongoing Operation Pillar of Defense, and only 12 percent are opposed to it, according to a poll published in Haaretz daily on Monday. However, only 30 percent of those surveyed support a ground invasion of Gaza.
Nathan Thrall from the International Crisis Group told RT said there was still a chance for a ceasefire, as “we are still in a window where both sides can claim their victory and stop.” He believes that under the terms being presented by both sides, another confrontation over the next several years remains “extremely likely.”
Despite this caveat,Thrall said strategically it would be better for Israel to hold off on a ground invasion for several reasons apart from international public opinion.
“Israel does want to avoid ground operation simply because it knows little good is going to come out of this. The main purpose of an incursion is going to be to eliminate the Hamas stock pile and they are going to need Egypt if they are going to prevent this stock pile from being rebuilt. And their ability to get anything from Egypt is going to be lessened by a ground incursion.”
Fears of an Israeli ground offensive in Gaza have heightened following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement on Sunday that the IDF was “prepared for a significant expansion of the operation.”
Additionally, the Israeli cabinet has doubled the troop reserve quota for the Gaza offensive and called up a total of 16,000 reservists.
Meanwhile the conflict shows no signs of letting up, with the targeted airstrikes within Gaza continuing unabated.
On Monday an Israeli airstrike targeted a high-rise complex which houses many foreign and local media offices in Gaza for the second day straight. Islamic Jihad told journalists via text message that Ramez Harb, a senior figure in Islamic Jihad's military wing, the Al Quds Brigades, was killed in the attack.
The IDF provoked international ire and accusations of a massacre following the bombing of a civilian household which which absolutey decimated the building on Sunday night. Eleven civilians, four of them children, perished in the military blunder. Israel says it is investigating the incident and that the misfire was due to a technical hitch in their targeting equipment.
The death toll on Monday evening stood at 101 Palestinians, while three Israelis were killed in rocket fire on Thursday, a day after the IDF assassinated the head of the Hamas military wing, Ahmed Jabari.
A Palestinian man looks at the destruction after Israeli air strikes in Gaza City.(AFP Photo / Mohammed Abed)
With the Knicks franchise in shambles and Phil Jackson actively trying to run him out of town, Carmelo Anthony has long been rumored to be linked to the Cavaliers to team up with 2003 Draft buddy LeBron James.
Well, the first step to that potential reality might be in place, per Marc Stein.
League sources: Carmelo Anthony's camp, while acknowledging Melo's preference to stay in NYC, has tried to engage the Knicks in buyout talks — Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) June 27, 2017
But league sources say that the Knicks have thus far resisted the idea of a Melo buyout that would clear the way for him to join the Cavs — Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) June 27, 2017
Though trading Kevin Love for Anthony is the often-discussed route, a buyout was always the more palatable option. Love is too good to be traded for Anthony, and Anthony’s trade kicker that raises his cap number made a deal hard to stomach from Cleveland’s perspective. If Phil Jackson has done one thing, it’s been to plummet any value that the Knicks could get back for Anthony.
Stein explicitly mentioned that the Cavaliers as a team Melo would join if he were to receive a buyout, and that makes sense. If he’s taking a buyout, he’ll likely be joining a contender and all of the prospective contenders that would have interest are either capped out or have plans for their money elsewhere.
The most the Cavaliers could pay Anthony is the $5.1 million taxpayer mid-level exception, though they may want to split that number to pay Dwyane Wade who also may be facing a buyout. Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, the Knicks haven’t yet bit on a buyout, though they don’t have a ton of leverage in the situation.
How long will the Knicks maintain their unwillingness to buy Melo out when he can block any trade? One of the summer's hottest questions... — Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) June 27, 2017
There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about Melo’s fit in Cleveland. He likes to have the ball in his hands and the Cavaliers already have two ball-dominant stars in Kyrie Irving and LeBron James. He’s also a terrible defender and has had health problems in the last couple years, and he’ll have a hard time slowing down the Warriors potent attack.
With that said, people concerned about the potential addition need to pump the brakes and re-evaluate the situation. The Cavaliers would be paying a fairly minimal sum of money to add Melo. Fit aside (and there’s plenty of reasons he would be a good fit), there’s no minimum-level free agent on the market that comes close to Carmelo’s value.
This isn’t an instance of the Cavaliers giving up a star asset to bring Melo in. This hypothetical would bring him in for functionally free. It’d be a no-brainer for the Cavaliers who need as much help as they can get in the arms race to beat the Warriors.Two teens suspected in a road rage confrontation that left a victim injured in Hemet surrendered to authorities Thursday and were arrested on suspicion of attempted homicide and conspiracy.
The victim, a 53-year-old man, suffered non-life-threatening injuries when he was struck by his own vehicle July 31 in the 1400 block of South Gilbert Street, according to Hemet police. Witness video of the attack depicted two attackers, one of them arguing with the victim and the other driving away in the victim's vehicle at a high rate of speed, police said.
The fight escalated when the attackers threw a soda can at Tracy Leavitt's car, so he stopped to confront them on Gilbert Street, his wife Sabine Leavitt said. The video also showed Leavitt grab a skateboard and break the driver's side window of their truck.
Leavitt then scuffled with one of the men before the other got into Leavitt's car and ran him down, leaving Leavitt bloodied and severely injured on the ground.
Attackers Run Over Man With His Own Car
Police are searching for two attackers who stole a man’s car and ran him over with it. Gadi Schwartz reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 3, 2015. (Published Monday, Aug. 3, 2015)
The video was circulated through news and social media, generating tips as to the attackers' identities, police said.
On Tuesday, investigators arrested a 17-year-old boy in connection with the attack. He was taken into custody during a traffic stop in the 100 block of North Buena Vista Street, police said. The teen was processed at the Hemet police station before being taken to Riverside County Juvenile Hall, police said. Investigators later arrested an 18-year-old man in connection with the crime after he surrendered to police.World, meet Larry.
While most of us have (unfortunately) become well-acquainted with Twitter's "Fail Whale," it's likely we aren't on a first-name basis with the site's official mascot, Larry the bird.
The little guy may have been named after former NBA player, Larry Bird, who played for Twitter co-founder Biz Stone's home-state team, the Boston Celtics.
.@stop going over Design @ Twitter. The evolution of the Larry the Bird logo pic.twitter.com/VBIqz7jC — Ryan Sarver (@rsarver) February 27, 2012
While this latest name-drop is getting some attention, this isn't the first time it's been mentioned or noticed.
AllTwitter reported Larry's name in August of last year after catching a March 2 tweet by Twitter corporate responsibility manager @jennadawn.
One Twitter shortcut released with the site's latest redesign in December is a slight nod to the bird. Twitter wrote on its blog on February 16, "You can quickly close all expanded Tweets by pressing 'L' (as in Larry) on your keyboard."Super Bowl champ Ebner, England 7s quartet spearhead Samurai
The teenage Nate Ebner representing USA U20. Photo: World Rugby.
Nate Ebner – the American footballer turned Olympic rugby sevens hopeful – will team up with four England Sevens players, a Wales Sevens forward, the Canada 15s captain and six New Zealanders in a star-studded, seven-nation Samurai squad sponsored by Mourant Ozannes
Hong Kong; March 31, 2016: Nate Ebner, the 2015 Super Bowl champion aiming to represent USA’s rugby sevens team in the Olympics, has joined four England Sevens players and the current Canada 15s captain in a star-studded Samurai squad aiming to win the GFI HKFC 10s for the first time.
For their 10th appearance in the ‘World’s Best 10s’, Samurai have assembled one of their strongest-ever squads – including six New Zealanders – as they seek to finally lift the Bill Burgess Cup at Hong Kong Football Club, where they lost in finals in 2010 and 2013.
Terry Sands, who founded Samurai International RFC in 1996, is a former team manager for England Sevens and 15s, and his relationships with current England Sevens boss Simon Amor and USA Sevens coach Mike Friday have helped him pull together a powerful seven-nation squad.
“We have a great relationship with Simon Amor and England Sevens that has rolled over from my days as team manager and we’re so pleased that he agreed to release a few of his contracted players for us for the GFI HKFC 10s. To then get a call from Mike Friday to confirm that Nate Ebner was available was the icing on the cake for us in our 20th anniversary year,” said Sands, who has created one of the world’s most successful invitational teams.
“We have a real Barbarians-style squad this year from six different countries and although it wont be easy, we’re going to give it our best shot. We have struggled to make ends meet for this tournament, but Mourant Ozannes have been great to us and it’s nice to repay them with great players and a great bunch of guys.”
Paul Christopher, Hong Kong Managing Partner for Mourant Ozannes, added: “We're excited and delighted to see such a high calibre of players making up this year's team and the addition of Nate Ebner has really added to that excitement. We're looking forward to following their progress and wish them all the best for the tournament.”
Ebner, 27, made headlines in mid-March when the New England Patriots safety took a leave of absence to train with USA Sevens as the Eagles compete in the 2015-16 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series and prepare for the Rio Olympics in August.
At 17, Ebner was the youngest player in USA Sevens history and starred for 15-a-side rugby teams at international age-grade tournaments, but started playing American football in college and was drafted by the Patriots in 2012.
Ebner will play as a centre in Hong Kong and will be surrounded by teammates from New Zealand, South Africa, England, Wales, France and Canada.
After playing for Samurai in last year’s GFI HKFC 10s, James Cordy-Redden went on to earn an England Sevens contract for 2015-16. The fullback will return to Hong Kong with international teammates Cameron Cowell and Ben Foley, both wingers, and scrumhalf John Brake, who could play hooker for Samurai.
Like Cordy-Redden, Wales Sevens forward Luke Crocker returns after playing for Samurai last year and is joined by some heavy hitters up front, including Canada prop Hubert Buydens, who captained his country at the recent Americas Rugby Championship after playing his second straight World Cup last year.
Samurai have six New Zealanders, including four playing in the ITM Cup, the country’s top domestic competition. Hawkes Bay star Trent Boswell-Wakefield is back for Samurai after playing in 2012 and is one of four Kiwi back-rowers with Waikato duo Murray Iti and Adam Burn, and Daniel Temm, who has blossomed at Newcastle Falcons in England after originally moving to the UK to play cricket!
Nathan Vella, the former Auckland and London Welsh hooker, will captain the squad, while Taranaki flyhalf Liam McBride, his Kiwi compatriot, is vice-captain. Scrumhalf Rhys Downes (Wales), centre Jos Malherbe (South Africa) and wing Jaques Boussuge (France) also feature in the 16-man squad.
Nick Wakley, the former Wales Sevens player now working with Newport Gwent Dragons Sevens and Ebbw Vale, and Jon Curry, the Northampton Saints academy coach, re-unite as Samurai’s coaching duo for a third straight year.
Renowned as the world’s best annual 10-a-side tournament, the GFI HKFC 10s has long attracted the game’s top players including seven of the New Zealand team who won the 2015 Rugby World Cup – Conrad Smith, Jerome Kaino, Ben Smith, Beauden Barrett, Nehe Milner-Skudder, Sam Cane and Charlie Faumuina.
Along with GFI, other sponsors in 2016 include Allied World, Natixis and Rugby Pass (gold sponsors), DHL, Q-Net, Swire Properties and Withers (silver), Cashmaster, CBRE, CPA Global, EY, Markel, Structure Tone and Tricor (bronze), Pure Blonde (official beer), Highland Spring (official water) and Tsunami (official apparel). Make-A-Wish Hong Kong is this year’s official charity.
For more information, visit:
Website: www.hongkongtens.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HKFC10s
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GFIHKFC10s
Instagram: www.instagram.com/gfihkfc10sCheap Eat of the Week: a coconut cream confection from Glory Hole Doughnuts
By Gizelle Lau
Doughnuts are making a big comeback, and they’re nothing like the boring ‘ol chocolate dips, Boston creams or Timbits of the classic coffee shop. Just as Krispy Kreme once sparked an obsession in the city (raise your hand if you drove all the way out to Mississauga just to line up for a box of original glaze), Glory Hole Doughnuts have come to redeem the doughnut for Toronto.
Behind Glory Hole Doughnuts is Ashley Jacot De Boinod, a former pastry chef at Buca. Taking classic doughnut flavours, she elevates them into fanciful products reminiscent of what you’d find at Doughnut Plant in New York City or Voodoo Doughnut in Portland.
Pictured above is the coconut cream doughnut, which features all the flavours of a coconut cream pie: a shredded coconut custard delicately held within a soft, not-too-dense doughnut topped with whipped cream and semi-sweet chocolate flakes. Made by hand daily, other signature flavours include apple pie, S’Mores, puddin’, lemon meringue, cotton candy and the signature fried chicken and waffles.
While De Boinod continues to search for a storefront location (she’s currently making the doughnuts in an industrial kitchen in Kensington Market and selling them to retail outlets), you can get your hands on these at Thor Espresso Bar or at Kensington Market’s Burger Bar. If you’re going on a weekend, go early (or follow @ThorEspressoBar for the latest updates on doughnut stock) — it’s not abnormal for these doughnuts sell out by 9 a.m. on Saturdays.
Glory Hole Doughnuts are available at Thor Espresso Bar, 35 Bathurst St., 416-451-8736. $3.50-$4.25.
Gizelle Lau is a food and travel writer and photographer in Toronto who lives from one meal to the next. Her column, Cheap Eat of the Week, highlights dishes that costs $10 or less. Follow her on Twitter for your daily dose of food from in and around the city.The government of Alaska in common with state and federal governments of the United States, has three branches of government: the executive, consisting of the Governor of Alaska and the state agencies; the state legislature consisting of two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate; and the judiciary consisting of the Supreme court and lower courts.
Alaska has 246 federally recognized tribal governments and one federal Indian (Native American) reservation.[1]
Executive [ edit ]
The Governor of Alaska is the senior-most official of the Alaska executive branch. The main Alaska state agencies are the:
Other agencies are the:
Legislature [ edit ]
Alaska has a Legislature. It is a bicameral institution, consisting of a lower chamber, the Alaska House of Representatives with 40 members, and an upper chamber, the Alaska Senate with 20 members. There are 40 House Districts (1-40) and 20 Senate Districts (A-T). [2] The Alaska Legislature meets in the State Capitol building in Juneau.
Judiciary [ edit ]
The Alaska Court System is the unified, centrally administered, and totally state-funded judicial system. The Alaska District Court are the primary misdemeanor trial courts, the Alaska Superior Courts are the primary felony trial courts, and the Alaska Supreme Court and the Alaska Court of Appeals are the primary appellate courts. The Chief Justice of the Alaska Supreme Court is the administrative head of the Alaska Court System.
Local government [ edit ]
Alaska is divided into 16 boroughs (including unified municipalities),[1] as opposed to "counties." The function is the same, but whereas some states use a three-tiered system of decentralization — state/county/township — most of Alaska only uses two tiers — state/borough. Owing to the state's low population density, most of the land is located in the Unorganized Borough which, as the name implies, has no intermediate borough government of its own, but is administered directly by the state government. Currently (2000 census) 57.71 percent of Alaska's land area has this status; however, its population comprises only 13.05 percent of the state's total. For statistical purposes the United States Census Bureau divides this territory into census areas. Anchorage merged the city government with the Greater Anchorage Area Borough in 1971 to form the Municipality of Anchorage, containing the city proper, and the bedroom communities of Eagle River, Chugiak, Peters Creek, Girdwood, Bird, and Indian. Fairbanks, on the other hand, has a separate borough (the Fairbanks North Star Borough) and municipality (the City of Fairbanks).
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]A taste of the future—or maybe just a nifty little PC
What's this? A real and reasonably capable PC stuffed into box that will fit in the palm of your hand?
We've heard such claims before, but they've never really panned out. Usually such systems have been based on low-power Atom processors or the like, demanding massive performance trade-offs to fit into a small space. Now that most of the world is convinced the PC is doomed and mobile devices are taking over, though, I suppose we should start paying closer attention.
It doesn't hurt that Intel, the traditional provider of PC performance, has produced this sleek little 4" by 4" box and given it a totally-not-pretentious name: the Next Unit of Computing.
Intel calls it NUC, for short, which is incredibly cute.
The firm's ambitions for this form factor are far more serious. Most of the talk about the NUC mentions obvious applications for a teeny PC, such as digital signage and home theater systems. There's an undercurrent of suggestion, however, that boxes such as this one may be the future of the PC. If so, the future of PC enthusiasm is likely to be dominated by people with extremely small hands.
Still, the concept is compelling, instantly spurring the question: what would you do with a little PC of this size? That question comes into sharp focus when you realize that these NUC boxes are on the cusp of broad availability in early December at a pretty darned reasonable price.
Forgive me for this obvious slight to the post-PC era, but in order to orient ourselves to the NUC's true potential, some discussion of the system specifications will be helpful. Have a look:
Processor Intel Core i3-3217U Chipset Intel QS77 Express Memory 2 DDR3 1333/1600 SO-DIMM slots Graphics Intel HD Graphics 4000 Audio Intel Display Audio via HDMI or Thunderbolt/DisplayPort Ports 3 USB 2.0 w/headers for 2 more
1 HDMI 4.1a
1 Thunderbolt (with DisplayPort 1.1a) Expansion slots 1 full-size mini-PCIe w/mSATA support
1 half-size mini-PCIe Cooling Integrated heatsink/fan Power supply 65W external brick Dimensions 4" x 4" x 2"
The Cliff's Notes version is simple: Intel should have called this an Ultrabox, in an obvious play on the Ultrabook name. The guts of the NUC are essentially the same as an Ultrabook's, right down to the 17W dual-core Ivy Bridge processor. This CPU, with the incredibly catchy name Core i3-3217U, has four threads via Hyper-Threading and runs at 1.8GHz, with 3MB of L3 cache. It's not exactly a screamer by desktop standards, but it's vastly more capable than your average Intel Atom or AMD Brazos CPU. This Core i3 chip is soldered onto the underside of the NUC's motherboard and included in the system's price tag, which Intel anticipates to be somewhere around $300-320.
The version of the NUC we have for review is the DC3217BY, a lovely name that could double as a software registration key. As you can see, the BY has several external connectors, including an HDMI output, a trio of USB 2.0 ports, and a Thunderbolt plug that doubles as a DisplayPort output. Intel will also be selling the DC3217IYE, which omits the Thunderbolt port in favor of a second HDMI output and a GigE port. Also, the YE rocks a manly black top cover.Jake Lloyd is a late withdrawal from the side to take on Hawthorn.
Sydney has made two late changes ahead of Friday night's clash against Hawthorn, with Jake Lloyd (hip tightness) and Gary Rohan (back spasms) replaced in the Swans' selected 22 by Daniel Robinson and Jordan Foote.
Hawthorn has named an unchanged team.
Lloyd and Rohan travelled with the Swans team to Melbourne before being ruled out with their respective injuries coming off a six-day break following last Saturday night's win over St Kilda.
"Unfortunately Jake Lloyd hasn't come up so he will be a late out for us and replaced by Dan Robinson," Swans assistant coach Josh Francou said.
"Dan Robinson has been in really good form for us, so we are expecting him to be able to play a role for us."
Lloyd had played every game this season before Friday night's clash and last missed a senior match in round 22, 2015.ANAHEIM, Calif. — Toronto has placed Troy Tulowitzki on the 10-day disabled list with a strained right hamstring, joining star Josh Donaldson and other key Blue Jays on the shelf in a frustrating start to the season.
Tulowitzki removed himself from Friday night’s 13-inning, 8-7 victory over the Los Angeles Angels in the eighth inning after taking third base on a wild pitch by Cam Bedrosian.
Tulowitzki’s hamstring is the latest in a string of injuries this season for Toronto, which has already placed third baseman Donaldson (calf), left-hander J.A. Happ (elbow) and right-hander Aaron Sanchez (finger) on the DL.
Toronto manager John Gibbons said the new 10-day DL was "definitely a factor" in the move.
"It’s a good rule change," Gibbons said. "We can’t take any chances."
Toronto called up RHP Leonel Campos from Triple-A Buffalo to help a depleted bullpen. Ryan Goins replaced Tulowitzki at shortstop in Toronto’s lineup Saturday night.By: Kevin Ruane
With Blake Bortles off the roster and preparing for the NFL Draft, the Fiesta Bowl champions must address a gaping void at quarterback. Although it will be difficult to replace the AAC Offensive Player of the Year, the Knights have a plethora of quarterbacks fighting to take the season’s first snap against Penn State in Dublin, Ireland.
Coach George O’Leary has made it known that Bortles’ spot is up for grabs, and he’ll name a quarterback after the spring season. The three candidates are freshman Tyler Harris, redshirt freshman Pete DiNovo, and sophomore Justin Holman. Boise State transfer Nick Patti, who will be a redshirt sophomore, could also be in the hunt if the NCAA allows it. Patti will not be a UCF student until summer. This means Patti will not be able to play this year unless a hardship waiver is granted by the NCAA.
The only candidate that has seen the field for UCF is Justin Holman. In three games, the 6-foot-4 sophomore threw for 75 yards completing 9-of-14 passes with a touchdown and an interception. Holman is from Snellville, Georgia and came out of Stephenson High School as a three star recruit. Holman is a dual-threat quarterback with a skill set similar to Jeff Godfrey. Even though he is the only quarterback with game experience, O’Leary has stated there is no frontrunner.
The next candidate is Pete DiNovo, the redshirt freshman from Tarpon Springs, Florida. DiNovo stands at 6-foot-1 and is a pro-style quarterback. Like Holman, DiNovo recieved a three star recruit rating. In high school, DiNovo set two Pinellas County records throwing |
network architectures:
There are a lot of other interesting details that I had not mentioned, as it’d go far beyond the scope of this post. For those that want to know more (e.g. why the gradient penalty is applied just to “some” gradients or how to a apply this model to text), I recommend taking a look at the article.
You might want to use WGANs-GP if
you want an improved version of the WGAN which
converges faster.
works on a wide variety of architectures and datasets.
doesn’t require as much hyperparameter tuning as other GANs.
Boundary Equilibrium GANs (BEGANs)
TL;DR: GANs using an auto-encoder as the discriminator. They can be successfully trained with simple architectures. They incorporate a dynamic term that balances both discriminator and generator during training.
[Article]
Fun fact: BEGANs were published on the very same day as the WGAN-GP paper.
Idea. What sets BEGANs apart from other GANs is that they use an auto-encoder architecture for the discriminator (similarly to EBGANs) and a special loss adapted for this scenario. What is the reason behind this choice? Are auto-encoders not the devil as they force us to have a pixel reconstruction loss that makes blurry generated samples? To answer these questions we need to consider these two points:
Why reconstruction loss? The explanation from the authors is that we can rely on the assumption that, by matching the reconstruction loss distribution, we will also end up matching the real sample distributions. Which leads us to: how? An important remark is that the reconstruction loss from the auto-encoder/discriminator (i.e. given this input image, give me the best reconstruction) is not the final loss that BEGANs are minimizing. This reconstruction loss is just a step to calculate the final loss. And the final loss is calculated using the Wasserstein distance (yes, it’s everywhere now) between the reconstruction loss on real and generated data.
This might be a lot of information at once but, once we see how this loss function is applied to the generator and discriminator, it’ll be much clearer:
The generator focuses on generating images that the discriminator will be able to reconstruct well.
The discriminator tries to reconstruct real images as good as possible while reconstructing generated images with the maximum error.
Diversity factor. Another interesting contribution is what they call the diversity factor. This factor controls how much you want the discriminator to focus on getting a perfect reconstruction on real images (quality) vs distinguish real images from generated (diversity). Then, they go one step further and use this diversity factor to maintain a balance between the generator and discriminator during training. Similarly to WGANs, they use this equilibrium between both networks as a measure of convergence that correlates with image quality. However, unlike WGANs (and WGANs-GP), they use Wasserstein distance in such a way that the Lipschitz constrain is not required.
Results. BEGANs do not need any fancy architecture to train properly; as mentioned in the paper: “no batch normalization, no dropout, no transpose convolutions and no exponential growth for convolution filters”. The quality of the generated samples (128x128) is quite impressive*:
*However, there’s an important detail to be considered in this paper. They are using an unpublished dataset which is almost twice the size of the widely used CelebA dataset. Then, for a more realistic qualitative comparison, I invite you to check any public implementation using CelebA and see the generated samples.
As a final note, if you want to know more about BEGANs, I recommend reading this blog post, which goes much more into detail.
You might want to use BEGANs…
… for the same reasons you would use WGANs-GP. They both offer very similar results (stable training, simple architecture, loss function correlated to image quality), they mainly differ in their approach. Due to the hard nature of evaluating generative models, it’s difficult to say which is better. As Theis et al. says in their paper, you should choose a evaluation method or another depending on the application. In this case, WGAN-GP has a better Inception score and yet BEGANs generate very high-quality samples. Both are innovative and promising.
Progressive growing of GANs (ProGANs)
TL;DR: Progressively add new high-resolution layers during training that generate incredibly realistic images. Other improvements and a new evaluation method are also proposed. The quality of the generated images is astonishing.
[Article] [Code]
Generating high-resolution images is a big challenge. The larger the image, the easier is for the network to fail because it needs to learn to generate more subtle and complex details. To give a little bit of context, before this article, realistic generated images were around 256x256. Progressive GANs (ProGANs) take this to a whole new level by successfully generating completely realistic 1024x1024 images. Let’s see how.
Idea. ProGANs, which are built upon WGANs-GP, introduce a smart way to progressively add new layers on training time. Each one of these layers upsamples the images to a higher resolution for both the discriminator and generator. Let’s go step by step:
Start with the generator and discriminator training with low-resolution images. At some point (e.g. when they start to converge) increase the resolution. This is done very elegantly with a “transition period” / smoothing:
Instead of just adding a new layer directly, it's added on small linear steps controlled by α.
Let's see what happens in the generator. At the beginning, when α = 0, nothing changes. All the contribution of the output is from the previous low-resolution layer (16x16). Then, as α is increased, the new layer (32x32) will start getting its weights adjusted through backpropagation. By the end, α will be equal to 1, meaning that we can totally drop the "shortcut" used to skip the 32x32 layer. The same happens to the discriminator, but the other way around: instead of making the image larger, we make it smaller.
Once the transition is done, keep training the generator and discriminator. Go to step 2 if the resolution of currently generated images is not the target resolution.
But, wait a moment… isn’t this upsampling and concatenation of new high-resolution images something already done in StackGANs (and the new StackGANs++)? Well, yes and no. First of all, StackGANs are text-to-image conditional GANs that use text descriptions as an additional input while ProGANs don’t use any kind of conditional information. But, more interestingly, despite both StackGANs and ProGANs using concatenation of higher resolution images, StackGANs require as many independent pairs of GANs — which need to be trained separately — per upsampling. Do you want to upsample 3 times? Train 3 GANs. On the other hand, in ProGANs only a single GAN is trained. During this training, more upsampling layers are progressively added to upsample the images. So, the cost of upsampling 3 times is just adding more layers on training time, as opposed to training from scratch 3 new GANs. In summary, ProGANs use a similar idea from StackGANs and they manage to pull it off more elegantly, with better results and without extra conditional information.
Results. As a result of this progressive training, generated images in ProGANs are of higher quality and training time is reduced by 5.4x on 1024x1024 images. The reasoning behind this is that a ProGAN doesn’t need to learn all large-scale and small-scale representations at once. In a ProGAN, first the small-scale are learnt (i.e. low-resolution layers converge) and then the model is free to focus on refining purely the large-scale structures (i.e. new high-resolution layers converge).
Other improvements. Additionally, the paper proposes new design decisions to further improve the performance of the model. I’ll briefly describe them:
Minibatch standard deviation: encourages each minibatch to have similar statistics using the standard deviation over all features of the minibatch. This is then summarized as a single value in a new layer that is inserted towards the end of the network.
Equalized learning rate: makes sure that the learning speed is the same for all weights by dividing each weight by a constant continuously during training.
Pixelwise normalization: on the generator, each feature vector is normalized after each convolutional layer (exact formula in the paper). This is done to prevent the magnitudes of the gradients of the generator and discriminator from escalating.
CelebA-HQ. As a side note, it is worth mentioning that the authors enhanced and prepared the original CelebA for high-resolution training. In a nutshell, they remove artifacts, apply a Gaussian filtering to produce a depth-of-field effect, and detect landmarks on the face to finally get a 1024x1024 crop. After this process, they only keep the best 30k images out of 202k.
Evaluation. Last but not least, they introduce a new evaluation method:
The idea behind it is that the local image structure of generated images should match the structure of the training images.
How do we measure local structure? With a Laplacian pyramid, where you get different levels of spatial frequency bands that can be used as descriptors.
Then, we extract descriptors from the generated and real images, normalize them, and check how close they are using the famous Wasserstein distance. The lower the distance, the better.
You might want to use ProGANs…
If you want state-of-the-art results. But consider that…
… you will need a lot of time to train the model: “We trained the network on a single NVIDIA Tesla P100 GPU for 20 days”.
If you want to start questioning your own reality. Next GAN iterations might create more realistic samples than real life.
Honorable mention: Cycle GANs
[Article] [Code]
Cycle GANs are, at the moment of writing these words, the most advanced image-to-image translation using GANs. Tired that your horse is not a zebra? Or maybe that Instagram photo needs more winter? Say no more.
These GANs don’t require paired datasets to learn to translate between domains, which is good because this kind of data is very difficult to obtain. However, Cycle GANs still need to be trained with data from two different domains X and Y (e.g. X: horses, Y: zebras). In order to constrain the translation from one domain to another, they use what they call a “cycle consistent loss”. This basically means that if you translate a horse A into a zebra A, transforming the zebra A back to a horse should give you the original horse A as a result.
This mapping from one domain to another is different from the also popular neural style transfer. The latter combines the content of one image with the style of another, whilst Cycle GANs learn a high level feature mapping from one domain to another. As a consequence, Cycle GANs are more general and can also be used for all sorts of mappings such as converting a sketch of an object into a real object.
Let’s recap. We have had two major improvements, WGANs-GP and BEGANs. Despite following different research directions, they both offer similar advantages. Then, we have ProGANs (based on WGANs-GP), which unlock a clear path to generate realistic high-resolution images. Meanwhile, CycleGANs reminds us about the power of GANs to extract meaningful information from a dataset and how this information can be transferred to another unrelated data distribution.
Other useful resources
Here are a bunch of links to other interesting posts:
GAN playground: this is the most straightforward way to play around GANs. Simply click the link, set up some hyperparameters and train a GAN in your browser.
Every paper and code: here’s a link to all GAN related papers sorted by the number of citations. It also includes courses and Github repos. Very recommended, but the last update was on July 2017.
GANs timeline: similar to the previous link, but this time every paper is ordered according to publishing date.
GANs comparison: in this link, different versions of GANs are tested without cherry picking. This is a important remark, as generated images shown in publications might not be really representative of the overall performance of the model.
Some theory behind GANs: in a similar way to this post, this link contains some nice explanations of the theory (especially the loss function) of the main GAN models.
High-resolution generated images: this is more of a curiosity, but here you can actually see how 4k x 4k generated images actually look like.
Waifus generator: you’ll never feel alone ever again ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Hope this post has been useful and thanks for reading! I want to also say thanks to Blair Young for his feedback on this post. If you think there’s something wrong, inaccurate or want to make any suggestion, please let me know in the comment section below or in this reddit thread.
Oh, and I have just created my new twitter account. I’ll be sharing my new blog posts there.The Atlanta United FC MLS team struck a deal last week to build a practice facility in DeKalb County (that’s the other county that part of Atlanta is in, along with Fulton), and yawn, soccer practice facility, right? Except that today the indefatigable Atlanta Journal Constitution has dug up how much money and tax breaks the county would be providing for the project, and yowza:
The county would provide $12 million to United owner Arthur Blank for new parks department offices and demolition and land preparation.
The county would provide 41 acres of government-owned land for free.
The whole thing would be property-tax free.
The county would “ ” a pedestrian walkway to the nearby MARTA transit station.
Okay, that’s still not a huge amount as these things go — I don’t know how much property taxes would be (and the AJC doesn’t say) or how much a pedestrian walkway costs, but counting the cash, total maybe $20-30 million tops? How much is the practice facility going to cost, anyway?
Yeah.
On the bright side, the county would get a whole 15% of any naming-rights fees for the complex (which will include a 3,500-seat grandstand, because everybody wants to watch MLS players practice, right?), plus the county can use it when United doesn’t have dibs, which given that the MLS season runs March through November is likely to be not very often. And to think that some county commissioners aren’t convinced this is a great thing! Freakin’ NIMBYs.Artificial intelligence (AI) is billed as the next big thing for ensuring cities are safe against crime and terrorists as nations embark on smart city projects to improve urban living.
As seen with predictive policing in the Hollywood movie Minority Report starring Tom Cruise, law enforcement units can use AI to predict where crimes usually happen after collecting and analysing data from sensors and cameras, and step up patrols. Although AI technologies today are not as developed as the technologies featured in the movie in predicting an actual crime, experts at a conference yesterday said automation does away with the tedious work of manually scanning security cameras.
"AI can predict the probability of crime in a location by detecting anomalies and faces," said Dr Simon See, director of US-based computing firm Nvidia's AI Technology Centre in Singapore.
"Predicting (actual) crime is not possible yet," Dr See said at a conference on smart cities and innovation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, organised by French newspaper Le Monde together with The Straits Times and Business France.
However, law enforcement will not be the only user of AI. "Hackers will also use AI to develop malware that morphs and changes along the way - that is the scary part," said Dr See.
That is why the Singapore Government is stepping up investments in AI to better counter cyber threats.
As much as $528 million, or 22 per cent, of Singapore's tech budget this year has been set aside for security - the most ever. A huge part of the security budget will go to the first Government Security Operation Centre, which features AI and the analytics smarts to detect cyber threats.
But crowdsourcing intelligence from real people must not be ignored either, said Mr Muhammad Faizal Abdul Rahman, a research fellow at Nanyang Technological University's Homeland Defence Programme at the Centre of Excellence for National Security.
"The other'sensors' are people," he said, citing the SGSecure mobile app that enables citizens to be more involved. Launched last September, it lets people report suspicious incidents or objects.
Irene ThamRepublican Sen. Jeff Sessions is not supportive of Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court. He believes she is too liberal and that her vast academic experience is not a substitute for experience “in the harness of the law.” But at least media speculation about her sexuality has not become an issue in her confirmation hearings. Not yet, at least.
Judicial appointments always generate substantial interest, but appointing women to top courts seems to produce a peculiar brand of anxiety, curiosity and consternation. I’ve experienced this firsthand. A few years ago I was shortlisted for a vacancy on South Africa’s equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court. In South Africa, candidates are interviewed by the Judicial Services Commission, a body composed of judges, lawyers, legal academics, politicians and members of civil society. During my public interview, one of the commissioners suggested that I “get a boyfriend” as an incentive to return to South Africa (I reside in the U.S.).
I was flabbergasted, and unsure whether I should laugh or respond angrily. “You’re kidding,” I responded, giving him the opportunity to rectify what I considered an insulting question. He repeated the question. After an uncomfortable moment I was asked another question by a different commissioner. This exchange was not lost on the press.
If I was a man, would I have been asked about whether a girlfriend would bring me back to my homeland? My guess is no- the question reflected the stereotype that men migrate for professional reasons, women for “love”.
And I’m not alone among women judicial candidates in facing bizarre questioning or out-of-proportion reactions during the screening process.
Remember the hysterical response to Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayer’s statement that “a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience” might more likely reach a “better conclusion than a white male who has not lived that life”? Conservatives claimed she was suggesting that her Latina identity would bias her decisions. But one wonders if such a statement would elicit a comparable reaction if uttered by a man. There was little outcry over Justice Alito’s statement, in a similar vein, on how his experiences as an Italian male shape his worldview.
Already, it’s been suggested that Kagan’s unmarried status (and a photo of her playing softball!) is evidence that she is a lesbian. Would a single male judicial nominee receive the same kind of scrutiny regarding his sexuality? Similarly, some years back, when applying for a promotion to a higher court, a South African judge who is a lesbian was asked whether having a woman as a partner would be a “hindrance” to her colleagues.
Why should the sex life of female justices matter? Why should their personal lives be a “hindrance,” or “get a boyfriend” be a viable piece of advice? The intrusive curiosity seems to reflect an inability to accept the competence and mental equilibrium of women judges. There appears to be an underlying fear that without the “balance” of a heterosexual home life, female judges will emotionally disintegrate from the stresses of the position.
Such attitudes should be of great concern to us, because the appointment of women judges is not just morally the right thing to do. Studies show it is necessary if the legal system is seen to represent marginalized individuals and groups, and, more importantly, if the legal system is to retain its credibility with the majority of the population.
Women judges also bring a different judicial voice, which makes sense given the discrete experiences of women as the major caregivers of children and the elderly. As Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has noted, “Women professionals still have primary responsibility for the children and the housekeeping, spending roughly twice as much time on these cares as do their professional husbands.” Women more openly exhibit concern about issues such as reproductive rights, sexual harassment and maternity leave.
Take, for example, the two first women judges of the South African Constitutional Court, Justices Yvonne Mokgoro and Kate O’Regan. The two decided a prominent case regarding an action former president Nelson Mandela took shortly after his inauguration, pardoning all female prisoners (except the most dangerous) who had children under 12. The challenge by a male prisoner who was similarly situated was rejected on the grounds that this on-the-face-of-it discriminatory pardon did not violate the principle of substantive equality. In other words, Justices Mokgoro and O’Regan looked at the reality of women’s lives in South Africa, noting that they are the major caregivers of children, and concluded that they would overwhelmingly benefit from the pardon.
Many people in the U.S. probably believe that justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg made a positive difference regarding the issue of gender equality by virtue of being women, as well as by the force of their intellect and knowledge. Justice O’Connor voted with the majority not to overturn Roe v. Wade in 1989, while Justice Ginsberg recently was the deciding voice in ruling the strip-search of the young woman plaintiff unconstitutional, noting that her colleagues “have never been a 13-year-old girl.”
The very presence of women judges challenges the traditional image of the detached, neutral judicial figure–essentially male–that has pervaded law practice and legal education. Women judges open the possibility that judging itself requires an aesthetic of empathy, understanding and compassion. These traits create the space for a wider societal understanding of the judge as quintessentially human, not a distant judicial automaton. Diversity on the bench, whether based on race, gender, sexuality, or disability, opens the possibility of a court that embraces a cacophony of societal voices and perspectives, removed from the historical singular voice that is neutral, impassive and detached.
As a woman, Elena Kagan will certainly make a difference on the Supreme Court–helping its credibility, challenging the notion of the white male judicial automaton, bringing a distinct worldview on issues of concern to women, and providing inspiration to other women that they can potentially be judges. Most significantly, in Kagan’s case, a third woman on the U.S. Supreme Court may just provide the “tipping point” that will render the return button inoperable.
ABOVE: Elena Kagan in 2008, during her tenure as dean of Harvard law school. Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/hlrecord/4595799520/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Share AlikeSeeds and fruit remains are exciting discoveries for archaeologists. Not only do they provide clues about ancient agriculture and diets, they can also provide radiocarbon data to help date buried strata.
Fruit also plays an important role in the Biblical narrative. If Eve had not eaten the fruit in Genesis 3, the story of Eden would have looked drastically different. What do we know about the creative ways the Israelites used fruit in their writings and everyday culture?
The Hebrew Bible mentions six types of tree fruit, many of which appear dozens of times:
1. Grape (גפן)
2. Fig (תאנה)
3. Olive (זית)
4. Pomegranate (רמון)
5. Date (תמר)
6. Apple (תפוח)
In my view, these six fruits are used in eight different ways in the Bible. First, many people are named after fruit, e.g., Tamar in Genesis 38:6, which means “date,” Tappuah in 1 Chronicles 2:43, which means “apple,” and Rimmon in 2 Samuel 4:2, which means “pomegranate.”
The free eBook Life in the Ancient World guides you through craft centers in ancient Jerusalem, family structure across Israel and ancient practices—from dining to makeup—throughout the Mediterranean world.
Second, fruits are the namesake for a number of cities and towns, e.g., Anab in Joshua 11:21, which means “grape,” Rimmon (pomegranate) in Joshua 15:32 and Tappuah (apple) in Joshua 12:17.once (the remaining olives are for the poor).
Third, images of fruit are used as decorations, e.g., the blue, purple, and crimson pomegranates on Aaron’s priestly garments (Exodus 28:33-34) and the engraved date palm trees in Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 6:29).
Fourth, fruits are the subjects of laws, e.g., the law in Numbers 6:3 that a Nazirite may not eat or drink grape products or the law in Deuteronomy 24:20 that one may only beat an olive tree
Fifth, fruits are used in a number of metaphors and similes such as, “Your breath is like the fragrance of apples” in Song of Songs 7:9 and “I found Israel [as pleasing] as grapes in the wilderness” in Hosea 9:10.
Sixth, fruits appear in curses and blessings such as “Your olives shall drop off [the tree]” in Deuteronomy 28:40 and “[Israel is a blessed] land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey” in Deuteronomy 8:8.
A team from the Tell Halif archaeological excavation made their own tannur, a traditional oven referenced in the Hebrew Bible, and baked bread in it. Read all about the experiment in “Biblical Bread: Baking Like the Ancient Israelites.” Seventh, fruits are used pedagogically in proverbs such as “He who tends to a fig tree will enjoy its fruit” in Proverbs 27:18 and “Parents eat sour grapes and their children’s teeth are blunted” in Ezekiel 18:2.
Eighth, and perhaps most obvious, fruits appear as objects in narratives, such as in Numbers 13:23, where the spies of Moses examine the grapes, pomegranates and figs of the land, and in Genesis 3, where Eve eats the forbidden fruit and is cast from Eden.
While these eight categories are neither rigid nor mutually exclusive, they illustrate the diverse treatment of fruit in the Hebrew Bible. Fruit was much more than a food for the ancient Israelites. It was a symbol that appeared prominently in the culture’s names, laws, proverbs and traditions.
When archaeologists uncover seeds, they find much more than radiocarbon data. The Biblical narrative provides a social and symbolic significance for these important foodstuffs, reminding archaeologists that there is much more to these seeds than meets the eye.
More by David Moster in Bible History Daily:
Fruit-producing gardens were some of the most luxurious parts of ancient palaces, yet there is no archaeological evidence of the most famous example–the Hanging Gardens–at Babylon. Discover why archaeologists believe this World Wonder was actually located at Assyrian Nineveh., PhD, is a Research Fellow in Hebrew Bible at Brooklyn College and a Lecturer in Rabbinics at Nyack College. He is the author of the upcoming book Etrog: How a Chinese Fruit Became a Jewish Symbol (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). His websites are www.929chapters.com and brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/DavidMoster
The 10 Strangest Foods in the Bible
10 Great Biblical Artifacts at the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem
More on food and dining in the Biblical world in Bible History Daily:
Biblical Bread: Baking Like the Ancient Israelites
14,400-Year-Old Flatbreads Unearthed in Jordan
BAR Test Kitchen: Eat Like the Ancients
Making Sense of Kosher Laws
A Feast for the Senses … and the Soul
Was Jesus’ Last Supper a Seder?
Feeding the Pyramid Builders
This Bible History Daily article was originally published on January 27, 2014.
Permalink: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/daily-life-and-practice/fruit-in-the-bible/(CNN) -- A 130-year-old photo, billed as the only authenticated picture of legendary outlaw Billy the Kid, sold for $2.3 million at a Denver auction Saturday night.
The Kid reportedly paid 25 cents to have the photo taken in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
The Old West Show & Auction had estimated the tintype -- an early photographic technique that used metal plates -- to bring in between $300,000 and $400,000.
"When the bidding ended, the whole room erupted in clapping and people leapt to their feet," said Melissa McCracken, spokeswoman for the auction. "I've never experienced anything like this before."
The winning bidder was billionaire William Koch who founded Oxbow Carbon, with reported sales of $4 billion annually. Koch comes from a well-known family whose last name has made headlines in the past year for their political involvement.
David Koch is William's twin. David and another brother, Charles, operate Koch Industries and are prominent conservative activists. Koch Industries is a large, privately owned conglomerate with interests ranging from petroleum to plastics to paper.
The Denver auction started with five bidders. Within two minutes, the bids shot up to a million dollars.
"The bidding was absolutely crazy," McCracken said.
The outlaw was born Henry McCarty but was also known as William H. Bonney and Henry Antrim. Popular history has him gunning down 21 men, but many historians say the number was closer to nine. He later died at the hands of another sheriff when he was only 21.
The annual auction is known for its collection of Wild West memorabilia. Last year, it auctioned off the gun collection of Roy Rogers, "the King of the Cowboys" who appeared in more than 100 movies.Okay. Buckle up. Rant time.
Ever shot an IDPA match and been required to “shoot on the move”? Let’s say you start close to some targets and have to shoot while you back up. In a real shooting, you’d be hauling ass backwards while presenting your gun, and maybe start squeezing off rounds from retention. In the match, if you’re looking to have a good score, you stand flat footed while you draw your gun and extend all the way out, and just before you press the trigger, you begin to take the IDPA Baby Steps backward so that you comply with the rules while minimizing the distance between you and the target. Who’s the gamer now?
So when it comes to shooting on the move, what you want in real life (more distance) and what you try for in IDPA (as little distance as possible) directly conflict. And don’t even get me started on stages where you shoot on the move across an opening, where you have 36 inches of space to engage three targets. Or the IDPA classifier where you move toward the targets while firing, which turns in to sprinting from the 10 yard line to the 7 and then baby stepping while you give the targets a good ol’ El Prez’ing.
Constructive suggestion time: if you really want to learn to shoot on the move, go shoot some USPSA. Yeah, you heard me right. The impractical, no-cover-garment-wearing, race-gun-tolerating shooting sport all your buddies have warned you about. But in an irony that the founders of IDPA would find hard to understand, when you have a game where the only rule is points per second, it turns out there’s some similarity to the rules of a gunfight (hint: there are none). I’ll be the first to admit that various elements of USPSA from red-dot Open guns to Texas Star targets hold no bearing on real life, but it remains the closest thing we have. And USPSA’s version of shooting on the move ends up being way closer to the real world than IDPA’s “suggested” “tactics.”
Now don’t get me wrong: I think IDPA is valuable for many reasons, not the least of which is simply having a reputation for being a practical, low barrier to entry, defensive shooting sport. I think everyone serious about their gun skills should shoot competition, and most defensively-minded people like me came in to the sport through IDPA. But the ridiculous baby steps that give the advantage to veterans and befuddle those who practice like they fight, not how they waddle, do nothing to improve defensive skills and become a game unto itself. As with most things in the real world, moderation is key: shoot some IDPA, some USPSA, and take the best of both.
And if you’re an IPDA match director or stage designer, just know: if I shoot your stage, and the optimal strategy is Baby Stepping, I hate you. Not because it’s hard, or because I don’t like it, but because it serves no practical purpose and just rewards you for playing the game. If you want to promote gamesmanship like that, take off your vest and come shoot a USPSA match. They’re fun and different, and you might even learn something new beside 1-1-2-1-1.About
Your contributions will be tax-deductible through Inter-Nation Cultural Foundation, the non-profit organization for this project.
If you knew Robin Williams or have insight into his life or suicide in general and want to be interviewed for the film, please contact me: [email protected]
One of the most helpful things you can do is share this Kickstarter on your social networks! Thank you!
As a person who related to Robin Williams in so many ways, I'm deeply saddened, as many in this world are, by his recent suicide. My adoptive father had many eerie similarities to Robin (short, stout, hairy, etc.), as well as a similar sense of humor (fast, witty, intelligent, etc.). Since I didn't relate very well to my adoptive father, due to his sometimes aggressive demeanor, I looked up to Robin, a gentler man, as a role model. Robin grew up also having a difficult childhood. His wealthy and driven parents were gone most of the time while his Nanny took care of him. His parents left him with toy soldiers to play with which he was given over and over as a gift. Later in life he had lifesized toy soldiers on display at his house in Napa. His passion for video-gaming and toys led me to wonder if he was seeking fulfilment from a "lost childhood" similar to my own. The loss of Robin Williams was the loss of a dear father figure in my life and has impacted me more than I could have imagined.
Robin Williams and his similarity to Ryan's adoptive father
As Sarah Michelle Gellar recently said "he was the father I always dreamed of having."
Sarah Michelle Gellar and Robin Williams during "The Crazy Ones" sitcom (click for her tribute)
Mara Williams, who was a child actor alongside Robin Williams in "Mrs. Doubtfire" concluded her recent tribute with a line from that movie : "It is remarkable how many lives Robin touched, and how many people said, just as I had, that he reminded them of their fathers, I suppose – could I really end this any other way? – we're all his goddamn kids, too."
Mara Wilson's Tribute to Robin Williams (click to read tribute)
Robin Williams playing with his daughter Zelda (Click for her touching tribute)
Within Reach Movie Official Link
My last award winning documentary film, "Within Reach", was also funded right here on kickstarter. Coincidentally, I worked to get Robin Williams involved to bicycle with us across the Golden Gate bridge as we launched the film project journey from San Francisco, my hometown (stay tuned in the backers-only-updates section soon for some behind-the-scenes video of me seeking him out in San Francisco for that invitation). That invitation was sparked by his avid passion for bicycling and his general easy approachability. However, he was going through his second divorce at the time, and thus we didn't get to bicycle with him, though we felt like he was there with us in spirit and that he would have loved the wild and windy trip over the Golden Gate bridge (also look for some yet-to-be-released footage in the backers-only-updates section soon).
Within Reach Movie invitation to Robin Williams
I am working through my own journey with his passing and reeling from other recent suicides that have personally impacted me. My dear friend Jon passed last year after jumping off the Golden Gate bridge. He was the most gentle and giving person I knew, always taking the time to help others in need, and giving so much of himself. Nobody knew that he was deeply troubled and depressed in his inner world. His similarity to Robin's character of generosity veiling a depressed inner world, and his dramatic and shocking suicide speaks to me of an issue, suicide, that I can't avoid anymore without looking more into. If these people who are so amazing and successful in their outer world that I look up to so much took their own lives, what does that mean for me and the rest of us to not give up when times get tough in our lives? There's a suicide every 13 min and another "Robin Williams" out there forever lost. How can we prevent similar situations?
Ryan's dear friend Jon who was lost to suicide last year
As the US suicide rates are going up, I am exploring the root causes of depression and am reflecting deeply my own past depression and suicide attempt. When I was struggling in college, 18 years ago, I nearly took my own life when I couldn't see out of my life's challenges. With hindsight, I see clearly the human connection I have lacked and need healing from. I was a lost boy too, put in an orphanage when I was two years old, and adopted into a family I felt completely alone with. I have never looked for my natural parents. I have heard from many healers in my life that it would be wise for me to try to find my natural parents to allow a deeper healing of my childhood wounds. As part of this film project, I will document that effort and possibly share that process if it enhances the film's story. Just as I have been told that my inner child needs healing, I want to explore what Robin Williams inner child was like and if his suicide could have been prevented had he been able to heal his childhood wounds. Could this kind of exploration in us all help with depression?
Ryan in an orphanage in 1978 - 2 years old
I aim to take on this documentary film with a humane approach to address issues of lack of connection in our lives, root causes of depression, the spiritual crisis that can cause suicide, and more. This film will be a tribute, as well as an exploration of Robin Williams life leading |
human body is explored thoroughly, making us ask ourselves how far will we go in order to use the gadgets around us. Will technology be so overwhelming, it will be an indistinguishable part of our very nature?
Willem Dafoe’s (Platoon, Antichrist) brief participation is memorable, portraying the most creepy gas station clerk you’ve ever seen. Ian Holm (Alien, Brazil), Sarah Polley (Dawn of the Dead, Mr. Nobody) and Don McKellar (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Blindness) also give to their supporting roles a weight and dimension larger than what their little screen time would normally allow.
eXistenZ won a couple of awards and nominations at festivals worldwide, including a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Fest. It was adapted by Cronenberg himself and Sean Scoffield (X-Men, Civil War) to comic format in a limited edition which I’m dying to check out.
Not quite as mature as Cosmopolis or Dead Ringers, and not as horrific and action packed as Scanners or The Fly, this film is definitively not Cronenberg’s finest hour. But all the traits that make him so relevant are present. This film will give you lots of memorable moments, sensations and tons of ideas to chew on if you are either a hardcore Cronenberg fan or if you just like your order of movies with plenty of viscera. Greatly recommended for a late night screening with a mixed audience of squeamish and hard stomach friends. They will all writhe alike.Photos: Femen March Topless in Muslim Area of Paris to Celebrate Boot Camp Opening
By Gianluca Mezzofiore | Sep 19, 2012 05:03 PM EDT
Members of the Femen radical feminist group have paraded topless through Paris to celebrate the opening of their new training centre, aimed at teaching feminists how to evade security forces.
The Ukrainian women's group marched half-naked through a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood in Paris' 18th arrondissement with messages written on their chests including "Muslim, let's get naked" and "Our God is a woman".
Among the activists was Inna Schevchenko, who fled to France over the summer after taking a chainsaw to a large wooden crucifix in Kyiv to demonstrate her support for Russia's Pussy riot punk collective.
She said the activists wanted to "go to war against patriarchy and dictatorship".
"We're opening the first international training centre for feminists who want to transform themselves into soldiers," Shevchenko added.
Twenty Femen members marched in high-heeled boots, skin-tight jeans and flower crowns, chanting "liberty" and "nudity".
The boot camp's purpose will be to "recruit soldiers" in their fight against the discrimination of women, said the group.
"If you are interested, it's not complicated," activist Eloise told Metro. "You just have to take off your T-shirt."
Five French members of the collective were arrested in London during a topless demonstration against the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
In May, topless members of Femen seized the football trophy of the Euro 2012 on display in Ukraine to protest against the increase of sex tourism in the former Soviet republic.
In April, members of Femen staged a naked protest to defend Ukrainian women's rights to abortion. The activists climbed to the top of the Cathedral of St Sophia in the centre of Kyiv and stripped from the waist up to protest against a bill that would ban abortions in the former communist country.
Members of the group protested naked in Istanbul on International Women's Day to put the spotlight on domestic violence in Turkey.
Ukrainian activist Inna Shevchenko, from the topless women's rights group Femen, looks at her portrait in the French newspaper Liberation in Paris
Source: Reuters
Activists from the topless women's rights group Femen prepare for the inauguration of the 'training camp' in Paris (Reuters)
Source: Reuters
Among the activist was Inna Schevchenko, who fled to France over the summer after showing support for the Pussy Riot
Source: Reuters
The boot camp’s purpose will be to “recruit soldiers” in Femen fight against the discrimination of women.
Source: Reuters
The Ukrainian women’s group marched topless through a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood in Paris’ 18th arrondissement with messages written on their chests including “Muslim, let’s get naked” and “Our God is a woman”.
Source: Reuters
Via: ibtimes.co.uk
Short link: Copy - http://whoel.se/~cDJNP$1eq“Both Judaism and Islam proceeded from the same fundamental premise, influenced by the same tribal culture and practically followed the same orthodox pattern “
Dr. Ashraf Ezzat
“Police arrest two after residents chase officers, hurl rocks, and burn trashcans to protest the removal of a sign that calls for the separation of men and women on a main street.”
… The first guess most people will conjure up on listening to this piece of news is that the report was probably talking about some Muslim extremists in Afghanistan or may be Somalia, not so far-fetched a guess, but to everybody’s astonishment the “Haaretz” report was talking about Jewish extremists and specifically in Tel Aviv, the very heart of the state of Israel.
Anyway, those who thought of Muslims as more fitting into this story of flagrant discrimination against women ought not feel totally disappointed for it actually doesn’t make much difference whether we were talking about Jews or Muslims as long as extremism is concerned. For both Judaism and Islam proceeded from the same fundamental premise, influenced by the same tribal culture and practically followed the same orthodox pattern.
So much, indeed, was Muhammad indebted to the Jews for a great portion of his teaching on this and other subjects that the Qur’an has been described as a compendium of Talmudic Judaism. (Blair, The Sources of Islam, p. 55).
A lot of westerners are not to be reproached for associating Muslims with violence, racism, intolerance and discrimination, after all, this kind of anti-Muslim propaganda is what they have been fed over the last decade and specifically following 9/11, and ironically by a Jewish-controlled mainstream media.
And if they haven’t been told different, how we expect them to know better.. or even refrain from subscribing to the impending and irreparable Israeli/American folly in Iran?
And since this is no mainstream hypnosis, we might as well hit you with part of the true story about the relation between Judaism and Islam.
In the wake of 9/11, an extremely important milestone in the history of Mossad, and as the mainstream media spotlights began to focus on Islam as the new global enemy, many in the US & Europe were made to think of Muslims as some aliens who landed on planet earth with their weapons of mass destruction, hate-mongering dogma and premeditated plans to annihilate the west.
And as the shrewd prelude of the ‘clash of civilizations’ was being played out, incessant questions about Islam that begged an answer, soon surfaced on almost everybody’s mind “why we never knew enough about Islam; how was it founded? What’s Islam all about and why is there so much extremism in this religion?
According to Islam online, Islam is the religious faith of Muslims, based on the words and religious system founded by the prophet Muhammad and taught by the Qur’an, the basic principle of which is absolute submission to a unique and personal god, Allah– notice the etymological correlation with Elohim– the designated word for the god of the Hebrews.
Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed at many times and places before, including through Abraham, Moses and Jesus, whom they consider prophets. They maintain that previous messages and revelations have been partially changed or tampered with over time, but consider the Qur’an to be both the unaltered and the final revelation of God. In other words, with the revelation of the Islamic verses “the pens have been lifted and the pages dried out”
Arabian variation on a Hebrew theme
Should anyone decide to study those reportedly unaltered and final words of god in Qur’an, he will be astounded by how much the holy book of Muslims is crammed with old stories from the Bible and specifically the Hebrew scriptures.
Now, don’t you get misled into assuming that I’m substantiating Judaism as the ultimate and genuine revelation from god that is truly worthy of following, a claim that could easily be challenged by tracing the Hebrew stories of genesis with the whole epic sequence of Adam & Eve to the Sumerian mythology and by tracing the monotheistic theme in Judaism to Akhenaten’s worship of Aten, or even by watching the Israelites’ backbone story of Exodus denied any entry to the ancient Egyptian texts, rather I’m only trying to underline and pin-point this ‘copy-and-paste’ relation between Judaism and early Islam- so much for the new religion “ Kopimism”
Within the confines of the Qur’an you will meet Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon and the rest of the Hebrew mythological patriarchs. Their stories are retold again but with variations that allowed the new prophet’s –unaltered- religion to somehow fit into the Abrahamic tales as its finale.
Reading the Qur’an will practically feel like recounting familiar stories from the Midrash and Talmud but with a Mohamedanian/Arabic flavor.
For example, the story of binding of Isaac, as awfully sadistic and inhuman as it is, is retold in the Qur’an in the same melodramatic scenario where Abraham bound his son, Isaac, before placing him on the altar, all set to sacrifice him as commanded by Yahweh, but in the Muslim version Isaac is conveniently replaced with Ishmael and Yahweh/Elohim with Allah.
Throughout the whole Qur’anic narrative we will encounter other countless examples of stories, Noah’s flood, slavery of the Jews in Egypt, the Exodus, the wandering in the wilderness, etc., copied from the Torah, with exactly the same historical anachronism and exaggeration, and pasted into the Qur’an.
But alongside the biblical stories we will also encounter, as we wade through the chapters of Qur’an, a tribal narrative very similar to that of the oral discourse of the Jewish rabbis and their formulation of god and the world around us as exactly found in the Talmud.
Historically speaking, Mohammed- who was illiterate and had worked as some sheep herder for many years of his teens- had the privilege of mingling with the elite of the Arabian society- a turning point in his life- only after he had been married to Khadija bint Khuwaylid – a business woman of intellect, culture and vast wealth and influence and who practically asked to marry him. And this is actually when the story of Islam commenced.
After his marriage, a new window into the multiculturalism in the Arab peninsula had suddenly been opened for the newly married shepherd, and of all the new experiences, contacts and new ideas he was introduced to, Mohammed was most intrigued by the Jews’ fascinating stories and their pride in relating to a long line of prophets that goes back to Abraham and his special pact with god.
Mohammed knew that the Jewish story had to be continued with new characters, locations and even with a whole new divinity. But as Muhammed was carving up the body of his new religion, little did he know that he was standing in the precarious shadow of Judaism.
There are abundant examples of the Qur’anic records which are reliant on Jewish sources that can be traced either to the Bible or to Talmudic records such as the Midrash, Mishnah, etc.
There were a host of Jewish communities settled in Medinah and other parts of the Hijaz- major cities in the Arab peninsula- from which Mohammed almost certainly obtained his knowledge through direct conversation and from listening to rabbis educated in Talmudic laws. And this is where and how Islam acquired its radical edge- next of course to being the product of a tribal culture.
In the Jewish Talmud- a word repeatedly mentioned in the Qur’anic verses- the rabbis put attitude before everything else, so they made sure that jews were superior to the gentiles in intellect, in morality and as a race. And likewise did Mohammed in the Qur’an and managed to keep this prejudice but with a new attitude as he featured the Arabs as god’s best of the nations ever– a new variation on the “chosen people” theme.
For it is important to know that Mohammed was acquainted with Jewish teachings not by reading the Bible, Talmud and Midrash, but through serious conversations with the Jews. (Rosenthal, Judaism and Islam, p. 8).
Now, with history, copying ancient tales and theology aside, I ask you to take a look at the so called extremists in both Saudi Arabia – the hub of ultra-conservative Muslims- and Israel- the world’s political asylum for ultra-conservative Jews, and see if you could tell the difference between the Haredim community and the wahhabis’.
Dogma brothers
Once again, you will be surprised by how similar ultra-conservative Jews and Muslims are in regard to their looks (the untrimmed beard, the 19th century outfit), their cuisine (Kosher and Halaal) and their interpretation of the ever-changing world around them through the rigid scriptures they recite and hold as the only and indisputable truth … and yes, and most of all, you will be bewildered by how similarly they both perceive and treat the woman pretty degradingly.
According to tribal culture and values- the shared roots of Judaism and Islam -women’s ‘misbehavior’ is not only a shame on the family but on the community, the village, the tribe, the neighborhood and the neighbors.
When it comes to women’s rights, both Haredim and Wahhabis or Salafis kind of speak the same language. It’s a racist and hate language actually. For them the woman is a constant reminder of the mythological first sin and how Eve (the woman) seduced Adam (the man) and therefore got him kicked out of God’s heavenly kingdom.
And again leaving the rituals, with all the wailing at the wall and the rotation around the Kabaa aside, both hard-line Muslims and Jews view the woman, according to their tribal and religious culture, as a man’s possession and a reflection of his honor and who should never be equated with him.
Both the wahhabis/salafis and the haredi believe that the woman should be segregated from men in public domain, should cover up and should confine to her home and to only go out in case of absolute necessity.
Bearing that deeply entrenched misogynistic concept in mind, we won’t find it peculiar to read about women, covered up from head to toes and banned from driving cars in Saudi Arabia, for it is a practice that could propagate prostitution and lead every unmarried woman to eventually lose her virginity and turn into some whore…
Nor would it be strange to hear of “Mehadrin” buses – those Israeli buses which are separated by gender and require women to sit at the back … or to even hear of the shocking story of Na’ama Margolis, an eight-year-old girl student at the Orot LeBanot School in Tel Aviv who has been subjected to harassment by Haredi men, in beit shemesh, who believed she dressed immodestly and therefore spat on her face and hurled stones and insults at her like “prutza” (whore) and “shiksa” (the Yiddish term for a non-Jewish woman).
What’s painfully ludicrous is that hard-line Muslims and Jews recognize each other as bitter enemies unaware, through their blatant ignorance of history, of the fact that they both claim authority from practically the same dogma.
“Absolutely, I would not hesitate to spit on any woman who is not dressed in a modest way as the Torah commands, yes, even if she was a 7-year-old girl. After all, I’m a sane man” commented one of the Beit Shemesh haredim community interviewed by Israel’s TV Channel 2’s Shai Gal- watch the whole shocking video with English subtitles here.
“We are trying to determine what kind of society we are – is this a democracy where the majority decides, or is there a minority that pushes everyone in one direction?” asked city councilor Rachel Azaria, who has led the fight against haredi extremism in Jerusalem for years.
Mrs. Azaria’s question didn’t pass unanswered, and while the wahhabis and the salafis are reaping the fruits of the Arab spring and gaining more strongholds in the region, that haredi from Beit Shemesh assured his interviewer form Israel channel 2 with a defiant tone that “whether you like it or not, all of Israel will be ultra-Orthodox. And nothing anyone can do about it.”
But I tend to disagree with that fanatic ultra-orthodox Jew or any of his Muslim counterparts for that matter. Indeed, there is something which all of us can do that will help us take the first exit out of this speedy and crazy way to Armageddon, we can draw the line, that thin and often overlooked one, between history and myth.
History, history! We fools, what do we know or care.As most of you know, migraines tend to come with sensitivities to such things as sound, light, scents, and plenty of other various things. These sensitivities vary from person to person enormously. For me I tend to not get the sound and light sensitivities till very late in my migraines. Because of this I’ve found that music, of certain kinds, can be very useful in mitigating migraine pain.
As I sit here with a migraine very high on the pain scale, a bit of nausea, and loss of appetite, the thing keeping me out of the ER is a genre a great friend introduced me too. The genre is Japanese smooth Jazz, and includes such artists as Nujabes, Tsunenori, and DJ Okawari. It’s an extremely relaxing genre of music that flows well and keeps my mind away from thinking about the pain too much. Below are two of my current favourite relaxing songs.
DJ Okawari – Kaleidoscope – A cup of Coffee
Blazo – Colors Of Jazz – Smokey Grey
I mentioned on a recent reddit post that I wanted to talk more about the specifics of my migraines in a future post. I think that will have to wait till next time as this migraine is pretty bad, and just getting this much of a post together was tolling. For now, I must go work on homework, which will prove to be oven more tolling I’m sure.
AdvertisementsThe researchers compared directions in the sky where they found superclusters (red circles) and supervoids (blue circles) with the strength of the Cosmic Microwave Background. Superclusters are more likely to coincide with directions where microwaves are unusually strong (red or orange coloring) and supervoids with directions where the microwaves are unusually weak (blue coloring).
Scientists have found more intriguing evidence for darkenergy? one of nature's most befuddling phenomena.
Dark energy is thought to make up about 74 percent of theuniverse, while dark matter? a mysterious form of matter that scientists canonly detect by noting its gravitational pull on things? makes up about 22 percent.That leaves only 4 percent of the universe composed of things we can see andtouch: the normal protons, electrons and neutrons called baryonic matter.
Scientists don?t know what darkenergy is, but they observe its tugging effect, which causes the expansionof the universe to accelerate. Now they have seen this mysterious force in someof the largest known features of the cosmos, called superclusters andsupervoids.
The former are particularly crowded areas of space, each witha lot of galaxies huddled in a region half a billion light-years across, whilethe latter are the opposite, rather barren expanses notably lacking galaxies.
Astronomers led by Istv?n Szapudi of the University ofHawaii Institute for Astronomy observed dark energy stretching out these areasby detecting changes in rays of microwave light before and after they passedthrough the regions.
?"When a microwave enters a supercluster,it gains some gravitational energy, and therefore vibrates slightlyfaster," Szapudi said. "Later, as it leaves the supercluster, itshould lose exactly the same amount of energy. But if dark energy causes theuniverse to stretchout at a faster rate, the supercluster flattens out in the half-billionyears it takes the microwave to cross it. Thus, the wave gets to keep some ofthe energy it gained as it entered the supercluster."
Szapudi, with University of Hawaii postdoctoral researcherMark Neyrinck and graduate student Benjamin Granett, analyzed a map of thevarying strength of the microwave radiation left over from the Big Bang, calledthe cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), across the universe. Theymatched this data to a map of the universe with the 50 largest supervoids andthe 50 largest superclusters plotted, based on information from the SloanDigital Sky Survey, a project that mapped the distribution of galaxies over aquarter of the sky.
As the researchers predicted, the microwaves were a bitstronger if they had passed through a supercluster, and a bit weaker if they hadpassed through a supervoid.
?With this method, for the first time we can actually seewhat supervoids and superclusters do to microwaves passing through them,?Granett said.
The team will detail their findings in the AstrophysicalJournal Letters in August or September.READER COMMENTS ON
"VIDEO: Law Professor: 'The President Ordered War Crimes'"
(22 Responses so far...)
COMMENT #1 [Permalink]
... DES said on 4/3/2008 @ 7:34 pm PT...
Turley is too soft on 'em. But the fun doesn't stop there! Apparently John Yoo was a very busy boy in those first months of the Administration. Yoo, who put his name on that infamous lil' 'torture memo', also justified suspension of the 4th Amendment --- the one that guarantees all Americans against "unreasonable search and seizure": The October 2001 memo was written at the request of the White House by John Yoo, then the deputy assistant attorney general, and addressed to Alberto Gonzales, the White House counsel at the time. The administration had asked the department for an opinion on the legality of potential responses to terrorist activity. But not just any "terrorist activity", but specifically domestice terrorist activity: The 37-page memo is classified and has not been released. Its existence was disclosed Tuesday in a footnote of a separate secret memo, dated March 14, 2003, released by the Pentagon in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. "Our office recently concluded that the Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations," the footnote states, referring to a document titled "Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activities Within the United States. Exactly what domestic military action was covered by the October memo is unclear. But federal documents indicate that the memo relates to the National Security Agency's Terrorist Surveillance Program, or TSP. [all emphasis added] Anyone care to hazard a guess as to what "domestic military action" might encompass? Luckily, Justice Dept. spokesman Brian Roehrkasse (who was soooo forthcoming during the U.S. Attorney Purge Scandal) responded by telling everybody, "We disagree with the proposition that the Fourth Amendment as no application to domestic military operations." Whether or not that means the DoJ has truly overturned the memo is not explicitly stated; all Roehrkasse said was that they disagree. In the double-speak of the Bush Admin, that doesn't mean that they won't do it anyway. Plus, Yoo had help in drafting these, um, unorthodox interpretations of the Constitution. Gee, wonder where all those strict "Constitutional constructionists" are...they're awfully quiet these days....
COMMENT #2 [Permalink]
... Ex-Canuck said on 4/3/2008 @ 9:53 pm PT...
When, oh when will it be time to start charging those in the bush/cheney administration with war crimes? How many laws must they break before someone has the courage to do what should have been done some years ago? How many more hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims must die to slake the blood lust of bush and those in his administration who seem to desire only to kill?
COMMENT #3 [Permalink]
... old91A10 said on 4/3/2008 @ 10:03 pm PT...
Since May 2006 through March 2008 there have been 1,700 US & UK Military Fatalities (and tens of thousands Iraqis)
Since November 2006 through March 2008 there have been 1,205 US & UK Military Fatalities (and tens of thousand Iraqis) Nancy Pelosi took impeachment off the table in May 2006.
Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House on November 16, 2006.
COMMENT #4 [Permalink]
... Dredd said on 4/3/2008 @ 10:59 pm PT...
I guess this is the MSM version of'real time'. And it is probably caused by too much driving while looking out the rear view mirror, and not enough time driving while looking out the windshield. What do you call it when you are happy that the press is only years behind... when what the blogs call 'olds' is what the MSM calls 'news'? I propose that the MSM from this day forward be called'revisionist historians' instead of 'journalists'. They seem to have 'history' and 'breaking news' confused. And it has been that way 'forever'. All rightie then, blog real time is 'putting those who commit torture in jail on the same day they do it in front of witnesses'. They will be held there pending trial and sentencing. At which time they will not be pardoned. I am not soft on violent crime like the neoCons are.
COMMENT #5 [Permalink]
... diffidatio said on 4/4/2008 @ 2:31 am PT...
Does anyone have suggestions on how to articulate a concise policy solution to this, or if there has already been a solution proposed in Congress or elsewhere? By "this", I mean all of the legal slippage and double-speak to justify torture by Yoo and the other minions. You know, besides vague calls for "ending torture" or justified, but non-policy related calls for impeachment or prosecution or firings, etc. In short, I'm looking for a pedagogical and organizing tool. Thanks in advance for your thoughts/advice.
COMMENT #6 [Permalink]
... Robert "Bruce" McAlpine said on 4/4/2008 @ 3:26 am PT...
Torture has long been prohibited by international law, including the Geneva Conventions and their common article 3. This total ban was reinforced in 1984 with the adoption of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which criminalized torture and complicity in torture....The 1984 Convention, which is binding on 145 countries, including the United States, defines torture as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person."
The abuse, rising to the level of torture, of those captured and detained in the war on terror is a defining feature of the presidency of George W. Bush. Its military beginnings, however, lie not in Abu Ghraib, as is commonly thought, or in the “rendition” of prisoners to other countries for questioning, but in the treatment of the very first prisoners at Guantanamo. Starting in late 2002 a detainee bearing the number 063 was tortured over a period of more than seven weeks. In his story lies the answer to a crucial question: How was the decision made to let the U.S. military start using coercive interrogations at Guantanamo? The Bush administration has always taken refuge behind a “trickle up” explanation: that is, the decision was generated by military commanders and interrogators on the ground. This explanation is false. The origins lie in actions taken at the very highest levels of the administration-by some of the most senior personal advisers to the president, the vice president, and the secretary of defense. At the heart of the matter stand several political appointees-lawyers-who, it can be argued, broke their ethical codes of conduct and took themselves into a zone of international criminality, where formal investigation is now a very real option. --The Green Light, by Phillippe Sands, May 2008 Vanity Fair An open letter and call to action to my fellow citizens, As a citizen of the U.S.A. and a member of humanity, I urge you to beseech your elected representatives and officials to fully investigate the American governments use of torture, the destruction of related evidence and the cover-up of said activities regardless of where they lead and to bring such individuals to justice by holding open hearings and preparing full and complete documentation. Our Republic is meant to be transparent and its officials answerable to the people. Unfortunately to date, secrecy, cover-up, inaction, double-speak and now destruction of evidence have been the only visible and measurable results. I do not approve of torture, period. It is an uncivilized, vile and despicable crime against humanity. I therefore will not stand idly by while my elected officials refuse to decide and act against an overreaching executive branch and the legislative and judicial branches that enable it. I refuse to be an accessory to crimes against humanity and I will not pay any taxes while the United States of America’s governmental institutions stand idly by and allow it to happen. Indecision is a decision. Inaction is an action. Since my elected officials have to this point refused to decide and act on these crimes against humanity, they compel me, a sovereign individual, citizen of this great republic and member of humanity to make decisions and take actions. These actions include civil disobedience and a campaign of non-cooperation by not paying taxes of which in part are being used to fund torture and to speak out against my government and its officials. Additional activities include peaceful public demonstrations, speeches and email campaigns, all in the hope that they will make the moral decision to take action on these crimes against humanity. I watched an amazing movie entitled, “The Great Debaters.” The themes and content of the movie are so timely and relevant to our Republics current ongoing struggle that I would like to share a portion of it here. Civil disobedience and violence can both be used morally in the fight for justice and may require the greatest sacrifice, one’s life. Gandhi believed we should act with love and respect toward one’s opponents and enemies and that lawbreakers must accept the legal consequences of their actions. Henry David Thoreau believed that any man more right than his neighbor constitutes a majority of one. However, the majority does not decide what is right or wrong, instead it is one’s conscience. A citizen should never kneel down and surrender their conscience to a majority simple because they are the majority. Because nothing that erodes the rule of law can be moral, no matter what name you give it. St. Augustine said that an unjust law is no law at all. This means that the sovereign individuals and citizens of this great country have an individual responsibility to resist the unjust laws and illegal activities of the majority with violence or civil disobedience; you should pray that they choose the latter. My peace be with you, Robert “Bruce” McAlpine
Burbank, CA
COMMENT #7 [Permalink]
... Floridiot said on 4/4/2008 @ 5:47 am PT...
Did anybody read this yet? The American Prospect The Republican War on Voting Using the Department of Justice, friendly governors, and its usual propaganda outlets, the GOP has propagated the myth of voter fraud to purge the rolls of non-Republicans.
COMMENT #8 [Permalink]
... Mark S said on 4/4/2008 @ 1:47 pm PT...
Gimme a break! It isn't that Congress doesn't want to deal with it. The problem is that THEY VOTED FOR IT.
COMMENT #9 [Permalink]
... Mark S said on 4/4/2008 @ 1:49 pm PT...
If they hadn't wanted to deal with it, they wouldn't have voted for it in the first place. Case closed.
COMMENT #10 [Permalink]
... Ellen Theisen said on 4/4/2008 @ 4:32 pm PT...
And while we discuss and debate and are appalled, people are being tortured in our name --- even as I type. Some are dying from it. With all the reports of attempted suicides, are they the lucky ones?
COMMENT #11 [Permalink]
... Lora said on 4/4/2008 @ 6:32 pm PT...
Yeah, leave 'em laughing when you go, Keith. That way the public can more easily forget about it. Such an important topic deserved a more serious ending comment than Keith's little jokes.
COMMENT #12 [Permalink]
... Agent 99 said on 4/4/2008 @ 6:46 pm PT...
That's a really good point, Lora. We're all so used to snarking about everything in our frustration that it even slips into one of the only places we can get real news on tv.
COMMENT #13 [Permalink]
... Mark S said on 4/4/2008 @ 6:53 pm PT...
COMMENT #14 [Permalink]
... Henk said on 4/5/2008 @ 6:03 am PT...
The dems like Ike Skelton are too busy helping Bush drum up his war with Iran. Mean while over there another female KBR employee is reporting a particularly brutal rape.
COMMENT #15 [Permalink]
... marzi said on 4/5/2008 @ 7:12 am PT...
The main point is they like to torture. It's Yoo's and Gonzalez's, Bush's, and Cheney's raison d'etre. It wouldn't happen if they didn't take pleasure in it. Then the next point is they need to try to torture people into admitting they're terrorists or Al Queda and of course under torture someone could say anything to stop the torture. They're manufacturing enemy combattants who wouldn't normally exist. OK Keith put all that on your show.
COMMENT #16 [Permalink]
... chabuka said on 4/5/2008 @ 10:44 am PT...
I am disgusted....at the weak democratic party, their complicity, their complacency, complete lack of their Constitutional duties to the people and their country.....sickened....I would throw every last one of them out of "office" starting with Conyers, Pelosi and Reid...
COMMENT #17 [Permalink]
... Larry Bergan said on 4/5/2008 @ 1:37 pm PT...
The "Constitutional constructionists" and gun-nuts are kept in a state of suspended animation during Republican administrations. Look for them to be revived the moment real people start to gain momentum. Great thread with lots of important information! Thanks!
COMMENT #18 [Permalink]
... Alan Breslauer said on 4/5/2008 @ 2:35 pm PT...
Larry, from your lips (finger tips) to God's ears. I will gladly welcome back some oversight and a return to the rule of law.
COMMENT #19 [Permalink]
... Larry Bergan said on 4/5/2008 @ 11:38 pm PT...
Alan: In my next life, I'm going to have broadband and be able to enjoy ALL of your great contributions, but if you never did anything other then that clip with Rove, you would have succeeded magnificently. Olbermann should have played the whole thing.
COMMENT #20 [Permalink]
... Alan Breslauer said on 4/6/2008 @ 10:46 am PT...
Larry, (:
COMMENT #21 [Permalink]
... socrates said on 4/6/2008 @ 12:25 pm PT...
#11 Lora I think Keith made a good point about the show 24 being propaganda that supports torture. It's kind of how shows like NYPD Blue were propaganda for police brutality. The ends do not justify the means. It has been shown that torture doesn't even work, that people subjected to it, unless they are Morpheus in The Matrix, are gonna eventually say what they feel is necessary to stop the pain. Imho, Keith was on target with his last comment.
COMMENT #22 [Permalink]
... Barbara Bellows-TerraNova said on 4/8/2008 @ 4:00 am PT...Car maker Nissan is the latest surprise entrant to the smartwatch arms race currently consuming tech manufacturers, unveiling the Nismo at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
The revelation of the new gadget comes just days after Samsung became the first big player to enter the fray with its Galaxy Gear offering last week, while Apple is widely rumoured to launch its own offering along with the latest iPhone tomorrow.
Sceptics are uncertain exactly what appeal most of these devices will have across the wider community, but the Nismo appears to offer a practical advantage by monitoring not only the biometrics of the user, but also the car as well.
Nissan will also be able to send tailored messages to the watches, whilst the developers hope to be able to include ECG heart monitoring and EEG brainwave monitoring technology in the future, along with body temperature.
Gareth Dunsmore, marketing communications general manager, Nissan Europe, said: "Wearable technology is fast becoming the next big thing, and we want to take advantage of this innovative technology to make our Nismo brand more accessible.
“On track, Nissan uses the latest biometric training technologies to improve the performance of our Nissan Nismo athletes, and it is this technology we want to bring to our fans to enhance their driving experience and Nismo ownership."
Connectivity in car is one of the key battlegrounds among manufacturers, with apps and internet functionality being rolled out, with apps like Pandora and Google Maps already integrated into some models.A Mormon Temple in downtown Salt Lake City is cast in heavy smog in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 11, 2010. In the Salt Lake City area during the winter, atmospheric inversions can trap pollutants such as ozone and carbon monoxide near ground level, producing a dense smoglike cover. Photographer: George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images
WASHINGTON -- A federal judge in Northern California has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency must produce new draft standards for ground-level ozone pollution, the main component of smog, by December.
Paul Cort, a lawyer with Earthjustice, said the group is excited about the ruling but "disappointed that it took all of this effort to get here." Earthjustice had filed the case on behalf of the Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra |
$motivation eq 13>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/beer4.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 14>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/beer4.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 15>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/beer4.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 16>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/beer4.gif"></center></html><<endif>>
You go to your refrigerator, and you're greeted by a reminder that you need to go food shopping. The only thing in the fridge is a collection of condiments and a bottle of white wine your father got for your birthday. You were thinking of saving it for a party, but tonight you're feeling like you'd never be social enough to have one anyway.
Attempting to uncork it with an attachment on a can opener, you managed to get cork into the wine itself. Cursing to yourself, you take this as a sign that you really do manage to fuck up everything that you touch. Deciding against using a glass, you bring the entire bottle with you into your room and drink in earnest, hoping that this will take the edge off the anger that you feel towards yourself and dull your emotional state.
You quickly down the bottle, spitting out bits of cork as you go. <<if $on_Meds eq true>>However, after you have calmed down you remember that your medication compounds the effects of alcohol, and you find yourself very drunk very quickly.<<else>>After you've calmed down, you feel quite drunk and remember that you'd forgotten to eat anything today.<<endif>>
Unable to do much else, you kill time on the internet and manage to post a semi-incoherant status update before wandering over to lay in bed.<<if $cat eq true>> Your cat sits on your chest as you pull your phone into view, ceiling spinning above it.<<else>>You lay on your back and pull your phone into view while the ceiling spins beyond it.<<endif>>
You drunk-dial Alex, and the phone rings multiple times before going to voicemail. Since it's Friday night, you assume that this means that she's out partying with her friends, and you leave an embarrassing voicemail "apologizing" for not being cool and fun enough to go out with her on nights like this.
You close your eyes after you hang up, hoping to get the room to stop spinning. Your inebriated state makes your depressed thoughts even more intense, and you pass out in a state of self-loathing. This really didn't help.
[[Next.|weshouldTalk]]
<<display'motivation_Checker'>><html><div><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0" width="15" height="15"><PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/audioplay.swf?file=http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/music/dqhomeb02092013.mp3&auto=yes&sendstop=no&repeat=1&buttondir=http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/alpha_buttons/classic_small&bgcolor=0x000000&mode=playstop"><PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high><PARAM NAME=wmode VALUE=transparent><embed src="http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/audioplay.swf?file=http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/music/dqhomeb02092013.mp3&auto=yes&sendstop=no&repeat=1&buttondir=http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/alpha_buttons/classic_small&bgcolor=0x000000&mode=playstop" quality=high wmode=transparent width="15" height="15" align="" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></object></div></html>
<<set $motivation = $motivation - 1>><<if $motivation eq 1>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 2>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 3>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 4>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 5>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food2.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 6>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food2.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 7>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food2.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 8>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food2.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 9>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food3.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 10>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food3.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 11>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food3.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 12>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food3.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 13>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food4.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 14>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food4.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 15>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food4.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 16>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/food4.gif"></center></html><<endif>>
//"Oh, I'm asking for a raise soon."// you mumble. //"I'm shopping around for a better position, too."//
You mom lights up. //"Oh! That's great honey! They'd be crazy not to give it to you!"//
Conversation turns to other subjects as you stare at your plate. You hate lying to them, but you honestly feel like your parents don't even know you sometimes. Every time you have tested the waters in the past, you come away from it feeling like you can't get through to them, like you're speaking a different language. Trying to fight through that takes so much effort and ever feels like it even works, and you just don't have the energy to try right now.
Even though you spend the rest of the night surrounded by your family, you feel like an alien. You retreat into your thoughts, and get very quiet for the remainder of the night.
As you're leaving, Malcolm takes you aside and gives you a big hug. //"Don't let Mom get to you, ok? I love you kiddo."//
[[Next.|bonerKiller]]<html><div><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0" width="15" height="15"><PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/audioplay.swf?file=http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/music/dqhomea02092013.mp3&auto=yes&sendstop=no&repeat=1&buttondir=http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/alpha_buttons/classic_small&bgcolor=0x000000&mode=playstop"><PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high><PARAM NAME=wmode VALUE=transparent><embed src="http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/audioplay.swf?file=http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/music/dqhomea02092013.mp3&auto=yes&sendstop=no&repeat=1&buttondir=http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/alpha_buttons/classic_small&bgcolor=0x000000&mode=playstop" quality=high wmode=transparent width="15" height="15" align="" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></object></div></html>
<<if $motivation eq 1>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 2>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 3>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 4>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 5>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink2.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 6>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink2.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 7>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink2.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 8>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink2.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 9>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink3.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 10>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink3.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 11>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink3.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 12>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink3.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 13>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink4.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 14>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink4.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 15>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink4.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 16>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/sink4.gif"></center></html><<endif>>
It's a little after noon on a muggy Saturday.
Your mother has come over for a surprise visit, claiming loudly that she doesn't see you enough so she'd decided to invite herself over. <<if $motivation lte 6>>One of the first things she does is comment on how messy your apartment is. You tell her you know it's messy, and it actually bothers you too, you just for some reason haven't been able to work yourself up to cleaning the place up yet. <<endif>>As you converse, she walks around your place, and you get the distinct impression that you're being "inspected."
//So what's going on with you lately,// she asks abruptly.
Taken somewhat aback by this left-fielder you tell her you're not sure what she means. She repeats the question, saying that you haven't seemed like yourself lately - she gestures to the dirty dishes piled in the sink and notes the fact that you haven't called or visited in a while. Your reticence only seems to spur her on more; she presses you, asking if you're having problems at work or with Alex, and you're beginning to feel increasingly battered by her sudden well-meaning but overwhelming inquisition.
Under her questions you become increasingly uncomfortable. You //want// to be able to explain to her how you've been feeling, but the truth is you're not really sure yourself. Nothing horrific has happened at work or with your significant other or friends or anything like that, but all the same you can't deny that lately you've just felt drained and as though you're not really "here".
You wish you could tell your mother these things, but she hasn't been approachable about negative emotions in the past. She is the kind of person who holds the opinion that the solution to any problem is to simply try harder and maintain a positive attitude, a stance that has reared its head in past conversations when you've begun to explore the subject with her. You know she's unlikely to be understanding, and you feel the energy drain out of you when you imagine what would happen if you managed to blurt out everything you are feeling.
What do you do?
<html><FONT COLOR="#D1D1D11"><del>1: Let her know that you've been feeling down lately, and that you appreciate her concern.</FONT></del></html>
<<if $motivation lte 7>><html><FONT COLOR="#D1D1D11"><del>2: Try to be honest with her anyway.</FONT></del></html><<else>>[[2: Try to be honest with her anyway.|imDown]]<<endif>>
[[3: Tell her that everything is fine, and thank her for asking.|imfineMom]]
[[4: Change the subject.|dodgeDodge]]
<<display'motivation_Checker'>><html><div><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0" width="15" height="15"><PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/audioplay.swf?file=http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/music/dqhomeb02092013.mp3&auto=yes&sendstop=no&repeat=1&buttondir=http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/alpha_buttons/classic_small&bgcolor=0x000000&mode=playstop"><PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high><PARAM NAME=wmode VALUE=transparent><embed src="http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/audioplay.swf?file=http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/music/dqhomeb02092013.mp3&auto=yes&sendstop=no&repeat=1&buttondir=http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/alpha_buttons/classic_small&bgcolor=0x000000&mode=playstop" quality=high wmode=transparent width="15" height="15" align="" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></object></div></html>
Depression Quest: An Interactive (non)fiction About Living With Depression
We really want to thank you for taking the time to play //Depression Quest//. We realize it may not be the most enjoyable game you've ever played, or even the easiest, and we sincerely appreciate your involvement.
If you would like to contribute to the developers and to <html><a href="http://www.iFred.org">iFred</a></html>, click <html><a href="http://sbx.sk/A6Fz">here to do so (or paypal patrick [at] pixelsordeath.com if it's giving you trouble).</a></html>
Like depression itself, //Depression Quest// does not have an end really. There is no neat resolution to depression, and it was important to us that //Depression Quest's// own resolution reflect that. Instead of a tidy ending, we want to just provide a series of outlooks to take moving forward. After all, that's all we can really do with depression - just keep moving forward. And at the end of the day it's our outlook, and support from people just like you, that makes all the difference in the world.
Thanks again.
<html><a href="http://www.iFred.org">Learn more</a></html>
[[Credits.|credits]]
<<if $motivation eq 1>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 2>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 3>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 4>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 5>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call2.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 6>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call2.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 7>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call2.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 8>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call2.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 9>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call3.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 10>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call3.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 11>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call3.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 12>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call3.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 13>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call4.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 14>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call4.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 15>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call4.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 16>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/call4.gif"></center></html><<endif>>
<<set $motivation = $motivation - 1>>In feeling vulnerable, you decide to reach out to the familiarity of family. You have had your fair share of differences with your mother, but you know for a fact she would never turn you away if you needed her.
You dial the phone number of the house you grew up in, the number that hasn't changed during your entire life. Your old number. Your mother answers after a few rings, and is delighted that you had called her. You ask her what's new and she launches into telling you all about all of the activities around the house, what friends of the family have been up to, and a tangent about how she's desperately trying to get your father to eat more healthily.
Hearing about the day to day details of her life back home reminds you of being a little kid in that neighborhood, and is a pleasant distraction. However when she asks you how you're doing, you're faced with the decision to either lie or the familiar back and forth of trying to tell her how you're feeling and having her not understand why you're so upset.
Instead, you tell her that you have to run all of a sudden, and tell her you love her and hang up. As you hang up, you feel a little more isolated than when you started. You feel like you got overly sentimental for the way you felt when you were a kid and wanted to be looked after, and let that make you forget that your mother is not a terribly understanding person when it comes to matters of mental health.
You lay down on your bed, feeling slightly defeated, and stare up at your ceiling.
<<if $in_Therapy eq true>>[[Next.|medChat]]<<else>>[[Next.|dinnerwiththeFolks]]<<endif>>
<<display'motivation_Checker'>><html><div><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0" width="15" height="15"><PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/audioplay.swf?file=http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/music/dqhomea02092013.mp3&auto=yes&sendstop=no&repeat=1&buttondir=http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/alpha_buttons/classic_small&bgcolor=0x000000&mode=playstop"><PARAM NAME=quality VALUE=high><PARAM NAME=wmode VALUE=transparent><embed src="http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/audioplay.swf?file=http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/music/dqhomea02092013.mp3&auto=yes&sendstop=no&repeat=1&buttondir=http://www.strangecube.com/audioplay/online/alpha_buttons/classic_small&bgcolor=0x000000&mode=playstop" quality=high wmode=transparent width="15" height="15" align="" TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></object></div></html>
<<if $motivation eq 1>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/beeare1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 2>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/beeare1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 3>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/beeare1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 4>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/beeare1.gif"></center></html><<endif>><<if $motivation eq 5>><html><center><img src="http://www.beesgo.biz/dq/beeare2.gif"></centVirgilSC2 Profile Blog Joined June 2011 United States 5748 Posts Last Edited: 2013-01-29 00:06:43 #1
Date and Time: Monday, Jan 28 8:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Casting: Clarity Gaming
cWyrd, cPrOmise
Prize: $100, Winner Takes All
Format: Bo9 Winners' League Format
Map Pool: MLG Antiga Shipyard - Cross Spawns Only
MLG Cloud Kingdom
MLG Daybreak
MLG Entombed Valley - No Close 3rds by Ground Spawns
MLG Metropolis - No Close by Ground Spawns
MLG Ohana
MLG Tal’darim Altar - All Spawns Allowed
Due to the time-shift and his travels to IEM Sao Paulo, cKiLLeR was unable to start
Yong > MorroW
Yong > Ziktomini
Yong > SortOf
Yong < StarNaN
Siphonn < StarNaN
JookTo > StarNaN
JookTo < Miniraiser
Mercy < Miniraiser
SaroVati > Miniraiser
Clarity Gaming wins 5-4!
Clarity Gaming Roster:
Engyn
JookTo
KiLLeR
Language
Mercy
MotoK
SaroVati
Shew
Shuttle
Siphonn
Yong
Western Wolves Roster
Fargo
Miniraser
MorroW
SortOf
StarNaN
Sting
Ziktomini MorroWZiktominiSortOfYong
If you can't watch live, or want immediate updates for future Clarity Gaming events, make sure to follow all the action from our social media outlets listed below!
Website: ClarityGaming.com
Twitter: @Clarity_Gaming
Facebook: Facebook.com/ClarityGaming
Twitch: Twitch.TV/Clarity_Gaming
Youtube: YouTube.com/ClarityGamingSC2 If you can't watch live, or want immediate updates for future Clarity Gaming events, make sure to follow all the action from our social media outlets listed below! cWyrd, cPrOmise$100, Winner Takes AllBo9 Winners' League Format Clarity Gaming #1 Fan | Avid MTG Grinder | @VirgilSC2
Torte de Lini Profile Blog Joined September 2010 Germany 30667 Posts #2 Yessssssssssss
My two favourite up-and-coming teams are about to duke it off.
Sexy as hell.
I actually can't predict who's going to win. I feel Clarity Gaming has the advantage :x https://twitter.com/#!/TorteDeLini (@TorteDeLini)
InsidiA Profile Blog Joined August 2011 Canada 1167 Posts #3 This is gonna be fun, Clarity Hwaiting! Graphics InsidiA | StarCraft 2 Manager for Team eLevate | Graphic Designer for Red Bull eSports & HTC | @iamjasonpun
Dexington Profile Blog Joined January 2011 Canada 6519 Posts #4 ZIktomini and Sting aren't Swedish. "Man you guys are missing out waving your stats dicks about instead of watching this pvp" - bbm
Tidus Mino Profile Blog Joined March 2011 United Kingdom 1105 Posts #5 On January 28 2013 09:31 Dexington wrote:
ZIktomini and Sting aren't Swedish.
We've decided Swedish is the way to go, so we are forcing them to change nationality We've decided Swedish is the way to go, so we are forcing them to change nationality Head of Production at FACEITTV, ex-WW & Mouz SC2 manager
URLateral Profile Joined October 2012 221 Posts #6 sick
JJH777 Profile Joined January 2011 United States 3151 Posts #7 Sting is the best player but Clarity has more depth.
a9arnn Profile Blog Joined July 2009 United States 1532 Posts #8 Gogo Clarity!!! VOD finder guy for sc2ratings.com/! aka: ogndrahcir, a9azn2 | Go ZerO, Stork, Sea, and KawaiiRice :D | nesc2league.com/forum/index.php | youtube.com/watch?v=oaGtjWL5mZo
Seeker Profile Blog Joined April 2005 Where dat snitch at? 31887 Posts #9 On January 28 2013 09:32 Tidus Mino wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 28 2013 09:31 Dexington wrote:
ZIktomini and Sting aren't Swedish.
We've decided Swedish is the way to go, so we are forcing them to change nationality We've decided Swedish is the way to go, so we are forcing them to change nationality
For real? Oo;;
Also, who the heck is Language? For real? Oo;;Also, who the heck is Language? Moderator PM me if you want translations done | twitch.tv/dankshrine Weekly SC2 Podcast!
Tidus Mino Profile Blog Joined March 2011 United Kingdom 1105 Posts #10 On January 28 2013 09:36 Seeker wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 28 2013 09:32 Tidus Mino wrote:
On January 28 2013 09:31 Dexington wrote:
ZIktomini and Sting aren't Swedish.
We've decided Swedish is the way to go, so we are forcing them to change nationality We've decided Swedish is the way to go, so we are forcing them to change nationality
For real? Oo;;
Also, who the heck is Language? For real? Oo;;Also, who the heck is Language?
haha of course not haha of course not Head of Production at FACEITTV, ex-WW & Mouz SC2 manager
Prplppleatr Profile Joined May 2011 United States 1295 Posts Last Edited: 2013-01-28 00:47:56 #11
ps. could you sort players by race instead of name next time (or that's what i prefer, easier to tell) Looking forward to this! love what clarity is doing!ps. could you sort players by race instead of name next time(or that's what i prefer, easier to tell)
goswser Profile Blog Joined May 2009 United States 3506 Posts #12 Depending on who Clarity uses I think they might win? Depends on how many people Sting beats probably. say you were born into a jungle indian tribe where food was scarce...would you run around from teepee to teepee stealing meat scraps after a day lazying around doing nothing except warming urself by a fire that you didn't even make yourself? -rekrul
.kv Profile Blog Joined August 2010 United States 2322 Posts #13 Language is kc I believe
anyways this should be a sick match but I'll be rooting for Clarity
gogo Brian!!!
Fusilero Profile Blog Joined July 2011 United Kingdom 29309 Posts #14 Because it's all kill I'd say WW can easily take this with a massive streak from sortof and sting alone but clarity are definitely deeper (And KilleR could be enough alone for the WW aces). Glorious SEA doto
Enchanted Profile Blog Joined November 2010 United States 1553 Posts #15 Shouldn't this have started?
CrownEvoxa Profile Joined March 2012 United States 23 Posts #16 Should be an exciting match. Best of luck to both teams.
Tidus Mino Profile Blog Joined March 2011 United Kingdom 1105 Posts Last Edited: 2013-01-28 02:09:01 #17 On January 28 2013 10:21 Enchanted wrote:
Shouldn't this have started?
It's 21:00 CET on Monday 28th
It's 21:00 CET on Monday 28th Head of Production at FACEITTV, ex-WW & Mouz SC2 manager
VirgilSC2 Profile Blog Joined June 2011 United States 5748 Posts #18 Check back in the morning (US Time) to see who's starting for each side! I promise an epic opening match-up! Clarity Gaming #1 Fan | Avid MTG Grinder | @VirgilSC2
iMrising Profile Blog Joined March 2012 United States 1074 Posts #19
I think WW will win, with Sting, SortOf, and Morrow, it will be tough to beat
But I had no idea Clarity had that many players...Hopefully it turns out to be very close wow def will be tuning inI think WW will win, with Sting, SortOf, and Morrow, it will be tough to beatBut I had no idea Clarity had that many players...Hopefully it turns out to be very close $O$ | soO
Seeker Profile Blog Joined April 2005 Where dat snitch at? 31887 Posts #20 Starters:
cVirgil vs WW.Tidus
IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME!!! Moderator PM me if you want translations done | twitch.tv/dankshrine Weekly SC2 Podcast!
1 2 3 4 5 Next AllThe head of the largest opposition party in Poland has announced that MPs will occupy parliament until Tuesday after a night of protests as the country faced a political crisis.
The protests were slammed by Prime Minister Beata Szydło. "Today, at the heart of the business of many politicians is their willingness to brawl,” she said during an event in Kraków, southern Poland.
Government officials called the protests "scandalous", while Grzegorz Schetyna, the head of the Civic Platform (PO) party, said the dozens of MPs who have occupied the plenary hall of the parliament building in Warsaw will “stay there until Tuesday, 20 December”.
The MPs from the opposition PO and Nowoczesna parties spent the night in a sit-in protest following a controversial budget vote late on Friday.
The sit-in protest was held after commotion during a plenary session on Friday when Michał Szczerba, a PO deputy, was excluded from debate after speaking out about planned new rules on journalists’ access to parliament.
Opposition questions legality of vote
Following a recess lasting several hours, Speaker Marek Kuchciński, from PiS, resumed the session of parliament at an alternative sitting in an ancillary room in the building.
In a hasty ballot, PiS and a handful of opposition deputies voted through the 2017 budget, as well as a bill to lower the pensions of communist-era police and army forces.
The vote was held by a raising of hands, and deputies from PO and Nowoczesna questioned whether a quorum – the minimum number of MPs needed to vote – was met.
PO leader Schetyna has called for a second vote on the budget.
'Scandalous' behaviour by opposition
Interior Minister Mariusz Błaszczak was quoted by the public TVP broadcaster as saying that the events on Friday were “scandalous” and were organised merely because “the opposition cannot come to terms with the result of the elections”.
PiS came to power in October last year, and has introduced sweeping changes to the country’s legal framework, judiciary and media.
Friday’s protests inside and outside parliament were instigated by a planned tightening of media access to parliament, restricting most TV journalists to a separate space a short distance away from the main building.
PiS MPs said the new rules would be similar to those in many other parliaments around the world.
On Saturday, media reports said that Speaker Kuchciński had cancelled all press passes to all journalists, barring them from entering parliament.
Protests
Between Friday and Saturday, a rally called by the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (KOD) movement gathered outside the parliament building, with a crowd of Warsaw residents chanting their support for the MPs protesting inside.
Before the break of dawn on Saturday, the protesters tried to stop PiS deputies from leaving the building. Police who were called in to watch over the protest blocked off the street leading out of parliament, allowing the MPs to drive away.
In the commotion which ensued, several protesters were thrown to the ground by police, and a number of people were detained, according to KOD. Police said there there had been no reports of anyone being injured and that no protestors had lodged complaints against police officers.
The events on Friday night have been described by experts as a landmark event in recent Polish history. Former NATO Secretary General and the EU's High Representative for Security & Foreign Policy, Javier Solana, said this is “the most important crisis in years”.
Friday marked the 35th anniversary of the Wujek mine massacre, when communist-era police cracked down on protesting miners, leading to the death of nine men. (rg/pk)SALPay partners together with Unionbank
Judah Z. Hirsch Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 27, 2017
EON Banking Group |
ewater run in a two-person kayak, she wrote: “Burton and I had no trouble until the very end of the run. We flipped and tried to both roll, then ended up swimming because we were unable to get upright. Looking back at the situation we both laugh and say we had too much confidence going into it. Next time!”
When Christy went first down the Great Falls on Thursday afternoon, “it suggests a high level of confidence,” said Schelp, who has been kayaking the river for many years and formerly organized and has won the Great Falls Race. The rapids are “just a wild ride,” but Christy had arrived in town a couple of days earlier and had already run it successfully. “Nobody will ever know what happened,” Schelp said.
Geoff Calhoun of Bethesda said he’d been watching people kayak Great Falls since he was 10, and “there’s a lot of caution that goes into paddling this.” He said being a local helps with the experience to navigate the rocks and differing depths. He knew Christy and said, “This is tragic. I’ll never get over it.”
Brent O’Neill, the site manager of Great Falls Park, said the kayaking community around the Potomac is smart and safe, but “the situation that happened to her can happen to anyone” if the circumstances are wrong.
Christy’s parents spent Saturday driving up from Andrews, N.C., to meet her friends in the kayaking world.
“We feel very blessed that we were allowed to share in 23 years of her life here,” her father said.
“Definitely,” her mother added. “It was easy.”2Pacalypse- Profile Joined October 2006 Croatia 8118 Posts #3 HYPE HYPE HYPE!
bw4lyfe~ Moderator "We're a community of geniuses because we've found how to extract 95% of the feeling of doing something amazing without actually doing anything." - Chill
SADguy Profile Joined October 2012 Romania 69 Posts #4 Sziky vs Sea... Not a bad series i think
dRaW Profile Blog Joined January 2010 Canada 5743 Posts #5 damn nerds make some posts, its in less than 24H I don't need luck, luck is for noobs, good luck to you though
Sinedd Profile Joined July 2008 Poland 7050 Posts #6
this one, I hope will be a good one!!! gogo Michael!!!this one, I hope will be a good one!!! T H C makes ppl happy
uT)WhistleR Profile Joined May 2006 Sweden 95 Posts #7 skzlime and sziky ftw
BisuDagger Profile Blog Joined October 2009 Bisutopia 16634 Posts Last Edited: 2013-03-30 02:51:12 #8 Canceled going home for easter so I could watch this. There better be some epic Games!!!!! Moderator Ofiicial Afreeca Starleague Caster: http://afreeca.tv/ASL2ENG2
dRaW Profile Blog Joined January 2010 Canada 5743 Posts #9 On March 30 2013 11:50 BisuDagger wrote:
Canceled going home for easter so I could watch this. There better be some epic Games!!!!!
I stayed home for Easter to study instead of going to visit family and getting massive amounts of chocolate and food T_T hopefully these games make up for that. I stayed home for Easter to study instead of going to visit family and getting massive amounts of chocolate and food T_T hopefully these games make up for that. I don't need luck, luck is for noobs, good luck to you though
traceurling Profile Joined December 2012 United States 1223 Posts #10 Why didn't you guys just go home for Easter family and food, and watched this at home o_O "Appreciate the things you have before they become the things you had."
BisuDagger Profile Blog Joined October 2009 Bisutopia 16634 Posts #11 On March 30 2013 12:00 traceurling wrote:
Why didn't you guys just go home for Easter family and food, and watched this at home o_O
Because then there's no time to do awesome things like this!
Because then there's no time to do awesome things like this! Moderator Ofiicial Afreeca Starleague Caster: http://afreeca.tv/ASL2ENG2
Essbee Profile Blog Joined August 2008 Canada 2186 Posts #12 hyped!!
Mango Profile Joined July 2006 Belgium 522 Posts #13 Hypehypehype! Gogo Sziky and Skzlime!!
To bad I will have to see the games through VOD, but know I am rooting for you guys.
Darth Saros Profile Blog Joined October 2010 Czech Republic 245 Posts #14 So Sziky vs. Sea then? C'mon Sziky you can do it, it's just Sea, not Mong :-) (.....or Light). And gogogo Skzlime! Only BW...And everybody and your granny should know about CYBERPUNK 2077.
BisuDagger Profile Blog Joined October 2009 Bisutopia 16634 Posts #15 This thread needs more rage like watching ZeLoT cheese every game and fist pump after it! Moderator Ofiicial Afreeca Starleague Caster: http://afreeca.tv/ASL2ENG2
traceurling Profile Joined December 2012 United States 1223 Posts #16 Just woke up, game day! Go Szikyyy!! Go eooonnnnn!!! "Appreciate the things you have before they become the things you had."
Shana Profile Blog Joined July 2009 Indonesia 1720 Posts #17 Sziky will probably take this, but I'm rooting for Michael. His play has been awesome during this TLS.
Go Michael! Believing in what lies ahead. | That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.
zeo Profile Joined October 2009 Serbia 2381 Posts #18 Why isn't the Sea show-match a bo7?
Only 6 hours to go, hype hype hype | Chelsea Football Club <3 | Winner of General forum survivor 2015!
pebble444 Profile Blog Joined March 2011 Italy 2049 Posts Last Edited: 2013-04-24 01:31:56 #19
"Awaken my Child, and embrace the Glory that is your Birthright"
traceurling Profile Joined December 2012 United States 1223 Posts #20 Id only want one or two hive ZvZs, just feel like they're only exciting by their rarity...I'd much rather have some super intense and epic mutalingscourge battles "Appreciate the things you have before they become the things you had."
1 2 3 4 5 21 22 23 Next AllThis story appears in the Oct. 26, 2015, issue of Sports Illustrated. To subscribe, click here.
The black Chevy Suburban sloshed through the wet side streets of Honolulu’s Mo’ili’ili neighborhood, turning into one traffic snag after another and providing the 19-year-old passenger in the middle row ample time to choose his words. What do I say? D’Angelo Russell wondered. What do I ask? I want to be myself, but I also don’t want to mess anything up.
Three summers ago Russell watched the U.S. Olympic basketball team practice in Las Vegas, and afterward the players walked over to the fans—all except Kobe Bryant, who sank into a chair apart from the crowd. “That’s Kobe,” a few spectators muttered. “He’s a jerk.” Maybe they were right. Maybe he was a jerk. Or maybe, Russell suggested, he was just tired.
Since that day in Vegas, Bryant has torn his left Achilles tendon, broken a bone in his left knee and ravaged his right rotator cuff, season-ending injuries all. Meanwhile Russell has graduated from Montverde Academy in Florida, spent a year threading no-look passes at Ohio State, become the second pick of the 2015 draft and wound up on the same team as Bryant, in the same SUV, on the way to the same Waikiki Beach hotel. “I try to act tough like, ‘Oh, it’s Kobe, whatever,’” Russell says. But during the Lakers’ six-hour flight to Honolulu for training camp, the wiry point guard kept turning his head toward the back of the plane, and in three-man drills at Stan Sheriff Center his eyes kept wandering toward the wing: Yeah, there’s Kobe. He tried to shrug.
• Behind Enemy Lines: Scout takes on all 30 teams | Preseason Power Rankings
Russell was seven months old when Bryant arrived in Honolulu for his first Lakers camp, which happened to be Byron Scott’s last as a player. “What do you want to accomplish?” Scott asked the rookie. “I want to be the best player in the league,” Bryant replied, his left wrist still bandaged because he’d broken it in a pickup game at Venice Beach. He was cocky but curious. He asked a hundred questions, of teammates but also of opponents. He once asked Michael Jordan at a stoppage about the release angle on his fadeaway. He noticed, from the way Jordan crinkled his brow, that he’d earned a sliver of respect. Nearly two decades later Bryant sat next to Russell in the middle row of the Suburban, waiting for the kid to ask a question of his own.
“He asked me if I was nervous when I started,” Bryant says. “He asked that because he doesn't want to be one of those players you forget about in 10 years. He wanted to know, Why does that happen? How can I make sure that doesn't happen to me?” Like an unplugged uncle, Bryant is at a stage where you can ask him almost anything—from the release angle on his fadeaway to the secret of life—and he will talk for 10 minutes. Russell didn’t need to sweat the question. Anything goes.
Jae C. Hong/AP
“I told him, ‘If you love the game, then you’ve already won,’” Bryant says. “‘You can’t be beat. Because the reality is, a lot of guys don’t love it. When I came here in 1996, I had the butterflies, and then when I got around everybody, it was like, Oh, I’m fine. Some of these guys don’t love the game. I thought they did. They don’t. It’s a job for them. And when something is a job, you can have success for a week, two weeks, a month, maybe a year, maybe even two. Then you’ll fall. It’s inevitable. But if you love it, you can’t be stopped. Because when you love something, you’ll always come back to it. You’ll always keep asking questions, and finding answers, and getting in the gym.
“Some people try to balance that love with other interests, but there’s no such thing as balance, my man. Either you want to be one of the greats, and you understand the sacrifices that come with it and deal with them, or you don’t want to deal with them and you want to be in the middle of the pack. Michael never worked a day in his life. He loved it. Same with Magic. He loved it. You play well, the attention is going to come, the endorsements are going to come. You play bad, the critiques are going to come, the naysayers are going to come. Don’t worry about that. Just stay focused on the love.”
Over the past two years, when Bryant was not rehabbing his many broken parts, he was searching for his second love. He started a business, called Kobe Inc., and purchased an office building in Newport Beach, Calif. He hired four employees, including two former executives from Gatorade and Nike, and presided over weekly staff meetings. But the company’s purpose remained hazy. “I read, I studied, I dabbled,” Bryant says. “At first I thought, What’s the biggest industry I can get in to generate the most revenue? That was a huge mistake.”
One day Bryant was brainstorming in the office with Simon Sinek, an author and motivational speaker he admires. “Off the top of your head,” Sinek asked, “what is the most fun thing you've ever done?” Sinek was treated to an even more elaborate answer than Russell.
“The first person I thought of was Jeanne Mastriano, my great speaking-arts teacher at Lower Merion [High in Pennsylvania],” Bryant says. “Senior year, English class, we had an assignment to invent a story and tell it to the kindergartners. I forgot about the assignment. So the day comes, we’re all walking down to kindergarten, and I was like, What are we doing? Then it dawned on me. Oh s---, I have to think of a story. So I came up with one on the fly about a kid who never cleaned his room—because my bedroom was a mess that morning. The kid’s mom was always on him. Then one night all the socks and shoes and toys on the floor came to life and turned into monsters, and they scared the daylights out of the kid.” For months afterward the kindergartners giggled when they saw him, and the parents thanked him for instilling order in their homes. That was it, Kobe told Sinek. That was the most fun thing.
“What I love,” Bryant says, “is storytelling. I love the idea of creative content—whether it’s mythology or animation, written or film—that can inspire people and give them something tangible they can use in their own lives. I call it creative education. The best way to teach isn't by preaching to somebody. It’s by sharing stories. I'm trying to build my whole business off that concept.”
In February, Bryant released a documentary called Kobe Bryant’s Muse, which aired on Showtime and earned a bronze Clio Sports Award. Last month, as Bryant flew home to Orange County from a speaking engagement at Nike’s headquarters outside Portland, a tsunami advisory was issued for Newport Beach. Bryant was petrified, but not because he would have to fly into the storm. “I have to get my damn Clio!” he told his companions. When he landed, he drove straight to the office and fetched the award, taking it home for safekeeping. “That trophy means more to me than any trophy I’ve ever won,” Bryant says.
He sounds, in those moments, ready to retire from basketball. He’s won five NBA titles, been to 17 All-Star Games, scored more points than Jordan. But then here comes Russell, a darting, probing reminder of the one thing he hasn’t accomplished. If Bryant bailed tomorrow, he would leave without a successor to carry his mantle and extol his influence, as much a part of an athlete’s legacy as his ring count. There would be no young headliner in purple and gold to defend Bryant against the tired but inevitable charge that he was lacking as a teammate and leader. There would be no one to talk about him the way he talks about Mrs. Mastriano. Bryant is a renowned student of the game, but Russell represents what might be his last chance to teach, which is why the stakes for this season are high, even if the Lakers’ odds of making the playoffs remain low.
Bryant wants to leave an imprint on the next generation, and in his defense, he hasn’t had many opportunities. Over his first 17 years in the league the Lakers picked in the lottery only once, selecting oddball center Andrew Bynum 10th in 2005. In the spring of 2014 they chose power forward Julius Randle seventh, and when he broke his leg on opening night, it was Bryant who hovered over him and whispered in his ear. “I could feel his presence,” Randle says. “And then later he sent me the text that got me out of the somber mood I was in. His encouragement was what helped me come back.”
Randle is important to the Lakers’ future, but Russell is critical, and Bryant has spent considerable time pondering how he can relate to a sidekick so young. “I’ve thought about that all summer,” Bryant says, “because this is a generation that I’ve completely missed. What music do they listen to? What are they interested in? I don’t really know.” Bryant, for his part, enjoys visiting the sets of television shows in his spare time and watching the different ways actors transform into their characters. “Have you ever done anything like that?” he asks Russell.
“I’ve been to the ESPN car wash,” the rookie replies.
There is a lot of work to do, and not much time to do it. Bryant is 37, in the last year of his contract and maybe the last year of his career. His future will probably be determined by his health. But Russell, and whatever satisfaction Bryant derives from grooming him, will play a role. “The student is always a teacher,” Bryant says, “and the teacher is always a student.” He is not the type of tutor who will hand out stickers and straight A’s. He will follow the same instincts that guided him with those Lower Merion kindergartners. “What I’m going to do,” Bryant says, “is share my story.”
• BALLARD: Kobe’s saga | Pacific Division preview | MANNIX: Open Floor
Russell knows much of it already. “Favorite Kobe Bryant memory?” he says. “Utah series, ’97, when he shot the air balls.” Never mind that Russell was one year old when the Lakers’ precocious rookie unleashed those four fruitless heaves in crunch time of an elimination-game loss to the Jazz. “I love that moment because of how he reacted afterward, how he drove down to UCLA and looked at the [students there] and wondered, Did I make the wrong decision?” Russell says. “That’s when he really took off. He kept shooting. I’m sure I'll have the same kind of moment, when I wonder if I should have stayed in college, if I should have stayed the man for a little longer. I’ll keep shooting too.”
Russell had a brutal summer league. His body was sore and his stroke was off, and when the team ran wind sprints, shooting guard Jordan Clarkson lapped him. “That can’t happen,” Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak told the bonus baby. Russell promptly moved to L.A., and when Kupchak looked out his office window every day, he saw Russell’s legs churning on the practice court.
Behind his starstruck facade, Russell possesses an edge Bryant can appreciate. He publicly lobbied the Lakers to draft him, begging for the pressure—and the punishment. “So many people feed you that b.s.,” Russell says. “Kobe is going to give you the real thing. He’s not going to make anything easy, and I don’t want it easy. He’s not some soft, nice guy, so why would he pass his torch to some soft, nice guy who doesn't have that killer in him, that dog in him? I know I got it in me.”
Russell is from Louisville, and his high school coach, Doug Bibby, was Rajon Rondo’s high school coach. Russell yearned for Rondo’s approval, perhaps too desperately. “Every time he came around, I never performed like I would have if he wasn’t there,” Russell says. “I put a lot of pressure on myself. Also, Rondo isn’t that much of a people person. Kobe is.” In 2015, that may be true. “I had a big transition when I started to understand that my teammates viewed me like some damn machine who didn’t feel anything and was oblivious to pressure,” Bryant says. “They found that very unrelatable. I had to explain that I had the same fears, flaws, vulnerabilities, so they could relate to me.” He is referring to former Lakers such as Lamar Odom and Luke Walton, Shannon Brown and Ronny Turiaf, who came to treasure Bryant for reasons that transcend assists.
“People who have very limited knowledge of sports always say, ‘Passing the ball makes everyone better,’” says Bryant. “No. That’s not it. That’s not making them better. That’s giving them an opportunity to be successful. If you want to make them better, you don’t just hand them the ball. You inspire them to be the best version of themselves, and I do that by sharing things which are very personal to me, things I’ve struggled with, and letting them relate that to their own journey.”
With Russell, Bryant started a different way. “He doesn’t like my shoes,” Russell mentioned after the first day of training camp. “He said the material is cheap and won’t support my feet.” The rookie immediately changed kicks but still reported a bruised right foot two days later. Despite the injury, he refused to skip a practice. Maybe he would have done the same thing back at Ohio State—or maybe he knew that Bryant hoisted jumpers last season the morning of his shoulder surgery (“It doesn’t really hurt that bad,” he told incredulous staffers) and that Bryant was working out in the gym at the Hilton Hawaiian Village at 5 a.m. “All that stuff filters down,” says Kupchak, who played in Washington with Wes Unseld and still cringes when he recalls the agony Unseld endured to keep hitting the glass.
Sam Forencich/NBAE/Getty Images
In this Age of Calipari, when the best prospects are rarely older than 19, influential veterans have become vital. “These kids have no idea what being a professional is all about,” Kupchak says. “How would they know? They’re blank slates. Maybe something is scribbled on there, but it’s not in indelible ink.” Russell isn’t a locomotive like Derrick Rose, nor is he a sniper like Steph Curry. He is a methodical playmaker, in the mold of James Harden, who must use his 6'5" frame to reach his spots. Bryant, one of the finest shot creators in NBA history, pulls him aside to demonstrate tricks. Russell already offers a hilarious impersonation of a Bryant fadeaway, with no fewer than six pump fakes.
Kupchak wants to buy the Kobe-as-mentor story line, but he knows better than to count on it. “He does want to teach,” Kupchak says. “He is aware of the legacy issues. And he’s so much more patient than he used to be. But he’s still such an instinctive competitor, at some point that patience runs out and those instincts kick in: I gave them their chance, and it's time to take over because I can do it better than anybody else.” It was only 10 months ago that Bryant stormed out of a practice, sniping at Kupchak, “These motherf------ ain’t doing s--- for me.” As tough as Russell may be, a repeat performance would shake any teenager’s confidence.
“It’s much more like juggling eggs,” Bryant says. “You have to handle them with care because you don't want them to fall and crack.” Traditionally, he is not a man who juggles eggs. He is a man who tempers steel. “I know one gear, and I'm not very balanced in my life, which isn't the healthiest way to be,” Bryant continues. “Some people like that approach and some people don’t, and that’s where the split happens, the hero/villain split. You need to have a villain, an antagonist, and for a long time I’ve been this black mamba character. It’s how people needed to know me. But when I go full bore into my second act, I think they will know me for something else.”
Kobe Bryant, storyteller, motivator, instructor. His vision for his company is still coming into focus, but he’d like to create biographical portraits of luminaries, probably in digital or video form. He may discover that few tales are as rich as his own. “No,” Bryant protests. “I guarantee if I dig into your story—Why do you do what you do? What was your seed? What were the trials that led you to where you are?—I’ll pull something that’s pretty f------ powerful. Pretty f------ powerful.”
But that’s for another year. The most relevant story in this Lakers season is D’Angelo Russell's. Someday he will be asked about the transformative experience of his young career, being Kobe Bryant’s rook. His response will have implications for both. He has to love it.
The Kid and Kat
After the Timberwolves selected Karl-Anthony Towns with the first pick in the 2015 draft, after they treated him to a round at Hazeltine National (where he nearly drove the 452-yard 10th, cutting the dogleg) and after they created a home in the new practice facility for his imaginary friend (a custom sculpture of Karlito lives in the communications office, under lock and key), the 19-year-old man-child politely issued one more request. “The old jerseys,” he said, “with the trees around the neck.”
He wanted T-Wolves throwbacks, only the team doesn't make those anymore, and Mitchell & Ness charges $200 apiece. The price does not seem prohibitive for someone who earns nearly $5 million a year until you realize that Towns remains—how to put this politely—a cheapskate. A prolific coupon clipper as a kid in Piscataway, N.J., he still refuses to buy a car, instead walking from his apartment in downtown Minneapolis to local restaurants. “Isn’t that the No. 1 pick?” passersby mutter incredulously.
They won’t have to wonder much longer because Minnesota agreed to foot the bill for the retro jerseys, stitched with Towns’s name and number 32, so he’ll be in uniform on and off the court. “To add the shorts,” Towns pressed, “would I get charged?”
• GOLLIVER: SI’s annual entertainment rankings | Northwest Division preview
Resisting his charm, as the T-Wolves are discovering, is futile. Towns is a 6'11", 244-pound prodigy who was attending shoe-sponsored camps when he was eight and guarding Kevin Durant in the summer when he was 16. But he also taught himself to play piano, golf and Ultimate Frisbee. He lists Len Bias as his favorite athlete, never mind that Bias died almost a decade before he was born. “I’ve got a Bias jersey too,” Towns mentions with a wink.
Kat, as he is known, winks often and smiles constantly, whether he just chucked an air ball or drilled an 18-foot fadeaway. “I was raised to smile,” he says. “I’m a smiling kind of guy. I like to joke around, be lighthearted, not take things too seriously.” His joyful countenance bears little resemblance to the former wunderkind who has been tabbed to mentor him, the one who bangs his head against the basket stanchion before games, who releases primal screams at the sight of loose balls and who made that jersey with the foliage on the collar so desirable in the first place.
On the day Kevin Garnett returned to Minnesota last season, acquired from the Nets in February, he told general manager Milt Newton, “I want to be known as the best teammate ever.” Garnett, who molded Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins in Boston, was joining a locker room with three vaunted swingmen under 23: Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine and Shabazz Muhammad. Flip Saunders predicted Garnett would flush their cellphones down the toilet. Instead, he disarmed the young Timberwolves, cordially introducing himself to each one. “You heard about how intimidating he was,” says LaVine, Minnesota’s first-round pick in 2014. “It wasn’t like that at all.”
Then practice started, and Garnett narrated every action with the voice of God, a baritone so booming you can hear the expletives through closed doors. “Is he serious?” one player asked assistant coach Sidney Lowe. “Is he really like this every day?” Lowe, who coached Garnett during his first tour in the Twin Cities, stifled a laugh. “Every day,” he replied.
Four months later the T-Wolves drafted a genial giant out of Kentucky who leads fast breaks, tosses alley-oops and throws down double-pump reverse dunks, a boundless skill set few big men have possessed since the 6'11" Garnett emerged from Farragut Career Academy in Chicago 20 years ago. Garnett pulled Towns aside after his predraft workout at Target Center and again at the Las Vegas Summer League. Conversations with KG are rarely casual. When he speaks, he leans forward, head bobbing and eyes bulging. He touches your arm to punctuate his points. He is a yeller, but it is important not to confuse volume for anger. Garnett is relentlessly supportive of young players, buying them suits so they don't look like they're in college anymore, and taking their 4 a.m. phone calls because he never seems to sleep.
Jordan Johnson/NBAE/Getty Images
So what exactly is he teaching Towns? “Everything,” the rookie says. Moving faster to triple-threat position on offense, getting lower on defense, keeping his balance, attacking his man, protecting the weak side, identifying the back screen and communicating until he goes hoarse. Interim coach Sam Mitchell often turns practice over to Garnett for five-minute stretches. “We talk!” he hollered on the first day of training camp, while tugging Towns's jersey. “Bigs always talk to each other! Feel me? We always on the same line!” During a recent scrimmage Karl Towns Sr. watched his son trade body blows in the post with center Gorgui Dieng. “He’s not backing down,” Towns Sr. said. “He’s listening to KG.”
In Boston, Rondo and Perkins took on Garnett’s seething persona, but there is no way to predict how the happy-go-lucky Towns will respond. “They’re such a study in contrast,” says one NBA general manager. “It’s going to be a very interesting marriage.” The differences are superficial, and in Garnett’s estimation, insignificant. “Don’t take the smile for a weakness,” he warns. “[Karl] plays with another type of engine.” Towns exhibits, through the ferocious way he patrols the paint and runs the floor, plenty of what Timberwolves coaches call the inner thing. “The place KG and I really meet is in the passion we have for the craft,” Towns says.
They share at least one mannerism, too. Both players talk to themselves, and while no one in his right mind would ever mock Garnett for it, Kentucky coaches felt free to ridicule Towns. “He’s talking to his imaginary friend!” former Wildcats assistant Barry Rohrssen cracked at a practice last season. Karlito was born, and Towns, perhaps sensing a future marketing opportunity, was delighted. No word on whether Garnett has an imaginary friend—the Little Ticket?—but in a recent photo shoot with Towns he suggested a twist on their default expressions. Kat scowled, KG beamed. Then Garnett threw the rook in what was supposed to be a playful headlock. “Dude!” Towns yelped. Garnett loosened his grip.
• GOLLIVER: Saunders lived a life of basketball | VAULT: Life on the Flip Side
Young squads like to add veteran influences, but the Timberwolves have taken that strategy to an extreme. They now employ an elder statesman for each position group—Garnett, 39; point guard Andre Miller, 39; wing Tayshaun Prince, 35—so every prospect has a guide. The T-Wolves are a team of freshmen and senior citizens. It’s hard to find anybody in his prime. They recall the Thunder, circa 2009, so it was appropriate that their first preseason opponent at the Target Center was Oklahoma City. Garnett sat on the end of the bench during player introductions, head already lacquered with sweat, staring at the floor. His entire body seemed to be vibrating. He never looked up, wordlessly raising his right fist every time a teammate was introduced, waiting for a pound. When LaVine was announced, he ran straight to the court, unintentionally bypassing Garnett. Towns would not make the same mistake. He would not leave KG hanging.
The best seat in an NBA arena this season, unless you are accompanied by a small child, is the one next to the Minnesota bench. Here is a brief sampling of the Garnett sound track from the Oklahoma City game, which, it bears repeating, did not actually count. To point guard Lorenzo Brown: “You’re by yourself, Zo! To your right, Zo! Yeah, Zo!” To Dieng: “Sit down, G! Two-man game, G! Good job, G!” To Towns: “Hurry up, Kat! Get back, Kat! Stop the ball, Kat!” To a referee, after a questionable foul: “We’re all in preseason form!” After a Thunder air ball: “That's a terrible shot!” After a Thunder dunk: “Oh, no! Oh, s---!” He never shuts up, writhing when the Timberwolves allowed a bucket and howling when they forced a brick. At one point an amused T-Wolves veteran turned to a reporter and joked, “KG is crazy.” Perhaps, but they’d better listen to him. The day Garnett retires, he is expected to become part owner of the franchise, a highly animated boss.
Near the end of the second quarter something happened that got him even more excited. Brown clanked a free throw and Towns corralled the offensive rebound. Instead of retreating for a jumper or rising for a jump hook, both of which are staples in his arsenal, the rookie hurtled toward the rim and jackhammered a vicious dunk over 6'10" Mitch McGary. Garnett leaped from his chair, stomping his feet and snapping his towel. The Big Kat and the Big Ticket, an odd but promising pair, locked eyes and screamed.
Photos: Classic shots of Kevin Garnett
Rare Photos of Kevin Garnett David E. Klutho/SI David Walberg /Sports Illustrated/Getty Images David E. Klutho/SI AP David Walberg /Sports Illustrated/Getty Images Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images Robert Beck/SI Walter Iooss Jr./SI Walter Iooss Jr./SI AP Jeffery A. Salter/SI Kevin Terrell/WireImage Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images Winslow Townson/SI Walter Iooss Jr./SI Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images Elsa/Getty Images Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Joey Foley/Getty Images D. Clarke Evans/NBAE via Getty Images Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images John Sciulli/Getty Images for Activision Nick Laham/Getty Images Jim Rogash/Getty Images Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images 1 of 29 Advertisement
Justise is Served
Dwyane Wade was in his first season with the Heat, auditioning as a point guard, and Baron Davis was in his fifth with the Hornets, ensconced as one. They met during a stoppage in play, an awkward time for an introduction, but a surprisingly common one. “There was a possession where I came down and set up a pick-and-roll,” Wade recalls. “I took the ball down pretty far, and at the next break Baron pulled me aside. He told me, ‘You know, you should think about setting that up higher on the court where you have more room to operate, more angles, and you can take advantage of your speed. When you get low like that, you can only go one way, and the defense can bottle you up.’” Wade wondered if he was the victim of a rookie prank. But the punch line never came. “The whole conversation blew my mind,” Wade says. “Here we are, in the middle of competing against each other, and this guy is trying to help me.”
Wade thinks of that exchange often, because it inspired him to master the high pick-and-roll, a set that’s become lifeblood for playmakers everywhere. But he also thinks about it for another reason. “One thing you learn early on in this league is that people share,” Wade says. “They reach out, and over time you reach out as well. We all become teachers because, like it or not, the game will go on way beyond us.” Modern stars are often lampooned for their incessant hobnobbing, but Wade describes similar brushes with Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Jason Kidd, not exactly new-age softies. “Part of the job,” Wade says, “is passing down what you know.”
Issac Baldizon/NBAE/Getty Images
It is a Friday afternoon in mid-October, and Wade is crouched on the right block, forearm pressed into Justise Winslow’s kidneys. Heat practice is over, except for Winslow, a 19-year-old rookie backing down a legend. The brawny southpaw takes two dribbles toward the middle and rises for a lefty jump hook. Wade asks him to do it again. Two dribbles, jump hook. Wade wants to see it again. Two dribbles, jump hook. And again. Two dribbles, jump hook. Wade believes this can be Winslow’s go-to move, the foundation for his entire post arsenal, but he barely looks at the shot. He is preoccupied with the shoulders. “When I started going into the post, I would try to bang and bang, leading with my shoulder,” Wade says. “That’s a foul. I had to learn to use my hips. That’s what we’re talking about now, ways to use your strength without your shoulders. Once he gets that, I’ll give him something else.”
Twelve years into his career Wade can relate to Baron Davis. He and Winslow are teammates, but in a larger sense they are competitors, or they will be. Wade is just 33, and he averaged 21.5 points last season, but injuries kept him out of 20 games, and the Heat gave him a one-year contract extension last summer. If all goes as planned, the 6'7" Winslow will eventually succeed him. So why would Wade help hasten the process? “His time is going to come,” Wade laughs, “and you can’t stop it. You can try to keep it off for as long as you’re out there, but when it’s time, it’s time, and at the end of the day I want the best for this organization. I want |
at 3rd level, whenever you are unarmed and have a creature grappled you may use a bonus action to deal damage to the creature equal to your Strength modifier + Rage bonus at the beginning of your turn.
Combo Breaker
When you are unarmed and have a creature grappled you begin a combo, which begins at tier 1 and for each round you maintain a grapple it moves up to the next tier granting access to more combo moves. If the grapple is lost the combo meter reset to tier 1. You have two types of combo moves that you can use during a grapple, offensive and defensive. Whenever you use an offensive move, after the action is over the grapple is lost. Whenever you use a defensive move you may still maintain the grapple and move up tiers as normal. The list of combo moves is detailed at the end of the archetype. Some moves require a saving throw. the DC for this is listed below.
Combo save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier
Combo Meter
Tier Defensive Offensive 1 Wolf Jaws Boar Buster 2 Tag Team Berserker Fist 3 Low Bloki Trollplex 4 Meatwall Jotun Slam 5 Kraken Lock Mjölnir Drop
Jarls Grip
Starting at 6th level, if a creature breaks free of your grapple. you may use a reaction to re-roll your dice to maintain the grapple. If you succeed in maintaining the grapple you do not reset your combo meter.
Ragnarock
Starting at 10th level, If you have a creature grappled and prone, they suffer disadvantage to Strength (athletics) and Dexterity (acrobatics) checks to break free.
Improved Bone Breaker
At 14th level the rage damage dealt with bone breaker is doubled.
Combo Moves
Berserker Fist
Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can make two unarmed strikes as a bonus action.
Boar Buster
As part of an attack action you can deal an additional 1d6 damage to the target of your grapple.
Jotun Slam
As part of an attack you lift and slam a creature into the ground. You deal 4d6 + Strength modifier bludgeoning damage and the target must make a Constitution save. On a failed save they are stunned for one round.
Kraken Lock
As an action you force the grappled creature to make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save they are rendered unconscious.
Low Bloki
When you are the target of an attack you may use a reaction to make a creature grappled by you make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save the grappled creature becomes the target of the attack instead. If you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you can use your reaction to force a creature grappled by you to make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save you can interpose them between you and the blast. They become targeted by the effect and you take no damage.
Meatwall
As an action you may take cover behind a creature grappled by you. You receive three quarters cover.Do You Believe that Finding Love is Only for a Lucky Few?
Are your mating myths holding you back?
Myth #1: “Finding and keeping love is only for the lucky and the few.”
Please take a moment to answer two questions:
1. If you could have a marriage or love partnership that would be happy and last your lifetime, would you want it?
2. Do you think you can have it?
Year after year, when I ask my students the first question, nearly every hand is raised. But when I ask them to keep their arms up if they believe they can have a happy lifelong marriage? Hands and faces fall. I got a note from a man named Jean, who said, “Two years ago, there was all this hoopla about a friend’s wedding—now they’re fighting. You see why I’m a cynic? Can two people be together forever, and be happy?”
There are many reasons this cynicism has taken hold, such as news stories, movies, novels, and music about love gone wrong, plus your personal experiences with your own or other people’s relationship implosions. Even the legal system plays a part; since 1970, the ease of divorce has ironically led to less happiness even for those who remain together as exposure to others’ divorces has made people forecast and fear their own. Jean has a point.
But the belief in probable divorce is bad for you because it creates ambivalence: uncertainty of whether marriage is worth it. And how likely are you to organize yourself to find and keep a life partner if you’re not even sure it would make you happy? Today, fewer people are marrying at all, as faith in the possibility of a good marriage has plummeted and a belief that happy marriage is blind luck has risen.
Replace myth with fact: The antidote to the Luck lie is simple: You need exposure to accurate information.
Replace those untrue thoughts with the following fact-based realities.
First: Marriage does make most people happy—happier than any other living arrangement.
It’s true that having a horrid marriage makes people very unhappy. In comparisons of various types of people, the miserably married are the most miserable of all.
But it’s equally true that having a lasting, good marriage is one of the few things that really do make people happy. A single, solid marriage makes people happier than wealth, fame, career, or many of the other things we spend our lives striving for. It also makes us far happier than cohabitation, permanent singlehood, divorce, or widowhood. And that’s true in every country where comparisons have been made. We could do worse than following E. M. Forster’s epigram, “Only connect!”
Second: Happy marriage is a common, renewable resource.
Are you worried the world will run out of gold, copper, or oil? Or chocolate, which, heaven forbid, I hear is in short supply? Good news! Love doesn’t work like that. It’s common. And highly renewable. Lots and lots of people do, in fact, have happy marriages. More than half of first marriages in the USA today last a lifetime, and about 2/3 of divorced folks remarry. Roughly 25% to 40% of them stay together for life too.
Meaning? Lifelong love is normal, not rare. The majority of the population forms a lifelong bond! And they’re usually happy.
Bonus! Happiness lost is frequently regained in the very same marriage. Those we have loved, we can usually fall back in love with. For instance, in one study, 86% of people who had stayed married through a period of unhappiness were happy again within five years.
Third: Happiness in marriage isn’t random—it’s learnable.
Although many people feel that finding and keeping love is a gamble, something random that might, but probably won’t, fall onto them from some benevolent-yet-unpredictable Love God, that’s not so. The skills that create and sustain happy marriages are highly learnable.
Finding and keeping love is a series of positive actions. It is something I learned. It’s something my clients and students and blog readers have learned. And it’s something YOU can learn, too.
What’s common is love like Katrina’s for her husband:
“Recently we were apart for two weeks and he was picking me up at the airport. I suggested that there was no need to park and that I would walk out of the airport and meet him. About quarter way down the escalator I saw my husband standing, waiting for me. I realized seeing him made me grin from ear to ear. He makes me as happy today as he did when we met 10 years ago.”
Look around you. There are actually plenty of people who find and keep a wonderful mate. My husband and I share the kind of love Katrina feels for her spouse. A lot of folks do. Open your mind to it. Your heart will follow, charting a new, happier course.
About the Author:
Duana C. Welch, Ph.D., is the author of Love Factually: 10 Proven Steps from I Wish to I Do, coming in January, 2015. She also contributes at Psychology Today and teaches psychology at Austin-area universities. You can read more of her work at her blog LoveScience: http://www.lovesciencemedia.com
This article contains excerpts from Love Factually: 10 Proven Steps from I Wish to I Do.On Friday’s Breitbart News Daily, Peter Schweizer, author of Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, discussed the Freedom of Information Act suit filed by VICE News demanding copies of the FBI’s communications between him and Breitbart News.
Schweizer told SiriusXM host Alex Marlow the suit was another example of how “they don’t want to look at the explanation of what happened on Election Night.”
“It’s gotta be something else. This is going to be the next iteration of it. You’ve got VICE News and individuals that are suing the FBI, and basically, their premise is that the FBI played a pivotal role in Hillary Clinton losing because of James Comey’s letter and discussions about the investigation of the Clinton Foundation,” he said.
“So the FBI is really what now lost the election for Hillary Clinton, and that we – we meaning Breitbart, Government Accountability Institute, the book Clinton Cash – had an oversized influence on the FBI. So it’s not a case of the Russians tilting the election; it’s a question now of Breitbart and the Government Accountability Institute manipulating the FBI into investigating Hillary Clinton, which is what threw the election,” Schweizer said.
“So, you know, add to the list of the great accomplishments of the team that we are now capable of manipulating the largest and most professional law enforcement agency in the United States,” he added humorously.
Marlow suggested there might also be a dash of bitter envy from other media outlets toward Breitbart News at play.
“I think that’s part of it, too,” Schweizer agreed. “Look, what Breitbart has done with its coverage, and what Government Accountability Institute, what we’ve done in our research – as a lot of people know, we’re sister organizations – what we have done is, we have really produced relevant, hard-hitting fact and news that have actually influenced and affected people.”
“That’s a good thing. That’s what news organizations are supposed to do,” he contended. “They’re supposed to present information in a way that moves individuals. If you look through the history of American journalism, whether it’s Woodward and Bernstein or other people that have broken news – that’s been the goal of news.”
“When you look at a lot of the entities that are out there today, they kind of regurgitate or resurface the same stories, but they’re really not having an effect,” he noted. “Some of them have had in the past, or have right now, these pretty lofty valuations, and they haven’t really proven with their journalism that they’re worth it.”
“So, again, it goes to the issue, if somebody else is making you look bad, maybe the thing to do is to attack them and try to bring them down a notch, rather than improve the product that you yourself are actually putting together,” Schweizer concluded.
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
LISTEN:It's a new era, folks. The Optimus 2X will be available in January in Korea, with Europe and Asia to follow. And LG will be at CES, so there's a better than average chance we'll see this guy in its full glory. Full presser and more pics are after the break. More in the Optimus 2X Forums!
LG just announced the first dual-core Tegra 2-powered Android smartphone -- the LG Optimus 2X, previously known as the LG Star. Let's just get into specs, shall we?
LG LAUNCHES WORLD’S FIRST AND FASTEST DUAL-CORE SMARTPHONE
LG Optimus 2X with Tegra 2 Offers Top Multimedia Features for a Better User Experience
SEOUL, Dec. 16, 2010 -- LG Electronics (LG) today unveiled the LG Optimus 2X, the world’s first smartphone with a dual-core processor. Along with more powerful multimedia features, the LG Optimus 2X’s high-performance Tegra 2 processor makes for faster, smoother web browsing and applications and lets users multitask with virtually no screen lag.
“Dual-core technology is the next leap forward in mobile technology so this is no small achievement to be the first to offer a smartphone utilizing this technology,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, CEO and President of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “With unique features such as HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) mirroring and exceptional graphics performance, the LG Optimus 2X is proof of LG’s commitment to high-end smartphones in 2011.”
Developed by graphics processor powerhouse NVIDIA?, the dual-core Tegra 2 system-on-a-chip found in the LG Optimus 2X runs at a clock speed of 1GHz and boasts low power consumption and high performance for playing video and audio. Users will experience faster web browsing and smoother gameplay compared with single-core processors running at the same speed as well as instantaneous touch response and seamless multitasking between applications.
The LG Optimus 2X offers 1080p HD video playback and recording with HDMI mirroring that expands content on external displays to full HD quality. The LG Optimus 2X can connect wirelessly to any DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) compatible digital device such as HD TVs for a console-like gaming experience taking full advantage of the phone’s HDMI mirroring, accelerometer and gyro sensor. The smartphone also includes both rear- and front-facing cameras, microSD memory expandability, Micro-USB port and a hefty 1500mAh battery.
The LG Optimus 2X will be available in Korea next month with countries in Europe and Asia to follow. The phone will initially be released with Android 2.2 (Froyo) and will be upgradeable to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). The upgrade schedule will be announced in local markets in due course.DECEMBER 19, 2014
Rachel Lutz
2
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared a screening test which predicts a patient’s future coronary heart disease (CHD) events such as heart attacks, according to a statement.While the test is approved for all adults with no history of heart disease, the FDA reviewed studies which demonstrated the test is best suited for black women.“A cardiac test that helps better predict future CHD risk in women, and especially black women, may help health care professionals identify these patients before they experience a serious CHD event, like a heart attack,” Alberto Gutierrez, director of the Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a press release. “We hope the clearance of this test will improve preventative care and reduce CHD-related mortality and morbidity in these patients.”The new test is called the PLAC Test for Lp-PLA2 Activity, designed by the California based diaDexus company, which measures the activity of lipoprotein associated phospholipase Ain a patient’s blood. The Lp-PLA2 is a biomarker in blood that indicates vascular inflammation which is associated with the buildup of plaque in the arteries. This artery buildup can lead to CHD, which the PLAC Test aims to prevent. Patients whose test results show Lp-PLA2 activity greater than 225 nmol/min/mL are at increased risk for CHD. If test results are lower than 225 nmol/min/mL, patients are at a decreased risk for CHD events.The FDA’s approval was based on a sub study of the National Institutes of Health’s national Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke study. The study included 4,598 patients targeted based on gender and race who were aged 45 to 92 years with no history of CHD. The study cohort consisted of 41.7 percent men, 58.3 percent women, 41.5 percent blacks, and 58.5 percent whites. The patients in the longitudinal study were observed for several years (median 5.3 years) to determine which patients experienced CHD related events. Participants whose test results were higher than 225 nmol/min/mL had a CHD event rate of 7 percent, while patients whose test results were below that level had a CHD rate of 3.3 percent.The FDA requested further subgroup analysis, including black women, because the study demonstrated a strong correlation between black women and the rate of CHD events compared to other participants in the study whose test results were higher than 225 nmol/min/mL.The test labeling will reflect different performance data for black women, black men, white women, and white men.The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged the leading cause of death is heart disease for people of most races – blacks, Hispanics, and whites are all at risk. There is also no difference between CHD event risk between men and women. Most importantly, nearly two thirds of women and half of men who die suddenly of CHD demonstrate no prior symptoms.Defenders 034: Clockwerk January 3, 2012
Happy New Year, and all that jazz. Welcome to 2012: the Year of Dota 2. We’ve got Clockwerk today, as suggested by BlastPT. Head over to r/Dota2 and vote for tomorrow’s hero!
I really admire the ingenuity of the classic Dota development community when it comes to sourcing models. There’s a fairly limited pool of units that they could pull from, yet they always managed to surprise me and pull out something I wasn’t expecting. The original Clockwerk model (who was actually called Clockwerk Goblin) was a unit that the WC3 Tinker summoned from his Pocket Factory ability. The units themselves were kinda like techies, in that they could self-destruct, but they were summons, so they had a set duration. As a result, the units themselves didn’t really get all that much screen time. In fact, I had pretty much forgotten about the unit when they released him in Dota the first time around.
Because of the reasons I mentioned before, the original WC3 model had an incredibly low poly count (in a game that was already notorious for low poly counts). I think it was probably one of the worst looking models in the game, and subsequently one of the ugliest Dota heroes. The Dota 2 model is a huge improvement over the original, in my books. I was in the model viewer looking at Clockwerk’s animations, and they’re just so much more detailed. The hookshot animation is particularly great.
What hero do you think has been most improved in Valve’s handling of Dota 2? Are there any models that you think look worse?
Wallpaper. 1920×1080.If you wish to apply, I need the following information
Name (username or real name or both are fine)
Experience as a Moderator of a subreddit or forum (if you don't have any, that's fine, but it would help me)
Reason for Joining
Favorite FE game
Alright, so for the last few times I've done this, it was pretty much a solo job. However, now that I'm trying to push this to become a real thing, I am going to need some help. Right now, I need 2 Mods to join me in watching the challenge and adjusting the rules for each new challenge as I'm going to be pretty darn busy, especially July 15 - August 8. I also would like to have one of the mods have artistic sensibilities to help design posters, forum, and challenge ID cards. I really want to make this a thing as I'm actually investing money into this (well, a $20 eShop prize at least). Also, if I have more help, then it's possible to arrange Draft Challenges for other FE games.Thank you, and I hope you guys have a great challenge!Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Kris Richard described Sheldon Richardson last week as a "different presence" that Seattle hasn't had in the interior of its defensive line, one that is "absolutely going to pay dividends for us."
That presence is already being felt, even though Richardson's impact through the Seahawks' first two games hasn't been obvious.
Richardson drew a pair of holding penalties in Seattle's Week 1 loss to the Green Bay Packers, including one on a play in which he still nearly brought down Aaron Rodgers before the quarterback threw the ball away. Richardson had four solo tackles in that game, jumping right into a starting role a little over a week after arriving in Seattle following a trade from the New York Jets.
He made several impact plays in Seattle's victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
On San Francisco's opening drive, Richardson combined with strong safety Kam Chancellor to stop Carlos Hyde short of the first-down marker on a third-and-1 run. Later in the first quarter, Richardson made a tackle for loss on a screen pass to a tight end. His pressure on Brian Hoyer contributed to an incompletion, and Richardson drilled the quarterback later in the game after getting free off the snap with a swim move.
Defensive end Frank Clark noted after the game how Richardson's addition can help the other members of Seattle's pass rush, saying that group now had three others -- Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril and Richardson -- who are good enough to warrant being double-teamed.
"He's helping me a lot. He's taking a little bit of the pressure off me," Clark said. "I think without him, if you look at our roster, I think a lot more focus would have been on Frank, Mike and Cliff. I think when you add Sheldon Richardson in there, I think it takes a lot off [me]."
Richardson is the only member of that foursome who has yet to record a sack through two games. Bennett has 2.5 sacks, Clark has 1.5 and Avril has one. But Richardson has nonetheless made his presence felt.
Sheldon Richardson is making a big impact on the Seahawks' defensive line. Dylan Buell/Getty Images
Two other things that stood out while rewatching Seattle's victory over San Francisco:
Carson's awareness. Standout rookie running back Chris Carson saved his best on Sunday for Seattle's final drive, when he gained 41 yards to help the Seahawks put the game away. The first of his five straight carries on that drive took him toward the sideline, but he wisely slid down before running out of bounds in order to keep the clock running. That might seem like an obvious decision, but that's the type of situational awareness that can escape a rookie, especially in a pressure moment in game No. 2. "He’s been no problem at all. Really, no problem," coach Pete Carroll said when asked how Carson has handled the mental side of the game. "I think there’s still stuff in terms of the reads and after-snap stuff that he’ll find consistency, I think, in weeks ahead. Also, the running backs, lots of times they need to be out there and they need to see things, how they fit in them and they’ll get better. I have the thought that just because everything else has fit so well, I think he’ll be able to do that and I think he’s going to be pretty sharp. We’re not restricting anything when he plays; we can do anything we want to do.”
McDougald gets involved. Safety Bradley McDougald played six snaps in what was the first real look at how the Seahawks plan on mixing him into their defense this season. It was a relatively under-the-radar move, but Seattle was thrilled to have signed the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers starter to a one-year deal in free agency. McDougald gave the Seahawks a proven backup at safety, something their defense sorely missed last year when Earl Thomas went down with a broken leg. But the Seahawks view McDougald as more than a backup and a special-teams player. His six defensive snaps on Sunday all came with Thomas and Chancellor on the field. McDougald replaced strongside linebacker Michael Wilhoite and was one of five defensive backs on those plays, but for the most part they weren't traditional nickel situations. Only one of those plays came with three 49ers receivers on the field, and four of them came while San Francisco was using two tight ends. McDougald was playing in the box on several of those plays. "He's really all-around, very comfortable in coverage and up near and close to the line of scrimmage and running game," Carroll said. "He's a good deep-middle guy and he’s got good man-to-man skills. He's a very versatile football player and it’s always good to get a really good guy on the field. He made a couple plays that maybe a linebacker wouldn’t have made in replacing him in that situation. It’s good. I love getting him out there. He's done a great job. He's a leader. He's aware. He helps guys and communicates really well and does well on special teams, too, so it’s just good to have him on the field whenever we can get him there.”Amazon profits jump despite recession
Amazon.com Inc. announced on Thursday a 24 percent increase in net income for the first quarter of 2009 -- an exceptional number considering the poor state of the economy.
The earnings report all but confirms the notion that Amazon, so far, has been recession-proof.
The Seattle-based company made $177 million, or 41 cents per share, in the quarter ended March 31, compared to $143 million -- 34 cents per share -- a year ago.
Amazon's operating income was $244 million in the first quarter, a 23 percent increase from a year-ago operating income of $198 million.
"We're grateful and excited that Kindle sales have exceeded our most optimistic expectations," Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said in a company news release.
Amazon largely attributed its first-quarter success to the new Kindle 2 reader, of which more than 300,000 units have reportedly been sold. Amazon has not, however, released any official sales figures for the Kindle.
Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak said he is "extremely pleased" with Kindle sales.
The company also saw growth in electronics and general products sales. Szkutak said that growth was across a broad range of categories, not any in particular.
Sales of products $500 and higher have been growing, but not at the rate they were several quarters ago, Szkutak said in a conference call with news media.
International sales went up 15 percent from the first quarter 2008, to $2.31 billion this year. The company said that figure would have been 28 percent if it weren't for unfavorable currency exchange rates.
Exchange rates also affected Amazon's net sales, which increased 18 percent to $4.89 billion in the first quarter, compared to $4.13 billion a year ago. The company said net sales would have grown 25 percent if exchange rates hadn't changed.
The company also gave credit to its opening of a digital music service in Germany. Amazon, however, is predicting a year-over-year decline in second-quarter operating income by 12 to 49 percent. One factor is that last year's second-quarter operating income included $53 million from the sale of Amazon's European DVD rental assets.
"It reflects (that) we've given a wide range," Szkutak said. "And we think it reflects what is appropriate for guidance."
The second quarter is traditionally Amazon's worst quarter for growth, however it was the company's strongest last year.
Amazon's full earnings report can be viewed here.The photograph shows an attractive Olympic volunteer blissfully soaking in the sun in Sochi against a backdrop of snow. Her shirt is folded up, revealing a taut stomach, and her bright blue snow pants are pushed halfway up her shins. Eyes closed, she’s leaning against a barrier that reads, “Sochi 2014—Hot. Cool. Yours.” When the photo was posted to Reddit, some took the signage -- namely, that final word of ownership -- a bit too literally.
Before long, a user in the subreddit r/randomsexiness managed to figure out her name, track her down on social media and post a host of personal photographs -- including requisite bikini beach shots -- along with her full name. As can be expected, there were creepy remarks, like this one: “From when her first pic showed up, I knew that chick was looking for this attention.” Most commenters, however, criticized the original poster -- one even complained that the post should be taken down as it violated Reddit’s ban on “doxxing,” the practice of outing someone’s personal information on the Internet.
Advertisement:
Doxxing is something the general public has largely become aware of because of the media-grabbing phenomenon of revenge porn -- in which spurned ex-lovers share nudes and link to the woman's social media profiles -- but that's only part of it. Doxxing -- particularly of women who are deemed to be attractive or somehow “looking for this attention” -- is not uncommon on Reddit or 4chan in the least. As the Daily Dot put it, “[S]uch incidents are all too familiar in an online forum where a rule against publishing personal information is disregarded because, hey, she’s hot.” In fact, one redditor responded to the criticism with links to several other women who were recently doxxed after random photos of them showed up on Reddit. See, it’s fine because it happens all the time!
Another notable case of babe-doxxing happened in 2o12. A user by the name “IamTheFapMaster” (in case any elders are reading this, fap means masturbate) was looking at a raunchy photo a woman had anonymously posted on the exhibitionist thread r/gonewild when he recognized something -- not the woman herself, but the background in the photo. It looked a whole lot like the bathroom in his dorm at the University of Central Florida. The photo was then posted to a subreddit for the university and she was ID’d by her fellow students in no time. “She was outed in real life, her pictures downloaded and saved without her consent, likely to reemerge at inopportune times and even worse places on the Internet,” according to the Daily Dot.
When a woman posted a before and after weight loss photo of herself in her underwear, a redditor posted a comment with her name and social media accounts and it was upvoted more than 500 times. The subreddit r/ShitRedditSays, which criticizes comments that are “bigoted, creepy, misogynistic, transphobic, racist, homophobic, or just reeking of unexamined, toxic privilege,” recently called out r/photoplunder, a subreddit devoted to discovering photos in women’s photobucket accounts that are meant to be private. The site comes with the tag line, “They should know better.” As ShitRedditSays points out, many posts link “back to the photobucket account it came from, names and even high schools and colleges, and some of it is searchable to more personal profile information than that. despite this, the mode refuse to check links that may have real names and content info in the titles."
It can spill over into women's real lives, too. A redditor with the username thatonecatlady who had posted to GoneWild wrote, "Some of the guys in my university's dorm found out, and they proceeded to write rude things on the whiteboard outside my room." It can get a lot worse than that. Redditor kwammiz wrote about her experience having her email account hacked and naked images of her, along with her name and address, posted on 4chan. "Men at bars in the (large) town where I live call me slut. Entire threads on 4chan are devoted to finding out which facebook-events I am attending. I recieve multiple emails everyday calling me horrible things. So do my mother, father and little sister. And my dear cousin, who is only 14, had them sent to her as well. I cannot begin to explain the hurt of being called up by a child, wondering why I'm naked in her facebook inbox."
She later wrote: "I have now been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Everything triggers me. I am unable to apply for a job (much less write this), read about trauma or female objectification without reducing myself to a convulsing pile on the floor in shame.... I will never get to choose who sees me naked, I feel like I have been physically torn from my body, and I am floating away."
Even women who have escaped such extreme harassment are made well aware of the potential threat. Wrote surveyexec, “I posted for a while and it was overall a great experience” -- except that one user sent her an email with a link to her Facebook page. “It did freak me out because they refused to tell me who they were and since I never posted a face pic, I couldn't imagine who it could be,” she said. But luckily nothing ever came of the message: “Since I have a family and a good career, I realize in retrospect I probably dodged a bullet there.”
Advertisement:
Unlike with the critical response to the Olympic volunteer’s doxxing, women who are outed after anonymously posting nude photos tend to get little sympathy. Often, the attitude is one of, “She was asking for it.” In a thread responding to the UCF student doxx, Robby5566 wrote, “You know what, it sucks being mugged too, but if I'm in the projects fanning myself with money people wouldn't exactly have that much pity for me.”
It is an interesting attitude, given that many redditors were outraged by Gawker’s outing in 2012 of Violentacrez, a troll known for spreading images of nearly-nude minors, non-consensual sexualized close-ups taken in public and, as Adrian Chen put it, issuing “an unending fountain of racism, porn, gore, misogyny, incest, and exotic abominations yet unnamed.” That apparent hypocrisy has not gone entirely unnoticed. In the same thread, Campstar wrote, “A team of redditors end up doxing a young woman just for posting pictures of herself naked on the internet (and totally violating her privacy, the expected behavior of those on the subreddit, and any sense of common decency) and the response is that she shouldn't have been sexually liberated enough to post pictures in the first place? Really? The guy posting non-consensual creeper shots needs to be defended at all costs, and the woman posting pictures of herself just gets what's coming to her when her indiscretions happen here?”
Doxxing is the Internet’s ultimate form of slut-shaming -- and, as this latest case shows, it doesn't just happen to women who have taken a naked photo of themselves. All it requires is being a woman on the Internet. Whether it’s the outing of an unwitting Olympic volunteer or the doxxing of a woman who dares to anonymously volunteer herself as masturbation material, there is a common theme here and it's a sense of sexual entitlement. It’s the belief -- conscious or not -- that women’s bodies, their identities, do not belong to them. It’s the double-edged sword of sexual desirability: You become more of a woman -- but less of a human.J.P. Crawford's go-ahead solo shot in the top of the 10th lifted the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (49-37) to a come-from-behind 4-3 win over the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (53-33) on Tuesday night at PNC Field.
The home run was Crawford's (2-5, HR, RBI, R) first of the season and the first of his Triple-A career. It came off of RHP Giovanny Gallegos (1.0 IP, H, R, ER, 2 K) who was tagged with the loss for the RailRiders and falls to 3-1 on the year.
RHP Frank Herrmann (1.0 IP, K) earned the win for the Pigs to improve to 5-1 on the year. RHP Edward Mujica (1.0 IP, K) retired the side in order in the bottom of the 10th to notch his league-leading 22nd save of the year.
A three-run first opened up a 3-0 lead for the RailRiders as Gary Sanchez came through with a two-run shot in the inning off of Pigs starter Anthony Vasquez and Ben Gamel hit a solo shot of his own.
Vasquez (n/d) allowed three runs on seven hits while walking two and fanning four in 6.0 IP.
The Pigs cut the lead to 3-2 with a pair of runs in the second. After a walk and a double started the inning, Brock Stassi came through with a sac fly and Cam Perkins (2-4, RBI) plated a run via an RBI single.
In the top of the fifth, Emmanuel Burriss drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second and third on a pair of singles and scored on Nick Williams' sac fly to tie things at three apiece for the IronPigs.
Scranton starter Phil Coke (n/d) gave up the three runs on nine hits to go along with three walks and three strikeouts in six innings of work.
The RailRiders had runners at first and second with nobody out after a double and a walk in the bottom of the eighth, but RHP Michael Mariot (2.0 IP, H, BB, 2 K) got Ike Davis to ground into a 6-3 double play and Pete Kozma to fly to right and end the threat.
Andrew Knapp (2-4, 2B, R) also had a multi-hit game for manager Dave Brundage's squad.
The Pigs return home to open a brief two-game set with the Rochester Red Wings on Wednesday night at Coca-Cola Park. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. as RHP Jake Thompson (6-5, 2.76) gets the ball for Lehigh Valley against Rochester LHP Jason Wheeler (6-1, 2.79).Schools involved in an alleged plot to impose conservative Muslim teaching on pupils across Britain’s second city sought to deflect scrutiny by putting on hastily arranged “shows of cultural inclusivity”, officials said Monday.
One school in Birmingham arranged an assembly on Easter and a lesson on Christianity especially for a visit by education inspectors, according to Prime Minister David Cameron’s Downing Street office.
The finding is included in one of two official reports into allegations of a plot to take control of the leadership of schools in the city in central England and impose Islamic principles such as gender segregation.
The so-called “Trojan Horse” plot was first raised in an anonymous letter, which was leaked to the media earlier this year.
The government ordered inspections across 21 schools in Birmingham, a |
acted, which apparently referred to his first marriage). So there’s the reason he was taking an IQ test in his mid 40s. However, I still am very doubtful that McCain has an IQ of 133. Not that everyone with a high IQ must be conspicuously verbally clever, but, still, a person with a 133 IQ will occasionally say things that show particular smarts. And I’ve never seen McCain do that. To the contrary, the most outstanding thing about him is his intellectual dullness and boringness. September 18 Michael E. writes: Obama did write a “Note” for the Harvard Law Review as most members and all editors of such reviews generally do. “Articles” are generally written by professors or distinguished lawyers. Unsigned “Notes” are written by student members of the law review. To be Editor of HLR and to graduate magna cum laud indicates that Obama is a pretty intelligent man. Whether he is fully educated in the classical sense is another question. Almost all graduates of even our elite institutions would be considered only semi-educated by the standards of previous generations. LA replies: Yes, I’ve read that. He wrote one Note in an entire year as editor? How long was this Note? Michael E. replies: I don’t know. Writing a Note is a very intensive and time consuming project. It takes students almost all of their second year and maybe a bit of their third to get it done. Almost no members of a law review write more than one Note. When I was at Fordham Law only one guy wrote more than one Note. He was Editor in Chief and number one in the class. He was truly exceptional. It is very uncommon for a law review to have more than one Note by a student. Maybe guys like Scalia, Roberts or Breyer can do this. But they are not just the top of their class for the year, they are the best of their generation. Think Michael Jordan vs. the sixth man on the bench. LA replies: Thanks. So then maybe his writings, or rather the relative absence thereof, are more typical of what would be expected of someone in his situation. Joseph Kay writes: As you sense, the “empty suit” phenomenon is far reaching, and consists of more than just faking it. Another aspect of it is literalism, the conflation of outward appearances with underlying substance. This is critical to understanding many current debates over education and, more generally, affirmative action. Thus, while whites speak of “getting educated,” blacks speak of “getting a diploma,” as if the piece of paper bestowed learning. You hear black athletes promising to go back to school to get their diplomas as if this was akin to forgotten luggage and having it in hand would signify knowledge. Blacks seem unable to grasp the idea that one could be “educated” without the degree. Anthropologists have long observed this style among primitive people—an object bestowing magical powers (i.e.,. the diplomas will get you jobs, make you rich). You can only imagine the power attributed to laptop computers. It is not wonder, then, that blacks demand super educational facilities since the knowledge resides in things. Meanwhile black teachers insist on lowering standards so as to be “qualified.” Qualification means holding the certificate, so in principle an illiterate can be a “qualified teacher.” In others words, whites have access to all sorts of certificates and if blacks can get these, then they, too, will be qualified. It is no accident that blacks are partial to diploma mills issuing paper. Somebody I knew said that diploma stealing was common in Africa. The thieves would then post it on their walls and people would now believe that the owner had the knowledge mysteriously contained in the diploma. Once you grasp the empty suit phenomenon in all its fullness, the world becomes much clearer. Howard Sutherland writes: This is a very interesting thread, and the classic Bidenism about Obama and those who would dare oppose him is priceless. I’m convinced BHO is an affirmative action baby every step of way: Columbia; Harvard Law School and Review; his prominence in the Democratic Party; you name it. I’m also convinced that, in his Navy brat way, McCain is an affirmative action baby: getting into Annapolis; graduating (894 of 898); getting into flight school; graduating (after crashing a trainer plane); getting to fly jets; keeping his wings (after crashing a few jets in the fleet); and so on. McCain’s affirmative action streak ran out when the Navy, for reasons I would love to know, declined to promote a third consecutive John S. McCain to flag rank. As a real fighter pilot, I must correct a pervasive misconception. It may be trivial in the grand scheme of things, but it’s important to fighter pilots. Anna, in her comment, echoes this misconception: that McCain was a fighter pilot. McCain was not a fighter pilot. Ever. McCain was an attack pilot. Not that there’s anything wrong with being an attack pilot, but an attack pilot is not a fighter pilot. A real fighter pilot’s primary mission is air-to-air combat, often with air-to-ground (bombing and strafing things) as an alternate mission. An attack pilot of the McCain variety flew air-to-ground exclusively. When McCain got himself shot down, A-4 Skyhawks were Navy carrier air wings’ light attack aircraft. McCain was flying one that woeful day. Navy fighter squadrons of the time flew F-8 Crusaders or F-4 Phantoms, depending on the type of carrier they flew from. There is a Navy saying, no doubt current when McCain was an active naval aviator, that puts things in perspective: “Don’t ask an aviator what he flies. If he’s a fighter pilot, he’ll tell you. If he’s not, why embarrass him?” Among all the misconceptions about McCain making the rounds, I know this is a minor one. Still, I had to clear that up. Thanks for understanding.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 10, 2008 02:39 PM | Send
Email this entry to:
Your email address:
Message (optional):Golden Axe is a side-scrolling arcade beat 'em up released by Sega in 1989. The game has a medieval/fantasy setting and three characters to choose from (Gilius Thunderhead the dwarf, Ax Battler the barbarian, Tyris Flare the amazon). The game set itself apart from other beat-'em-ups (including Sega's popular platformer Altered Beast, released the previous year) by its inclusion of magic powers unique to each character as well as rideable beasts known as Bizarrians, each with special moves of their own. Together, these features made each character play differently, rather than just having visual differences to separate them, and the Bizarrians' differences added another level of depth to the gameplay. The game was epic in every sense of the word: bosses dwarfed the player characters, magic powers filled the screen, and enemies let out shrieks of pain as they died, their corpses permanently littering the playing field rather than vanishing like in most games in the genre. It was a true demonstration of the System 16's power, and the game quickly became one of Sega's biggest sellers.
Since Makoto Uchida was the primary developer of both Golden Axe and Altered Beast some stylistic elements have carried across; most notably, the Chicken Legs (which were merely a type of enemy in Altered Beast) became rideable beasts for both players and enemies to use against their foes. Their unique appearance made them an iconic feature of the series: all the games (both sequels and spinoffs) feature them in some role except for Golden Axe III.
The game was soon ported to many home systems. None of the home ports quite matched the original's graphics and sound capabilities, but they received several additions that made up for these shortcomings. Most home conversions include the new The Duel mode, a frantic brawl on a fixed screen with increasingly difficult enemies but no healing or magic, as well as two extra levels. The game's lasting legacy led it to spawn four sequels, three spinoffs, a novel, and two six-part comics in the fortnightly Sonic the Comic. More recently there has been a PlayStation 2 remake (Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 5: Golden Axe), and Golden Axe: Beast Rider, a reboot of the series, has been released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Golden Axe is still widely available; the Sega Genesis version is available via GameTap and the Wii Virtual Console as well as in the Sega Smash Pack (Game Boy Advance) and the Sega Genesis Collection. GameTap also offers the arcade version. It is also available as a digital purchase for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, complete with achievements and trophies and online co-op.
Continue to: Characters →
Walkthrough →
Story [ edit ]
The game's title screen.
The land of Yuria is in danger. The evil Death Adder has found the Golden Axe, a magical emblem of the land, and has used its power to capture the royal family and overthrow the land. Each of the heroes has lost a relative to Death Adder; as they begin their journey to avenge their dead a friend, Alex, stumbles bleeding onto the screen, explains what has happened, and is killed by one of Death Adder's henchmen (in most ports this scene is instead depicted through dialogue).
Table of Contents
Box artwork [ edit ]
Golden Axe has been released on many different systems and has accumulated a wide range of box artwork, some of which is displayed below.The New Democrats have surged to a double-digit lead in public support, gaining more distance over the other federal parties than they have at any time in the past two years, according to a new Forum Research poll. About four in 10 Canadians surveyed (39 per cent) said they would cast their ballot for the NDP if an election were held today.
Tom Mulcair and his wife Catherine Pinhas arrive at the Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., for his campaign launch Sunday. A poll taken during the day shows his New Democrats have surged ahead of other parties in voter support. ( PATRICK DOYLE / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
The Conservatives fell from neck-and-neck status with the NDP last week to 28 per cent of voter support Sunday, while the Liberals were steady at 25 per cent.
Projected onto an enlarged 338-seat House of Commons, the survey results indicate the NDP would command a solid minority of 160 seats — 10 short of a majority.
Article Continued Below
The poll, conducted hours after Prime Minister Stephen Harper kicked off a marathon campaign Sunday for the Oct. 19 election, reveals the NDP, under Thomas Mulcair’s leadership, has turned its flagging fortunes around. Last December, even though it was the official Opposition, it was a distant third, according to Forum data, trailing with 17-per-cent support. The Liberals, under Justin Trudeau, were dominant at that point, with 41 per cent. The Liberals have since gone from a comfortable lead to a three-way tie for third place in the course of a year, poll results show. “I … haven’t found a single instance of the NDP having a double-digit lead before today,” Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research, told the Star. “Now the government has released the hounds, as it were, people … are coming off the fence and ending up with the NDP for now,” he added in a statement. The campaign — twice the typical length — will be the longest, and likely the costliest, election in modern Canadian history.
“Much can happen in that time because campaigns, and their errors, forced and unforced, do make a difference,” Bozinoff noted. Sunday’s poll found a distinct gender gap in the Conservative vote, which attracts more than a third of male voters (34 per cent) but fewer than a quarter of women (22 per cent). The gap works the other way for the NDP: 35 per cent of male voters and an even higher 42 per cent of women.
Article Continued Below
After tying with Harper in previous polls as preferred choice for prime minister, Mulcair is now seen as the top choice, compared to Harper and Trudeau, who ranks slightly lower than both. The NDP has stated its openness to a coalition with the Liberals, who last month expressed resistance to the idea. Forum data shows more than two-thirds of Liberal and NDP supporters (68 per cent) back it. In Ontario, the NDP and Conservatives are virtually tied, with the Liberals lagging by double digits. The NDP has a solid lead over the Grits in Quebec, while the Bloc Québécois and Conservatives trail. The NDP also leads in British Columbia, while the Conservatives dominate the traditionally right-wing Alberta, despite the provincial NDP’s landslide victory there in May. In the formerly Liberal fortress of Atlantic Canada, the NDP has nearly half the support (45 per cent), while the Liberals are in a solid second (38 per cent). The Forum Research poll was conducted between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Sunday using an interactive voice-response telephone survey. Weighted statistically by age, region and other variables, it polled 1,399 randomly selected Canadians age 18 or older. Results are considered accurate plus or minus three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Read more about:A vast number of western organisations have been breached by hackers operating out of Iran, according to researchers at Cylance, a security startup. The victims include military, energy firms, airlines and airports, hospitals, governments and their contractors in the US, the UK and beyond, the Operation Cleaver report read. And the level of access at some of the compromised critical organisations was described as "bone-chilling".
It would appear Iran is growing its capability to the point where “the probability of an attack that could impact the physical world at a national or global level is rapidly increasing”, the report added. US researchers have repeatedly claimed the Middle Eastern nation has expanded its cyber divisions at a startling pace since the uncloaking of Stuxnet, malware thought to have been forged in the labs of US and Israeli computer labs that sought to cause disruption to Iranian nuclear development. Now, Iran’s hackers are seeking to establish a “beachhead for cyber sabotage” in response, the study suggested.
Some crucial details led Cylance to link the Cleaver attacks to Iran. Infrastructure used by the attackers was registered in Iran to a corporate entity called Tarh Andishan, which translates to ‘invention’ or ‘innovation’ in Farsi, the company said, and was hosted at Netafraz.com, an Iranian provider out of Isfahan.
These details alone could not guarantee attribution and Eric Cornelius, director of critical infrastructure and industrial control systems at Cylance, admitted the company could not say for sure these hackers were state-sponsored. He said it was “certainly possible” another nation state could set up a decoy operation.
But whilst hacker groups could try to host their operations in Iran, in order to dissimulate and avoid detection, the list of targets would point to an Iranian actor. “This all seems to point in one direction,” Cornelius added.
The only named victim of the Cleaver team, believed to be at least 20 coders strong, was the US Navy, which saw its shore-based enterprise network attacked in 2012. Documents related to critical infrastructure were stolen by the Cleaver crew from various academic institutions, whilst logistics information was compromised at major airlines, airports and transportation companies.
Cylance warned the attacks could “affect airline passenger safety”. They found that hackers had almost ubiquitous access to systems at the compromised airports in South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Meanwhile, the hackers appeared to be targeting power plants and other critical infrastructure, just as Stuxnet did. “Critical infrastructure is vulnerable and is an attractive target. We as a nation need to do something about,” Cornelius added.
Of the 50 or more victims ensnared by the Cleaver campaign, most were based in western countries, including the US, the UK, Canada and South Korea, though one aerospace firm in China was also targeted.
The techniques used by Cleaver were typical of a nation state sponsored actor. So-called watering hole attacks where websites were set up to chuck malware at targets, SQL injection attacks stole data from target websites, social engineering tried to trick employees out of their credentials or into clicking on malicious links that would lead to an infection on their network. In one case, they registered the domain EasyResumeCreatorPro.com - a direct copy of a legitimate website at winresume.com - and launched attacks from there. Many of the hacker tools were custom-made, showing some degree of invention, but no samples appeared special to Cornelius and his team.
There is some good news for Iran’s enemies here: it still hasn’t been seen using zero-day vulnerabilities. The use of unpatched, previously undocumented software flaws would prove it had the will and power to threaten the West. But right now the traditional cyber powers, from the US and the UK to China and Russia, continue to have the most sophisticated malicious code and exploit techniques at their disposal.
But that could indicate it’s saving it’s most punishing attacks for some devastating future hit. Given Iran was linked to successful attacks on oil giant Saudi Aramco, where 30,000 PCs were knocked offline, major US banks in the Operation Ababil attacks of 2013 and 2014, and recently named as the perpetrator in campaigns detailed by American security firms FireEye and Crowdstrike, it’s apparent Iran is a major digital force.
“If you look at their increase in sophistication over the last several years, it stands to reason they will become a real player,” Cornelius added. “We’re maybe witnessing only 10 per cent of what this group [Cleaver] is doing.”R.A. Dickey came into the season with more concerns than the typical reigning Cy Young. He did not have the long track record of elite success in the majors, and was moving to a more difficult league. Though age is not as important with knuckle-ball pitchers, there is always some reason for caution investing in a 38-year-old. Through two games, those worries have looked justified. At the same time, it’s foolish to overreact after 10.2 innings. While Dickey has struggled, things are not as bad as they seem.
One of the biggest reasons for Dickey’s success over the past three seasons has been improved control. Prior to joining the New York Mets, Dickey had a 3.6 BB/9. From 2010 to 2012, that dropped to just 2.2. The fact that he already has six walks in two starts is not encouraging. Command was a bit of an issue Sunday — more on that later — but there is some evidence Dickey was being squeezed in his first start of the season.
Using BrooksBaseball.net, we can isolate the results of his at-bats.
As the chart explains, the green squares represent at-bats that ended in a walk. At the bottom of the strike zone, there are three green squares, two of which are definitely in the zone. The third green box in just on the line of the strike zone, suggesting it was also a strike, though it’s not as egregious as the other two.
The chart also shows where Dickey has been vulnerable this year. Four of the five hits Dickey gave up that night were in the upper half of the zone. When he misses with the knuckleball up in the zone, or when it doesn’t knuckle, it becomes hittable.
This was evident in Sunday’s start against the Boston Red Sox.
The extra-base hits Dickey gave up were on balls left in the upper half of the zone. He was able to limit the damage when he kept the ball low, giving up one double and three singles. The double, and two of the singles, were hit by the first three batters of the games. All of them came off Dickey’s knuckleball.
Dickey must have been frustrated with the knuckler after giving up five straight hits to open the game, many of which were down in the zone. As a result, he started relying on his fastball more than usual. When your fastball averages 83 mph, this is typically a bad idea. Dickey needed to use it as he struggled to command the knuckleball. While he was able to throw the fastball for strikes, both of his home runs came off the pitch. A combination of early frustration and lack of control led him to throw more fastballs than usual.
Though Dickey struggled with control Sunday, he only gave up two walks. And since he was squeezed a bit during his first game, there’s no need to overreact to the free-passes just yet. Dickey has struggled to open the season, but he has also run into some unfortunate circumstances. The only reason Dickey’s sluggish start is bothersome is his unique path to becoming an elite starter. Forming your opinons about any player based on two games is foolish. Even with the added risks, Dickey deserves more time to figure things out.Even as border crossings have plummeted and interior arrests have soared since inauguration of the president — due, no doubt, both to his tough campaign talk and his unshackling of federal immigration agents through executive orders — there are warning signs that we may be sliding back toward the Washington business-as-usual mentality of unacknowledged virtually open borders where legal immigration is concerned.
First there was the cave-in on budget negotiations in which provisions maintaining controversial accounting methods for the notorious H-2B program for unskilled workers got slipped into the short-term appropriations bill, along with a reprieve of the corrupt and useless EB-5 "investor" visa program.
Then there was the deeply disturbing incident involving the sister of Jared Kushner (son-in-law and advisor to the president) pimping his name and connection to the White House in presentations to EB-5 investors in China.
And then we find that Mr. Trump is alleged to have promised Big Agriculture that they have nothing to fear from his administration where immigration enforcement and unfettered access to high-volume temporary worker programs are concerned.
Now there are the rumors that Trump may be favorably disposed toward the ENLIST Act, a bill that would give illegal aliens the right to enlist in return for green cards — a poor idea that has been floated before without success, and that has been panned as unnecessary by distinguished retired military service members. No wonder, given that present enlistment programs are working just fine at keeping the armed forces supplied with excellent candidates, and indeed turn away many American citizen applicants for inability to meet the high physical, mental, emotional, and educational standards the military is able to maintain. Why compromise those standards to open the doors to aliens whose very presence in the country is illegal, who may or may not speak competent English, and who cannot easily or inexpensively be adequately vetted (as we have seen again and again and again)?
As our Executive Director, Mark Krikorian, recently discussed, none of these things is necessarily a betrayal, per se, by Mr. Trump of his vocal base of immigration restrictionists, given his campaign remarks about big, beautiful doors inside the big, beautiful (unfunded) wall. But it's going to feel like one.
How could they see it otherwise if the market is flooded with hundreds of thousands of cheap foreign laborers on the bottom and middle, and with fat-cat foreign "entrepreneurs" at the top, despite all of the president's campaign rhetoric and promises to open up new jobs for un- and under-employed Americans?
The short-term problem seems to be that he thought everything could be done by executive orders and, having discovered that isn't true and that he needs the help of recalcitrant congressional Republicans — including those of the "more is better" immigration school like Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) — the president appears to be inclined to give these foxes the run of the henhouse where guestworker and other "legal" immigration programs are concerned, perhaps in the belief that they will then support him in his other endeavors.
The long-term problem, though, is that whether he wishes to acknowledge it or not, Donald Trump's base did indeed "hire" the president not just to eliminate illegal immigration, but to rein in an out-of-control legal immigration system that brings in 1.5 million aliens annually, thus depressing wages at the lower end of the economic ladder, and making jobs difficult to find in the middle of the ladder, particularly for new college graduates seeking employment in certain industries (such as information technology) that have relied heavily on in-sourcing of long-term guestworkers who underbid them to get those jobs.
And then there are those millionaires and billionaires buying green cards in corrupt programs that in truth employ nobody in any meaningful, direct, or permanent way. They merely serve as a plentiful source of funds to real estate and business developers. Many of these investment projects have proved to be fraudulent, and many others didn't get built or finished. The program is riddled like the proverbial Swiss cheese with lawsuits, prosecutions, and civil enforcement actions.
You just can't square the circle between continuing unfettered access to massive guestworker and investment programs by greedy employers and shady project-selling middlemen on one hand and, on the other, giving the people who constitute Mr. Trump's base a fair shot at good jobs with decent pay.
Lose your base, Mr. President, and you will be a one-term president. There is no art of the deal in which you can maintain their trust and confidence while giving way to congressional Democrats and Republicans who are catering to those employers and middlemen, who don't believe in your agenda anyway, and who will in the end drop you like a hot potato at the first sign of trouble. The warning signs are already there, are they not?House Speaker Paul Ryan interacts with President Donald Trump and House Ways and Means Committee Kevin Brady during a meeting on tax policy at the White House on Nov. 2. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo Ryan: House 'on track' to pass tax reform before Thanksgiving
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Sunday he is confident the Republican Party's bid to overhaul the tax system will pass the House by Thanksgiving, lining up with an aggressive timeline set out by the White House.
"We’re on track for moving this through the House before Thanksgiving. That’s our plan," Ryan said during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday."
Story Continued Below
Congressional leaders are pushing to meet the Thanksgiving goal to get a tax bill on President Donald Trump's desk to sign by the end of the year. But the Senate's failure to convert on a House bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act has left some wary that the tax bill could run into similar roadblocks.
Ryan on Sunday said he felt "very good" about the House's prospects to pass tax reform by the upcoming national holiday, adding, "We expect our friends in the Senate to be about a week behind us."
"I think our members are very excited about this. We’re pleased with what we’ve rolled out, and this is what we said we would do when we ran for office in 2016," he said.
Ryan's timeline aligns with the one publicly set out by Trump, who said during a news conference last week he expected the bill to pass the House in the next three weeks.
"I want all of the people standing by my side when we get ready to sign by Christmas — hopefully before Christmas," Trump told reporters Tuesday.The major missing factor in debates on cutting welfare spending – as has been flagged by social services minister Kevin Andrews – is the limited and falling demand for labour. Labour market figures give the lie to the need to target working-age payment recipients as the issue.
The problem is not supply-side inadequacies but the demand for labour: there are far too few jobs on offer.
This factor undermined the thrust of Patrick McClure’s original review of the welfare payments system in 2000, which was labelled “Welfare to Work”. It makes a nonsense of repeating the exercise.
The earlier strategies did not decrease the numbers on payments: it just moved them to other payments, as is shown in the gradual increase in recipients overall. The numbers fell when more jobs were available and rose as the global financial crisis cut in and job numbers fell.
In December 2013, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recorded [716,000 unemployed people](http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/cat/6354.0](http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/cat/6354.0) who had actively looked for work in the previous fortnight, up 15,000 from the previous month. These figures do not fully overlap with 338,660 November Newstart Allowance recipients, as some of those had a few hours’ work in the same fortnight. But, put together, the figures show official job seekers numbered around at three-quarters of a million.
This estimate does not include those discouraged from actively looking for work and those wanting to change jobs or find more work. So maybe the real job-seeker numbers are close to one million people looking for work.
One of the basic questions that is not asked is whether suitable paid jobs are available and accessible for those on payments that are assumed to encourage entry to paid work. The ABS data on job vacancy trends suggests some serious and increasing lack of vacancies.
Total job vacancies in November 2013 were 140,000, a decrease of 0.3% from August 2013. Private sector vacancies numbered 129,500 in November 2013, a decrease of 0.1% from August 2013. Job vacancies in the public sector totalled 10,500 in November 2013, a decrease of 3.6% from August 2013.
Another set of indicators tells the same story of too few jobs and falling vacancies.
Here we learn that:
Job vacancies in Australia decreased to 124,786.50 in December 2013 from 125,657.20 in November 2013. Job vacancies in Australia averaged 134,517 from 1999 until 2013, with an all-time high of 261,394 in April 2008 and a low of 56,560.60 in July 1999.
These figures show serious gaps between the numbers of jobs and job seekers. There appear to be at least seven potential applicants per vacancy, without including employers’ specific requirements.
These conditions make it likely that employers will choose able-bodied people without kids with recent employment experience and who are not depressed by too many failures. Such discrimination is hard to identify in situations where labour demand is so far below supply that most of the officially unemployed will miss out.
The old McClure strategies did not increase participation, nor will they now. The main strategy was to reduce the incomes of possible job seekers by moving them off higher payments that recognised their difficulties in finding employment (Disability Support Pension and Parenting Payment) onto Newstart. The theory was that a lower base income and tighter tapers on added earned income would create the incentive to find (non-existent) paid work in a crowded market.
The failure of the tactic is shown clearly in the experience of sole parents after the McClure review. From 2006, those on the Parenting Payment were registered as job seekers when their youngest child turned six. They were moved to Newstart when the child turned eight.
About 120,000 existing recipients were grandfathered onto the higher payment, but most of them were recently moved to Newstart under the Gillard government. This change ignored the lack of evidence that those sole parents already on the lower payment had benefited from the earlier move by finding jobs.
In contrast, those left on the higher payment mainly had part-time work, which fitted with study and children’s needs. The move to Newstart meant their incomes were substantially reduced and they needed more work to make it up. Some dropped out of training as they had no support or time.
Data on the 40,000 who were moved earlier to Newstart is sparse, but the indications are that they are less likely to have part-time jobs than those who were on the higher payment. I covered this change in detail last year.
The claims by the government that the problem is the unemployed, not the lack of jobs, is a major con, too often blindly accepted by the media and the public. Cutting people’s payments does not increases their participation level in tight job markets. Their very low payments often fail to cover the costs of looking for unlikely jobs.
All Newstart recipients subsist on widely acknowledged inadequate incomes. Even the Business Council of Australia believes the current Newstart rate (A$250 a week) is too low. The payment no longer meets the community standard of adequacy and is, in itself, a barrier to people finding their way back into the workforce.
The same payment also covers many who are not looking for paid work because they are in training, sick, have temporary disabilities, are volunteering because of age, or have care responsibilities. Half of the people on Newstart are living in poverty but not looking for work, which is one reason given for keeping it so low. More are now also single parents and have some levels of disability.
People living on part-time paid jobs or doing unpaid ones need more income support. Andrews’ review should tackle the issue of funding a rise in the basic payment to provide an adequate basic income.
The review should also look at recognising other forms of time contributions. Higher payments can supplement the earned income of those with part-time work and other responsibilities or limits on their capacity to work. We need to think about ways to redistribute the benefits of both paid work and unpaid tasks and contributions to create wider well-being.Yesterday, some of our commenters seemed confused that your proprietor wasn’t celebrating the news coming out of Russia that a Moscow city court had called for Scientology to be banned and its Ideal Org in that city to be shut down within six months. (Scientology vowed to appeal.)
An Ideal Org, vaporized? What an affront to Scientology leader David Miscavige, right? So what gives with the grumpy reaction, Ortega?
Let us spell out a little more clearly why we greet any news from Vlad Putin’s dystopic fief with extreme skepticism and dread. It’s because Russia, and its news media in particular, is a Bizarro World where up is down, and nothing is as it seems.
We have personal experience with this. A year ago or so, we had our one and only interaction with a Russian media outlet. (Keep in mind, there is no independent media in Russia, there are only organizations that serve at the pleasure of Putin’s Kremlin.) They wanted to speak with us because we’re the only news outlet in the world which has actually talked to a member of Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s family about the persistent and years-old rumor that he was secretly a high-level Scientologist.
This rumor claimed that Yatsenyuk’s sister, who lived in Santa Barbara, was herself an “OT” and had extensive Scientology involvement. We not only found no evidence of this, which would be unlikely if she did have such a long involvement, but we also got her daughter, Yatsenyuk’s niece, on the phone, and she denied that the family had any involvement in Scientology, and she did it in fairly convincing fashion, we thought.
But the rumor is still very popular in Russia, where there’s a lot of bad feeling about the Ukraine, and they’d love to believe that Yatsenyuk is a Scientology puppet — and worse, that Yatsenyuk is then a puppet of the US through its glam-celebrity rockin’ church. When the Moscow news outlet interviewed us, we made it clear that this was all a pile of steaming manure, and that there was no actual evidence that the Yatsenyuk family had ever been involved in Scientology. Amazingly, when the segment aired, they made it look like the American Scientology expert completely endorsed the idea that Yatsenyuk had been indoctrinated into the church through his family. Well, we learned our lesson.
Anyway, there were similar levels of farce served up in at least one Russian media treatment of yesterday’s decision in a Moscow courtroom. We learned from the outlet Vesti that the hearing lasted some seven hours, and Scientology was represented by five lawyers. As you can see in the image from the courtroom, the Scientologists were out in force and sporting hilariously prominent jewelry in an attempt to give the idea that they were part of a bona fide religion.
But the bullpucky was evident on both sides. Vesti interviewed anti-cult professor Alexander Dvorkin, who calmly asserted that Scientology was a CIA front. (We met Dvorkin in Toronto at Jon Atack’s conference. He has also asserted in the Russian media that not only is Yatsenyuk a Scientologist, but that the CIA controls Yatsenyuk — and thus Ukraine — through Scientology.)
That led to a comical scene with the Vesti reporter asking, quite seriously, the Scientology-cross wearing dude about the “information” that Scientology was a CIA front. The dude’s laughter appeared to be quite genuine.
In other words, the scene on the ground there at the Moscow courtroom was a lot weirder than we heard about in stories by the Associated Press and the Guardian.
The thing is, the Moscow court’s decision — that because Scientology operates under a US trademark, it violates Russia’s concepts of religious freedom — is really a fascinating one, and of course it’s really interesting to see David Miscavige facing the prospect of his Ideal Org being shut down. But Russia has tried numerous times to shut down Scientology, and Scientology has found succor in the European Court of Human Rights because Russia tends to do things with a lack of due process.
The Netherlands took a similar step recently and found that the exorbitant prices Scientology charges demonstrate that it’s a business, not a religion. But rather than ban Scientology, the country stripped the church of its tax-exempt status. That should accelerate what’s already happening there as well as most places around the world — Scientology’s rapid decline.
But if there’s one place in the world where Scientology is shrinking more slowly, it’s in Russia, where we’ve seen evidence that Scientology and its WISE business front group can still put together a sizable rally of believers. We can’t help wondering if the government’s heavy-handed tactics aren’t at least in part responsible. On the other hand, our Russian-language department assures us that the Russian government really could shut down Scientology if this decision holds up, and told us, “If Putin uttered even a word publicly about it with his own mouth, Scientology would be kaput.”
So we’ll keep an open mind that Scientology really could be on the ropes in Russia. But you’ll excuse us for remaining skeptical.
——————–
Own a copy of The TomKat Project today!
Playwright Brandon Ogborn let us know that you can now own the script to his hilarious production, The TomKat Project. Available at Amazon, the book captures what some of us experienced here during an Underground Bunker field trip: Ogborn’s really original and clever take on Scientology and its celebrity culture. Here’s what we said at the time:
Ogborn not only wrote this cutting examination of tabloid news culture and celebrity worship, but he also narrates it on stage — although “narrates” doesn’t really quite capture what he’s doing up there. Perhaps a better description is that he guides, cajoles, castigates, and ultimately |
measuring about 3.3 feet (1 m) across at the back and 5 feet (1.5 m) long — it wouldn't fit into traditional medical scanners. Solution? The team hauled the noggin to the Ford Motor company, which has a separate facility housing a scanner for engines and the like.
Once the skeletons were scanned, the researchers overlaid a digital skin onto the digitized models in order to get a body volume. The team also modeled separate body parts, such as the head, neck, torso, legs and tail, to make this digital skin-wrapping more accurate.
The mass was then calculated after taking into account empty spaces such as the lungs and mouth cavity.
"For each of five specimens, we generated multiple models differing in degree of fleshiness, at the low end where the muscle adhered pretty tightly to the skeletal outline, and at the other end we'd have a very corpulent or obese dinosaur," Makovicky told LiveScience in a telephone interview.
Results showed T. rex was heavier than previous estimates, which ranged from about 4.5 tons to 6.5 tons, with the Field Museum's Sue skeleton weighing a heaping 9 tons (about 8,164 kilograms). [Gallery: The World's Biggest Beasts]
"We knew she was big but the 30 percent increase in her weight was unexpected," Makovicky said.
T. rex grows up
They also used the five specimens to figure out the giant dinosaur's growth rate. The juvenile served as "our lower end of the spectrum, so we could look at how body mass changed over time and how different body parts would've changed from juvenile to adult," Makovicky said.
As far as how massive a baby T. rex might have been, Makovicky said they chose a somewhat arbitrary value of 11 pounds (5 kg). "We know they can't get much bigger than that because you get into a range for a certain-size animal where the volume of the animal [would require that] the eggshell get too thick and they can't get out."
They found most of its growth likely occurred between T. rex's teen years of 10 to 12 and 17 to 18, when T. rex reaches maturity. Though packing on thousands of pounds each year, particularly in this teenage period, sounds like a lot, the new growth rate is more similar to growth-rate calculations for other dinosaurs, the researchers said.
"Our new growth-rate value actually erases a deficit between the previous growth-rate estimate and what is expected for a dinosaur of this size," Makovicky said.
But the quick track to thunder thighs came at the cost of speed and agility, the team found. Turns out, as the animal grew it also became slower, likely because its torso got longer and heavier while its limbs grew relatively shorter and lighter. The result shifted its center of gravity forward.
"That shift changes a lot of the inertial properties, by shifting the mass forward you're shifting the pivot point away from the hips, which is the natural pivot, so that requires bigger muscles," Makovicky told LiveScience. "T. rex has pretty large, in fact, enormous leg muscles, probably the largest leg muscles of any creature that ever lived, but a lot of that leg muscle had to stabilize the animal and didn't translate into speed."
As such, even with such thunder thighs, these dinosaurs must have slowed down as they grew, with a juvenile being relatively faster and more agile than an adult.
Their findings are detailed online this week in the open-access journal PLoS ONE.
Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.LGD stops Na`Vi in Alienware Cup, moves on to grand final
DK versus Invictus Gaming
iG opted for a push heavy line-up to go against DK's fight forcing set of heroes. Despite having the stronger initiation, DK could not dominate the mid-game due to the bad start they had which was very obviously reflected on their item purchase, especially on the Storm Spirit. iG relentlessly pushed all over the map and although DK did try their best by split pushing the other lanes, iG always made it back in to to stop their towers from going down. Knowing that there was no way DK could ever make a comeback in this game, DK called the gg after iG took down the Roshan at 15 minutes. DK picked a very tough hero composition to play in which they have to force fights and chain their skills off perfectly for it to work. Although DK was off to a good early game, they could not bring that momentum into the mid-game and allowed iG to repetitively pick them off. However, DK did put in some effort trying to push the towers but Treant Protector was there to make sure iG's towers were at full health all the time. After taking down the Roshan, iG pushed top and as previously mentioned, the perfect execution was too tough to do as DK lost another team fight. The gg call was inevitable since.
LGD vs Na`Vi
Both the teams assembled themselves a four-man ganking squad with a carry on the side. With hopes to take an early lead with their superior gank abilities, both teams engaged each other a lot in the first 15 minutes of game one and while the kill score was even in most cases, Na`Vi came up slightly on top. The advantage was not very apparent early on but once the game went into mid-game, LGD realized that they could not continue running into Na`Vi and was forced to stay behind their towers under the Ukrainians' constant threat to take it down. Na`Vi eventually built up enough lead for a push and although LGD defended with all their might, it was way too tough to continue fighting the uphill battle. Na`Vi was obvious in their intention to push and/or split push their way to victory but LGD responded to that with a very unique strategy, to push harder than Na`Vi. The Lycan picked definitely worked wonders for the Chinese and they could not have asked for a better start, 5-0 up by 12 minutes and also taken down several outer towers. Na`Vi switched their game plan to bring this to late-game, picking up the Midas on the Phantom Lancer but it was of no use. LGD's sheer pushing power breached Na`Vi's high ground at 20 minutes and shortly after, the Ukrainians called the gg. Na`Vi boldly ran the Shadow Fiend on the middle lane against the Magnus and Dendi was able to farm up a storm due to no harrassment or teleport support from LGD coming to gank him. Na`Vi had a small lead heading into mid-game but found out that they couldn't engage into LGD and ended up just standing outside their tier-two, threatening to push. LGD's big break came when Sylar picked up a Double Damage rune and the whole team just rushed into the Rosh pit to secure the Aegis. With the Aegis in hand, LGD pushed down two of Na`Vi's outer towers. Once the Aegis expired, Na`Vi went on the offense and took down a few towers before LGD.cn pulled off a spectacular fight on the middle lane which reversed everything back to square one. 5 minutes after the fight, Roshan respawned and LGD was quick on their feet to get to the pit. Na`Vi attempted to contest for it but Roshan was down right before Na`Vi got there. However, the Ukrainians eventually took the fight due Xiao8 blowing his RP on nothing but did not manage to take the barracks. LGD smoked into Na`Vi's jungle with their full arsenal and took down Dragon Knight and Lina, and subsequently the middle barracks. Na`Vi rushed the middle lane but Xiao8 showed Na`Vi why that was a big mistake by pulling off two huge RP that won his team the fight. LGD throttled mid and with no buybacks in hand, Na`Vi called the gg.Photo
Considering the torrent of political money flowing through Washington, fundraisers from both parties must be rejoicing as the campaign finance industry feasts on the presidential contests. Particularly since two supposed watchdog agencies, the Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service, have just presented fresh evidence of how feeble their oversight has become.
The F.E.C., long a laughingstock among the political pros it supposedly oversees, announced it had finally gotten around to the five-year-old case of the mystery man who passed a $1-million contribution to the 2012 Romney presidential campaign without leaving a trace of his identity. Under the law, the donor should have been identified since the money went to a super PAC, but the funds arrived via a shadowy limited liability company that soon faded from sight. Complaints were filed with the F.E.C., and in the ensuing controversy the donor, Edward Conrad, a long-time Romney supporter, came forward, claiming he had only followed the advice of the very best campaign experts.
Similar cases of shell company abuses were raised back then, and finally, five years later, the F.E.C. has cleared its throat and made its pronouncement that…(drumroll) …it won’t, after all, be able to look into such an obviously fishy way of bankrolling candidates. The commission was deadlocked by its own perverse twist on bipartisanship: With the three Democratic members favoring a full investigation, the three Republican commissioners, as usual, declined, blocking a majority needed for authorizing action.
Deciding not to decide has become the F.E.C.’s way of life. The Republican members’ stalemate stratagem feeds the campaign industry’s sense that no one is really watching. Ann Ravel, the commission’s Democratic chairwoman, admitted to The Times last May that the F.E.C. would likely be powerless to stop abuses in the 2016 federal elections as political money rockets toward a $10-billion record. “People think the F.E.C. is dysfunctional,” she noted. “It’s worse than dysfunctional.”
The I.R.S., on the other hand, was at least willing to hand down a firm decision recently. Unfortunately, that decision was a ludicrous exercise in political timorousness. The agency granted Karl Rove, the Republican political guru, a “social welfare” tax exemption for his Crossroads GPS operation. This means he can keep the identities of deep-pocketed donors a secret part of this political machine.
The tax law originally mandated that such groups should be engaged “exclusively” in social welfare, but subsequent I.R.S. standards have weakened this to require only 51 percent to be spent that way, thereby allowing opportunists 49 percent for politicking. It was later disclosed that the Rove exemption, which was approved without an explanation to the public, came after a review in 2013 by I.R.S. staff experts who found against an exemption. They concluded the Rove operation in an earlier campaign had spent 54, not 49, percent on politics.
This didn’t stop the I.R.S. — battered lately by conservative political critics — from issuing the exemption anyway. A full explanation of all this to taxpayers would seem increasingly necessary. The booming campaign industry, meanwhile, is drawing its own conclusion.Georgia is one of only five states where breweries can’t sell you a pint of beer to drink on premise or sell you a six-pack to go.
As the popularity of craft beer continues to grow, so do the legislative fights over how to regulate the industry.
In Georgia, craft beer brewers say they are at a competitive disadvantage both regionally and nationally because state law prohibits them from selling directly to consumers. They’ve been trying for about a decade to change state law. They are back lobbying the Georgia General Assembly this year.
In the meantime, craft beer, generally defined as beer brewed by relatively small regional breweries, continues to become more popular and profitable.
The national Brewers Association, based in Colorado estimates that, 207,000 barrels of craft beer were produced in Georgia in 2013 and that the industry contributed $33.9 billion to the national economy, $671 million to Georgia’s economy, taking into account its impact on breweries, wholesalers, retailers, jobs even brewpub restaurants and taprooms.
Legislatures across the country in recent years have wrestled with changing their alcohol and tax laws while weighing the competing interests of the craft beer brewers, the powerful big beer manufacturers and wholesalers. Part of the argument for the law change in Georgia is the relatively unique restrictions that exist here on beer brewers.
Georgia "is one of only five states that do not allow beer factories or 'production breweries' to sell beer for neither on-premise consumption (pints) nor off premise consumption (packaged beer)," Nancy Palmer, executive director of the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild said Monday.
Politifact decided to check the claim.
We reached out to Palmer, who warned us that "this issue is a little complicated."
"Section 2 of the 21st Amendment provides huge amount of leeway to the states to regulate alcohol, and each has come up with as many laws about it as there are stars in the sky," she said. "The laws on alcohol vary from state to state significantly more than gun control or the control of illicit drugs."
She said her research showed that only four states, besides Georgia, have laws prohibiting direct sales by breweries to consumers. They are West Virginia, Hawaii, Mississippi and North Dakota.
We contacted Palmer’s counterpart with the brewers’ associations in Mississippi. Mark Henderson of Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company confirmed that Mississippi does not allow its breweries to sell beer for on-site or off-site consumption.
Todd Sattler, with the brewers association in North Dakota, said, however, that restrictions are not as tight there.
"We have on premise sales and growler sales," he told PolitiFact.
In West Virginia, a brewer or resident brewer "cannot even sample or sell a pint for on- or off-premise consumption," said Brian Arnett with Mountain State Brewing Company.
But there’s a loophole in West Virginia: "You can buy a brewpub license that allows sampling and pint sales, Arnett said.
Palmer said Hawaii has already addressed the issue by incorporating brewpubs with its breweries so direct sales can take place, similar to what Arnett mentioned is happening in West Virginia.
Direct sales are believed to be critical to a brewery’s success in much the same way wine sales contribute to a winery’s bottom line, she said.
Craft brewers have been pushing Senate Bill 63, which initially would have allowed breweries to sell pints of beer to the public in an amount not to exceed 72 ounces per person per day and to sell no more than 144 ounces of packaged beer to-go per person, per day.
However, a substitute passed out of committee Friday that prohibits direct sales by breweries. It alters the current tour structure so that brewers can give away 36 ounces on-premises during the tour (compared to the current 32 ounces) as well as a "souvenir" malt beverage container of no more than 64 ounces to-go.
Our ruling
The Georgia Craft Brewers Guild is lobbying for breweries to have the right to sell directly to "consumers. The group argues craft beer breweries in the state are at a disadvantage because "Georgia is one of only 5 states where breweries can’t sell you a pint of beer to drink or sell you any to go."
They were identified as West Virginia, Hawaii, Mississippi and North Dakota.
But we found that at least North Dakota doesn't belong on the list with Georgia.
'It's clear that most states have already cleared the path for these sales. Others are moving in that direction. That’s the Georgia guild’s over-arching point.
We rate the statement as Mostly True.WASHINGTON – Shortly after his Republican opponent Mike McFadden announced a record-breaking fundraising quarter, DFL Sen. Al Franken’ s campaign came out with its own record fundraising numbers, bringing in $4.2 million in the three months ending Sept. 30.
That’s $900,000 more than Franken’s previous best quarter. The campaign says it has $2.75 million for the final stretch.
Franken’s take is more than double McFadden’s $2 million raised, and he has considerably more money on hand than McFadden’s $1 million. Franken spent even more heavily over the summer than McFadden, approximately $6.4 million, on a barrage of ads and field organizers.
The Franken campaign again touted Franken’s extensive network of small dollar donors noting that more than 97 percent of donations were $100 or less and that more than 25,000 new donors contributed to the campaign over the last quarter.
Despite a series of recent polls showing Franken with a lead over McFadden, the campaign sought to play down Franken’s edge.
“We expect this to be a tough race, right until the polls close,” said Matt Burgess, Franken’s campaign manager, in a statement.Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari were a philosophical odd couple. Deleuze was a rising philosopher who was concerned with his philosophical predecessors: Friedrich Nietzsche, Baruch Spinoza and Henri Bergson. Guattari was a psychotherapist never had a “formal” education in the field. He learned the trade by working at an experimental psychiatric clinic and religiously attending the seminars of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.
In the late 60’s, Deleuze and Guattari met and decided to write a book together. The work was mostly coordinated through letters the two exchanged. Guattari would send notes and scribbles to Deleuze, who would compile the thoughts into what finally became “Anti-Oedipus.” The book was an instant hit in France. However, it tooks years for Deleuze and Guattari’s work to achieve its current infamy in American cultural studies and critical theory classrooms.
The two theorists would go on to write other texts together, including “A Thousand Plateaus”, but each had their own highly successful academic careers. Deleuze continued writing about philosophy, taught at Paris VIII University, and was heavily involved with activism, art, and film. Guattari worked heavily with anti-psychiatry movements and other radical political organizations. He was incessantly creating political groups and organizations, traveled abroad to promote clinical schizoanalysis, and even advised the French cultural minister.
The book, “Intersecting Lives” by Francois Dosse details the life and work of both authors. Clocking in at 672 pages, the tome meticulously details their work as well as their personal lives. Here are a few highlights.
#1 Guattari Helped Run a Psych Clinic That Doubled as a Communist Utopia and Insane Circus
In 1955, Guattari started working at La Borde, a psychiatric clinic in France.
La Borde wasn’t your average psych clinic. The clinic’s constitution imagined the organization as a “communist utopia.” This utopia required the disposal of formalized bureaucracy. Staff members were required to rotate in and out of manual labor to destabilize the hierarchies that existed between the “intellectual” staff and the “laboring” staff. Salaries were debated and decided in democratic committee meetings which, as you can imagine, often devolved into a shit-show.
Patient and staff co-mingling was highly encouraged. Communal spaces were set up for patients and doctors alike to plays cards or read magazines. Nurses were often indistinguishable from patients. Patients were even given responsibility over administrative tasks and could serve on the board of the clinic. One patient even served as treasurer and handled La Borde’s bank account.
When Guattari showed up, he quickly took on a leadership role. He described his demeanor towards staff as “rigidly militant.” This certainly wasn’t Guattari’s first rodeo. As the head of a pro-Tito worker’s brigade in 1949, he “confiscated the meal tickets of any recalcitrant workers who complained or dragged their feet when it came to carrying stones or digging trenches”. At La Borde, Guattari was known to order patients who refused to get out of bed to partake in some of the scheduled activities. That might sound kind of shitty, until the book goes on to describe the scene at La Borde:
Daily life was busy at the clinic: prior to the use of narcoleptic and drug therapy, conflicts between patients often erupted into fights, and it was not unusual for people to get beaned by coffee pots of tools.
Guattari eventually loosened up on his authoritarian tendencies after landing in a hospital as part of a draft-dodging scheme (Guattari was avoiding being sent to Algeria). As a patient, Guattari realized that life under the rule of tyrannical nurses was not so great. The realization followed him back to La Borde.
Guattari would often invite his friends and fellow academics to hang out in La Borde where they took up arts and crafts, worked, and even started careers at La Borde. As a result, La Borde turned into a hot-spot for intellectuals, draft-dodgers and, of course, the mentally ill.
One of those friends, Jean-Baptiste Thierree was a Maoist who performed magic. Thierree received treatment from Guattari while performing magic shows for other patients. One day, Thierree had an idea: he was going to write to Charlie Chaplin’s daughter and start a circus with her.
Victoria Chaplin not only responded, she married Jean-Baptiste. And the circus? Well, the two started it at La Borde. Because if “crippling mental illness” calls for one thing, it’s more clowns and loud noises.
The Thierree-Chaplin couple created particularly intense activities at La Borde with their circus tents, horses, wild animals, and snakes; the patients were invited to participate.
That was followed by integrating catatonic patients into the circus. Grossly irressponsible? Maybe, but it kind of worked in treating the patient.
I [Jean-Baptise] had this idea of masking him [the catonic patient] from head to toe and when he was like that he did whatever I wanted him to do. I always asked him, ‘Why do you move when you are masked?’ He never answered me, and one day he said. ‘because it’s not serious’.
When May ’68 erupted Guattari encouraged his patients to attend. This was the last straw for the director of the clinic, who soon kicked out Guattari because of his rampant shenanigans
It was at La Borde that Guattari acquired the experiences and knowledge necessary to theorize the figure of the schizophrenic and schizoanalysis.
#2 Deleuze Hated Crazy People
Many have accused Deleuze and Guattari of trivializing the plight of the deranged and being detached from their material realities. For Guattari, nothing is further from the truth. For Deleuze, this is sort of true. Deleuze’s friend Jean-Pierre Muyard was a medical student who introduced Deleuze to many ideas on psychosis and madness. Muyard recounts:
He [Deleuze] said ‘I discuss psychosis and madness, but I don’t know anything about it from the inside.’ But he was also phobic about deranged people and couldn’t have spent even an hour at La Borde.
When Deleuze would visit Guattari, he “avoided the unbearable madness at La Borde.” One dinner in particular with Felix was interrupted by a some chaos as La Borde. Deleuze’s response was less commendable:
We got a call from La Borde saying that a guy had set fire to the chateau chapel and run off into the woods. Gilles blanched, I froze, and Felix called for help to find this guy. At that point, Gilles said to me, ‘how can you stand those schizos’?”
#3 Guattari Was Almost Lacan’s Anointed Successor
One might find it slightly ironic that the author who philosophically destroyed the project of psychoanalysis and Lacan was kind of infatuated with the man. Guattari religiously attended Lacan’s seminar and became a patient of Lacan for a hefty fee. Guattari eventually ordered all of La Borde’s staff to attend Lacan’s seminar and start analysis with Lacan “if they wanted to keep working at the clinic.”
During the 1950s, Guattari was a strict Lacanian. Even his friends would call him “Lacan” as a joke. In 1964, Lacan chose Guattari as a lieutenant at the newly created Freudian School of Paris. Guattari was sure that Lacan anoint him as a “preferred partner”
Lacan met with his patients for sessions often lasting as little as four minutes. Guattari, opting for the premium-package, paid for the pleasure of driving Lacan home. The in-ride discussion was, according to Lacan, “part of the analysis.”
During one such couch-session with Lacan, Guattari mentioned to Lacan that Roland Barthes was interested in publishing one of Guattari’s papers in Communications.
Guattari talked to Lacan about it while he was on the couch, but the master was indignant: What? Why not publish it in his journal, Scilicet? Lacan ordered his patient to choose his camp. Guattari was forced to comply and asked Barthes to remove his text from the issue.
Well that’s not so bad, Lacan had taken a special interest in Guattari and wanted to take him under his wing. Publishing Guattari’s work under his own journal instead of Barthes’ isn’t too bad. But Lacan never published Guattari’s paper.
#4 Lacan Freaked Out About ‘Anti-Oedipus’ and Banned His Students From Discussing It
After Lacan had got wind that Guattari was writing “Anti-Oedipus”, Lacan curiously inquired about its contents. Guattari, not being an idiot, realized that he could not reveal to Lacan a book which attacked his entire academic career. “That was clearly not an option,” Guattari said in an interview, “Deleuze mistrusted Lacan like the plague.”
Guattari tried to assuage Lacan by lying, saying that it was Deleuze’s fault for only wanting to share a finished project. Lacan tried to investigate the matter by asking to meet Deleuze in person, who instead offered to talk to Lacan on the phone. At this point, Lacan decided the best course of action was to liquor up Guattari at a fancy restaurant so he could spill the beans on the new book.
At the dinner, Guattari did in fact explain the thematic elements of “Anti-Oedipus.” Lacan was, on the surface, receptive to the new ideas. Guattari tried to lie his ass off to Lacan to make his new ideas seem more Lacanian then they really were. Lacan eventually discovered the true content of the book, and that dinner was the last time the two ever meet.
When Lacan discovered how aggressive the book was with respect to his ideas, all the bridges were definitively burned. Not only would the two never see each other gain, but Lacan and his friends also started circulating a series of rumors about Guattari’s practice to discredit him in the psychoanalytic circles.
When “Anti-Oedipus” was finally published, Lacan censored any discussion of the book among his students. He forbade any debate about the book, and never mentioned it in his seminar. One student of Lacan noted that Lacan took “Anti-Oedipus” as “a personal attack that was all the more hurtful because he had made some gestures towards Deleuze, whom he respected.”
#5 Deleuze Considered Anti-Oedipus a Failure and Guattari was Severely Depressed
In “Intersecting Lives”, the author notes that Deleuze was disappointed by his work:
“Eight years after Anti-Oedipus was published, Deleuze considered it a failure. May ’68 and its dreams were long gone, leaving a bitter taste for those who had high hopes but were caught by the stale odors of conservatism.”
But for Guattari it was much worse:
His hyperactivity and the immense effort he had put into the book led to something of a collapse, a feeling of emptiness. Completing a work is never as satisfying as the many imagined possibilities and ongoing pleasures of a work in progress. ‘I feel like curling up into a tiny ball and being rid of all these politics of presence and prestige…The feeling is so strong that I resent Gilles for having dragged me into this mess”
#6 Deleuze Failed His University Admission Exam and Couldn’t Type
Deleuze failed his entrance exam into the prestigious École Normale Supérieure (ENS).
Despite his exceptional abilities, Deleuze failed the entrance examination for the ENS, even though his lectures drew large audiences and were considered must-see events
But it wasn’t all gloom and doom for Deleuze. He received a scholarship to study for the agregation exam and began attending Sorbonne.
When Deleuze was ready to write his thesis, he was shit-outta-luck, however, because he didn’t know how to use a typewriter. Luckily, Deleuze’s friend Michael Tournier typed up Deleuze’s work for him.
Michel Tournier’s friendly gesture was met with deep suspicion from Deleuze. After reading the typed manuscript, Deleuze “did not recognize what he had written and suspected that something had been deleted.” He gave a copy of his completed work to Tournier which read:
For Michel, the book that he typed and criticized, roundly protested, and may have even shortened since I’m sure that it was longer, but which also belongs to him somewhat as I owe him a lot (not for Hume) in philosophyAfter 13 years of marriage, Courtney Fowler and her husband Josh made the decision to expand their family. But the addition to their family has put a strain on their finances. To save money, the couple makes their own cleaning and baby wipes.
"We've had two children of our own. Here recently God really laid it on my heart that we were not done with our family, that we had some more children out there," said Fowler, "I've always thought I was money conscience but I didn't realize how much I wasn't until we decided to adopt."
The Fowlers are still saving money to bring two children from China home.
"We have two little boys. They are both special needs. We are so very excited," said Courtney, "When we decided to adopt it became very apparent. Sometimes it can cost $35,000 to 40,000 to adopt a child, especially from overseas. I started saving money from as many places as I possibly could. Realized all those pennies, they add up to a lot."
Courtney started saving by making her own cleaning supplies.
"I'm a convenience kind of gal. I love my bleach wipes. I love anything easy like that. My number one thing was to research and find out how to keep my convenience lifestyle, but do it on a dime."
From baby wipes to glass and surface wipes and sanitization wipes, each batch costs about 75 cents to make.
Here are the recipes:
Glass Cleaner Wipes
Baby Wipes
Bleach Wipes
Moisturizing Hand Sanitizer Wipes
For more information visit Beforeweknew.blogspot.com.Walking along the beachfront street in Akko recently with a social activist from the town's Arab community, I looked up at a sign and saw I was at the corner of Shlomo Ben-Yosef Street. Then I looked again just to make sure. Really, I'm embarrassed I was surprised. Naming the street after Ben-Yosef showed an entirely predictable blend of bad taste and flagrant educational incompetence.
Akko, on the northern Israeli coast, is an ethnically mixed city: Arab citizens of Israel make up a little more than a quarter of the town's 53,000 residents. The rest are Jews. Today's relations between the two communities are just short of explosive, but I'll leave that story for another time. Akko was entirely Arab until May 1948, when the Haganah -- the proto-army of Israel -- conquered it. Afterward, those Arabs who stayed in the town lived in the walled Old City, later spreading to nearby neighborhoods. The beachfront thoroughfare, which runs into the Old City, is named after the Haganah. This must be painful for Arab residents, but it follows an old, unwritten principle: To the victors go the street names.
Shlomo Ben-Yosef Street, just outside the walls, is a more egregious insult. In 1938, Ben-Yosef and two comrades from the ultra-nationalist Irgun underground attacked a bus full of Arab civilians on a mountain road, seeking to kill them all. (Historian Avi Shlaim gives details). The attack failed; the British rulers of Palestine captured, tried, and hanged Ben-Yosef, turning him into a martyr of the Zionist right wing. A smaller, nearby street is called Shnei Eliahu, "Two Eliahus." It commemorates Eliahu Hakim and Eliahu Bet Zouri, two members of the even more extreme Lehi (Stern Gang) underground. In 1944 they assassinated Lord Moyne, the British Minister Resident in Egypt. They, too, died by hanging and became martyrs of the right. The Comprehensive Arab High School of Akko is on the street of the assassins, and you'd take the street of the bus ambusher to get there. I doubt those who picked the names thought of all the possible lessons that their choice might teach.
I mention this because of the press communiqué issued after this week's meeting of the Israeli Cabinet. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it says, opened the session by criticizing incitement to terrorism by Palestinian leaders, schools, and media. Netanyahu was particularly angry about the naming of a central square in Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi, reportedly with the endorsement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
In 1978, when she was not yet 20, Mughrabi led a terrorism attack that ended with blowing up a hijacked Israeli bus on the main coastal highway. Thirty-seven Israelis were killed. So was Mughrabi. The salient difference between Mughrabi and Ben-Yosef is that she succeeded in murdering people, while he failed. She also achieved terrorism's strategic aim of escalating the conflict: Israel's 1978 invasion of south Lebanon, aimed at pushing the Palestinian Liberation Organization back from the border, followed the Coastal Road Massacre.
Naming a square after Mughrabi is unconscionable. It glorifies political murder. Still, before Netanyahu looks out the window at the neighbors, he might try looking in the mirror.
In November, Netanyahu's education minister and Likud Party colleague, Gideon Sa'ar, sent out a letter to the principals of the country's Jewish schools, announcing a new educational unit for eighth- and ninth-graders on "those who ascended to the gallows" -- 12 members of the Irgun and Lehi who were either executed or who committed suicide in prison. They include Ben-Yosef and the two Eliahus. The letter describes the unit as promoting the "values of heroism, self-sacrifice and devotion to national rebirth, based on the character and actions" of the 12.
My daughter, who's in ninth grade, got a copy of the ministry's glossy booklet for students. It says, correctly, that Ben-Yosef acted after the murder of several Jews on the same road. It doesn't mention that his "act of response" was attacking a civilian bus or that the victims were chosen solely on the basis of being Arab. The section on the two Eliahus leaves out a pertinent detail that has been noted by University of California, Los Angeles, political scientist David C. Rapoport, doyen of scholars of political violence: Lehi was "the last self-identified terrorist group" -- the last organization on the world stage to consider terrorism a mark of pride. The booklet was handed out in a class hour devoted to values education and social issues. The teacher, she told me, spoke passionately about the Gallows 12, young men willing to die for their country.
The easy response to all this is that school systems, like committees to name city streets, are devoted to conveying national myths. In those businesses, historical truth and moral outrage are a distraction. When I was attending school in California somewhere back in the previous century, we did not learn that white terrorism had brought the end of Reconstruction and restored white supremacy in the South (as Nicholas Lemann documents in his book, Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War). Our schoolbooks did not mention that Woodrow Wilson was a segregationist.
Myth-building is a game that all sides can play. During a visit to Durban in 2008, I was given a brief tour of the city by a local Muslim of Indian ancestry. Local streets were just getting their new, post-apartheid names. He complained, more weary than angry, that a street would be named after Andrew Zondo. Zondo, a member of the African National Congress' armed wing, planted a bomb in a shopping center in 1985 and killed five people, including an eight-year-old girl. Afterward he was executed by the apartheid regime. The ANC has stressed that Zondo violated its policy by attacking civilians. Nonetheless, he has become a hero of the anti-apartheid struggle. The cynic says: One person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.
It's better, I think, not to be cynical. An education that glorifies the killers on one's own side, or erases their actions while stressing their martyrdom, teaches ad hominem morality: Whether something is right or wrong depends on who did it to whom. To name a square after Dalal Mughrabi teaches that murder for the sake of the national cause is a virtue. It is indeed official incitement. So is naming a street for the two Eliahus, or teaching ninth-graders that they should emulate the dedication of Shlomo Ben-Yosef.
The day after my daughter's class got their booklets on the Gallows 12, her class took a field trip to the Underground Prisoners Museum to learn more about the subject. Somehow my daughter arrived too late and missed the trip. Normally I think poorly of skipping class. In this case, I'd like to see it as evidence of her unspoiled moral character.Barnaby Joyce reveals NZ citizenship doubts, Labor urges him to stand aside
Updated
Labor is demanding Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce stand aside and not vote until his eligibility to be in Parliament has been decided by the High Court.
Key points: Barnaby Joyce may be a NZ citizen because his father was born there
He's asked the High Court to rule on his eligibility for Parliament
He will remain Deputy Prime Minister
Parliament has referred Mr Joyce's case to the High Court to decide if he holds New Zealand citizenship because his father was born in New Zealand.
Earlier today Mr Joyce |
has had the effect of focussing the national debate onto security and foreign policy – and away from social and economic policy, where Corbyn enjoys high levels of support well beyond party lines. Syria, like Trident, is important, but if it dominates too much, both Corbyn and the wider left will look out of touch.
The second thing is to hold its nerve and not to allow dissent from the right to unleash divisions within the left. The left has demons of its own, and they are beginning to show up at Momentum meetings – not so much in the proliferation of Trotskyist newspapers, but in the reaction of some Labour left organisers to their presence. If the presence of political literature is seen as a liability, or Momentum fails to organise inside Labour for fear of upsetting the press, then to an extent the right has already won.
While Labour’s right wing kicks and screams, and briefs every corner of the press, the activist left within the party must simply go about their business calmly and respectfully, reach out face-to-face to the wider public, and wait for the exorcism to pass.Former Fremantle forward Max Duffy will pursue a career as an NFL punter in a stunning departure from the WAFL.
The 23-year-old will relocate to Melbourne in the next month after being accepted into a national academy that trains NFL prospects for the American college system.
Duffy has been released from the second year of his contract with West Perth to take up the opportunity.
He is bidding to join an exclusive group of AFL footballers, including former Geelong captain Ben Graham and Collingwood and North Melbourne spearhead Saverio Rocca, to reach the highest ranks of American gridiron.
Mitch Wishnowsky from Thornlie is a star punter for US University in Utah The West Australian Play Video Video Mitch Wishnowsky from Thornlie is a star punter for US University in Utah
Duffy played three AFL matches for Fremantle before being de-listed at the end of the 2015 season.
Relatively short by punting standards at 184cm, the right-footer told West Perth’s playing squad of his decision on Monday night.
He is joining the Prokick Australia academy run by former Hawthorn and Brisbane utility player Nathan Chapman, who enjoyed a short stint as a punter with NFL powerhouse Green Bay Packers.
Camera Icon Max Duffy in action for West Perth. Picture: Mogens Johansen, The West Australian
Falcons football manager Ward Harris said the sporting switch had come as a surprise.
“I was aware that he was looking at doing some testing to see if he was up to it,” Harris said.
“I found out that he’d been accepted into the NFL academy.
“Depending on how it goes, he’ll then get accepted to head over to the US in July or early next year. It’ll be an interesting opportunity for him.
“I don’t think it’s something I would have foreseen when we signed him last season. It was definitely surprising, but I know how much Max loves his American sport.”
The move mirrors the code switch first achieved by WA trailblazer and inaugural West Coast squad member Darren Bennett.
Bennett, who played four games for the Eagles before becoming a two-time leading goal kicker at Melbourne, is Australia’s greatest NFL success story.
The East Fremantle product played an Australian-record 159 NFL games and was named in the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame after moving to the United States following his retirement from AFL.Pasquale Vaglio and his family (Joseph Vaglio)
By Curt Anderson
Pasquale Vaglio, a retired New York City policeman and Korean War veteran, was on the cruise of a lifetime with 18 family members in the summer of 2001 aboard Royal Caribbean’s “Explorer of the Seas.” Then, the accident happened.
Vaglio, 82, fell and hit his head shortly after disembarking for a sightseeing trip in Bermuda. He was immediately taken to the ship’s medical unit, where a nurse did a cursory examination and said Vaglio should rest in his cabin. What she didn’t know — and a doctor wouldn’t discover until hours later — was that Vaglio had suffered a brain injury that would kill him within days.
Related: Surviving a Life-Threatening Diagnosis — 12,000 Miles from Home
For more than 100 years, people such as Vaglio’s survivors couldn’t win medical malpractice lawsuits against cruise lines because of exemptions created through a series of court decisions. The most recent is a 1988 ruling known as “Barbetta” that cruise companies such as Royal Caribbean and Carnival regularly relied upon to get malpractice lawsuits thrown out before trial. Courts said passengers should not expect the same level of medical care on a ship as on land, and ships’ doctors and nurses were private contractors beyond the cruise lines’ direct control.
Now, a federal appeals court considering the Vaglio case has ruled the exemption should no longer apply. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — which has jurisdiction over the major Florida-based cruise lines — recently decided Barbetta is outdated law.
The judges noted that the Royal Caribbean doctor and nurse wore cruise line uniforms, were presented as ship employees and that the onboard medical center was described glowingly in promotional materials. Some modern cruise ships, they noted, have sophisticated intensive care units, laboratories and the ability to do live video conference links with medical experts on shore.
“We can discern no sound reason in law to carve out a special exemption for all acts of onboard medical negligence,” Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus wrote in the decision. “Much has changed in the quarter-century since Barbetta.”
The family’s initial victory could affect many of the 21 million people who take cruises annually.
“What we didn’t realize until this happened was that they have zero liability,” said Pasquale’s son, Joseph Vaglio, a pharmacist who lives in Massapequa, New York. “There is no way they should be getting away with this. They are making money hand over fist. Part of their cost of doing business should be to have a competent medical staff.”
Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said the cruise line rejects the Vaglios’ allegations of medical negligence. The company wants the full 11th Circuit to reconsider the three-judge panel’s ruling, contending there is no good reason to abandon a century of law.
“While cruise ships may have improved their medical facilities in the last 100 years, they should not be punished for it,” Royal Caribbean lawyers wrote in a Dec. 1 rehearing motion. “Royal Caribbean is not in the business of providing health care. It is in the business of providing vacations.”
Related: The Worst Caribbean Ports of Call for Cruises
According to the family’s lawsuit, after falling and hitting his head, Pasquale Vaglio was seen at the ship’s infirmary by a nurse, who noted a bump and scrape on his head. She neither conducted nor recommended a diagnostic scan, telling Vaglio’s wife to keep an eye on him because he might have a concussion.
Vaglio got steadily worse. After his daughter contacted ship personnel, it took 20 minutes to get a wheelchair to take him from their cabin back to the infirmary. Then there was another delay while credit card information was obtained. Finally, four hours after the accident and suffering from internal bleeding in his skull, Vaglio was examined by the ship’s doctor and sent to a hospital in Bermuda.
“By that time, Vaglio’s life was beyond saving,” the appeals judges wrote. He was airlifted to a hospital in Mineola, New York, where he died a week later.
It’s not clear whether the 11th Circuit will reconsider its ruling, which conflicts with other circuits’ decisions and could ultimately wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court.When Stephen Curry entered the NBA in 2009, it was debatable as to how his college brilliance at Davidson would translate to the pro ranks. At times, playing on what was far from a marquee NCAA team, Curry had troubles getting his shot off against defensive pressure primed to isolate him as his team’s only shot-creator. And though Curry’s lineage as the son of one of the NBA’s great all-time shooters in Dell Curry was in place, this was still a league that was wary of high end NCAA scorers like Adam Morrison, who by that time was on his second team and considered a washout. This is part of the reason Curry slipped to seventh in that year’s draft, the fifth guard taken.
[Also: Lakers retire Shaquille O’Neal's No. 34 jersey]
Scroll to continue with content Ad
Four years later, Curry is a should-be All-Star, one that was curiously passed over by coaches this season for the midseason exhibition, and leading his Golden State Warriors to just their third playoff trip in their last 20 seasons. Along the way, Curry is pulling off an astonishing feat – not only leading the NBA in three-pointers made and attempted, but shooting a percentage from behind the arc (45 percent) that would lead the NBA in most seasons (he’s second this year to Detroit’s Jose Calderon, a player that has taken 237 fewer threes than Stephen this season). Sports Illustrated’s Chris Ballard, in a fantastic feature, details the drive that has turned Curry into such a potent threat:
Story continues
Last week, I watched Curry follow his usual gameday shootaround routine at the Warriors' practice facility. Lining up at seven spots around the arc, he alternated between shooting three-pointers and deep twos until he hit 10 out of 13 from all seven spots, restarting at a spot if he missed more than three. By my watch, he finished the drill in eight minutes. Afterward, Curry said his time was about average. Says [assistant coach Bob] Myers: "He shoots a lot but, to be honest, there aren't many shots he takes that I'd consider a bad shot."
Ballard went on to smartly note just why Curry appears so unique in the annals of shooterdom.
For one, Stephen is both a scorer in the versatile sense, and a shooter. As Ballard points out, his statistical comparisons in terms of three-point percentage career-wise are one-dimensional players like Steve Kerr, Kyle Korver, Steve Novak and Jason Kapono. Nothing against those four players, all very good basketball players at the college level and brilliant shooters at the NBA level, but their job as a pro was to hang out and wait for someone to make a mistake in leaving them on the perimeter.
[Also: Carmelo Anthony ties career high vs. LeBron/Wade-less Heat]
Those specialists usually had to wait for passes from players like Stephen Curry, because Curry remains his team’s go-to guy while averaging over 38 minutes a contest. Players that are on the court for that long rarely put up percentages like this, and (again, as Ballard discusses) Curry’s smallish frame makes his consistent abilities from long range all the more impressive – he doesn’t have the luxury that a Kevin Durant has to rely on size when the lids start to get droopy late in games.
Then there’s this ridiculousness:
A Curry extra from the piece: He sometimes plays a game after practice - shoot 3s until you miss two in a row. His high this year is 76 — Chris Ballard (@SI_ChrisBallard) April 2, 2013
Again, this is a man who is asked to lead and score the most points for a playoff-level NBA offense, taking more three-pointers than anyone in the NBA during 2012-13, and yet he’s still hitting 45 percent of his bombs. And he’s scoring nearly 21 a game. And he’s dropping 6.8 assists per game. And you can’t even attribute his fantastic output to the typically-high and stat-padding Golden State pace. The Warriors are still getting up and down the floor, they average the sixth-most possessions per game this season, but this isn’t the sort of over the top, Don Nelson-esque stylings that make most per-game stats dubious.
There’s nothing dubious about Curry’s work. If he continues like this and stays healthy, his mix of accuracy and high usage could turn him into a shooter for the ages. Kevin Durant may average more points per game, and Steve Nash may retire with more 50 percent/40 percent/90 percent seasons from the floor, three-point arc, and free throw line, but Curry appears to be acting (scoring-wise) as a fantastic amalgamation of the two.
[Also: Mark Cuban says he is willing to draft Baylor's Brittney Griner]
Best of all, for the first time in his professional career, a nationally televised audience is going to be handed the privilege of watching Curry line up that aim on a postseason stage later this month.
NBA video from Yahoo! Sports:
Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:
• Texas Rangers' Yu Darvish falls one out short of a perfect game
• San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator a victim of his own success
• Photos of every MLB ballpark on opening day
• Bubba Watson hopes Tiger Woods gets sickGeorgina Hobbs-Meyer discovered her husband had had cyber sex. Now she has two warnings for users of social networking sites: your whole life can be exposed - and don't get dumped online
My mother emailed me last week to tell me she had joined Facebook. We don't chat on the phone; we email. Soon I expect she will want to poke me, write on my wall and, worse still, tag me in photographs of my wedding last May. Well, not if I can help it, mama. I love you too much to expose you to my online self.
You see, she doesn't yet know that I, her 24-year-old daughter, am about to divorce. She can't see my Facebook status, so why would she?
Mummy, how do I tell you I'm a Facebook divorcee? That the son-in-law you try so hard to like cheated on your only daughter using the social networking site you so adore? That your daughter learnt of her imminent divorce via Google Mail's free chatting facility, Gchat?
Prince Harry may know how I feel. Would he even have known that he was single again if Chelsy Davy hadn't flagged it up on Facebook? Her recently changed status cascaded through her friends' newsfeeds to inform all that she was no longer in a relationship. Snap went the trademark red heart, sending gossip rocketing offline and on to the printing presses, neatly bypassing Clarence House. Headline: "Chelsy Davy: A change of heart on Facebook."
Oh Prince Harry, yours is a state I know too well. You, me, all of us, we're helpless to defend ourselves once our partners rush to Facebook our misery over a thousand flickering screens. The sad truth is that, once you announce your relationship on Facebook, and for as long as you are linked to one another by html, your status – hell, your love life – is on show to all. Even though I've opted to delete my relationship status rather than modify it Chelsy-style (she, like my husband, distastefully rushed to invite comment on fresh singledom), people will see the photographs of my wedding and draw obvious conclusions.
Not that many people take relationship statuses to heart. Even if they should, they do not read "X is married to Y" and immediately write off the object of their affection as unobtainable. My divorce is proof of that.
It began with a woman he met at a party. But it was within the sticky web of Facebook where they really got to know each other, despite the photos of us and our "married to..." status. I know this because my husband once logged on to Facebook and foolishly left the room. I began to use his Mac, only to find myself blasted into the middle of a sizzling cyber romance.
And once I was in, I was hooked. Their lusty emails touched on bad Beat poetry, but were infused with textspeak, their coy cyberflirts rife with emoticons. It felt like I was stuck in a hyper-reality where Douglas Coupland wrote Danielle Steel novels. "Could this really be happening six months into my marriage?" I wanted to comment on my own Facebook wall.
And whatever Facebook was before that – a relatively innocuous way to keep up with friends, I suppose – it has since taken on a more demonic intent.
Most infuriating is my near-constant Facebook-style method of internal communication that I cannot switch off. Whenever I do something, I narrate internally. Something like: "Georgie is hacking into her husband's Facebook account just to see if she knows the password... Georgie is pleased she knows the password!... Georgie is disturbed to find her husband chatting to a very pretty 19-year-old rather a lot... Georgie is furthermore disturbed to discover her husband is partaking in cybersex with said 19-year-old!... Georgie is slowly realising that while she has been Facebook-chatting with her husband, he has simultaneously been sending the 19-year-old dirty messages!!... Georgie is considering divorce." That's pretty much how it went.
Actually, I didn't get round to asking for a divorce. Pathetically, I did feel somewhat vindicated when my husband, once caught, deleted the 19-year-old at my request. And what did her status read? "Someone deleted me! I know who you are!" Scary stuff.
So, divorce. I don't know anything about getting a divorce after you have caught your husband having real sex, let alone text sex. If a poke is slang for fornication in real life, but polite in social networking terms, where do I stand?
Instead, I asked him to fly back to his home country so we could take a break from one another. I still wasn't sure how fatal a crime two-timing online was – me and her duped by the same typist; sex with me in the marital bed, sex with her via keyboard.
I received a curt Facebook message from him a few months later asking to "book some Skype time". This was serious. Skype, the videophone software that allows you to talk face to face to anyone in the world with an internet connection, was not used lightly between us. When we courted but lived in different countries, it was through Skype that we would have our most intimate conversations, eye to eye. Almost.
Playing cool, I demurred: "Just email your concerns." But before he'd got a chance, we found ourselves on Google chat. Here is a transcript of the conversation: Me: "why cant u just email some of what u want to chat via skype?"
He: "i think we need to get divorced, and move on from this point in our life, I still love you, but our marriage has failed and needs to be over."
The typing is appalling – but not unusually so. It's also inaccurate. The marriage didn't fail. It's just that he couldn't resist typing things that he thought would have no consequence in the flesh and blood world. But no longer. The two worlds are on a collision course. The question is, which will take precedence – the Facebook hyperbole where all and nothing can be summed up with a "?" and a "!", a world where self-promotion cuts out the middle man and you're the last to know if your own daughter is married? Looks like it.
I know divorce was never nice, but wasn't there a time when communication, on the whole, was romantic? Painfully slow, granted, but perhaps a chance to reflect is what we need. Where once it was smoke signals across the American plains, homing pigeons over chimney tops or calling cards plucked from silver trays, we now have the puerile, typically misspelt, Facebook status update. With all the charm of an overbearing town crier on a caffeine overload, the monster of Facebook feeds off our ids, leaving us bored office workers and near-royalty wrecked after a day of reading between the comments.
Now single and unable to delete my husband from my list of friends (I am paralysed every time I try), I'm acutely aware that he can see my every move, just as I can see his. Foolishly, I fiddled with my settings and ramped up the amount of information I am fed about him. When he adds a friend or pretentiously quotes the vacuous Bret Easton Ellis in his status updates, it makes me want to vomit. And still I ramp it up.
This perverse circumstance has seen me go the way of the online bunny-boiler. I've added more friends than I care to mention just to infuriate him. I've got buddies I've never met in New York and Australia, a Canadian spammer who believes that raw food cures cancer and – worst of all – people I dislike in real life. I even tried adding Chelsy Davy since, from hard-nosed appearances at least, she's doing pretty well.
The pursuit of letting endless idiots become my friends is draining. Having to then show off about it with a wall comment, more so. "Georgie is wondering what is happening to her, her friends and the man she married? Txt bak!"
No, Facebook is not for you, mother; it is for the bored, the boring, the unfulfilled. Install it on your BlackBerry or iPhone at will (my husband just did), but don't let it fool you. Just because you're mobile and telling us about it doesn't mean you're going anywhere interesting fast.As Nadler explains, local disputes in the Voorburg church pitted conservatives against liberals, and it was somehow suspected that Spinoza was working for the liberal faction. Conservatives spread the rumor that he was an atheist and “someone who mocks all religions,” and thus “a harmful instrument in this republic.” In a letter to Henry Oldenburg, the corresponding secretary for the Royal Society in England, Spinoza complained of “the opinion of me held by the common people, who constantly accuse me of atheism. I am driven to avert this accusation,” he declared, “as far as I can.” It was now his intention to write “a treatise on my views regarding Scripture,” a work that would combat “the prejudices of theologians” and uphold “the freedom to philosophize and to say what we think.”
The Treatise, unlike the Ethics, is, in Nadler’s well chosen words, “a public-minded book.” Its composition was born of personal anguish. Spinoza’s close friend, Adriaan Koerbagh, had been recently tried for blasphemy for writing a book that reputedly denied the divinity of Jesus and the virginity of Mary. Koerbagh was imprisoned and died from the harsh conditions—a portent in Spinoza’s eyes of what could happen to Dutch society at large. The Treatise testifies to the political fears and aspirations of its author at a time when the future of the Dutch Republic still appeared uncertain.
Its great curiosity is signaled already in its title, which conjoins the critique of religion with arguments for a certain form of political order. The question as to how these two orders of discourse can be brought into harmony is nothing less than the “theological-political problem” for which traditional philosophers before Spinoza’s time typically had a readymade answer: the harmony is guaranteed insofar as we recognize God as the transcendent ruler of the world, and, through divine revelation, we have access to the commandments by which we are supposed to order our individual and collective lives. What distinguishes Spinoza’s philosophy most of all from this traditional solution is that he no longer endorses its conception of a radically transcendent and anthropomorphic God. From this follows a new conception of nature and a novel proposal as to how we should understand Scripture, with all of its imaginative tales of miracles and prophecies. All of these new ideas ultimately inform Spinoza’s understanding of what is the best way to lead one’s life and how the political world must be arranged so as to make this life possible.
The revolutionary insight that sets in motion all of the arguments of the Treatise is that “God’s decrees and commandments, and consequently God’s providence, are in truth nothing but Nature’s order.” The identity between divine commands and the system of nature is a metaphysical theme that Spinoza articulated with far greater rigor and detail in the Ethics, the posthumous work which, of course, the first readers of the Treatise could not have known. But it is this theme that lies at the very core of Spinoza’s vision: the universe, he claims, is a single substance, unique, infinite, and absolutely necessary. It is an order without alternative, without contingency or division, and its existence is nothing less than eternal. In the original Latin edition of the Ethics (though not in the more accessible Dutch edition), Spinoza summarizes this explosive idea with the almost casual observation that we may describe this infinite substance as “God or Nature,” or Deus sive Natura.
The Latin term, sive, simply means “or.” Spinoza’s philosophy seizes upon this modest word to announce one of the most immoderate claims in all of modern philosophy. But if it is the pivot for a philosophical revolution, it is all the more crucial that we be clear about which sense of the term its author had in mind. Not surprisingly, it is a term that can be construed in several ways. A man introduces himself with a casual air: “You can call me Benedict or Baruch.” Another person declares her indifference about dinner: “I could have broccoli or Brussels sprouts.” It is fairly clear that Spinoza did not mean indifference (as in the choice of vegetables). It is equally clear that he did mean identity (as in the choice of his own proper name). Yet the idea of mere identity can mislead us as well, since it could imply sheer equivocation about which term is most suitable, as if God were still as good a name as Nature.
But Spinoza did not equivocate. In the history of Spinoza’s philosophical reception, some readers have interpreted this conclusion backwards, celebrating Spinozism as a philosophy that divinizes nature. This interpretation was especially popular amongst the German Romantics, including the philosopher Schelling and, even more famously, Goethe, who declared himself both a Spinozist and a “pantheist.” But as Nadler explains, the divinity-of-nature theme is highly misleading. Spinoza’s Deus sive Natura works more like an elucidation, where it turns out that what the first term really amounts to is the second. When we clarify what the philosophical idea of God really is, it turns out that all of the more anthropomorphic or personalist qualities typically associated with the God of the Biblical tradition must be abandoned.
There were precedents for this in medieval Jewish philosophy, particularly in Maimonides, who claimed that the terms of our mundane language cannot be predicated of a supra-mundane God. But Spinoza went even further. In his cosmos, there is no personal redeemer to whom we might appeal in our distress, and there is no room for a higher creator who dwells outside of nature. Indeed, such a monistic vision allows little room for the traditional conception of God at all. For nature is all that there is; thought and extension are merely its attributes. Nature is infinite and acts with thoroughgoing necessity, but it is utterly indifferent to our individual cares and aspirations. Spinozism, in other words, does not divinize nature, it naturalizes the divine.
One of the more startling consequences of this identification is that it does away with the possibility of miracles. In the Treatise Spinoza explains that because nature is a “fixed and immutable order,” nothing ever happens in nature that does not follow from her laws. But this means that to believe in miracles is already to deny the perfection of the cosmos: if nature required intervention from beyond, this could only because one thought of nature as flawed or in need of occasional adjustment. A perfect divinity does not perform miracles but is identical with the perfection of its creation. To insist on miracles merely betrays one’s failure to grasp the structure of reality: “miracles and ignorance are the same.” A truly virtuous and rational person will recognize his own place in the perfect order of nature and will regard any apparent imperfection with stoic equanimity.
Spinoza’s conception of nature may have banished miracles, but it thereby contributed in a positive way to our modern faith that the physical world is a realm of lawful regularities. It is an important premise of natural scientific reasoning that we expect the order which obtains in one precinct of physical space to obtain in another precinct as well. Boyle’s experiments with vacuum pumps would have been inconsequential were it not for the underlying premise that events demonstrable in the laboratory could be in principle reproduced wherever physical law held sway (which is to say, everywhere). This remains a crucial premise for Newtonian physics: the very law of universal gravitation would not otherwise count as a law. Historians of early-modern science have argued that this metaphysical principle amounts to a kind of “secular theology.” The assumption that the natural order is perfect and its laws necessarily inviolable across all possible variations of space and time does not actually surrender but instead secularizes the idea of divine perfection. Einstein’s well-known passion for Spinoza and his rejection of probabilistic reasoning in quantum physics stems from this premise: that God (that is, Nature) “does not play dice.” Spinoza was in this sense a paradigmatic philosopher of the scientific revolution: he provided a metaphysical warrant for our trust in nature’s perfection.
In the Treatise, Spinoza brings this naturalistic understanding to bear on the Bible. In his view, Scripture is a thoroughly human document, and if we scrutinize it in a scientific fashion, with sufficient attention to its full welter of historical and linguistic detail, we will be compelled finally to recognize its imperfection and (therefore) its non-divine origin. The Bible, Spinoza argued, is “faulty, mutilated, adulterated, and inconsistent.” Much of the Treatise consists of a deliberate and merciless dismantling of its miraculous reports and, most of all, its moral codes. For the entirety of this “mutilated” text, in Spinoza’s view, contains little more than one lesson that is truly of value: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus, 19:18) and “He who loves his neighbor has satisfied every claim of the law.” (Romans 13:8). But the final blow to the authority of the text is that even this lesson can be learned in other ways. “He who is totally unacquainted with the Biblical narratives,” Spinoza writes, “but nevertheless holds salutary beliefs and pursues the true way of life, is absolutely blessed.”
From these arguments it followed that prophecy did not involve some kind of privileged insight into a higher sphere of reality. A Biblical prophet is merely a human being who possesses an especially vivid imagination and conveys knowledge and moral insight in concrete images rather than in a purely intellectual form as does the philosopher. Spinoza further derived from his naturalistic principles that no historical religion deserved the prestige of a unique claim to revealed truth. The laws of Judaism were merely the laws of a particular well-ordered polity and with the collapse of ancient Israel Judaism itself had lost its validity. The dogma of election had no other meaning: “The Hebrew nation was chosen by God before all others not by reason of its understanding nor of its spiritual qualities, but by reason of its social organization and the good fortune whereby it achieved supremacy and retained it for so many years.”
THE NATURALISTIC AND this-worldly conception of religion set forth in the Treatise already sufficed to warrant its reputation as a “book forged in hell.” But the ideas that marked it as truly revolutionary (or scandalous) were political: the best form of government, according to Spinoza, is one that permits the individual to exercise his own rational will. Obedience to laws simply because they are imposed is analogous to the irrational condition that Spinoza described in the Ethics as enslavement to the passions. In both cases one is merely responsive to external commands. Both monarchy and aristocracy therefore represent “an infringement of freedom” whereas democracy by contrast most closely approximately “that freedom which nature grants to every man.”
Was Spinoza a liberal in the modern sense? Nadler warns us against such language chiefly because it may obscure what is most distinctive in the political doctrines of the Treatise. Since the teachings of religion, for Spinoza, retained their validity only insofar as they promoted moral conduct and public order, he saw nothing offensive in the idea that the sovereign should control religious laws as well. For a democracy this means that it would be left to the governing bodies to determine the character of God’s law. Such a proposal is a bit shocking to modern readers, but as Nadler explains it clearly reflects Spinoza’s own apprehension that the orthodox Calvinists were threatening the secular authorities. The doctrine nonetheless belongs more properly to the tradition of civic republicanism than to classical liberalism, since it aims to shape the individual for the sake of his own flourishing as a citizen.
The collapse of religion into a civic religion fully directed by the state makes it difficult to characterize Spinoza as a liberal without risk of anachronism. But Spinoza was nevertheless, in Nadler’s view, “one of history’s most eloquent proponents of secular, democratic society and the strongest advocate for freedom and toleration in the early modern period.” Still, Spinoza may have been less concerned with freedom for the sake of politics than for the sake of philosophy itself. The highest ideal of the Treatise is libertas philosophandi, the freedom to philosophize. Although civil religion is designed to fashion better citizens, a government “that attempts to control men’s minds is regarded as tyrannical, and a sovereign is thought to wrong his subjects and infringe their right when he seeks to prescribe for every man what he should accept as true and reject as false, and what are the beliefs that will inspire him with devotion to God.” Sovereignty reaches its limit when it runs up against our capacity to determine for ourselves and on the basis of our own reason what we consider right and wrong. These are, in the words of the Treatise, “matters belonging to individual right, which no man can surrender even if he should so wish.”
Spinoza did not trust his contemporaries to embrace such arguments, and he probably would have feared for his own life if they were to be promulgated too freely and in a climate prone to misunderstanding and retribution. Even before the Dutch court enacted its official condemnation of the Treatise in 1674, Spinoza decided it would be best to refrain from issuing a translation in Dutch. Although this would have made the text immediately accessible to a far wider audience in the Netherlands, its author was simply naïve if he believed his arguments could remain secret for very long. Spinoza died, at the age of forty-four, in 1677, and a clandestine French translation was issued the next year. From there it began its travels across all of Europe and would serve as a major inspiration for critics of religion and advocates for democracy well into the eighteenth century.
Tracing the book’s reception (as Jonathan Israel has done) remains a terrific challenge, because so many of its themes lost in precision what they gained in influence—the typical fate for philosophical concepts when they are released into the world. The problem proves especially difficult when one attempts to determine the worldly impact of metaphysical ideas rather than political ones. For Nadler as for Israel, the story of the Treatise is nothing less than the story of modernity’s unfolding. But metaphysics and politics do not always align so neatly. The particular metaphysical doctrine that was born with Spinoza—a stringently rationalistic species of monistic naturalism—does not dovetail in any obvious way with our experience of ourselves as moral agents. For Spinoza, freedom and monism may have seemed compatible. For a great many other philosophers, however, they stand in starkest conflict. Kant, for example, should be credited as much as Spinoza for working out the principles that underwrite our modern notion of freedom—but Kant recoiled from naturalistic monism, and cleaved instead to the idea of freedom as a “miracle in the phenomenal world.” Not all miracles, it seems, vanished with the death of God.
The obvious lesson to be taken from this example is that “Spinozism” can mean a great many things. It is not a unified package that has survived intact across the centuries. Such questions notwithstanding, the expressly political ideas we owe to Spinoza are still very much with us even today. And in this respect we are indeed, as Nadler observes, “the heirs of Spinoza’s scandalous treatise.
Peter E. Gordon is the Amabel B. James Professor of History at Harvard. He is the recipient of the Jacques Barzun Prize from the American Philosophical Society for his most recent book, Continental Divide: Heidegger, Cassirer, Davos.• It seems certain at this point that Golden Dawn will enter Parliament
By Pete Papaherakles
Golden Dawn, Greece’s most-recognized populist political party has the establishment shaking in their pants in fear of a huge victory in the upcoming May 6 elections. Their fast-rising popularity due to a strong patriotic message along with crippling economic woes and massive illegal immigration, has seen the party that was only a grass roots nationalist movement with only a 0.29% showing in the 2009 election explode to 5.5% in official polls; just four months ago they were only at 1.5%. Many feel that their real numbers are much higher.
Although the preferred strategy by the media had been to completely ignore them, their popularity is growing so rapidly that the current plan is to constantly defame and slander them in order to scare the masses from joining their ranks. As is done throughout Europe and the West in general, nationalist groups are routinely portrayed as fascists, Nazis and hooligans. The ultimate big gun of defamation is to compare the party leader to Adolph Hitler. Browbeaten since WW II with horror stories of a monstrous Hitler and his alleged “holocaust” of the Jews, the people are conditioned into a Pavlovian knee-jerk reaction of repulsion to anyone portrayed as a Nazi.
The roughly two million illegal aliens that entered Greece over the past two decades, mostly in the last five years, are portrayed by the media as innocent refugees, although Greece’s crime rate, once one of the lowest in the world, has skyrocketed in recent years exclusively due to illegal immigration. Golden Dawn’s support of the victimized Greeks and their insistence that the borders be closed and illegals deported has been portrayed as fascist and cruel by the mainstream media even as Greece’s 22% unemployment rate is twice the Eurozone average and bare survival is becoming impossible for Greeks. In fact, Golden Dawn alone has provided food and assistance to the neediest Greeks, completely at their own expense.
Even though Golden Dawn’s policies strictly prohibit violence and seek only political solutions to these problems, they are consistently portrayed as violent thugs and are routinely provoked into situations of self-defense by agents provocateurs in order to |
5/15 47 48 5 4/1-4/15 44 50 7 11/6-9/14 37 56 6 10/1-2/14 41 53 6 5/21-25/14 43 51 5 4/7-8/14 43 54 3 2/28 - 3/2/14 40 55 5 1/31 - 2/1/14 41 51 9 1/3-4/14 38 54 8 12/11-12/13 41 51 8 11/23-24/13 40 54 6 11/7-10/13 40 55 5 10/26-28/13 44 47 9 10/18-20/13 45 50 6 8/17-18/13 41 49 11 6/20-24/13 44 52 4 "Since the Affordable Care Act went into effect a few years ago, do you think it has been very successful, somewhat successful, somewhat unsuccessful, or very unsuccessful in expanding Americans' access to health care coverage?" Very
successful Somewhat
successful Somewhat
unsuccessful Very
unsuccessful Unsure % % % % % 11/2-8/17 23 42 16 17 3 "Since the Affordable Care Act went into effect a few years ago, do you think it has been very successful, somewhat successful, somewhat unsuccessful, or very unsuccessful in reducing the cost of health care for Americans?" Very
successful Somewhat
successful Somewhat
unsuccessful Very
unsuccessful Unsure % % % % % 11/2-8/17 9 38 21 29 4 NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll conducted by Hart Research Associates (D) and Public Opinion Strategies (R). Oct. 23-26, 2017. N=900 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.3. "Now as you may know, Barack Obama's health care plan was passed by Congress and signed into law in 2010. From what you have heard about the health care law, do you think it is a good idea or a bad idea? If you do not have an opinion either way, please just say so."
1/11 - 7/13: "From what you have heard about Barack Obama's health care plan that was passed by Congress and signed into law by the President in 2010, do you think his plan is a good idea or a bad idea? If you do not have an opinion either way, please just say so."
5/10 & 6/10: "From what you have heard about Barack Obama's health care plan that was recently passed by Congress and signed into law by the President, do you think his plan is a good idea or a bad idea? If you do not have an opinion either way, please just say so."
3/10 & earlier: "From what you have heard about Barack Obama's health care plan, do you think his plan is a good idea or a bad idea? If you do not have an opinion either way, please just say so."
RV = registered voters. Among adults, except where noted. Good idea Bad idea Do not have
an opinion Unsure % % % % 10/23-26/17 43 39 17 1 6/17-20/17 41 38 19 2 2/18-22/17 43 41 15 1 1/12-15/17 45 41 13 1 3/1-5/15 37 44 18 1 10/8-12/14 RV 36 48 14 2 9/3-7/14 RV 34 48 16 2 4/23-27/14 36 46 17 1 3/5-9/14 35 49 14 2 1/22-25/14 34 48 17 1 12/4-8/13 34 50 16 - 10/25-28/13 37 47 14 1 10/7-9/13 38 43 17 2 9/5-8/13 31 44 24 1 7/17-21/13 34 47 18 1 5/30 - 6/2/13 37 49 13 1 7/18-22/12 RV 40 44 15 1 6/20-24/12 35 41 22 2 4/13-17/12 36 45 17 2 12/7-11/11 34 41 24 1 1/13-17/11 39 39 21 1 6/17-21/10 40 44 16 - 5/6-10/10 38 44 17 1 3/11, 13-14/10 36 48 15 1 1/23-25/10 31 46 22 1 1/10-14/10 33 46 18 3 12/11-14/09 32 47 17 4 10/22-25/09 38 42 16 4 9/17-20/09 39 41 17 3 8/15-17/09 36 42 17 5 7/24-27/09 36 42 17 5 6/12-15/09 33 32 30 5 4/23-26/09 33 26 34 7 "If health care costs increase and more people lose their health care coverage, when it comes policymakers in Washington, who do you believe is most responsible: the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress, or, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress?" If more than one: "Well if you had to pick who you think is most responsible, who would it be?" Options rotated Obama,
Democrats Trump,
Republicans All (vol.) Unsure % % % % 10/23-26/17 37 50 3 10 CNN Poll conducted by SSRS. Oct. 12-15, 2017. N=1,010 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.5. "Which of the following do you think should be a higher priority for the Trump administration and Congress on health care in the next few weeks? Trying to replace the current health insurance system with something else. Trying to make sure the current health insurance system works as it is supposed to." Replacing
current
system Making
current
system work Unsure % % % 10/12-15/17 37 60 4 "Which do you think is more responsible for the performance of Obamacare now: the Obama administration, which enacted the law, or the Trump administration, which is managing the law?" Asked 10/13-15/17 only. Obama
administration Trump
administration Both
equally (vol.) Unsure % % % % 10/13-15/17 56 37 2 6 "Do you think the Trump administration is doing too much to make sure the health care insurance system established by Obamacare works as it should, are they doing too little to make sure it works, or is the Trump administration doing the right amount to make sure it works?" Too much Too little Right
amount Unsure % % % % 10/12-15/17 7 58 25 10 "Do you approve or disapprove of the Trump administration's decision to allow employers to stop offering coverage of prescription contraceptives, such as birth control pills or I.U.D.s, through their health insurance plans if they have a sincerely held religious or moral objection?" Approve Disapprove Unsure % % % 10/12-15/17 32 62 5 Kaiser Family Foundation. Oct. 5-10, 2017. N=1,215 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3. "Moving forward, do you think President Trump and his administration should do what they can to make the current health care law work, or should they do what they can to make the current health care law fail so they can replace it later?" Options rotated Make current
law work Make current
law fail Unsure Refused % % % % 10/5-10/17 71 21 6 2 8/1-6/17 78 17 4 2 3/28 - 4/3/17 75 19 4 3 "As you may know, the 2010 Affordable Care Act created health insurance exchanges or marketplaces where people who don't get coverage through their employer can shop for insurance and compare prices and benefits.... How confident are you that President Trump and Congress will be able to work together to make improvements to the Affordable Care Act marketplaces: very confident, somewhat confident, not too confident, or not at all confident?" Very
confident Somewhat
confident Not too
confident Not at all
confident Unsure/
Refused % % % % % 10/5-10/17 8 22 27 43 1 9/13-18/17 8 22 28 42 1 "Do you think actions taken by President Trump and his administration are generally helping or hurting the way the marketplaces are working, or are they not having much impact?" Helping Hurting Not much
impact Unsure/
Refused % % % % 10/5-10/17 19 40 34 7 9/13-18/17 20 41 34 5 "Do you think it is more important for President Trump and Congress to work on legislation to stabilize the marketplaces in order to minimize premium increases and encourage more insurers to participate, or continue efforts to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law?" Options rotated Stabilize
marketplaces Repeal
and replace Unsure/
Refused % % % 10/5-10/17 66 29 4 "As you may know, currently the federal government pays insurance companies to cover the cost of lowering deductibles and copayments for low-income people who buy insurance on their own. The Trump Administration has said they may stop making these payments, and insurance companies say in response that they would raise premiums or stop selling insurance on the marketplaces. Which comes closer to your view? Congress should guarantee the funds to continue these payments to help stabilize the insurance market. These payments amount to a bailout of insurance companies and should be stopped." Congress
should
guarantee
funds Payments
should be
stopped Unsure/
Refused % % % 10/5-10/17 60 33 6 "Some lawmakers are working on bipartisan legislation to help stabilize the marketplaces. Under their plan, Congress would guarantee the funds to continue these payments to insurers and in return, states would be given more flexibility in the types of plans that can be sold on their state marketplaces. Do you support or oppose this compromise?" Options rotated Support Oppose Unsure/
Refused % % % 10/5-10/17 69 24 7 "Do you favor or oppose having a national health plan in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan?" Favor Oppose Unsure/
Refused % % % 10/5-10/17 53 44 3 Quinnipiac University Poll. Sept. 21-26, 2017. N=1,412 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.1. "Do you approve or disapprove of the current law which prevents health insurance companies from raising insurance rates for Americans with pre-existing conditions?" Approve Disapprove Unsure/
No answer % % % 9/21-26/17 67 29 3 5/4-9/17 64 32 3 "Do you support or oppose decreasing federal funding for Medicaid, a government program that helps pay for health care for low-income Americans?" Support Oppose Unsure/
No answer % % % 9/21-26/17 35 59 6 7/27 - 8/1/17 26 69 5 6/22-27/17 24 71 5 5/31 - 6/6/17 30 65 5 3/16-21/17 22 74 4 "Do you think that removing the current health care system and replacing it with a single-payer system, in which the federal government would expand Medicare to cover the medical expenses of every American citizen, is a good idea or a bad idea?" Good idea Bad idea Unsure/
No answer % % % 9/21-26/17 46 41 13 Republicans 24 61 15 Democrats 65 25 10 Independents 46 41 14 7/27 - 8/1/17 51 38 11 "Would you think that a single-payer system is a good idea or a bad idea if it removed all health insurance premiums, but also increased your taxes?" Good
idea Bad
idea Unsure/
No answer % % % 9/21-26/17 41 50 9 "Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Republicans in Congress are handling health care?" Approve Disapprove Unsure/
No answer % % % 9/21-26/17 11 81 7 7/27 - 8/1/17 15 80 6 "Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Democrats in Congress are handling health care?" Approve Disapprove Unsure/
No answer % % % 9/21-26/17 32 59 9 7/27 - 8/1/17 34 59 6 "Do you think that allowing adults age 55 and over to buy into Medicare instead of buying private insurance plans is a good idea or a bad idea?" Good idea Bad idea Unsure/
No answer % % % 9/21-26/17 61 22 17 Republicans 51 29 20 Democrats 73 13 14 Independents 60 23 17 CBS News Poll. Sept. 21-24, 2017. N=1,202 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3. "As you may know, Republicans in the Senate recently put forward a new plan, called Graham-Cassidy, that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act of 2010. From what you have heard or read, do you approve or disapprove of Graham-Cassidy, the new Republican plan?" Approve Disapprove Unsure/
No answer % % % 9/21-24/17 20 52 28 Republicans 46 21 33 Democrats 2 84 14 Independents 18 46 36 "Which comes closest to your view about the Affordable Care Act of 2010? The law is working well and should be kept in place as is. There are some good things in the law, but some changes are needed to make it work better. The law has so much wrong with it that it needs to be repealed and replaced entirely." 6/17 & earlier: "Which comes closest to your view about the 2010 Health Care Law?..." Should
be kept in
place as is Some
changes
are needed Repeal and
replace
entirely Unsure/
No answer % % % % 9/21-24/17 9 65 23 3 Republicans 7 47 45 1 Democrats 13 78 6 2 Independents 7 65 24 4 6/15-18/17 12 57 28 3 4/21-24/17 12 61 24 3 "Do you think health insurance companies should be required to provide insurance to people with pre-existing conditions, or should that not be required?" Should
be required Should not
be required Unsure/
No answer % % % 9/21-24/17 87 10 3 Republicans 79 15 6 Democrats 92 7 1 Independents 89 9 2 ABC News/Washington Post Poll. Sept. 18-21, 2017. N=1,002 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.5. "There's a new Republican proposal to replace the current federal health care law, known as Obamacare. It would end the national requirement for nearly all Americans to have health insurance, phase out the use of federal funds to help lower- and moderate-income people buy health insurance, and let states replace federal rules on health care coverage with their own rules. What do you prefer: the current federal health care law, or this Republican plan to replace it?" Current
law Republican
plan Something
else (vol.) Neither
(vol.) Unsure % % % % % 9/18-21/17 56 33 1 5 5 NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll conducted by Hart Research Associates (D) and Public Opinion Strategies (R). Sept. 14-18, 2017. N=900 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.3. "Would you favor or oppose a single-payer health care system in which all Americans would get their health insurance from one government plan that is financed by taxes?" Favor Oppose Unsure % % % 9/14-18/17 47 46 7 Politico/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Aug. 30-Sept. 3, 2017. N=1,016 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.8. "Congress did not enact any legislation repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. What do you think Congress should do next about the ACA, or Obamacare: try again to develop an alternative plan to the ACA, or move on to other issues?" Try again Move on Unsure/
Refused % % % ALL 51 45 4 Republicans 71 26 3 Democrats 39 57 4 Independents 50 46 4 "Would you favor or oppose replacing the current health insurance system in the United States with a taxpayer-funded national plan like Medicare, which would cover all Americans?" Form C; N=496; margin of error ± 5.3 Favor Oppose Unsure/
Refused % % % ALL 66 28 6 Republicans 44 48 8 Democrats 80 15 5 Independents 67 28 5 "Would you favor or oppose replacing the current health insurance system in the United States with a single-payer system, in which all Americans would get their health insurance from one national government plan?" Form D; N=520; margin of error ± 5.3 Favor Oppose Unsure/
Refused % % % ALL 45 47 8 Republicans 32 62 6 Democrats 60 35 5 Independents 42 50 8 "Currently Medicare covers people age 65 and over. Do you favor or oppose allowing people between the ages of 55 and 64 to have the choice of purchasing Medicare coverage?" Form A; N=517; margin of error ± 5.3 Favor Oppose Unsure/
Refused % % % ALL 81 15 4 Republicans 79 17 4 Democrats 80 15 5 Independents 83 14 3 "Some states are considering adding work requirements for some people who receive health insurance through Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income people. Do you favor or oppose requiring low-income, able-bodied adults without young children to work in order to receive Medicaid benefits?" Form A; N=517; margin of error ± 5.3 Favor Oppose Unsure/
Refused % % % ALL 72 24 4 Republicans 84 10 6 Democrats 64 32 4 Independents 77 18 5 "Would you favor or oppose the federal government negotiating with pharmaceutical companies to lower the prices of prescription drugs for seniors on Medicare?" Form B; N=499; margin of error ± 5.3 Favor Oppose Unsure/
Refused % % % ALL 88 11 1 Republicans 86 13 1 Democrats 89 9 2 Independents 87 11 2 Quinnipiac University Poll. Aug. 9-15, 2017. N=1,361 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.4. "As you may know, Republicans in Congress recently attempted to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a different health care law. However, no new health care law got enough support to pass. Do you think that Republicans in Congress should try to repeal and replace Obamacare again, or do you think they should move on to other issues?" Try again Move on Unsure/
No answer % % % ALL 37 60 3 Republicans 69 28 3 Democrats 8 89 3 Independents 42 56 2 CNN Poll conducted by SSRS. Aug. 3-6, 2017. N=1,018 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.6.
4/17 & earlier: CNN/ORC Poll. "As you may know, a bill that makes major changes to the country's health care system became law in 2010. Based on what you have read or heard about that legislation, do you generally favor or generally oppose it?" Half sample Favor Oppose Unsure/
Refused % % % 8/3-6/17 42 51 7 4/22-25/17 47 48 5 3/1-4/17 46 49 5 1/12-15/17 49 47 4 5/29-31/15 43 55 2 7/18-20/14 40 59 1 3/7-9/14 39 57 4 12/16-19/13 35 62 3 11/18-20/13 40 58 2 10/18-20/13 41 56 3 9/27-29/13 38 57 4 5/17-18/13 43 54 3 "Overall, do you generally favor or generally oppose the health care law known as Obamacare?" Half sample Favor Oppose Unsure/
Refused % % % 8/3-6/17 50 46 4 "How likely do you think it is that Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress will be able to reach a deal to repeal and replace the health care law known as Obamacare: very likely, somewhat likely, not very likely, or not likely at all?" Very
likely Somewhat
likely Not very
likely Not likely
at all Unsure/
Refused % % % % % 8/3-6/17 14 29 28 28 2 7/14-18/17 18 32 20 21 9 "Do you think the health care law known as Obamacare should be repealed completely, regardless of whether it is replaced, or not?" Should be
repealed Should not
be repealed Unsure/
Refused % % % 8/3-6/17 33 64 3 "Do you think the government should provide a national health insurance program for all Americans, even if this would require higher taxes?" Yes,
should No,
should not Unsure/
Refused % % % ALL 58 39 3 Democrats 81 18 2 Independents 58 38 4 Republicans 31 67 3 Quinnipiac University Poll. July 27-Aug. 1, 2017. N=1,125 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.4. "Do you think President Trump and the Republicans in Congress should repeal all of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, should repeal parts of the health care law but keep other parts, or should not repeal any of the Affordable Care Act?"
1/5-9/17: "Do you think President-elect Trump..." Repeal all Repeal
parts Not repeal
any Unsure/
No answer % % % % 7/27 - 8/1/17 22 40 33 5 6/22-27/17 17 53 27 3 5/31 - 6/6/17 19 47 30 4 5/17-23/17 19 48 30 3 5/4-9/17 19 45 34 3 3/16-21/17 20 50 27 3 3/2-6/17 21 49 27 3 1/20-25/17 16 51 30 3 1/5-9/17 18 47 31 4 "Do you approve or disapprove of the Republican ideas to replace Obamacare?" Approve Disapprove Unsure/
No answer % % % ALL 25 64 11 Republicans 58 24 18 Democrats 4 91 4 Independents 24 65 12 "Do you support or oppose decreasing federal funding for Medicaid, a government program that helps pay for health care for low-income Americans?" Support Oppose Unsure/
No answer % % % 7/27 - 8/1/17 26 69 5 6/22-27/17 24 71 5 5/31 - 6/6/17 30 65 5 3/16-21/17 22 74 4 "Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Republicans in Congress are handling health care?" Approve Disapprove Unsure/
No answer % % % 7/27 - 8/1/17 15 80 6 "Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Democrats in Congress are handling health care?" Approve Disapprove Unsure/
No answer % % % 7/27 - 8/1/17 34 59 6 "Do you think there should be bipartisan hearings on any new health care law to replace Obamacare, or not?" There
should be There should
not be Unsure/
No answer % % % 7/27 - 8/1/17 81 14 5 "Do you think that removing the current health care system and replacing it with a single-payer system, in which the federal government would expand Medicare to cover the medical expenses of every American citizen, is a good idea or a bad idea?" Good
idea Bad
idea Unsure/
No answer % % % ALL 51 38 11 Republicans 29 62 9 Democrats 67 21 12 Independents 51 38 11 CNN Poll conducted by SSRS. July 14-18, 2017. N=1,019 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.7. "As you may know, the Republican leadership in Congress and the Trump administration have pledged to repeal and replace the health care law known as Obamacare. How would you like to see Congress handle the law? Should Congress abandon plans to repeal the law and leave it as is, repeal parts of the law regardless of whether a replacement is ready, or repeal parts of the law only if replacements can be enacted at the same time?" Leave
as is Repeal
regardless of
replacement Repeal only if
replacement
enacted Unsure Refused % % % % % 7/14-18/17 35 18 34 11 2 "Do you think Republicans in Congress should try to work with Democrats to pass a health care bill with bipartisan support, or continue trying to pass a health care bill that only has Republican support?" Bipartisan
support Only
Republican
support Unsure Refused % % % % 7/14-18/17 77 12 10 1 ABC News/Washington Post Poll. July 10-13, 2017. N=1,001 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.5. "Thinking about health care, what do you prefer: the current federal health care law, known as Obamacare, or the Republican plan to replace it?" Obamacare Republican
plan Something
else (vol.) Neither
(vol.) Unsure % % % % % 7/10-13/17 50 24 4 13 9 "Still on health care, which of these do you think is more important for the federal government to do: provide health care coverage for low-income Americans, or cut taxes?" Options rotated Provide
health care Cut taxes Both (vol.) Neither
(vol.) Unsure % % % % % 7/10-13/17 63 27 8 1 2 Bloomberg National Poll conducted by Selzer & Company. July 8-12, 2017. N=1,001 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.1. "For each of the following, please tell me whether you think this is realistic or unrealistic in the next several years.... Health care legislation will be passed that lowers premiums and covers more people." Realistic Unrealistic Unsure % % % 7/8-12/17 35 60 4 Kaiser Family Foundation. July 5-10, 2017. N=1,183 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3. "As you may know, Congress is currently discussing a health care plan that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Given what you know about this proposed new health care plan, do you have a generally favorable or generally unfavorable opinion of it?" Options rotated. INTERVIEWER NOTE: If respondent asks if the health care plan refers to the "American Health Care Act," please answer "yes." Favorable Unfavorable Unsure/
Refused % % % 7/5-10/17 28 61 11 Democrats 7 86 7 Independents 28 63 9 Republicans 60 29 11 6/14-19/17 30 55 16 Democrats 9 85 6 Independents 30 52 18 Republicans 56 25 19 5/16-22/17 31 55 13 Democrats 8 84 8 Independents 30 57 13 Republicans 67 18 15 "Which comes closest to your view of what Congress should do about the Affordable Care Act? Should they vote to repeal the parts of the law they can repeal immediately and try to work out the details of a replacement plan later, wait to vote to repeal until the details of a replacement plan have been worked out, or not vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act and move on to other priorities?" Options rotated Repeal now, work out details later Repeal after
details are
worked out Not repeal,
move on to
other things Something
else (vol.) Unsure/
Refused % % % % % 7/5-10/17 26 37 33 2 3 "Would you rather see Republicans in Congress continue working on their own plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or would you rather see them work with Democrats to make improvements to the Affordable Care Act but not repeal the law?" Options rotated Repeal and
replace ACA Improve
ACA Something
else (vol.) Unsure/
Refused % % % % 7/5-10/17 23 71 4 2 Democrats 5 91 Independents 22 72 Republicans 54 41 "Do you support or oppose major reductions in federal funding for Medicaid as part of a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act?" Options rotated Support Oppose Unsure/
Refused % % % 7/5-10/17 28 65 7 Gallup Poll. July 5-9, 2017. N=1,021 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 4. "If you had to choose, would you rather keep the Affordable Care Act in place largely as it is, keep the Affordable Care Act in place but make significant changes to it, or repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a new health care law?" Options rotated Keep
largely
as is Make
significant
changes Repeal
and replace Unsure % % % % 7/5-9/17 23 44 30 3 4/1-2/17 26 40 30 4 Suffolk University/USA Today Poll. June 24-27, 2017. N=1,000 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3. "Senate Republicans have unveiled their proposed health care plan to replace Obamacare. Do you support or oppose the GOP plan, or don't you know enough to have an opinion?" Support Oppose Don't know
enough Unsure % % % % 6/24-27/17 12 45 40 3 "When it comes to health care, whom do you trust most to protect the interests of you and your family: President Trump, congressional Republicans, congressional Democrats?" Options rotated President
Trump Congressional
Republicans Congressional
Democrats Unsure Refused % % % % % 6/24-27/17 19 10 43 24 5 "How important is it to you that whatever health care plan is in place protects people with pre-existing conditions to buy health insurance at the same price as other people: very important, somewhat important, not very important, or not at all important?" Very
important Somewhat
important Not very
important Not at all
important Unsure % % % % % 6/24-27/17 77 14 3 3 3 "How important is it to you that lower-income people who became eligible for Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act continue to be covered by Medicaid: very important, somewhat important, not very important, or not at all important?" Very
important Somewhat
important Not very
important Not at all
important Unsure % % % % % 6/24-27/17 63 23 6 4 4 "How important is it to you that your insurance premiums go down in price: very important, somewhat important, not very important, or not at all important?" Very
important Somewhat
important Not very
important Not at all
important Unsure % % % % % 6/24-27/17 57 23 10 7 3 Quinnipiac University Poll. June 22-27, 2017. N=1,212 registered voters nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.4. "There is a Republican health care plan to replace Obamacare. Do you approve or disapprove of this Republican health care plan?"
1/20-25/17 - 5/17-23/17: "There is a Republican health care plan to replace Obamacare, known as the American Health Care Act. Do you approve or disapprove of this Republican health care plan?"
5/4-9/17: "There is a revised Republican health care plan to replace Obamacare, known as the American Health Care Act. Do you approve or disapprove of this revised Republican health care plan?" Approve Disapprove Unsure/
No answer % % % 6/22-27/17 16 58 26 Republicans 37 23 40 Democrats 4 84 11 Independents 11 63 26 5/31 - 6/6/17 17 62 21 5/17-23/17 20 57 23 5/4-9/17 21 56 22 3/16-21/17 17 56 26 "If your U.S. senator or congressperson votes to replace Obamacare with the Republican health care plan, will that make you more likely to vote for their reelection, less likely to vote for their reelection, or won't it matter much either way?" More
likely Less
likely Won't
matter much Unsure/
No answer % % % % 6/22-27/17 17 46 33 4 Republicans 36 9 47 7 Democrats 3 79 15 2 Independents 14 48 35 4 5/17-23/17 20 44 31 5 3/16-21/17 19 46 29 6 "Do you think that an expansion of Medicare that would make it available to any American who wanted it, also known as universal health care, would be a good idea or a bad idea?" Good
idea Bad
idea Unsure/
No answer % % % 6/22-27/17 60 33 8 Republicans 33 57 10 Democrats 83 11 5 Independents 60 31 9 NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll. June 22-25, 2017. N=939 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.2. "From what you have read or heard, do you approve or disapprove of the health care plan Senate Republicans have proposed?" Approve Disapprove Unsure Have not
heard enough % % % % 6/22-25/17 17 55 3 24 NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll conducted by Hart Research Associates (D) and Public Opinion Strategies (R). June 17-20, 2017. N=900 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.3. "Now as you may know, health care legislation was recently passed by the House of Representatives and supported by Donald Trump. From what you have heard about this health care legislation, do you think it is a good idea or a bad idea? If you do not have an opinion either way, please just say so." A good idea A bad idea No opinion
either way Unsure % % % % 6/17-20/17 16 48 35 1 Republicans 34 17 Democrats 4 73 Independents 16 48 5/11-13/17 23 48 28 1 Kaiser Family Foundation. June 14-19, 2017. N=1,208 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3. "Do you favor or oppose having a national health plan – or a single-payer plan – in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan?" Sample A (N=597) Favor Oppose Unsure/
Refused % % % 6/14-19/17 53 43 4 "Do you favor or oppose having a national health plan – or Medicare-for-all – in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan?" Sample B (N=611) Favor Oppose Unsure/
Refused % % % 6/14-19/17 57 38 5 "Now I am going to ask you some questions about Medicaid, the government health insurance and long-term care program for low-income adults and children. In general |
to a plaque on the wall of the White home that congratulates Walt on proton radiography work that was related to the winners of the 1985 Nobel Prize. The plaque doesn’t say who those winners are, but in real life the winners of the 1985 Nobel Prize for chemistry were Herbert Hauptman and Jerome Karle, who developed methods of determining crystal structures.
AMC
3. Vince Gilligan makes several references to his previous work on The X-Files. Gilligan first met Bryan Cranston when he was working as a writer on The X-Files and Cranston played a terminally ill anti-Semite in the episode “Drive.” Gilligan gives a nod to his time with Mulder and Scully twice during the pilot episode. The first time is when Walt mentions an Erlenmeyer flask — there was a 1994 episode of The X-Files called “The Erlenmeyer Flask” — and again when Jesse flicks a cigarette out of the motor home. The brand of cigarette is Morley, a fictional brand smoked by X-Files character C.G.B. Spender that has also been used in The Walking Dead.
AMC
As the series progressed, Jesse later switched to Wilmington cigarettes.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption "Rahul", who came out as gay to his wife, tells his story
The case of bisexual British businessman Shrien Dewani - cleared this week of murdering his new bride - shone a spotlight on the gay Asian community in Britain. How difficult is it to be gay when homosexuality is seen as a taboo?
It's a world that's often hidden.
Many homosexual men - and women - of south Asian descent are believed to be hiding their true sexuality within heterosexual, often arranged, marriages in Britain.
Rahul, a Hindu, knows what that's like.
He says he always felt he was gay, but accepted an arranged marriage anyway. He thought the "phase" would pass.
"But I realised very quickly that I'd made a huge mistake, that these feelings weren't going to disappear."
Family shame
When he finally came out to his family, they were angry.
"I felt that secretly a part of them always knew, I think parents always do know," he says.
"I think the anger was 'Oh my god, we all knew he was gay, but he finally told his wife. How could he do that?'."
Rahul - not his real name - says his parents would have been happier if he'd stayed married, had children and kept quiet about his homosexuality, which his community sees as "shameful".
He wanted to hide his true identity to protect his family and ex-wife from more shame.
Image caption Asif Quraishi performs as drag queen Asifa Lahore
South Asian communities prize marriage highly; from the day their children are born, parents begin saving for their weddings.
Many gay people come under intense pressure to marry someone of the opposite sex.
According to Asif Quraishi, who works for the support charity Naz, many of them succumb.
His contacts with people lead him to believe as many as seven in 10 gay Asians are in what he calls "inauthentic marriages".
'Derogatory words'
"There isn't actually a word for gay or lesbian in our mother languages," he says.
"The only words that there are are totally derogatory."
Asif is one of the UK's few gay, Asian drag queens. He's also a practising Muslim.
As Asifa Lahore, he runs a club night in west London.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Asif Quraishi explains why he called off an engagement
Many of the men and women there are leading double lives, conforming to what their families require of them, while also being gay.
Several talk about how much pressure they are under from their families to have a heterosexual marriage.
One man in the club says that when he came out to his family, his brother took him to a strip bar to try to "cure" him.
He says if his family knew he was at a gay nightclub, they'd kill him for "honour".
Honour is still highly prized in Britain's south Asian communities.
Terrible consequences
Many families tell their gay sons and daughters they should keep quiet about their sexuality for the honour of the family.
This can have terrible consequences.
Last week an inquest heard that London doctor Nazim Mahmood, 34, had killed himself after coming out as gay to his family, who told him to seek a "cure".
In April, Jasvir Ginday was given a life sentence for murdering his wife, apparently to stop her revealing his homosexuality.
They had an arranged marriage but the bank worker from Walsall was active on the gay scene.
Then there is the case of Shrien Dewani.
Image copyright Facebook Image caption Shrien Dewani was cleared four years after Anni Dewani's murder
The Bristol businessman had been accused of murdering his wife Anni on their honeymoon in 2010, but a South African court threw out the case on Monday.
The court case revealed that Mr Dewani was bisexual and had been seeing a German male prostitute before his marriage.
Asif Quraishi says the coverage has had a negative impact on the gay community.
He wants something positive to come out of it.
"It highlighted that gay Asians are entering inauthentic marriages," he says.
Not consummated
"Gay Asians need to take responsibility, to use the exposure to question these marriages.
"And, at the same time, the British Asian community needs to recognise that by pressuring their children into these marriages, it leads to mental health problems - and the real victims are the heterosexual partners."
Salma - not her real name - was certainly a victim.
She was forced into marriage to a cousin at 19. He told her on their wedding night he was gay.
"When we were left alone and it was time to go to bed, he said 'Is it alright if I sleep next door because I'm not into women?'," she recalls.
Their marriage was never consummated, but when she left him, she says she was blamed.
Even her own family tried to persuade her to go back, telling her she was a "bad wife".
Image copyright West Midlands Police Image caption Jasvir Ginday murdered his wife just six months after their wedding
Her mother told her if she "had done everything right, he wouldn't have been gay".
Salma adds: "She said 'You should have touched him, made him have feelings for you'."
The attitude of the south Asian community to homosexuality has even been absorbed by some of the gay and lesbian members within it.
Hrpreet - not his real name - is a married man in his 20s with a young son.
'Life in tatters'
He says that if his child told him he was gay, he'd be upset because being gay is wrong.
And yet Hrpreet calls himself bisexual, and says he prefers having sex with men.
His wife and family don't know that he regularly goes to gay clubs and picks up men.
If they found out, his life would be in tatters, he says.
In a country where gay rights are enshrined in law, for many British Asians so much is still shrouded in secrecy.
And it will remain so until their community accepts them for who they are and understands that marrying someone of the opposite sex is not a "cure" for being gay.
You can watch Katie's film in full via the BBC iPlayer.Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump called Monday for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
In the most dramatic reaction to date from a presidential contender to recent terrorist attacks, Trump argued that anyone belonging to the faith should be considered a potential threat. The ban would presumably apply to immigrants, tourists and business travelers. It would also include Muslim-American citizens outside of the country who are looking to return, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks confirmed to The Hill in an email.
“Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension,” Trump said in the statement. “Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine. Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life. If I win the election for President, we are going to Make America Great Again.”
The email cites a 2015 study by the Center for Security Policy, a group that advocates a more aggressive response to Islamic radicalism, that found 25% of Muslims living in the United States agreed violence against Americans was justified as part of the global jihad, and 51% polled agreed that Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to Shariah law. The survey, which was not published with a margin of error, was completed “online” under procedures that were undisclosed had a sample of 600 self-identified Muslims.
The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now
The director of the Center for Security Policy, Frank Gaffney, recently stopped appearing on panels for the Conservative Political Action Conference, one of the largest annual gatherings of conservative activists, because he argued the group had been under the “malign influence” of leaders with “involvement in the Muslim Brotherhood.” One of the leaders Gaffney targeted was Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, who has no personal involvement with the brotherhood.
The White House promptly responded to Trump’s call. “We should be making it harder for ISIL to portray this as a war between the United States and Islam, not easier,” said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to President Obama. “It’s totally contrary to our values as Americans.... It’s also contrary to our security.”
Trump is not the first GOP candidate to suggest restricting Muslim immigration, though he is certainly the first to call for a “complete shutdown.” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a frequent sparring partner of Trump’s, called for restricted immigration, including a denial of visas and refugee status, from 34 mostly Muslim countries, including Mali, Turkey and Morocco. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have suggested only allowing in Christian refugees from Syria.
In response to Trump’s press release, Democratic underdog candidate Martin O’Malley tweeted a rapid condemnation of Trump. “He is running for President as a fascist demagogue,” the Tweet read.
Write to Tessa Berenson at [email protected] forces are closing in on the ancient citadel. Now comes the task of assessing the destruction caused by Isis and rebuilding the city’s temples
Palmyra’s famous temples will rise again from the desert sands, Syria’s top archaeologist has promised, as he prepared to inspect how much of the ancient city survived or can be salvaged from the ravages of Islamic State.
“We will not leave the temples destroyed,” Maamoun Abdelkarim, Syria’s director of antiquities, said, as Syrian government troops came closer to retaking one of the most spectacular ancient sites in the world from Isis.
The advancing soldiers were issued with warnings to watch out for booby-traps that could cause more damage to the site, he said, and archaeologists would follow in their wake to start the painstaking work of reconstructing the buildings from the rubble.
“We will assess how much damage the stones suffered and we will re-use them in order to scientifically put back the temples,” Abdelkarim said in a phone interview from Damascus, promising a blueprint for reconstruction by next month. “We have the plans and the images and we will rebuild the missing portions until the temples of Bel and Baalshamin are rebuilt.”
Isis blew up many of the citadel’s most revered buildings and murdered 82-year-old Khaled al-Asaad, the senior scholar who had preserved and studied the city all his life, when they swept into Palmyra last May. The videotaped destruction caused archaeologists around the world to despair.
Palmyra – what the world has lost Read more
The scale of the damage could have been worse – the ancient city was wealthy and its vast structures were well built, meaning that large amounts of explosives – and labour – were needed to bring them down.
“The site is large, and systematic destruction of all of it would be an immense task,” said Kevin Butcher, professor of classics and ancient history at the University of Warwick. “It looks as if the most iconic buildings were targeted – the arch, the best-preserved temples and the big tower tombs.”
The destruction of Afghanistan’s giant Buddha statues by the Taliban in 2001 underlined the effort needed for large-scale devastation. It was only achieved after a team of two dozen prisoners were forced to spend days lacing the sculptures with explosives, because firing at them with anti-aircraft guns and artillery had little impact.
Although Isis blew up Palmyra’s most famous tombs and temples, it appeared to have left other key sites untouched, including a theatre, town square and crossroads marked by four elegant gates.
“We are optimistic that the spirit of Palmyra is still there,” said Abdelkarim. “We are very close to the liberation. We had some requests and the Syrian army is being careful about advancing slowly through the historical area to avoid booby-traps or damage to the heritage.”
Recent drone footage also appeared to show key buildings still standing, although that has not yet been verified, said Sanna Aro-Valjus at the University of Helsinki, who cautioned that the final toll of destruction could not be counted until Isis had been evicted from the city. “The situation in Palmyra has been turbulent for some time,” she said. “In summer 2015, there were claims that Isis set explosives in the theatre and elsewhere so that, if they were forced to retreat from Palmyra, they would destroy them before leaving. It seems possible they are able to cause much more damage before Palmyra can be ‘rescued’.”
Abdelkarim and other experts also fear damage from looting. Isis is known to run a lucrative trade in smuggled antiquities, and vast expanses of Palmyra are particularly vulnerable because they have not yet been excavated. When graves or old buildings are dug over by people focused only on extracting valuables, scholars lose not just the artefacts that were buried inside but the historical clues about age and location that can be gleaned from a careful, properly managed archaeological dig.
“From the scholarly point of view, all the buildings destroyed by Isis in Palmyra are fairly well documented. If they have managed to loot unexcavated underground tombs, which we know to be there in the surroundings, we have lost irretrievable knowledge and material,” said Aro-Valjus.
Above ground, however, experts are optimistic that Palmyra can be restored to at least some of its former glory, even if some of the finer ancient decorations are lost altogether.
“Close-up images of the temple of Baalshamin after its destruction show that many of the individual blocks of stone remain. Many other ancient structures in the region have been restored from fragments, so that it’s perfectly possible for some kind of restoration to be achieved,” Butcher said.
Abdelkarim promised that 100 years of experience in conservation, including on the grand avenues and public buildings of Palmyra, would be put to immediate use but also called for international support.
“We have to send a message against terrorism that we are united in protecting our heritage,” he said. “We will never accept that the children of Syria and the world visit the site of Baalshamin and Bel and the victory arch while they are lying in ruins on the ground. We will rebuild them.”According to the biblical story, Joshua got help from the sun to earn the Israelites one of their most epic victories. Now, a team of Israeli scientists say they’ve figured out how: The battle coincided with a solar eclipse.
Using NASA data, three scientists from Beersheba’s Ben Gurion University, in a newly published paper, dated the eclipse and the battle to October 30, 1207 BCE.
Chapter 10 of the Book of Joshua relates that soon after Joshua and the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they waged battle against five armies which laid siege to the Gibeonites. Joshua had promised to protect the Gibeonites, so he led an army and defeated the five kings. Joshua prayed that God help the Israelites in their battle by stopping the sun:
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up
“Then Joshua spoke to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered the Amorites before the children of Israel; and he said in the sight of Israel: ‘Sun, stand still [dom] upon Gibeon; and you, Moon, in the valley of Ayalon.'” (Joshua 10:12).
The researchers noted other ancient stories where a deity stops the sun, but said the biblical story is unique because it also mentions the role of the moon. That led them to the conclusion that it referred to a solar eclipse, during which the moon passes in between the sun and the earth, blocking the sunlight.
They interpreted the word “dom,” which only occurs one other time in the Bible (Psalms 37:7), not as “stand still,” which is how it is traditionally read, but to mean “become dark.”
The multi-disciplinary team, led by Dr. Hezi Yitzhak, found that there was only one total solar eclipse that occurred in the region between the years 1500-1000 BCE, when the Israelites are believed to have entered the land. The eclipse allowed them to date the battle precisely to 4:28 p.m. on October 30, 1207 BCE, in their paper, which was published in the most recent edition of Beit Mikra: Journal for the Study of the Bible and Its World.
They also described what they said was the precise location of the battle, and traced a 30-kilometer overnight trek that Joshua and his men made to reach Gibeon, north of Jerusalem, from their encampment in Gilgal, on the eastern edge of Jericho.
The article did not address the nature of the hailstones that, according to the biblical story, killed many people during the battle.
“Not everyone likes the idea of using physics to prove things from the Bible, and I know that it may be interpreted as if you are rationalizing your faith,” Yitzhak told Haaretz on Sunday. “We do not claim that everything written in the Bible is true or took place… but there is also a grain of historical truth that has archaeological evidence behind it.”For nearly four years, students at universities across the United States have been fighting to divest their schools' endowments from the fossil fuel industry. Divestment activists want universities to sell all of their shares in companies involved in fossil fuel extraction and distribution. They claim that divestment will spark a national debate about climate change and force fossil fuel companies to capitulate to the demands of the environmental movement. While campus divestment groups have recently made sizable gains by convincing fifteen universities, including Stanford, to divest from fossil fuel companies, divestment has the unintended consequence of hurting both students and the environment.
Environmental groups have for years told universities that they have an obligation to take a stand against climate change. Some schools have responded by taking concrete actions to reduce their carbon footprint, such as cutting their energy use and building green campuses. These choices make a small difference in the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the environment, and come with negligible costs because of lower energy bills and generous government tax credits. Yet, instead of continuing to push for these relatively inexpensive projects, activists have shifted their main focus towards forcing universities to divest.
Student activists are convinced that divesting will somehow make the fossil fuel industry slow down its rate of drilling and mining. Regardless of the debatable merits of this goal, it will not happen—even if the divestment movement successfully convinces every university in the United States to divest.
Environmental groups point to divestment’s historic success by citing the case of apartheid South Africa. During the 1980s, campuses and companies across the United States divested from the South African government and many of the country's businesses. Environmental activists argue that divestment was one of the main reasons apartheid was eventually brought to an end. However, this claim is disputed by academics, most notably University of California (Los Angeles) professor Ivo Welch. In a 1999 study, Welch found that “the announcement of divestment from South Africa, not only by universities but also by state pension funds, had no discernible effect on the valuation of companies that were being divested, either short-term or long-term.”
If the South Africa divestment movement had no real effect on apartheid, it is even less likely that the fossil fuel industry will be forced to change its ways. The fossil fuel industry is much larger than South Africa's economy was in the 1980s, and would be able to absorb a similar level of divestment without affecting its finances.
Even if divestment does not change the way fossil fuel firms operate, environmentalists still claim that universities should divest to send a message to the world that they are taking a stand against climate change. It is hard to take this argument seriously when universities and students would suffer as a result of divestment.
Swarthmore College, the birthplace of the divestment movement, has released a study showing that if the school were to divest, it would lose between $20 million and $26 million of revenue from its endowment every year over the next 10 years. Wellesley College, which has a similarly sized endowment, estimated that annual revenue losses from divestment over the next 10 years would average almost $21 million. Pomona College estimated an annual $6.6 million decrease in possible salary and financial aid spending from divestment. These losses occur because divestment forces universities to remove themselves from the commingled funds that they currently use as investment vehicles. Since commingled funds have a large number of investors to reduce costs, individual universities are unable to change fund investments to prevent investment in fossil fuels. While a few firms offer commingled funds with restrictions on fossil fuel investment, their returns are lower and their fees are often higher than a standard investment strategy.
It may make sense to prioritize taking a stand on climate change over revenue if you are a private individual or even a privately held business, but it makes no sense for colleges when the loss of revenue will prevent them from providing opportunities to students. Swarthmore currently has a $1.5 billion endowment, and it claims that if its endowment returns decline because of divestment it will have to cut financial aid. Many schools do not have the luxury of having such a large endowment. If Swarthmore would be unable to maintain its current spending on financial aid with divestment, students at schools with endowments in the millions rather than the billions would fare far worse.
Colleges have an obligation to give their students the best opportunities to succeed later in life. Universities fail their students if, through divestment, they force students to take on additional loans and increase their financial burden. With outstanding student loan debt standing at over $1.1 trillion, schools should work to lower the crushing debt burden, not increase its weight.
It is counterintuitive that by divesting, universities give up the one way they can currently change how the fossil fuel industry operates. In the past, universities and other large shareholders have used their shareholder rights and taken action to force the fossil fuel industry to regulate itself and adopt more responsible extraction practices. By capitulating to the demands of students, universities may end up harming long-term goals and perpetuating the status quo that they deemed unacceptable.
While campus activists across the country are building momentum for the divestment movement, universities ought to ignore their shortsighted demands and instead continue to hold fossil fuel investments, following the example of Swarthmore, Harvard, and others. Divestment is not in the best interest of universities nor the environmental movement. More important, it is a betrayal of students across the country.
Patrick Holland is a student at Swarthmore College. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Interested in real economic insights? Want to stay ahead of the competition? Each weekday morning, e21 delivers a short email that includes e21 exclusive commentaries and the latest market news and updates from Washington. Sign up for the e21 Morning eBrief.There’s no shortage of topics when discussing Joel Schumacher’s 1997 film Batman & Robin: its over-the-top villains, pun-laden dialogue, Bat-credit card, casting, the list goes on and on. But 20 years later, the number one topic still has to be the Bat-Nipples.
Or, more specifically, the choice by Schumacher to give star George Clooney a new Batsuit with distractingly large nipples on it.
Advertisement
In a great interview with Vice, Schumacher talks all about the development, reception, and legacy of Batman & Robin. He says after the film was released he was treated “like I had murdered a baby.” Things have cooled from that level of venom since then, but the topic of Bat-Nipples is still as perky as ever.
Here’s how the director—whose filmography also includes The Lost Boys, A Time to Kill, and Phone Booth—recalls the fateful costuming choice:
[The costume] was made by Jose Fernandez, who was our brilliant lead sculpture. If you look at Batman and Batman Returns, it was the genius, Bob Ringwood that created those suits, so by the time we got to Batman Forever, the rubber and techniques had gotten so sophisticated. If you look at when Michael Keaton appears in the first suit, you’ll notice how large it is. It was brilliant but the best they could do at the time. By the time Batman Forever came around, rubber molding had become so much more advanced. So I said, let’s make it anatomical and gave photos of those Greek status and those incredible anatomical drawings you see in medical books. He did the nipples and when I looked at them, I thought, that’s cool.
Advertisement
Schumacher then admits, all these years later, he never thought such a seemingly tiny decision would get the reaction it did.
I really never thought that would happen. I really didn’t. Maybe I was just naive, but I’m still glad we did it.
It’s a great interview, well worth reading in full, but the main takeaway might be Schumacher’s a surprisingly frank reaction to how history looks back at Batman & Robin.
Look, I apologize. I want to apologize to every fan that was disappointed because I think I owe them that.
Advertisement
Read more at the below link.
[Vice]Two young women are about to enter a male dominant arena. Teira Tohu and Hinerapa Rupuha are aiming to become one of New Zealand's fewest female master navigators.
Among the 150 kaihoe and kaumoana at Waitangi this year two young girls have their eyes set on a new horizon.
20-year-old Teira Tohu and 19-year-old Hinerapa Rupuha aspire to become celestial navigators.
Hinerapa Rupuha of Te Whānau a Apanui says, "It's kind of like that feeling you get when you sit at a Marae and you're amongst your kuia and your koroua and they're talking in an old language and they're talking about the stories and everything and that's the feeling that I get when we come on here and Jacko's telling us about traditional navigation."
Their mentor is Ngahiraka Mai Tawhiti skipper Jack Thatcher. For the past year he's taught them non-instrumental methods of sea navigation.
He says he only needs to look at historical accounts to see that men weren't the only ones at the helm of waka voyaging.
Thatcher says, "When Kupe arrived here and saw this land it wasn't him that called out "Look it's a white cloud, it's a white cloud - it's the land of the White Cloud" it was his wife Kuramarotini."
There has never been an official appointment of a female Master Navigator. While Teira Tohu is keen to gain the title, she's take one step at a time.
Teira Tohu of Te Ihutai and Te Orewai says, "It just has so much knowledge and when I started I figured out that knowledge is power and I think this is probably the strongest you could ever get to be honest, because if the world was to ever tomorrow and the land was covered what are we gonna do, just float and drift."
From Waitangi, the young sailors will set sail to the Hawkes Bay in time for Te Matatini festival.MOSCOW -- If Russian journalism has a patron saint, his name is Yasen Zasursky.
The ailing 85-year-old headed the Moscow State University (MGU) journalism department for more than 40 years before becoming its president emeritus in 2007.
The roster of respected journalists who received their diplomas from him is astounding: Yury Shchekochikhin, longtime investigative journalist who died suddenly and mysteriously with symptoms resembling acute poisoning in 2003; Anna Politkovskaya, the investigative journalist who was murdered in Moscow in 2006; Mikhail Beketov, the former muckraking editor of Khimkinskaya Pravda who died in 2013 of injuries suffered when he was savagely beaten in 2008; and many others.
But Zasursky is far from impressed by the work of others who have taken his courses -- and are now stars of Russian state television under the government of President Vladimir Putin.
In fact, he is deeply disheartened.
Watch Zasursky Interview
"It is unpleasant for me to see what they are conveying," he told RFE/RL's Russian Service. "It is pointless trying to get your information from television. Everything there is official announcements. There is nothing analytical, so you risk being turned into a person with blinders on."
"There isn't even one journalist there who I would say has his own opinions," he adds.
It is a harsh assessment coming from someone who devoted his entire life to producing his country's journalists.
Zasursky cringes a bit when told that one of his students, state TV news presenter Ernest Matskyavichyus, recently declared that Russia is in the throes of an information war and journalists must reject formerly accepted international standards of journalism. "Let's remember how journalism was in 1942," in the midst of World War II, Matskyavichyus said. "Did they present both sides of the story -- interview one side and then the other in turns?"
Matskyavichyus was "an excellent student," Zasursky says.
"But, no, I don't agree with that," Zasursky says of the Vesti presenter's rejection of one of the basic principles of balanced journalism. "People are only disarmed when they have insufficient or incomplete information. Then we have surrendered even before the enemy attacks."
He is at a loss to explain the popularity of another MGU graduate -- Dmitry Kiselyov, who heads the Rossiya Segodnya state media conglomerate and dispenses anti-Western venom as the host of a weekly news round-up on state-run Rossia television.
"He was an interesting journalist," Zasursky says of Kiselyov. "Was."
"He was a very smart young man," he continues. "He wrote some very smart things. But now he is simply repeating various ideas. And that has nothing to do with journalism. A journalist must help people to understand events. He must not only convey information, but knowledge as well."
"I wouldn't say [Kiselyov] is highly esteemed in the circles that I move in," Zasursky adds. "I guess he is just a highly skilled propagandist."
Zasursky is an admirer of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, whose glasnost reforms in the late 1980s resulted in a golden age for journalists. He is less enthusiastic about former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who he says was unable to bring Gorbachev's reforms to fruition.
"At the critical moment, he was lost," Zasursky says, adding that although Putin has accomplished some positive things, Yeltsin's decision to name him successor was "not the optimal path" for the country.
Zasursky has seen a lot in his long life. Born in 1929, he has lived in Moscow his entire life except the time he spent in evacuation in Barnaul, Siberia, during World War II. He graduated from the Moscow State Pedagogical University of
Foreign Languages in 1948 with a specialization in English. He got his doctorate in 1967 with a dissertation on 20th-century American literature.
He joined the journalism faculty of Moscow State University in 1955 and served as its dean from 1965 until 2007.
In recent months, he has suffered from health problems and has been confined to a wheelchair. But he says he is feeling better and is optimistic that he will be on his feet again by the New Year.
As for the fate of honest journalists under Putin's government, he is less optimistic. He recalls how in the 1950s he worked as an editor for the Foreign Literature publishing house and how the firm gave translation work to Soviet poets who couldn't be published for political reasons.
"Not all those poets were...appreciated, in a manner of speaking," Zasursky says. "But it was allowed to give them translations and they made a living on that. Maybe [journalists now] should do translations. I think it is possible to find some intellectual work."“Furious 7” is blowing the competition out of the water on its second lap at the box office, despite a sharp drop from its historic debut last weekend.
The Universal sequel earned $18.8 million on Friday in the U.S., putting it on track for a second weekend of $60.2 million. As expected, that’s miles ahead of “The Longest Ride,” which is headed for a $13.6 million opening.
“Furious 7” — down 59% from last weekend’s staggering $147.2 million launch –- will likely become one of only a dozen movies to earn above $60 million in its sophomore weekend. The decline is in line with previous “The Fast and the Furious” installments.
And the records keep rolling in. After becoming the ninth-largest domestic opening of all time, it just crossed $200 million in only eight days, making it the fastest Universal film to reach the milestone. It took “Despicable Me 2” 11 days to hit that mark. “Furious 7” is also set to become, by weekend’s end, the 88th movie to pass $250 million.
Romancer “The Longest Ride” opened to $5.5 million on Friday as it heads for a respectable $13.6 million this weekend — less than “Furious 7’s” Friday earnings. The film was neck and neck with another Fox property, DreamWorks Animation’s “Home,” for second place on Friday, but ultimately landed in third.
Related Rocky Mountain High: Colorado’s 20% Cash Rebate Offers Quick Payback Incentives Scorecard: Colorado's Natural Beauty, Cash Rebate Lure Productions
Based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, “The Longest Ride” stars Clint Eastwood’s son, Scott Eastwood, as a bull-riding champion and Britt Robertson as a college student who fall in love. The most recent Sparks adaptation, “The Best of Me,” opened to $10 million late last year, but that’s not the norm for his titles. “Dear John” has been the author’s biggest debut to date, opening to $30.5 million in 2012, while 2004’s “The Notebook” has been his highest-grossing movie, with $81 million.
“The Longest Ride” carries a modest $34 million budget.
Meanwhile, “Home” brought in $5.6 million in its third weekend at the U.S. box office. It has its eyes set on $19 million this weekend, which would raise its cume to an impressive $130 million.
Warner Bros.’ “Get Hard” came in fourth with $2.6 million in its third frame, en route to an $8.5 million weekend.
“Cinderella” rounded out the top five. Disney’s live-action adaptation earned $2.3 million as it waltzed to $8 million in its fifth weekend, which would bring its total haul to more than $180 million.For the New Zealand poet and translator, see Edward Jenner (writer)
Edward Jenner, FRS FRCPE[1] (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was an English physician and scientist who was the pioneer of smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine.[2][3] The terms "vaccine" and "vaccination" are derived from Variolae vaccinae (smallpox of the cow), the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1796 in the long title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae known as the Cow Pox, in which he described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox.[4]
Jenner is often called "the father of immunology", and his work is said to have "saved more lives than the work of any other human".[5][6][7] In Jenner's time, smallpox killed around 10 percent of the population, with the number as high as 20 percent in towns and cities where infection spread more easily.[7] In 1821 he was appointed physician extraordinary to King George IV, and was also made mayor of Berkeley and justice of the peace. A member of the Royal Society, in the field of zoology he was the first person to describe the brood parasitism of the cuckoo. In 2002, Jenner was named in the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons.
Early life [ edit ]
Edward Anthony Jenner was born on 17 May 1749[8] (6 May Old Style) in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, as the eighth of nine children. His father, the Reverend Stephen Jenner, was the vicar of Berkeley, so Jenner received a strong basic education.[8]
He went to school in Wotton-under-Edge and Cirencester.[8] During this time, he was inoculated for smallpox, which had a lifelong effect upon his general health. (Crucially this meant that he underwent variolation and not vaccination.)[8] At the age of 14, he was apprenticed for seven years to Daniel Ludlow, a surgeon of Chipping Sodbury, South Gloucestershire, where he gained most of the experience needed to become a surgeon himself.[ |
against acne, bacteria, moisture loss, and irritation (credit SkinandTonics).
THE POWER OF FOAM
So if foaming cleansers tend to be more alkaline, why bother with one at all? The answer is simple: in a double cleansing method, the first oil cleanser lifts all the gunk from your skin (oil attracts oil) but unless you can slowwwlyyyy emulsify the oil with water a drop at a time for say, half an hour, there is no way to guarantee that there is no residue left behind. The role of a foaming cleanser is that it cuts through the oil gently, and also cleanses other impurities so you know that your skin is 99% (plus chop!) CLEAN. (I obviously am not a derm, but you know what I mean.)
Yet due to all the agents that is needed to create your boing-boing lush marshmallow foam, most of these in the market have an unacceptable pH level. Finding a good pH level foam cleanser is like trying to find a unicorn, except you need one that can sing as well. Since my Seoul trip, I’ve been using the Su:m37 Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick – it’s kind of a superstar product in the asian beauty community. Not only is it pretty, with real rose petals in it, smells like roses, comes in a dramatic and innovative stick form, it also has an optimum pH level of 5.5.
Everyone loved it. I did too, but I also know my skin. It is the biggest whiny bitch in the world; oily all the time yet severely dehydrated and cranky, prone to breakouts and all that crap. I also found out today that not only my skin – my entire body is hypersensitive 🙁 But that’s a whine for another day.
So while the MCRS is perfect on paper, it was slightly stripping on my skin. It wasn’t horrid, but I had to be more gentle than preferred because otherwise I end up with really tight skin. It was something that I was fine with, but not entirely happy to spend the rest of my life with. Then a couple of weeks back, while I was hauling some *furtive look* Tosowoong sheet masks from RRS, I decided to chuck this in too.
TOSOWOONG ENZYME POWDER WASH CLEANSER REVIEW
Accessibility
Easy… online. Can be found on Amazon, RoseRoseShop, Wishtrend, and eBay.
Packaging/Price
Comes in a 150g handy snap top container, from US$6.10 to US$12.90 (before shipping). HOW INSANELY AFFORDABLE IS THAT.
Fragrance
While perfume is listed as one of the last ingredients, there is no discernible scent to this cleanser.
Ingredients
Loved that the list is relatively short, but the inevitable inclusion of cleansing agent Sodium Lauryl Sulfate as the fifth ingredient takes some points off. To be clear, SLS can be a potential irritant but its links to cancer has been debunked and found to be a hoax. The main ingredient is corn starch, a thickening agent, so stay away if that is a trigger for you.
Ingredients: Zea Mays (Corn) Starch, Sodium Lauroyl Aspartate, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Sodium Palmitate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Titanium Dioxide, Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate, Methylparaben, Alcohol Denat, Perfume, Maltodextrin, Papain, Badger Oil
(Key: Red = Ingredients with a 2 or more acne/irritant rating on CosDNA,
Green = Hero ingredients/extracts that are supposed to be beneficial but may not be listed on CosDNA)
Application
Powder is dispensed via a small mouth, but you don’t need a whole lot for each cleanse so I usually cautiously shake a few times to get just enough. The grains are not too big, but they are about the size of exfoliating beads and can feel a little abrasive on your palms if you’re too lazy to use a foaming net/sponge like me.
Experience
I like this very much. Other than the foaming part – which is entirely on me because I usually won’t bother with a sponge thingy – and how some grains can escape the rubbing action to the corners of your palms, this has become my default sole morning cleanser and second cleanser in the evening. I hate it when people say this cause it’s so relative, but my skin IS softer after cleansing with this. Yes, even after an oil cleanser. It’s like the Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash hits the reset button on my skin and restores it to a basic, clean, state, where it’s ready to absorb all the other steps in my regime. I’ve used this for 2.5 weeks, and so far have had no clogs, irritation, or any other negative reaction to this.
A little goes a long way! Fluffy foam with konjac sponge
On days when I’m a bit more hardworking, I use a konjac sponge to foam the Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash up. This is definitely the recommended method because you use way less product AND get a super lush foam too.
Pros
Softens skin
Cheap
Travel-friendly
pH of 5.5
Cons
Grains might feel abrasive when using bare palms to foam up
Inclusion of fragrance while product doesn’t smell of anything at all
Repurchase?
Hell yeah. I’m now wondering what to do with the second MCRS in my stash.
All products have been purchased with my own money and opinions here are 100% my own.Last Night a DJ Saved My Life is a book written by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton about the history of DJing published in 1999. A compilation album of the same name was released with the book. The album contains various clips ranging from 1970s reggae to Handel's Largo, the first song to reach radio airwaves, in 1906. The book takes its name from the Indeep single "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life."[1] In 2006, The Observer named Last Night... #45 on their list of the greatest music books.[2]
Both experienced journalists, Brewster and Broughton seek to chronicle the role of the DJ in the 20th century.[3] Starting from Jimmy Savile, who was effectively the first DJ, Broughton and Brewster track the rise of the DJ as a figure in music.[4] The authors champion the idea that the DJ is an "unsung hero" of popular music and is an artist himself.[1] In examining the place of a DJ over time, Last Night... also follows the rise and fall of various musical genres and subcultures.[1]
The companion album, which was compiled by Brewster himself, serves as an overview of dance and DJ music.When the world’s biggest smartphone maker posts ugly financial results, you can be sure that the whole industry is feeling some pain. Samsung Electronics said today that its second-quarter earnings would fall $1.4 billion short of analysts’ expectations, citing low demand for its devices in an increasingly saturated global market, and increasing cannibalization of tablet sales by ever-larger “phablet” phones.
Samsung expects to post Q2 profits of $7.1 billion, down 24.5% from the same period last year. The company is in the unenviable position of suffering from cutthroat competition—Apple at the high end, Xiaomi and Huawei at the low end—and from an industry-wide slowdown that is hurting its wholesale display unit. Quarterly profits at the display unit, which supplies Apple and many other major manufacturers, are expected to fall 76%.
In a break from the norm, Samsung tried to explain its disappointing forecast. Looking closely at its statement, there is bad news for just about every smartphone and tablet maker:
Weak smartphone demand in China…
The world’s biggest smartphone market is increasingly crowded, which is pushing down prices. Meanswhile, consumers are waiting for an expected 4G rollout to buy new phones. That spells trouble for Xiaomi, Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, Coolpad, and the other Chinese manufacturers, along with Apple, which just signed a major distribution deal with telecom carrier China Mobile.
…And also in Europe
As in China, the European smartphone market is slowing down, even as more competitors enter into the market. Samsung, which has a 40% market share in Europe, said weaker demand there led to increased inventory.
Phablet are eating into tablet sales
As a manufacturer of device screens, Samsung has an unusually good vantage point to observe industry trends related to phone and tablet sizes. The verdict: slower replacement cycles and consumers shifting to 5-to-6 inch “phablet” devices are reducing sales of tablets.That has important implications for Apple, which is reportedly set to launch a larger version of the iPhone that could cannibalize sales of the iPad, which still make up 16.7% of the company’s total revenue.
Spending money to flog commoditized products
Samsung is one of the world’s biggest advertisers—but that was not necessarily a good thing, at least in the second quarter. The company was forced to boost marketing expenditure to reduce “existing inventories in sales channels.” Translation: The company had a glut of devices that weren’t selling, and it had to take a bath on promotions to unload them—like Verizon Wireless’ “Buy one Galaxy S5 and get one free” deal. The lesson for companies like Huawei and Lenovo, which have aspirations to become global brands beyond China, is that a big ad budget doesn’t automatically translate into success if your products don’t stand out from the crowd.
But on the bright side…
At least in some quarters, demand for Samsung smartphones is still high. A band of about 20 thieves held hundreds of employees hostage at a Samsung factory in Campinas, Brazil yesterday as they stole about 40,000 tablets, mobile phones, and laptops worth an estimated $36 million. No one was hurt in the robbery.But the research does suggest that alterations in speech one day might be used to predict development of Alzheimer’s and other neurological conditions years before symptoms are clinically perceptible.
Detection of dementia at the earliest stages has become a high priority. Many experts now believe that yet-to-be-developed treatments are likely to be effective at preventing or slowing progression of dementia only if it is found before it significantly damages the brain.
The “highly innovative” methods used by the researchers may eventually help “to further clarify the extent to which spoken-word changes are associated with normal aging or predictive of subsequent progression to the clinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Eric Reiman, the director of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Phoenix, who was not involved in the new study.
Visar Berisha and Julie Liss, professors of speech and hearing science at the university, compared transcripts of all 46 news conferences that Mr. Reagan held to the 101 sessions President George H. W. Bush held in his term.
The researchers assessed changes in the presidents’ speech patterns with a new algorithm based on a technique used by others to analyze changes in writing by novelists.Photo
Last year was a record-setting one for the state of New York — and not in a good way.
Public and private institutions in New York experienced more than 900 data breaches in 2013, according to a report released by the state attorney general on Tuesday. Those breaches exposed the personal and financial records of 7.3 million New Yorkers.
The report, which showed the effects of data security intrusions on New Yorkers over the past eight years, said computer hackers were by far the leading cause of the breaches, accounting for nearly 40 percent of unauthorized data access during that time.
In 2013 alone, the breaches cost the public and private sectors more than $1.37 billion, the report said. Losses were calculated by assuming that a data breach costs an affiliated company approximately $188 for each person whose data was compromised, a figure published in a 2013 report by the security company Symantec and the Ponemon Institute, which researches information security.
“What’s truly shocking about this report, beyond the fact that hacking is now the greatest threat to our personal information and costs us billions of dollars, is that many of these breaches could have been prevented,” Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, said in a statement. “If millions of New Yorkers were exposed, one can only imagine how many have been compromised across the nation.”
The report comes after an increase in the number of digital attacks on public and private institutions in recent years; in mid-March, Chinese hackers infiltrated United States government systems to obtain information on federal employees, officials said. And in 2011, Sony‘s popular PlayStation Network for gamers was repeatedly the target of hackers, exposing the names, email addresses and user names of millions of customers.
In 2013, intrusions in New York were largely driven by two high-profile hacks, the report said: the huge breach at Target, in which millions of credit card numbers, addresses and phone numbers were stolen, as well as an attack on LivingSocial, a site for deals and discounts.
The report said that other businesses, of all sizes, also had experienced data breaches, including those in the financial and health services industries.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gov. John Kasich and Ohio State University President Michael Drake announced a $45 million investment for testing driverless cars and other vehicles at the Transportation Research Center.
OSU will invest $25 million to expand the 4,500-acre facility in Logan County.
Kasich plans to include $12.5 million for the project in the state transportation budget.
JobsOhio, the state's private economic development arm, announced it will contribute the rest.
"We are the best testing facility in America. I want to be the best in the world," Kasich said at a Thursday news conference.
The $45 million expansion project was one of several transportation budget initiatives Kasich highlighted Thursday. Kasich also will propose funding to make I-90 from I-271 to the Pennsylvania state line a "smart corridor" to test autonomous driving.
The transportation budget will also include authorizing the Ohio Department of Transportation to change speed limits and use highway shoulders as additional traffic lanes during peak rush hour times.
The Transportation Research Center is able to test cars, trucks, buses and other vehicles in real-world situations, road conditions and types of weather. Kasich and other officials praised the center for its work testing autonomous vehicles, which don't require a person to drive them.
The $45 million expansion will include industry's largest high-speed intersection, roundabouts traffic lights and a smart control center. Future phases of the expansion include an indoor, all-season facility and a six-lane high-speed highway.
"Day or night, good weather or bad weather, high speed or rural -- we'll be able to test what's going on there," Ohio Department of Transportation Director Jerry Wray said. "What rolls out of there will roll around Ohio, around the country and around the world."I’ve never been much of a summer person. I can barely swim, don’t really enjoy the beach, and hate hot weather. But something about summer clicked for me this year. Even though we weren’t able to travel, I declared it “beach summer” and have been working hard to live in a kind of virtual Hawaii ever since, listening to the Beach Boys and the Ventures, watching Magnum P.I. and Hawaii Five-O, and eating lots of pineapple. And if that weren’t proof of my commitment, I’ve even suffered through no less than five Elvis beach movies. (For the curious, Girl Happy was the best of the lot.)
But the one missing element from the perfect summer has been the perfect beach reading. I finally settled on Kingsley Amis’s James Bond novel, Colonel Sun which was fun, but nothing could quite live up to the sheer reading pleasure of the book I read last summer. Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which just came out in paperback last month, is the best-written book of his career. And even though it’s a prose novel, the themes directly tie in to his work and life as a comic book writer.
In the mid-‘90s, following the release of Mr. Punch and the completion of Sandman, Neil Gaiman mostly retired from life as a full-time comic book writer. There were no ticker tape parades, no farewell banquets, and nobody chipped in to buy him a watch. Instead, he simply slipped out the back, quietly, while everyone was still having a good time. Since then, he’s been like the industry’s professor emeritus, coming back every now and then, but always for a short visit—just enough time for some cookies and tea.
During that time, of course, he’s enjoyed an incredibly successful career outside of comics, writing award-winning novels, screenplays, teleplays, children’s books, and one of the most popular blogs on the Internet. Comics history is full of writers who desperately wanted to “get out” of comics and write something else but couldn’t. In this sense, Gaiman has become the industry’s biggest success story. To borrow a phrase from J.K. Rowling, he became “the boy who lived.”
But despite all of his success, he’s never left his comic book roots far behind. In many ways, American Gods was a natural extension of the urban fantasy of Sandman, blending mythology and the supernatural with the mundane realities of contemporary life. But the connection between The Ocean at the End of the Lane and comics is even closer. It is the third part of a trilogy that he first began writing near the beginning of his comics career, and the story winds up invoking the world of comics in a number of ways.
The first piece I ever wrote for Sequart, long before I began this weekly column, was an analysis of Violent Cases—Gaiman and Dave McKean’s first major comics work. It’s a graphic novel narrated by an adult that McKean draws to resemble the adult Gaiman, and it focuses on his confusing and sometimes frightening memories of childhood. With a blending of autobiography and imagination, the story focuses on the uncertainty of memory. The book served as a brilliant letter of introduction for both creators, earning them an interview with Karen Berger and eventually a contract with DC Comics.
Interestingly enough, when Gaiman was near the end of his time as a monthly comic book writer, he and McKean produced a second graphic novel in the same vein. Mr. Punch is a spiritual follow up to Violent Cases that deals with a similarly autobiographical memory, and it, too, capitalizes on the ways in which children are only able to absorb bits and pieces of what they see and hear. Much like a reader, children have to put these unconnected bits and pieces of information together in order to understand a larger context, or a narrative, if you will—even though that understanding is frightening, confusing, and indefinite.
Those characteristics also define The Ocean at the End of the Lane, the third part of this trilogy of childhood memories. Despite its short length, it’s an extraordinary book and features the best, most lyrical, writing of Gaiman’s career. And while it contains more elements of the fantastic than either of the graphic novels, Gaiman is not using fantasy to craft a story. Instead, he’s crafting a story to explore the notion of fantasy. And in so doing, he manages to deepen our understanding of what it means to be a child.
I should add now that even though I’ll be treading lightly, there will be some mild spoilers ahead. (I wrote a completely non-spoiler review for PopMatters last summer. You can read it here.)
Of the many themes that run through the novel, the most persistent involves the difference between childhood and adulthood, and in particular, the ways in which children are able to tap directly into a world of fantasy and imagination that gradually becomes lost to adults. This is a significant shift from the way Gaiman addresses childhood in Violent Cases and Mr. Punch. In both graphic novels, the child struggles to piece together the ugly bits of the adult reality, and the patchwork quilt of understanding makes everything all the more scary.
However, in Ocean, the imagination of the child leads to greater perception and insight. It’s ultimately empowering, if still frightening. And interestingly enough, it’s a power that Gaiman subtly links in various ways to the world of comics. Since much of this book, like the two graphic novels, is autobiographical, it also addresses Gaiman’s position as a semi-retired comic book writer.
The story begins, much like Violent Cases, with an adult narrator. But whereas the adult’s childhood memories in Violent Cases were all vague and indefinite, in Ocean, it’s the narrator’s adult life that seems undefined. He’s wearing a black suit and he talks about having made a speech on this “hard day” (3), meeting people he hasn’t seen in years, and going to his sister’s house. But what he doesn’t explicitly say that he’s been to a funeral, nor does he note who has died. Instead, like the child protagonists from the two previous graphic novels, the reader has to put these pieces together in order to understand the grim reality.
And once one starts putting those pieces together, Gaiman’s description of the narrator becomes even more interesting. While he keeps the details sparse, the terse summary of the narrator’s life up to this point hits on what would be the bullet points of almost any Gaiman biography—marriage, kids, divorce, and art (4). He keeps the narrator’s “art” undefined, but it doesn’t take much effort to find the comic book writer-turned-novelist in-between the lines.
From the very beginning, Gaiman closely aligns childhood with the world of comics. Before the story even starts, he presents us with an epigraph—taken from a conversation between two cartoonists—children’s book illustrator Maurice Sendak and comics creator Art Spiegelman: “I remember my own childhood vividly … I knew terrible things. But I knew I mustn’t let adults know I knew. It would scare them.” Not only does the quote encapsulate the theme of the book, but the prominence given to the two cartoonists also reminds us quite specifically of Gaiman’s professional history.
In the same way, once the narrator turns the story over to his memories, Gaiman again emphasizes the importance of comics. For example, when a visitor takes the family’s car, one of the narrator’s chief concerns is the fate of his new copy of Smash!, a British comic of American reprints popular in the late ‘60s and one Gaiman himself used to read. He also makes allusions to one of his favorite toys—a plastic Batman. Thus, in these early moments of a book designed to explore the difference in perspective between adults and children, Gaiman clearly defines childhood with iconic markers from the world of comics.
As a result, if we then think back to the way he first introduced us to his adult narrator, we begin to see added resonance. Take, for example, the way he describes his clothing: “I wore a black suit and a white shirt, a black tie and black shoes, all polished and shiny: clothes that normally would make me feel uncomfortable, as if I were in a stolen uniform, or pretending to be an adult” (3). He is clearly someone who sees himself, internally, as a child and belonging to a child’s world, someone only masquerading as an adult. Those are certainly self-perceptions one might expect from someone who had established himself as a comics writer, writing in a medium historically labeled “juvenile,” who is now living in the “borrowed robes” of an award-winning novelist.
Throughout the novel, Gaiman continues to make this distinction between the ways in which children see the world versus adults, with the sense that the child’s vision is far more powerful. For instance, when Lettie Hempstock, the mysterious girl who lives down the lane, refers to an ocean in her backyard, the narrator asks his father about it. However, the father, limited by the shackles of Western Rationalism, can only offer the vision of cold, clinical plausibility: “‘No,’ said my father. ‘Ponds are pond-sized, lakes are lake-sized. Seas are seas and oceans are oceans. Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic. I think that’s all of the oceans there are’” (24). But children, as Gaiman informs us, are like “small gods” (51). They are the ones that discover hidden paths and trails—the same trails that adults will later follow but could never have forged themselves (56).
Late in the novel, when the boy is granted the opportunity to step into the Hempstock “Ocean,” he is momentarily connected to a world of infinite knowledge and insight. For that brief moment, he has total clarity. But as Lettie tells him, you can’t stay in the ocean, because it would eventually destroy you: “You wouldn’t die in here, nothing ever dies in here, but if you stayed here for too long, after a while just a little of you would exist everywhere, all spread out. And that’s not a good thing” (145). To the extent that the ocean suggests childhood and childhood is symbolized by comics, it’s easy to see the professional and artistic dangers of spending too long writing comics exclusively. Better to be “the boy who lived.”
And thus, the narrator leaves this ocean of fantasy and childhood wonder. But he occasionally returns. As Lettie’s mother says, “You were here at 24 and then in your thirties (173). Of course, when Gaiman was 24 he was learning from Alan Moore about how to write a comic book script, and he was in his middle thirties when he walked away from the medium. Clearly, much like the Hempstock’s ocean, comics isn’t a place he can stay, and he seems resigned to that. But before the narrator leaves, he does ask the proverbial question, “Will I come back here?” (176).
Only four months after the publication of The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Gaiman and J.H. Williams, III released the first issue of Sandman: Overture. Some answers come quickly.
Work Cited
Gaiman, Neil. The Ocean at the End of the Lane. New York: William Morrow, 2013.We’ve all seen inputs like this:
The label is big and looks like a placeholder… until you focus in the input, then it gets smaller and moves up.
It looks gorgeous. Smooth. Flawless.
It also feels like something only an experienced developer would be able to make, right?
Well, it might have been true before React Native, when people lived in cages and did all sorts of weird shit. Not anymore, though.
You can watch the screencast or keep reading the post, depending on which you prefer most :)
What are we after?
There are two cases we are dealing with.
The first one is when the input is not focused:
The label appears inside the input field, and its size is the size of the text field. The color dims. It seems similar to what the placeholder property will give.
And the second case is when the input is focused:
The label appears above the input, the text is smaller, and the text color is different.
The simplest implementation
We can finally start getting out hands dirty and make the simplest possible implementation. Without any animations just yet.
It appears we have two UI states:
Input is not focused, the label is inside the input. Input is focused, the label is above the input.
We could, essentially, have a state of whether an input is focused. Then, depending on this piece of state, we could choose where to place the label, and which styles to apply to it.
Since the label can be in different places and we don’t want it to affect the layout of the component, we will absolutely position the label. To make sure it has space, we will also add a top padding to the wrapping view.
class FloatingLabelInput extends Component { state = { isFocused : false, }; handleFocus = () => this. setState ({ isFocused : true }); handleBlur = () => this. setState ({ isFocused : false }); render () { const { label,... props } = this. props ; const { isFocused } = this. state ; const labelStyle = { position : 'absolute', left : 0, top :! isFocused? 18 : 0, fontSize :! isFocused? 20 : 14, color :! isFocused? '#aaa' : '#000', }; return ( < View style= { { paddingTop : 18 } } > < Text style= { labelStyle } > { label } </ Text > < TextInput {... props } style= { { height : 26, fontSize : 20, color : '#000', borderBottomWidth : 1, borderBottomColor : '#555' } } onFocus= { this. handleFocus } onBlur= { this. handleBlur } /> </ View > ); } }
< FloatingLabelInput label = "Email" value = { this. state. value } onChange = { this. handleTextChange } / >
And with that, we are able to achieve this:
Which is a great starting point. We don’t have any animations just yet, but other than that, we can change where we put the label depending on whether the input has focus.
Aside: why not use placeholder? It could be tempting to want to use the placeholder property of TextInput. However, this will not work, because we want to control how, when, and where the label is rendered. Instead, what we want is to have the label placed inside the text field when not focused. And we want to have it move up then the input is focused — and we can only achieve continuity if that is the same element.
What about ‘em animations?
Actually, this is the easiest part.
Since we have two states that the label can be in, and already pick one based on focus status, animating that transition between the two states is pretty trivial.
Referring to the building blocks of React Native animations, we can identify the following:
the animated number will represent whether the field is focused (1) or not (0)
we will gradually transition that number to 1 when focusing, and to 0 when blurring
we will express the styling of the label in terms of that animated number: we will define the styles at breakpoints (0 and 1), and RN will calculate and apply the intermediate styles automatically. Even for color!
By the way, if you want to have the building blocks handy in the form of a PDF cheatsheet, you can get it right now:
Exclusive bonus: Download the free Building blocks of React Native animations cheatsheet that you can print out or have handy on your desktop.
I'll email it to you right away so you can access it from anywhere! Get the cheatsheet! No spam. I will occasionally send you my posts about JavaScript and React. Exclusive bonus: Download the free Building blocks of React Native animations cheatsheet that you can print out or have handy on your desktop.
I'll email it to you right away so you can access it from anywhere! Get the cheatsheet! to
Article continues:
Implementing these is not hard, either.
For the animated number itself, we will need to initialize it in componentWillMount.
componentWillMount () { this. _animatedIsFocused = new Animated. Value ( 0 ); }
Then, since the value of this number should be based on whether the input is focused, and since we already have that bit of information in state, we can add a componentDidUpdate function which will transition this number depending on this.state :
componentDidUpdate () { Animated. timing ( this. _animatedIsFocused, { toValue : this. state. isFocused? 1 : 0, duration : 200, }). start (); }
Now, to express the styling of the label in terms of it, we’ll only need two changes:
Switch to Animated.Text.
Instead of using a conditional to pick the styles, define them in the following way:
const labelStyle = { position : 'absolute', left : 0, top : this. _animatedIsFocused. interpolate ({ inputRange : [ 0, 1 ], outputRange : [ 18, 0 ], }), fontSize : this. _animatedIsFocused. interpolate ({ inputRange : [ 0, 1 ], outputRange : [ 20, 14 ], }), color : this. _animatedIsFocused. interpolate ({ inputRange : [ 0, 1 ], outputRange : [ '#aaa', '#000' ], }), };
One more thing
If you try to type something into the demo above, and blur the input, you’ll see something odd happen.
Luckily, the fix is pretty simple. We only need to update two lines of code to fix that.
We want to check whether the value of the input is empty, and transition to the “unfocused” state only if both conditions hold true:
the value is empty;
the input is not focused.
Otherwise we want to show the “focused” style with the label above the input.
And since the input is controlled, we can access its value pretty easily using this.props.
componentWillMount () { this. _animatedIsFocused = new Animated. Value ( this. props. value === ''? 0 : 1 ); } componentDidUpdate () { Animated. timing ( this. _animatedIsFocused, { toValue : ( this. state. isFocused || this. props. value!== '' )? 1 : 0, duration : 200, }). start (); }
ReferencesAMHERST -- On Friday, a day after many businesses closed to show the impact of immigrants in the country, activists are calling for a national strike, including one at the University of Massachusetts.
Strike4Democracy is organizing more than 100 strike actions across the United States including three in Boston, according to its Facebook page.
The purpose of the strikes, the Facebook post states, is "to stand up for America's democratic principles. As the nation suffers through ICE raids, travel bans, Trump's mobilization on the border wall, as well as attacks on the rights of workers, women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and our environment, February 17th provides a beacon to those who are searching for a way to protect and defend our shared humanity."
The UMass Amherst Sanctuary Campus Movement at UMass is calling for a related strike to hold a teach-in addressing immigration issues.
According to its Facebook post announcing the event, the group wants students to "educate ourselves on resisting the continued and intensified oppression immigrants face in the United States. We will learn how to join and strengthen existing direct action networks, how to establish and maintain one here on campus, and how to make our community a real sanctuary."
The group is asking that students refrain from "financially supporting UMass, with the exception of the People's Market and Earth Foods."
The UMass Amherst Sanctuary Campus Movement has been calling on the university to become a sanctuary campus since November following the election of Donald Trump as president.
A federal appeals court has upheld a freeze on Trump's controversial travel ban on nationals from seven predominantly Muslim nations. The Trump administration is looking at other options.
On Jan. 27, Trump signed an executive order barring nationals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days. The order also banned refugees from entering the country for 120 days, and halted the entry of Syrian refugees indefinitely.
According to the Sanctuary Campus Movement Facebook post, more than 100 people are going and another 200 are interested in the strike.
Organizer Anna-Claire Simpson said those who teach and other labor union members are not allowed to strike, which might limit the numbers.
And she said the weather is limiting an outdoor rally or march. "It's bringing people together for education," she said of the day's intent.
"We're still pressuring our administration -- the whole UMass system (to create a sanctuary campus)," she said.
"(The Trump policies) have a huge impact on our school," she said. "There's a lot of fear." Students who have green cards are afraid to leave the state even though they have legal documentation.
She praised Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy for his response Feb. 2 to the campus and the creation of the Angel Fund to help immigrants with financial needs.
"I remain committed to the welfare and success of all members of our community, whether they be student, faculty or staff, and pledge to do everything within our legal and moral authority to protect them, no matter their national origin, race, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual identity, disability or immigration status," Subbaswamy wrote.
But Simpson said the Sanctuary Campus Movement wants to "put pressure on for a more tangible commitment."
Some on campus don't agree with the movement. Daily Collegian columnist Bradley Polumbo wrote, "If UMass was to take steps to defy federal law in an effort to protect such a small group of students, the potential of losing some or all federal funding could be absolutely disastrous for all members of the UMass community, regardless of their legal status."
Trump has threatened to pull funding in a variety of arenas including the University of California at Berkeley following violent protests there Feb. 1.
Simpson said the threat is making people afraid, but she wrote: "I wish it wasn't necessary to articulate this, but I know the school is stoking a lot of fear right now.
"Please don't fall the for the line that Sanctuary campuses (cities, etc.) are dangerous because they might invite federal retaliation of some sort. The real danger is racism, xenophobia, and the oppressive policies and laws which make movements (like Sanctuary) necessary."
Students will gather at 10 a.m. in the Student Union.Cutting Weight
It sucks. That's the only way to describe making weight in wrestling. There is no other way around it. Saying no to all of your favorite foods is beyond brutal. On behalf of all wrestlers, I want to personally thank everyone who has put up with our cranky attitudes leading up to weigh ins. It wasn't us yelling at you, it was our stomachs. Please forgive us. I can't remember how many times I laid in bed, belly growling, thinking "I just want to be normal, I just want to eat." I don't encourage cutting weight, I will explain why in a later blog, but here are some tips to help you out if you do.
That sip of Gatorade just turned into drinking the whole bottle. That half of burger I threw away last month because I was full, is looking pretty tasty. Not to mention I have weigh ins tomorrow, and Mom is making my favorite food for dinner. "Jordan, why don't you just drink water?" "No Mom, water still weighs something." Moms think water is this mysterious weightless wonder drink. Or how about stocking your fridge up with drinks and your cabinet with food before a dual. Been there. Sometimes it seems like I'm more interested in eating than I am with wrestling. |
can be dangerous, and are a leading cause of kitchen fires; this demonstrates a simulation of a chip pan fire.
Chip pans [ edit ]
Chip pans can be dangerous and should only be used with caution and when continuously supervised, preferably with a thermometer; deep fryers are safer. Chip pans are the leading cause of house fires in the UK, and further, may spill hot oil, causing severe burns. If you have a chip pan, your local fire brigade may offer to trade it in for a deep fryer, or can otherwise advise about the dangers.
Safety tips [ edit ]
deep fryer, not pan Deep fryers are less likely to tip than chip pans (avoiding scalding oil), and generally have thermometers to prevent overheating and fires. Familiarizing yourself with operation prior to use is also prudent. no water in oil Water in hot oil cause splatters and fires – it sinks (being denser than oil), then vaporizes, splattering hot oil and possibly scalding. If the oil is on fire, this can cause a chip pan fire (boilover) – a fireball of burning oil ejects from the fryer, posing extreme hazard. In case of fire, do not use water; see below instead. fire blanket or suitable extinguisher Have a fire blanket immediately to hand, to smother fires, or a specialized fire extinguisher marked for cooking oil fires (class K in the US, class F in Europe). proper oil Some oil is not suited for deep frying, smoking at frying temperatures. Suitable oils include refined safflower oil, refined sunflower oils, refined peanut oil, coconut oil (South Asia), and rice bran oil (East Asia). do not overheat Oil is flammable and oil fires are extremely dangerous; before burning, oil will smoke, providing a warning. Most often, one deep fries between 175 and 190 °C (345–375 °F). do not overfill There must be space in the fryer for food to be added – use the recommended amount of oil, and small quantities of food. If there is too much oil or food, oil can flow over the sides, causing fire or burns. Further, small quantities of food cook better. use utensils Use metal utensils to manipulate food in a fryer – a wire cage is the main tool, and a spider or long-handled chopsticks can be used for additional manipulation. metal range hood Cook under a metal range hood: flames from burning hot oil can be 2 or 3 feet high, and can easily burn shelving. cool after use After use, allow the oil to cool for 2 hours before handling.
General cooking advice that particularly applies:
do not leave unattended do not drink alcohol no children present wear tight, thick clothes Wear tight-fitting, long-sleeved, thick clothes to prevent burns from splatters, such as mechanics’ shirts and denim, rather than loose, thin clothes such as saris.
In case of smoke [ edit ]
When the oil starts to give off continuous smoke, you have it far too hot – it is at the smoke point, and the oil becomes carcinogenic at this point.
Turn off your deep fryer, and allow the oil to cool.
It is likely not acutely dangerous – the fire point and kindling point are generally significantly higher than the smoke point, so the oil will not ignite without further heating – but it is extremely hot, and smoke is a warning sign.
Next time, use a lower temperature setting or choose an oil with a higher smoke point.
In case of fire [ edit ]
In case of fire, call the fire department immediately.
Cooking oil fires are extremely dangerous and hard to fight, requiring special measures:
Burning oil can only be adequately fought with a fire blanket, or specialized fire extinguisher (Class K in the US; Class F in Europe); these may not be available for residential use.
Water should never be used on an oil fire; neither should regular fire extinguishers.
If no fire blanket or suitable extinguisher is available, and the fire is small and contained, try quickly adding baking soda as this can quench it (do not add any other substances, which may burn instead). However, in the case of a large cooking oil fire, leave the house and contact the fire department immediately, and do not try to fight it yourself – your efforts are liable to end in disaster.
Frying whole poultry [ edit ]
A whole turkey is sometimes deep fried during a regional holiday in the United States; one may also wish to deep fry a chicken or other bird. In general, cutting up the bird (or buying it pre-cut) and frying individual pieces is significantly easier and safer; it also makes service easier.
If you wish to deep fry a turkey, please contact your fire department before doing so, so that you do not need to contact them urgently after doing so.
The main advice is:
All usual advice, with extra care.
Use a specialized turkey fryer, because it is large.
Carefully measure oil required beforehand, with the actual bird, to ensure that the fryer is not over-filled.
Cook outside.
. Thaw the bird before deep-frying; advice which deserves to be in bold or caps.
Tips for frying [ edit ]
Generally, cook small pieces briefly at high temperatures to get crisp but not greasy food.
pieces at temperatures to get crisp but not greasy food. Dry food before frying (to avoid splatters), especially soaked potatoes; remove ice crystals from frozen food.
food before frying (to avoid splatters), especially soaked potatoes; remove ice crystals from frozen food. Foods flavor the oil after use; thus, cook light-flavored food (vegetables) before heavy-flavored foods (fish, shrimp) – or alternatively, use separate fryers for different foods.
Starting with cold foods (good idea), generally frying temperatures are around 325–375 degrees Fahrenheit (160–190 degrees Celsius). It may be higher for small foods. If the oil is too hot, the outside will burn before the inside is done.
When starting with warm or hot foods, the oil can be much hotter. (this is why the egg roll recipe instructs you to use hot filling, and why the fried fish recipe instructs you to microwave the fish before breading and deep-fat frying it)
Don't add too much food at one time; it will cool the oil too much.
Do not use a basket with food which could stick to the wires. Alternatively, suspend food in oil with tongs for ten seconds before releasing.
Consider using deep frying as one step in cooking, to crisp the outside only – similar to broiling or pan-searing. For instance, rather than deep frying chicken from raw to cooked, first roast it, then only finish it in the fryer. Similarly, you may deep fry potatoes as one step in making roast potatoes – after parboiling, and either before or after roasting.
Breading [ edit ]
When breading with a dry powder, use an egg wash or viscous liquid (such as buttermilk) to make it stick to the food.
When breading with a moist batter, use cornmeal, cornstarch or flour to make it stick to the food, and make sure batter is sufficiently dry on adding.
Shake off excess batter or breading before frying; otherwise it will come off in the oil, requiring more frequent oil changes.
Some recommend refrigerating breaded food for a ½ hour before frying, so that the breading sticks better.
Adding too much food to the fryer not only cools the temperture of the oil, it also causes your food to start to produce steam from overcrowding the fryer, and lowers the temperature, this will result in soogy foods and breading falling off the product.
Re-using oil [ edit ]
Opinions differ regarding re-use of oil, and the storage of used frying oil. Some say frying improves with repeated use of the oil and use one batch of oil for three to six fryings, while others claim used oils are hazardous either due to bacterial growth or due to the breakdown of the oil into harmful compounds. Those who reuse oil disagree as to whether refrigeration is necessary, but generally agree that it is important to filter the oil and then store it tightly capped and away from light. Discard reused oil when it becomes dark or begins to smell "off".
If reusing oil, add fresh oil for each use in order to extend its usefulness.
Filter your frying oil regularly, if your fryer has a filtering system.
Cooled oil can be filtered with a tea strainer, kitchen paper, muslin or coarse coffee machine filter paper.
Change the oil when it becomes extremely dark. If you don't, your food will all taste the same – fries will taste like fish, fish will taste like fries, and, in the end, everything will taste a bit rancid.
A rule of thumb is to change oil each week under heavy use, or every three weeks if it's only used for frying vegetables.
When using new oil in your fryer, add an extra 1.5 minutes to your frying time.
Oil can be purified by deep-frying parsley. The parsley absorbs the odors in the oil. Watch for spatters!
Oil disposal [ edit ]
At some point, oil must be disposed of. Suggestions include:
Re-use oil for non-deep frying (stores airtight in fridge for months; discard when rancid).
Dispose at local restaurant, after asking – they often will have cooking oil recycling (into biodiesel or other substances).
Store (after cooling!) in the original container, milk containers, beer or wine bottles, wide-mouth jars (yogurt, mayonnaise, pickles), and dispose of these, optionally wrapped.
Use solid fats (lard, coconut oil, Crisco) and allow it to solidify and cool.
There is a Japanese “oil solidifier” which will solidify oils, making disposal easier.
Check with local sanitation on proper disposal.
However, do not dispose down drain, this is illegal in some locations as it can clog pipes and sewers problems and ultimately contribute to decreases the performance of the water treatment plants.
Serving suggestions [ edit ]
Serve deep fried food immediately, or keep warm in oven (95°C, 200°F) in a pan (properly, a jelly roll pan – a raised edge)
Drain on paper
Salt immediately, while hot; optionally pepper or use other spices as well.
Dipping sauce is often desirable.
A wedge of lemon is also tasty.
Contrast textures – deep fried food (such as seafood or croûtons) on salad are a classic combination, and tempura in soup is common in Japan
Forks, chopsticks, and hands are generally the easiest way to eat (due to crust); provide napkins if hands are to be used.
Drinks-wise, beer, black tea, and soft drinks often pair well; big (tannic) red wines can also work.
Health [ edit ]
Some health concerns exist regarding deep frying; some are misconceptions, some are contentious, and some are well-founded. In brief, properly deep frying yields food that is crisp, not greasy, and is little different from other frying such as pan-frying. Ultimately, ingredients are fundamental: deep-fried leek is still leek, while a deep-fried Mars bar is still a Mars bar.
Tips [ edit ]
Use appropriate oil (high temperature oil), at appropriate temperature (well below smoke point).
Cook small pieces, briefly, at high heat. If it stops making sound, it’s over-cooking.
at. Either filter oil or use new oil each time.
Criticism [ edit ]
The following are the general criticisms leveled at deep frying:
Fat is bad (and deep frying is fatty) The image of a vat of oil is shocking and disturbing to some, as though one is going to consume that oil; this fear is largely baseless. The oil is used to heat, and very little is actually consumed. A simple test of this is to inspect the level of oil before and after cooking – it should be almost identical, reflecting that almost all the oil is still in the vat, not in the food. Simply, the hot oil heats the food and steams it from the inside (steaming is generally considered healthy cooking), as reflected in the sound of steam escaping during cooking; the steam keeps the fat out. This is not the case for potatoes, where one intends fat to enter, and hence blanches the potatoes beforehand. Pan-frying and stir-frying involve similar coatings of fat, but are less visually striking. Further, the proposition that "fat is bad" is contentious, and rejected by many – compare low-fat and low-carb diets. Lastly, the oils used in deep frying (mostly monounsaturated vegetable oils) are general highly praised. Deep frying creates toxins There is some basis for this concern – using unrefined oils or oils with low smoke points and raising them to the smoke point causes production of carcinogens via oxidation, as reflected in smoking. This is reduced, if not eliminated, by using refined oils with high smoke points. There are suggestions that toxins are produced below the smoke point, and particularly if oil is reused or kept hot for extended periods – this leads to the suggestion that oil not be reused. Further, pieces of food that fall into oil are themselves impurities and may oxidize on further cooking – this leads to the suggestion that reused oil be filtered. Deep frying destroys nutrients Deep frying is similar to other cooking in nutrient destruction, because the interior is not touched by oil, just heated (steamed, in fact). Cooking destroys some nutrients, while making others easier to digest. Deep frying does not provide nutrients There is some basis for this – Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) are destroyed by deep frying, and must be obtained from other sources – deep fried food should not be one’s only source of fat.
Commonly deep fried foods [ edit ]
Virtually any food can in principle be deep fried. Certain classes of food are frequently deep fried:
Meat: Seafood – shrimp, squid, clams, scallops, oysters Poultry – chicken, turkey (as parts or whole) White fish – fish & chips
Vegetables:
Potatoes – fries (chips), chips (crisps)
Allium (onion family) – onions, leeks
Green vegetables
Bread and dough: Bread-wrapped – dumplings, egg rolls, empanadas, samosas Dough – fried dough Bread/starch – croutons, fried bread sticks, tortilla chips, fried noodles
Other: Minced mixtures – croquettes, crab cakes Fat – Cheese, Pork skin Mushrooms
General categories include fritters and tempura.
More unusually:
Candy bars – Twinkies, Mars Bars
Fast food – Hot dogs, Pizza
Icecream
Red meat (beef, lamb) and fatty fish (salmon) are generally not deep fried, however.
Deep frying recipes [ edit ]As the devastating news of the lack of justice in the brutal slaying of Eric Garner was released, I was suddenly jolted from a state of numbness that had taken hold of my mind since hearing the disappointing results of the grand jury’s decision in Ferguson, Missouri.
Numbness is the state that best describes how I and many of my friends of color have long coped with our white supremacist, hetero-sexist capitalist patriarchal society. It is this numbness, or in Buddhist terms, marigpa (Tib./avidya Skt.), that has served to protect me and others against the violence that threatens the lives and well being of Black men in this country.
It is numbness that protects us as we read the ignorant and privileged responses that are prevalent on Facebook postings and elsewhere on the internet. It is marigpa, not knowing, confusion, bewilderment, dispassion that has been our protector and is slowly eating at our souls as we lie complacently in ambush. It eats at us as numbness contradicts our heart’s desire to yell, to speak up, to shout against oppression and racism in this country.
But, I thought I had escaped.
In full disclosure here, I have been quite removed from the Black community. In the 90s, escape was the only viable response to the homophobia that was such an ingrained part of Southern Black culture.
I was marginalized from my community and realigned my life to include a more diverse group of white liberals, furthered my education at majority white educational institutions and found community with the Buddhist Sangha and the Unitarian Universalist Assocation.
These communities, although situated in white supremacist, hetero-sexist capitalist patriarchal America, at least showed promise in being anti-racist and intentionally inclusive. Particularly the Buddhist community seemed willing to directly confront the problems of society with a sense of direct and honest mindfulness and wisdom—or so I thought.
I thought I had found community, that I had found teachings that would help me to cope with racism; I could leave racism behind and work on loftier goals of meditative absorption, bodhisattvahood, beloved community and enlightenment. I had distanced myself from the statistics, from becoming a victim of this society, so I could afford to remain emotionally distanced from racism in America.
Yes, the media hype and the respectable response by social justice organizers has brought the issue of police violence against people of color forward. Yet, this isn’t news to people of color. Racist and violent practices by officers is a very important but small piece of a system of oppression that kills, incarcerates, and subjugates people of color—especially Black men.
Many of us watched the initial videos of Eric Garner that circulated the internet months ago, the videos of this beautiful and magnificent Black man being placed in a chokehold and pleading 11 times for his life with the all too telling words about the state of Black men in America: “I can’t Breathe!”
I, we, my family and my friends don’t easily forget the Eric Garner recordings that we watch, the police brutality against Rodney King, the shooting of Amadou Diallo in New York or the slaying of Trayvon Martin. While the media hype goes and will go away again this time, the protests will wane and our society will move on to the plights and perils of Hollywood life; we, people of color, Black men, take in the threat of violence in our bodies and in our persons. We learn to cope; we learn to numb ourselves.
So, as a Buddhist, when I am jolted out of my complacency, my willful ignorance with an overwhelming anger, I turn to the Buddhist teachings for a fix. I can’t be angry, anger is no good in Buddhism—the Buddha stated in Bodhgayā to over 2,000 folks that one moment of anger destroys the roots of all virtue accumulated for eons of lifetimes. The masters have much to say about the danger of this klesha (strong emotion) and Shantideva even more. It is indisputable–it is no good.
While studying for my Divinity degree at Naropa University, a professor of mine asked me in Zen kōan fashion the question: “Does a Bodhisattva get Angry?” Now, why I, a Black man, was given this kōan is questionable, however, I would like to think in my respect for this teacher, that they were very aware of the potential for anger for a person of color in this society and not simply stereotyping me as another “angry Negro.”
I can’t remember my exact answer, but I am sure that it was a load of bull about experiencing anger vs. acting out of anger. I gave the common liberal religious response that I was expected to give, my assimilation was confirmed with a smile. However, that answer is misleading and a non-sequitur, klesha, by definition, takes over your mind, your well being, your identity and you can’t simply and dispassionately experience klesha, i.e., powerful emotions, such as, passion and aggression.
I’m pissed.
I have to admit, I have no interest whatsoever in a non-violent, peaceful and thoughtful response to the recent uncovering of systemic violence against people of color. I know what the responses from my liberal peace loving friends will be, I’ve already heard it this week: “Your own people value non-violent action,” or “Your Buddhist faith believes in non-violence,” or “Anger is a no-no.”
Fine, I will accept this critique, but not from them, not from those so removed from this conversation that the plight of Black men in this country is a mere passing fancy for their liberal meanderings. I will listen to this call for non-violence if it comes from the mother of Eric Garner, the step-father of Mike Brown, if they have independently and in their own reasoning come to the conclusion that the solution to the plight of Black men in America is non-violent and pacifist protesting. I haven’t heard this. In fact, its been the opposite, “Let it burn!”
I haven’t joined protests or even the vigils organized by my local social justice oriented community. I haven’t resolved whether to join the Oakland Direct Action Everywhere events or to just sit here in this apartment in Fresno, CA, stewing in anger.
Honestly I am first afraid of being arrested, a fear that is shared by many men of color who never forget the statistics and know that either they or one of two of their comrades are destined for incarceration. I am also afraid that I will not be able to contain this beast of anger that is brewing in my spirit and will act in contradiction with my ethics as a Buddhist Minister and Unitarian Universalist religious leader.
I definitely can’t sit on a cushion and focus on my breath, a breath that Eric Garner was fatally deprived of; when I try to ride the breath in meditation, I cannot not think of Eric Garner’s plea for breath while in a chokehold.
I cannot fake it anymore, not in public as a Buddhist minister or in private in front of my thangka of the so-called “All-Good” Samantabadra. Nothing is “all-good,” it is far from “all-good,” and this thangka is a reminder of this. I am angry and therefore am not a “good” Buddhist and actually have no desire to be. But, have I given up my Bodhisattva vows, my vow to lead all beings to enlightenment through the wisdom of peaceful abiding and analytical inquiry?
In a recent article posted by Noriyuki Ueda and published in Tricycle, His Holiness the Dalai Lama speaks about anger and his words seem to contradict those aforementioned words of the Buddha, and even His Holiness’ own words on anger. When speaking of anger and social injustice, His Holiness differentiates between an anger that is motivated by hatred and an anger that arises in response to injustice.
In response to the question of whether we can transform anger to something more acceptable like compassion, His Holiness explains that this second anger, anger in response to injustice, doesn’t go away so easily. He says “anger toward social injustice will remain until the goal is achieved. It has to remain.” I, for the life of me, cannot reconcile this with the words of the Buddha, the words of Shantideva in the Bodhicaryāvatāra, not even in my tantric wrathful-compassion practices.
Bhikkhus, all is burning. Let it Burn.
So, the question is whether my anger is klesha or some second type of anger that is in response to injustice. The answer isn’t so obvious. It is klesha—I know from investigation and experience how klesha feels. It takes over your mind and heart, distracts your meditation, redirects your efforts and energy into a tight focus on a particular object; it feels as if it is burning you from the inside out.
This current anger is klesha and it is strong, yet, it isn’t just mine alone—it is ours as people of color. Is it motivated by hatred? Not just no, but hell no, to use the words Eric Garner’s wife. Black religious and cultural principles abhor hatred and our response to injustice has been, is and will always be out of concern and compassion for sentient beings. But it is definitely anger. Is this anger useful then? I think so.
The Buddha, in The Fire Sermon, reflects on the nature of reality with the famous words, “All is burning,” which is sometimes translated as “The all is burning.” What is it that is burning? Forms such as eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and conceptual mind; injustice, hatred, Oakland, New York, Cleveland, Phoenix and Ferguson; Facebook, CNN, Fox News and the awful posts by racist “trolls.” They are burning and anger, in this case, is simply the perceiver and reflection of this burning.
Bhikkunis and Bhikkus, black and brown sisters and brothers, what happens when a Bhikku sees this burning? Well, we let it burn, let it burn our attachment to this racist system that causes so much pain, let it burn our willful ignorance and numbness, let it burn our aversion to other people of color. Let it burn us into holiness and into a revolutionary state of mindful disobedience to an unjust system.
I would like to invite my brothers and sisters, black and brown, to not just sit with this anger but to really feel every aspect of it. Do not let it slip into dullness, marigpa. I suggest that there is a brilliance in it that can be revolutionary for our own spirits and for the world. I’m not asking that you sit on a cushion and meditate with it, do what you have to do to satisfy your spiritual calling to action; go and protest, confront racist internet trolls, write articles, make speeches, but please don’t let go of this anger.
Let the fire burn the complacency and dullness that risks taking over our spirits, marigpa has served its purpose but is no longer useful. Do not be afraid; what we fear, this system of violence, is self-immolating. This anger, is like the fire that our foremothers proclaimed in the pews of their churches in the Sanctified song, “It’s like fire shut up in my bones.” Get in the middle of it, ignore anyone who tells you it is wrong to feel or act on it, and as they say in Mississippi “Let it do its work on you.”
Love elephant and want to go steady?
Author: Rev. M. Jamil Scott
Editor: Travis May
Image: David Bledsoe/FlickrKrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium Member
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK Netgear WNDR3700v2
Zoom 5341J
1 recommendation KrK Premium Member AOL Software Didn't that old AOL software specifically try to avoid that scenario? I think I remember AOL software looking around for local numbers and then warning you if had to use a LD number. I'm betting this is likely related to 1) Old AOL software and 2) the change where you no longer have to dial "1+" to call long distance.
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ 3 recommendations Kearnstd Premium Member Re: AOL Software combine that with what I imagine still exists for land line carriers... "In State Long Distance" I have heard stories of people having simple phone plans(something common with the elderly trying to save money on a fixed income) getting smacked with LD charges to call across town.
Sometimes the way the exchanges are setup people have even had LD charges to call the other end of the neighborhood.
Keep in mind In State Long Distance has never been anything other than a cash grab.
bockbock
@hcs.net bockbock Anon Re: AOL Software said by Kearnstd: Keep in mind In State Long Distance has never been anything other than a cash grab. Yes, especially when calling (literally) one county away because it happens to in another area code.
thedragonmas
Premium Member
join:2007-12-28
Albany, GA 132.6 11.0
Netgear R6300 v2
ARRIS SB6180
thedragonmas Premium Member Re: AOL Software said by bockbock : said by Kearnstd: Keep in mind In State Long Distance has never been anything other than a cash grab. Yes, especially when calling (literally) one county away because it happens to in another area code.
i actually had to use AOL dialup when we moved from one side of town to the other, as at&t told us before we moved that yeah sure, DSL is available, will transfer it. only to discover after that fact. NOPE! paper/cloth insulated lines and a weird neighborhood "loop" setup, (i shoulda known when i found FM filters on the phone jacks!)
so between then and the time i could get cable, i had to use AOL dialup for about 2 months. the first thing the software does is call a 1-800 number to get a list of local numbers based on your area code. it all ways listed locals FIRST, long distance numbers where marked very clearly as "possible long distance charges"
this computer im on actually doesnt have a dialup modem so i cant go through and grab screen shots. im betting this guy had a connection error, got thrown off. and some how managed to go in to the connection manager to create a new connection, and for some reason went with long distance.
still, at&t should have noticed the spike. in fact i dont see why they dont have a cap to then block long distance until you call in. oh wait, yes i do. $$$$$ it didnt even have to have another area code, dig out a phone book (why do they still make these?) and in the front was a map and prefix list, when we had basic phone service (with a lifeline credit) we had no long distance, at all. in fact we specifically had it blocked. if you called the immediate area it was local, however if you called just one more county over it was long distance. and in some cases a prefix with in a county that was local, was still considered long distance.i actually had to use AOL dialup when we moved from one side of town to the other, as at&t told us before we moved that yeah sure, DSL is available, will transfer it. only to discover after that fact. NOPE! paper/cloth insulated lines and a weird neighborhood "loop" setup, (i shoulda known when i found FM filters on the phone jacks!)so between then and the time i could get cable, i had to use AOL dialup for about 2 months. the first thing the software does is call a 1-800 number to get a list of local numbers based on your area code. it all ways listed locals FIRST, long distance numbers where marked very clearly as "possible long distance charges"this computer im on actually doesnt have a dialup modem so i cant go through and grab screen shots. im betting this guy had a connection error, got thrown off. and some how managed to go in to the connection manager to create a new connection, and for some reason went with long distance.still, at&t should have noticed the spike. in fact i dont see why they dont have a cap to then block long distance until you call in. oh wait, yes i do. $$$$$
KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium Member
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK Netgear WNDR3700v2
Zoom 5341J
KrK Premium Member Re: AOL Software
Paying $51 a month for dial-up AOL outta be a crime by itself. Agreed. Definitely unintentional and unaware of what happened. Luckily at&t didn't try and come after him for the charges.Paying $51 a month for dial-up AOL outta be a crime by itself.
cork1958
Cork
Premium Member
join:2000-02-26 115.5 11.8
cork1958 Premium Member Re: AOL Software said by KrK: Paying $51 a month for dial-up AOL outta be a crime by itself
I actually had a computer here a couple weeks ago that has to use an external usb dial up adapter. That person lives in the woods (BFE) and AOL is all they can get. Their old adapter went bad and girl didn't know how to get new one working.
Once I got it working, which was as simple as pie, and tried surfing, which was NOT as simple as pie, I disconnected from that crap! Hadn't even seen a dial up connection in years. Hard to believe that it was that slow!
Also, yes, the AOL software definitely let's you know if the number you're calling is local or not. The guy isn't paying $51 for AOL dial up. He's paying for the AT&T land line to use AOL!I actually had a computer here a couple weeks ago that has to use an external usb dial up adapter. That person lives in the woods (BFE) and AOL is all they can get. Their old adapter went bad and girl didn't know how to get new one working.Once I got it working, which was as simple as pie, and tried surfing, which was NOT as simple as pie, I disconnected from that crap! Hadn't even seen a dial up connection in years. Hard to believe that it was that slow!Also, yes, the AOL software definitely let's you know if the number you're calling is local or not.
chip89
Premium Member
join:2012-07-05
Independence, OH chip89 to KrK
Premium Member to KrK
51 dollars for a pots line is crazy!
maxbrando
Premium Member
join:2014-06-01 maxbrando Premium Member Re: AOL Software said by chip89: 51 dollars for a pots line is crazy! Especially for a POTS line without long distance.
Hmm
@rr.com Hmm to bockbock
Anon to bockbock
and your neighbor having a different area code. Try the same cityand your neighbor having a different area code.
Anon
@sbcglobal.net Anon to Kearnstd
Anon to Kearnstd
AT&T will happily make you pay long distances even on phone numbers called from a land-line phone in the SAME AREA CODE.
They'll claim some sort of local toll charge, but we all know it's just fraud... They tell you to call 411 to verify the #, but they'll happily tack on an extra fee for using 411. They'll just screw you over with countless charges. Where's the FCC? I know where, they are in their back pockets..
thedragonmas
Premium Member
join:2007-12-28
Albany, GA 132.6 11.0
Netgear R6300 v2
ARRIS SB6180
thedragonmas Premium Member Re: AOL Software said by ISurfTooMuch: What has me stumped is how he could have racked up that big a bill in a month. There really shouldn't have been a lag in LD billing on domestic toll calls, so he should have been getting monthly bills for this, and, even if he was connected 24x7, he couldn't have gotten charged that much unless he was paying international rates. At $0.25 a minute, his monthly bill would have been $10,800. Extremely high, but it's still far less than what he was charged.
Maybe he actually WAS making an international call. That would explain the extremely high bill, and it would also explain how he got hit with it all at once. Could his software have gotten configured to dial a number in Canada, or could he have been infected by one of those dialers that calls a toll number in Africa? Are those things even around anymore?
even so, my math shows 40 days of continuous use at that rate to equal ~$24k EDIT: my bad, this was a reply toassuming he did not have a LD plan at all, its $0.48/min » www.serviceguide.att.com ··· menu=101 i forget the exact term used, but even if you dont have a long distance plan, you are billed for long distance usually at a much MUCH higher rate than if you had a plan. this is the "default rate" your charged if your on att and dont have a plan.even so, my math shows 40 days of continuous use at that rate to equal ~$24k
WhatNow
Premium Member
join:2009-05-06
Charlotte, NC WhatNow to Anon
Premium Member to Anon
The area code has nothing to do with long distance charges. The exchanges the 3 digits after the area code determine the if it local or long distance. In many of the largest cities like NY city when they run out of numbers in the first area code they create a second area code.
When I was growing up my parents built a house on the border of an independent telephone company. On the other side of the barbwire fence was the Southern Bell exchange. We thought we had free LD into the SB exchange but we were paying for it in our regular bill. Our 4 party line in the independent exchange was more then a single party line with Southern Bell. If we had a heavy dew the phone went out.
I don't know why they still have LD. You can call anywhere in the US on a wireless phone.
DaveDude
No Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey ·Comcast XFINITY
DaveDude to Kearnstd
Member to Kearnstd
That actually happened to me in 1998, i was dialing across town to another area code. My town has 3 area codes. So MCI gave me some lame excuse that it was long distance.
i filed a complaint with 3 state agencies and dropped MCI. I didnt have to pay.
Flyonthewall
@teksavvy.com Flyonthewall to Kearnstd
Anon to Kearnstd
Move to Europe sometime. It's worse.
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144 openbox9 Premium Member Re: AOL Software It's just metered. Not a big deal. Actually, fixed line to fixed line is increasingly flat rate. It's calling mobile from a fixed line that gets crazy.
moes
Premium Member
join:2009-11-15
Cedar City, UT moes to Kearnstd
Premium Member to Kearnstd
our is like that, trying to call from Indianapolis to stilesville back home in indy, same area code mind you, but have to dial a 1 or 0, when calling this number... really....
ISurfTooMuch
join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL ISurfTooMuch to KrK
Member to KrK
It would try to find a local number, but, if he moved and didn't update his location, what was once a local call could have turned into a LD call. As I recall, LA has had 10-digit dialing for a while, |
get upset. The man and his wife had been guests in this home many times before. Over Shabbos lunch, however, the elderly man, a Holocaust survivor, revealed something that his hosts had never before heard: He had been a subject in the Mengele twin experiments.
I received the following correspondence from a Talmud scholar who detailed a recurrent nightmare he had as a child, six decades ago. He wrote: “I have never shared the following story with anyone, not even my parents, wife or closest friends.” At the end of his account, he added: “I wish to remain anonymous. Jerry Friedman was the first fictitious name that popped into my head.” So averse was he to being associated with a book about reincarnation that he even created a special Gmail account just to send me his story.
He described his recurring dream:
I was born in 1942 to American-born parents. As a young child I had a recurring nightmare. I was a child of about 7 years of age, lying on a well-worn wooden floor, my back propped up against a wall. The room was in my home, not my real home, but in my “nightmare home.” Somehow I knew that the home was in Europe, probably Poland.... The room was dimly lit and filled with choking smoke. I could see people on the floor who had been shot. They were my “nightmare” family. There were several uniformed men standing in the room – the perpetrators of the slaughter. I spotted a black gun on the floor next to me and picked it up, still lying on the floor with my back propped against the wall. I held it tightly in my two hands and aimed it at the upper chest of one of the uniformed men who was standing above me. The officer – I just assumed he was an officer of some sort because of his cap – just mockingly smiled at me as if to convey that he knew I would not have the courage to pull the trigger. I looked to the right and left of the officer and noticed the other men and their armbands with the strange symbols, X’s with the ends broken back, like a pinwheel. [At that point in his childhood he was totally unfamiliar with the swastika.] I looked back at the officer as he was slowly raising his gun towards me. I tried real hard to pull the trigger of my gun. I knew if I didn't pull it, he would shoot me. I just stared at his eyes and his mocking grin growing wider and his gun raised, pointing to my head. I wanted so much to pull the trigger of the black gun. Then the dream ends. Since early childhood, I have had an aversion to guns, especially black guns. I still get the chills when I see one.
Nechama Bornstein, a Jewish woman from Denmark, born in 1963, had a dream as an adult:
In the dream, I was walking with a group of people, through a darkened passage. At the end of this hallway, there was a wall, made of brown wooden planks. The ceiling was low. The wall to the left was set with white-painted bricks. … I knew that we were being taken to be punished. We had done something terrible, according to the Nazis. We were herded on, close together. … Then right before the end of the hallway, on the right, a door was slightly open. We were pushed through it and entered a fairly large room. It was lit, but I didn't see any source of light. …
Years later, a traveling exhibition of children's photos from Auschwitz was held in The Architect Academy in Copenhagen.
A small photograph on the wall caught my attention. … The small photograph wasn't showing a face, but a low-ceiling hallway. My heart started pounding. I moved forward, every step seemed to take an eternity, unfolding in another time dimension. I knew this place. There it was – the wall made of wooden planks, then that of white-painted bricks.... I was so upset, I could hardly breathe. I reached the small photograph. This was where we had been walking [in the dream]. There was the door to the right. A small sign beneath the photograph read: "Entrance to the gas chamber at Auschwitz."
Perceiving God’s Love
Reincarnation turns the gas chambers of Auschwitz and the pits of Babi Yar into terrible chapter endings rather than the final conclusion of the soul’s story. Every great epic includes fearsome chapters where, for example, the heroine is abducted by the villain and subjected to torment. If that were the ending, the saga would indeed be dubbed a tragedy. But if there’s a subsequent chapter, where the villain is vanquished and the heroine – now wiser and kinder for her ordeal – is reunited with her family and goes on to live a salubrious, happy life, would you call that story a tragedy?
The most impactful words I ever heard came from the mouth of Batya Burd, widow of Gershon Burd, speaking at a recent event. After her husband drowned on his 40th birthday, Batya was left a 39-year-old widow with five children under the age of ten. Some people have been asking Batya how such a tragedy could have occurred to her. Batya offered “a potential scenario just to quench the ‘Why?’”
What if, she asked hypothetically, she had been a religious girl in the Holocaust, and had seen someone very dear to her die in front of her. And her reaction had been to deny God, abandon Jewish practice, and rail against God to as many people as would listen. As Batya postulates in her hypothetical scenario:
“What if I spoke out very strongly to people around me that there must be no God, that He must have abandoned us, and I brought others down with me.” What if she then died, and in “the World of Truth,” where the soul goes after death, she recognized her mistake and asked for a chance to rectify it. And God gave her another opportunity to “get it right and fix what I had spoiled before.”
And what if she was born again into this world, and had “a good life, and, again, God had someone very dear to me die in front of me, and this time I was going to be given ample opportunity to stay strong in my faith, and I was going to be given a platform to strengthen other people to stay strong, and in that way not only would I rectify what I had done before, but I would go even higher.
"What a good, loving, caring, compassionate God, to allow me the opportunity to rectify and perfect myself and the world around me.”
Reincarnation is a powerful lens through which God’s love and mercy can be perceived in the cataclysms of life.
I’m not asking you, dear reader, to start believing in reincarnation, only to be open-minded enough to examine the evidence. As Jesse Bering wrote in his Scientific American blog: “I’m not quite ready to say that I’ve changed my mind about the afterlife. But I can say that a fair assessment and a careful reading of Stevenson’s work has, rather miraculously, managed to pry it open. Well, at tad, anyway.”
Sara Yoheved Rigler is collecting more stories for a book on this subject. Readers who have reason to believe that they had an incarnation in the Holocaust are requested to fill out this survey with their email address: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PD8C3ZXImage copyright Charleston Police Dept Image caption Police issued images from a surveillance camera of the suspect and a vehicle
Nine people have been shot dead at a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, and a hunt is under way for a white gunman.
Police described the attack at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church as a "hate crime".
They issued surveillance images of the suspect and said he had sat in the church for an hour before opening fire.
The church's pastor, state Senator Clementa Pinckney, is reported to be among the dead.
Follow the BBC's latest updates
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Community leaders called for people to come together, but said answers were needed
Image copyright AP Image caption Police say they are searching for a white male suspect in his 20s
Image copyright AP Image caption A group of worshippers later gathered nearby to pray
A prayer meeting was going on at the time of the shooting at about 21:00 local time on Wednesday (01:00 GMT Thursday) at the church in Calhoun Street.
Police described the suspect as white, aged 21-25, clean shaven with a slender build and wearing a grey sweatshirt, blue jeans and Timberland boots.
They released images from surveillance cameras showing him at the church, and also of a black four-door saloon car he was seen driving away in.
Speaking at a news briefing, city police chief Gregory Mullen said that six females and three males were killed, but that names would not be released until all families were notified.
"This is a very dangerous individual who should not be approached," he said.
He said that when police arrived at the scene eight people were already dead in the church and that one other person died later in hospital. There were three survivors, he added.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Police chief Gregory Mullen: "This tragedy that we are addressing is indescribable."
"This tragedy that we're addressing right now is indescribable," he said. "No-one in this community will ever forget this night."
A woman who survived the shooting told her family that the gunman said he was letting her live so she could report what happened, the Charleston Post and Courier reported.
She said the gunman had sat in the church before standing and opening fire, according to an official from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Charleston Mayor Joe Riley described the shooting as "the most unspeakable" tragedy.
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott tweeted: "My heart is breaking for Charleston and South Carolina tonight."
The Emanuel AME Church
Image copyright Google
Oldest African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church in US south
Referred to as "Mother Emanuel"
Roots stem from group of free blacks and slaves in 1791
Denmark Vesey - one of the founders - was a leader of a failed slave revolt in 1822
Rebuilt in 1891, replacing church damaged by 1886 earthquake
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King gave a speech at the church in April 1962
Charleston church's important role
Profile: Pastor Clementa Pinckney
The campaign of US Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush cancelled an event planned in Charleston for Thursday due to the shooting.
"Governor Bush's thoughts and prayers are with the individuals and families affected by this tragedy," his team said in a statement.
Helicopters were seen hovering above the area and a police chaplain was at the scene.
Image copyright Twitter
At one point police asked residents to move away because of reports of a bomb - but police later gave the all-clear.
A group of worshippers was seen praying near the church.
"We want some real answers now," one of the worshippers was heard saying.
The attack comes two months after unarmed black man Walter Scott was shot and killed by a white police officer in North Charleston.
The shooting prompted angry protests and highlighted racial tension in the city. The officer has since been charged with murder.
Charleston was also due to hold a ceremony on Thursday marking the eighth anniversary of another tragedy - the death of nine firefighters in a blaze at a furniture store in 2007.US President Donald Trump may order a review that could lead to bringing back a CIA program for holding terrorism suspects in secret overseas "black site" prisons where interrogation techniques often condemned as torture were used, two US officials said on Wednesday.
The black sites were used to detain suspects captured in President George W Bush's "war on terrorism" after the September 11, 2001, attacks and were formally closed by former President Barack Obama. Any return to the Bush administration's initial anti-terrorism tactics - including secret prisons and interrogation methods considered torture under international law - would likely alienate key US allies in the fight against militant groups like al Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIS).
The officials said Trump is expected to sign an executive order in the next few days. It would call for a high-level review into "whether to reinitiate a program of interrogation of high-value alien terrorists to be operated outside the United States" and whether the CIA should run the facilities, according to a copy of the draft published by the Washington Post.
Trump administration spokesman Sean Spicer said the draft was not a White House document. The draft published by the Washington Post appeared to have sections missing, suggesting that it may not have been a full version ready for Trump to sign. US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said the Trump administration did not write the document.
"My understanding is this was written by somebody who worked on the transition before who's not in the Trump administration. This is not a product of the administration," Ryan said in an interview with MSNBC. Aides to Obama said during his tenure that his prohibition against torture and efforts to close the Guantanamo prison in Cuba helped increase counterterrorism cooperation from US allies in the Arab world.
The now-defunct program's practices dubbed enhanced interrogation techniques - which included simulated drowning, known as waterboarding - were criticised around the world and denounced by Obama and other senior US officials as torture. The document ignited a bipartisan outcry in Congress. Many people in US intelligence agencies and within the military are opposed to reopening the harsh interrogation program, according to multiple serving officers.
"The President can sign whatever executive orders he likes. But the law is the law. We are not bringing back torture in the United States of America," Senator John McCain, a Republican who underwent torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said in a statement.
The CIA black sites were located in Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Thailand and Afghanistan. In 2006, Bush ended the use of harsh interrogation techniques and closed all the black sites except for one in Kabul.
Asked whether he wants waterboarding as president, Trump answered in an interview with ABC News: "I will rely on (CIA director Mike) Pompeo and (Defense Secretary James) Mattis and my group. And if they don't want to do it, that's fine. If they do want to do it, then I will work toward that end," Trump said.
"I want to do everything within the bounds of what we're allowed to do if it's legal. If they don't want to do it, that's fine. Do I feel it works? Absolutely I feel it works." Mattis and Pompeo had not been aware such plans were in the works, according to a congressional source.
KEEP GUANTANAMO OPEN
Trump's draft order would authorize a review of interrogation techniques that US officials could use on terrorism suspects, keep open the detention centre at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and send new prisoners there. Trump's draft also revokes directives by Obama to grant the International Committee of the Red Cross access to all detainees in U.S. custody and restrict interrogation methods to those in a US Army field manual.
Trump vowed during the 2016 election campaign to resume waterboarding and a "hell of a lot worse" because even if torture does not work, "they deserve it anyway." He has said he wanted to keep Guantanamo open and "load it up with some bad dudes."
Of the 41 prisoners left at Guantanamo, 10 face charges in war-crimes proceedings known as military commissions, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and his alleged co-conspirators. Bush established the military commissions, which Obama later changed.
The draft order said, "No person in the custody of the United States shall at any time be subjected to torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as proscribed by US law." It does not mention international laws to which the United States is a signatory that prohibit torture.
Congress passed the National Defense Authorisation Act in 2015, which reaffirmed a prohibition on torture and required US interrogators to adhere to techniques in the Army field manual. However, the Justice Department under Trump could issue an interpretation of US law that allows for the use of harsh interrogation techniques as occurred in the "torture memos" drafted under the Bush administration in 2002 and subsequently withdrawn.
Despite the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden during Obama's presidency, the dramatic spread of groups like Islamic State has exacerbated the threat from violent Islamist organizations. In a statement accompanying the draft order, the administration criticises Obama's policies, saying, "The United States has refrained from exercising certain authorities critical to its defence." But it acknowledges that the National Defense Authorization Act "provides a significant statutory barrier to the resumption of the CIA interrogation program."
"WORRISOME"
Human rights groups decried any attempt to bring back the black sites. "This is an extremely disturbing and outrageous attempt to open the door again to systematic torture and secret detention. This is the Trump administration making good on its most worrisome comments during the campaign," said Naureen Shah, Amnesty International USA's director of national security and human rights.
Critics say a return to harsh interrogations would enflame tensions in Muslim countries and be counterproductive. In the draft document, references to the "global war on terrorism" were edited and replaced with the phrase "fight against radical Islamism," reflecting language Trump often uses.
A former senior US intelligence official, who requested anonymity, said many CIA officers would oppose reinstatement of black site interrogations, in part because they were forced to obtain lawyers after the withdrawal of the Justice Department memos that legalized the harsh techniques. "People felt they were hung out to dry," the former official said. "There is a lack of trust there."
Moreover, he said, it would be extremely difficult to persuade other governments to allow the CIA to establish secret prisons on their soil. "Where are you going to do this?" he asked. "How many countries are going to jump back into the US lap?
Trump's order, if enacted, could put new CIA Director Pompeo in a tight spot given that his workforce, according to multiple serving officers, largely opposes reinstating the black sites program. It could also complicate the confirmation of Trump's nominee for the job of director of national intelligence, former US Senator Dan Coats. As a conservative Republican congressman from Kansas, Pompeo defended the CIA's use of harsh interrogation techniques, arguing that they produced useful intelligence.
During his confirmation hearing for CIA director, he pledged he would "absolutely not" reinstate those methods. Yet in written responses to questions from Senate Intelligence Committee members, he appeared to leave the door open to restoring them. "If experts believed the current law was an impediment to gathering vital intelligence to protect the country, I would want to understand such impediments and whether any recommendations were appropriate for changing current law," Pompeo wrote.New Delhi: The time limit to receive and dispose of pay-related anomalies of central government employees arising out of the 7th Pay Commission has been extended by the Centre by three months.
The deadline to resolve any discrepancy arising out of the implementation of the 7th Central Pay Commission (7CPC) reports will be 15 November, instead of 15 August, an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said.
The Centre has accepted most of the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission, to be implemented from 1 January 2016.
“The time limit for receipt of anomalies is extended by three months from the date of expiry of receiving anomalies i.e. from 15 February 2017 to 15 May 2017," the DoPT order issued last week said.
The DoPT had last year asked all central government departments to set up committees to look into various pay related anomalies.
The anomaly committees were to be formed at two levels — national and departmental — consisting of representatives of the official side and the staff side of the national council and the departmental council respectively.
The Departmental Anomaly Committee is chaired by the additional secretary or the joint secretary (administration) concerned.
“The National Anomaly Committee will deal with anomalies common to two or more departments and in respect of common categories of employees. “The Departmental Anomaly Committee will deal with anomalies pertaining exclusively to the department concerned and having no repercussions on the employees of another ministry or department in the opinion of the financial adviser," the DoPT had said.
The committees have been mandated to receive anomalies through secretary, staff side of respective council. Cases where there is a dispute about the definition of anomaly and those where there is a disagreement between the staff side and the official side on the anomaly will be dealt by an “arbitrator", to be appointed out of a panel of names proposed by the two sides, it had said.
The arbitrator will consider the disputed cases arising in the anomaly committees at the national as well as department level.In a recent post, we explored the dread of a possible impending 2018 Expansion Draft for LAFC, and what that might mean for Atlanta United’s 2018 roster. If you missed it, you are lucky. Do not click this.
In today’s dreadful post, I look at the salary budget situation for Atlanta United heading into next year, or at least, I try to explore it as best I can given the limitations on information related to the team’s balance sheet (talkin’ General Allocation and Targeted Allocation moneys here) and certain other unknowns (Guzan’s wages).
This post will mostly avoid the basics of MLS roster and salary cap rules and GAM and TAM, not because I expect anyone to have them memorized nor because I pretend to be an expert, but mainly because they’ve been covered several times elsewhere, often by much smarter people. If you aren’t in a rush and want a primer on these complicated bylaws, below are some links to previous discussions by a host of writers as well as the official MLS rules literature:
Instead, this post is about where Atlanta United stands as they finish out 2017 and look to 2018 roster building.
I’m going to start with an overview of what the team’s wage structure looks like right now, only counting the senior roster players as these are basically the only wages that matter for the maximum salary budget calculation (I’m just gonna call it the “cap”).
That’s a total of $8.2M of wages on a salary cap of $3.8M, but relax. We’ll whittle it down. The max budget charge for any given player is $480K, and anyone making above that can be bought down to the max charge using GAM or TAM, or they can be one of the club’s three designated players (wrinkle: young DPs like Almiron and Tito have a max charge of $200K). So if we work that out we get closer. We take off $3.2M of wages above the budget charges for Almiron, Villalba, and Martinez, and we take off around $470K for McCann, Carmona, and Guzan, and we whittle it down to $4.5M, still above the cap of $3.8M.
So this tells us that in addition to the $470K of TAM used to buy down McCann, Carmona, and Guzan to the max budget charges, the club surely used additional GAM or TAM to buy down wages to get the team from $4.5M to the actual cap of $3.8M (around $700K by my estimations).
This is fine. They’re clearly compliant with the budget rules in 2017 (otherwise they wouldn’t be competing), and the club has built a solid contender that we as fans can all be happy with. This is an understatement even. There were some very clever, and perhaps genius moves made by the front office, and as Matt Doyle once told us, perhaps we should build a statue to Paul McDonough for his accomplishments in 2017 alone.
So, we know they built a strong 2017 roster, but is it sustainable in its current form for 2018? That depends on several important mysteries that we should explore. Top of mind for me are questions that follow in this order:
How much GAM and TAM does the club carry over to / receive from the league in 2018? This requires us to do some investigating and make assumptions to determine the amount the team started with in 2017 and some other guesses about 2017 trades. Is the amount of GAM and TAM determined in Question #1 enough to allow the club to continue to buy down the team’s wage bill (as currently constructed) below the cap in 2018? Especially considering a full year of Guzan, and Almiron and Villalba no longer qualifying as “young DPs” will make things tighter? Does the club have enough GAM and TAM or other types of roster flexibility to execute purchase options on Greg Garza and/or Yamil Asad, who we must remember are on loans from Tijuana and Velez, respectively. If any of the three above questions take us in a pessimistic direction, what are the clubs options to fix it?
Let’s begin.
How much GAM & TAM did ATLUTD start with in 2017? After trades and buy-downs in 2017 and additional league injections anticipated in the offseason, what does the GAM/TAM war chest look like heading into 2018?
This is an important question, and while I do not know the answer for certain, I can lay out my approach and venture a guess.
1A. What we know about GAM. What we can guess about GAM.
All MLS teams get $200K in GAM as a starting point with this number potentially rising based on several factors (teams that didn’t make the playoffs the previous year get $200K more, teams get $100K for making Concacaf Champions League and up to $200K for making the knockout rounds).
as a starting point with this number potentially rising based on several factors (teams that didn’t make the playoffs the previous year get $200K more, teams get $100K for making Concacaf Champions League and up to $200K for making the knockout rounds). Expansion teams get an undisclosed amount of additional GAM the aim being to help them catch up competitively in year one so they don’t get destroyed week in and week out. This is just a big fat guess on my part, but I’m going to mark this down as $500K.
the aim being to help them catch up competitively in year one so they don’t get destroyed week in and week out. This is just a big fat guess on my part, but I’m going to mark this down as $500K. Minnesota United and Atlanta United received an undisclosed amount of additional GAM to compensate them for the 2017 Expansion Draft being reduced from the traditional 10 picks down to 5. Again, without knowing for sure, I’m going to guess and value this at $250K, based on the fact that whenever a player is taken in an expansion draft, the team that lost said player is awarded $50K as compensation ($50K X 5 = $250K).
to compensate them for the 2017 Expansion Draft being reduced from the traditional 10 picks down to 5. Again, without knowing for sure, I’m going to guess and value this at $250K, based on the fact that whenever a player is taken in an expansion draft, the team that lost said player is awarded $50K as compensation ($50K X 5 = $250K). Atlanta United traded away $50K of GAM for the rights to sign Miguel Almiron and traded away $50K of GAM for the rights to sign Greg Garza.
for the rights to sign Miguel Almiron and traded away for the rights to sign Greg Garza. Atlanta United traded away undisclosed amounts of GAM for Michael Parkhurst and Tyrone Mears. My best guess is $50K each.
for Michael Parkhurst and Tyrone Mears. My best guess is $50K each. Atlanta United traded away and undisclosed amount of GAM for Sean Johnson and then turned around and traded Sean Johnson for an undisclosed amount of GAM and TAM. My guess is that the net GAM exchange between these two trades was $0.
for Sean Johnson and then turned around and traded Sean Johnson for an and TAM. My guess is that the net GAM exchange between these two trades was $0. Atlanta United traded Clint Irwin (selected in expansion draft) back to Toronto in exchange for an undisclosed amount of GAM (highly believed to be the $50K generated based on Irwin’s selection) + Mark Bloom.
Conclusion: My best guess is that Atlanta United started with $950K of GAM and after all of the various trades with undisclosed amounts, they had $800K to start the 2017 season and to potentially buy down wages in excess of the salary cap.
1B. What we know about TAM. What we can guess about TAM.
MLS teams received $500K of TAM in 2015, and Atlanta United and Minnesota United received a pro-rated amount of $300K each from this allotment.
MLS teams received $800K of TAM in 2016 (including Atlanta United and Minnesota United)
MLS teams received $1.2M of TAM in 2017 (including Atlanta United and Minnesota United)
It is rumored that an additional $2M of TAM will be available in 2018, and perhaps an additional optional amount ($800K?) for teams who would like to “purchase it” from the league. As far as I know the league still needs to approve 1 or both of these items.
Atlanta United traded away Sean Johnson in exchange for an undisclosed amount of GAM and TAM. My best guess is that this amount of TAM was $50K.
. My best guess is that this amount of TAM was $50K. Atlanta United traded away $75K of TAM in exchange for an international slot.
Conclusion: I am nearly certain that Atlanta United started with $2.3M of TAM and after a couple of trades, they had $2.45M of TAM to start the season with and to potentially buy down wages in excess of the salary cap. Additionally, they would’ve used this amount to pay a transfer fee for Leandro Gonzalez Pirez, a fee which we do not know, but which I estimate to be somewhere around $2M.
See below for a summary of my estimation of the “pre-wage buy down GAM and TAM balances”
So if we start with these amounts, and then reduce TAM by $470K to bring McCann, Carmona, and Guzan down to the max charges, and then use $700K of additional allocation money (not sure how much from each pool) to buy down the team’s adjusted wages from $4.5M to the $3.8M cap (remember from earlier), we’re left with $2M and change, which incidentally is right around the amount I estimate as the transfer fee paid for Leandro Gonzalez Pirez.
So there you have it. 2017! If my estimations are close to correct, Paul McDonough and company basically maxed out of the assets available to them and put together a fantastic team full of ambition and one that we are all very proud of. If we tack on an additional anticipated $2M of TAM for 2018 and the standard $200K of additional GAM that all teams get (and we assume Atlanta makes the playoffs and so they don’t get much else), we can start our 2018 analysis with basically these amounts to work with:
2. Is the amount of GAM and TAM determined in Question #1 ($2.2M) enough to allow the club to continue to buy down the team’s wage bill (as currently constructed) below the cap in 2018? Especially considering a full year of Guzan (est. $240K of additional cap hit to put him at $480K max, and $135K additional TAM to get him down to that amount), and Almiron and Villalba no longer qualifying as “young DPs” (and therefore each carrying with him an additional $280K cap hit)?
I believe technically the answer to this is “yes.” Obviously in any offseason players will depart (in part due to budgetary constraints) and other players will arrive, and that’s difficult to predict, but as a mental model, if we take the exact same roster and plop them into the 2018 future Atlanta United and check the wage bill and budget charges against the cap (which rises to $4M in 2018), then the team wage budget and GAM/TAM balance sheets look like this:
Basically in the above exercise, we’re increasing the wage bill to account for Guzan’s full year, the overall initial budget charges go up also due to Guzan, and due to Tito and Miggy no longer being young DPs, and the club uses $1.9M of the $2.2M of allocation money it has to pay down these salaries to the increased 2018 cap of $4M. This scenario assumes so many things (same roster, Tito as DP and not bought down with TAM, no additional transfer fees paid...etc). But yes, it looks as though they could stay in the cap based on the assets we expect to be available in 2018.
3. Does the club have enough GAM and TAM or other types of roster flexibility to execute purchase options on Greg Garza and/or Yamil Asad, who we must remember are currently on loans from Tijuana and Velez, respectively.
Well...no? I think? I’ll give this a shot. I mean, I have no idea what the contract situation is like with either player. MLSSoccer.com published these details about the Garza trade last year, which I interpret as there being perhaps another year’s worth of loan option remaining (a 2 year loan perhaps?), but no one has confirmed that. If we put Garza aside for a second (and let’s just pencil him in for another loan year at similar wages..hmm maybe a stretch), and again not knowing anything about Asad’s loan but assuming that there’s a purchase option (either a little less than a million, or a little more), I’m not sure Atlanta can pull it off keeping everything else the same, as we did in the above scenario. There’s not enough allocation money if in fact the fee is a little less than a million (there’s only around $360K free), and any fee over a million would make him a 4th DP — which is illegal (kind of!).
Again, that assumes everything else is constant, which it surely won’t be, but this should be our baseline framework to work with. There are certainly things that could be done. For what it’s worth I looked into paying down Tito’s wages with TAM to free up a DP spot for Asad. It might help some in that the transfer fee wouldn’t count against the cap or use any TAM, but in any realistic scenario the team would need to find $300K or so of cap room either synthetically (GAM or TAM) or otherwise based on the following: around $290K to buy Tito down from $770K to $480K, and then $350K to properly account for Asad’s wages (if we assume he gets a new DP level deal, it seems reasonable to put him right around $480K instead of the current $150K Atlanta is paying) compared to the $360K we estimate in the above section that they might have on hand for 2018 after the rest is accounted for.
4. Are there other options?
Certainly. If there’s a way to loan Asad in for another year, you do that. Same with Garza. But if those aren’t options, I think you start by making Asad a DP to get his transfer fee of the books, then you go about looking for allocation money and/or cap space to buy down Tito and bump Asad up to the max. Your options are as follows:
If the league ends up allowing teams to purchase $800K or so of additional TAM as is rumored, I suppose you do this, buy down some wages and be done with it. Otherwise,
Hmm, where might we find some cap room?
Finding a home for either of the first two players, even if traded for no assets in return might free up enough space and/or TAM to get Asad in the door by paying down Tito’s wages to the max charge.
Special Discovery Player
There’s a weird rule in the MLS book that allows a team to sign a player and instead of taking his acquisition cost into the annual budget (as is the general rule), amortize his acquisition cost up to $500K over the player’s contract. In this case, to make the math easy, if Asad were to sign a 5 year deal and his fee was $1M, $600K would hit the cap in 2018 ($500K which can’t be amortized plus one fifth of the remaining $500K), which with some other tinkering involved, the club might have room for. The drawback being that a team can have only one special discovery player on its roster at any time, so they would sort of be “burning” this option upon use. Also, I’m not aware of the club having already used this on anyone else (say LGP) but had they and not disclosed it, it would change many of the conclusions in this post.
Conclusion:
Having painfully gone through it all, I feel better about this than I expected to. While the club is definitely stretching the limits of the MLS roster rules and available budget assets (as we’d want them to), the incoming league money infusions may just be enough to keep the 2017 team mostly intact. Otherwise, there are some options that have tradeoffs. And there will always be ins and outs once we actually get into the off-season and all that follows it. Let me know how you feel about it, if you made it this far. Interested to hear if anyone has other ideas. I suppose you can ask questions you may have about the rules and the math as well, but I don’t promise to be able to answer them.I was not intending to make an instructable on this so I don't have process photos but there are lots of tutorials on book-making on the internet which I will reference and I will do my best to explain my process as clearly as possible. A description of each item in the set is shown below the description of the process I used.
Book contents:
Three of the books have content written and published by JK Rowling which I typed in and formatted. These are The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through The Ages.
The content of "Charm Your Own Cheese" is recipes that I found by searching the internet for Harry Potter Recipes.
The content of the remaining books was developed using several websites and several books about the Harry Potter series. Some of the book are primarily "dictionaries" of some subject area of the books - spells, potions, plants, monsters, etc. Others, like History of Magic and Magical Theory are more like short essays on various subjects such as communication and transportation in the wizarding world, types of magic like divination or transformation, and timelines of both the history of the wizard |
entitled Umshini Wam, which is a popular Zulu struggle song meaning "bring me my machine gun". The film starred Ninja and Yo-Landi of Die Antwoord. In September 2011, Korine released a short film entitled Snowballs, sponsored by the Proenza Schouler fashion label.
Spring Breakers [ edit ]
Korine's next project was the crime drama Spring Breakers, which was produced in 2012 in Florida, and starred James Franco, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, and Korine's wife, Rachel Korine. In looking at early scenes being filmed and in speaking toward the plot, cast, and earlier works of the filmmaker, Indiewire wrote "this might be the weirdest movie the director has ever made simply by nature of being totally unlike his previous work."[28] "That Mr. Korine appears to be having it both (or many) ways may seem like a cop-out, but only if you believe that the role of the artist is to be a didact or a scold."[29] wrote The New York Times. Principal filming wrapped up on March 30, 2012.[30][31] The film was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival.[32] Spring Breakers received its world premiere at the 2012 Venice International Film Festival, and later was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival before being released to the general public in March 2013.[28][33]
Other works [ edit ]
Books [ edit ]
Korine has also published a number of books. In 1995 a screenplay for Kids was published by Grove Press, followed by a collection of the screenplays for Gummo, Julien Donkey-Boy, and Jokes in Collected Screenplays, published by Faber and Faber in 2002. In 2008 the screenplay for Mister Lonely was released by Swiss publisher Nieves with photographs by Rachel Korine and Brent Stewart. The majority of these books differ substantially from the movies eventually produced.
In 1998 Korine published a book entitled A Crack Up at the Race Riots, an experimental novel, described as his attempt to write "the Great American Choose Your Own Adventure novel" in his appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. Korine was eventually banned from Letterman's show after he was caught going through Meryl Streep's purse after breaking into her dressing room. In November 2008, Drag City published a collection of his fanzines called The Collected Fanzines with skateboarder/writer Mark Gonzalez. 2009 sees Korine returning to the collaborative zine process alongside fellow avant-garde artist Noel Sinclair Boyt.[34]
Art [ edit ]
Korine released a number of photographic collections, usually in conjunction with gallery exhibits. In 1998 he published The Bad Son in conjunction with Taka Ishii gallery in Tokyo, documenting his various photo shoots with Macaulay Culkin. In 2002, Pass the Bitch Chicken was released, a collaboration with artist Christopher Wool, which consists of Korine's photographs heavily edited by Korine and Wool. In 2009 he published Pigxote in conjunction with the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery and released by Nieves. The university describes the exhibition, which ran through February 26, 2009, as culling "together a number of photographs from Korine's private files in order to reveal a side of the artist's creative process that remains largely unexamined. Depicting an unnamed, mysterious young girl moving through a televised landscape of shifting contexts, Pigxote further illustrates Korine's interest in replacing plot lines and expected narrative tropes with intuitively arranged "experiential moments." They also provide a unique insight into the poetic mind of Nashville's most compelling prodigal son."[35] Most recently his works were presented in a 2003 exhibition at agnès b's Galerie du jour in Paris, with whom Korine has often been associated. In 2010, Korine collaborated with New York Visual Artist Bill Saylor on the book Ho Bags. The book consists of drawing and paintings in which Korine and Saylor drew over each other's works. In 2011 Korine collaborated with the New York brand Supreme, releasing a set of two skateboard decks featuring original artworks by Korine.
Commercials [ edit ]
Harmony Korine directed a commercial for Dior Addict Fragrance.
Music [ edit ]
Korine has directed a number of music videos for artists such as Sonic Youth, Cat Power and Will Oldham (e.g., No More Workhorse Blues). In addition, he sang on Oldham's "Ease Down The Road", and co-authored the lyrics of Björk's musical composition "Harm of Will" from her album Vespertine (2001). In 1999 Korine and Brian Degraw of Gang Gang Dance released a music CD SSAB Songs. "I don't really know what it sounds like", Korine explained to i-D magazine. "I only listened to it once. I think it's the kind of album I'd only listen to once". The tracks labeled "Harmony" on Songs in A&E are named after Korine by Jason Pierce of Spiritualized, who also made the soundtrack to Mister Lonely. "Harmony Korine" is the lead track on the solo album Insurgentes by Porcupine Tree lead singer Steven Wilson. He has also directed a music video for "Gold on the Ceiling" by The Black Keys, from their album El Camino. He also co-wrote the song "Florida Kilos" with Lana Del Rey and Dan Auerbach, which is featured on the deluxe edition of Del Rey's album Ultraviolence.
Korine directed the video clip "Needed Me" by Rihanna which was released on April 21, 2016.[36] In the same year, Korine directed a Supreme commercial starring rapper Gucci Mane (who had previously appeared in Spring Breakers), and appeared in the music video for Gucci Mane and Travis Scott's single Last Time. [37]
Themes and influence [ edit ]
Much of Korine's work is based around the dark humor and absurdism involved in dysfunctional childhoods, mental disorders, and poverty.[38] This is often incorporated into surrealist, non-linear forms and presented experimentally (see the mix of Polaroids, Super 8 and 35mm film that makes up Gummo). Blackface, tap-dance, and minstrelsy are common elements to Korine's work.[39] "I'm a huge fan of vaudeville – like Fanny Brice, Eddie Cantor, and Al Jolson... There's this random tragedy associated with the decline of the vaudeville entertainer, which is a theme in Gummo that I completely stole from vaudeville."[40] Like vaudeville, the narrative of Korine's work is abstract and works by association. Korine compares this concept to a book of private photos. On their own each photo would be seemingly random and devoid of context, but because they are compiled in one volume and presented in succession, a narrative exists. "That's how Gummo was written."[40] Improvisation is also an important filmmaking technique for Korine, as a way to maintain his movies as "living thing[s]."[9] Korine does not try to write messages or meanings into his scripts, as he finds it belittling to the audience. With his films, Korine strives to retain a "margin of the undefined."[41]
Despite the scorn of a majority of mainstream reviewers, he has won festival prizes at Venice and Rotterdam, among others, and established directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci and Gus Van Sant are outspoken proponents of Korine's work. On Gummo Van Sant said it "changed his life"[42] and Bertolucci said Korine has "created a revolution in the language of cinema."[43] A significant number of scholarly essays have been written on the importance of his oeuvre to film and art in general.[44]
The Toronto International Film Festival writes, "Such is the dilemma with Korine and his remarkable career; for all the fireworks, there is an impressive coherence in the subject matter of his work. His four feature films all seek to shed light on a certain class of people: unique and bizarre individuals usually lumped under the heading of'subculture.'... His portraits come from many angles – the baroque stillness of Gummo contrasts radically with the rough-hewn melodrama of Julien Donkey-Boy. His last film, Mister Lonely, had an epic quality and interest in celebrity that Trash Humpers disdains, preferring instead a low-end surveillance-video look with frequent in-camera lighting distortions and a cinéma-vérité authenticity.[45]
Recurrent in his work (with the exception perhaps of Mister Lonely) is a portrait of what Korine calls the "American Landscape."[46] He recently stated "to me, the most beautiful thing in the world is an abandoned parking lot and a soiled sofa on the edge… with a street lamp off to the side. America seems like a series of abandoned parking lots, streetlights and abandoned sofas."[47] Such a statement gives insight into Korine's complex aesthetic.
Korine has frequently been labeled as an enfant terrible and been accused of exploitation and self-indulgence, to which he has responded, "How can an artist be expected not to be self-indulgent? That's the whole thing that's wrong with filmmaking today... To me, art is one man's voice, one idea, one point-of-view, coming from one person."[48] Korine feels there is no need to justify or explain the images he puts to the screen, in that they are simply the result of "a cinema of passion and obsession."[40] "I mostly just make things to entertain myself and at the same time hope that there's some type of audience that likes what I'm doing."[49] Korine adds, "Film is like a dead art because of people not taking chances."[48] To Korine, the only films that matter are the auteurist works.[50]
On the current state of cinema, Korine comments, "When I look at the history of film – the early commercial narrative movies directed by D.W. Griffith, say – and then look at where films are now, I see so little progression in the way they are made and presented, and I'm bored with that. Film can be so much more."[7]
On looking for meaning in his films Korine states, "I think people will lose the film as soon as they start trying to figure out my logic or what I'm doing or while they're watching it start to dissect metaphors... I'm not really so interested in it working on a purely cerebral level. I'm much more concerned with it on an emotional level and that you leave feeling a certain way."[50] Korine states that if there is at least one image that sticks with you after viewing the film, then it is a success.[42]
Producer Cary Woods writes, "I think the best hope for cinema is allowing people who are artists to make a movie that isn't wholly ruled by screenplay structure... [Korine's] a storyteller, and he's gone out of his way to put images that are moving on the screen, and meaningful in some way."[42]
As critic Roger Ebert said in his review of Julien Donkey-Boy, "Korine, who at 25 is one of the most untamed new directors, belongs on the list with Godard, Cassavetes, Herzog, Warhol, Tarkovsky, Brakhage and others who smash conventional movies and reassemble the pieces... Harmony Korine is the real thing, an innovative and gifted filmmaker whose work forces us to see on his terms."[21]
In 1997, Korine's favorite writers were listed as James Thurber, S. J. Perelman, and Flannery O'Connor.[42] Korine has noted British filmmaker Alan Clarke as an influence.[51]
In a 1999 Dazed and Confused magazine article, Korine listed his top ten films as: Pixote by Hector Babenco, Badlands and Days of Heaven by Terrence Malick, Fat City by John Huston, Stroszek by Werner Herzog, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and A Woman Under the Influence by John Cassavetes, McCabe and Mrs. Miller by Robert Altman, Out of the Blue by Dennis Hopper and Hail Mary by Jean-Luc Godard.
Filmography [ edit ]
As writer/director [ edit ]
Miscellaneous [ edit ]
As director only [ edit ]
As writer only [ edit ]
As producer [ edit ]
As actor [ edit ]
As himself [ edit ]
In popular culture [ edit ]
The opening song on British Progressive rock musician Steven Wilson's solo debut album Insurgentes is called "Harmony Korine".My recent hike in the Olympic National Park has now been my longest single backpacking trip. We were out 7 days and 6 nights; the temperatures ranged from around the high 30’s (F) to likely mid 60’s (F), and we had a bit of sun, wind & rain. Conditions we experienced included: dirt paths, grassy meadows and scree fields, crawling under fallen trees & through grown over bushes, and across small streams. What I am trying to say is, this was a perfect opportunity to test my gear in some ways that I have not done so before.
Before leaving for my hike, I spent plenty of time debating about what to take, and what not to take. I did my homework by watching the weather reports, reading up on the past average conditions, and thankfully getting first hand reports from folks that live in the area. I took this information and applied to my previous experiences, so even though I had never been there, I had a good idea of what I could expect. In the end though, what I carried worked, and worked very well. I could not have asked for anything more…
So, as normal, I wanted to do a post hike gear talk video and cover some of the items that stood out to me on the hike. Each item can be seen in the video above, but I will list them out here too…
I am not going to type out my thoughts on each one, so if you are interested in my thoughts on them I will direct you to the video (above). Short story though, as I said already, the gear worked very well on this hike, and I honestly couldn’t have asked for anything better. If I were to be heading out the door today to do the same hike, I would re-pack the same stuff…
If you have any additional questions about the gear in the video, feel free to ask, of if you saw something else I was carrying that I did not cover in the above video, feel free to ask. I love talking gear, so I don’t mind… 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
~Stick~
Disclaimer: I am a Gossamer Gear Trail Ambassador. I am not obligated to write about any of the gear mentioned in this post, nor am I being paid to do so. As most of you should know, I just love talking about gear, and feel like I learned a lot about some of my gear on this hike and felt that I would pass that info along. Hopefully, it will help others make a better, more informed decisions about some of these specific pieces of kit…MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian naval and land forces have practiced swiftly moving military hardware and troops to annexed Crimea as part of a logistics exercise which foreshadows much larger war games there next month, the Russian Defence Ministry said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) listens to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev during their meeting in Crimea, August 19, 2016. REUTERS/Dmitry Astakhov/Sputnik/Pool
The training exercise comes at a time of heightened tension between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow accused Kiev of sending saboteurs into the contested peninsula to carry out a series of bombings. Kiev has flatly denied that.
President Vladimir Putin flew into Crimea on Friday where he planned to hold a meeting of his Security Council.
The Defence Ministry said in a statement issued late on Thursday that Sergei Shoigu, the defense minister, had observed part of the training exercise which took place in the Russian port of Novorossiisk.
It said specialized logistic troops had cooperated with Russian Railways and the country’s merchant fleet to rehearse moving troops, armor and technical equipment to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Vessels from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet had also taken part, including a submarine, a large landing ship, mine-sweepers and an unspecified number of guided missile cruisers. Around 2,500 troops and up to 350 armored vehicles had also been involved.
Shoigu had observed how quickly logistics troops were able to organize the loading of armored vehicles and landing troops onto a large landing ship and how quickly they could re-arm a mine-sweeper and a submarine, the ministry said.
“Training on how to destroy groups of saboteurs and how to repel underwater attacks was carried out,” said the ministry.
“Sergei Shoigu rated highly the logistic troops’ actions and the fact that they were able to rapidly organize the movement of significant amounts of hardware to Crimea.”
It said the exercises, which also took place in a number of other locations, began on Aug. 16 and would end on Aug. 20.
Russia’s main military exercise for this year - Caucasus 2016 - is due to take place next month and will also involve Crimea and Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
The Russian army’s Red Star newspaper in January quoted Colonel-General Alexander Galkin as saying the exercise would check combat readiness and test how air, sea and land forces collaborated together.Canadian public-sector workers are paid 12% more than their private-sector counterparts, says a study released Thursday by the Fraser Institute.
Although the conservative think-tank said Statistics Canada did not record data in enough detail to make a more rigorous comparison, public workers probably also had better pensions and other non-wage benefits, such as shorter work weeks and earlier retirement.
“To be frank, this is in line with previous reports that have been done since the ’70s, and in line with what we’ve seen internationally,” said Jason Clemens, the institute’s executive vice-president.
At a time of austerity, when federal and provincial governments face growing debts and large deficits, Mr. Clemens said he was surprised none seemed to be moving toward a system that would bring public-sector benefits in line with those in the private sector.
Citing earlier studies, the report suggested the differential is more likely the result of differing spending constraints.
While private-sector wages are limited by the need to turn a profit, the public sector has less incentive to be cost-effective. The only thing keeping public wages in check is politics.
Further, most public services are delivered by monopolies, which give workers greater leverage over the public purse.
For example, “In Ontario, they’re concluding negotiations with teachers to extend their contract at a time when the province is in very serious financial trouble,” Mr. Clemens said.
The province is in very serious financial trouble
“If that were a private-sector firm with that level of deficit and debt, there’s no way they would be entering into that kind of contract with their employees.”
This is the fourth paper the institute has published comparing private- and public-sector wages.
In 2011, a survey on the same topic by the Canadian Union of Public Employees found a difference of only about 0.05% in favour of the public sector.
While public employees in low-income jobs, such as cleaning or food preparation, were better paid than those in the private sector, this was not the case for higher-paid public employees, it found.
Further, the union said, the main gap stems from the fact women in the public sector, who make up a majority of that workforce, are paid more equitably than their private-sector counterparts.
Although the Fraser Institute report did not compare the wages of teachers in both public and private sectors, for example, Mr. Clemens disputes those claims, saying the wage gap holds even when controlling for factors such as gender and education.
“The methodology that was used is the methodology that is used in academic research. We controlled for part-time and full-time status, occupational sector, level of education, age, experience,” he said.
Public employees often enjoy other benefits, such as better job security, earlier retirement and more secure pension benefits.
“If you just look at the coverage rate, basically 88% of the public sector has a registered pension, versus 24% in the private sector. Of those that have a pension [in the public sector], 94% are defined benefits, whereas only 53% are defined benefits in the private sector,” he said.
The institute suggested several mechanisms for controlling public-sector wages, including legislation, wage boards, or making lump-sum payments directly to unions to allocate as they see fit.
“The irony is that the [system as it is] hurts public-sector workers,” Mr. Clemens said, adding wages comprise a massive portion of government budgets.
“They go through boom-bust cycles. In good times and surpluses, the government can negotiate fairly generous contracts with their employees. But as soon as the economy slows down, the first target that gets raised is, oftentimes, public-sector workers.”
National Post
• Email: [email protected] | Twitter: jengersonDeveloper Pixel Perfex have announced that their eye-catching indie title Earth Atlantis will be heading to Nintendo Switch.
Described as a side scrolling shooter with “monster-hunting gameplay”, Earth Atlantis tells the story of a great climate shift that leads to 96% of the earth being flooded with water, leading to the fall of humanity and (naturally) the rise of giant creature-machine hybrid monsters. As one of the survivors, you’re tasked with the mission of hunting down and destroying fifteen of the largest enemies in the ocean’s depths.
What’s immediately striking is the game’s fantastic art design. The game’s monochrome visuals are intended look like an “old explorer sketchbook” to bring to mind hand drawn explorer maps from the 14th century, when the sea was believed to be full of monsters.
In terms of extra features, Pixel Perfex promise multiple ships with special weapons, ship and weapon upgrade systems, and both auto and manual shooting options. See the full list below from the developer’s Steam page:
•A retro-style side-scrolling shooter
• Monster-Hunting ” gameplay
• Multiple ships with special weapons
• Ships & Weapons upgrade system
• Unique Pencil-Sketching visual style
• Manual & Auto-Fire options
It all looks pretty compelling, and the fact that Earth Atlantis seems to be more of an open world, Monster Hunter style game rather than your usual scrolling shooter seems like a neat twist for the genre.
Earth Atlantis will be shown off at A 5th Of BitSummit in Kyoto on 20/21 May. The game is expected to come to Switch, as well as PC and other consoles later this year.
Keep it at Nintendaily for the latest Earth Atlantis news.WASHINGTON — House Judiciary Committee members plan to roll out legislation after the August recess to eliminate an Obama era initiative that pressured financial institutions to drop accounts with businesses the administration found to be reprehensible.
Known as Operation Choke Point, the Obama Justice Department began pressuring financial institutions in 2013 to deny accounts for legal business operations like firearms dealers, payday lenders, porn merchants and drug paraphernalia vendors. The initiative essentially “choked” off these industries from mainstream banking institutions, sending them to cash only or smaller financial firms willing to take their business.
Missouri Republican Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer reintroduced the bill last month to end Operation Choke Point. Luetkemeyer expects a hearing and then a markup of the bill after the August recess. (RELATED: Lawmaker Reintroduces Bill To Eliminate Operation Choke Point)
“Basically, what’s happening is the DOJ and or the FDIC are intimidating the banks and cutting off financial services to certain business or entire industries of business that the FDIC and the DOJ don’t think morally have the right to exist. That’s their words not mine. Those are in their emails, and the reason that they’re putting the pressure on the banks to do this,” Luetkemeyer told TheDC Monday night.
The Missouri Republican explained further, “The bill was incorporated in the CHOICE Act. And we want to see how far it goes. So, we’re kind of get a little direction from the Senate. If they include it in their financial reform bill, then it won’t be necessary, but we filed a bill to be able to offer it if we see that the CHOICE Act is going to stall over [in the Senate].”
House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, Luetkemeyer and California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa met with members of industries harmed by Operation Choke Point last Friday. Jamie Fulmer senior vice president of public affairs at Advance America, a payday lending firm, was one of the attendees at the round table told The Daily Caller last Friday how the Obama era initiative hurt his company’s business.
“Since 2013 our company has lost 21 banking relationships and so, you know, at the core, the issue is that it was not based on any fundamental reason other than a high-ranking official at several regulatory agencies that found personal disfavor with you. They would use their authority and get these regulatory entities to leverage their regulatory authority over the banks and force them to cease banking relationships,” Fulmer said.
He added, “Every time we lose a bank it creates a new whole host of problems and underscored by the fact that at the end of last year in November we lost our largest remaining national bank, which was U.S. Bank, which roughly banked about 60 percent of our centers. We were given, without notice without warning, three months to terminate these accounts.”
Thanks @BobGoodlatte6 for joining in the Operation Choke Point roundtable. We heard from those impacted & will work to end this program. pic.twitter.com/Cyjih3Cgjh — Blaine Luetkemeyer (@RepBlainePress) June 23, 2017
Fulmer was among several individuals from industries at the roundtable on Capitol Hill last Friday discussing with lawmakers how Operation Choke Point harmed their businesses.
“For us, it’s a fundamental business issue. Without banking services, we can’t meet our depository needs in our 2,000 centers across the country. We have difficulty making our payroll payments to our employees as well as a payment processing to our vendors and landlord. Things like that,” said Fulmer. “You know we’ve lost five banking relationships in the last year, and while a company of our size has been able to cobble together a complex network of workarounds to keep our doors open, it is very uncertain whether or not these work-arounds are sustainable.”
California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa told TheDC on Monday why pushing these businesses to cash only circumstances makes it more difficult to track those who end up committing crimes and terrorist acts.
“In the global war on terror or one of the most important tools of the of the bad people is can. We monitor money in order to have tractability of terrorism,” Issa said. “By taking people out of banking relationships, we force them into a cash underground economy, so it’s a national security issue — rather than to take at risk companies out of banking but actually to put them into banking.”
Follow Kerry on TwitterSoldiers guard a crime scene where three men were killed by unknown assailants in the municipality of Cadereyta Jimenez, on the outskirts of Monterrey, Mexico, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril
With a month left in the year, 2017 has already seen record levels of deadly violence throughout Mexico.
The 2,595 homicide victims recorded across the country in November are second only to the 2,773 registered in October. All together, the numbers vault Mexico to 26,573 homicide victims through the first 11 months of the year — more than in any full year since the government began releasing that statistic in 2014.
The January-November total for homicide victims is a 27% increase over the same period last year, a 55% increase over that period in 2015, and a 67% increase over the first 11 months of 2014. (Mexico's government has also been accused of manipulating crime data to lower the incidence of high-impact crimes like homicide.)
Christopher Woody/Mexican government data
Mexican officials opened 2,212 homicide cases — which can contain more than one victim — in November. That's an average of 73.7 cases each day, and 68% of those involved a firearm.
During the first 11 months of 2017, 23,101 homicide cases were opened — a 23% increase over the same period in 2016.
The total homicide cases for the first 11 months of this year already exceed the number recorded during all of 2011, which was most violent year on record since the government began releasing crime data in 1997.
The homicide rate over the first 11 months of this year, based on the number of cases opened, was 18.7 per 100,000 people, according to Animal Politico. That exceeds the previous high of 17.8 cases per 100,000, registered in 2011.
2017 is also the third consecutive year of increases in the homicide rate over the first 11 months of the year — a cumulative increase of 57%.
At the state level, the increased violence has also been widespread, with some areas seeing a greater intensification than others.
Twenty-eight of Mexico's 32 states have seen an increase in homicides this year in comparison to last year, according to Animal Politico. (One of the four that haven't is Michoacan, a traditional hotspot for drug-related crime.)
A man slain by unknown assailants on the ground at Abraham Lincoln Avenue in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, August 9, 2017. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
Among the states that have seen increases, Baja California Sur, home to the Los Cabos tourist hub, saw the biggest year-to-year increase in homicide victims, rising 223%. Quintana Roo — the state on the opposite site of the country that is home to Cancun and Playa del Carmen — had a 108% increase in homicide victims.
Baja California, the border state where Tijuana is located, saw a 90% increase. Chihuahua, a border state prized by drug traffickers, had a 35% increase. As Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope noted on Twitter, Baja California had a similar number of homicide victims as Mexico state, despite having one-fifth the population.
Christopher Woody/Mexican government data
Colima, a Pacific coast state that has been the site of fighting between the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels, saw the number of homicide victims rise 35% between 2016 and 2017.
But Colima's 2017 homicide numbers were 368% higher than those recorded in 2015, and the state now has Mexico's highest homicide rate: 83 per 100,000 people.
The number of homicide victims rose 38% in Sinaloa, the site of a turf war between factions of the Sinaloa cartel earlier this year.
Nayarit, which borders Sinaloa to the south, saw a dizzying 610% increase, rising from 41 during the first 11 months of 2016 to 291 over that period this year.
Other data included in the government's report, as well as new information included for the first time, sheds more light on the scope and intensify of criminal activity in Mexico this year.
While the total number of crimes reported in the country fell between October and November, the first 11 months of this year have already seen 13% more crimes than were reported all last year.
The total number of violent robberies rose 37.5%, while violent car robberies — car-jackings — have risen 41% during the first 11 months of the year. Of the 23,101 homicide cases opened in January through November this year, 66% of them involved a firearm — up from 61% during the same period last year.
The total number of assaults rose a little more than 12% during the first 11 months of the year, and within that category, assaults with a firearm rose just over 37%, from 5,575 in January through November 2016 to 7,651 during that same period this year.
Two other high-impact crimes, extortion and kidnapping, rose 10% and 3%, respectively, though those crimes often go unreported.
Forensic technicians at a crime scene where unknown assailants left the body of a man wrapped in blankets on the side of a road on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
Crime data for November also comes with new categories meant to link the government's numbers to those reported by the national statistical agency and close gaps between the two data sets, according to Animal Politico.
The new data includes 31 new crimes, such as femicide, domestic violence, human trafficking, street-level drug sales, and environmental crimes. It will also contain information on the age and sex of victims.
Among that newly included data, which covers the period from January 2015 to November this year, domestic violence and street-level drug sales were the two most committed crimes. There were 436,145 cases of the former over that period and 113,639 of the latter.
Over that period, there were also 1,525 reported cases of femicide, or homicides that specifically target women.Following the success of its STEM education field trip program that will host more than 24,000 kindergarten through eighth grade students this school year, the 49ers Museum presented by Sony today announced the launch of a new educational initiative to introduce even more students – and their parents – to the organization’s innovative STEM curriculum.
Family Learning Nights will provide a structured environment and collaborative learning atmosphere for families to enhance their understanding of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts alongside their children. Scheduled for one night per month beginning in January, the sessions are free of charge and will help students and their parents explore STEM-based concepts and how they pertain to finding solutions to real-world problems. To see the full schedule of program dates, download the program guide, and to complete the free registration, please visit: http://www.levisstadium.com/family-learning-nights.
“The 49ers Museum Education Program’s introduction of Family Learning Nights is a unique way of bridging STEM education and valuable time spent with family,” said Jesse Lovejoy, museum director for the 49ers. “We are constantly looking for ways to inspire young people to achieve their dreams, and by combining hands-on learning in STEM disciplines with the opportunity to have parents take an active role in their children’s education, we believe we will do just that.”
Each lesson will include a one-hour tour of the 49ers Museum presented by Sony for parents and children to engage in various interactive exhibits before taking part in a one-hour, STEM-based lab activity, which will cover topics such as football forces, engineering in football and football H20. The collaboration will foster whole family involvement and exploration while infusing a STEM curriculum to shed light on the physics of football or the fundamental role that water plays in preparing and maintaining Levi’s® Stadium’s playing field.
The 49ers Museum presented by Sony, its Denise DeBartolo York Education Center and the Chevron STEM Zone opened in August of this year with plans to provide free STEM-based education to more than 20,000 K-8 students from throughout the Bay Area during the 2014-15 school year. Due to popular demand, the program is on pace to serve more than 24,000 kids in its inaugural year and has already accumulated a waitlist of more than 5,000 students for the 2015-16 school year. The Family Learning Nights initiative will provide the opportunity for thousands more individuals to experience the museum’s unique curriculum each year.
For more info on Family Learning Nights, please visit http://www.levisstadium.com/family-learning-nights. Although admission is free to families, limited space is available and registration is on a first come, first served basis. Please contact [email protected] for more information.
← Back to NewsIn the Philippines, the Balete tree is often associated as homes not for just insects, but also for supernatural creatures like tikbalang (demon horse), dwende (elves), kapre (smoking giants), and diwata (fairies).
Urban legend has it that at night, if you drive through Balete Drive in New Manila, Quezon City, a street named after a huge Balete tree that used to stand there in the middle of the road, a White Lady will suddenly appear out of nowhere and try to flag down your vehicle.
But if you really want to get scared, you’ll have to go out to the province and visit these three mystical trees.
At night.
Alone.
These are not your ordinary trees.
Make sure to bring your camera (or phone) to document any unnatural sightings or suspicious sounds emanating from these mysterious local attractions.
The Old Enchanted Balete Tree in Siquijor
Where is it?
Brgy. Campalanas, Lazi, Siquijor
Why see it?
When in Siquijor, don’t miss the chance to visit this century-old Balete tree. Because of its humungous size and eerie outline, this 400-year old tree easily became a tourist spot in the province of Siquijor.
What makes this Balete tree unique is the spring that emanates from the roots of the tree that goes directly to the man-made pool beneath it. It is interesting to note that the locals don’t know where the water is coming from.
Surprisingly, the water is very clean with fish swimming in it. If you want an instant fish spa, you may even dip your feet into the water and the doctor fish or the garra rufa will gladly exfoliate your feet for you. Everything in here is for free but you may wish to give a donation for the maintenance of the place.
As for hair-raising stories about this ancient tree, locals claim that they have seen old little people or elves surrounding the tree when the moon is full and apparitions during rainy nights. It’s up to you to find out the truth at your own risk.
How do I get there?
Get to Siquijor from Manila by taking a 1-hour flight to Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental and then taking another 1-hour ferry ride to Larena, Siquijor from the Dumaguete Port.
Hire a multicab to bring you to Campalanas where the tree is located. It is 10 meters from Siquijor’s National Highway and just few minutes away from Capilay Spring.
The “Millennium Tree” of Aurora
Where is it?
Brgy. Quirino, Maria Aurora, Aurora
Why see it?
|
Kappa Psi said it is “exploring its legal options” given the lack of police evidence.Made-in-America marijuana is on a roll. More than half the states have now voted to permit pot for recreational or medical use, most recently Oregon and Alaska. That number also includes the District of Columbia. As a result, Americans appear to be buying more domestic marijuana, which in turn is undercutting growers and cartels in Mexico.
"Two or three years ago, a kilogram [2.2 pounds] of marijuana was worth $60 to $90," says Nabor, a 24-year-old pot grower in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa. "But now they're paying us $30 to $40 a kilo. It's a big difference. If the U.S. continues to legalize pot, they'll run us into the ground."
Nabor declines to give his surname because his crop is illegal. The interview takes place on a hillside outside Culiacan, Sinaloa, located in Mexico's marijuana heartland. We stand next to a field of knee-high cannabis plants, their serrated leaves quivering in a warm Pacific breeze. The plot is on communal land next to rows of edible nopal cactus.
He kneels and proudly shows me the resinous buds on the short, stocky plants. This strain, called Chronic, is a favorite among growers for its easy cultivation, fast flowering and mood-lifting high. Nabor, who says he has grown marijuana since he was 14, says the plants do not belong to him.
"My patrón pays me $150 a month, but I have to plant it exactly the way he wants," he says. "He provides the water pump, gasoline, irrigation hoses, fertilizer, everything."
An Army Of Small-Scale Growers
There's an image of Mexican traffickers with shiny pickups, fancy boots and shapely girlfriends. But Nabor says most people who grow marijuana for the Sinaloa cartel are just campesinos like him.
He drives a motorcycle, and supports a wife and two kids. He says he grows pot to supplement his other work, which consists of collecting firewood and raising cactus. He says everybody plants a little marijuana here.
"This is dangerous work to cultivate it and to sell it. If the army comes, you have to run or they'll grab you. Look here, we're only getting $40 a kilo. The day we get $20 a kilo, it will get to the point that we just won't plant marijuana anymore."
The slumping economics of Mexican marijuana was not unexpected.
Two years ago, the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness, in a study titled "If Our Neighbors Legalize," predicted the drug cartels would see their cannabis profits plummet 22 to 30 percent if the United States continued to decriminalize marijuana.
At one time, virtually all the weed smoked in the States, from Acapulco Gold to Colombian Red, came from south of the border.
Not anymore.
"We're still seeing marijuana. But it's almost all the homegrown stuff here from the States and from Canada. It's just not the compressed marijuana from Mexico that we see," says Lt. David Socha, of the Austin Police Department narcotics section.
A Preference For Grown In America
Socha's observation is confirmed by the venerable journal of the marijuana culture, High Times Magazine.
"American pot smokers prefer American domestically grown marijuana to Mexican grown marijuana. We've seen a ton of evidence of this in the last decade or so," says Daniel Vinkovetsky, who writes under the pen name Danny Danko. He is senior cultivation editor at High Times and author of The Official High Times Field Guide to Marijuana Strains.
U.S. domestic marijuana, some of it cultivated in high-tech greenhouses, is three or four times more expensive than Mexican marijuana. Vinkovetsky says prices for Mexican weed continue to slide because it's so much weaker.
He says American cannabis typically has 10 to 20 percent THC — the ingredient that makes a person high — whereas the THC content of so-called Mexican brickweed is typically 3 to 8 percent.
"Mexican marijuana is considered to be of poor quality generally because it's grown in bulk, outdoors; it's typically dried but not really cured, which is something we do here in the U.S. with connoisseur-quality cannabis," he says. "And it's also bricked up, meaning that it's compressed, for sale and packaging and in order to get it over the border efficiently."
Reversing The Flow
To service the U.S. market, police agencies report some Mexican crime groups grow marijuana in public lands in the West.
And there's a new intriguing development.
DEA spokesman Lawrence Payne tells NPR that Sinaloa operatives in the United States are reportedly buying high-potency American marijuana in Colorado and smuggling it back into Mexico for sale to high-paying customers.
"It makes sense," Payne says. "We know the cartels are already smuggling cash into Mexico. If you can buy some really high-quality weed here, why not smuggle it south, too, and sell it at a premium?"
The big question is whether the loss of market share is actually hurting the violent Mexican drug mafias.
"The Sinaloa cartel has demonstrated in many instances that it can adapt. I think it's in a process of redefinition toward marijuana," says Javier Valdez, a respected journalist and author who writes books on the narcoculture in Sinaloa.
Valdez says he's heard through the grapevine that marijuana planting has dropped 30 percent in the mountains of Sinaloa. But he says the Sinaloa cartel is old school — it sticks to drugs, even as other cartels, such as the Zetas of Tamaulipas state, have branched out into kidnapping and extortion.
"I believe that now, because of the changes they're having to make because of marijuana legalization in the U.S., the cartel is pushing more cocaine, meth and heroin. They're diversifying," Valdez says.
Back in the hills above Culiacan, Nabor is asked, if prices for marijuana continue declining, what will he do?
"My dream is to get a good job, a regular job," he says, "where I don't have to do such dangerous work; a job that pays me a living wage."
When the interview is over, and the recorder is turned off, and we're about to drive back to the highway, Nabor quietly says he thinks he's done with marijuana. He's considering planting opium poppies, because that's where the market is going.
Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
Made-in-America marijuana is on a roll. Last month voters in Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia approved the recreational use of marijuana. That means the nation's capital along with more than half of the States now allow pot for fun or medical purposes. One argument made by the pro-legalization camp is that buying domestic marijuana undercuts Mexican cartel marijuana. Increasingly, that appears to be the case.
NPR's John Burnett traveled to the Golden Triangle, Mexico's marijuana heartland and reports that U.S.-grown marijuana is hurting traditional growers.
JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE: The black SUV bounces along a rocky road in rural Sinaloa state. We're about a half-hour outside the capital of Culiacan and really, what else are you going to sing on your way to a Mexican marijuana farm than a narco-corrido?
UNIDENTIFIED MEN: (Singing in Spanish).
BURNETT: Soon we cross a river where yellow butterflies alight on the mud and vines festoon the gallery forest. In a few more minutes, we're hiking up a sloping field planted with edible Nepal cactus. When the path disappears, we bushwhack down the other side through thick vegetation.
We're going down a pretty steep incline here.
After 10 more minutes we step into clearing and there they are - hundreds of knee-high marijuana plants, their serrated leaves quivering in a warm Pacific breeze.
Well, here we are. It smells a little skunky. The 24-year-old grower, Nabor, declines to give his surname because this is illegal. He wears flip-flops, jeans and a torn pullover shirt and has a wide amiable face, but he doesn't have a lot of good news these days.
NABOR: (Speaking Spanish).
BURNETT: Two or three years ago, a kilogram of marijuana was worth 60-$90, he says, but now they're paying us $30 or $40 a kilo. It's a big difference. If the U.S. continues to legalize pot, they'll run us into the ground. Nabor kneels and proudly shows me the resinous buds on his short stocky plants. This strain of marijuana is called Chronic. It's a favorite among growers for its easy cultivation, fast flowering and mood-lifting high. Nabor says he's grown cannabis since he was 14.
NABOR: (Speaking Spanish).
BURNETT: My boss pays me $150 a month but have to plant it exactly the way he wants, Nabor says. He provides the water pump, the gasoline, the irrigations hoses, fertilizer, everything.
NABOR: (Speaking Spanish).
BURNETT: There's an image of Mexican traffickers, with their shiny pickups, fancy boots and lots of girlfriends, but Nabor says most marijuana growers for the Sinaloa cartel are just campesinos like him. He drives a motorcycle and supports a wife and two kids. He says he grows pot to supplement his other income collecting firewood and raising cactus. He says everybody plants a little marijuana here in La Sierra.
NABOR: (Speaking Spanish).
BURNETT: This is dangerous work to cultivate it and to sell it, he says. If the Army comes, you have to run or they'll grab you. Look here - we're getting $40 a kilo. The day we get $20 a kilo, it'll get to the point where we just won't plant marijuana anymore.
The slumping economics of Mexican marijuana was not unexpected. Two years ago the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness, in a study entitled "If Our Neighbors Legalize" predicted the drug cartels would see their cannabis profits plummet 22 to 30 percent if the United States continued to decriminalize marijuana. Remember at one time virtually all the weed smoked in the States itself, from Acapulco gold to Colombian red, came from south of the border. Not anymore. Lieutenant David Socha works in the narcotics section of the Austin Police Department in a town that enjoys a good buzz.
DAVID SOCHA: We're still seeing marijuana, but it's almost all the homegrown stuff here from the States, you know, from Canada, all that stuff. It's just not the compressed marijuana from Mexico that we see.
DANIEL VINKOVETSKY: My name is Daniel Vinkovetsky and I'm the senior cultivation editor of High Times magazine. American pot smokers prefer American, domestically-grown marijuana to Mexican-grown marijuana. We've seen a ton of evidence of this in the last decade or so.
BURNETT: U.S.-grown marijuana - some of it cultivated in high-tech greenhouses - is three or four times more expensive than Mexican marijuana. Vinkovetsky says prices for Mexican weed continue to slide because it's so much weaker. He says American cannabis typically has 10 to 20 percent THC, the ingredient that makes a person high, whereas the THC content of so-called Mexican brick weed is typically three to 8 percent.
LAWRENCE PAYNE: Mexican marijuana is considered to be of poor quality generally because it's grown in bulk outdoors. It's typically dried, but not really cured, which is something we do here in the U.S. with connoisseur-quality cannabis and it's also bricked up, meaning that it's compressed for sale in packaging and in order to get it over the border efficiently.
BURNETT: In order to service the U.S. market, police agencies report that some Mexican crime groups grow marijuana in public lands in the West and there's a new intriguing development. DEA spokesman Lawrence Payne tells NPR that Sinaloa operatives in the United States are reportedly buying high-potency American marijuana in Colorado and smuggling it back into Mexico for sale to high-paying customers. It makes sense, Payne says. We know the cartels are already smuggling cash into Mexico. If you can buy some really high-quality weed here, why not smuggle it South too and sell it at a premium? The big question is whether the loss of market share is actually hurting the violent Mexican drug mafias.
JAVIER VALDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
BURNETT: (Translating) The Sinaloa cartel has demonstrated in many instances that it can adapt. I think it's in a process of redefinition toward marijuana.
Javier Valdez is a respected journalist and author who writes books on the narco culture in Sinaloa. Valdez says he's heard through the grapevine that marijuana planting has dropped 30 percent in La Sierra of Sinaloa, but he says the Sinaloa cartel is old-school. They stick to drugs even as other cartels such as the vicious Zetas of Tamaulipas state have branched out into kidnapping and extortion.
VALDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
BURNETT: I believe that now because of the changes they're having to make because of marijuana legalization in the U.S., Valdez continues, the cartel is pushing more cocaine, meth and heroin. They're diversifying.
Back in the hills above Culiacan, Nabor is asked if prices for marijuana keep declining, what will he do?
NABOR: (Speaking Spanish).
BURNETT: My dream is to get a good job, a regular job, he answers, where I don't have to do such dangerous work, a job that pays me a living wage. When the interview is over and my recorder is turned off and we're about to drive back to the highway, Nabor quietly says he thinks he's done with marijuana. He's considering planting opium poppies because that's where the market is going.
John Burnett, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.Across college campuses and the corporate landscape, a big idea has taken hold: the notion that microaggressions – subtle but offensive comments or actions directed at minorities or other powerless people – can lower performance, lead to ostracism, increase anxiety, and sometimes cause so much psychological pain that the recipient might even commit suicide. Yet despite the good intentions and passionate embrace of this idea, there is scant real-world evidence that microaggression is a legitimate psychological concept, that it represents unconscious (or implicit) prejudice, that intervention for it works, or even that alleged victims are seriously damaged by these under-the-radar acts. It is entirely possible that future research will alter some of these verdicts. Until the evidence is in, though, I recommend abandoning the term microaggression, which is potentially misleading. In addition, I call for a moratorium on microaggression training programmes and publicly distributed microaggression lists now widespread in the college and business worlds.
Context is all-important here. Despite impressive societal strides, racial prejudice remains an inescapable and deeply troubling reality of modern life. As recently as 2008, 4 to 6 per cent of Americans acknowledged in a national poll that they would be unwilling to vote for any African-American candidate as president. And this deeply troubling figure might be an underestimate given the social undesirability attached to admissions of racism. Indeed, a growing number of scholars contend that prejudice often manifests in subtler forms than it did decades ago. From this perspective, prejudice has not genuinely declined – it has merely become more indirect and insidious. There could well be some truth to this possibility.
Enter the concept of microaggressions, those subtle snubs, slights and insults directed at minorities, as well as women and other historically stigmatised groups. Compared with overtly prejudicial comments and acts, they are commonly understood to reflect less direct, although no less pernicious, forms of racial bias. For example, in attempting to compliment an African-American college student, a white professor might exclaim with surprise: ‘Wow, you are so articulate!’ presumably communicating implicitly that most African-American undergraduates are not in fact well-spoken. Last year, Shaun R Harper, founder of the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania, told an Intelligence Squared debate about meeting an African-American student whose engineering professor had expressed incredulity that he’d received a perfect score on an exam.
Few would dispute that these remarks, even if not malicious, are almost certainly callous. Prejudice undoubtedly manifests itself in subtle and indirect ways that have until recently received short shrift in psychological research.
Given this sort of backdrop, the microaggression concept has acquired traction in recent years. The Global Language Monitor deemed ‘microaggression’ the word of the year in 2015, in recognition of its sky-rocketing prevalence in everyday language. A popular Facebook page, The Microaggressions Project, was launched in 2010 to document instances of microaggressions and to demonstrate ‘how these comments create and enforce uncomfortable, violent, and unsafe realities onto people’s workplace, home, school, childhood/adolescence/adulthood, and public transportation/space environments’. As of June 2017, a Google search for ‘microaggression’ and variants returned more than 700,000 hits.
Over the past few years, the concept of microaggression has made its way into public discussions at dozens, if not hundreds, of colleges and universities, with many institutions offering workshops or seminars to faculty members on identifying and avoiding microaggressions. In other cases, colleges and universities such as the University of California, Berkeley have disseminated lists of microaggressions to caution faculty and students against expressing statements that might cause offence to minorities.
Microaggressions, which impact workplace satisfaction, have captured the interest of the business industry, too. In response, a number of major companies, including Coca-Cola and Facebook, have recently provided training to employees to detect and avoid implicitly prejudicial comments and actions, including microaggressions.
All of these applications hinge on one overarching assumption: that the microaggression research programme aimed at documenting the phenomenon is sound, and that the concept itself has withstood rigorous scientific scrutiny. This is not the case. Microaggressions have not been defined with nearly enough clarity and consensus to allow rigorous scientific investigation. No one has shown that they are interpreted negatively by all or even most minority groups. No one has demonstrated that they reflect implicit prejudice or aggression. And no one has shown that microaggressions exert an adverse impact on mental health.
I am hardly the first to raise questions regarding this body of research. Over the past few years in particular, the microaggression concept has been the target of withering attacks from social critics, especially – although not exclusively – on the right side of the political spectrum. These writers have raised legitimate concerns that concepts such as microaggression and trigger warnings (warnings to people regarding distressing material to come) along with so-called protective safe spaces can at times discourage controversial or unpopular speech, and inadvertently perpetuate a victim culture among aggrieved individuals.
My major concern is the rigour of the psychological science itself. In no way do I deny that subtle forms of prejudice exist and are becoming more prevalent in some sectors of society. Nor do I wish to discourage, let alone reject, research into implicit, or unconscious, prejudice. Nor do I contend that microaggressions don’t exist (even if a Breitbart story on my work claims the contrary). Instead, I contend only that microaggressions must be studied properly before we can claim to know their impact or the best ways of reducing the pain that they might cause. Good intentions are a start, but they are not sufficient.
The term microaggression was coined by the psychiatrist Chester Pierce at Harvard University in 1970 to describe seemingly minor but damaging put-downs and indignities experienced by African Americans. Pierce wrote: ‘Every Black must recognise the offensive mechanisms used by the collective White society, usually by means of cumulative proracist microaggressions, which keep him psychologically accepting of the disenfranchised state.’
But it was not until 2007 that the microaggression concept began to filter into the academic mainstream. In an influential article published in American Psychologist, the counselling psychologist Derald Wing Sue at Columbia University defined microaggressions as ‘brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioural, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of colour’. Microaggressions can be verbal comments, for instance subtle racial slights; behaviours, such as ignoring minority individuals; or environmental decisions, including naming all buildings on a college campus after white individuals, or even former slave owners. Sue and his team have called microaggressors ‘perpetrators’, but I prefer the somewhat ungainly term ‘deliverers’ to avoid any connotation of intentionality or malevolence.
To Sue and his colleagues, microaggressions are pernicious precisely because they are usually ambiguous. Victims are typically trapped in a catch-22. Because they are uncertain of whether prejudice has actually been expressed, recipients frequently find themselves in a no-win situation. If they say nothing, they risk becoming resentful. Furthermore, they might inadvertently encourage further microaggressions from the same person. In contrast, if they say something, the deliverer might deny having engaged in prejudice and in turn accuse minority-group members of being hypersensitive or paranoid.
Sue and his team differentiated among three subtypes of microaggressions, based on observation. Microassaults, which are the most blatant of the three, are explicit racial derogations ‘characterised primarily by a verbal or nonverbal attack meant to hurt the intended victim through name-calling, avoidant behaviour, or purposeful discriminatory actions’. They might include using racial slurs, drawing a swastika on someone’s door, or referring to an African American as ‘coloured’. In contrast to other microaggressions, microassaults are often intentional.
Microinsults are barbs and put-downs that impart negative or even humiliating messages to victims; they ‘convey rudeness and insensitivity and demean a person’s racial heritage or identity’. For example, an employer who says: ‘I believe that the most qualified person should get the job, regardless of race’ is delivering a microinsult, as is a teacher who fails to call on a minority student who raises her hand in class.
The statement ‘America is a melting pot’ ostensibly tells minority individuals to conform to majority culture
Finally, microinvalidations ‘exclude, negate, or nullify the psychological thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality of a person of colour’. According to Sue, a microinvalidation could be a white person informing an African American that ‘I don’t see colour’; it might also be an African-American couple receiving poor restaurant service and being told by white friends that they were oversensitive in interpreting this poor service as race-related.
Sue and his research team list a series of microaggressions that they say could be particularly dangerous, divided into categories: for example, the statement that ‘America is a melting pot’ falls under the category of ‘colour-blindness’ and ostensibly communicates the message that minority individuals should conform to majority culture. Saying ‘I believe the most qualified person should get the job’ falls under the category of ‘myth of meritocracy’, and is said to communicate the message that minorities have unfair advantage when applying for employment.
Intriguing as they are, Sue’s conclusions are really just theoretical conjectures based on information gleaned largely from focus groups, and are in no way backed up by rigorous data or experimental techniques. Despite this limitation, the past decade has witnessed the extension of the microaggression concept to other groups who historically have been the targets of prejudice and discrimination, including women; gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals; Asian Americans; Latinos; Muslim Americans and the obese. Virtually all of these extensions presume that the microaggression concept has already been validated and is well-established in African Americans – despite the fact that, by any standard of psychological science, this concept does not pass scientific scrutiny.
Microaggression, like most and perhaps virtually all psychological constructs, such as intelligence, extraversion and schizophrenia, is what philosophers term an open concept, characterised by intrinsically fuzzy boundaries, an indeterminate list of indicators, and an unclear inner nature. Open concepts are not necessarily problematic. To the contrary, they often allow researchers to explore a poorly understood phenomenon in an open-ended way.
As scientific knowledge progresses and information accrues, the concept can become less ‘open’. For example, in the days of the 19th-century Austrian scientist Gregor Mendel and even much later, the gene was initially a ‘wide open’ concept, understood only as a hypothesised unit of transmission of heritable traits. With the discovery of the structure of DNA, the concept became considerably more closed. At the same time, there is the risk of an open concept being so imprecisely defined and porous in its boundaries that it is not at all apparent where it begins or ends. When this is the case, concepts become ripe for abuse by advocates with different, even opposing, political agendas.
In the case of the microaggression concept, it is dubious whether its definition is sufficiently clear or consensual to permit adequate scientific progress. For example, it is not evident which kinds of actions constitute a verbal, behavioural or environmental indignity, nor what severity of indignity is necessary for an action to constitute a microaggression.
All this vagueness and ambiguity can lead to outright contradictions in what is or is not a slight. For example, both ignoring and attending to minority students in classrooms have been deemed to be microaggressions by some authors: one researcher called out ‘teachers ignoring the raised hands of Asian-American students in classrooms’ as a microaggression. Another regarded complimenting the student with a remark such as ‘That was a most articulate, intelligent, and insightful analysis’ as a microaggression. In still other cases, they have regarded both praising and criticising minority individuals as microaggressions. In one striking example, researchers solicited reports of supervisor microaggressions from 10 African-American graduate students in clinical and counselling psychology programmes. The authors identified both withholding criticism from supervisees and providing them with tough criticism as microaggressions.
Compounding this problem, microaggressions necessarily lie in the eye of the beholder. It is doubtful whether an action that is largely or exclusively subjective can legitimately be deemed ‘aggressive’. After all, referring to an action as aggressive implies at least some degree of consensus regarding its nature and intent. Take the statement: ‘I realise that you didn’t have the same educational opportunities as most whites, so I can understand why the first year of college has been challenging for you.’ If one person interprets the comment as patronising and hostile while another sees it as supportive, should it be classified as a microaggression?
The ‘eye of the beholder’ assumption generates other logical quandaries. In particular, it is unclear whether any verbal or nonverbal action that a certain proportion of minority individuals perceives as upsetting or offensive would constitute a microaggression. Would a discussion of race differences in personality, intelligence or mental illness in an undergraduate psychology course count? Or a dinner table conversation regarding the societal pros and cons of affirmative action? What about news coverage of higher crime rates among certain minority populations than among majority populations? It is likely that some or all of these admittedly uncomfortable topics would elicit pronounced negative emotional reactions among at least some minority group members.
This article itself could constitute a microaggression, as it challenges the experience of minority-group individuals
The boundaries of the microaggression concept appears so indistinct as to invite misuse or abuse. For example, according to Sue’s team, ‘the fact that psychological research has continued to inadequately address race and ethnicity … is in itself a microaggression’. Although few would dispute that the field of psychology should accord greater emphasis to certain scientific questions bearing on prejudice and discrimination, the rationale for conceptualising this insufficient attention as a microaggression appears flimsy.
One major scholar in the field even regarded the statement ‘I don’t usually do this, but I can waive your fees if you can’t afford to pay for counselling’ as a microaggression. The University of California system informs faculty members that referring to the United States as a ‘land of opportunity’ constitutes a microaggression, presumably because many minority individuals are not afforded the same opportunities for success as majority individuals. At least one research team has even classified saying ‘God bless you’ following another person’s sneeze as a microaggression, presumably because it could offend nonreligious individuals. According to some expansive definitions of microaggressions, this article itself could presumably constitute a microaggression, as it challenges the subjective experience of certain minority-group individuals.
Given the fluid boundaries of the concept, in hindsight even statements that might appear to be explicitly anti-prejudiced have been interpreted as microaggressions. Sue’s team, for instance, analysed what the Arizona senator and then-presidential candidate John McCain said in response to an elderly white woman during a 2008 campaign stop in Minnesota. The woman said: ‘I can’t trust Obama … He’s an Arab,’ and McCain immediately grabbed the microphone to correct her. ‘No ma’am,’ McCain retorted, ‘he’s a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with … He’s not [an Arab]!’
While acknowledging that McCain’s defence of Obama was ‘well-intentioned’, the researchers dubbed it a ‘major microaggression’. According to Sue, McCain’s assertion that Obama is ‘a decent family man’ implicitly communicated the message that most Arab or Muslim males are not decent family men, as well as the message that were Obama in fact a Muslim (which he is not), it would have implied that he was somehow dangerous or at least unworthy of admiration.
Although these post-hoc interpretations of McCain’s comments are interesting and might be defensible, they are concerning. In particular, they raise the possibility that a vast number of statements can be retrospectively labelled microaggressions. For example, had McCain responded: ‘No ma’am, he’s not an Arab – but what would be wrong if he were?’ – which is the response that Sue said McCain should have given – some advocates could have contended that McCain was subtly intending to insinuate that Obama might indeed be a Muslim. Furthermore, Sue’s interpretation overlooks the possibility that McCain was merely responding to the affective gist of the woman’s comment – namely, that Obama is a bad and untrustworthy person – rather than to its literal content. In doing so, he effectively communicated his central point – namely, that although he disagreed with Obama on many things, he did not believe that Obama was trying to conceal or lie about his ancestry, or that Obama was a bad person.
Conversation demands precision, but in the realm of microaggression, ambiguity reigns. Indeed, the recipient of a microaggression always harbours the nagging question of whether it really happened. Sue himself says that many racial microaggressions are so subtle that neither target nor perpetrator might entirely understand what is going on. The deep ambiguity of the phenomenon means that these statements can give us more insight into the respondents’ personality traits, attitudes and learning history than anything else. Furthermore, without evidence that external observers can agree on the presence or absence of microaggressions, how can we know whether a given microaggression occurred or was merely imagined?
The idea of microaggression stands at loggerheads with swaths of social and cognitive science. As José Duarte, then a psychology graduate student at Arizona State University, and his research team observed in a widely discussed article, much of contemporary social psychology are characterised by embedded values – typically of a politically progressive slant. The problem arises when researchers are unaware of the extent to which their sociopolitical perspectives infiltrate their assumptions regarding scientific phenomena. ‘Values become embedded when value statements or ideological claims are wrongly treated as objective truth, and observed deviation from that truth is treated as error,’ write Duarte and colleagues. Widely accepted studies show that all of us, researchers included, are oblivious to many of our biases, and that the best means of combatting such biases is to collaborate with, or at least seek the input of, colleagues who hold differing and ideally offsetting biases.
The microaggression field, like much of psychology, lacks diversity of thought, and it shows. For instance, statements such as ‘everyone can get ahead if they work hard’ or ‘I believe that the most qualified person should get the job’ are seen as microaggressions, but they might also be endorsed by those with highly individualistic worldviews, no prejudice involved.
Statements including ‘I am colour-blind’ or ‘We are all humans’ or ‘I don’t see you as black; I just see you as a regular person’ are assumed to be inherently false in the microaggression field. ‘Attaining a racially colour-blind society is unattainable and only reinforces racism and societal inequality,’ wrote Sue in his book Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence (2015). Although this position might be defensible, it is hardly the only legitimate perspective on racial colour-blindness. For example, many non-prejudiced participants might view the goal of a racially colour-blind society as achievable in principle, if not fully in practice. Ironically, conceptualising such statements as microaggressions runs counter to the crux of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr’s eloquent affirmation: ‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.’ A compelling argument could be advanced that many putative microaggressions, especially microinvalidations, lend themselves to a myriad of potential interpretations, some of them largely malignant, others largely benign.
Moreover, many of the implicit messages posited by Sue and colleagues appear to reflect the distortion of mind that cognitive-behavioural therapists term mind-reading. In this scenario, individuals assume – without attempts at verification – that others are reacting negatively to them. Cognitive-behavioural therapists typically regard mind-reading as a subtype of the broader tendency of individuals to jump to premature conclusions.
The concept of an unintentional microaggression is an oxymoron
Some microaggression researchers – and the people reporting so much pain from these comments and acts – might be themselves committing a similar error. For example, Sue regarded the question ‘Where were you born?’ directed at Asian Americans as a microaggression because it reflects the assumption that recipients are ‘different, less than, and could not possibly be, “real” Americans’. Yet most cognitive-behavioural therapists would maintain that leaping to this inference without attempting to check it out constitutes mind-reading. Instead of prejudice, it might in many cases reflect genuine and sincere curiosity regarding an individual’s culture of origin.
Even the word ‘microaggression’ can lead us astray. It implies that statements are aggressive in nature. Yet, confusingly, microaggression advocates posit that such behaviours are typically unintentional. As a result, the root word ‘aggression’ in ‘microaggression’ is conceptually confusing and misleading. Essentially, all contemporary definitions of aggression in the social-psychological and personality literatures propose or at least strongly imply that the actions comprising this construct are intentional. From this perspective, the concept of an unintentional microaggression is an oxymoron.
Does it matter? Research suggests that it might, because the perception of intent is a critical correlate of, and perhaps contributor to, aggression. Specifically, social-cognitive research on hostile attribution of intent suggests that if individuals perceive aggressive intent, they are more likely to respond aggressively in turn. Hence, labelling ambiguous statements or actions as ‘aggressive’ might inadvertently foster aggression in recipients. And labelling certain statements or acts as ‘microaggressions’ could fuel anger and even overt aggression in recipients: this possibility should be examined in the lab.
Even the prefix ‘micro’ sometimes gets things wrong – implying that these transgressions are barely visible or at least challenging to detect. Yet for a number of purported microaggressions, especially microassaults, this assumption is dubious. In particular, many or most microassaults appear to be emblematic of traditional, ‘old-fashioned’ racism. For example, one group of researchers says that ‘microassault may include calling a woman a “bitch” or a “whore”’. Sue and his team include in their list of microassaults the act of referring to an Asian American as a ‘Jap’ or a ‘Chink’ – but, really, is that kind of verbal attack ‘micro’ in the least? Such statements and behaviours are grossly offensive, and subsuming them under the broad microaggression umbrella could inadvertently trivialise patently racist acts. Moreover, if investigators find that total scores on microaggression are associated with minority psychopathology, might this not merely reflect already-established statistical associations between overt racism and mental health?
The terrain is fraught. Numerous items identified as microaggressive in the literature appear fairly common in everyday life, and not necessarily driven by hostile intent. For example, one study includes such items as: ‘A White person failed to apologise after stepping on my foot or bumping into me’ and ‘At a restaurant, I noticed that I was ignored, overlooked, or not given the same service as Whites.’ Being passed over by a taxi driver for a white person has been listed as a microaggression. In a study of microaggressions experienced by African-American faculty members in counselling and psychology programmes, the researchers identified a student calling a professor by his or her first name as a microaggression.
Yet it is likely that virtually all individuals who have lived in a major city, regardless of their race, have at least once been passed over by a taxi driver for a white person, and that virtually all faculty members, regardless of their race, have at least once had a student address them by their first name. Without at least some information concerning the frequency of the events, it’s difficult to exclude the possibility that many microaggressions merely reflect everyday occurrences in the lives of both majority and minority individuals.
All the vagaries and inconsistencies leave us an armchair taxonomy of microaggression, with rigorous psychological research yet to be done. Despite its provisional nature and in the absence of validation, the routine list of microaggressions continues to be distributed verbatim in many colleges. Furthermore, the focus groups used to generate the items have consistently been self-selected to include leaders and participants strongly predisposed to believe in microaggressions, potentially engendering serious biases. How do we know that offence taken at these comments derives from widespread social upset rather than the individual pain of the personalities who share the assumptions of microaggression researchers?
All this requires a hard and careful look. Numerous studies have revealed robust correlations between microag |
Charles (first from left) was among the royal mourners
After the Romanian revolution in 1989, he had a difficult relationship with the country's new rulers, who were afraid he would reclaim his throne.
Instead, he helped negotiate Romania's membership of the EU and Nato.
King Michael: Romania's democratic monarch
Romania country profile
Royal necropolis
As soldiers carried his coffin on Saturday, a clutch of foreign royals looked on, also including Spain's former Queen Sofia, King Carl Gustaf of Sweden and his wife Queen Silvia, Greece's former Queen Anne-Marie, Henri, Duke of Luxembourg, and Belgium's Princess Astrid and her husband Prince Lorenz.
His coffin is to be carried on the railway line his grandfather, Carol I, built from Bucharest to the royal necropolis at Curtea de Arges, north of the capital.
For most of the war, King Michael was largely a figurehead, scorned by Romania's fascist dictator, Ion Antonescu, during the four-year alliance with Hitler.
Image caption King Michael is seen here in 1951 with his wife, Queen Ann, who died last year
However, at the age of 22, he took part in the coup, ordering Antonescu's arrest on 23 August 1944.
After the Nazis' defeat by the Soviet army, communists took power in Romania and at the end of 1947, he was forced to abdicate.
He did not go back until 1990, after the fall of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
For Romanians, he was an important player throughout some of the most difficult times in their history: at heart a decent man and a democrat in an age dominated by totalitarian regimes, Romanian journalist Petru Clej writes.Today we’re joined by a true musical pioneer…he was one of the first artists to revolutionize the synthesizer and other than Pink Floyd, the only musician to have his album played in it’s entirety on BBC Radio One! His name is Jean-Michel Jarre…his ‘Oxygène’ series started in the mid 1970’s and he’s just released the third iteration last year. Jean-Michel is known for innovative live performances…he holds the Guinness Record for the largest concert in North America, he’s played a concert in collaboration with Kosmonaut’s in space, and was the first western musician to play in China! Oh and he’s sold over 80 million albums! Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any upcoming conversations on the ‘Two Hours with Matt Pinfield Podcast’.
#JEANMICHELJARRE #OXYGENE #ELECTRONICA #TIMEMACHINE #HEARTOFNOISE #SYNTH #SYNTHESIZER #CLASSIC #OLDSCHOOL #DANCE #AMBIENT #INTERVIEW #HEAVY #ROCK #ALTERNATIVE #TWOHOURS #MATTPINFIELDThat's all from our Live Blog for today. Thanks for reading. You can find the latest news on Greece here.
Responding to those talks with creditors, finance minister Tskalotos has said today: "There was convergence on some issues, less on others. The discussion was held in a very good climate and will continue,".
Both sides are aiming to finish talks by August 20 when Greece will need €3.4bn to pay back a maturing bond and interest payments to the European Central Bank. In the absence of an agreement, Greece will require another bridging loan to avoid going bust next month.
16.45
Troika meet with Greek finance minsiter
The heads of Greece's three main lenders and the ESM have met with finance minister Euclid Tskalatos and Syriza's economy minister George Stathakis in Athens today.
Creditors have reportedly demanded the following series of measures from the government as part of negotiations:
- the abolition of tax exemptions, oil subsidies and other benefits for farmers
- the increase of the tax advance for professionals and self-employed
- the opening of closed professions
- the abolition of parafiscal charges collected by bodies, municipal authorities and pension funds
- the abolition of an 8pc solidarity tax on incomes over 500,000 euros as they reportedly claim that it may result in tax evasion
The final mesaure to abolish a "solidarity tax" would only impact around 350 Greek taxpayers but is on part of the left-wing party's attempts to raise revenues from the richest Greeks.
Instead, creditors have proposed a single 6pc tax rate on incomes over €50,000.
15.20
Greek opposition attack Tsipras 'Plan B'
New Democracy, the largest opposition party in the Greek parliament have released a statement in the wake of Mr Tsipras' admission that he ordered his former finance minister to carry out contingency plans for a Grexit.
The party accuse the PM of trying to bring a Greek exit closer. Here's the statement:
What exactly did Mr Tsipras give an order for? At the beginning he told us he had authorized to determine the repercussions of a Grexit. Now he is saying something else, namely that he give the order for the drafting of a Plan B in the case of an emergency.
When there is fear that they are trying to push you out of the euro, you try to thwart this, not bring it closer.
Did it include a raid on the mint, the issuing of IOUs? Did it involve a parallel payment system? And to what extent are these things constitutional?"
14.40
Good news. ECB has started work to determine how much capital Greek banks need (summit said start post-summer). May finish exercise end Oct. — Hugo Dixon (@Hugodixon) July 31, 2015
14.20
Greek economy set to contact -7pc this year
Economists at Capital Economics expect the Greek economy to contract by -7pc this year, based on the precipitous fall in economic sentiment recorded in June. This would be the worst yearly fall in contraction for four years - before the economy underwent the biggest private sector bond restructuring in history.
This severe deterioration could be much worse than the project 3-4pc of GDP expected by creditors. It will also mean budget surplus targets will be almost impossible to reach says Jennifer McKeown of Capital Economics, who says Grexit is still on the cards over the course of the next year.
From Jennifer:
If Greece undershoots the growth assumptions, even more austerity will be needed to reach given targets for the primary budget surplus. Syriza will almost certainly baulk at that. And even assuming that the economy contracts by “only” 3.3pc this year, the latest proposals for budget surpluses of 1pc this year and 2pc in 2016 are ambitious to say the very least.
It is hard to know what the precise trigger will be for Grexit risks to resurge or just when it will be pulled. But we still think that Greece will leave the euro-zone within the next twelve months.
13.25
Athens stock market to open on Monday
Its been hit by technical glitches and plenty of delays but it seems that Greece's main stock index will be ready to open after nearly six weeks of closure.
The head of capital markets commission in the country has told CNBC news today that the bourse will resume trading. Konstantinos Botopoulos of the CMC said he was still waiting a decree from the former finance minister "which is the legal prerequisite for the reopening”.
#Greece stock market to open on Aug 3, Capital Markets Commission head tells CNBC (via @euro2day_gr) #economy #markets — Manos Giakoumis (@ManosGiakoumis) July 31, 2015
13.15
Russia's central bank cut interest rates on Friday by the smallest amount this year, as policymakers face the challenge of trying to boost the economy while keeping a lid on rampant inflation.
The central bank reduced rates to 11pc, from 11.5pc in June. While this was fifth easing since January, it also represents the smallest cut this year.
A fresh slide in oil prices has put renewed pressure on Moscow, while Chinese stock market jitters have raised concerns about the health of the world's second-largest economy.
13.00
That shirt...
Earlier today, PM Tsipras launched a defence of the embattled Mr Varoufakis. In parliament, the Syriza leader said:
"You can blame him as much as you want for his political plan, his statements, for his taste in shirts, for vacations in Aegina."
"But you cannot accuse him of stealing the money of Greek people or having a covert plan to take Greece to the precipice."
Still no idea where @yanisvaroufakis gets his shirts from. Any guesses? pic.twitter.com/XQJhKjfC2E — Asa Bennett (@asabenn) July 31, 2015
12.00
Why does France want more euro integration?
The last few weeks has seen another rift emerge between France and Germany on competing visions for the eurozone. Yesterday, it was revealed that Germany's Wolfgang Schaeuble wants to strip the European Commission of its enforcement powers as the EU's executive body. Mr Schaeuble thinks the Commission has become too "political" and thus partisan under the presidency of Jean-Claude Juncker.
Philippe Legrain, a former adviser to ex-Commission president Barroso, has written an essay today arguing against a move towards a more federalised Europe - as pushed for by Paris. He argues that any such arrangement would be dominated by German visions for a "fiscal union". These enshrine principles such as tough budget discipline, rather than the flexible, reflationary policies Mr Hollande would like to see in the euro.
Here's a snippet:
Creating a eurozone government to bridge the economic and political divisions exacerbated by the crisis would be putting the cart before the horse. Or to put it differently, it would be seeking an institutional fix to a much deeper political conflict.
Yes, well-functioning common institutions would make Europe’s dysfunctional monetary union work better: Federalism works fine in the United States and elsewhere. But that is because there is broad political acceptance of those federal institutions’ legitimacy — which, in turn, is because the United States is a nation-state with enough of a sense of shared political community to accept majoritarian democratic rule. Unlike the eurozone. Germany and France sharing a government? Hard to imagine. Germany and Greece? Impossible.
The conceit in Paris is that a eurozone government would be shaped by France. But why would it be? Berlin rules the roost in the eurozone, so it is scarcely going to subordinate itself to a Franco-European institution in Brussels. When German officials talk about fiscal union, what they have in mind is not the Keynesian eurozone treasury that France would like, but a supranational fiscal enforcer that could rewrite national budgets at will. That would entail an extension of German power, not a reclaiming of French influence.
To use another French phrase, it’s time to break out of the pensée unique (groupthink) about how to make Europe work better. More integration is not always the solution; in fact, it can make matters worse.
11.20
Brussels: IMF position not incompatible with creditors
European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva has said this morning that "there is nothing new" in the IMF's stance that it will not disburse any Greek aid before it sees evidence of concrete reforms and a granting of debt relief.
"It is clear that the IMF has different set of procedures and a different timetable," said Ms Andreeva. "It is a two stage process, this is line with what was discussed at the [euro] summit."
She added the Fund's stance was "fully compatible with the European agenda to conclude an ESM programme with the IMF and then consider debt measures later in the year.
"So what matters now is the programme on the ground with the IMF present and fully participating in the talks."
10.55
Tsipras: Government was on a war footing
Alexis Tsipras has compared Greece's "Plan B" as with that of a country preparing its defences for war. He told his parliament it was the obligation of a responsible government to have contingency plans in place.
The PM also launched a fierce defence of his former finance minister, and his choice of shirts:
"Mr. Varoufakis might have made mistakes, as all of us have... You can blame him as much as you want for his political plan, his statements, for his taste in shirts, for vacations in Aegina."
"But you cannot accuse him of stealing the money of Greek people or having a covert plan to take Greece to the precipice."
#Tsipras says #Varoufakis may have a bad taste in shirts but he did not wreck #Greece pic.twitter.com/1D2KnEKF2O — Nick Kounis (@nickkounis) July 31, 2015
10.05
Greece has highest unemployment rate in the eurozone
Joblessness figures from the euro today show that Greece remains as the laggard of the bloc. Unemployment measured at more than a quarter of the population in April, this compares to Germany which stands at a record low of 4.7pc.
Youth unemployment is also at a staggering 53.2pc in April 2015. The rest of the eurozone's south isn't far behind: Spain's young people have 49.2pc unemployment rates followed by Italy (44.2pc).
Unemployment in the eurozone. Greece: 25.6%. Germany 4.7% pic.twitter.com/1iupCBrOGb — Mehreen (@MehreenKhn) July 31, 2015
09.50
Some comments from Mr Tsipras earlier this morning.
"We didn't design or have a plan to pull the country out of the euro, but we did have emergency plans.
"If our partners and lenders had prepared a Grexit plan, shouldn't we as a government have prepared our defence?"
09.45
Tsipras staves off rebellion...for now
Last night, Syriza's central committee voted to hold an internal ballot of their members in September.
This came after the PM asked his party to wait until an agreement with creditors was reached before delivering their verdict. This amounts to a small victory for the PM, who could have faced a party referendum as soon as Sunday. The ballot will postpone Syriza's day of reckoning for now, but according to some reports in Greek media, at least 17 members left the party last night.
09.30
Hello and welcome to today's live coverage of events in Athens.
This morning, Alexis Tsipras has come out in defence of Yanis Varoufakis. The PM has spoken about the plans the former finance minster was in charge of, to look into developing a parallel payments system, in public for the first time. He has confirmed he had full knowledge of the blueprint, and ordered Mr Varoufakis to take charge. But he denies that they amounted to a full blown "Grexit" plan.
#Tsipras: Of course, obviously, I personally ordered FinMin to put together team to manage emergency situation #greece — Kathimerini English (@ekathimerini) July 31, 2015
#Tsipras in parl't: Institutions had Grexit plan, not Greek gov't, ask the Commission #greece — Kathimerini English (@ekathimerini) July 31, 2015UCF kicker Donald De La Haye announced in a new video posted Sunday night he will keep taking advertising revenue for his YouTube videos and let the NCAA decide his fate.
A representative from UCF’s compliance office alerted De La Haye about a week ago he was risking his NCAA amateur status by receiving money for advertising linked to his popular YouTube channel.
De La Haye said during Sunday’s video that he struggled before deciding, “I’m not stopping for anybody.”
He later added, “I’m going to upload regularly to this channel. I'm not stopping that. I’m not demonetizing. I refuse to. So it’s out of my hands now.
“The decision is in the NCAA’s hands, whether they want to suspend me or whether they want to let me do me.”
A source told the Orlando Sentinel De La Haye was never given an ultimatum by UCF officials as implied during his first video about his meeting with the compliance official, but NCAA rules suggest De La Haye may have to choose between his generating revenue off his videos and playing college football.
"Just giving you guys an update on my decision and what's in store for my future." -- UCF kicker Donald De La Haye "Just giving you guys an update on my decision and what's in store for my future." -- UCF kicker Donald De La Haye SEE MORE VIDEOS
NCAA bylaw 12.4.4 addresses athlete self-employment.
The rule states an athlete “may establish his or her own business, provided the student-athlete’s name, photograph, appearance or athletics reputation are not used to promote the business.”
Most of De La Haye’s 42 videos document his daily life as a UCF athlete. His video about deciding between accepting ad revenue generated by YouTube channel and playing college football had 152,490 views Sunday. The kicker’s channel has 63,275 subscribers and he said in one of his videos he planned to send money earned via the YouTube ads home to his struggling family.
Since posting the video, De La Haye has done interviews with national media outlets and received extensive encouragement on social media. The attention along with UCF’s effort to comply with NCAA bylaws will likely force a ruling on De La Haye’s eligibility before the 2017 season opener.
De La Haye, a marketing major, started creating videos for fun back in 2015 shortly after joining the UCF football team as a kickoff specialist.
He played in all 13 games last season as a kickoff specialist at UCF. The Knights posted a 6-7 and reached the AutoNation Cure Bowl one season after posting a winless record. De La Haye kicked off 73 times for 4,441 yards, averaging 60.8 yards per kick, and totaled 37 touchbacks.
CAPTION UCF head coach Josh Heupel on 2019 National Signing Day UCF head coach Josh Heupel on 2019 National Signing Day CAPTION UCF head coach Josh Heupel on 2019 National Signing Day UCF head coach Josh Heupel on 2019 National Signing Day CAPTION New UCF quarterback Brandon Wimbush will have an opportunity to compete for the starting job when the Knights take the field for spring practice in March. New UCF quarterback Brandon Wimbush will have an opportunity to compete for the starting job when the Knights take the field for spring practice in March. CAPTION Following a Fiesta Bowl loss to LSU, UCF coach Josh Heupel and players Titus Davis and Michael Colubiale reflect on the 2018 season. Following a Fiesta Bowl loss to LSU, UCF coach Josh Heupel and players Titus Davis and Michael Colubiale reflect on the 2018 season. CAPTION Head coach Josh Heupel talks to the media as the University of Central Florida football team returns to campus in Orlando, Wednesday, January 2, 2019, after their Fiesta Bowl appearance on New Year's Day. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Head coach Josh Heupel talks to the media as the University of Central Florida football team returns to campus in Orlando, Wednesday, January 2, 2019, after their Fiesta Bowl appearance on New Year's Day. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) CAPTION Josh Heupel recaps Fiesta Bowl Josh Heupel recaps Fiesta Bowl
[email protected]: A day after his release from prison in Singapore, a multi-level marketing scheme founder has pleaded not guilty to charges in Malaysia on Thursday (Dec 21) that could send him back behind bars if convicted.
Singaporean James Phang Wah faces two charges under the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989 for accepting deposits without a valid license between 2006 and 2008 during his time assisting the management of its Malaysian affiliate, Sunshine Empire Sdn Bhd Malaysia.
Advertisement
Each charge carries a maximum fine of RM10 million (US$2.46 million) or a prison term of 10 years, or both.
"He felt shocked. He did not know, he was not ready in fact to be charged in Malaysia. He thought initially that the case was over in Singapore and the Malaysian government or authorities would not charge him for whatever offences he was seen to have done in Malaysia. But unfortunately turn of events, he's charged now in Malaysia," Phang's lawyer Shah Rizal Abdul Manan said.
Bail has been set at RM1 million (US$245,700) for each charge along with strict conditions including handing over his travel documents and reporting to the nearest police station once a month.
In June 2010, Sunshine Empire Sdn Bhd pleaded guilty to two charges of the same offence, and was fined RM1 million for each.
Advertisement
Advertisement
According to his lawyer, Phang had just been released from prison in Singapore on Wednesday after serving out a sentence that began in December, 2011.
The defence used this to argue for lower bail to be set, saying that their client, who was married with three children, had not been able to work and needed money for follow up treatment for health complications he suffered during his time in jail.
Singaporean James Phang Wah, previously convicted in Singapore over a Ponzi scheme, arrives at KL Sessions Court to be charged under BAFIA 1989. pic.twitter.com/s8FcI6qeyA — Sumisha Naidu (@SumishaCNA) December 21, 2017
BIGGEST PONZI-LIKE SCHEME IN SINGAPORE
On Jul 30, 2010, Phang was sentenced to nine years' jail and fined S$60,000 for running a fraudulent trading company and falsifying accounts.
In what is believed to be one of the biggest Ponzi-like schemes in Singapore, Phang's company sold "lifestyle packages" which promised its investors high returns.
However, the returns came from new investors, rather than genuine profits.
Sunshine Empire had been placed on the Monetary Authority of Singapore's investor alert list in September, 2007, and was subsequently raided by the Commercial Affairs Department two months later.
Phang's wife Neo Kuon Huay was also fined S$60,000 for her involvement the case, while former company director Jackie Hoo Choon Cheat was sentenced to seven years' jail.Drake‘s highly anticipated More Life playlist is expected to be released this weekend on OVO Radio on Apple Music.
Last Week Urban Islandz reported that More Life will delay once again and arrives on March 4th and now sources inside OVO are confirming with us that the playlist will be released as planned this weekend. Since announcing the project in November last year, the LP has seen a number of delays, but DHH sources inside that it’s coming this weekend.
“More Life will be released during a listening session on OVO Radio all the tracks will be playing for the entire weekend,” sources told us. Drake is currently in the middle of his “Boy Meets World” tour in Europe and will be performing in Stockholm and Oslo this weekend. Last month he promised his fans in Amsterdam that the project would be released before his next show in that city. Well, that show on Sunday night and still no More Life. The tour concludes on March 28 in Amsterdam so perhaps Drake was referring to that final date in the Dutch capital.
Following the conclusion of his tour, Drake will take a brief break before starting to organize his upcoming First Annual NBA Awards on June 26. He is producing and hosting the show. “In light of the ESPYs, I don’t even know if I’m allowed to say this yet, we’ll find out, but I’ll say it anyways – I’m actually producing and hosting the first annual NBA Awards this year,” Drizzy said in a recent interview.
Seems Drake has a busy year ahead of him but everyone is holding their breath until he releases More Life. Having had the biggest selling album on the planet last year with Views, it will be interesting to see if he can top that success with More Life.Roller Rink Encouraged, But Loses Out To Bakery
by Nicole Allan | Oct 18, 2007 11:08 am
(19) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author
Posted to: Business/ Economic Development
Everyone from city aldermen to roller derby-er Evviva Weinraub (pictured) spoke in support of having a new roller rink in town, but the idea lost out for now to a better-funded plan to expand a local bakery and create new jobs. The legislative (as opposed to roller) action took place Wednesday night at a meeting of the Board of Aldermen’s Community Development Committee. The committee voted to approve the sale of a roofless, asbestos-ridden building at 108 Food Terminal Plaza to Joe and MaryAnn Montesano, owners of local bakery Something Sweet. The Montesanos plan to clean up the building and expand their growing business. Isee Greenwood (pictured) had hoped the city would give the lot to her instead. Instead of watching New Haven kids shoot each other, Greenwood said, she wants to teach them to roller-skate. By building an entertainment complex with a roller rink, arcades, mini movie theater, and food court, Greenwood said, she can lure teenagers from the streets. In order for kids to even walk through the door, she said, this complex must be on neutral — non-gang — territory. Like Long Wharf. Greenwood and a crew of supporters won the chance to make their case Wednesday night thanks to an earlier protest outside City Hall. Sandra McKinnie (left), an Edgewood community activist, said that kids in her neighborhood have been agitating for a roller rink for years now. With youth crime rates up and armed civilians patrolling the streets of Edgewood, McKinnie stressed the importance of creating safe gathering places for teens. “If you don’t see the urgency for it now,” she told aldermen, “then let’s sit back for six months and see, those statistics will break everybody’s hearts.” Local youth activist Maurice “Blest” Peters deplored the City’s prioritization of baked goods over its children. “Our children, we can’t just keep feeding them cake,” Peters emphasized. “Do we really want to save our children or is everything about the bottom line: money?” Chrissy Bonanno (at left in photo), the city’s deputy chief of economic development department, insisted that her office’s decision to recommend Something Sweet’s proposal over Isee Greenwood’s rink was not about money. Though 108 Food Terminal Plaza — which was repurchased by the city in 2006 — was appraised at $460,000 in June of 2006, a recent investigation of its interior reveals asbestos and lead problems as well as an almost non-existent roof, significantly lowering the property’s value. The Montesanos’ business plan, submitted in response to an open RFP (Request for Proposal) last year, promised to fix these problems while transforming the building into a warehouse that will provide 25 new jobs and increased property taxes for the City. In return, the Montesanos would pay only $100,000 for the property, according to their proposal. Bonanno and her economic development and LCI colleagues voted unanimously for Something Sweet over Greenwood’s proposal, as well as one submitted by food distribution business LC Cash-N-Carry and another by FTP Realty. Both Bonanno’s team and the aldermanic committee were supportive of Greenwood’s vision. They said the Long Wharf property is not the best spot for it. The neighborhood’s industrial character and heavy truck traffic might pose security concerns for Greenwood’s rink, and the decrepit state of the building is a massive financial obstacle, they said. “Let’s not limit ourselves to city land,” Bonnano said, encouraging Greenwood to consider other sites for the roller rink. “We don’t have that much land, and it’s trouble land. That’s how we end up with it.” Joe Montesano (pictured with MaryAnn) estimated he would spend about half a million dollars before the building would be in good enough shape to house his warehouse. Something Sweet is a for-profit bakery which exports its cakes and pies to Florida, Maine, and Minnesota; it has experienced a 35 percent average growth in the past 10 years. The Montesanos need the space to expand their business operations. Since they already have freezer space next door, 108 FTP is a perfect location for them. Greenwood’s start-up business plan appeared shaky in comparison to the Montesanos’, especially when Long Wharf Alderwoman Dolores Colon asked about its financial backing. Greenwood vaguely alluded to “private investors,” but her plan was not fully developed. “I want you to have a roller skating rink,” Colon said. She has taken Greenwood around her Hill neighborhood to garner support for the roller rink. “But I don’t want to be in the position of turning down Something Sweet and having them leave town and then having the building stand empty.” Colon implied that if the aldermen decided not to approve the sale to the Montesanos and to instead issue another RFP, Greenwood would not be able to pitch a financially viable plan for the property. Any doubts aldermen entertained regarding Greenwood’s finances they quickly balanced with praise for her vision. “I think we all,” East Rock Alderman Ed Mattison said, “or I know I, believe you have incredible energy and force and vision and I believe we want to do what we can to help you out.” Among Greenwood’s supporters was Evviva Weinraub (pictured at the top of the story), a member of Connecticut Rollergirls, part of an all-female roller derby league that would benefit from a New Haven roller rink. Weinraub pointed out that the new rink would not only serve as a gathering place for New Haven youth, but would attract visitors from across the state. The Rollergirls could also act as positive role models for New Haven girls, Weinraub said. “We’re young, athletic women, we do community service, and we have a desire to be part of a community.” Click here to visit the Rollergirls website and learn the rules of roller derby. Arguments like this were clearly not lost on the aldermen, but the committee eventually sided with Something Sweet for the Long Wharf property. SBI’s Frank Williams suggested that Greenwood look at alternate properties with fewer interior problems that she could rent until her business established itself. Though gang-neutral territories like Long Wharf are now few and far between in New Haven, aldermen seemed committed to helping Greenwood help New Haven teens. Winding up the meeting, Downtown Alderwoman Bitsie Clark pleaded with Greenwood “not to lose the faith,” not to let her energy diffuse into inactivity. Until Greenwood’s roller rink materializes, however, New Haven (and communities in other states) will benefit from an extra warehouse worth of Joe and MaryAnn Montesano’s crumb cakes.
Share this story with others.
Post a Comment
Commenting has closed for this entry
Comments
posted by: Outta-order on October 18, 2007 11:21am Common sense prevailed. Otherwise the taxpayer would have had to fund the acquisition and the ongoing operation.
posted by: robn on October 18, 2007 12:18pm Common sense prevailed because roller rinks are dangerous. Have you ever tried to roller skate around a curve and right in the middle of your turn, the jackass DJ turns on the disco-globe? Its carnage I tell you.
posted by: cedarhillresident I so get what Greenwood wants, but the city did make the right choose at this time in a budget and revenue crisis. I am sure it was a hard one to make because Greenwoods views are very correct. So I am sorry Ms. Greenwood and I hope that some other space for these plans come up. And I would like to congrate’s Something Sweet.
posted by: concrenedwestvilleres on October 18, 2007 2:02pm This was a well-thought decision. I hope that the owners of the bakery will use this opportunity to help provide employment opportunities to some of the disadvantaged of New Haven. Maybe they could possibly look to begin a high-school internship program to help kids learn the bakery trade in an after-school or cooperative environment. As for the roller rink, it is a good idea but there would be issues beyond financing to resolve. How would the kids get to and from the roller rink. Bus service is limited on many routes so it would be difficult at Long Wharf without some accommodation by the local transit authorities. Another issue would be preventing “neighborhood” gangs from coming to the rink and claiming it as their territory and keeping many kids from the rink. The need for added security would have to be addressed. I think an entertainment complex for kids to keep them off the street is a great idea, but it should be located in a more central area to allow greater access by the children of New Haven. Finally, Kudos to Chrissy Bonanno and her desire to help both sides. I am excited that New Haven has someone who appears to work tirelessly for the better of New Haven and not just for a political agenda. She is also willing to communicate with the public on sites like this site. I hope she keeps it up—if she does this city can move forward.
posted by: THREEFIFTHS on October 18, 2007 3:37pm Again The Voice Of The People Are Sold Out By
Politricks. If You Think That This Bakery Will Bring In Revenue Outta-Order, Robin Cedarhillresident And Concrenedwestvilleres Take A Look At This Website http://WWW.Chelseapiers.com This Entertainment Complex Brings In Millons Of Dollars
A Year!! And The Montesanos According to their proposal Will Pay 100,000 For the Property People
Wake Up and Smell The Mackrel And Look For A Hot Tub!!! So Yes The Montesanos Are Going To Benefit
Alright They Will Be Eating The Cake And New Haven Will Be Left With The Crumbs!!!
posted by: concrenedwestvilleres on October 18, 2007 8:45pm Chelsea Piers is different than anything that could be put in New Haven and different from what was proposed. Chelsea Piers is in NYC and has become a part of the tourist scene there. Much of what it offers you can’t find in the surrounding area (rock climbing, etc.). To think a roller rink for New Haven kids would be similar to what they have at Chelsea Piers is comparing apples and oranges. I would have liked to see an internship program and hiring from the poorer areas of town incorporated into accepting the proposal. New Jobs won’t be useful if they hire from Branford and Milford. There is alot of work to do in New Haven. This is only a beginning.
posted by: THREEFIFTHS on October 19, 2007 6:53am Concrenedwestvilleres
My Point Is Just What You Said Tourist And That Is How The Money Is Made, Long Wharf Can Hold A Entertainment Complex Like Chelsepiers. But Do To Poltricks The Powers That Be Do Not Want This. Look How Much Money Six Flags Brings In And Has Complexs Across The Country. Like I Said The Montesanos Will Be Eating Cake And New Haven Will
Eat Crumbs!!
posted by: robn on October 19, 2007 8:28am threefifth, Chelsea Piers is a really exciting project, but New Haven lacks the critical mass to support such a venture. We would need to attract half of the state population to match Manhattens population which is much more dense…plus theres only so many places that you can do large scale entrtainment in Manhatten whereas in CT theres open space and potential competition everywhere. Big ideas are cool, but i have no problem with New Haven making slow incremental changes, supporting small to medium sized businesses to provide local jobs. That being said…anybody checked lately how many local jobs (promised by Ikea) have materialized?
posted by: pedro on October 19, 2007 4:13pm Threefifths, I don’t think that Ms. Greenwood was prepared to offer more than the $100,000 that the Montesanos were paying. They are also going to spend close to $1 Million cleaning up the asbestos and building their warehouse. No one here is denying that a roller rink/entertainment complex is not a fantastic idea, but in that specific location, I don’t think it was a good fit. With any luck the city will help her find an ideal location in the city for her vision and it will soon be on it’s way to success!
posted by: THREEFIFTHS on October 19, 2007 5:30pm Robn
Look At New London Which Next Year Will Have Cruise Ships Comming In, How About Mystic. Long Wharf Can Hold A Entertainment complex Like Chelsepiers Or Even Small, As You Said Look At Ikea From What I heard The Only Good Thing About Is You Can Go In And Get A Good Lunch.
posted by: Outta-order on October 19, 2007 7:28pm 3/5ths,
It is clear that you are now functioning on mackerel overdose!
posted by: Chip Croft on October 19, 2007 8:10pm Once again the kids in the inner city of New Haven lose! They have told the Board of Aldermen time after time that they need after school and weekend activities to stay out of trouble. The kids I know in the Dixwell area have to go to Wallingford to skate and they are desperate for a rink in New Haven. They are not able to or can’t afford to get to Wallingford. A well managed, secure rink in neutral territory can and should be developed as soon as possible to - once again - give the kids a way to burn off their energy and prevent teen gun violence and thus minimize the need for legislation for the memorials around town. The kids should be put first - way ahead of a bakery! Wake up Aldermen didn’t you hear the cry of the kids at all those open hearings you had for them!!
posted by: Ralph Ferrucci on October 19, 2007 9:00pm As a former roller skate guard at Roller Haven in North Haven for almost 10 years, I thought the skating rink was a great idea. we used to have buses from New Haven schools al the time. this is a great idea to keep kids off of the streets. Unfortunately we went with a bakery. There is no provisions that requires the bakery to hire New Haven residents. The skating rink not only would keep new haven |
and successfully complete third grade (few don’t), they’ll be offered admission to Hunter College High School. And since 2002, at least 25 percent of Hunter’s graduating classes have been admitted to Ivy League schools. (In 2006 and 2007, that number climbed as high as 40.) Or take, as another example, Trinity School. In 2008, 36 percent of its graduates went to Ivy League schools. More than a third of those classes started there in kindergarten. Thirty percent of Dalton’s graduates went to Ivies between 2005 and 2009, as did 39 percent of Collegiate’s, and 34 percent of Horace Mann’s. Many of these lucky graduates wouldn’t have been able to go to these Ivy League feeders to begin with, if they hadn’t aced an exam just before kindergarten. And of course these advantages reverberate into the world beyond.
Given the stakes, it’s hardly a surprise that New Yorkers with means and aspirations for their children would go to great lengths to help them. Rather, what’s surprising is that a single test, taken at the age of 4, can have so much power in deciding a child’s fate in the first place. The fact is, 4 is far too young an age to reach any conclusions about the prospects of a child’s mind. Even administrators who use these examsindeed, especially the administrators who use these examssay they’re practically worthless as predictors of future intelligence. At information meetings, says Steve Nelson, head of the famously progressive Calhoun School, I’ll often ask a room full of parents when their children started to walk. Invariably, their replies form a perfect bell curve: a few at 9 and 10 months, most at 12 or 13, a few as late as 15 to 18. And then I’ll ask: What would you think if you were walking down the street, and you saw a parent yanking a 1-year-old child up from the sidewalk, screaming, Walk, damn it?’ The same, he says, is true of a system that insists a child perform well on a test at 4 years of age. Early good testers don’t make better students, he tells me, any more than early walkers make better runners.The National Park Service this morning formally announced its intent to proceed with the modification of the Mt. Rushmore monument in Keystone, South Dakota to incorporate the bust of President Barack Obama. The modification to the monument is scheduled to begin in late 2015, with a target date of September, 2018 for completion. The official announcement will be made tomorrow morning at the NPS' Washington DC offices.
The project will involve several hundred miners and engineers and will utilize state of the art machinery and environmentally-friendly(?) solvents to re-create Obama's bust in the area adjacent to the George Washington visage. The three-year completion time is admittedly optimistic given the fact that the original monument took a total of fourteen years to construct. Unlike the original effort, however, which relied on workers affixed to the top of the monument via rope harnesses, hydraulic lifts are expected to be placed with telescoping platforms, employing much of the same engineering technology currently in use to reconstruct the World Trade Center. The monument will remain open during the new construction period.
For those who question the Electoral timing of this, you may not be aware it has been in the works since 2010, and has less to do with the Obama Administration (which initially was lukewarm to the proposal) and more to do with the preferences of several multi-national corporations that expect to profit from the increased tourism the modification is supposed to attract. Several renderings for the monument have been submitted thus far and there has been no final decision as to the portraiture that will ultimately be used. This is one of several tentative renderings, vetted by sculptor Irving Gneus who is overseeing the project for the Park Service:
"The intent was to have Obama facing the same direction as Lincoln, given the milestones in race relations that their Presidencies represent," said Gneus.
In assessing the practicality of each design in light of its feasibility and durability in a granite medium, Gneus also considered but rejected (due to copyright concerns) Shepard Fairey's emblematic "Hope" poster
Gneus was interviewed by the New York Times' Phil N. Stone for this week's Sunday Magazine:
"We wanted to avoid overtly politicizing the modification of a historical monument that receives approximately three million independent visitors per year," he said. "The Hope poster, while admittedly iconic, is invariably associated with the Obama campaign. This is an American monument, not a Democratic or Republican monument."
"If this becomes a reality I will personally strap a load of C5 to my stomach and lower myself down onto the Obama sculpture's nose."
As this is literally a breaking story, there is little Republican reaction to assess. When the subject was breached in 2011 on his radio show, Rush Limbaugh said:The cost to the taxpayers of modifying the original monument, created by the Danish-born Gutzon Borglum, is expected to be largely offset by corporate donors, currently under contract to supply, among other things, the scaffolding required for the three year undertaking. The scaffolding in and of itself employs state-of-the art holographic imaging interpreted from "to-scale" simulations:
The original sculptures were begun in 1927 and completed in 1941. Interestingly, few Americans are aware that the sculptor originally intended "head to waist" depictions but was compelled by environmental and economic factors to settle on simply "busts" of each President's head.
After securing federal funding, construction on the memorial began in 1927, and the presidents' faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. Upon Gutzon Borglum's death in March 1941, his son Lincoln Borglum took over construction. Although the initial concept called for each president to be depicted from head to waist, lack of funding forced construction to end in late October 1941. The U.S. National Park Service took control of the memorial in 1933, while it was still under construction, and has managed the memorial to the present day
Mount Rushmore is controversial among Native Americans because the United States seized the area from the Lakota tribe after the Great Sioux War of 1876. The Treaty of Fort Laramie from 1868 had previously granted the Black Hills to the Lakota in perpetuity. Members of the American Indian Movement led an occupation of the monument in 1971, naming it "Mount Crazy Horse". Among the participants were young activists, grandparents, children and Lakota holy man John Fire Lame Deer, who planted a prayer staff atop the mountain. Lame Deer said the staff formed a symbolic shroud over the presidents' faces "which shall remain dirty until the treaties concerning the Black Hills are fulfilled."[23]
The monument, situated in the Black Hills of South Dakota, is not without controversy:The monument has also come under criticism for its implicit endorsement of "Manifest Destiny," the doctrine prevalent in the 19th Century that held it was Americans' "destiny" to sweep across and subjugate the continent. Many have credibly called this doctrine into question as a contrived justification for the attempted genocide of the Native American population.
National Parks spokesman Michael Angelo stated he believed the inclusion of Obama on the statue would represent a symbolic healing of racial tensions:
"Naturally we expect some pushback from certain political quarters, however we believe that over time even staunch critics of the President will begin to adopt amore historical perspective as to the nature of his service."
: Some reactions are now coming in from Republicans:
Mitt Romney:
stated that he won't be visiting the monument as he owns no homes in South Dakota and doesn't care for the people there. "Flyover territory for me."
"Thomas Jefferson should be added to the monument, not Obama. After all, he wrote the friggin' Constitution, didn't he?"
refused to respond to reporters' questions.
Witnesses outside of Fox News' headquarters on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan this morning reported hearing several muffled "explosions" or "pops" apparently emanating from behind the walls of the Fox studios. Ambulances were dispatched to reports of oddly duplicative, catastrophic head injuries. This story continues to develop...WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Her campaign barely three weeks old, Hillary Clinton already has been attacked by Republicans on everything from donations to her family’s charitable foundation, to her tenure as secretary of state and her ties to Wall Street. But her rivals, and the political action committees that support them, are treading more carefully on one incendiary subject: her age.
If elected in November 2016, Clinton would be, at 69, the second-oldest person to take the presidential oath for the first time, behind only Ronald Reagan, who turned 70 weeks after being sworn into office in 1981.
Questions of health and fitness for the presidency dogged two former candidates of a similar age, Bob Dole in the 1996 election and John McCain in 2008, each of whom was 71 at this point in the race. Time magazine featured Dole on the cover asking whether he was "too old" for the job. McCain was so determined to show that he was healthy that he often put in back-breaking campaign days.
“I do think age is an issue in a presidential campaign,” said Steve Schmidt, who was McCain’s campaign manager. ”There is a thin line between seasoned and decrepit.”
But several Republican campaigns that seem best positioned to exploit it don’t want to touch the issue - at least directly. That’s a shift from just a few months ago, when presidential hopefuls Senator Rand Paul, 52, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, 47, explicitly referenced Clinton’s age as a possible disqualifier, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell likened her to a cast member of the hit TV show “The Golden Girls,” which featured four older women living together.
“It’s a rigorous physical ordeal, I think, to be able to campaign for the presidency,” Paul said in November, referring to Clinton’s age. Now, however, Paul’s presidential campaign doesn’t want to talk about the issue. It declined further comment. As did Walker’s political action committee, even though last fall, he, too, noted that he could run for president “20 years from now” and be the same age Clinton is today.
Campaign aides to Paul, Walker and Senator Marco Rubio, 43, as well as Republican strategists, told Reuters there was little appetite in the party at the moment for a direct assault on Clinton on the issues of her age and fitness for office, even after a 2012 fall that gave her a concussion and caused a potentially life-threatening blood clot.
Similarly, anti-Clinton political action committees such as American Crossroads, America Rising, and Citizens United said they had no plans to launch ads centered on her age.
POLL SHOWS DEMOCRATS UNFAZED
“It’s unwise to attack a political opponent based on her immutable characteristics, like race, gender and age,” said Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway. She said she has met with at least five Republican presidential campaigns seeking her services and none of them has indicated they want to go after Clinton on issues involving her age.
With Clinton swamped by questions about foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation and criticism of her use of a private email server while at the State Department, there is also simply no reason at the moment to engage in an attack that could be more divisive than beneficial, Republican strategists said.
They fear that highlighting Clinton’s age could alienate women voters whom Republicans need to be competitive in next year’s general election.
Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg said women older than 50 would likely comprise the largest bloc of voters in 2016.
There is little evidence that Democrats and independent voters are concerned about having another president in their 70s. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted this month showed that Clinton’s age would not influence how 67 percent of Democrats and 72 percent of independents voted in November 2016.
And rather than downplay her age, Clinton in recent campaign events in Iowa and New Hampshire embraced her role as a grandmother, striking sympathetic notes with other older women in the room about the responsibility of raising a grandchild.
Supporters have also sought to dismiss any concerns about her age as sexist, noting that she’s the same age as Mitt Romney when he ran four years ago. Romney largely avoided any protracted discussion about his health.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pumps her fists in an auto shop as she campaigns for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination at Kirkwood Community College in Monticello, Iowa April 14, 2015. REUTERS/Rick Wilking
IT’S A GENERATIONAL THING
While eschewing direct attacks, some of the Republican presidential hopefuls have found other ways to strongly hint that Clinton’s age should be an issue for voters. They have repackaged the issue as “generational” and suggested she is a product of the politics of the 20th Century. That argument will grow more vivid should Clinton face a candidate who could be a generation younger than her in the general election.
“When you look at Hilary Clinton’s age, it becomes an issue in a general election if she’s running against a 40-something new face as opposed to Governor Bush,” said Schmidt. Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, is 62.
Rubio, a quarter century younger than Clinton, referred to her as a ”leader from yesterday” when he announced his candidacy last month.
“We welcome the contrast (with Clinton),” said a top adviser to Rubio. “This election is going to be about the future.”
Clinton’s campaign declined to comment on the various statements by the Republican hopefuls, referring questions to Correct the Record, a rapid-response operation run by the pro-Clinton group American Bridge. A spokeswoman, Adrienne Watson, said it was Clinton’s rivals, not her, who were behind the times.
“Republican politicians are stuck in the 90s - the 1890s,” Watson said. “I’m sure all Americans, Republicans included, would appreciate it if Republican leaders would join (Clinton) in talking about our future.”
She saw Rubio’s comments as a coded attack on Clinton’s age.
“Marco Rubio basically disqualifies himself to be president when he diminishes any American for being too young or old or anything else,” Watson said.
BILL CLINTON’S PLAYBOOK
Yet Rubio’s approach is similar to the one employed by Clinton’s husband, Bill, in his reelection campaign against Dole in 1996.
“I don’t think Senator Dole is too old to be president,” Clinton said at one debate. “It’s the age of his ideas that I question.”
Dick Morris, who served as Bill Clinton’s campaign manager, said it was a subtle enough way to remind voters of the age difference between the two candidates.
“We obviously couldn’t attack age directly because of older voters,” Morris told Reuters. “What we did is adopt a whole strategy based on issues that would summon the memories and ideas of age without articulating it.”
Dole released his medical records in 1995 to assuage concerns about his age. But the damage control was not entirely successful: he mistakenly called the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team “Brooklyn,” and he tumbled off a stage during a rally.
Hillary Clinton, too, had what her husband seemed to term a “senior” moment in 2008 when she erroneously claimed she had come under sniper fire while on a trip to Bosnia as first lady.
Bill Clinton blamed the episode on his wife being exhausted, adding that her critics, “when they’re 60, they’ll forget something when they’re tired at 11 at night, too.”
U.S. former Secretary of State, and now a Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, attends a Georgetown University luncheon to deliver remarks and present awards for the Advancement of Women in Peace and Security in Washington April 22, 2015. REUTERS/Gary Cameron - RTX19UO9
(Editing by Ross Colvin)
Video: The rioting in Baltimore this week spills into the 2016 race as candidates struggle to find an appropriate response.analysis The infrastructure being deployed as part of the National Broadband Network isn’t just for consumers; it will also be used extensively by businesses and non-profit organisations. But the business-focused NBN plans released so far don’t deliver on the network’s promise; being little more than more expensive versions of NBN consumer plans.
So far, most of the discussion around real-world usage of the NBN infrastructure has focused on Australia’s consumer market. Pretty much every Internet service provider of any kind (except TPG) has released their first tranche of consumer pricing plans on the network’s fibre infrastructure; discussions about streaming video and TV in the home are ongoing; and many, many accounts of the experience of the first consumers to sign up to the network have been posted online.
Partially in an effort to address this one-sided discussion, the National Broadband Network Company had a huge product launch this week, focused on how the network can be used for business purposes. Telcos focused on the business market, such as AAPT and Macquarie Telecom, sent representatives and issued media releases loudly proclaiming their commitment to the NBN business market, and others hoping to get into the business scene in a bigger way, such as iiNet, also attended. Small business notabled such as Flying Solo founder Robert Gerrish and Peter Strong, executive director of the Council of Small Business of Australia, were trotted out to give speeched, and it appears as though the event went well for all concerned.
The only difficulty is … it’s hard to escape the impression that the whole event – in fact, the whole way which NBN Co and retail ISPs are communicating about the NBN for business right now – is pretty much just headline-grabbing fluff, without any substance.
The difference between consumer and business broadband plans has always been a bit nebulous to start with. If you go to the small business pages of ISPs such as iiNet, Telstra, Optus or others, what you’ll generally find is that they are virtually the same as the consumer offerings, but with higher pricing and sometimes lower quotas and a number of small, usually unnecessary add-ons, such as static IP addresses for broadband connections (presumably so you can host a server on the other end), upgraded support (generally unnecessary, when ISPs such as iiNet already provide around the clock support), security add-ons such as better spam and virus protection (again, usually unnecessary) and upgraded telephone and web hosting offerings. Sometimes more symmetric broadband speeds (which result in faster upload speeds) are also available.
As the operator of a small business myself (and one that requires constant, reliable broadband connectivity and web hosting to function), I’ve always found these offerings a bit anaemic. Why, after all, should I pay more for services I don’t really need, when the basic consumer-grade packages are usually more than enough? Yet, every time I do need to buy a new telecommunications service, whatever provider I am speaking to at the time will, as soon as they find out that I operate a business, attempt to shoehorn me into paying more for ‘business’ features which I probably won’t use.
I am very aware that I’m not the only small business operator who feels this way; nor the only one who habitually chooses ‘consumer-grade’ offerings by default; even when we’re talking about offices of up to a dozen people, ‘business-grade’ offerings often get ignored. It’s a different situation when you get up to the point of several dozen staff, of course, and also when you’re operating a large enterprise – at that point, standard packages usually become obsolete and you’ll probably find yourself negotiating a customised solution with a telco account manager.
The situation appears to have become even worse under the NBN, at least so far.
Take iiNet’s business-focused NBN plans, for example. If you compare them with the ISP’s consumer NBN plans, what you’ll find is that there are only tiny differences – the addition of a static IP address and more free email address, for example. And yet iiNet’s business-grade NBN plans are significantly more expensive. The most basic 12Mbps business plan costs $49.95 for consumers, but $79.95 for businesses, a moderate 50Mbps plan with increased downloads costs $74.95 for consumers but $104.95 for businesses, and the top-end 100Mbps terabyte plan costs $99.95 for consumers but $129.95 for businesses. $30 extra per month, just because your broadband connection is classified as “business-grade”? What a joke. Not happy, Michael Malone.
It’s a similar situation with Optus. The company offers stand-alone consumer NBN plans at $39.99, $59.99, $69.99 and $79.99 price points, but pretty similar packages for businesses at $59, $99 and $119 price points. Its bundled consumer data and voice plans range from $64.94 to $129, whereas its bundled business plans range from $99 to $129. And yet again, there appear to be very few business-related add-on benefits included as part of the plans … despite the increased cost.
So what about a dedicated, business-focused telco like Commander? Unfortunately the situation is little better. The company’s NBN fibre plans released yesterday are similarly woeful, starting from $114.95 for a 50Mbps connection with a piddling 300GB of data (for a similar price in consumer-land, you’d get twice the speed and twice the quota), to a whopping $161.95 for the company’s ‘Business Fibre Plus with Enhanced Support’ option, which comes with a terabyte of quota and 100Mbps speeds.
Commander’s website contains very little detail about how it can possibly justify charging such prices, but it does list the fact that its business NBN plans come with “improved support coverage and restore times”; “Increased ability to support multi-line voice services and telephony applications giving customers access to multiple lines within their premises” and an enhanced service level agreement.
Now in an ADSL broadband world, you can imagine that there could have been some justification for these price increases. Businesses are more complex beasts than consumers, with more-demanding requirements, especially during business hours. Consumers can generally get by if they suffer a short-term broadband outage, and can wait a while to deal with technical support in a call centre, but businesses often don’t have these kinds of luxuries. And they also often need add-ons such as static IP addresses or hosting packages that consumers don’t.
But as I’ve previously written, the fact is that the NBN’re fibre will deliver such a massive fundamental increase in basic broadband service delivery that most of these issues will cease to matter when it is rolled out.
Dedicated business customer support, for example, and detailed service level agreements, will mean very little to NBN business customers, due to the inherent higher reliability of the NBN’s fibre network. When the network never goes down and is always as fast as you need it to be … why would you need to call technical support? Who cares what the SLA is, under those circumstances? And would the provision of symmetric broadband even be a desirable option, when even basic NBN 100Mbps services come with 40Mbps upload speeds?
And the same can be said of the other ‘features’ which ISPs are offerings businesses. Allocating a static IP, these days, should cost an ISP like iiNet literally nothing, so it can’t justify charging for it. The construction of the NBN will make it much easier for businesses to source great hosting and web-delivered applications either from service providers in Australia or overseas, and given that most businesses don’t even use their ISP-allocated email addresses, who cares whether you get ten or twenty?
Now, there is one possible avenue which retail ISPs do have to promote specific business services under the NBN: Voice services. And indeed, if you closely examine NBN Co’s narrative around its business offerings (PDF), this is pretty much the only differentiating factor which the wholesaler has pitched thus far to businesses. The company’s ‘NBN for Business’ product, it said in September and again this week, will allow ISPs to offer businesses the ability to run up to 50 voice services over its fibre network. It will also offer extended levels of support for ISPs as part of the package.
What NBN Co is hinting at here is the holy grail for businesses. At the moment, most businesses beyond a handful of seats currently run in-house PABX systems to deliver voice telephony services to their staff; even if that voice traffic is eventually trunked over an IP network when it leaves the business. This is necessary because of the fundamental failure of Australian ISPs to successfully launch remotely delivered voice over broadband products; with PABX-like services hosted virtually on the ISPs’ end, rather than the customers’ end. I don’t know as much of the specifics of this kind of service as I would like; but in general this is described as ‘hosted PABX’ or similar.
If Australian ISPs can master this functionality under the NBN, and offer it delivered remotely to customers, they will have a compelling service offering on their hands; especially if they can manage to integrate it well with quality of service functionality on the NBN’s network. Certainly I know in the range of dozens of small businesses who would be interested in this kind of thing. Businesses would like to buy voice services the same way they do broadband – with very minimal equipment on their own premises – but currently they usually can’t. However, it’s precisely this kind of thing – the ability to take small and even medium business telephony off business’s hands – that none of the current crop of NBN business ISPs seems to be offering.
I can think of a host of other NBN-related packages which small to medium businesses would also be highly interested in buying from ISPs. Anything involving backup or business continuity features, for example (made much easier in an NBN world due to much higher upload speeds) would go down well, and although we’re not a huge fan of Optus’ marketing partnership with Google Apps (why use Optus’ version, instead of going straight to Google?), we can’t help but feel as though a single, one-stop shop billing solution for a combination of telco services and software as a service platforms (collaboration, CRM, billing and so on) would go down well in small business. And of course almost every small business also uses mobile technology at this point; why aren’t we seeing bundled NBN packages with mobile?
In all of these areas, perhaps the technology isn’t ready yet; perhaps there’s no margin; or perhaps it’s all just too experimental on the NBN network and NBN Co itself hasn’t yet gotten its business product offering to the right place yet. I’m not quite sure, although I’m sure retail ISPs are thinking about some of these issues.
But one thing I do know very well. Especially when you consider the basic service delivery improvements which the NBN will bring, no Australian business will be attracted to NBN packages which are just more expensive versions of consumer offerings. What they do want is to be able to confidently ditch their in-house PABX platforms for outsourced equivalents that they don’t have to administer themselves, and all the better if they can bundle additional services like mobile, backup and perhaps SaaS services in as well. Now that would be an NBN business package which we could all get behind.Despite not hitting the market until the middle of the last quarter, Apple sold 2 million units of its iPad Pro, exceeding sales of the Microsoft Surface, which came in at 1.6 million units for the quarter, according to IDC estimates. The research group called the iPad Pro the big winner in a declining tablet market which fell 10 percent year over year.
"Price is not the most important feature."
Losing out to the iPad Pro isn't a knock against Microsoft, who increased Surface sales by 29 percent year over year, but it does give credence to larger hybrid tablets as a potential growth opportunity. The IDC reports that the Surface Pro far and away outsold the smaller and cheaper Surface 3, indicating that bigger tablets with keyboards (which it calls detachables) may finally be ready for primetime as a laptop replacement for some users.
"One of the biggest reasons why detachables are growing so fast is because end users are seeing those devices as PC replacements," IDC research director for tablets, Jean Philippe Bouchard said. "With these results, it's clear that price is not the most important feature considered when acquiring a detachable — performance is."
Verge Video: iPad Pro vs. Surface Pro 4 comparisonWashington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump launched a fresh attack on the news media Sunday by tweeting a video -- bizarre even by his standards -- showing him knocking down and beating a professional wrestling "villain" whose face had been replaced by a CNN logo.
The 10-year-old video, hailing back to Trump's days as a guest celebrity at pro-wrestling events, came after a week in which his unrestrained Twitter attacks on two MSNBC talk show hosts drew widespread condemnation from members of both political parties.
The latest tweet was immediately condemned by journalists, who said Trump seemed to be promoting physical violence against the media, while a Republican lawmaker said the president was trying to "weaponize distrust" through his postings.
But administration officials insisted Trump has a right to respond to critical coverage.
In the 28-second video, Trump, in a suit and tie, is seen knocking down another man in a suit who is standing next to a wrestling ring. Trump repeatedly pummels the fallen man, whose face is covered by a superimposed CNN logo. A fake CNN logo then appears on the screen reading "FNN: Fraud News Network."
A longer version of the video online shows that the man being beaten was World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) owner-promoter Vince McMahon, a friend of Trump's. In that version, Trump also gets in the ring to shave McMahon's head as part of the "The Battle of the Billionaires" at the WrestleMania 23 event.
McMahon was present at the White House in February to pose smilingly with the president when his wife Linda McMahon -- a former WWE executive -- was sworn in as Trump's Small Business Administration chief.
- Encouraging violence? -
Trump has recently stepped up his attacks on the news media. Besides the crude attack on MSNBC co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski -- he called her "low I.Q." and said he had seen her bleeding after a facelift -- he has specifically bashed outlets including CNN, NBC, The Washington Post and The New York Times.
Amid a torrent of criticism over his attack on Brzezinski, Trump doubled down Saturday, tweeting: "My use of social media is not Presidential - it's MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL. Make America Great Again!"
With Trump's tweets coming just weeks after a mass shooting at a congressional baseball practice, reporters on Thursday asked White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders whether his rhetoric might be promoting violence.
She replied: "The president in no way, form or fashion has ever promoted or encouraged violence. If anything, quite the contrary."
But the wrestling video prompted a wave of recriminations.
"It is a sad day when the president of the United States encourages violence against reporters," CNN said in a statement. "Clearly, Sarah Huckabee Sanders lied when she said the president had never done so."
CNN suggested that Trump should instead be focusing on issues like health care, tensions with North Korea and his upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hamburg, Germany.
A journalists' group, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, roundly denounced the video. "We condemn the president's threat of physical violence against journalists," said a statement from the group's executive director, Bruce Brown. "This tweet is beneath the office of the presidency. Sadly, it is not beneath this president."
-'A right to respond' -
A White House official, Homeland Security adviser Thomas Bossert, defended Trump's video and said it demonstrated the president's "genuine ability to communicate to the people."
"I think that no one would perceive that as a threat," he said on ABC. "I hope they don't. I do think that he's beaten up in a way on cable platforms that he has a right to respond."
But Republican Senator Ben Sasse rejected that argument, saying on CNN that there is a difference between complaining about bad coverage and "trying to weaponize distrust."
Meanwhile, several journalists said they feared Trump was stirring up anti-media violence.
Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, said it was "unseemly" that Trump would "encourage such anger at the media."
And Annie Lowrey, a journalist with The Atlantic magazine, tweeted: "In seriousness, I am terrified that a journalist -- perhaps one of the many political reporters I know and love -- is going to end up dead."
Trump may see the news media as an easy target, one deeply disliked by his political base. But public approval of newspapers, at least, has significantly risen in the past year, a period marked by intensive and often critical reporting on the unorthodox Trump presidency.
Only 20 percent of Americans expressed confidence in newspapers in June 2016. But by last month the figure had risen to 27 percent, the Gallup polling firm reported.A small Romanian studio Interactive Stone is currently building an impressive horror adventure game Gray Dawn. The project is developed with the help of Unreal Engine 4 and so far it looks one of the best Silent Hill inspired indie games, that can compete with Allison Road. Gray Dawn passed Greenlight and have secured its place in Steam. We’ve talked with the Interactive Stone team and figured out how 3 former mobile developers were able to achieve the kind of graphic quality some AAA-games can only dream of.
Interactive Stone
Interactive Stone is an indie studio based in Iasi, Romania. We are three guys: 2 programmers (Eduard Bursuc, Razvan Sandu) and one 3D artist George Remus. We worked together in the same company that produced mobile apps. In time we turned our attention towards game development. We started to produce small games for Android and iOS. Then, we decided to make something more daring, something bigger!
Gray Dawn
It was our 3D artist, George, who came with the idea of making a horror game. He was always excited about creating something in the mood of Silent Hill. The way he tells it goes like this: he got a number of PCGames magazine (nr. 2 (10)/2008, ISSN: 1843-1194). The number happened to be dedicated to the horror genre. Among the titles were Resident Evil, Sillent Hill, Undying and Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth. At that time, in high school, he didn’t own a PC, only a typewriter that helped him write his first horror stories.
George brought the idea of this game to the rest of us. His excitement motivated us and we started work right away. The goal of this project is to make the game feel emotional, so we turned our attention towards our childhood stories: real events, unexplainable fears, our childhood dreams and our bedtime fairytales.
Innovative Gameplay for Horror Games
Though it may have strong narrative aspect, Gray Dawn won’t be a walking simulator. Being a horror game it is very difficult to keep away from making a gore experience. We plan to make more of a psychological horror. We want to make the experience very immersive. Also, we added a bit of spiritual/religious touch in order to spice it up! Of course, not in a blasphemous way. The game could be considered as magic-realistic: it breaks the main sense of the things around you, giving them new unimaginable purposes. We made quiet a strong research: from playing games, to watching movies and reading ancient philosophy and metaphysics.
The Choice of Unreal Engine 4
It wasn’t hard for us to chose an engine. We are proficient both with Unreal Engine 4 and Unity 5. In the end we decided to use Unreal, though we had more experience in Unity. We chose UE4 because it was easier for us to achieve the visuals that we wanted with less effort. Also UE4 comes with a lot of free tools and that was a decisive point.
The Importance of Light
One of the coolest thing in UE4 is the lighting. The process of creating a good lightmap starts in the 3d editor (3DS Max in our case). UE4 uses the second UV map of a mesh for lightmapping. Light is a very important feature.
Our artist is into baroque paintings. There we found some clues on how to use lights in order to achieve emotional effects. Less light can sometimes have more effect by producing a tense atmosphere. We chose to make the church interior in a dark, sort of gothic/romantic style. On the other hand you have those beautiful environments full of light and color! Also, the light from the environments are dynamic because it is easier for us to change it along the seasons change. But everything has a price. With Gray Dawn we will target stronger platforms.
Building Terrain
UE4’s terrain tool is amazing, it helps lowering development time a lot. We especially like the fact that we can make the foliage animate (simulate wind) through the use of materials.
Another great feature of the terrain tool is that it automatically loads different assets depending on the distance the user is at (LOD-level of detail), thus saving memory and allowing us to create even bigger worlds. Also the terrain paint tool makes it very easy to create environments like the ones we have in ‘Gray Dawn’.
Though Unreal does a lot of magic stuff concerning the graphics, it isn’t enough. Everything that happens in Gray Dawn is scripted. So we have to manage each part of the environments. If there’s a house down the river, it is not just a visual thing. It is there, because something will happen there.
Spilling Blood and Changing Seasons with UE4
We tried creating the blood in many ways: particle effects, meshes, mesh morphing but eventually we did it using decals. Decals in UE4 are not just simple images, we can assign a custom material to them and inside the material we can create many effects, including the blood waves we used.
The season change effect involved updating the materials for every object in the scene, the lights and the post processing affects. Updating all the materials was a lot easier than we expected. UE4 has a thing called MaterialParameterCollection. Basically you store some values (color, alpha, etc) in one place (a file), make all materials use them and then you can change those values at runtime and everything will update. No need to reference all materials (which is what we were expecting).
The visual effects are story telling aspects of the game. Also the season change plays a role in solving some puzzles.
Details
Details like small cups, paintings, furniture, make the scenes feel more authentic. It is very important to know how to scale objects, where to place them, their number in order to make a scene look bigger. For example, if the room didn’t had the teacups |
driving 4/4 beat and Wright plays accompaniment on a Hammond organ. Gilmour plays several short, sometimes distorted, guitar solos in C# minor as well as E major, F# major, A major, and B major.
At eleven minutes, the improvisatory section crossfades with the "noise" section of the song which begins with a "wind" crescendo, created by Waters using a guitar slide on his bass strings and sending the signal through a Binson Echorec. A high-pitched screeching noise, played by Gilmour on guitar, is prominent during this largely ambient section. After observing the song being created, Nick Mason noted: "The guitar sound in the middle section of 'Echoes' was created inadvertently by David plugging in a wah-wah pedal back to front. Sometimes great effects are the results of this kind of pure serendipity, and we were always prepared to see if something might work on a track. The grounding we'd received from Ron Geesin in going beyond the manual had left its mark." Harmonic "whistles" can be heard produced by Wright pulling certain drawbars in and out on the Hammond organ. Rooks were added to the music from a tape archive recording (as had been done for some of the band's earlier songs, including "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun").[6][7]
At fifteen minutes, the "noise" section melts away and a Farfisa Compact Duo organ played by Wright fades in. Several more "ping" noises are heard, and then an extended "build-up" sequence plays over B minor, F# minor, D/B minor, and E/F# minor. Mason's cymbals begin faintly, then crescendo as the section continues. Gilmour plays muted guitar notes to match the bassline, which Waters himself begins halfway through the section. Wright plays an organ solo, which lasts through the end of the "build-up". At the end of the "build-up" is a musical climax, where Gilmour plays high guitar notes in A major while the rest of the band plays only the bass notes. Following this is a short sequence structurally similar to the "build-up", except the entire chord progression is transposed up a whole tone to match the tonic of the song, C# minor.
The end of the instrumental climax leads into the song's third verse, followed by another "chorus". The band plays over two more "chorus" structures, and then a repeated, quiet verse progression serves as the outro of the song. In this section, a "choral"-sounding segment is heard. This was created by placing two tape recorders in opposite corners of a room; the main chord tapes of the song were then fed into one recorder and played back while at the same time recording. The other recorder was then also set to play what was being recorded; this created a delay between both recordings, heavily influencing the structure of the chords while at the same time giving it a very "wet" and "echoey" feel. This effect also results in a Shepard tone.
Composition [ edit ]
The piece had its genesis in a collection of separate musical experiments written by the band, some of which had been left over from previous sessions. The group then arranged the pieces in order to make a coherent 23-minute piece originally referred to as "Nothing, Parts 1–24". Not all of the pieces were used for the finished track, and out-takes included saying a phrase backwards, so it would sound correct yet strange when the tape was reversed. Subsequent tapes of work in progress were labelled "The Son of Nothing" and "The Return of the Son of Nothing"; the latter title was eventually used to introduce the as-yet unreleased work during its first live performances in early 1971. Studio recording was split between Abbey Road Studios, Morgan Studios and AIR Studios in London; the latter two were used because they had a 16-track recorder, which made assembling the individual components of the songs easier.
In an interview in 2008 with Mojo, when asked who had composed "Echoes", Wright stated he had composed the long piano intro and the main chord progression of the song. In the same interview he confirmed that Waters wrote the lyrics. During this stage of its development, the song's first verse had yet to be finalised. It originally referred to the meeting of two celestial bodies. The first verse originally took words from Muhammad Iqbal's poem "Two Planets", and later this was rewritten with the incorporation of original underwater imagery instead.[citation needed]
The title "Echoes" was also subjected to significant revisions before and after the release of Meddle: Waters, a devoted football fan, proposed that the band call its new piece "We Won the Double" in celebration of Arsenal's 1971 victory, and during a 1972 tour of Germany he jovially introduced it on two consecutive nights as "Looking Through the Knothole in Granny's Wooden Leg" (a reference to The Goon Show) and The Dam Busters, respectively.
Live performances [ edit ]
Pink Floyd first performed "Echoes" at Norwich Lads Club on 22 April 1971. It was a regular part of the band's set up to the concert at Knebworth Park on 5 July 1975.
The song was performed for Live at Pompeii, where it was split in two halves to open and close the film. The 1974 and 1975 performances featured backing vocals by Venetta Fields and Carlena Williams and saxophone solos by Dick Parry instead of the guitar solos in the 1971–73 performances (apart from the first show of the US 1975 tour, where Gilmour does the first middle solo then gives way to Parry's sax).[citation needed]
It was performed eleven times on the band's 1987 A Momentary Lapse of Reason world tour, in a slightly rearranged version trimmed down to 17 minutes. It was then replaced by "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" as the band were not happy with the performances.[citation needed]
Gilmour resurrected the song on his 2006 On an Island Tour as the closing number of the main set. He and keyboardist Rick Wright swapped vocal parts with Gilmour singing the high parts and Wright the low parts – the opposite to how it was performed previously. Wright would bring the Farfisa out of retirement just for this song for the tour.[19] These performances appear on Gilmour's Remember That Night film and Live in Gdańsk album/film.
Gilmour told Rolling Stone in 2016 upon returning to Pompeii to play a solo show that he would have loved to perform "Echoes" but felt he could not do so without Wright, who had died in 2008 – "There's something that's specifically so individual about the way that Rick and I play in that, that you can't get someone to learn it and do it just like that."[20]
Reception [ edit ]
In a review for the Meddle album, Jean-Charles Costa of Rolling Stone gave "Echoes" a positive review.[21] Costa described "Echoes" as "a 23-minute Pink Floyd aural extravaganza that takes up all of side two, recaptures, within a new musical framework, some of the old themes and melody lines from earlier albums."[21] Costa further went on: "All of this plus a funky organ-bass-drums segment and a stunning Gilmour solo adds up to a fine extended electronic outing."[21]
Echoes and 2001: A Space Odyssey synchronisation rumours [ edit ]
Similar to the Dark Side of the Rainbow effect, at-large rumours suggested that "Echoes" coincidentally synchronises with Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, when played concurrently with the final 23-minute segment titled "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite". At the time of the film's production in 1967–1968, Pink Floyd was not working on any material suitable for the film, nor were they contacted about supplying music. It is likely that Kubrick never heard the band's music until after the film was finished.[22] Kubrick would later feature copies of both the soundtrack to 2001 and Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother as props in the record store scene in A Clockwork Orange.[23]
The 1973 George Greenough film Crystal Voyager concludes with a 23-minute segment in which the full version of "Echoes" accompanies a montage of images shot by Greenough from a camera mounted on his back while surfing on his kneeboard.[24]
Alleged plagiarism [ edit ]
In interviews promoting Amused to Death, Waters claimed that Andrew Lloyd Webber had plagiarised the riff from "Echoes" for sections of the musical The Phantom of the Opera; nevertheless, he decided not to file a lawsuit regarding the matter. He said:
Yeah, the beginning of that bloody Phantom song is from Echoes. *DAAAA-da-da-da-da-da*. I couldn't believe it when I heard it. It's the same time signature—it's 12/8—and it's the same structure and it's the same notes and it's the same everything. Bastard. It probably is actionable. It really is! But I think that life's too long to bother with suing Andrew fucking Lloyd Webber.[25]
Cover versions [ edit ]
British musician Ewan Cunningham covered "Echoes" in a YouTube video which featured him playing all of the parts himself. This cover was heavily based on the Live at Pompeii version and went on to receive praise from Nick Mason.[26][27] British electronic music project Banco de Gaia covered "Echoes" on their 2009 album Memories Dreams Reflections. Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriella covered "Echos" on their 2019 album "Mettavoloution".
Personnel [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Citations
SourcesOn Tuesday, The Freedom From Religion Foundation, an organization that advocates separation of church and state, criticized Trigg County Judge Hollis Alexander because he allegedly refused to officiate a secular wedding.
“It is our understanding that Mandy Heath and her fiancé, Jon, were planning on getting married in Trigg County, KY on Friday July 22 at your courthouse,” wrote Staff Attorney Andrew L. Seidel in an open letter. The couple wanted a ceremony the next day, but one request reportedly led Alexander to back out: They wanted a secular wedding.
“I include God in my ceremonies and I won’t do one without him,” Alexander allegedly said.
More, from the letter:
We then understand that you told the couple, who are not from Kentucky, that they could go locate another officiant, a man named Craig Owen in Christian County. This refusal violates the U.S. Constitution. As a government official, you have an obligation to remain neutral on religious matters. The Supreme Court has established that “the ‘First Amendment mandates governmental neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion.’”
Citing case law, Seidel said Alexander violated the First Amendment because he refused to provide the secular service.
“The bottom line is that by law, there must be a secular option for people seeking to get married,” Seidel wrote. “In Trigg County, you are that secular option.”
Now FFRF wants a written promise from Alexander that future ceremonies should be secular by default, and that religious trappings should be requested by citizens. No lawsuit has been announced, though the FFRF has been known to get litigious before.
LawNewz.com has reached to Judge Alexander for comment, but he was not immediately available. We will update if we hear back.
–
Follow Alberto Luperon on Twitter (@Alberto Luperon)Conference Championships Roundup: See Who’s Headed To Regionals
Tons of action in the College postseason this weekend!
The first weekend of the College Series is now behind us as dozens of teams qualified for Regionals, and some Division III teams qualified for DIII Nationals. Check out the results from the weekend, organized by Division and Region.
Men’s Division I
Atlantic Coast
Carolina
Advancing
1. UNC Wilmington
2. UNC
3. NC State
4. Appalachian State
5. South Carolina
6. Clemson
UNC Wilmington stayed in control of the one seed at Atlantic Coast Regionals with a 15-12 win over North Carolina in the Conference Championship final. The other qualifiers played to seed. NC State did play a tough game against UNC in the semis, losing 13-15. They’ll have their sights set on that third bid for the AC.
Colonial
Advancing
1. Maryland
2. Delaware
3. Georgetown
4. American
5. George Washington
6. Towson
Maryland won a very tight game with Delaware in an excellent finals matchup. That should secure Maryland the overall three seed (behind UNCW and UNC) at Atlantic Coast Regionals.
Virginia
Advancing
1. Virginia
2. VCU
3. Virginia Tech
4. William & Mary
UVA edged out VCU in a 15-13 final as VCU placed the highest it ever has at Conferences. Not a lot separates the top three seeds: Virginia Tech lost 15-16 to VCU in the 2nd place game.
Great Lakes
East Plains
Advancing
1. Notre Dame
2. Indiana
3. Purdue
4. Kentucky
Although Notre Dame fell by one to Indiana during pool play, they took revenge in the final with a 15-5 drubbing. Indiana and Purdue played a 14-13 nailbiter with Indiana prevailing (although Purdue may have won the style points contest).
Illinois
Advancing
1. Northwestern
2. Illinois
3. Chicago
4. Illinois State
5. Eastern Illinois
6. Loyola
Northwestern dominated the field, including a 15-9 win over top-seeded Illinois in semifinals, to win the Illinois Conference. It’s worth noting that Chicago had a great weekend, getting a one point upset win over Illinois in pool play and then reaching the finals. They lost there to Northwestern and then lost to Illinois in the 2nd place game.
Michigan
1. Michigan
2. Eastern Michigan
3. Michigan State
4. Western Michigan
5. Grand Valley
Michigan had only one somewhat close game (12-8 over EMU) but otherwise crushed the Conference competition in Kalamazoo. Despite EMU’s surprise losses of Johnny Bansfield and James Highsmith this season, they are still a competitive Regionals team and took 2nd place.
Metro East
Metro NY
Advancing
1. NYU
2. Rutgers
3. Columbia
4. Princeton
NYU has had a rough time of it this Spring, as nearly all of their tournaments were canceled. Thus they entered Conferences seeded sixth. They went undefeated in pool play and then got a resounding 14-10 win over Columbia in the final. Last year’s Metro East Nationals qualifier, Rutgers, had a tougher time, losing to Columbia in pool play, but then avenging the loss in the 2nd place game with a 14-11 victory.
New England
Metro Boston
Advancing
1. Tufts
2. Harvard
3. Boston College
4. UMass-Dartmouth
5. Northeastern
6. MIT
7. Umass-Lowell
8. Boston University (Did Not Finish)
Tufts got a 13-10 win over Harvard in an important early look at two top teams vying for the single bid out of the New England region. Harvard’s hot Easterns did not crossover into Conferences. The other big story out of Metro Boston was Boston University’s disqualification. They were reported to MIT administrators by a passing MIT student who was offended by one of the team’s cheers that quoted Insane Clown Posse.
North New England
Advancing
1. New Hampshire
2. Dartmouth
3. Vermont
New Hampshire won their first Conferences title ever with a 14-11 win over Dartmouth at NNE Conferences!
South New England
Advancing
1. UMass
2. Brown
3. URI
Massachusetts easily defeated Brown 13-7 in the South New England final, likely wrapping up a one seed at Regionals.
North Central
Lake Superior
Advancing
1. Wisconsin
2. UW-Milwaukee
3. Marquette
4. UW-Stevens Point
5. UW-Whitewater
Wisconsin went unchallenged at Conferences, wrapping up with a 15-6 win over UW-Milwaukee in the final. Milwaukee cruised to a 2nd place finish.
West Plains
Advancing
1. Iowa
2. Luther
3. Iowa State
4. Northern Iowa
Luther went 5-0 in round robin pool play, but lost 13-11 to Iowa in the final before going on to beat Iowa State 13-9 in the second place game. Iowa has had an up-and-down season, but will help their seeding quite a bit with the W over Luther.
Ohio Valley
East Penn
Advancing
1. Pennsylvania
2. West Chester
3. Temple
4. Villanova
Penn went untouched at Conferences (they lost a meaningless pool play game after wrapping up a spot in the final). They defeated Temple 13-8 in the final.
Ohio
Advancing
1. Cincinnati
2. Ohio
3. Dayton
4. Case Western Reserve
5. Ohio State
Cincinnati passed their first postseason test with flying colors, winning every game by a minimum of five points. They blew away Ohio in the final 15-5. Next stop: a two bid Regionals.
West Penn
Advancing
1. Pittsburgh
2. Penn State
3. Edinboro
4. Carnegie Mellon
5. WVU
Pitt was unscathed at Conferences, taking down Penn State 15-10 in the final.
South Central
North Texas
Advancing
1. Baylor
2. TCU
3. Texas Tech
Baylor took down TCU 15-13 in the North Texas final.
Rocky Mountain
Advancing
1. Colorado
2. Colorado College
3. Colorado State
No surprises in the Rocky Mountain Conference, as teams advance as seeded.
South Texas
1. Texas A&M
2. Texas
3. Texas State
4. Houston
Texas A&M continued its 2015 dominance of Texas with a 15-12 win in the South Texas Conference final.
Southeast
Florida
Advancing
1. Florida State
2. Central Florida
3. Florida
4. Miami
Florida State will take the overall #1 seed at Southeast Regionals with a convincing performance at Florida Conferences, winning 13-8 over Florida in the final. They did lose to Florida in pool play, but it was a meaningless game with zero incentives for either side as both had wrapped up spots in the final. Central Florida fell to both FSU and UF in pool play, but played much better on Sunday to defeat Florida 12-9.
Southern Appalachian
Advancing
1. Georgia
2. Georgia Tech
3. Tennessee
4. Kennesaw State
5. UT-Chattanooga
6. Georgia State
Georgia took a shock loss to Emory in pool play, but it didn’t hinder them as they rolled to a Southern Appalachian title with a 14-10 win over Georgia Tech in the final. Tennessee broke seed to take third.
Southwest
Desert
1. Arizona State
2. Arizona
3. Northern Arizona
ASU won the small Desert Conference easily, but Arizona had to sneak past NAU on double game point after trailing much of the game.
Arizona State (B) reached Regionals by winning the Southwest Developmental Conferences.
Women’s Division I
Atlantic Coast
Carolina
Advancing
1. UNC-Wilmington
2. Clemson
3. NC State
4. North Carolina
There was plenty of excitement to be had in Clemson, SC. Both of the four-team pools were decided by a single point – NC State upset Clemson and UNCW conquered UNC – setting up a final between Wilmington and surprising NC State. UNCW prevailed handily 15-7. Clemson thumped NC State in the backdoor game to get their revenge. All four head to Regionals.
Colonial
Advancing
1. Maryland
2. Delaware
3. Georgetown
4. George Washington
No one in the Conference could withstand top seeded Maryland, who bageled Delaware in the final to win the Conference. Meanwhile, George Washington avenged a Saturday upset loss to Towson by knocking them off on double game point in the final game to go.
Virginia
Advancing
1. Virginia
2. Liberty
3. VCU
4. James Madison
Unsurprisingly, Virginia throttled most of their foes on the way to winning their Conference, with two shutout wins and a 15-1 victory in the final. JMU came off a disappointing loss against Virginia – the 13-8 score was the only challenge UVA had all weekend – and dropped a game to Liberty, but came through during Sunday play.
Great Lakes
Eastern Great Lakes
Advancing
1. Notre Dame
2. Purdue
3. Michigan
4. Indiana
5. Michigan-B
Future winner #18 Notre Dame wrecked their pool play competition before facing upstart Purdue in the final, which they won 12-9. Purdue upset both Michigan and Indiana in pool play to make it to the final. Notre Dame continues their undefeated run through the season and will be the favorite at Regionals.
Illinois
Advancing
1. Illinois
2. Chicago
3. Northwestern
Illinois claimed the conference title with a 12-6 win over #1 seeded Chicago. Northwestern was hot on their heels, losing to Illinois 10-8 in pool play and Chicago 11-10 in the semifinals. Everyone has to feel like they have a shot going into Regionals.
Metro East
Eastern Metro East
Results Unreported
Western NY
Advancing
1. Cornell
2. Rochester
3. Ottawa
Cornell’s attempt to return to Nationals looks very possible. They topped (a reportedly shorthanded) Ottawa 15-12 in semis and had little trouble handling Rochester, 15-8, in the final. Likewise, Ottawa dispatched SUNY-Buffalo in the final game to go, and should be considered a threat in the ME.
New England
Greater New England
Advancing
1. Brown
2. Vermont
3. New Hampshire
4. Rhode Island
Confusing weekend, with lots of mixed results. Brown went 3-1, losing to Rhode Island but beating Vermont, who also went 3-1. New Hampshire defeated Rhode Island, but lost to both Brown and Vermont by a single point. Most of the weekend was decided in those small margins, but it looks like an uphill climb to topple Tufts, Dartmouth, and friends.
Metro Boston
Advancing
1. Tufts
2. Northeastern
3. Harvard
4. MIT
5. Boston College
#13 Tufts beat #20 Northeastern during the one day round robin, 9-7, to win the Conference. Harvard fought off MIT for third. Boston College beat out Boston University for the final spot to ensure everything went to chalk.
Northwest
Cascadia
Advancing
1. Oregon
2. British Columbia
3. Washington
4. Victoria
5. Western Washington
6. Oregon State
The most powerful Conference in the country delivered with on field action, but drew to a close going to chalk. While there were close scores – #2 Oregon came back from a 12-9 deficit to just beat #15 Victoria 14-12 in semis – the higher seeded team won every game. Oregon felled #1 UBC in the final and #5 Washington in pool play, bringing them ever closer to the #1 overall seed at the College Championships and shoving their way back into the “favorite” slot for a title.
North Central
Lake Superior
Advancing
1. Wisconsin
2. Wisconsin-Milwaukee
3. Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Dominant showing from Wisconsin, rolling through the Conference to win Lake Superior. UW-Milwaukee over Eau Claire is a minor upset, but both advance. Frightful 25 MPH winds with gusts up to 40 reported. Let’s hope nationals doesn’t face the same conditions.
Western North Central
Advancing
1. Iowa State
2. Carleton
3. Iowa
4. Nebraska
5. Minnesota
6. Northern Iowa
7. Minnesota-Duluth
Every team attending advanced, but still had to combat both one another and fierce wind. Because every team advanced, there was no need for bracket play and Iowa State took the crown after upsetting #9 Carleton 12-11. It was a disappointing weekend for #25 Minnesota, who went just 2-4, losing to Iowa and Nebraska and just edging Northern Iowa after coming in seeded second.
Ohio Valley
Ohio
Advancing
1. Ohio State
2. Case Western
#14 Ohio State continues their dominance of their Conference, but got a little more resistance than they are used to, with Dayton scoring 7 on them. OSU had no trouble with Case in the final and Case beat Ohio in the backdoor game to go after Ohio upset Dayton.
Southeast
Florida
Advancing
1. Florida State
2. Central Florida
3. Florida
4. Florida-B
There was quite a bit of drama in one of the nation’s most exciting Conferences. Top ranked #8 Florida State emerged the champion with a hard fought 10-8 win over rival Florida. FSU dodged having to play #16 Central Florida again, who beat them 12-10 in pool play with a big second half push, after Florida upset UCF 11-8 on Saturday. UCF got the last laugh, demolishing a gassed FUEL team 13-1 in the second place game. Florida-B claimed the final spot over USF.
Southern Appalachian
Advancing
1. Georgia
2. Emory
3. Georgia Tech
#21 Georgia displayed some dominant play, even sans star Lane Siedor (out due to illness), romping over Emory 14-3 in the final to win the Conference yet again. A double game point win over Georgia Tech landed Emory in the final and got them a bid, while Tech had to battle through a surprising Georgia State squad to take the Conferences final bid.
South Central
Rocky Mountain
Advancing
1. Colorado
2. Colorado College
3. Colorado-B
#7 Colorado and #22 Colorado College slugged it out once in pool play and once in the final, and Kali came out ahead both times, 12-11 and 12-9, respectively. Colorado-B upset Colorado State in the final game to go 7-6.
Texas
Advancing
1. Texas
2. Texas State
3. Texas A&M
4. TCU
No surprise to see #23 Texas cruise through their Conferences, with a 15-6 victory against TAMU in the final being their closest game. Texas A&M was subsequently walloped by Texas State in the backdoor game, 15-5.
Southwest
Desert
Advancing
1. Arizona
Arizona and rival Arizona State played a one off game to decide who would attend Southwest regionals, and it went down to the wire. Arizona’s early 5-2 lead was overcome by ASU, to get all the way back to double game point before Arizona finished the game, 10-9.
Men’s Division III
Atlantic Coast
Carolina
Advancing
1. Elon
2. Davidson
3. UNC Asheville
4. Wake Forest
5. High Point
Elon continues to shine as one of the top DIII teams, defeating a solid Davidson team 11-7 in the Carolina Conference final.
Northern Atlantic Coast
Advancing
1. Richmond
2. Mary Washington
3. UNREPORTED
Richmond took a loss in pool play, but that didn’t stop them from winning the NAC Conference 13-7 over Mary Washington.
Great Lakes
East Plains
Advancing
1. Valparaiso
2. Indiana Wesleyan
3. Kalamazoo
Indiana Wesleyan, the #1 seed, stumbled a bit at Conferences, first falling to Kalamazoo and Calvin in pool play and then losing to Valparaiso 15-10 after reaching the final.
Illinois
Advancing
1. Olivet Nazarene
2. Knox
3. North Park
4. Bradley
5. Wheaton
Top seeded North Park fell two slots in a round robin Conference and Olivet Nazarene was excellent, winning easily in three games and topping North Park by one to win the Conference.
Metro East
Metro NY
Advancing
1. Stevens Tech
2. UNREPORTED
Stevens Tech, as expected, took the top spot in the Metro NY Conference, beating TCNJ and Rider.
North Central
West Plains
Advancing
1. Grinnell
2. Luther (B)
3. Drake
Grinnell took down Luther’s B team 13-8 in the West Plains final.
Northwest
Northwest
Advancing
1. Lewis & Clark*
Lewis & Clark took the lone Northwest bid to D-III Nationals with a win over Whitworth in the final.
Ohio Valley
East Penn
Advancing
1. Lehigh**
2. Haverford
3. Franklin & Marshall
Lehigh opted to play Division I Regionals this year, and they crushed all comers en route to their Regionals bid. Haverford was the D-III surprise, coming from the six seed to take the first bid to D-III Regionals.
Ohio
Advancing
1. Franciscan
2. Oberlin
3. Cedarville
4. Ohio Wesleyan
Franciscan defeated Oberlin 15-9 in the Ohio Conference final and continues to look like a threat to take a spot at Nationals. Second seeded Cedarville slipped to third.
West Penn
Advancing
1. Messiah
2. Dickinson
3. Gettysburg
4. Clarion
Messiah took the top spot at West Penn Conferences with this insane play.
South Central
Northern South Central
Advancing
1. John Brown
2. Harding
3. Truman State
4. Missouri S&T
5. Colorado Mines
John Brown was convincing en route to their Conferences win, but the bigger story was that Air Force, the top seed and a bid earner for the South Central, did not advance to Regionals after placing sixth — they lost 13-15 to Colorado School of Mines in the game-to-go.
Southeast
Advancing
1. Georgia College*
Georgia College captured another bid to D-III Nationals, taking down Union 13-7 in the finals. Highly touted Alabama-Huntsville came up just short in semifinals in a 13-12 loss to Union.
Southwest
Advancing
1. Claremont*
Claremont again qualifies out of the Southwest to D-III Nationals. They defeated Occidental in the final.
Women’s Division III
Atlantic Coast
Advancing (to Nationals)
1. Wake Forest
#7 Wake Forest battled through both #13 Elon and #16 Davidson to win the Atlantic Coast. Elon gave them all they could handle in the final, in a game that never reached more than a two point margin, except for an 11-8 Wake lead. Elon got a huge break and brought it to 11-10 with the hard cap on, but couldn’t force double game point. It is a shame Elon won’t be at Nationals, as the AC has only one bid and they are clearly one of the stronger teams in the country.
Great Lakes
Advancing (to Nationals)
1. Valparaiso
Unsurprisingly, the region offered little resistance to top seeded #4 Valparaiso, one of the top contenders for the D-III title this year. They went undefeated and mostly unchallenged to claim the region’s lone ticket to nationals.
New England
North New England
Advancing
1. Dartmouth (to D-I Regionals)
2. Middlebury (to D-I Regionals)
3. Bowdoin
4. Colby
No surprises here, but note that #12 Dartmouth only beat Middlebury 12-7. Middlebury’s late season surge makes them a threat at Regionals as a dark horse team.
Metro Boston
Advancing
1. Stone Hill
2. Wellesley
Top seeded Brandeis was pushed into the backdoor game by Stone Hill, where they found a surprising Wellesley team waiting for them. They’ll be hoping for someone to reject an invite.
Northwest
Advancing (to Nationals)
1. Puget Sound
#8 Puget Sound had no trouble claiming the region’s only bid to nationals, defeating #22 Pacific Lutheran 13-6 in the final. That six was the most points scored on Clearcut on the weekend, including another win over PLU. They’ll be considered a real contender going into D-III Nationals.
North Central
Advancing (to Nationals)
1. Grinnell
2. St. Benedict
3. St. Olaf
4. Carleton
#3 Grinnell went undefeated at a windy regional, defeating #10 St. Olaf 9-6 in the final. The season series between St. Olaf and #9 St. Benedict continues to go back and forth: St. Olaf won 11-6 on Saturday, but fell to St. Benedict 9-3 in the backdoor game on Sunday. #12 Carleton failed to register a big win against any of the higher ranked teams.
Ohio
Advancing
1. Wooster
2. Oberlin
#17 Wooster claimed the Ohio Conference D-III title in an exciting one, holding off Oberlin in the final, 10-9. After a 7-4 halftime gap was closed to within one, Wooster and Oberlin traded out, and a Wooster handblock helped them score the final point to claim a spot at Regionals. Oberlin faced off with the tournament’s top seed, #23 Ohio Wesleyan in the backdoor bracket. OWU had narrowly edged Xavier 11-10 to make it into the game to go and didn’t have enough leftover to withstand Oberlin.......................................................................................................................
Slavoj Žižek
London: Verso, 2012, 1038 pp
.............................................................................................................................................................
Versöhnungsphilosoph
Philosophy of Right
The Phenomenology of Spirit, Part Two
the drink before
Parmenides
“The Thing Itself”
the cigarette after
what is it
Phenomenology of Spirit
energeia
Wirklichkeit
inter alia
Tarrying with the Negative
The Parallax View
be
being
is not
Parmenides
It is one of the profoundest and truest insights to be found in the Critique of Reason that the unity which constitutes the essence of the concept is recognized as the original synthetic unity of apperception, the unity of the “I think,” or of self-consciousness. — This proposition is all that there is to the so-called transcendental deduction of the categories which, from the beginning, has however been regarded as the most difficult piece of Kantian philosophy… [12]
for this reason
Phenomenology
Geist
Phenomenology of Spirit
Geist
Between Kant and Hegel
The basic contention of the philosopher, as such, is as follows: Though the self may exist only for itself, there necessarily arises for it at once an existence external to it; the ground of the latter lies in the former, and is conditioned thereby; self-consciousness and consciousness of something that is to be — not ourselves, — are necessarily connected; but the first is to be regarded as the “conditioning” factor, and the second as the conditioned.[32]
setzen
nicht-Ich
Wissenschaftlehre”
So what then is the overall gist of the Wissenschaftslehre, summarized in a few words? It is this: reason is absolutely self-sufficient; it exists only for itself. But nothing exists for reason except reason itself. It follows that everything reason is must have its foundation in reason itself and must be explicable solely on the basis of reason itself and not on the basis of anything outside of reason, for reason could not get outside of itself without renouncing itself. In short the Wissenschaftslehre is transcendental idealism.[33]
Wissenschaftslehre (nova methodo
Foundations of Transcendental Philosophy
The idealist observes that experience in its entirety is nothing but an acting on the part of a rational being.
The idealist observes how there must come to be things for the individual. Thus the situation is different for the [observed] individual than it is for the philosopher. The individual is confronted with things, men, etc., that are independent of him. But the idealist says, “There are no things outside me and present independently of me.” Though the two say opposite things, they do not contradict each other. For the idealist, from his own viewpoint, displays the necessity of the individual’s view. When the idealist says, “outside of me,” he means “outside of reason”; when the individual says the same thing, he means “outside of my person.”[34]
Geist
ressentiment
Ressentiment
In this sense, the post-Hegelian turn to “concrete reality, irreducible to notional mediation,” should rather be read as a desperate posthumous revenge of metaphysics, as an attempt to reinstall metaphysics, although in an inverted form of the primacy of concrete reality. (239)
Nachträglichkeit ), or what Žižek rightly described as Hegel’s insistence on the logic of a deed or claim or event which can be said to “posit its own presuppositions” retroactively. (A dream’s meaning is constituted by the telling; is not “recovered.” A trauma becomes the trauma it is retroactively, in its interrogation.) In Hegel the notion is most important in his account of act descriptions and intentions. There is no literal backward causation, but what it is we did and why we did it can be said to come to be what they are only after we have acted (after we have seen what we were actually committed to doing; what others acknowledge, or not, as what we did.) Geist externalizing itself in its products (its “self-negation”), thereby alienated from them, until it can “return to itself” in its externality, negate this otherness, and so be reconciled with itself in a sublated self-identity (the negation of negation). This is also “the great narcissistic devouring maw” picture of Hegel, |
court documents has become a trend, of sorts, amongst patent trolls, EFF has moved to intervene so that this behavior doesn’t work to prevent meaningful debate.
The rules put the burden on the parties to justify the sealing of any documents. Unfortunately, too often do the parties’ assertions about confidentiality go unchallenged. EFF hopes that by filing this motion, courts will be more willing to question parties’ assertions that shield documents from the public eye.For the second year in a row, strawberries topped the “Dirty Dozen” list of pesticide-contaminated produce that the Environmental Working Group complies every year. Spinach was a close second on the list of fruits and vegetables to avoid released by EWG this week.
Given that the average American eats nearly eight pounds of fresh strawberries a year, this isn’t the best news for most of us. EWG’s annual update of its “Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce” — which is based on an analysis of tests run by the US Department of Agriculture — found that the most contaminated sample of strawberries had a whopping 20 different pesticides.
Some of the chemicals detected on strawberries are relatively benign, but others are linked to cancer, reproductive and developmental damage, hormone disruption, and neurological problems. Spinach samples, meanwhile, had an average of twice as much pesticide residue by weight than any other crop. Three-fourths of spinach samples had residues of a neurotoxic pesticide that’s linked to behavioral disorders in young children and has been banned in Europe for use on food crops.
The analysis also found that nearly 70 percent of the 48 different conventional produce samples tested by the USDA were contaminated with residues of one or more pesticides. In all, USDA researchers found 178 different pesticides and pesticide breakdown products in the thousands of fruit and vegetable samples tested in 2016.
The pesticide residues remained on fruits and vegetables even after they were washed and, in some cases, peeled.
For the Dirty Dozen list, EWG singled out produce with the highest loads of pesticide residues. In addition to strawberries and spinach, this year’s list includes nectarines, apples, peaches, celery, grapes, pears, cherries, tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, and potatoes. Pears and potatoes were new additions to the list, displacing cherry tomatoes and cucumbers from last year’s list.
And in especially gloomy news for a spicy food lover like me, the list has been expanded again this year to highlight hot peppers, especially jalapeno, Serrano, and Anaheim peppers. Though hot peppers do not meet EWG’s traditional ranking criteria, researchers found them to be contaminated with insecticides like acephate, chlorpyrifos, and oxamyl that are toxic to the human nervous system. These insecticides are banned on some crops but still allowed on hot peppers. The researchers recommend that people who frequently eat these peppers buy organic, and if that’s not possible, cook them, because pesticide levels typically diminish when food is cooked.
“Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables is essential no matter how they’re grown, but for the items with the heaviest pesticide loads, we urge shoppers to buy organic,” Sonya Lunder, EWG senior analyst and lead author of the guide said in a statement. “If you can’t buy organic, the Shopper’s Guide will steer you to conventionally grown produce that is the lowest in pesticides.”
The Shoppers Guide also includes “Clean Fifteen” — a list of produce least likely to contain pesticide residues. This year’s Clean Fifteen included, in descending order, sweet corn, avocados, pineapples, cabbage, onions, frozen sweet peas, papayas, asparagus, mangoes, eggplant, honeydew melon, kiwis, cantaloupe, cauliflower and grapefruit.
Among these 15, avocados and sweet corn were the cleanest — only 1 percent of samples showed any detectable pesticides, while more than 80 percent of pineapples, papayas, asparagus, onions and cabbage had no pesticide residues. The report says that multiple pesticide residues are extremely rare on Clean Fifteen vegetables (only 5 percent of these vegetable samples had two or more pesticides) and no single fruit sample from the clean list tested positive for more than four types of pesticides.
Lunder says it’s particularly important to reduce young children and infant’s exposure to pesticides, especially organophosphates, because even low levels of exposure to these chemicals can be harmful.
When spoke with Lunder last year, she mentioned that some conventionally grown produce are safe to eat. For instance, vegetables from the brassicaceae family — such as cauliflower, cabbage, garden cress, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and onions and garlic — that are naturally resistant to pests and therefore aren’t sprayed with as much pesticides.
Buying locally and buying produce that’s in season also helps, since storing and shipping produce requires more applications of pesticides, especially fumigants.
The EWG Shoppers Guide was released the same day as another report by the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food was presented to the world body. That report essentially says that we don’t need pesticides to produce enough food to feed the world. It notes that an average of 200,000 people across the world die from toxic exposure to pesticides every year and blames “systematic denial, fueled by the pesticide and agro-industry” for “the magnitude of the damage inflicted by these chemicals.”
“Implementing the right to adequate food and health requires proactive measures to eliminate harmful pesticides,” the UN report says.Todd McShay has put out a new mock draft today (In$ider), and he has the Titans going with Teddy Bridgewater, QB, Louisville. I believe this is a very real possibility if Bridgewater is still on the board. I have read a lot on Teddy over the last week, and I would endorse this pick.
Here is McShay's analysis of the pick:
Of all the picks in this mock draft, I'm least confident about this one, because the Titans do still have Jake Locker and they have needs at other positions. But it's not as though Locker has proven himself yet to be a franchise quarterback. I had concerns about him when he was coming out related to his accuracy, decision-making and durability, and those questions persist. Additionally, Bridgewater doesn't turn 22 until November, so sitting a year wouldn't be the worst thing for him. (If he slips past this point, the next likeliest landing spots are Arizona at No. 20 and Cleveland at No. 26 if it hasn't already taken a QB.) Lewan is worth consideration here, as Michael Roos has just one year left on his deal.
McShay also did a second round where he had the Titans taking Stephon Tuitt, DE, Notre Dame. His comments:
Tuitt's versatility is a plus in the Titans' hybrid 3-4, 4-3 defense, and he's a good value at this spot, too.
What would be your reaction if this is how the draft plays out?Arsene Wenger apologised after the Burnley game on Sunday and said: "I should have shut up completely"
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been charged by the Football Association with verbal abusing and pushing fourth official Anthony Taylor during Sunday's Premier League game against Burnley.
Wenger, 67, pushed Taylor after being sent off in the closing stages of the Gunners' 2-1 win at Emirates Stadium.
He had been dismissed for reacting angrily to a 93rd-minute penalty given to Burnley, who trailed 1-0.
Wenger, who later apologised, has until 18:00 GMT on Thursday to respond.
An FA statement read: "It is alleged that in or around the 92nd minute, Wenger used abusive and/or insulting words towards the fourth official.
"It is further alleged that following his dismissal from the technical area, his behaviour in remaining in the tunnel area and making physical contact with the fourth official amounted to improper conduct."
Media playback is not supported on this device I apologise, I should've shut up! - Wenger
After being sent to the stands by referee Jon Moss, Wenger moved away from the pitch but stood at the tunnel entrance and refused to move as he tried to watch the remaining few minutes of Sunday's match.
As Taylor encouraged him to move away, Wenger was seen to push back against him.
When asked about what had led to his dismissal, Wenger said: "Look, it was nothing bad. I said something that you hear every day in football. Overall, nine times out of 10, you are not sent to the stand for that."
He added: "But if I am, I am, and I should have shut up completely. I was quite calm for the whole game, more than usual."
In 2012, then-Newcastle manager Alan Pardew was fined £20,000 and given a two-match touchline ban for pushing an assistant referee during a game against Tottenham.New Zealander Hillary and his Nepali guide Tenzing made it to the 29,035-foot (8,850-metre) summit of the world's highest mountain on May 29, 1953 as part of a British expedition, which put Nepal on the map as a destination for adventure tourism.
A government panel has recommended that two unnamed mountains be called Hillary Peak and Tenzing Peak, said Ang Tshering Sherpa, a former president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association.
"This is to honour their contribution to mountaineering in Nepal," Sherpa, who headed the panel, told Reuters.
The two peaks – Hillary's at 25,200ft and Tenzing's at 25,971ft – have never been climbed and are expected to be opened to foreigners in the spring season that starts in March, he said.
Officials hope the peaks will attract more climbers and help boost tourism in Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountains. Tourism now accounts for about 4 per cent of the country's economy and employs thousands of people.
Hillary died in 2008 at age 88 and Tenzing died in 1986 at age 72. Climbers in their time lacked the specialised equipment taken for granted today and the heavy oxygen tanks the two men carried made mountaineering more challenging than it is now.
About 4,000 climbers have made it to the summit of Everest since 1953, among them an 80-year-old Japanese man, an American teenager and a blind person. Two Nepali sherpas have reached the top a record 21 times each.
But harsh weather, avalanches and treacherous terrain are constant dangers. More than 240 climbers have died on both sides of Everest, which can also be scaled from China.
A small airport Hillary built in the 1960s at Lukla, the gateway to Everest, has already been named after him and Tenzing. The remote airstrip clings to a hillside, several days' walk from the base camp, and is described by mountaineers as a thrilling kick-off to an attempt on the mountain's south face.
Besides conservation work, Hillary helped build schools, hospitals, water supply schemes and trails in the Everest region that is home to the ethnic sherpas without whose help climbers would find it difficult to make it to the top.
Two peaks in west Nepal could be named after famed French climbers Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, said Sherpa. In 1950, Herzog and Lachenal became the first to reach the summit of a 26,246-ft peak – Mount Annapurna.
About 165 peaks of up to 26,245ft are likely to be opened to climbers from next year, Sherpa said.
Just 326 of the more than 1,300 peaks in Nepal are now open to foreign climbers. The fees they pay are a major source of income for the cash-strapped government.
Edited for Telegraph.co.uk by Barney HendersonIsraeli Ynet admitted today that an Israeli air force attack on Iran is unrealistic.
The Israeli paper quoted a New York Times article that described such an attack as ‘highly complex operation’. It would require at least 100 planes. Israeli jets would have to refuel in the air en route, fight off Iran’s air defenses and attack multiple underground sites simultaneously.
American military experts seem to agree amongst themselves that Israel doesn’t necessarily has the means to accomplish such an operation.
The first problem Israel faces is how to get to Iran. ”Israel has American-built F-15I and F-16I fighter jets that can carry bombs to the targets, but their range — depending on altitude, speed and payload — falls far short of the minimum 2,000-mile round trip. That does not include an aircraft’s ‘loiter time’ over a target plus the potential of having to fight off attacks from Iranian missiles and planes,” according to the report.
In any case, the report claimed, Israel would have to use airborne refueling planes, called tankers, but Israel is “not thought to have enough.”
Israel would also need to use its electronic warfare planes to penetrate Iran’s air defenses and jam its radar systems to create a corridor for an attack.
The analysts said another major hurdle is Israel’s inventory of bombs capable of penetrating the Natanz nuclear plant, believed to be buried under 30 feet of reinforced concrete, and the Fordo site, which is built into a mountain.
For some reason, the Ynet article failed to list the grave inevitable consequences of any aggression against Iran. Such consequences include destruction of Israeli cities following barrages of Iranian missiles. But we may also bear in mind the possibility of a nuclear conflict that escalates into a global war.
The message to the Israelis is pretty clear. Israel’s military options are running out. There is no way to maintain the Jewish State by the sword. The time is overdue for Israel to drop its expansionist genocidial philosophy. If Israelis really want to live in the region, they must pursue every means towards peace immediately.
Israel should voluntarily open its nuclear facilities to international inspection. Israel must sign the Nuclear Non–Proliferation Treaty and dismantle its own atomic bombs immediately. Israel better grasp what humanity is all about, before it is too late.A Portland restaurateur used her business’s Facebook page to speak her mind on assault weapons — inciting a backlash from gun rights advocates.
Anne Verrill, owner of Grace on Chestnut Street, and Foreside Tavern & Side Bar in Falmouth, published the post on Wednesday, along with a photo of an assault rifle similar to the one used in the Orlando massacre.
“I have spent 12 years, intentionally, not being political on this page… Let me be clear, this is not a political issue,” she wrote, according to several reports. “This is a human rights issue. If you own this gun, or you condone the ownership of this gun for private use, you may no longer enter either of my restaurants, because the only thing I want to teach my children is love.”
Verrill, who later deleted the post, told BDN Portland that she stood by her comments, but said she was only addressing a specific firearm.
“I am in no way, shape or form trying to lump a group of people and tell them I will not serve them,” Verrill said. “I spoke very specifically about a specific gun, that was specifically used to terrorize a group of people who are now all dead.”
[For more Portland news, sign up here for our evening newsletter]
The message prompted many commenters on Facebook to criticize the post, though some did defend her. The restaurant also received a number of negative reviews, citing the post.
“Big old target now painted on your business now that criminals know you and your patrons do not carry protection,” one person said.
Verrill said her original post stemmed from a conversation with her sister about letting her daughter attend the Portland Pride parade.
“My sister asked if I would let my daughter march in the Pride parade and I said no, because it’s too fresh and I was nervous about putting her in a group of people in the city streets,” Verrill said.
She said that it wasn’t like her to be fearful, so she decided to take a stand and post her message on Facebook.
“I can’t just sit here and pretend that I think things are going to change,” she said. “I can’t just sit here and keep liking the right Facebook memes.”On Friday, alongside China's announcement that it had bought over 600 tons of gold in "one month", the PBOC released another very important data point: its total foreign exchange reserves, which declined by $17.3 billion to $3,694 billion.
We then put China's change in FX reserves alongside the total Treasury holdings of China and its "anonymous" offshore Treasury dealer Euroclear (aka "Belgium") as released by TIC, and found that the dramatic relationship which we first discovered back in May, has persisted - namely virtually the entire delta in Chinese FX reserves come via China's US Treasury holdings. As in they are being aggressively sold, to the tune of $107 billion in Treasury sales so far in 2015.
We explained all of his on Friday in "China Dumps Record $143 Billion In US Treasurys In Three Months Via Belgium", and frankly we have been surprised that this extremely important topic has not gotten broader attention.
Then, to our relief, first JPM noticed. This is what Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, author of Flows and Liquidity had to say on the topic of China's dramatic reserve liquidation
Looking at China more specifically, it appears that, after adjusting for currency changes, Chinese FX reserves were depleted for a fourth straight quarter by around $50bn in Q2. The cumulative reserve depletion between Q3 2014 and Q2 2015 is $160bn after adjusting for currency changes. At the same time, a current account surplus in Q2 combined with a drawdown in reserves suggests that capital outflows from China continued for the fifth straight quarter. Assuming a current account surplus in Q2 of around $92bn, i.e. $16bn higher than in Q1 due to higher merchandise trade surplus, we estimate that around $142bn of capital left China in Q2, similar to the previous quarter.
JPM conclusion is actually quite stunning:
This brings the cumulative capital outflow over the past five quarters to $520bn. Again, we approximate capital flow from the change in FX reserves minus the current account balance for each previous quarter to arrive at this estimate (Figure 2).
Incidentally, $520 billion is roughly triple what implied Treasury sales would suggest as China's capital outflow, meaning that China is also liquidating some other USD-denominated asset(s) at a feverish pace. So far we do not know which, but the chart above and the magnitude of the Chinese capital outflow is certainly the biggest story surrounding the world's most populous nation: what is happening in its stock market is just a diversion.
At this point JPM goes into a tangent explaining what the practical implications of a massive capital outflow from China are for the global economy. Regular readers, especially those who have read our previous piece on the collapse in the Petrodollar, the plunge in EM capital inflows, and their impact on capital markets and global economies can skip this part. Those for whom the interplay of capital flows and the global economy are new, are urged to read the following:
One way that slower EM capital flows and credit creation affect the rest of the world is via trade and trade finance. Trade finance datasets are unfortunately not homogeneous and different measures capture different aspects of trade finance activity. Reuters data on trade finance only aggregates loan syndication deals, which have mandated lead arrangers and thus capture the trends in the large-scale trade lending business, rather than providing an all-inclusive loans database. Perhaps the largest source of regularly collected and methodologically consistent data on trade finance is credit insurers (see “Testing the Trade Credit and Trade Link: Evidence from Data on Export Credit Insurance”, Auboin and Engemann, 2013). The Berne Union, the international trade association for credit and investment insurers with 79 members, includes the world’s largest private credit insurers and public export credit agencies. The volume of trade credit insured by members of the Berne Union covered more than 10% of international trade in 2012. The Berne Union provides data on insured trade credit, for both short-term (ST) and medium- and long-term transactions (MLT). Short-term trade credit insurance accounts for the vast majority at around 90% of new business in line with IMF estimates that the vast majority 80%-90% of trade credit is short term. Figure 4 shows both the Reuters (quarterly) and the Berne Union (annual) data on trade finance loan syndication and trade credit insurance volumes, respectively. The quarterly Reuters data showed a clear deceleration this year from the very high levels seen at the end of last year. Looking at the first two quarters of the year, Reuters volumes were down by 25% vs. the 2014 average (Figure 4). The more comprehensive Berne Union annual volumes are only available annually and the last observation is for 2014. These data showed a very benign trade finance picture up until the end of 2014. Trade finance volumes had been trending up since 2010 at an annual pace of 8.8% per annum (between 2010 and 2014) which is faster than global nominal GDP growth of 6% per annum, i.e. the trend in trade finance had been rather healthy up until 2014, but there are indications of material slowing this year. This is also reflected in world trade volumes which have also decelerated this year vs. strong growth in previous years (Figure 5).
Summarizing the above as simply as possible: for all those confounded by why not only the US, but the global economy, hit another brick wall in Q1 the answer was neither snow, nor the West Coast strike, nor some other, arbitrary, goal-seeked excuse, but China, and specifically over half a trillion in still largely unexplained Chinese capital outflows.
* * *
But wait, because it wasn't just JPM whose attention perked up over the weekend. This morning Goldman Sachs itself had a note titled "the Curious Case of China's Capital Outflows":
China’s balance of payments has been undergoing important changes in recent quarters. The trade surplus has grown far above previous norms, running around $260bn in the first half of this year, compared with about $100bn during the same period last year and roughly $75bn on average during the previous seven years. Ordinarily, these kinds of numbers would see very rapid reserve accumulation, but this is not the case. Partly that is because China’s services balance has swung into meaningful deficit, so that the current account is quite a bit lower than the headline numbers from trade in goods would suggest. But the more important reason is that capital outflows have become very sizeable and now eclipse anything seen in the recent past. Headline FX reserves in the second quarter fell $36bn, from $3,730bn at end-March to $3,694bn at end-June. While we estimate that there was a large negative valuation effect in Q1 (due to the drop in EUR/$ on the ECB’s QE announcement), there was likely a positive valuation effect in Q2, which we put around $48bn. That means that our proxy for reserve accumulation in the second quarter is around -$85bn, i.e. the actual “flow” drop in reserves was bigger than the headline numbers suggest because of a flattering valuation effect. If we put that number together with the trade surplus in Q2 of $140bn, net capital outflows could be around -$224bn in the quarter, meaningfully up from the first quarter. There are caveats to this calculation, of course. There is obviously the services deficit that we mention above, which will tend to make this estimate less dramatic. It is also possible that our estimate for valuation effects is wrong. Indeed, there is some indication that valuation-related losses in Q1 were not nearly as large as implied by our calculations. But even if we adjust for these factors, net capital outflows might conceivably have run around -$200bn, an acceleration from Q1 and beyond anything seen historically.
Granted, this is smaller than JPM's $520 billion number but this also captures a far shorter time period. Annualizing a $224 billion outflow in one quarter would lead to a unprecedented $1 trillion capital outflow out of China for the year. Needless to say, a capital exodus of that pace and magnitude would suggest that something is very, very wrong with not only China's economy, but its capital markets, and last but not least, its capital controls, which prohibit any substantial outbound capital flight (at least for ordinary people, the Politburo is clearly exempt from the regulations for the "common folk").
Back to Goldman:
The big question is obviously what is driving these flows and how long they are likely to continue. We continue to take the view that a stock adjustment is at work, although it is clear that the turning point is yet to come. We will look at this in one of our next FX Views. In the interim, we think an easier question is what this means for G10 FX. This is because this shift in China’s balance of payments is sure to depress reserve accumulation across EM as a whole, such that reserve recycling – a factor associated with Euro strength in the past – is unlikely to be sizeable for quite some time.
In other words, for once Goldman is speechless, however it is quick to point out that what traditionally has been a major source of reserve reflow, the Chinese current and capital accounts, is no longer there.
It also means that what may have been one of the biggest drivers of DM FX strength in recent years, if only against the pegged Renminbi, is suddenly no longer present.
While the implications of this on the global FX scene are profound, they tie in to what we said last November when explaining the death of the petrodollar. For the most part, the country most and first impacted from this capital outflow will be China, something its stock market has already noticed in recent weeks.
But what is likely the take home message for non-Chinese readers from all of this, is that while there has been latent speculation over the years that China will dump US treasuries voluntarily because it wants to (as punishment or some other reason), suddenly China is forced to liquidate US Treasury paper even though it does not want to, merely to fund a capital outflow unlike anything it has seen in history. It still has a lot of 10 Year paper, aka FX reserves, left: about $1.3 trillion at last check, however this raises two critical questions: i) what happens to 10 Year rates when whoever has been absorbing China's Treasury dump no longer bids the paper and ii) how much more paper can China sell before the entire world starts paying attention, besides just JPM and Goldman... and this website of course.
Finally, if China's selling is only getting started, just what does this mean for future Fed strategy. Because one can easily forget a rate hike if in addition to rising short-term rates, China is about to dump a few hundred billion in paper on a vastly illiquid market.
Or let us paraphrase: how soon until QE 4?Democrat nominee flexes her executive might, taking the lid off a pickle jar to prove she is fit enough for the rigors of presidency
With a twist and and a pop, Hillary Clinton opened a pickle jar in an exaggerated show of physical strength, making light of recent speculation about her health.
Clinton, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, laughed off questions raised by her Republican opponents about whether she has the strength and stamina to be commander in chief, dismissing them as “part of the wacky strategy” to undermine her candidacy.
“I don’t know why they are saying this,” Clinton told Kimmel on Monday night.
“I think on the one hand it’s part of the wacky strategy … on the other hand it absolutely makes no sense. And I don’t go around questioning Donald Trump’s health. I mean, as far as I can tell he’s healthy as a horse.”
Physicians for both presidential candidates have declared them fit to run for office. Yet the former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a close adviser to the Republican nominee, reprised the health rumors last weekend, claiming without evidence that Clinton’s physical and mental health were deteriorating.
“Back in October the National Enquirer said I’d be dead in six months so with every breath I take I feel like it’s a new lease on life,” said Clinton.
The rumors about Clinton’s health appear to stem from a 2012 incident when she sustained a head injury from a fall that was attributed to a stomach virus. She suffered a concussion and a subsequent blood clot in the brain, which later testing showed as having completely cleared.
Making her third appearance on the show since the launch of her campaign, Clinton also discussed the campaign’s difficulty in finding someone to play the role of Donald Trump in debate prep.
“You’ve got to be prepared for wacky stuff. I’m planning on drawing off my experiences from elementary school,” she said, “like the guy that pulled your ponytail.” Kimmel suggested that actor Gary Busey might play a good Donald Trump.
Clinton told Kimmel that she would be distraught without FaceTime, which she uses to speak to her grandchildren from the campaign trail.
“Have you considered using FaceTime instead of email?” Kimmel joked, referring to the controversy over her use of a private email server while secretary of state.
“I think that’s actually really good advice,” she replied.
Clinton said that at times it felt as if the presidential campaign has entered an “alternative reality”.
“I’m out here talking about all of this,” Clinton said after running through a checklist of policies, “and then I have to sort of step into the alternative reality, and, you know, answer questions about am I alive – how much longer will I be alive and the like.”Suspect faces up to 25 years in prison after being charged with murder
injured, but is able to call for back-up
This is the shocking moment a drink-driver stabs a police officer to death and badly injures another after being placed in the back of their patrol car.
The horrific video footage was captured on a camera fitted to the inside of the police car in the village of Kharlovo in Russia's Altai Krai region.
The two officers are seen in the front of the car when the 38-year-old suspect is seated in the back seat having handed over his papers during a routine traffic stop.
He appears to be almost falling asleep, but suddenly pulls out a kitchen knife and repeatedly stabs the policeman sitting on the right of the video.
Scroll down for video
Caught off guard: A suspect stopped for drink-driving pulls out a knife in the back of the police car before launching a horrific attack on the two officers sat in the front of the vehicle
Savage attack: The killer repeatedly stabs one of the police officers, leaving him with fatal injuries
The fatally injured officer, 34-year-old Aleksandr Lyamkin, struggles desperately to fend off his attacker while trying to open the car door.
The attacker then turns the weapon onto his colleague, who was also seriously wounded.
Officer Lyamkin eventually manages to get out of the car and walks a short distance before collapsing on the floor covered in blood.
Road rage: The attacker then turns the weapon onto his colleague (left), who was also seriously wounded
The second police officer managed to rush to the rear of the car and hold the door shut as the knifeman tries to get out. The officer then calls for back-up officers who arrested the 38-year-old
His colleague meanwhile rushes to the rear of the car and holds the door shut as the knifeman tries to get out before finally giving up.
Calling for backup while holding the door closed, other officers arrived and arrested the 38-year-old who, it was later confirmed, was drunk.
Although not named, it was revealed that the attacker had a criminal record but had managed to get work as a truck driver and was concerned he might lose his job for drink-driving.
He now faces between 12 and 25 years in prison after being charged over the attack.
Carnage: The back of the where the drink-driver stabbed the police officers
A family destroyed: The murdered policeman, 34-year-old Aleksandr Lyamkin, with his wife and two children
The second officer was taken to hospital with serious injuries, but is expected to survive.
Police spokeswoman Ludmila Ryazantseva said: 'The investigation is ongoing but this is a tragic day for all police officers.
'The dead officer was married with a wife and two children, an 11-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter.'
A picture which appears to show the suspect being pulled over moments before the brutal attackImage copyright HWDT Image caption Record numbers of common dolphins were recorded last year
Record numbers of three dolphin species found off Scotland's west coast were found during a survey by the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT).
HWDT said its scientists and volunteers last year recorded 2,303 individual common dolphins, 42 bottlenose dolphins and 94 Risso's dolphins.
The figures for all three species were the highest ever recorded in the Mull-based trust's annual survey seasons.
The conservation charity has been carrying out the surveys since 1994.
Dr Lauren Hartny-Mills, HWDT science officer, said: "The reasons for the high number of sightings of these charismatic dolphin species - and the broader effects on the marine environment and other species - remain unclear.
"But the intriguing findings highlight the importance of on-going monitoring and research."
Frazer Coomber, a scientist from HWDT, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland radio programme: "It's been fantastic. We've had massive groups of 200 and 300 individuals at a time.
"The nice thing about dolphins is that often they come over to the vessel to come and have a look. They swim along at the front of the vessel and you get really close and get to see their beautiful yellow colouration.
"Dolphins are known as indicator species. They are a top predator, and if your top predator in an eco-system is doing well then that's a good sign that everything else in the eco-system is going well."My friend and I are avid participants of RedditGift exchanges; we take part in at least one exchange in every wave of exchanges. I got her as a match and picked up a book for her (extremely) late.
Fast forward to a year later, and another book exchange! I got a message from my Books SS asking about what titles I've read among those I listed on the likes/ dislikes.
Went over to my friend's place (bead sprites ftw), and talked about RedditGifts when she said "Oh, here's your books by the way!"
Was a little confused at first but then it dawned on me she was my SS this time around! She got me two books from one of my favorite authors, Clive Cussler. Also included was a Neil Gaiman book. Can't wait to read the books!I have an AWESOME secret santa! I was literally at the gym with my sweetie talking about how EXCITED I was for my arbitrary day present to arrive, and how I HOPED my SS would pick up on my hints that I REALLY wanted to read the GoT series! When we got home and checked the mailbox - there was the smiling Amazon.com box I was hoping for (after several amazon packages had been delivered for EVERYONE but ME for the last 2 days!) I was SO excited to see the entire series of GoT books, and such perfect timing, since we're between seasons! I cannot WAIT to devour these novels, and finally be "in the know" as a reader on /r/gameofthrones! THANK YOU secret santa! I was literally JUST saying how I wanted to read this series, and I ALMOST bought it myself last week when I was out of town on vacation!House moves to restrict open data on corporate financial statements Share This:
Photo credit: SEC
Last night the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5405 which, among other things, would exempt more than half of public companies in the U.S. from reporting their financial statements as open data.
The bill requires the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to exempt public companies with less than $250 million in revenues from filing their financial statements in the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), despite recent efforts by the SEC to begin ensuring the quality of data collected via XBRL. This represents a significant blow against transparency as these companies will now only be required to file their statements on paper, making it harder to analyze the potentially vital data.
The SEC currently collects this data in paper as well as electronic formats. We agree that this duplicative collection is unnecessary, but can’t support a move back to a past of unparsaeble paper filings. Instead of helping multi-million dollar companies avoid modern disclosure requirements, Congress should be helping the SEC ensure that it is collecting accurate data in a machine-readable format fit for the modern age.
In recent years the Obama Administration (in the form of the president’s open data executive order) and Congress (in the form of the DATA Act) have worked to move the ball forward towards machine-readable, structured data throughout government information generation and collection. If Congress and the President move to exempt companies from submitting financial statements in an open, machine-readable format it will represent a major step backwards from the gains both have made over the past few years.
If H.R. 5404, which was pitched as a bill to help reduce burdens on small business (up to and including “small businesses” worth $249 million), comes before the Senate, that chamber should remove any language that would exempt huge numbers of not-so-small businesses from an important transparency requirement.The Legal Complications of Oklahoma’s State Question to Constitutionally Protect Farming
Joe Wertz Bio Recent Stories Joe Wertz is a senior reporter and managing editor at StateImpact Oklahoma. He reports regularly on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets, and serves as president-elect of Freedom of Information Oklahoma, an open records and government transparency nonprofit. Previously, he worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers. He lives in Oklahoma City, and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.
Joe Wertz / StateImpact Oklahoma
State Question 777 would create a constitutional right to farm and ranch in Oklahoma, giving the agriculture industry unique protection from the state legislature. The ballot question concerns livestock and crops, but legal experts say the statewide measure will likely come down to lawsuits and courts.
In the weeks leading up to the November election, officials in cities and towns across the state have urged Oklahomans to vote no on SQ 777.
The Oklahoma City Council in September voted 6 to 2 to approve a resolution formally opposing the state question. A few weeks later, it was Tulsa’s turn to weigh in on the state question.
The Tulsa city council resolution didn’t explicitly urge Oklahomans to vote ‘no’ on SQ 777, but leaders voted 7 to 1 urge residents to “carefully consider the potential adverse effects |
crowd begins to cheer. The protester stumbles away, and then is detained by a number of the men in uniforms.
[Suspect was wild west ‘gunslingin’ cowboy hobbyist]
“Chill, chill!” an onlooker says. “You don’t gotta grab him like that!”
Rakeem Jones, the man who was hit, said the punch came out of nowhere.
“Boom, he caught me,” Jones told The Washington Post in a telephone interview. “After I get it, before I could even gain my thoughts, I’m on the ground getting escorted out. Now I’m waking up this morning looking at the news and seeing me getting hit again.”
[Inside Trump’s inner circle, his staffers are willing to fight for him. Literally.]
John McGraw, 78, was charged with assault and disorderly conduct in connection with the incident, Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sean Swain told The Post on Thursday.
McGraw is due in court in April, Swain said. It was not immediately clear if he already has an attorney.
John McGraw. (Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office)
“We did the mission last night, we’re doing the follow-up, we’ve got the guy in custody,” said Swain, who also added: “People here in Cumberland Country realize what this sheriff does, and they didn’t have a complaint about what happened last night.”
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton addressed the incident during an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
“Count me among those who are truly distraught and even appalled by a lot of what I see going on, what I hear being said,” Clinton said. “You know, you don’t make America great by, you know, dumping on everything that made America great, like freedom of speech and assembly and, you know, the right of people to protest.”
She added: “As the campaign goes further, more and more Americans are going to be really disturbed by the kind of campaign he’s running.”
Jones said he and four friends — a “diverse” group that included a white woman, a Muslim, and a gay man — had gone to the rally as a “social experiment.” He said the woman with them started shouting once Trump’s speech began.
“She shouted, but at the same time, they were shouting too,” Jones, a 26-year-old inventory associate, said. “Everyone was shouting, too. … No one in our group attempted to get physical.”
Jones blamed the Cumberland County officers escorting him from the rally for failing to protect him — then detaining him instead of the man who attacked him.
“It’s happening at all these rallies now and they’re letting it ride,” Jones said. “The police jumped on me like I was the one swinging.” He added: “My eye still hurts. It’s just shocking. The shock of it all is starting to set in. It’s like this dude really hit me and they let him get away with it. I was basically in police custody and got hit.”
Swain, however, said he didn’t think the officers who were filmed coming up the stairs saw what happened to Jones.
The incident is now the subject of an internal review, Swain said. Authorities are combing through video footage of the rally and conducting interviews to try to determine what happened.
“No one should be subjected to such a cowardly, unprovoked act as that committed by McGraw,” Sheriff Earl Butler said in a statement posted to Facebook. “Regardless of political affiliation, speech, race, national origin, color, gender, bad reputation, prior acts, or political demonstration, no other citizen has the right to assault another person or to act in such a way as this defendant did. I hope that the courts will handle this matter with the appropriate severity for McGraw’s severe and gross violation of this victim’s rights.”
[‘Hispanic males’ arrested after armed standoff with Trump supporter]
In footage published by Inside Edition, a man identified as McGraw is asked if he liked the event.
“You bet I liked it,” he says.
When asked what he liked, he responds: “Knocking the hell out of that big mouth.”
“We don’t know who he is, but we know he’s not acting like an American,” McGraw added. “The next time we see him, we might have to kill him.”
(Courtesy of Rakeem Jones)
Ronnie C. Rouse, a man who shot one of the videos, was with Jones at the rally.
“We’re definitely anti-Trump,” Rouse told The Post.
Rouse said as soon as Trump’s speech began, someone in the crowd singled out him and his friends, screaming, “You need to get the f— out of there!” Rouse said that his group had not said anything and that the comment was unprovoked. But he said they were almost immediately surrounded by eight Cumberland County sheriff officers, who escorted them out. On the way up the stairs, the attack came.
Rouse, a 32-year-old musician, said he didn’t see the punch but saw the aftermath — his friend “slammed” by officers to the ground. Noting that someone in the crowd shouted, “Go home n—–s,” he said he was taken aback.
“We’ve been watching all this stuff happen to everyone else,” Rouse said. “This isn’t Biloxi. This isn’t Montgomery. This is Fayetteville. … It’s a well-cultured area.”
Noting Fayetteville’s proximity to Fort Bragg, he added: “I wanted to take my 11-year-old child, to give him a touch of what’s happening political-wise. I’m glad I didn’t. I’ve never been more embarrassed to be from here in my life. It’s just appalling.”
Fayetteville is in Cumberland County, but an official from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, reached by The Post early Thursday, said officers from that jurisdiction were not the ones who detained the man. The Fayetteville Police Department also told The Post it did not detain anyone at the rally, held at the city’s Crown Coliseum. Jones said he and his friends were not arrested.
Demonstrators with raised arms are heckled by supporters of Donald Trump as they are ejected from his campaign rally in Fayetteville, N.C. (Jonathan Drake/Reuters)
Trump rallies are getting a reputation for violence by Trump supporters against disruptive protesters. Police in Fayetteville had to form a line separating pro- and anti-Trump groups outside the coliseum.
Cumberland County sheriffs department stands by as man is assaulted after protesting at Trump rally in Fayetteville, NC. SHARE. Posted by Chris Doyle on Wednesday, March 9, 2016
According to CBS New York, police are investigating at least two alleged assaults at a recent Kentucky rally. One involved a young African American woman who was repeatedly shoved and called “scum.”
[Trump followers defend the sucker punch: ‘Just a little poke on the beak’]
Trump himself has not been quick to criticize the violence. After a fight erupted between protesters and police last year in Birmingham, Trump said: “‘Maybe he should have been roughed up.” Of a protester in Nevada last month, Trump said: “I’d like to punch him in the face.” In Kentucky, he said: “Get him out. Try not to hurt him. If you do I’ll defend you in court. … Are Trump rallies the most fun? We’re having a good time.”
According to CBS New York, he referred to an incident at a New Hampshire rally where a protester started “swinging and punching.” Trump said some people in the audience “took him out.”
“It was really amazing to watch,” he said.
At Thursday night’s Republican debate in Miami, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Trump whether the candidate had “done anything to create a tone where this kind of violence would be encouraged.”
“I hope not,” Trump said. “I truly hope not. I will say this. We have 25 [thousand], 30,000 people. You’ve seen it yourself. People come with tremendous passion and love for the country, and when they see protest — in some cases — you know, you’re mentioning one case, which I haven’t seen, I heard about it, which I don’t like. But when they see what’s going on in this country, they have anger that’s unbelievable. They have anger.”
“They love this country,” Trump continued. “They don’t like seeing bad trade deals, they don’t like seeing higher taxes, they don’t like seeing a loss of their jobs where our jobs have just been devastated. And I know — I mean, I see it. There is some anger. There’s also great love for the country. It’s a beautiful thing in many respects. But I certainly do not condone that at all, Jake.”
At the Fayetteville rally, Trump called protesters “professional troublemakers,” as ABC reported. As video posted by the Raleigh News-Observer shows, his speech was repeatedly interrupted as protesters were escorted out and the crowd chanted, “USA.” He criticized one protester for wearing a “very dirty undershirt.”
Nor were the protesters enamored of Trump.
“He spreads hate,” protester Marianna Kuehn told WRAL.
1 of 45 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Trump captures the nation’s attention as he campaigns View Photos The presidential candidate and billionaire businessman leads the field of candidates in the Republican race. Caption Businessman Donald Trump officially became the Republican nominee at the party’s convention in Cleveland. Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Trump Doral golf course in Miami. Carlo Allegri/Reuters Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
This report has been updated.Concerns about the apparent health of Slackware Linux were eased after the community Linux distribution's web site was back up and running, after several days of being dark.
The site's unexpected unavailability led to lengthy and at times heated discussions about the overall life expectancy of the project on both LinuxQuestions.org and DistroWatch.
The focus quickly shifted from the problems with the website to worries that Slackware itself was experiencing financial problems, when top Slackware contributor Eric Hameleers responded early in the LinuxQuestions thread with a brief "Old hardware, lack of funds…" statement.
This was the social equivalent of throwing gasoline on the tiny (metaphorical) short that zapped the Slackware web site to begin with. Suddenly the conversation careened into the repeated queries on what could be done to help. Several participants in the discussion thread began to post their own public entreaties for funding support for the venerable project.
Curiously, even as many were concerned about the Slackware distro as a whole, updates were being regularly posted within the the 64-bit Slackware64 project at the same time.
By April 16, the discussions on LinuxQuestions and the community blogs, which led blogger and Linux Yarok developer Caitlyn Martin to speculate in the DistroWatch comments her concerns about basing the Yarok distribution on Slackware when Slackware's apparent viability was in doubt.
"You remember that comment about my involvement in the development of a Slackware derivative? Forget it. We're already discussing about delaying the release and rebasing off of something with a more secure future," Martin wrote.
Martin's comments angered many in the threads on both sites, and drew many respondents to accuse her of jumping to conclusions. Martin maintained that she was simply re-voicing concerns about basing open source projects on unstable upstream projects.
Martin's comments may have been enough to stir Hameleers into clarifying his too-brief comments about the website. On April 17, Hameleers posted a new comment on the Distrowatch thread:
"The slackware.com server is down. This is a technical malfunction. It costs money to do something about that. Something will be done about that server, but if it takes a while, it is most likely caused by prioritizing and finances. Slackware was without its own web server for a long time in the past. And still active are ftp.slackware.com and connie.slackware.com, so what's the big deal? "This turning of the rumour mill is pretty much unfounded, and I see some of the same old people pouring oil on the fire as usual. "There is no reason to doubt the availability, stability and long term viability of Slackware, the distribution. It has not been a one-man show for some time, the development effort is substantial and plainly visible in the ChangeLog, and there are no plans to switch to another development model or even ditch the distribution."
On LinuxQuestions, Hameleers would add more detail about the financial situation of the Slackware Project.
"It's not that difficult: if everybody suddenly stops buying stuff from the Slackware store, then Slackware will not last another year in its present form--the Store sales are Pat's income (and it feeds several other people too), but remember, the core team surrounding Pat do not get a penny of these revenues at all. Therefore, the rest of the team is not impacted in any way by Slackware sales figures and we will keep working with Pat on the distribution just like we have been doing for the past years. Look at the ChangeLog--sometimes there is a period of relative silence but that does not mean that no work is being done. Like last week, the updates can come in big gulps. Slackware will not die, its philosophy will not change, the team is dedicated and full of ideas.
"If people start chickening out and cancel their subscriptions, then that is a pity. Thankfully, I see lots of other Slackware users who decided that this is a good point to make a donation or buy something at the Store (if their financial situation allows it). Thanks to all of you for'supporting the cause.' And remember--if you can not financially support Slackware, then helping your fellow Slackware users in forums like this one is an invaluable form of support as well! Slackware will not die because of financial issues, it will die if all of its users leave."
Hameleers' comments make an important distinction about what keeps a community open source project going. There are two pieces to helping a community start consistent: funding and code. As Hameleers indicates, the funding from the Slackware store is what gives Slackware founder and lead developer Patrick Volkerding and others in the project income.
If, hypothetically, money would vanish from the Slackware project, that does not mean the death of Slackware, about which Martin and others seem to be concerned. Indeed, the community-oriented nature of Slackware makes it all that much easier for the project to be re-adopted and kept up by any combination of the Slackware community. The copyrights are held by Volkerding and Slackware Linux, Inc., so the Slackware name and logos would have to be formally transferred to whomever if the actual name were to continue, but there's nothing stopping the code from living on, even if under another label.
We should not be worried about distributions like Slackware or Mandriva "dying." It would take a serious depletion of their respective communities for that to happen. It is more possible that the names will fade into memory, like Mandrake and Caldera; or SLS and MCC Interim.
But for now, there's no sign of trouble on the Slackware front that they are experiencing anything other than a financial slowdown, like so many other businesses/projects in this economy. Funding is nice to have, of course, but it's the code and community that keeps an open source project truly alive.
Read more of Brian Proffitt's Zettatag and Open for Discussion blogs and follow the latest IT news at ITworld. Drop Brian a line or follow Brian on Twitter at @TheTechScribe. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-tos, follow ITworld on Twitter and Facebook.Meteorites from Mars found on Earth have traces of methane, adding weight to the idea that life could live off methane on the Red Planet, scientists say. But the methane detection alone is not proof that life exists on Mars now or in the past, they add.
Methane, a potential sign of primitive life, has been found in meteorites from Mars, adding weight to the idea that life could live off methane on the Red Planet, researchers say.
This discovery is not evidence that life exists, or has ever existed, on Mars, the researchers cautioned. Still, methane "is an ingredient that could potentially support microbial activity in the Red Planet," study lead author Nigel Blamey, a geochemist at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, told Space.com.
Methane is the simplest organic molecule. This colorless, odorless, flammable gas was first discovered in the Martian atmosphere by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft in 2003, and NASA's Curiosity rover discovered a fleeting spike of methane at its landing site last year. [The Search for Life on Mars: A Photo Timeline]
Much of the methane in Earth's atmosphere is produced by life, such as cattle digesting food. However, there are ways to produce methane without life, such as volcanic activity.
To shed light on the nature of the methane on Mars, Blamey and his colleagues analyzed rocks blasted off Mars by cosmic impacts that subsequently crash-landed on Earth as meteorites. About 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of Martian meteorites have been found on Earth.
The scientists focused on six meteorites from Mars that serve as examples of volcanic rocks there, collecting samples about one-quarter of a gram from each — a little bigger than a 1-carat diamond. All the samples were taken from the interiors of the meteorites, to avoid terrestrial contamination.
The researchers found that all six released methane and other gases when crushed, probably from small pockets inside.
"The biggest surprise was how large the methane signals were," Blamey said.
Chemical reactions between volcanic rocks on Mars and the Martian environment could release methane. Although the dry thin air of Mars makes its surface hostile to life, the researchers suggest the Red Planet is probably more habitable under its surface. They noted that if methane is available underground on Mars, microbes could live off it, just as some bacteria do in extreme environments on Earth.
"We have not found life, but we have found methane that could potentially support microbes in the subsurface," Blamey said.
Blamey now hopes to analyze more Martian meteorites. He and his colleagues detailed their findings online today (June 16) in the journal Nature Communications.
Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.With his thick beard and fearsome axe, Abu Azrael is one of the most recognisable soldiers fighting among the Iraqi forces against ISIS.
Nicknamed the 'father of archangel of death' in Arabic, Abu Azrael has become the poster boy of the Imam Ali brigade, a Iraqi Shi'a militia group sponsored by Iran.
He is believed to be a 40-year-old former university lecturer, who left his home to fight Islamic State back in June 2014.
Iraqi warrior: With his thick beard and fearsome axe, Abu Azrael is one of the most feared soldiers among the Iraqi forces fighting ISIS.
Such is his fame, his fan page on social media has attracted over a quarter of a million supporters.
Pictures show the bald fighter kitted out in his military fatigues, posing with his famous axe and a heavy machine gun.
Other photos shows the colossal warrior carrying a large sword, fearlessly wandering through the battlefield.
As well as posing with his weapons, Abu Azrael also appears to love a selfie and posting short videos of him and his friends relaxing after battle.
Islamic State face a tremendous task to hold on to the Iraqi city of Tikrit and with the arrival of the Iraqi Rambo, morale is high among the Iraqi Shi'a militias.
A formidable presence: Such is his fame, his fan page on social media has attracted over a quarter of a million supporters.
Well known for his sense of humour, one video shows Abu Azrael using a captured ISIS walkie-talkie to taunt and mock the depraved savages of ISIS.
The fighter appears to enjoy giving an insight into his life as a soldier. Videos have been posted showing the Iraqi soldier cycling through parts of the Iraqi city of Tikrit.
Another video shows the towering fighter wandering around a captured ISIS bases, taking time to cheekily steal a teapot.
A multitude of stories continue to be reported about the background of Abu Azrael. Some reports even claim he was once Iraq's national champion in Taekwondo.
Determined to defend his home and country, Abu Azrael joined the Imam Ali brigade, a Iraqi Shi'a militia heavily supported by Iran
Well known for his sense of humour, one video shows Abu Azrael using a captured ISIS walkie-talkie to taunt and mock the depraved savages of ISIS.
It is possible he was motivated to join the fight after a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a call to arms in Friday prayers in mid June 2014.
Determined to defend his home and country, Abu Azrael joined the Imam Ali brigade, a Iraqi Shi'a militia heavily supported by Iran.
The militia has recently been fighting alongside the Iraqi army in a bid to re-capture the Iraqi city of Tikrit.
With the arrival of the Iraqi Rambo, morale is high among the Iraqi Shi'a militias, who appear confident in ridding ISIS from Iraq.
Selfie lover: As well as posing with his weapons, Abu Azrael also appears to love a selfie and posting short videos of him and his friends relaxing after battle.
Like a lion: Determined to defend his home and country, Abu Azrael joined the Imam Ali brigade, a Iraqi Shi'a militia heavily supported by Iran.Recent reporting that the search for missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 might be soon called off got me thinking about the methodology of search. For my sins, I spent time in operations research in my early days in Defence. It was back in the ‘Defence of Australia’ doctrine days, and our group was working with what’s now the Defence Science and Technology Group (DST Group) on a ‘wide area surveillance study’. Surveillance isn’t the same as search but in a slowly evolving situation they’re described by similar mathematics.
Search theory in its modern form goes back to WW2, when the theory was developed primarily for hunting submarines in the open ocean. The classic text on the subject is The Theory of Optimal Search. It’s maths heavy, but the bottom line is that searching is a science, and it’s possible to have a pretty good idea in advance what the likelihood of success is and what resources will be required for a given confidence level.
The technique that’s being used for the search for MH370 is called Bayesian search theory. (Trigger alert: sensitive readers prone to flashbacks about year 11 mathematics classes are warned of potentially disturbing content ahead.) The technique has been used to locate sunken vessels and missing aircraft in the past. Famous examples include a missing hydrogen bomb (!) that went into the Mediterranean after a B-52 crash and the USS Scorpion, a nuclear submarine that disappeared in the Atlantic in 1968. The story of the search for the Scorpion, as told in the book Blind Man’s Bluff (though the details are disputed), illustrates how the Bayesian technique works. More recently, the technique helped searchers locate the wreckage of Air France Flight 447 in the Southern Atlantic in 2009.
The ideas behind it are simple enough. First you collect as much information as possible about the circumstances that led to the object of the search being lost in the first place. That allows the construction of a probability map of the potential search area. The highest probability will be where the consensus of expert opinion places the location, which is where you start looking.
Before going into further detail, it’s worth thinking about how we intuitively search. When I misplace my glasses at home (only three times a day), I first look in the obvious places, like the coffee table or my desk. If I don’t find them, I search less obvious but still plausible places; on bookshelves, or in the bathroom. If I still don’t find them, I have to decide between looking in increasingly unlikely places and revisiting the most likely ones. Generally I’ll have another look around the coffee table long before I head for the garage to check under the lawn mower. That’s an implementation of Bayesian theory.
There are some subtleties if we want to quantify my search strategy. If I don’t find them on the coffee table, then it’s more likely that they’ll be on my desk than was the case before I started looking (because I’ve excluded one area). But since no search is 100% efficient, there’s still a probability that they’re on the coffee table and I just missed them—but the probability is smaller than it was before. After every search, I mentally update my estimate of probabilities for both searched and unsearched areas. The best strategy is to always search in the most likely area, even if I’ve already looked there.
In the case of MH370, expert aviation advice and geolocational data of the aircraft from communications satellites allowed the DST Group to construct the initial probability map shown above. (The grisly details are here [pdf].) As the example above suggests, every time a location is searched, all of the probabilities need to be recalculated, so the map is only a snapshot in time.
Let’s put some indicative numbers in to see how it works. Let’s say that the original estimate of the wreckage being in an area was 20% and that the search equipment has an 80% chance of finding it if it’s there. Even after an unsuccessful search, there’s still a 4.7% chance that the wreckage is there, but happened to evade detection (which is probably what happened during the search for Air France Flight 447). A neighbouring area with an initial 10% probability estimate now has a 10.8% chance of containing the wreckage.
There’s a fair amount of public information regarding the search for MH370, and there are bloggers following and mapping the search. Recent searching is in the lower probability regions of the initial map, which isn’t surprising since the search has been going for over two years. Not knowing the search efficiency—the weather in the search area ensures that it’ll be well under 100%—it’s hard to tell what the optimum strategy is now, but it might well be worth having another look in the places initially judged most likely before giving up.Analyzing Last Year’s Performance
Despite the Miami Heat not winning the NBA Championship last season, they can still boast that they have a player coming off a championship on their 2014-2015 roster in forward James Ennis.
After being selected 50th over by the Atlanta Hawks and then sent packing as a draft day package to the Miami Heat, James had to take his talents to Australia last season. Although the Heat preferred for Ennis to stay in the states and play on their NBDL team, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, the Heat had neither the cap room nor the roster spot to keep Ennis on their 15-man roster. So Ennis opted for a pro-deal in Australia.
The 22-year old did not disappoint in his season overseas, as his debut featured him breaking the Perth Wildcats for most points in a debut (25). On the season, Ennis averaged 21.2 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game whilst shooting 46.8% from the field in 33 games.
His great debut season landed Ennis on the 2014 All-NBL first team. Ennis also placed third in MVP voting in the league and was the MVP of the Wildcats championship team.
Ennis was the young, electric player that the Heat lacked in the NBA Finals, as the San Antonio Spurs thrashed them. His athleticism would have helped the Heat counter the Spurs younger players that ran circles around their veterans, who looked to be done.
How LeBron’s Departure Impacts His Role
Looking to lower payroll, hoping to move out of the luxury tax situation, and bringing youth to the roster, the Heat were planning on giving Ennis a shot to make their final roster out of training camp regardless of what LeBron James decided to do. If LeBron were to return, there would be less time for Ennis to play and develop his skills in game.
LeBron is no longer in Miami and we shouldn’t expect to see Ennis’ role with the Heat expand just yet. Ennis is going start the season near the end of the Miami Heat bench, but there will be chances for him to secure a spot in the rotation, much like Michael Beasley did last season but could not secure. Ennis is third on the Heat depth chart at SF, behind the likes of Luol Deng and Danny Granger. Both Deng and Granger have injury histories that should make the Heat weary about their chances of playing a full 82-game schedule. The Heat also have a player at shooting guard, in Dwyane Wade, that has his own share of injuries.
The first crack at playing time for Ennis could come either at the shooting guard or small forward position, depending on the health of the guys ahead of him at his position and the effectiveness of the players backing-up Dwyane Wade at the 2-guard. If Ennis can show the Heat staff he can handle NBA minutes against the best of the best in the league, he’ll then see an increase in minutes.
Ennis is very much going to be in a Michael Beasley role, but with a little more leeway. Beasley was already in his 6th season with the Heat last season, this will be Ennis’ first season. Beasley had baggage he brought to Miami, Ennis does not. Beasley played on a team with LeBron James, Ennis will be the biggest James on the team. If Ennis plays well, he’ll likely earn a spot in Coach Spolestra’s game plan. If he doesn’t, he’ll need to take advise from veteran Udonis Haslem on how to stay ready to enter the game cold, when his team needs him.
Projections for this Season
Ennis played spectacular basketball for the Miami Heat during the Summer League, averaging 17.2 PPG on 52% shooting during the Orlando Summer League. Those numbers were great, but should be taken with a grain of salt, as the NBA schedule is more rigorous and should test Ennis a lot more.
Playing time and the uncertainty of his role make Ennis a tough player to project for the season. He could click from the beginning of the season and combined with Granger and Wade not staying healthy, earn a bigger role on the team. He could also struggle in his first bout against NBA talent and see the guys in front of him stay healthy and keep their effectiveness.
By the end of the season, I’d expect Ennis to play between 50-55 games, averaging 8-12 minutes a contest. Obviously that little of time won’t alllow him to do much damage, but I’ll project him to average around 4.5 points and 3 rebounds in the minutes he’s given. It’s not asking too much from a young and promising player.
“Why I’m Excited” – Wes Goldberg
With the new era in Miami comes a newfound importance of developing talent. James Ennis is exhibit A. After spending a year over seas Ennis will come to the NBA and the Heat will expect him to contribute. His ability to get the basket and play above the rim haven’t been seen out of a first-year NBA player in these parts since Wade entered the league. The Prince of Perth, King James Ennis has arrived. All hail.This is John Watson (Founder and Technical Director at Stoic) here and I’m thrilled to share that our epic Viking RPG strategy game The Banner Saga is coming to the Xbox One on Tuesday, January 12, 2016.
We’ve been hard at work on bringing the game to consoles for a while now, but the process did take some time and presented some unique challenges. We had to ensure that the experience of The Banner Saga remained the same when you were playing at home on a couch with a gamepad in hand, so we spent a lot of time redesigning parts of the user experience to work better on the Xbox and with an Xbox One Controller in hand. We’re all very happy with the way the Xbox One version of The Banner Saga plays while still delivering that great emotional journey for players.
Blending an RPG with turn based tactical combat The Banner Saga lets you live through an epic role-playing Viking saga where your strategic choices directly affect your personal journey. Make allies as you travel with your caravan across this stunning yet harsh landscape. Carefully choose those who will help fight a new threat that jeopardizes an entire civilization. Every decision you make in travel, conversation and combat has a meaningful effect on the outcome as your story unfolds. Not everyone will survive, but they will be remembered.
The art of The Banner Saga stands out and grabs the attention of people wherever we take the game. Arnie Jorgensen was heavily inspired by the American master Eyvind Earle for the art in The Banner Saga, but a lesser known inspiration came from the children’s books by Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire, both Leif the Lucky and Book of Norse Myths.
We’re also pleased to announce that the game is localized in French, German, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Italian languages. We’re eager for people to experience this epic Viking tale around the world, and we can’t wait for you to begin your saga on January 12, 2016.
Thanks again for all of your support and a huge thank you to Microsoft and the ID@Xbox team for being so great to work with! We’re also pleased to confirm that we’re also working on bringing The Banner Saga 2 to Xbox One and we’ll be sharing more information about that very soon. Be sure to keep your saved games from The Banner Saga as you’ll be able to import your saved data and continue your exact caravan, character, and story choices straight into The Banner Saga 2.
We love chatting with our fans so please check us out on Twitter (@BannerSaga) and on Facebook as well as checking out www.stoicstudio.com for more info about The Banner Saga.Note: This blog has been updated with information from the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center since it was first published.
Continue Reading
Most local head shops have stopped selling herbal incense blends known as "spice" since the recent DEA ban, but now they're selling out of a potentially even more dangerous designer drug: a synthetic speed sold as "bath salts," marketed under names like Ivory Coast, Ivory Soft, Cloud 9, and White Lightning.
Spice (a.k.a. synthetic marijuana) was sold strictly as "herbal incense" and labeled "not for human consumption," but people smoked it to get high. These "bath salts" also contain a disclaimer that they're not for consumption and are sold only as a "novelty," but people are reportedly smoking, snorting, and even injecting them for their reputed effects.
And most local head shops are sold out of them.
Aside from Trails, most Valley head shops carry these "bath salts." But employees at several local smoke shops, including
and
, say they're currently sold out. They say their stock of bath salts flew off shelves after the recent spice ban, and they also report an increase in sales of the legal hallucinogen
.
We stopped at six Valley head shops and called four others looking for the bath salts. Only one -- DJ's Smoke Shop in Mesa -- had any left on the shelves. We asked them to hold a bag for us, and when we got there, the clerk told us five minutes after we'd called, a man came in and bought all the rest of the bath salts they had -- seven 250 mg bags, totaling almost $240. The bag we bought cost $29.95. When the clerk handed it to us, she gave us a serious look and said, "Be very careful with this."
The chemicals in bath salts like Ivory Coast and Cloud 9 are called mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV). There has been no formal research into the effects of these synthetic compounds on humans, but it's been suggested they are more potent than cocaine and Ritalin. The high reportedly lasts anywhere from four to five hours, and is allegedly similar to a high from crystal meth or cocaine.
At least 84 people have reportedly been hospitalized in Louisiana after ingesting bath salts. Mark Ryan, head of Louisiana Poison Control Centers, told the Associated Press that poison centers around the country have received 160 calls about mephedrone and MDPV. Poison control centers in Kentucky, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah have all received calls within the past week about the substances, which have reported ill side effects including paranoia, hallucinations, insomnia, vomiting, cold sweats, and cravings for more.
Sounds like a bad trip to us. Alvin C. Bronstein, acting director of toxicosurveillance for the American Association of Poison Control Centers, said in a news release that bath salts containing mephedrone and MDPV are "an emerging health threat that needs to be taken seriously."
The Banner Good Samaritan Poison and Drug Information Center in Phoenix reports receiving two calls related to local cases -- one in September involving bath salts, and a call in December for mephedrone abuse.
At least two deaths in Sweden and two fatalities in the U.K. have been linked with mephadrone. In the U.S., ingestion of bath salts have been suspected in deaths in Kansas and Missouri.
Mephedrone is illegal in several locations, including Israel, the U.K., and all of Europe. It is not federally controlled in the United States, but has been banned in North Dakota. MDPV is illegal in the U.K., Finland, Denmark, and Sweden. It is still legal in the United States.A Dundalk Muslim family is fearing the worst after receiving a hate message on their door, calling them “terrorists,” among other things.
Raad Al Qaraghuli tells WJZ’s George Solis, to his horror, he found the letter placed on his front door.
It read, according to police: “Terrorist, Leave no one wants you here. Your kind is a disgrace. 9/11 was your fault. Can barely speak English. Stupid” b******”. Take that” s*** “off of your head.”
“I’m scared, and my family is scared, my child is scared,” he said. “I worry about my family and my child.”
The Iraqi refugee family recently relocated from war-torn Syria to Maryland, hoping to find a better future.
Instead, they’ve come to find a letter with the word “terrorist” written on it and claims that Sept. 11 was their fault, alongside a drawing of a Muslim woman holding a bomb.
All of it has led to questions that no parent should have to answer.
“’What do I do if somebody kills me?’” Al Qaraghuli said.
Baltimore County police tell WJZ their investigation revealed the letter is the result of a fight between a nearby teenager, a 14-year-old girl who lives in the same apartment building, and the family’s 11-year-old daughter.
While troubling, police say no |
much hype accompany his ascent as the heir to Vince Young — he was the redshirt freshman with modest expectations as a former three-star recruit competing against the blue-chip true freshman, Jevan Snead.
The rest, as they say, is history, and McCoy is now passing along some of the wisdom that he learned from that competition and his four productive years as a starter that set the then-NCAA record for wins by a quarterback in a career.
And there is one thing that seems obvious — Buechele will soak up as much from McCoy as humanly possible. That’s just how he rolls.In a new interview with the Huffington Post, Body of Proof star and Star Trek: Voyager’s Jeri Ryan talked about her time on the series, as the attractive Borg known as Seven of Nine.
During the interview, Ryan discussed former castmates, the cat suite, her favorite Voyager moments and more.
“I haven’t seen an episode in years, actually, and I usually only see snippets or pictures. It’s kind of funny because it feels so long ago. Oddly, in a way, it also feels like yesterday.” Ryan said when asked if she ever watches old episodes of Voyager.
“Apparently they don’t wear bras and underwear in space. It was a very elaborate undergarment.” Ryan said about her famous cat suite she wore on the show. “I have to say that Robert Blackman, the costume designer, is an absolute genius. That costume was a real feat in engineering, because the producers had said that they wanted it to look like skin, to be skin-regenerative fabric. For the breast mound, they wanted two individual breasts and they wanted it to hug every curve, like skin.”
Ryan went on to discuss some of the animosity on-set while working with Kate Mulgrew.
“It was not a super-easy four years for me, I will say that. It does not stick out as a wonderful, wonderful work experience. It was tough. It was difficult.” she said.
Discussing her favorite memories from the show, Ryan said “I don’t have a favorite moment specifically, but some of my favorite episodes are when Seven was really starting to explore her humanity. Like when The Doctor was teaching her to date — I thought that was a really lovely episode. Those episodes weren’t just the “haughty Borg looking down on humanity” theme. She was more interested in learning about humans.”
She talked about her fear of being typecast as a sci-fi character, saying “That was a huge concern for me when I signed on initially. My agent came to me three times with this role, and I kept passing. I kept saying, ‘Absolutely not!’ I wasn’t a Star Trek fan. I never watched it. All I knew was that the actors are pigeonholed and that’s all they do. It was so early in my career I didn’t want to kill it.”
“What really got me to do it was one particular audition scene. Well, there were two. One which I absolutely hate, which was the infamous “Harry Kim, take off all your clothes” scene, which, of course, they shot and used. The other one, which they didn’t shoot, was so beautiful. It was Seven and she was with Chakotay, and she has her first experience of laughter. In that scene, I really saw the possibilities of the character. That’s what got me to do it. I’ve been lucky, though. Immediately afterwards, I was on Boston Public, and I just kept going from there.”
Read more at the Huffington Post.Now that you’ve set up iMessage, if you use multiple iOS devices you’ll want to be sure to sync your conversations across them all. This is supposed to happen automatically as long as the iMessage account on each iOS device is set to the same Apple ID, but it doesn’t always do so.
If your iMessages aren’t syncing, there’s a quick fix to have them reliably sync across all your devices. You’ll probably want to verify this process on each iOS device you intend to sync the iMessages to.
Sync iMessages
Do this from the iOS device:
Tap on “Settings”
Select “Messages”
Scroll down and tap on “Receive At”
At the bottom of the iMessage account screen, tap on “Caller ID”
Tap on the Apple ID as your caller ID (yes, even on the iPhone)
Close out Settings and repeat on your other iOS hardware
Send a new iMessage and check your iOS devices, they should now all be synced
It’s obviously necessary for you to be using the same Apple ID or iMessage account here, and this also requires iOS 5 on every device since iMessage is a feature of that OS update.
Why Don’t iMessages Sync Automatically Until I Do This?
They’re supposed to, and some do and some don’t. The sporadic or unreliable syncing behavior seems to be most problematic when using iMessage between an iPhone and another iOS device like an iPod touch or iPad, and presumably that is due to the Caller ID associating with a phone number rather than an Apple ID. While verifying this to be the case, I discovered that MacGasm came upon the same solution when syncing messages with an iPhone 4S, further implicating the iPhone’s phone number as the cause of the problem. I’ll bet a future iOS 5 update will fix this, but in the meantime it’s easy enough to do manually.
This post is in response to an excellent question submitted to us by Jeremy L, who wrote in asking:
Hi! I had a question about using iMessage across multiple devices. How can iMessage be made to push and sync more efficiently across multiple devices? Most of the time (read: almost every time) I must begin sending messages from iPad before incoming messages will begin getting pushed to that device. I just want it to be the case that whenever I participate in a text conversation between other iMessage users, that all my non-deleted conversations will appear on all my devices exactly as they were; regardless of which device I used previously.
We hope this answers your question Jeremy, enjoy iMessage!We Humans enjoy a certain level of comfort as the dominant inhabitants of this planet. Our intelligent minds have brought us remarkable advancements in medical science, The technology to speak to our neighbors all over the world, and a unique view of our existence as conscious beings. There is no doubt that we have evolved into astonishing biological organisms capable of almost limitless progress. But this intelligence comes with a few inherent responsibilities that we have been ignoring for a dangerously long time. The first being Common Sense; This is perhaps the most important. A species that refuses to use it’s logical mind to divert itself from destructive circumstances is doomed for self-inflicted failure. Another responsibility we inherit is the obligation of compassion. We have been given minds that are able to solve some of life’s most puzzling questions, We have challenged our natural limits and mastered the ability to fly higher than the birds, we can look into the vastness of Outer Space and witness the unbelievable beauty of our Universe; This same creativity should always be used to make sure our actions do as little harm as possible. That principle is as essential to our survival as the Oxygen we breathe.
Our planet is a very finite resource. We sometimes don’t realize it because of how big it seems to us tiny Humans, but the earth only has so much to offer, and once a resource is gone, for whatever reason, it is effectively gone for good. The Human race has developed a kind of amnesia to this rule, We have turned a blind eye to the obvious truth that we lead an unsustainable existence. I think subconsciously we have convinced ourselves that we have nothing to worry about, as if the problem will just go away. Nothing could be more deadly than an entire race lying to themselves. It’s time to muster up the maturity we are so proud of, and as a species, face the facts.
In April of 2010 the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people, and causing a massive underwater geyser which for three months pumped over 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf. The full extent of the damage is still unknown. Fossil fuels have been shown to produce toxic gasses that affect the quality of our air, causing cancer, asthma, and other debilitating diseases. And the emissions may also be a contributing factor to global climate change, an event that could easily wipe entire populations off the face of the planet. It has become very obvious to me that our reliance on petroleum and other fossil fuels is a deadly addiction to the familiar, and nothing more. We have the ability to harvest energy from the sun and wind, We know how to create power with hydro-electric facilities, and have developed ways to produce Geo-thermal and even wave generated electricity. Vehicles that run strictly on Hydrogen have been made, the only emissions produced by these cars is clean, drinkable water. New technologies continue to surface as a result of our astounding ingenuity, I think the time to leave our old habits behind is extremely overdue.
We owe a great amount of respect to coal and oil, and the rapid progress they allowed us to enjoy as we paved our way into the advancements that have helped us adapt and evolve into a relatively comfortable existence. But this way of producing fuel and energy should be viewed as a metaphorical raft, that has given us the ability to make it across the river of time safely. But having landed on the other side, all we are doing now is dragging the raft behind us, expending valuable time and energy on a load we need not bear. In essence this addiction is a retardation of our own evolution, placing limits on the Human species that grow tighter by the day. How much more devastation will we need to experience before we accept the fact that we are destroying the only place we have to live, and robbing our children of a chance to lead a happy, meaningful life.
Another major cause of both pollution and unnecessary suffering are the methods we employ to raise, and slaughter animals for food, clothing, and other reasons. The popular image of a happy cow or pig basking in the sun on a small family farm is a mirage. The reality is the demand for meat, leather and fur has driven the industry to mass produce it’s animals in intensive “factory farms”, often ignoring the basic rights that a conscious being incurs at birth, the right to live a happy, natural existence, with as little suffering as possible. To purposely inflict suffering to another living creature is the lowest form of depravity we can sink to. This is added to the fact that our methods of raising these animals leaves us with millions of tons of waste, which has found it’s way into our food and water supply, and carries deadly diseases like E. Coli and Salmonella. It is estimated that just one modern pig farm produces more waste than a city of 10,000 people, and with approximately 100 million pigs being raised and killed each year in the U.S. alone, we are facing a serious problem. Instead of just asking you to take my word for it, I invite you to investigate the ways the animal industry has chosen to “solve” this destructive problem. I believe you will be appalled at the level of irresponsibility and blatant carelessness we have shown in regards to this situation.
Our deed’s have been not only destructive, but also cruel. Because we view them as inferior to our own species, animals rarely have very much protection from the horrible cruelty we are capable of. We are shoving, living, thinking, feeling beings into tiny battery cages and pens, forcing them to live in horrible conditions their entire lives, and then shipping them to slaughterhouses to be violently killed. Using inhumane methods simply because they are cheap and easy, completely ignoring the massive suffering we are inflicting on these creatures. If we can make a plane soar through the sky at hundreds of miles an hour, or build a rocket that will take us to the moon, why is it we can’t seem to figure out a way to feed and clothe ourselves and produce safe products that don’t cause unnecessary harm or damage? And the resources we expend feeding these animals could easily solve world hunger if the food and energy were diverted from this wasteful, destructive industry. It is time to reevaluate our priorities and analyze our actions and the consequences.
And while our creativity has given us amazing technology that has improved the quality of our lives, there is yet another dark side of the path we have chosen to follow. As time goes by, we Humans continue to invent new and ingenious ways to kill each other. More often than not leaving these deadly weapons in the control of greedy, corrupt tyrants who use them at will to manipulate social circumstances in their favor, or to force their beliefs or morals on others in some despicable act of ego-maniacal imagined superiority. If a person expects to enjoy freedom and happiness he must never encroach on another’s right to liberty and peace. This is a basic fundamental of Human existence. We start wars because others don’t agree with us, or have something we perceive as rightfully ours, which naturally provokes the victims to retaliate in kind with as much violence and hate as they can muster. It is a vicious, pointless cycle of intolerance, hate and death that is poisoning our hearts and stealing the lives of innocent people all over the world. Imagine how much better off we would be if we focused more on our own progress, and not on developing weapons of war.
These are only a few of the serious problems we as a species face because of our actions. The human population has risen to 7 billion people, a staggering number that most economists, and environmental scientists suggest is entirely out of control. Our small, precious planet cannot support our lifestyle of wasteful consumption. And with an ever increasing number of people on the planet our problems are only going to get worse unless we make a change. Yes, it will be a difficult process of trial and error, but the most important thing is to begin. To put one foot in front on another and start the journey to make things right. And once we have overcome this obstacle facing us we will be that much stronger, that much smarter, ready to face the future with experience and, hopefully, Love.Pat Lovell / USA TODAY Sports Minnesota QB Philip Nelson had no trouble shredding Indiana's porous defense Saturday.
The 10 best quarterback performances from Saturday -- a "terrific 10," as it were:
Week 10: Things we learned From Jadeveon Clowney coming up empty again vs. Mississippi State to Ohio State's unsung tight end, here are the lessons we learned from the college football weekend. From Jadeveon Clowney coming up empty again vs. Mississippi State to Ohio State's unsung tight end, here are the lessons we learned from the college football weekend. More...
10. Terrance Owens, Toledo
The key stats: 18 of 24, 375 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions in win vs. Eastern Michigan
The buzz: Owens, a senior, had the second-highest passing total of his career. He threw for 260 yards and two TDs in the first half, which ended with the Rockets leading 38-10. It was his second consecutive three-TD game.
9. Braxton Miller, Ohio State
The key stats: 19 of 23, 233 yards, 4 touchdowns, 1 interception in win vs. Purdue
The buzz: He did all his damage in the first half, as he wasn't needed in the second half. He threw three TD passes in the first quarter, which ended with the Buckeyes leading 35-0.
8. B.J. Denker, Arizona
The key stats: 24 of 38, 261 yards, 1 touchdown, 0 interceptions, 44 rushing yards, 3 rushing touchdowns in win vs. California
The buzz: His three rushing TDs gave him 11 for the season, which is a single-season school record for a quarterback. Two of his scoring runs came in the third quarter, while the TD pass came in the second and helped the Wildcats to a 19-14 halftime lead.
7. Brett Hundley, UCLA
The key stats: 19 of 24, 273 yards, 2 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 72 rushing yards, 2 touchdowns in win vs. Colorado
The buzz: Both of Hundley's TD passes came in the first half; he also scored a rushing TD in the first half, which ended with UCLA leading 21-13. His other rushing TD came at the end of the Bruins' first drive of the second half. It was just the third time this season that Hundley didn't throw a pick.
6. Philip Nelson, Minnesota
The key stats: 16 of 23, 298 yards, 4 touchdowns, 0 interceptions in win vs. Indiana
The buzz: Nelson had thrown for 644 yards in the first six games this season, which means his stats from Saturday show how atrocious Indiana's defense can be. He threw three TD passes in the first quarter, and his last scoring toss was the game-winner with a bit more than three minutes left in the game.
5. Rakeem Cato, Marshall
The key stats: 21 of 28, 262 yards, 5 touchdowns, 0 interceptions in win vs. Southern Miss
The buzz: Cato capped off each of Marshall's first four drives with TD passes -- each to a different receiver. The other TD pass came late in the second quarter and gave the Herd a 35-10 halftime lead. He tied a career high with the five TD passes.
4. Derek Carr, Fresno State
The key stats: 39 of 56, 487 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 1 rushing touchdown in win vs. Nevada
The buzz: It was the fifth 400-yard game of the season for Carr and his season-high. He threw TD passes in the first, third and fourth quarters, and his rushing TD came in the second quarter and gave the Bulldogs the lead for good. He became Fresno's all-time leading passer during the victory.
3. Tajh Boyd, Clemson
The key stats: 24 of 29, 377 yards, 3 touchdowns, 1 interception, 1 rushing touchdown in win vs. Virginia
The buzz: He played less than three quarters, yet still put up huge numbers. His rushing TD came late in the first half and gave Clemson a 35-7 halftime lead. Two of his TD passes went to Sammy Watkins, including a 96-yarder early in the third quarter.
2. Grant Hedrick, Boise State
The key stats: 19 of 27, 305 yards, 5 touchdowns, 30 rushing yards, 1 touchdown
The buzz: Hedrick, a junior making his second career start, rallied the Broncos from a 10-0 first-quarter deficit. He threw three TD passes in the second quarter, and had one scoring pass in each period in the second half. His TD passes went to four receivers.
1. Johnny Manziel, Texas A&M
The key stats: 16 of 24, 273 yards, 4 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 68 rushing yards, 2 touchdowns
The buzz: Manziel rolled up the big numbers despite playing less than three quarters. He threw three TD passes in the first half. It was his third consecutive four-TD game and the sixth time this season he threw at least four TD passes. It also was the first time in four games he didn't throw an interception. Finally, it was the third time this season he has rushed for two TDs in a game.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at [email protected]. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.Looking for news you can trust?
Subscribe to our free newsletters.
This story first appeared on the ProPublica website.
This spring, a group of California Democrats gathered at a modern, airy office building just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. The meeting was House members only—no aides allowed—and the mission was seemingly impossible.
In previous years, the party had used its perennial control of California’s state Legislature to draw district maps that protected Democratic incumbents. But in 2010, California voters put redistricting in the hands of a citizens’ commission where decisions would be guided by public testimony and open debate.
The question facing House Democrats as they met to contemplate the state’s new realities was delicate: How could they influence an avowedly nonpartisan process? Alexis Marks, a House aide who invited members to the meeting, warned the representatives that secrecy was paramount. “Never say anything AT ALL about redistricting—no speculation, no predictions, NOTHING,” Marks wrote in an email. “Anything can come back to haunt you.”
In the weeks that followed, party leaders came up with a plan. Working with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee—a national arm of the party that provides money and support to Democratic candidates—members were told to begin “strategizing about potential future district lines,” according to another email.
The citizens’ commission had pledged to create districts based on testimony from the communities themselves, not from parties or statewide political players. To get around that, Democrats surreptitiously enlisted local voters, elected officials, labor unions and community groups to testify in support of configurations that coincided with the party’s interests.
When they appeared before the commission, those groups identified themselves as ordinary Californians and did not disclose their ties to the party. One woman who purported to represent the Asian community of the San Gabriel Valley was actually a lobbyist who grew up in rural Idaho, and lives in Sacramento.
In one instance, party operatives invented a local group to advocate for the Democrats’ map.
California’s Democratic representatives got much of what they wanted from the 2010 redistricting cycle, especially in the northern part of the state. “Every member of the Northern California Democratic Caucus has a ticket back to DC,” said one enthusiastic memo written as the process was winding down. “This is a huge accomplishment that should be celebrated by advocates throughout the region.”
Statewide, Democrats had been expected to gain at most a seat or two as a result of redistricting. But an internal party projection says that the Democrats will likely pick up six or seven seats in a state where the party’s voter registrations have grown only marginally.
“Very little of this is due to demographic shifts,” said Professor Doug Johnson at the Rose Institute in Los Angeles. Republican areas actually had higher growth than Democratic ones. “By the numbers, Republicans should have held at least the same number of seats, but they lost.”
As part of a national look at redistricting, ProPublica reconstructed the Democrats’ stealth success in California, drawing on internal memos, emails, interviews with participants and map analysis. What emerges is a portrait of skilled political professionals armed with modern mapping software and detailed voter information who managed to replicate the results of the smoked-filled rooms of old.
The losers in this once-a-decade reshaping of the electoral map, experts say, were the state’s voters. The intent of the citizens’ commission was to directly link a lawmaker’s political fate to the will of his or her constituents. But as ProPublica’s review makes clear, Democratic incumbents are once again insulated from the will of the electorate.
Democrats acknowledge that they faced a challenge in getting the districts they wanted in densely populated, ethnically diverse Southern California. The citizen commission initially proposed districts that would have endangered the political futures of several Democratic incumbents. Fighting back, some Democrats gathered in Washington and discussed alternatives. These sessions were sometimes heated.
“There was horse-trading throughout the process,” said one senior Democratic aide.
The revised districts were then presented to the commission by plausible-sounding witnesses who had personal ties to Democrats but did not disclose them.
Commissioners declined to discuss the details of specific districts, citing ongoing litigation. But several said in interviews that while they were aware of some attempts to mislead them, they felt they had defused the most egregious attempts.
“When you’ve got so many people reporting to you or making comments to you, some of them are going to be political shills,” said commissioner Stanley Forbes, a farmer and bookstore owner. “We just had to do the best we could in determining what was for real and what wasn’t.”
Democrats acknowledge the meetings described in the emails, but said the gatherings “centered on” informing members about the process. In a statement to ProPublica, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, head of California’s delegation, said that members, “as citizens of the state of California, were well within their rights to make comments and ensure that voices from communities of interest within their neighborhoods were heard by the Commission.”
“The final product voted on by the Commission was entirely out of the hands of the Members,” said Lofgren. “They, like any other Californian, were able to comment but had no control over the process.”
“At no time did the Delegation draw up a statewide map,” Lofgren said. (Read Lofgren’s full statement.)
California’s Republicans were hardly a factor. The national GOP stayed largely on the sidelines, and individual Republicans had limited success influencing the commission.
“Republicans didn’t really do anything,” said Johnson. “They were late to the party, and essentially non-entities in the redistricting process.”
Fed-up voters create a commission
The once-a-decade redistricting process is supposed to ensure that every citizen’s vote counts equally.
In reality, politicians and parties working to advance their own interests often draw lines that make an individual’s vote count less. They create districts dominated by one party or political viewpoint, protecting some candidates (typically incumbents) while dooming others. They can empower a community by grouping its voters in a single district, or disenfranchise it by zigging the lines just so.
Over the decades, few party bosses were better at protecting incumbents than California’s Democrats. No Democratic incumbent has lost a Congressional election in the nation’s most populous state since 2000.
As they drew the lines each decade, California’s party bosses worked in secret. But the oddly shaped districts that emerged from those sessions were visible for all to see. Bruce Cain, a legendary mapmaker who now heads the University of California’s Washington center, once drew an improbable-looking state assembly district that could not be traversed by car. (It crossed several impassable mountains.)
Cain proudly told the story of the district, which was set up for one of the governor’s friends. Cain said he justified the odd shape by saying it pulled together the state’s largest population of endangered condors. “It wasn’t legitimate on any level,” Cain recalled.
The 2010 ballot initiative giving the citizen commission authority over Congressional districts was sold to voters as a game changer. Not surprisingly, it was strenuously opposed by California’s Democrats, who continue to control the Statehouse.
No fewer than 35 Democratic politicians—including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi—and their allies spent a total of $7 million to campaign against the proposition. The effort included mailings from faux community groups that derided the commission’s $1 million annual budget as “bureaucratic waste.” Despite this effort, Californians voted 61 percent to 39 percent to wrest federal redistricting from the hands of state lawmakers.
Immediately, Democrats began organizing to influence the citizen commission. There were numerous opportunities.
According to civics textbooks, the aim of redistricting is to group “communities of interest” so that residents in a city, neighborhood or ethnic group wield political power by voting together. The commission took an expansive view of this concept, ultimately defining a “community of interest” as anything from a neighborhood to workers on the same commute, or even areas sharing “intense beach recreation.”
This gave savvy players an opening to draw up maps that benefited one party or incumbent and then find—or concoct—”communities of interest” that justified them.
Democrats set out to do exactly that.
On March 16, members of the California delegation gathered at Democratic Party offices to discuss how to handle redistricting. They agreed that congressmen from the various regions of California—North, South and Central—would meet separately to “create a plan of action,” according to an email recounting the day’s events by Alexis Marks, the House aide. Among the first tasks, Marks wrote, was determining “how to best organize communities of interest.”
Democrats were already working “BEHIND THE SCENES” to “get info out” about candidates for the job of commission lawyer who were viewed as unfriendly. “I’ll keep you in the loop, but do not broadcast,” Marks wrote.
“The CA delegation has been broken down into regions that will be discussing redistricting at the member level,” read another party email from late March. “Members will be asked to present ideas on both issues”—communities of interest and district lines—”and will be asked to come to some consensus about how to adopt a regional strategy for redistricting.”
Over the next several weeks, California Democrats huddled with Mark Gersh, the party’s top mapmaking guru. Officially, Gersh works with the Foundation for the Future, a nonprofit whose declared goal is “to help Democrats get organized for the fight of the decade; the fight that will determine Democratic fortunes in your state and in Washington, D.C. for years to come: Redistricting!”
The foundation is well-funded for this fight. Its supporters include longtime supporters of the Democratic Party: the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees as well as the American Association for Justice (previously known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America). The foundation was launched in 2006 when Nancy Pelosi’s office worked with both groups to start it.
Neither Gersh nor participants would describe in detail what was discussed at the meetings. But from Marks’ emails and other sources, it is clear that California’s Democrats sat down together to discuss mutually agreeable districts that would protect incumbents.
The value of coordinating efforts to influence the commission cannot be overstated. If each Democrat battled separately for the best district, it was likely that one Congress member’s gain would harm countless colleagues. Creating Congressional districts is a lot like a Rubik’s cube: Each change reshapes the entire puzzle. The Democrats’ plan was to deliver synchronized testimony that would herd the commission toward the desired outcomes. If it worked perfectly, the commissioners might not even know they had been influenced.
Over the summer, Marks sent out more than 100 emails about redistricting, according to multiple recipients of the messages. According to House records, Marks earned $112,537 in 2010 in her post as deputy director of the California Democratic delegation. That makes her a federal employee. But although many of the messages were sent during the work day, a spokesman insisted Marks did so in her after-hours role as a political staffer for Democrats. They were sent from a Gmail account. Lofgren’s office did not make Marks available for comment, citing policy that staffers do not speak on the record. Instead, they pointed to Rep. Lofgren’s statement.
Federal employees are not allowed to do campaign work on government time, or use government resources, according to House ethics rules.
The emails alerted staff and legislators when the commission was scheduled to discuss their districts and they encouraged them to have allies testify to “community of interest” lines that supported their maps.
Marks told members they would be asked to raise money for a legal challenge if things didn’t work out. Th edelegation, she said, was working with Marc Elias, who heads an organization called the National Democratic Redistricting Trust. (The trust shares a website with The Foundation for The Future.)
Last year the trust persuaded the Federal Election Commission to allow members to raise money for redistricting lawsuits without disclosing how the money was spent, how much was raised, and who had given it.
The commission blinds itself
Back in California, the commission was getting organized. Its first task was to pick commissioners. The ballot initiative excluded virtually anyone who had any previous political experience. Run for office? Worked as a staffer or consultant to a political campaign? Given more than $2,000 to a candidate in any year? “Cohabitated” for more than 30 days in the past year with anyone in the previous categories? You’re barred.
More than 36,000 people applied. The state auditor’s office winnowed the applicants to a group of 60 finalists. Each party was allowed to strike 12 applicants without explanation. Then, the state used Bingo-style bouncing balls in a cage to pick eight commissioners—three Republicans, three Democrats and two people whose registration read “decline to state” (California-speak for independent). The randomly selected commissioners then chose six from the remaining finalists to complete the panel.
The result was a commission that included, among others, a farmer, a homemaker, a sports doctor and an architect. Previous redistrictings had been executed by political pros with intimate knowledge of California’s sprawling political geography. The commissioners had little of that expertise—and one of their first acts was to deprive themselves of the data that might have helped them spot partisan manipulation. [11]
The law creating the commission barred it from considering incumbents’ addresses, and instructed it not to draw districts for partisan reasons.
The commissioners decided to go further, agreeing not to even look at data that would tell them how prospective maps affected the fortunes of Democrats or Republicans. This left the commissioners effectively blind to the sort of influence the Democrats were planning.
One of the mapping consultants working for the commission warned that it would be difficult to competently draft district lines without party data. She was overruled.
The lack of political data was “liberating,” said Forbes, the commissioner. “We had no one to please except ourselves, based on our best judgment.”
“I think,” he said, “we did a pretty good job.”
The commission’s judgments on how to draw lines, Forbes and others said, was based on the testimony from citizens about communities of interest.
“We were provided quite a number of maps from various organizations,” said another commissioner, attorney Jodie Filkins-Webber. If the groups were basing their maps on political data to favor one party, “they certainly did not tell us that.”
“Districts could have been drawn based on voter registration,” Filkins-Webber said, “but we would never have known it.”
The commission received a torrent of advice—a total of 30,000 separate pieces of testimony and documents. Records suggest the commission never developed an effective method for organizing it all. The testimony was kept in a jumble of handwritten notes and computer files. The commissioners were often left to recall testimony by memory.
The difficulties in digesting and weighing the reams of often-conflicting testimony enhanced the value of people or groups who came bearing draft maps.
“Other people offered testimony; we offered solutions,” said Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a powerful business group outside Los Angeles that persuaded the commission to adopts its Congressional map for the San Fernando Valley.
How Democrats locked down Northern California
Redistricting is a chess game for people with superb spatial perception. Sometimes, anchoring a single line on a map can make everything fall into place.
According to an internal memo, Democrats recognized early on that they could protect nearly every incumbent in Northern California if they won a few key battles. First, they had to make sure no district crossed the Golden Gate Bridge. Then, they had to draw a new seat that pulled sufficient numbers of Democrats from Contra Costa County into a district that included Republicans from the San Joaquin Valley.
The man with the most to lose was Rep. Jerry McNerney, who represented an octopus-shaped district that had scooped in Democrats from the areas east of San Francisco. McNerney’s prospects seemed particularly dismal. Early in the year, he made The Washington Post’s national list of top 10 likely redistricting victims.
Republicans moved first, attempting to create a district that would keep San Joaquin County whole and pick up conservative territory to the south. But then a previously unknown group calling itself OneSanJoaquin entered the fray.
OneSanJoaquin described itself as a nonprofit, but records show it is not registered as such in any state. It has no identifiable leadership but it does have a Facebook page, called OneSanJoaquin, created by the Google account OneSanJoaquin.
The page was posted in early April, just as the commission began taking testimony. Its entries urged county residents to download maps and deliver pre-packaged testimony.
On the surface, the OneSanJoaquin page seemed to be serving Republicans’ interests. But Democrats were one move ahead and understood that a united valley would inevitably lead to a Democratic-leaning district. (Republicans apparently did not understand that federal voting rights requirements ruled out their proposed district, since it would have interfered with the Latino district to the south. That misconception wasencouraged by the maps on the OneSanJoaquin page, which were drawn to make this look possible.)
In fact, the only way to make a district with “one San Joaquin” was to pull in the Democrats in eastern Contra Costa—the far reaches of San Francisco’s Bay-area liberals.
The author of OneSanJoaquin’s maps was not identified on the Facebook page, but ProPublica has learned it was Paul Mitchell, a redistricting consultant hired by McNerney.
Transcripts show that more than a dozen people delivered or sent the canned testimony to the commission, which accepted it without question. There’s no sign that commissioners were aware some of the letters had been downloaded from the mysterious OneSanJoaquin page.
After the commission finished, McNerney announced he was moving to the newly created San Joaquin district to run for re-election. It was a huge improvement for him. In 2010, he barely won his district, beating his opponent by just one point. If the 2010 election were re-run in his new district, he would have won by seven points, according to the Democrats’ internal analysis. (McNerney’s office did not respond to requests for comment.)
Summing up the story, an internal Democratic memo said the GOP had been decisively out-maneuvered “Their hope was to create a Republican Congressional seat,” the memo said. “Their plan backfired.”
“McNerney ends up with safer district than before,” Mitchell’s firm tweeted, after McNerney announced his candidacy in his new district. “Wow! How did he do that?”
An under-funded commission
While players attempting to influence the process were well-funded, the commission struggled with a lack of time and money. They responded, in part, by reducing citizens’ opportunities for input.
The budget for the whole map drawing undertaking was just over $1 million. At first, the commission had its public hearings transcribed—then the money ran out and they stopped.
The commissioners worked for free, with only a small stipend for expenses. As a result most kept their day jobs at the same time as they tried to juggle their roles as commissioners.
It was a grueling schedule, with 35 public hearings taking place over just three months. “I had three days off between” April and August, said Commissioner Filkins-Webber, who maintained her legal practice while serving. “I was working basically on average 18 hours a day.”
The commissioners also had to deal with public anger. The Tea Party in California decided to use the hearings as a forum to protest the Voting Rights Act, for instance, and at one hearing got so rowdy that police intervened.
Experts hired by the commission to |
and hidden messages.[39] He also was familiar with biochemical codons.[40]
8. February 15, 2011 – A group of independent scientists convened by the National Academies of Sciences has concluded that scientific evidence alone is not enough to prove that Bruce Ivins was the perpetrator of the anthrax attacks that killed five people in 2001[60]
I’ve long believed that dismissing the hijackers and al Qaeda re: 9/11 is a mistake, as it truly seems from all possible research that the hijackers acted as crucial vessels, ciphers.
They lived next to Israeli agents, Israeli ecstacy dealers. They lived very close to the first anthrax attack. One took training in Florida from the former head of remote viewing/psychic Army experiments. Reports state Mohammed Atta and company spent a lot of time and money on alcohol, strippers, porn, even hookers and drugs. The flight schools in Florida have interesting deep state connections as
reported by Daniel Hopsicker. And we KNOW the US government was war gaming anthrax sent in the mail back in August as reported by Judith Miller, AND we know they were told to take cipro PRIOR to 9/11.
It’s been 12 years now. Is it possible to finally get an image of what happened? Is it possible there is a connection to both Ivins and the bio lab and the hijackers through some nexus liason, even if they were unaware of eachother?
A lot of evidence does seem to point to Ivins, tho a final report says it is inconclusive. But you get the sense there is so much more to it. Like Oklahoma city and 9/11 itself, there’s all these secondary layers of actors and potential perps.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
8bit and Novemb5r on 911 Nick Berg
Novem5er wrote:Regarding the Sunil Tripathi similarities…. Am I the only one getting weird “Nick Berg” vibes.
Remember him? The American guy beheaded in Iraq… and shown all over the internet. The same Nick Berg who’d been held by American forces for several days (denied many times over and then half-confirmed) before being released and beheaded. The SAME Nick Berg who’s email address was actually used by Zacarias Moussaoui in relation to the 9/11 attacks! Somehow this innocent Nick Berg is connected to everybody.
Now Sunil? Just strange.
The same Nick Berg whose emails were used on a laptop containing software given to Moussaoui by the soon to be ill fated Paul Wellstone crash co-pilot. A laptop used in a University apartment shared by Hussein al Altas and Mujahid Menepta AKA Melvin Lattimore (tied to WTC 1993 and OKC 1995) The same Moussaoui seen with Mohammed Atta at the Dreamland Motel, made famous by Mcveigh (where Mujahid Menepta was also at in 1995)
-=-=-=-=-
Bamiyan_Buddhas & 911
Hey 8bit. I felt this was a synch of Afghanistan/ 9/11 as well:
As you descend into Bamiyan, the vast, empty, shadowed alcoves stand out in sharp contrast to the sandstone cliffs. Even though I had never been there before, there was an echo of the feeling I have returning home to New York, a twinned absence, a pair of empty seats at the table.
The great stone Buddhas, one 175 feet high, the other 125 feet, had stood watch over the valley since at least the 6th century.
http://www.slate.com/id/2104119
The Bamiyan Buddhas were Afghanistan’s marveled twin towers. There was no doubt about it. Two magnificent pillars that iconized Afghan history. They were both destroyed by the Taliban, using a set of controlled demolition charges the 2nd of March, 2001.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamiyan_Buddhas
http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?p=343740#p343740
-=-=-=-=-
http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=24880&p=283020&hilit=Ayub+Ali+Khan#p283020
By the way, all reports indicate at least one gun had been smuggled on board Flight 11, used to kill Daniel Lewin.
Also here’s the link to that new documentary that is comprised entirely of extremely rare/hardly ever seen footage from 9/11, 9/12 and 9/13
called “Between the Lies”. It goes deep into not just the collapse of the 3 towers, but way deep into the hijackers, Pentagon, Flight 93 and especially the “United 23” story(at the hour mark)
http://www.archive.org/details/Between_the_Lies
—
Well for one, why is there such a detailed, wide ranging report of so many planes containing pre planted knives? Is this to mean that the four flights also had preplanted knives where the hijackers seats were?
Also, wasn’t this flight in particular grounded before they could get on board? In the early days of 9/11 reporting, there was a clear theme from all over regarding the idea of an “airport employee inside job”. I think this is entirely possible.
As for why get upset…well wasnt it Atta and al-Omari(or the Buhkari Brothers?) who got into a near fight with some random guy in the airport parking lot? Wasn’t it Atta and others who got beligerent in strip clubs, bars… and according to some reports, the Oklahoma City Bombing Museum? So many of the hijackers had short fuses, getting pulled over. Going to the cops to report stolen stuff. KSM even was arrested when he visited America. These guys did NOT blend in, and the “takfir” explanation of their obsession with porn, sex toys, drugs, strippers, and hookers absolutely does not fly. As investigators have said, these guys wanted to leave an intentional breadcrumb trail. “Cool calm and collected” was not an asset that the hijackers always possessed.
Again, if we are to believe actor James Woods, law enforcement, FBI, witnesses, investigators, researchers, etc: then there was a LOT more than just the “19” who were on board flights or preparing for plane hijackings. Why would these guys make big scenes? Either they are that idiotic, or that was what they were intended to do.
…
Absolutely. I mean one of these guys(Subash Gurung, who tried to board a Chicago plane) even had the same address as two of the other group of “would be hijackers” So this was clearly not misreporting and “early confusion”…but proof of at least a couple of cells.
My focus in researching 9/11 has primarily been centered on:
* The history of al Qaeda, from Maktab al-Khidamat to al Qaeda and
the al Kifah Center in Brooklyn and Boston.
*The evolution of al Kifah Center to “Care Intl.” and its absorbtion into the Ptech/Yasin al Qadi realm of massachusetts/New Jersey companies.
(BMI, Ptech, Logan Furniture, etc) Also the role of Ptech as an al Qaeda front, Qadi and Khalid bin Mahfoud’s financing of bin Laden, and most importantly Ptech backdoor risk management architecture software on all high level US government system(including the FAA)
*Choosing of specific flight schools in America by bin Laden corporation SICO
*The evolution of the “al Qaeda” saga, from the Sadat assassination and Afghanistan to Ali Mohamed to Rabbi Khahane killing, World Trade Center 1993/Al Kifah/Al Farooq mosque/Blind Sheikh, to Ramzi Yousef in the Philippines and Manhattan jail, Khalid Sheikh Mohamed’s 1994-2001 movements, to bin Laden and Zawahiri’s time in Sudan and Afghanistan, to the 1998 Dar-Es-Salaam/Nairobi and USS Cole bombings, to most importantly “Jihad in Bosnia and Chechnya”.
*The saga of Khalid al Midhar and Nawaf al Hazmi
*Involvement of Saudi GID, Jeddah embassy, Royals and Officials regarding both financial and material support
*Role of Able Danger, Hamburg cell, Brooklyn cell, Darkazanli, NSA eavesdropping, 1996-1998 role of American Aukai Collins as informant in Bosnia/Chechnya/Afghanistan/Phoenix AZ.
*Role of Dubai’s banking system
*Role of Pakistani Intelligence, Omar Saeed Sheikh, RG Abbas, etc
*Role of Israeli spies in spying the hijackers
*Role of Muwafaq Foundation, WAMY, Holy Land, Care Intl, Benevolence International, SICO, Tatex Trading, Infocom, Infocus, and other al Qaeda linked front companies and terror financing charities.
*Trail of the hijackers in Southern California, Florida, Oklahoma, Virginia, etc.
*Role of unknown and known hijacker accomplices inside of America from 1999-2001
Do I feel I’m anymore closer to “the truth” than those who focus more on the physical anomalies of the day itself? Well, not entirely… but I definitely am convinced the 9/11 operation, to the chagrin of KSM and Zawahiri, is a very complex deep state event. The “Atef and Zawahiri” computers and raid of the Kabul al Qaeda office to me shows that the “main core” of al Qaeda were in a very small bubble unaware of the real agenda they were playing too. Zawahiri, Atef, bin Laden, KSM, etc might have felt like they were putting one over the “powers that be”…in reality al Qaeda was the one being played.
…
Who was Zacharious Moussaoui hanging out with in Norman Oklahoma at the University of Oklahoma?
Nick Berg, WTC 1993/OKC 1995 operative Melvin Lattimore(roomate), Hussein al-Attas (roomate, and friend of al Midhar/al Hazmi), as well as Moussaoui was seen with Mohamed Atta, alShehi, and several other hijackers. Moussaoui and Atta were taken to the same dusty “Dreamland Motel” in August of 2001 by Lattimore, that Lattimore had taken Mcveigh, Nichols and others to just a few weeks before the OKC bombing.
Moussaoui matters, because it directly connects the Kuala Lampar apartment where Moussaoui stayed, to the Nick Berg case(both Berg and Moussaoui trained at Airman Aviation in 2001), to the Oklahoma City Bombing case, and to the rest of the hijackers. Bin Laden and KSM might call Moussaoui a “wannabe”, but even Moussaoui’s ties to Richard Reid and the London mosque are very significant in my mind.
Al-Quatani’s blocking from getting in of course revealed a weakness in al Qaeda. Because this goes straight into the central question you’ve been asking lately: “Did al Qaeda have backup cells and or operatives just in case something went wrong?”
Its my belief that there were extra hijacker teams and sleeper cells that al Qaeda was completely unaware of. Including the United 23 stuff, and the white Israeli connected vans in NYC and NJ. Perhaps their job was either to create further chaos… or to obfuscate.
Why did Moussaoui make such a scene? Well, we know for a fact that Hussein al-Attas drove him to MN, where he was in contact with Blackwater (according to whom he was emailing and calling) We also know Ziad Jarrah was being trained by “Men Who Stare At Goats” alumni and occult military trainer Bert Rodriguez in Florida, and had the email “[email protected]”(a military subcontractor email). Melvin (Mujahid Menepta) Lattimore would have to then drive to pick up Al-Attas in MN shortly after 9/11 where both were then arrested. We know over 75 times FBI agents pleaded to get Moussaoui and search his laptop, where al Qaeda information and Nick Berg’s emails were found.
In total, I believe that there is direct prima facie evidence that the same operatives were used in the World Trade Center Bombing of 1993 and the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995, and some of these guys end up within the 9/11 framework.
What connects all this is Moussaoui. At the Dreamland motel where authorities believe the OKC conspirators and plot swirled around is the exact same motel that Mousaoui, Marwan alShehi and Atta were taken too. Both involved Melvin Lattimore, who was said to have always been loitering around the motel by the owners:
http://www.laweekly.com/2002-08-01/news … rist-motel
Fox News Special: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIZUlAN-E_E
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
4-29 2011: A Tale of Twin Egregores
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a singular planned event as hyped as the “Royal wedding” happening this Friday in London, and I’m in America. My friends in Europe and especially the UK say the coverage is literally suffocating. Every rite and ritual is being obsessively rehearsed to the nth degree. American network coverage plans for it are going to be pretty massive as well: http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/0 … ding/87287
But another “big wedding” is also going to happen that day. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42742020/ns … nce-space/
It’s the day when the Gabby Gifford’s husband Mark Kelly commands the final NASA shuttle mission, scheduled to dock with the International Space station where he’ll be reunited with his identical twin(who heads the space station) Two twins meeting in space, made even more important to the media given the tale of recovery for Senator Giffords who sustained a shattering headshot wound in the January 8th shooting rampage(chiefly among its victims, the girl born on 9/11/2001 and the judge) Obama and his family as well as Giffords will be watching on site in a private viewing area.
I’m curious what Secretsun, Goro Adachi and others will write of this day, because these two events are being made to be these hugely symbolic pivotal events.
EDIT: Just read that he gave her Princess Diana’s ring. I won’t go into it, but Im convinced Diana was killed (and not merely for explainable obvious political reasons). April 29th is the 119th day of the year, mirror image of 911. Just food for thought I guess
http://rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=31883
-=-=-=-=-
“On the anniversary of Waco and Oklahoma City (the period around April 19th always yields bad shit: VT Tech, Columbine, etc) the final space shuttle mission will launch. As a paralyzed Giffords looks on, her husband will command the final mission into space on the Discovery to meet his identicle twin brother who heads the international space station. Two twins meeting in space, on April 19th in the ongoing Giffords Tuscon shooting saga.”
http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?p=390698#p390698
-=-=-=-
“… when 9/11 happened, Saturn was in Gemini ( I I, or twins) opposite Pluto in Sagitarius <–I–<, or an arrow”
-=-=-=-=-
Absolutely. But on top of that, what are the chances there would be duplicate blips of actual craft (like Flight 11) that lead fighter jets in the wrong direction? While that story was never covered up, I’m not sure if it was fully explored.
I came across a lot of oddball stuff in that Vanity Fair article which was originally posted with tons of audio from NORAD. It seemed that the blips for some of these flights, like 93, kept going even after the real plane crashed…Flight 93’s blip kept going onto Washington DC (another reason I think the passenger revolt or whatever it was on board that flight wasn’t planned)
From interviews with ATCs, pouring over reports, etc it also seems the “hijackers” turned on the transponders right before each plane crashed.
In 2005 Rupert wrote an intriguing article about the war games / flight inject phantom blips / Ptech / Saudi Arabia
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/012005_ptech_pt1.shtml
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/012705_ptech_pt2.shtml
-=-=-
“911 & the Palladium UFO Generator”
Owners of the tabloid who became the first victim of anthrax had rented the hijackers a place to live (as well as was at the same flight school at the time Atta was there)
http://www.sptimes.com/News/101501/Worldandnation/Hijackers_linked_to_t.shtml
Man connected to WTC 1993, OKC 1995 and 9/11:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/10/us/nation-challenged-detainees-no-bail-for-friend-man-suspected-preparing-for-sept.html
The guy who rented the Heaven’s Gate cult his mansion was wanted for questioning by the 9/11 commission for possibly helping the hijackers, and was also the friend of Abdusattar Sheikh(the FBI informant who rented two of the hijackers their house)
The head of the paranormal research remote viewer army operations went on to train lead 9/11 hijacker Ziad Jarrah for six months in 2001.
Ziad Jarrah had a company email with Automated Rockwell, an industrial engineer company. Moussaoui was trying to get in with Blackwater Worldwide, and Mohammed Atta was in regular contact with defense contractor companies via his email.
=-=-
Owners of the tabloid who became the first victim of anthrax had rented the hijackers a place to live (as well as was at the same flight school at the time Atta was there)
http://www.sptimes.com/News/101501/Worldandnation/Hijackers_linked_to_t.shtml
Man connected to WTC 1993, OKC 1995 and 9/11:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/10/us/nation-challenged-detainees-no-bail-for-friend-man-suspected-preparing-for-sept.html
The guy who rented the Heaven’s Gate cult his mansion was wanted for questioning by the 9/11 commission for possibly helping the hijackers, and was also the friend of Abdusattar Sheikh(the FBI informant who rented two of the hijackers their house)
The head of the paranormal research remote viewer army operations went on to train lead 9/11 hijacker Ziad Jarrah for six months in 2001.
Ziad Jarrah had a company email with Automated Rockwell, an industrial engineer company. Moussaoui was trying to get in with Blackwater Worldwide, and Mohammed Atta was in regular contact with defense contractor companies via his email.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Richard Clarke: CIA covered up ties to 9/11 hijackers
http://rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?p=397569#p397569
From pouring over the Vanity Fair NORAD piece in 2006 as well as listening to a lot of the released audio (as well as looking at what was being thought or said at the time). I always thought that instead of a “stand down”, the situation was more of an “intentional confusion”.
To me the key to understanding the air defenses that morning relate not just to the “is this real world or exercise” confusion, but more importantly the situation with “phantom flights”.
Why, even General Myers talked about “Phantom 11” before the commission. It seems there was not just a Phantom 11 and Phantom 93, but all sorts of real time hijacked blips that not only showed up on both NORAD and FAA screens; but the few available fighter jets were being scrambled to intercept them. I always felt the phantom blips and “Angel is Next” scenario were key anomalies in the day itself; as much as my research has tended to more focus on pre 9/11 intelligence.
-=-=-=-
http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?p=413279#p413279
And what about Israel? Netanyahu continually has bragged how great 9/11 was for Israel. We have the Israeli spy kids admitting on Israeli tv they were there to “document” the event.
We have teams of roving white vans in NYC and NJ on sept 11th. Mass communication infiltration with defense building spying in 2000/2001. You had Israeli agents living next door/blocks away from the hijackers in Florida, as well as the B-Thing Art Collective guys who penetrated the WTC in 2000 living with Israeli spies next to the hijackers in Florida(including one living next to a Hezbollah front software company in Dallas)
The Planned By PNAC thing never made sense to me. I would even so so far as to say while Wolfy and the boys may have had a heads up(hence Wolfy’s smug little grin during his June 2001 west point speech about pearl harbor’s 60th anniversary) that they were far outside the inner ring of 9/11. I mean you can clearly see the arteries and backbone of 9/11 go way into the Clinton era with Serbia/Bosnia jihad support, drug running, Meir Khahane/Blind Sheikh/WTC/Al Kifah/Wadidh el Hage and Bojinka. Peter Lance has written some pretty incriminating and insightful books on this stuff
-=-=-=-
Man tied to WTC 1993, OKC and 9/11 hijacker plot
Mr. Whitney told the court that Mr. Menepta, who was born Melvin Lattimore in St. Louis, and changed his name in 1989 after converting to Islam, came to the attention of the authorities the day after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. He testified that an informer told federal agents that Mr. Menepta had belonged to an Islamic group in Norman and St. Louis, whose leaders advocated terrorist acts and killing law enforcement agents.
Mr. Whitney also told the court that Mr. Menepta had said the Secret Service told him that one of the terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 had used his visa number. Mr. Whitney said he could not confirm Mr. Menepta’s account.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Menepta, who lives in Norman, gave several interviews in which he defended Mr. Moussaoui, 33, whom he knew through a mosque. Mr. Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent was arrested in Minneapolis on Aug. 17 on immigration charges after he sought lessons on how to fly jets, but expressed no interest in learning how to take off or land.
Mr. Moussaoui lived in Norman last year while a student at the Airman Flight School there. Mr. Menepta told The Daily Oklahoman in an interview on Oct. 2 that he had seen Mr. Moussaoui every day at a local mosque and would be shocked if he were involved in the attacks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/10/us/na … -sept.html
All a coincidence, Im sure
Also anyone read Peter Lance’s book A Thousand Years For Revenge? It devotes a lot of time to WTC 1992-1993 plot, anticev, salem, etc. As well as a story Ramzi Yousef met Terry Nichols, and then some story of the FBI using a famous mob boss son in jail to get Yousef to talk to Khalid Sheikh Mohamed and spill the Bojinka plot in 1996. Or something like that."This madras shirt is from a collaboration I did with Michael Williams of A Continuous Lean. I'd been reading A Continuous Lean since the beginning, and immediately knew Michael Williams was 'one of those dudes'—he had me at 'Americana,' so to speak. I was a rookie in the New York scene when I first met him, and when he asked if I wanted to do a collaboration, it was the first sign to me that we were on to something good with Rugger. It's a very special project to me. I had this vintage Gant shirt in the archives that I knew would be perfect in madras. Till this day, it's one of the nicest madras checks we've done. I've worn the crap out of it, but I stashed away two of the prototypes in my closet, so I'm good for another ten years. It also keeps me from becoming too chubby—huge bonus."
"It must have been three or four years ago when Stella Ishii, the founder of the News fashion showrooms in NYC told me about this project she was working on, called Creative Growth for Everyone. It's a line that features screen-printed images from artists from the Creative Growth Art Center, a non-profit for adult artists with developmental, mental, and physical disabilities. I was really blown away by how cool the designs were. For the lookbook shoot, she asked a couple of designers to wear them and she gave me the one that I wore. That was the first time I wore it, and there haven't been many days since when I've taken it off. This T-shirt wouldn't be my oldest friend, but it's definitely my closest. Over the years, it has become super-thin, and the color is fading into these great sepia tones that you can only get from a lot of wear and sunlight. It's just the right kind of oversized, and it's so light it feels like wearing nothing at all. Back in April 2009, when I opened my first pop-up store on the Lower East Side, I managed to get a white paint all over it during the build-out. At first, I was a little bummed, and then I just turned it inside out and kept wearing it every day. You can still see traces of the paint, but it's always a reminder of that time—my first Robert Geller retail experience—which was really exciting for me."
2) After somehow making the first couple of moves out of my parent's house, I've developed an unconscious and begrudging respect for this behemoth of cotton. It's the Bird to my Magic, if you will. I'd like to think the real answer lies somewhere in the middle."
1) It's my Rosebud. A reminder of carefree days in California, tossing baseballs around and getting Slurpee's, with nothing to worry about except how to score some beer for the weekend and other clichéd scenes from Dazed and Confused.
"I have no idea why I still have this shirt. It's about 15 or 16 years old, and it's huge. Like, XXXL huge. It's from a summer baseball league I played in toward the end of high school in California. It's survived dozens of moves through Indiana, Hawaii, Kansas, and even Brooklyn. I never wear it. Never. But I never throw it out—it always makes the cut. Anyone with a Manhattan-sized closet realizes the premium on space, yet I've always employed a resigned reticence to toss this one in the trash (and there's no way I would bequeath this Astros muumuu to anyone.) So, while prized Dunks and the Hundreds shirts were long ago picked up by the local Salvation Army, this piece of shit stays around. I've got two theories as to why it's survived:
"As Chassidim, we start wearing a fedora (usually in black) three months before our bar mitzvah at age 13. The winter before my bar mitzvah, I was at South Street Seaport with a friend and we happened into Banana Republic. This hat was on sale there for $19.99 or $29.99 and, while it wasn't black, it was really talking to me. I knew I'd get in trouble if I wore it to Yeshiva, but I had to have it and it fit my tiny head perfectly. I'll never forget wearing it outside while my buddy (also around 12) chomped on a cigar. Who were we kidding, trying to act all grown-up? Thanks, Banana and Nat Sherman, for the moment."
"These chocolate suede wingtips are from Church's. They're the color of powdered truffles, only these last much longer—31 years, to be exact. They were a gift from the first Perry Ellis men's show I worked on as a designer. Today, they give me the same jolt of sexiness and style as they did back then—A testament to their quality and good design."
"I bought these conductor pants in a vintage store in Cologne, Germany when I was 16. I love their fit and the details on them. They have a button fly, which is the only kind I wear, and they're baggy—back in the day, I used to skate in them because I wasn't into skate clothing. I was very careful to make sure they didn't get too much wear."
"Several years ago while on summer vacation in Paris, I stopped by the Maison Martin Margiela boutique and discovered the most interesting pair of dress shoes I'd ever seen. They were from Margiela's Line 22 and I loved their punk sensibility: a black patent leather upper liberally sprayed with an iridescent bronze treatment and laced with thin purple ribbons. I was hooked—until I saw the price tag, which was not college-student friendly. So regretfully, I settled on a German army version of the same shoe; it was beautiful, but not the one I'd fallen in love with. A few months later, a friend spotted the shoes at an NYC designer consignment store—and selling for considerably less. As soon as he told me, I was there trying them on. Amazingly, they fit perfectly. I bought them and subsisted on pasta and PB and J for a few weeks. To this day, the fascination and beauty of the shoe hasn't waned."
**Shimon: **I've always been fascinated with military clothing because it's designed for both function on the battlefield and comfort, and this jacket is a perfect representation of that. Introduced in the late '40s, it has a faux fur collar and a USN (Navy) stencil, which I love. It actually became the inspiration for a few of the jackets in our last collection and we tried to incorporate as many vintage elements in their design as we could. At an old factory that used to manufacturer these jackets, we snatched up around 500 original dead stock zippers from the '60s. It made all the difference."
**Ariel: **"Both Shimon and I began collecting vintage clothing at 14. I got this sweater in 1994. It's hand-knit and the headdress is slightly raised. What's always attracted me about vintage is the quality, and the sense of mystery each piece has. I've held onto this sweater because it's like an old photograph that brings back memories."
"There's an age when a boy starts wearing his father's vintage clothing. I don't know exactly when that is, but there's a point when it happens, and for me it was almost twenty years ago. To be honest, I can't remember if he gave it to me or I stole it. You'd probably have to ask him. There's a lot of details to fall in love with...a banded collar, corduroy elbow patches, lined cuffs, and envelope pockets. It's seen a lot and been through a lot, and that's what makes it special."
"This bag speaks a lot about what he taught me. He got this bag after he graduated college, and from the moment I saw him with it, I wanted one, too. To me, the bag spoke of a world I longed to be a part of: manuscripts and paperbacks, a place to carry my notebooks and ideas. When I finally graduated college, my brother and mother gave me this bag as a gift. I'll treasure it forever. Because most of all, it lets me carry my brother with me, always."
"As a kid, having an older brother means getting his hand-me-downs. Which I did. But my brother, Chris, didn't just give me his clothes—he taught me something that can't be bought: style."
"I cant even remember when i got those jeans. They were brand new once, clearly a very long time ago. I usually buy a pair and wear them until it becomes obvious to others, usually before me, that I need to move on. For some reason, I just couldn't part with these. On shoots when I'd have another rip, an on-set tailor would just stitch it up. And this went on for many years, ripping and repairing, and here we are. There's something very Joseph Beuys about it: the distressing and the repairing, the many hands that have helped bring it back to life. It feels very artisanal to me, something with history—my history, at least."
"I got this in 1979 and it has a lot of miles on it—some motorcycle miles, and it was my regular outerwear during the days when New York streets could be risky. It probably saved my life when I resisted a two-perp mugging at knifepoint on Avenue D. (Or maybe it was the Sacred Heart of Jesus pinned inside it over my heart.) Some guys wore tagged leather jackets back then. One day I asked my friend Jean-Michel Basquiat to draw one of his crowns on the back of mine. Jean was so into kingship he smoked Chesterfield Kings. My friend George DuBose had nicknamed me Leroy because he said I acted like a king. This jacket made me feel even more like one."
"Outside of white button-down oord cloth shirts, Trickers brogues, 501s, and Ray-Ban Aviators, the single item of clothing that I have had in my closet consistently since 1982 is a pair of black-and-white checked Vans. They are the lazy man's shoe—perfect for dog walking and security lines at the airport. And they are probably one of the most versatile and iconic items a guy can own. Think about what they do to a pair of chinos. I have worn them with black tie [many years ago], a khaki or gray suit, and since I hate flip-flops, they are my go-to footwear choice at the beach. This pair is a limited edition I bought at Undefeated in Los Angeles—they are woven leather. But I keep a canvas pair at the beach."
"When I was 11, my dad went to a Bob Seger concert and came back with this T-shirt. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, with its striped sleeves and football-jersey styling, so I asked him if I could have it. I can't believe it ever fit him, let alone me. I wonder: Did it shrink over time, or was he actually this small? Look at it! It's basically a crop top on me now. I'm not sure why I've kept it all these years... It doesn't have any particular sentimental value, and I can't even name a single Bob Seger song—but for some reason, I haven't been able to let it go, through high school, college, and several apartment moves."
"There is nothing more classic than a denim jacket. Marc Jacobs and Wrangler are two iconic American names, and I've had this jacket for seven years now. It's all in the details: deep indigo raw denim, brass buttons, and a matching top stitch. I bought it at Seventh on Sale, a huge shopping event organized by CFDA and Vogue where 100% of the proceeds went to the New York City AIDS Fund. A good find for a good cause that I will have forever."
"This watch was given to me by my father when I got my first job in New York. He received it as a gift for his bar mitzvah and he wore it every day. I always admired it as a kid and when he would come home from work and take it off, I would always try it on. It was such a special moment when he passed it on to me—I will never forget it. On the back is inscribed 'From father to son 2002.' I'm fairly clumsy and it's fairly delicate, so I wear it sparingly. I keep it in a safe place at home and it makes me feel comfortable knowing that it's there."
"I've been wearing khakis as an alternative to jeans ever since college, when I could buy genuine army-surplus ones for a few bucks. It's now virtually impossible to find those old khakis—high-waisted (fitting on the waist, rather than fashionably on the hips), full in the leg, button fly, and with the requisite number of pockets—so I wear Bills, who makes a fine reproduction pair (as well as slimmer-fitting ones). They are indispensible as far as I'm concerned; they look great with a sport coat, travel well in all climates (and in all luggage), are easily laundered, and are about the most comfortable pair of pants one can own. I keep them long enough that they hit the cycles of fashion—and when they wear out, I cut the legs off and make them into shorts. (This pair is almost ready.) Come to think of it, I already have a lot of khaki shorts."
"This jacket has been my go-to spring jacket for years now; it's one of my favorite items because I can wear it just about anywhere and with anything this time of year. I actually can't remember exactly how I got it—I think I traded an old Levi's jean jacket to an ex of mine—I just know that I've been wearing it for over 10 years, and it is THE perfect jean jacket: It always make me think of spring in New York City."
"It's a lot of buckle, and I don't wear it all that much. When I do, I think about my remarkable grandmother, who died in 1998. She meant a lot to me. But even if you don't know any of this, it's still a badass belt buckle. Every guy needs at least one."
"My grandmother was raised in the Midwest, but her favorite place on earth was the Rockies. The summer after my freshman year in college, she decided it was time for my sister and me to have a true mountain experience, so we flew west and |
lost out on the trend in male clothing (and profits!) that saw hoards of men buying and wearing pink button-ups and polos with little effect on their masculinity.
Some brands are instantly recognizable by a single color. Consider a canary blue gift box; a black apple; yellow arches—what brands come to mind? Color is the predominate element of identification and association with these brands. Color enables customers to instantly recognize and draw emotional associations to a brand. Picking the right color should never be underestimated. Here are some great color brands.
Coke has made red and white its signature colors. Same goes for Target.
T-Mobile's magenta has been registered with the firm since 2000.
Walmart uses that ubiquitous blue.
Home Depot blankets everything with orange.
Post-It has a shade of canary yellow that trademarked by 3M. They even had a trademark dispute with Microsoft back in 1997 over MS's notes software.
Deere uses 'John Deere Green' successfully to distinguish itself.
Tiffany trademarked its own shade of 'Robin's Egg' baby blue, PMS number 1837, the number comes from the year of Tiffany’s founding.
The purple pill—AstraZeneca's heartburn relief drug Nexium has its purple protected.
United Parcel Service (UPS) is brown and evokes feelings of simplicity and honesty.
Color may not seem all that important at a first glimpse, but it really does have an impact on branding and advertising. We deploy A/B website testing to experiment with copy, design placement, and color. We’ve seen 85% increases in website click-through-rate (CTR) just from changing one word in the button copy and the button color. The trick is to make a CTA button stand out from the rest of the website in such a way that it is easy to identify as a clickable button—yet keeping the color and design pleasant enough to unify a design. There are no set rules! “Always use” or “all links must be blue” is just not true.
Dirigo is not just about websites—we do plenty of packaging work too. Color is a critical design component for packaging. When it comes to food, color is widely used to illustrate flavors in food products. Next time you’re at the store take a look at Smuckers jam. The packaging color matches the fruit color (e.g. purple for grape, red for strawberry, etc.). Black is often used to indicate luxury or high-quality items. Natural, organic, and healthy products use greens and browns. And though blue is the most popular color in the United States, it is not used much in food packaging. The major exception is skim milk and fat-free products. Getting a product noticed on a crowded store shelf is a science in its own right.
The color of your major competitor is an important point to ponder. If you’re the first in a new industry or market segment, then you have first dibs on color. Take a look at the heavy equipment marketplace, John Deere has green, CAT is mostly yellow, and Kubota is orange. If starting a new tractor brand, you best steer clear of these colors.
Always remember, the first point of interaction with a buyer is shaped by the color, and color is the most memorable sense. Don’t take colors for granted.
I put together a handy guide to color psychology, part three of my Crash Course in Color Theory posters.
Download the print-worthy PDF here.MADRID – Catalan leaders were preparing Wednesday to declare independence after a violence-hit referendum, defying a warning from the country's king that national stability was in peril.As the European Union urged dialogue to ease the standoff between separatists in the northeastern region and Madrid, a regional government source said the independence declaration could be as early as Monday.The standoff has morphed into Spain's worst political crisis in decades, with images of Spanish police beating unarmed Catalans taking part in Sunday's banned independence vote sparking international concern.But the region's leaders have pushed on with their bid to break away from Spain, angering Madrid and raising the risk of further unrest.Spain's key IBEX 35 stock index plunged by more than three percent Wednesday in the ongoing turbulence, with some big Catalan banks down more than five percent."Political risk is back on the agenda in Europe," NFS Macro analyst Nick Stamenkovic told AFP.- Catalan'republic' -After meetings in the regional parliament on Wednesday, pro-independence lawmakers called for a full session next Monday to debate the final results of the vote."According to how the session goes, independence could be declared," a regional government source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.Mireia Boya of the radical leftwing separatist CUP said it would be "a plenary to proclaim the republic" of independent Catalonia.King Felipe VI earlier branded the independence drive illegal and undemocratic, throwing his weight behind the national government.Catalan leaders "with their irresponsible conduct could put at risk the economic and social stability of Catalonia and all of Spain," he said.But still Catalan President Carles Puigdemont has dug in.He was scheduled to give a televised address at 1900 GMT on Wednesday.- 'Illegal' referendum -A declaration of independence would intensify the conflict with the central government, which along with the national courts has branded the referendum illegal.Madrid has the power to suspend the semi-autonomous status that Catalonia currently enjoys under Spain's system of regional governments.That would further enrage Catalan protesters, who say they are being repressed by Spain.- King defends 'order' -The king's intervention could clear the way for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to act."It is the responsibility of the legitimate state powers to ensure constitutional order," Felipe said.Hundreds of thousands of Catalans rallied in fury on Tuesday during a general strike over the police violence during the referendum.Scores of people were injured on Sunday as police moved in en masse, beating voters and protesters as they lay on the ground and dragging some by the hair.European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said Wednesday it was "time to talk, finding a way out of the impasse, working within the constitutional order of Spain."Speaking in an emergency debate in the European Parliament, he defended Madrid's right to "the proportionate use of force" to keep the peace.- 'Fuel to the fire' -In his speech, Felipe repeated earlier calls for harmony between Spaniards.But Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull said the king's speech "threw fuel on the fire."Adding to tensions, the courts on Wednesday placed Catalonia's regional police chief Josep Lluis Trapero and three other suspects under investigation for an alleged "crime of sedition."The force has been accused of failing to rein in pro-independence protesters during disturbances in Barcelona last month.- Catalans split -A rich industrial region of 7.5 million people with their own language and cultural traditions, Catalonia accounts for a fifth of Spain's economy.Catalan claims for independence date back centuries but have surged during recent years of economic crisis.The regional government said 42 percent of the electorate voted on Sunday, with 90 percent of those backing independence. But polls indicate Catalans are split.The vote was held without regular electoral lists or observers.A grouping of Catalans opposed to independence called for supporters to join a counter-demonstration in Barcelona on Sunday.The call was backed by the regional branch of Spain's governing conservative Popular Party.9:06 a.m., Oct. 18, 2013--Ethan Connolly, a 19-year-old sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences from Medway, Mass., was struck by pickup truck and killed early Friday, Oct. 18, while walking on Route 896, near Gbc Drive, about 3 miles south of Newark.
Injured in the accident was Daniel Bernstein, 18, a freshman in the Lerner College of Business and Economics from New York City. He was taken to Christiana Hospital, with non-life-threatening injuries.
"On behalf of the University community, I would like to extend our heartfelt sympathies to Mr. Connolly's family and friends. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Bernstein, his family and friends," said Dawn Thompson, interim vice president for student life. "We are all deeply saddened by this tragic event and the loss of a member of our community."
UD students are encouraged to contact the Center for Counseling and Student Development at 302-831-2141 for any needed support and assistance during this time. In addition, the staff in the Office of the Dean of Students is available to meet with any student who wishes to talk. Call 302-831-8939 to schedule an appointment or stop by 101 Hullihen Hall.
According to Delaware State Police, the students were walking across Route 896 at approximately 12:30 a.m., Oct. 18, when they were struck by a Ford Ranger traveling north. The Delaware State Police investigation is continuing.The UN’s World Heritage Committee is now expected to decide whether to list the Reef as a “World Heritage Site in Danger” in February next year. It’s important to be clear upfront: dredging is not the most significant threat to the Great Barrier Reef’s future. Discussing that would require a whole other article about climate change and countless other factors. But the truth is not as simple as these QRC ads make out. So let’s get the facts straight on the Great Barrier Reef. What the ads don’t tell you The ads – which you can watch below or on the QRC website – say that:
Paid for by the Resources Council, both ads end by pointing to a Queensland government Reef Facts website. The basis for the statistics in the two QRC ads come from an excellent 2012 peer-reviewed paper, “The 27–year decline of coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef and its causes”, published in the international journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper found, just as the ad shows, that 48% of coral death was attributed to cyclones, 42% to crown of thorn starfish and 10% to bleaching. But the way that those facts are used in the ads is highly misleading.
The data in the 2012 study come from coral reefs predominantly on the mid-shelf of the Great Barrier Reef – that is, 30 to 100 kilometres from the coast. The study does not address the causes of death and decline among inshore reefs, seagrass meadows, dugongs, turtles and inshore dolphins. All these ecosystems and species are also in decline, with inshore coral reefs – those found up to 40km from the coast – seagrass and dugongs in severe decline in most of the reef south of Cooktown. It is misleading for these ads to selectively quote one study that only looks at coral mortality on mid-shelf reefs, and then claim that shipping and port activity has no impact on “the environmental health of the Great Barrier Reef”. The Great Barrier Reef: more than coral It might seem like a statement of the obvious, but the Great Barrier Reef is not only world-famous – and World Heritage-listed – because of its coral. To borrow from Bill Clinton’s famous campaign line: it’s the ecosystem, stupid.
The largest living structure on Earth, it spans 2300km and is home to 600 types of coral, more than 100 species of jellyfish, 500 species of worms, 1625 types of fish, 133 varieties of sharks and rays, 14 breeding species of sea snakes, 215 species of birds, six of the world’s seven species of marine turtle, 30 species of whales and dolphins, and one of the world’s most important dugong populations. Protecting mid-shelf coral reefs is important. But unlike the QRC ads, most studies on threats to the Great Barrier Reef consider threats to the complete range of species and ecosystems that make it so unique. The main water-quality threats to these ecosystems are sediment, nutrients, pesticide, toxic metals and hydrocarbons from the land. These come from agricultural activities and from coastal development – including ports. So is it true, as the ad claims, that:
In fact, the very limited coral monitoring that has occurred associated with dredging at Gladstone Harbour has suggested some changes to the benthic communities (organisms living on the sea floor, such as sponges and corals) in the area. But as with so much of the monitoring, the design of the study was not robust enough to firmly ascribe the actual cause. So without more scientific evidence, it’s impossible to fairly conclude whether any coral loss can be attributed to ports or shipping activity. However, the ads make a broader claim that: And this is where the ads really don’t tell the full story.
Get the facts So should the QRC be declaring so absolutely in its TV ads that: Based on my knowledge of the science: no. Several robust studies have now established that dredging and spoil dumping on a large scale have had impacts on species and ecosystems of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.
And that’s concerning, given the likelihood of further massive dredging programs potentially generating up to 80 million tonnes of dredge spoil, which presents a significant threat to the inshore ecosystems and species of the Great Barrier Reef. Jon Brodie does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.Despite all its armed might and long history of conquests, America remains a perpetually frightened country without a strong movement to protest this imperialism and warmongering, notes poet Phil Rockstroh.
By Phil Rockstroh
Rumors of war and the lexicon of war permeate the culture of empires, and the U.S. empire is not an exception. In a concomitant manner, the specter of violent death pervades the imagery of the U.S. entertainment industry and stalks the citizens’ dreams.
Present circumstances merge with the sleeping monster of history: Close your eyes and images of cross burnings, lynchings, mountains of bison skulls, flaring veils of napalm, and blooming mushroom clouds rise from within.
All the bristling, military armaments of the Pentagon cannot turn back the raging storm.
The mere existence of vast arrays of weapons, deployed or not, does great harm to the soul of a nation. U.S. Americans are fearful, day and night. We would not feel secure even if we ensconced ourselves in an armory.
An empire, built on the backs of slaves, both actual and de facto, with its expansion across the continent expedited by genocide, has conjured internal Furies — raging apparitions, borne of the nation’s collective soul and of nature’s fury, that cannot be repelled by weapons of any make.
Amid the empire of the feckless, we on the Left have been rendered all but voiceless. We wander in a wasteland of resentment, marginalized, denied a voice in cultural discourse. Online, we gibber and snarl at each other and curse our predicament like Dante’s figures of the damned in pits of the Inferno. By all indications, we are bereft of the knowledge of where and how to even begin the dialog.
Yet: Recently, by a resounding margin, Venezuelans vote to retain socialism. (The nation’s citizenry are fully cognizant that U.S. imperialist subterfuge is the root of their nation’s troubles.)
Concurrently, polls of former citizens of the fallen USSR reveal, the majority favor delivering capitalism to the landfill of history and reestablishing communism. (Unlike all to many U.S. Americans, they know they have been bamboozled.)
Although: Across Europe, the hard, racist right is in ascendancy. A predictable phenomenon, due to liberalism’s serial betrayals of the middle and laboring classes in behalf of their capitalist vampire benefactors. The more undiluted the form of capitalism — the greater the levels of deprivation and attendant fear and displaced anger evinced by a power-bereft citizenry. The only factors that have saved capitalism from itself, on an historical basis, have been measures of progressive reform and piecemeal, socialist policies.
Benefiting Few, Exploiting Many
And that is the reality that frightens the capitalist over-class and motivates them to set into action their scheming, prevaricating operatives and propaganda-bandying shit-kickers. To wit, their ruthlessness knows no limit in regard to preventing capitalism’s exploited multitudes from gaining an even glancing degree of awareness of: The system was, from the get-go, designed to benefit a ruthless few and to the detriment of the many.
Thus we discover, the reason capitalism’s elite invest so much time, effort, and money rigging the game, from the political structure to mass media. It is the reason one could never have an honest dialog with the beneficiaries of the system. Where would be the profit for them in risking their litany of lies being countered and their false mythos exposed as the life-negating fraud that it is? Honesty and openness were not among the factors that enabled the capitalist elite to ascend to a position of dominance.
Willful and belligerent ignorance comprises the brick and mortar of the capitalist system’s mental architecture; the structure stands on a foundation of lies. But the phenomenon presents dissidents with an opportunity because what appears to be an implacable barrier is but a collective mirage, a vapor of the mass mind. What appears to be an all-powerful system is but a group hallucination, a joint dream of interior phantoms. This is the reason, when we attempt to fight back, we appear to be flailing into empty air.
To dissipate the undead nightmare, we must reimagine the image and do so from within the living landscape of the imagination; otherwise, we are mistaking a mirage for terra firma.
As for myself, I’m a member of the Nambia Liberation Army. The calling of a poet is to make the invisible visible.
Of course, the flaming orange, ambulatory dumpster fire Trump should be mocked for proclaiming that there exists on planet earth a nation called Nambia. The man has the range of knowledge of some bar-stool blowhard, the insufferable type who begins almost every wit-defiant declaration with “irregardless” or “actually” before launching into a false narrative based on a inane premise misinformed by a belligerently obtuse, fact-resistant Weltanschauung.
Deluded Slaves
The same applies to toxic innocent types who believe capitalist (so called) democracies exist to respond to the will of the citizenry. Who would have chosen for high office the sleazy, craven, and sub-cretinous gallery of grotesques known as the Western political class? Only slaves who have been convinced that the clank and clatter of their shackles is the very song of freedom would argue that this extant, waking nightmare arrived as a matter of choice.
Attendant to the deception: The notion that the dismal circumstance will recede by the banishment of Donald Trump from the scene. Trump is merely a representation of one of the genera of imps squatting in the dark recesses of capitalism’s forsaken soul. He is the very embodiment of a crackpot realist.
Crackpot realist types, as is the case with Trump, view and present themselves as emissaries from “the real world,” as steely-nerved men of action. The breed has a compulsion to bandy dismissive declarations, such as, “that is just mere talk. I offer real world solutions.” And, in the magniloquent lingua franca of Trump, he possesses the “best” (crackpot) mindset and he, and he alone, will deliver the bestly of the bestest of real-world solutions.
Yet, outside the feedback loop of those indoctrinated by Calvinist-cum-capitalist conditioning, talk is action. Talk is eros. Deeply depressed people lose both their eros and their voice. Well-written books of prose and poems speak in a penetrating voice. The problem is, all too many of the working class and the poor have been bullied by the dominant order into believing that we have no voice — a voice that is capable of giving rise to the inner self, both lambent of mind and plangent of heart, thus provides agency towards action and gives context to experience. The crackpot realist notion that insists, conversation is a lesser function of humanity amounts to soul-decimating tyranny, and is a product of the Puritan Ethic, a coda for slaves. Words are the handmaiden of action and experience.
Talk is audio architecture and dance. Words are winged yet speak from the bones of the earth. Denied expression, we lose heart; then we lose our humanity. Suggestion for approaching and engaging in propitious dialog: Don’t demand final, definitive answers. The very notion, in an instant, demeans and destroys the potential of unfolding, organic phenomenon.
If you persist, you will have deracinated dialog from its natural habitat — a breathing landscape of infinite mystery. Acceptance of the following is crucial: Acts of exploration will serve to uncover more questions.
The heart is not a mere pump; it is the hub of imagination; it yearns for experience, thinks in living imagery, and will lead, if followed, into participation mystique. Any attendant answers … are an after-the-fact phenomenon. Then the scene shifts. The structure of the old order becomes a veil of dust, its dogma, the admonition of a long-dead ghost. A ghost is an uncoupled habit, a self-resonating feedback loop shuffling through a fixated mind, an entity devoid of life thus cannot generate novel questions.
I question; therefore, I reveal signs of life. Yet the questions must remain open-ended, for when you insist on a forced finality, you have arrested and killed the process; you have attempted to render the voluble soul of the world into a didactic corpse.
For the affront, its life-sustaining fire, that suffuses every particle in the cosmos, will respond with the worst of all insults. It will deem you a bore and turn its numinous face away from you.
Speaking of the numinous, with Halloween approaching, our four-and-a-half-year-old donned his Halloween costume and exhorted me to play one of his favorite games i.e., let’s pretend.
“When mommy comes in, make her think we’ve turned into monsters.”
Drawing on the Method, I reach down deep within and feel the rage of the besieged earth, thus knowing what my son will come upon later in life: Our humanity is inseparable from the monstrous. To live is to live off death — but, in the case of Late Stage Capitalist humankind, the monster imperative has shifted into runaway, has become a self-resonating feedback loop of destructive impulses.
The kid is transmigrating through an obsession with monsters phase. Making his way through a wilderness of archetypes, he has picked up on an effable truth about his species … that will take a lifetime to process. All who are aware are wounded by the apprehension. If you do not take hold of the monster within, he will take hold of you. Both on a personal basis as well as the monster we know as human history.Ariana Grande had just taken her final bow, the house lights had come up and 18,000 concert-goers were filing cheerfully towards the doors when the excitable hubbub inside Manchester Arena was suddenly shattered.
Manchester Arena attack: what we know so far Read more
For a split second there was silence. Then the screams began. “Oh my God,” said one woman, who was filming at the moment the piped music was punctured by the blast. “What’s going on? What just happened?”
“The bang echoed around the foyer of the arena, and people started to run,” said 17-year-old Oliver Jones, who attended the concert with his 19-year-old sister. “I saw people running and screaming in one direction, and then many were turning around to run back the other way. Security was running out as well as the fans and concert-goers.”
Teenagers rushed for the exits, some clambering over barriers to drop into the stairwells. A woman in a wheelchair was trapped by the crowd, according to Karen Ford, who had taken her daughter to the concert. “She was absolutely hysterical, bless her, people were just pushing past her so I held them back while she got out of the stairwell,” she told the BBC.
“The problem was there were a lot of children there without parents; there was no one to calm them down.”
Play Video 0:22 Footage from inside Manchester Arena at moment of explosion – video
Terrifying as it was for the fans inside, it was those in the foyer just outside the concert hall who witnessed the full horror.
Andy Holey was waiting in the lobby for his wife and daughter, exchanging chitchat with a member of the arena staff, when he was flung nearly 10 metres through a set of doors by the enormous blast, he said. “When I got up and walked around, there were about 30 people scattered everywhere. Some of them looked dead, they might have been unconscious, but there were a lot of fatalities,” he told the BBC.
Manchester Arena bombing: Saffie Rose Roussos, eight, named as second victim of suicide attack – latest Read more
He rushed to find his wife and daughter inside. “When I couldn’t find them, I went outside... and looked through some of the bodies to try to find my family,” Holey said. They were eventually reunited outside.
Emma Johnson was waiting at the top of the foyer stairs for her two teenage daughters when she idly spotted, among the crowds, someone wearing an incongruous bright red top, under which were what she described as “risen bits” – the person she believes was the bomber. She said: “It was that which stood out because it was so intense among the crowds of people. As quick as I saw it, the explosion happened.
“Your ears – it is so loud. You see this flash of light and there was shrapnel everywhere. The glass exploded and people were screaming: ‘I have to get to my children.’
“All I think about is these poor families. Every time I close my eyes I envision a young girl crying for her mum because her head was in a pool of blood and her husband was trying to bring her around.”
Some witnesses described nuts and bolts among the bomb debris, suggesting the bomber may have packed the device with shrapnel to cause more injuries. Paul Dryhurst, from Sheffield, said his niece Claire Booth and her daughter Hollie, 11, had been caught up the blast.
“When the bomb has gone off the impact has broken Claire’s jaw and broken Hollie’s legs. They are both currently in hospital having nuts and bolts removed,” he said. Booth’s sister Kelly Brewster, who had been with them, was still unaccounted for, he said.
As the panicked crowds spilled on to the streets around the arena and the first of 60 ambulances raced to the scene, the city of Manchester rallied to help.
Hotels opened their doors to take in many of the young people who found themselves separated from friends and relatives or stranded following the lockdown of Victoria station next door. Taxi drivers switched off their meters to take people home, or ferry them to hospital.
AJ Singh, one of the drivers who had worked for much of the night, told Channel 4 News: “I’ve had people who needed to find loved ones, I’ve dropped them off at the hospitals, they had no money, they were stranded. We should come out and show whoever has done this: Manchester, we’re glue. We stick together when it counts.”
Off-duty doctors made their way to the eight Greater Manchester hospitals where the 59 casualties of the blast, many of them children, were taken. Others worked through the night, enduring what the prime minister, Theresa May, would later call “traumatic and terrible scenes”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Theresa May walks with Greater Manchester police chief constable Ian Hopkins on Tuesday. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images
On Twitter, the hashtag #RoomsforManchester was trending as locals offered refuge to those affected. “I’m three minutes from Victoria station with a comfy sofa, wifi, chargers and teabags,” began one message from Laura O’Connor.
But alongside the offers of help, social media was host to desperate messages from people whose daughters, brothers, partners and friends had been at the concert, and who had not managed to reach them after the blast.
Stuart Aspinall, 25, said he was trying to find his friend Martyn Hett after they were separated towards the end of the gig. Aspinall shared photos of the 29-year-old, from Stockport, on Facebook to help track him down.
He wrote: “The more news that is coming out, the scarier this is getting. There was an explosion at the Ariana Grande concert tonight in Manchester and I haven’t seen my friend Martyn since.”
Hett’s brother Dan said he was still missing on Tuesday afternoon.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Message on billboard in the city. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Many relatives frantically checked the hospitals where victims were taken. Outside the city’s Royal Infirmary, a 17-year-old girl, part of a family from the Philippines, told the Guardian she was looking for her mother, whom she had lost in the chaos after the explosion. Her mother’s partner had been injured, but she had no information on her mum.
Ellie Ward,17, had seen her grandfather at the hospital, after he was hit by shrapnel while waiting to collect her and her friend after the show. “He’s OK, but he’s cut his cheek,” she said, saying the 64-year-old had been hit by falling glass while waiting close to the merchandise stand in the corridor beneath the arena’s tiered seating. “He said he only realised what had happened when he felt the side of his head and it was bleeding.”
As Tuesday dawned on an unusually hushed city, dazed teenagers, some accompanied by their parents, stumbled from the city centre’s hotels in the hope of finally making their way home. Hayley Lunt, who had sheltered with her 10-year-old daughter, Annabel, at a nearby hotel, said they had not slept and were still shaken.
“It’s surreal. It’s almost like we weren’t there,” Lunt said. “It’s like a bad movie. I think it’ll take a few days for us to come to terms with it.”
The Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, who had been briefed throughout the night, spoke of the “evil act” that had occurred. “It is hard to believe what has happened here in the last few hours, and to put into words the shock, anger, and hurt that we feel today,” he said.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Andy Burnham, left, speaks to media on Tuesday. Photograph: Dave Higgens/PA
“These were children, young people and their families that those responsible chose to terrorise and kill. This was an evil act.”
He paid tribute to those who had opened their doors and offered lifts to those affected, calling the city’s response the “best possible message to those who seek to divide us”.
“We are grieving today, but we are strong. Today it will be business as usual, as far as possible, in our great city,” said Burnham.
“Manchester has had some dark days in the past,” said Sir Richard Leese, the leader of the city council, adding: “I don’t think I can think of anything that matches the horror of what happened last night.”
An NHS blood donation centre on Norfolk Street in the city centre said it had been forced to turn people away, asking them to make appointments for a later date, such was the number of offers. Karen Hodgins, a nurse at the centre, said there was a queue of about 70 people on Tuesday morning. She said people were being turned away unless they had the blood group O negative.
“Most people are not the blood group that we need, which is O negative, the universal blood type. It’s not rare but it can go to anybody,” she said.
Waiting outside the centre, Adam Sharp, 25, said he had come along with his colleagues to “try and do my bit”. “I’ve registered before but have never donated,” he said.
Standing nearby was Jules Boyle, 24, with a large group of colleagues. She had woken to the news of the bombing. “I’ve never given blood before so I thought it was an appropriate time,” she said.
As the first names and photographs of the young victims began to emerge, the city remained on high alert. Shortly before noon, Greater Manchester police confirmed they had arrested a 23-year-old in Chorlton, in the south of the city. Armed police also sealed off Elsmore Road, a street in the Fallowfield area of south Manchester, and carried out a controlled explosion on the house of the man they later named as the suicide bomber, 22-year-old Salman Ramadan Abedi.
More than a dozen officers in unmarked cars and police vans also raided a flat in Whalley Range at about 12.20pm, believed to be the home of Abedi’s brother Ismael, who is 23.
Early on Tuesday evening, under a blue sky and a still-bright sun, thousands of people began gathering in the city’s Albert Square for a vigil, attended by faith leaders and political figures including Burnham, Rudd, the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn and Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, to remember the dead and express a message of unity and defiance.
Lu Bowen, 40, brought flowers to lay, saying it had been a horrific day. Standing alongside her teenage daughter Lucy, she said: “We watched it all unfold last night. We felt we wanted to show a sense of solidarity and commitment that Manchester always has.
“When the chips are down, Manchester always pulls together.A new report shows that the room rates at Trump hotels are collapsing as his presidency grows more toxic. Apparently, President Trump is terrible for Donald Trump's brand.
Donald Trump’s overt embrace of racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry while occupying the presidency has hurt the bottom line at hotels bearing his name, according to a new analysis.
Trump has refused to divest from his businesses, and has been disregarding ethics while using the presidency to promote his properties. At first glance, that would seem to be a winning strategy, but his behavior appears to be undercutting the effort.
FairFX, a currency provider, analyzed the room rates at multiple Trump properties and found that at all but 1 of Trump’s 13 hotels, the cost of a night’s stay is down sharply since he took over the presidency.
The biggest hotel to suffer was Trump Las Vegas. Before Trump’s inauguration, a two-night stay cost $843, but rooms are now available for January 2018 for only $313 — a collapse of 62.8 percent.
Other Trump properties declined as well, including Trump Doral in Miami, Trump New York, and the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. The survey found that only the Trump Doonbeg hotel in Ireland is charging more than it did a year ago, with a rate increase of 6.8 percent.
“It seems likely that many potential guests have been put off by the association with the controversial policies, tweets and opinions of the current US president,” noted Nick Trend, consumer editor for Telegraph Travel.
This plight at Trump hotels is echoed at his Mar-a-Lago property, where numerous charities have stopped hosting events. Instead, Trump’s friends and allies have been scheduling events there to fill the empty space and to make Trump feel better.
Trump’s ongoing financial entanglements with his old businesses are an ethical mess. Lawsuits currently pending accuse Trump of illegally taking in foreign funds while holding the presidency, using his hotels.
But the new report indicates that even when setting himself up to profit, Trump is getting in his own way. Repeating the pattern of mismanagement that led him to multiple bankruptcies, Trump’s mouth is turning off potential customers.
He has rapidly become one of the least popular presidents ever, and never had the support of a majority or plurality of voters. So much of what he touches continues to go to ruin.
Even as the global economy continues to improve thanks to the policies of President Barack Obama, Trump is managing to fumble his own financial outlook with his increasingly toxic brand.Photo
WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders struggled on Tuesday to devise a new proposal to reopen the government and alter parts of the president’s health care law after a plan presented behind closed doors to the Republican rank and file failed to attract enough support immediately to pass.
After more than two hours, Republican leaders walked back from a plan that had emerged this morning. Speaker John A. Boehner told reporters there were “no decisions about what exactly we will do.”
“We’re trying to find a way forward in a bipartisan way that would continue to provide fairness to the American people under Obamacare,” he said, but acknowledged that “there are a lot of opinions” among his fractious troops.
The apparent disarray left Mr. Boehner with a crucial decision as time ticked down toward a possible default on government obligations on Thursday. Does he accept whatever bipartisan plan emerges from the Senate, likely on Tuesday, or does he continue to try to get his troops in line behind a counterproposal that still does not exist?
Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House majority whip, said Republican leaders were “very cognizant of the calendar.”
But House Republicans appear intent to extract at least one concession, depriving members of Congress, the president, vice president and White House political appointees of subsidies when they buy health insurance under the health care law’s new exchanges. Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader, said any proposal must reflect what he called “our position on fairness” — “no special treatment under the law.”
Those words have become code for legislative language that denies employer matches to politicians forced into the exchanges by a clause in the original health care law.Lawyers for the B.C. government will be in the province's Supreme Court Tuesday seeking an injunction to remove Occupy Vancouver protesters from the property outside the downtown provincial courthouse, says Premier Christie Clark.
The protestors had packed up their encampment at the city's downtown art gallery on Monday, but then marched their tent city one block away to the court building.
"[Tuesday] at 10 a.m. we'll be seeking an injunction, as soon as the courts open, so we can make sure that they move," Clark said Monday night.
Clark said she was fed up with the Occupy protest and believes most other people are, too.
"I think they're ignoring the spirit of the court ruling," won Friday by the City of Vancouver, "that they pick up and leave," the premier said.
An Occupy spokesman said the move was sending a message.
"It's clearly symbolic," said camper Steve Collis. "We were moved out of the front of the Vancouver Art Gallery because of a decision made here in the law courts, so now we're on their doorstep."
A handful of protesters immediately began erecting tents and moving supplies to the new site, gathering in a circle and chanting "freedom."
Collis said protesters believe the court grounds are provincial land, so the province |
. Oliver said Monday in Montreal.
"Canada cannot achieve its full potential if its biggest provinces are lagging economically," Mr. Oliver told reporters following a speech in Montreal to the International Economic Forum of the Americas. "You just have look at the numbers."
Story continues below advertisement
Mr. Oliver said both provinces face the risk of possible downgrades by debt rating agencies, and that could push up borrowing costs and make their fiscal situations worse.
"I do believe the Canadian provinces need to look at their fiscal policies and move towards a budgetary surplus," he said.
Mr. Oliver's comments reignite the debate over Canada's two-speed economy. High energy prices and billions in new oil sands investments have been a boon for Western Canada, where the economy is strong and government finances are improving.
Canada's manufacturing heartland of Ontario and Quebec, on the other hand, has suffered since the recession.
Non-energy exports are still below their pre-recession level in spite of the recent decline in the Canadian dollar. That has slowed the economic recovery, making it more difficult for the provinces to eliminate their deficits.
He applauded Quebec's commitment in last week's budget to curtail government spending and urged Ontario to follow suit. Wading into the Ontario election, Mr. Oliver said "whoever" wins next week's Ontario election must "make a serious commitment to growth and a balanced budget."
Ontario, however, appears headed in the other direction. The province is projecting a deficit of $12.5-billion this year – 25 per cent higher than forecast.
Story continues below advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
The finance minister, who is due to speak to investors in New York later this week, didn't offer specific suggestions for how Ontario and Quebec can escape their fiscal mess. But he suggested both provinces must get back to a financial situation that's "friendly to business, that permits individuals to spend and invest, [and that] is going to encourage economic development."
The finance minister also prodded other countries to follow Canada's federal government in balancing their budgets. Canada is on track to post a $6-billion surplus in 2015-16.
Mr. Oliver said an eventual rise in interest rates and potential downgrades by credit rating agencies present an "inescapable mathematical calculation" – higher debt payments.
And that could put pressure on the government's ability to deliver services. He said deficits are a "drag on economic growth and a diversion of resources that could be used for investment or social programs."
And Mr. Oliver dismissed concerns that aggressive budget cutting – such as that proposed by Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak – would derail the weak Canadian economic recovery.
"I don't think acting responsibly is going to constitute a drag," he said.Writing in the Ottawa Citizen, Macdonald-Laurier Institute Managing Director Brian Lee Crowley says Canada is hollowing out its claims about defending freedom by failing to back its talk with enough military spending.
Canada could at one time depend on the United States to back it up in the event of a military conflict, Crowley writes. But not any more.
"Talking the talk is not enough", writes Crowley. "We must put boots on the ground and walk the walk".
By Brian Lee Crowley, Sept. 26, 2014
Events in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine and elsewhere show yet again why Canada cannot be short-sighted about its military. Moments of international calm must never make us complacent or we will not be able to respond when circumstances sour again, as they inevitably will.
Not so long ago, Ottawa was being made fun of by those who claimed that attempts to renew our military equipment, including frigates, helicopters and fighter planes, were just an exercise in conservative ideology. No matter what kit is proposed, a chorus of voices always protests that peace-loving Canada has no need to spend such sums on the tools of war.
We were withdrawing from Afghanistan, the Middle East was not just quiescent, but seemed to be succumbing to the siren call of democracy and human rights through the Arab Spring. Militarily Russia was seen as a Potemkin village, and the idea that we needed the capacity to respond to their probing of North America’s air defences dismissed as the ravings of ideologues.UBC’s Michael Byers called it a “make believe threat.”
Today, in the face of naked Russian aggression in Ukraine, a spike in its probing of the air defences of numerous NATO allies and the rise of the murderous IS movement in Syria and Iraq, the criticism of the federal government’s policy has flipped.
Now it is that Canada has been running down its capacity to engage militarily far from its shores. We are in danger of becoming a toothless laughing stock, quick to threaten the bad guys but unable to field properly kitted-out troops where the national interest requires them to be.
It so happens that latter criticism is entirely justified; the Conservatives have been stealthily running down the navy, army and air force for short term budgetary reasons. The result has been the West’s most aggressive rhetoric on the defence of freedom coupled with an embarrassing inability to make good on that rhetoric.
The truth of the matter is that Canada has for years been able to behave irresponsibly on military matters because we outsourced our defence to the US taxpayer. Ever since President Roosevelt’s 1938 promise that the US would never let outsiders threaten Canada we were largely relieved of the responsibility most other countries face of offering a credible defence of the nation. And President Kennedy’s promise to bear any burden and pay any price to defend freedom around the world also basically let us off the need to be able to project significant power internationally when required in defence of our interests.
But faced with an increasingly isolationist US electorate and commander-in-chief, the Roosevelt and Kennedy guarantees have been downgraded to a voicemail box that an assistant checks occasionally for messages. Inconvenient calls are not returned.
Here are two incontrovertible realities for a Canada waking up to the diminishing value of the American security guaranty in a dangerous world. The first is that every single bit of the much-criticised defence procurement of the last thirty years, whether frigates, fighter planes or light-armoured vehicles, has been called into extensive service. It did not gather dust in warehouses.
The second is that it takes far too long to get the kit we need, in part because of the rancorous debate and second-guessing that takes place. Every armchair general claims that we don’t really need this or that piece of equipment because there is no credible threat when the purchase is proposed. The average time it takes from a major defence purchase first being mooted until actual delivery is now over 16 years. If an urgent and unexpected mission crops up and you don’t have the necessary equipment, you can’t buy it at Wal-Mart. Military conflict today is largely a come-as-you-are affair.
Serious countries take the long view of their security needs and equip themselves accordingly. Talking the talk is not enough. We must put boots on the ground and walk the walk.
Brian Lee Crowley (twitter.com/brianleecrowley) is the Managing Director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an independent non-partisan public policy think tank in Ottawa.Senior White House counselor John Podesta speaks during the daily briefing at the White House on May 5, 2014 in Washington. AFP PHOTO/Brendan SMIALOWSKI (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON -– The White House is making another big push on climate this week, starting with the Tuesday release of the National Climate Assessment, a massive report on the effects of climate change in the United States.
The report is an update from the U.S. Global Change Research Program. The last assessment, released in June 2009, included grim predictions on sea levels, heat waves and droughts into the future.
The updated report will be the "most authoritative and comprehensive" issued so far, and it "will bring into sharp focus" the impacts of climate change in the U.S., White House senior counselor John Podesta said at a press briefing Monday afternoon.
A draft version of the latest report was released in January 2013. Podesta said the updated assessment will provide "actionable science" that will offer "practical, usable knowledge" for state and local decision makers. It includes regional and sectoral breakdowns of how climate change will affect Americans.
Podesta said President Barack Obama plans to meet with meteorologists to discuss the report. Later this week, the administration is also participating in a summit about improving energy efficiency in buildings and will be making some announcements on deployment of solar energy.By Staff
Space Imaging Middle East (SIME) is pleased to announce that Crime Prediction- its latest predictive policing software- has been successfully launched by the Dubai Police force.
The software, which is the first of its kind in the region, was developed in support of the UAE’s Smart Governance Initiative, and specifically designed to complement the Dubai Police force’s modernized approach to crime prevention and enhanced public safety.
Crime Prediction analyzes existing intelligence and crime patterns from police databases and, using sophisticated algorithms, produces highly accurate data related to when and where crime is likely to occur next. This intelligence in turn informs patrol teams on which districts may require additional resources in order to prevent potential criminal activity.
“SIME is incredibly honoured to have worked on this ambitious project with Dubai Police,” said Mohamad El Kadi, Managing Director of Space Imaging Middle East. “The Dubai Police Force is renowned for embracing new technologies to better serve and protect the local community, and this spirit inspired us to develop Crime Prediction.”
“This software is uniquely intelligent in its capability to accurately discern intricate patterns of criminal behavior in seemingly unconnected events and then predict the probability of reoccurrence.” said Spandan Kar, Head of SIME’s GIS Division. “We are confident that these precise analytics, when combined with the knowledge and instincts of experienced police officers, will create a formidable force to deter crime.”Jan 6th 2011: Nike and TomTom revealed yesterday, during CES Las Vegas, their collaboration in the making of the new Nike+ SportWatch GPS Powered by TomTom. The new running watch will combine unique functionality, beautiful design, and direct connection to www.nikeplus.com, the world’s leading running community counting almost 4 million members.
The Nike+ SportWatch GPS has been designed for performance thanks to the extremely clear and readable user interface. It adds personalization and motivational features to the running experience, including audible sounds, challenges, run reminders and more.
“The Nike+ SportWatch GPS is a game-changing product that furthers our commitment to provide all athletes with unparalleled motivation and the tools to get better,” said Stefan Olander, VP of Nike Digital Sport.
“It is part of TomTom Consumer’s strategy to move into the fast-growing sports and fitness market. This true partnership with Nike combines the strengths of two leading companies to deliver a game-changing product for runners,” said Corinne Vigreux, Managing Director, TomTom Consumer. TomTom is the world’s leading provider of location and navigation solutions.
The Nike+ SportWatch GPS is scheduled to be at retail stores and online in the U.S. and the U.K. beginning April 1. Broader distribution is scheduled for July 1. The Nike+ SportWatch GPS will be previewed for consumers at Nikerunning.com and TomTom.com beginning today.
Find here a video with the highlights:
On-Watch Experience
The Nike+ SportWatch GPS is designed to be simple and intuitive with only three buttons and a Tap Screen for navigation. During the run, the new Nike+ SportWatch GPS captures location information while showing runners their time, distance, pace, and calories burned on an easy-to-read screen featuring a customizable layout. Throughout the run, the GPS receiver works in tandem with the shoe-based Nike+ Sensor to deliver highly accurate pace and distance data.
On-watch features include:
• Tap Screen for setting laps and activating backlight
• Run History with data from past runs
• Personal Records including those imported from Nikeplus.com
• Quick Start with optional shoe-based Nike+ Sensor
• Heart Rate Monitor compatibility
Some of the unique motivating factors the Nike+ SportWatch GPS offer runners on-screen include:
• Recognition (or “Attaboys”) for personal records
• Run Reminders that appear after five days if a run has not been logged
• Post-run acknowledgement and encouragement
Post-Run Experience
The Nike+ SportWatch GPS plugs neatly into any USB port on a Mac or PC, then immediately launches the Nike+ Connect interface which automatically transfers information to www.nikeplus.com.
“With more than 150 million runs logged since its launch in 2006, Nikeplus.com captures the pulse of the running world everyday,” added Olander.
Nikeplus.com presents runners with the GPS mapping, total miles, pace and elevation data for their most recent run in a rich and engaging way that will be familiar to users of the popular Nike+ GPS iPhone application.
“Providing runners with accurate pace, distance and location information during and after their run gives them the information they need to better train and track their progress,” added Vigreux.
Data from each run is automatically applied to all current Nike+ Challenges, Nike+ Goals, and Nike+ Coach programs in which the runner is participating.
Additional Features at Nikeplus.com
Athletes who want to get the most out of their run and from the Nike+ SportWatch GPS will have access to a huge catalogue of run routes logged by Nike and published by other runners on streets and trails around the world.
Each run will be graphically mapped with the help of TomTom technology, and include route notes, elevation and length. Runners will also be able to find the perfect route by searching the catalogue by location, length, difficulty, and even landmarks.
Since the 2006 launch of Nike+ in partnership with Apple, a variety of Nike+ enabled devices have been introduced to help runners reach their full potential including the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit for iPod nano and iPod touch, the Nike+ SportBand, and the new Nike+ GPS App for use with the iPhone.
{"datafeed":{"items":[{"IS_PREORDER":"0","PREORDER_MSG":"No","MYKEY":"13_12283831-00190198510426","DEEP_LINK":"https:\/\/www.runningshoesguru.com\/go\/index.php?id=13_12283831-00190198510426&clickref=&override_tag=&site_id=","MERCHANT_NAME":"Nike","NAME":"Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (gps) 42mm Running Watch Size 42mm (black)","MERCHANT_LOGO":"http:\/\/162.211.87.169\/logos\/DFS_nike_200x70.png","DISPLAY_PRICE":"359","IN_STOCK":"0","STOCK_MSG":"Out of Stock","IMAGE_URL":"https:\/\/images.nike.com\/is\/image\/DotCom\/MQL42LLA_030_A?$AFI$&hei=1000&wid=1000","DESCRIPTION":"YOUR PERSONAL GUIDE TO RUNNING Two of the world's most innovative brands continue their long-running partnership with Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (GPS).
Featuring built-in GPS* to track your runs, an easy-to-read face and a lightweight, breathable band for comfort through every mile, every day.
NIKE+ RUN CLUB APP UPDATES In addition to personal reminders and weather updates, the Nike+ Run Club app has been upgraded to motivate you more.
Get guidance, motivation and inspiration directly through in-ear audio from Nike's coaches and elite athletes, each paired with a playlist.
And, you can now receive Cheers from your friends on your watch.
EXCLUSIVE WATCH FACES Designed specifically for Apple Watch Nike+, these faces boldly display the time in both digital and analog styles.
You can launch the Nike+ Run Club app directly from the face by tapping the icon.
LIGHTWEIGHT AND BREATHABLE The custom-created Nike Sport Band features compression-molded perforations on a light, flexible material to deliver lasting comfort and breathability.
Product Details Space Gray aluminum case Anthracite\/Black Nike Sport Band (can be configured for either S\/M or M\/L length) Band with 42mm case fits 140--210mm wrists Requires an iPhone 5s or later and iOS 11 or later Built-in GPS and GLONASS Faster dual-core processor W2 chip Barometric altimeter Capacity 8GB** Heart rate sensor, accelerometer, and gyroscope Water resistant 50 meters*** Ion-X strengthened glass Composite back Wi-Fi (802.11b\/g\/n 2.4GHz), Bluetooth 4.2 Up to 18 hours of battery life**** watchOS 4 1m Magnetic Charging Cable 5W USB Power Adapter *Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS) lets you send and receive text messages, answer phone calls, and receive notifications when it's connected to your iPhone via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
The built-in GPS works independently of your iPhone for distance, pace, and route mapping in workouts.
**1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less.
***Apple Watch Series 3 has a water resistance rating of 50 meters under ISO standard 22810:2010.
This means that it may be used for shallow-water activities like swimming in a pool or ocean.
However, Apple Watch Series 3 should not be used for scuba diving, waterskiing, or other activities involving high-velocity water or submersion below shallow depth.
****Battery life varies by use and configuration; actual results will vary.
Style: MQL42LLA; Color: Anthracite; Size: 42MM; Gender: Unisex; Age Group: Adult","IS_CUSTOM":"0","PRODUCT_URL":"display_product.php?mykey=13_12283831-00190198510426","PRICE_COMPARE_SQL":"","ORIGINAL_DEEP_LINK":"http:\/\/www.kqzyfj.com\/click-3445118-13063181?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstore.nike.com%2Fus%2Fen_us%2Fpd%2Fapple-watch-series-3-gps-42mm-running-watch%2Fpid-12283831%2Fpgid-12292066","DELIVERY_COST":"0.00","PRODUCT_CATEGORY_ID":"23323250","USED_PRICE":"","USERFIELD1":"","USERFIELD2":"","USERFIELD3":"","USERFIELD4":"","MERCHANT_DESCRIPTION":"Nike official store. Free shipping on all orders over 100$.","DATAFEED_ID":"13","COUNTRY_CODE":"USA","RRP_PRICE":"0.00","DELIVERY_TIME":"","CATEGORY":"Apparel & Accessories,Jewelry,Watch Accessories,Watch Winders","SUBCATEGORY":"","CURRENCY_PREFIX":"$"},{"IS_PREORDER":"0","PREORDER_MSG":"No","MYKEY":"13_12283824-00190198514622","DEEP_LINK":"https:\/\/www.runningshoesguru.com\/go\/index.php?id=13_12283824-00190198514622&clickref=&override_tag=&site_id=","MERCHANT_NAME":"Nike","NAME":"Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (gps + Cellular) 38mm Running Watch Size 38mm (black)","MERCHANT_LOGO":"http:\/\/162.211.87.169\/logos\/DFS_nike_200x70.png","DISPLAY_PRICE":"399","IN_STOCK":"0","STOCK_MSG":"Out of Stock","IMAGE_URL":"https:\/\/images.nike.com\/is\/image\/DotCom\/MQL72LLA_610_A?$AFI$&hei=1000&wid=1000","DESCRIPTION":"YOUR PERSONAL GUIDE TO RUNNING Two of the world's most innovative brands have taken their long-running partnership even further.
With built-in cellular capability* and a softer band, Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) lets you train with in-ear coaching, receive notifications and stream your favorite music (coming soon).
All this, even when you don't have your phone.
ENHANCED FEATURES Take your run to the next level with built-in cellular, GPS, and altimeter.
The built-in cellular gives you the freedom to send and receive text messages, answer phone calls and receive notifications even when you don't have your iPhone with you.
And it's swimproof, so you can take a post-run dip in the pool.
NEW SOFT AND BREATHABLE BAND The new Nike Sport Loop is lightweight, dries quickly, and easily adjusts to fit your wrist.
Over 300 threads and five different yarns form a double-layer, textured construction that's soft and breathable yet durable.
NIKE+ RUN CLUB APP UPDATES In addition to personal reminders and weather updates, the Nike+ Run Club app has been upgraded to motivate you more.
Get guidance, motivation and inspiration directly through in-ear audio from Nike's coaches and elite athletes, each paired with a playlist.
And, you can now receive Cheers from your friends on your watch.
EXCLUSIVE WATCH FACES Designed specifically for Apple Watch Nike+, these faces boldly display the time in both digital and analog styles.
You can launch the Nike+ Run Club app directly from the face by tapping the icon.
Product Details Silver aluminum case Bright Crimson\/Black Nike Sport Loop Nike Sport Loop with 38mm case fits 130--200mm wrists Requires an iPhone 6 or later and iOS 11 or later Built-in GPS and GLONASS Faster dual-core processor W2 chip Barometric altimeter Capacity 16GB** Heart rate sensor, accelerometer, and gyroscope Water resistant 50 meters*** Ion-X strengthened glass Ceramic back Wi-Fi (802.11b\/g\/n 2.4GHz), Bluetooth 4.2 Up to 18 hours of battery life**** watchOS 4 1m Magnetic Charging Cable 5W USB Power Adapter *Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) has all the same features as Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (GPS), well as built-in cellular.
It gives you the freedom to send and receive text messages, answer phone calls, and receive notifications even when you don't have your iPhone with you **1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less.
***Apple Watch Series 3 has a water resistance rating of 50 meters under ISO standard 22810:2010.
This mea","IS_CUSTOM":"0","PRODUCT_URL":"display_product.php?mykey=13_12283824-00190198514622","PRICE_COMPARE_SQL":"","ORIGINAL_DEEP_LINK":"http:\/\/www.jdoqocy.com\/click-3445118-13063181?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstore.nike.com%2Fus%2Fen_us%2Fpd%2Fapple-watch-series-3-gps-cellular-38mm-running-watch%2Fpid-12283824%2Fpgid-12293243","DELIVERY_COST":"0.00","PRODUCT_CATEGORY_ID":"23323250","USED_PRICE":"","USERFIELD1":"","USERFIELD2":"","USERFIELD3":"","USERFIELD4":"","MERCHANT_DESCRIPTION":"Nike official store. Free shipping on all orders over 100$.","DATAFEED_ID":"13","COUNTRY_CODE":"USA","RRP_PRICE":"0.00","DELIVERY_TIME":"","CATEGORY":"Apparel & Accessories,Jewelry,Watch Accessories,Watch Winders","SUBCATEGORY":"","CURRENCY_PREFIX":"$"},{"IS_PREORDER":"0","PREORDER_MSG":"No","MYKEY":"13_12283825-00190198514677","DEEP_LINK":"https:\/\/www.runningshoesguru.com\/go\/index.php?id=13_12283825-00190198514677&clickref=&override_tag=&site_id=","MERCHANT_NAME":"Nike","NAME":"Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (gps + Cellular) 38mm Running Watch Size 38mm (black)","MERCHANT_LOGO":"http:\/\/162.211.87.169\/logos\/DFS_nike_200x70.png","DISPLAY_PRICE":"399","IN_STOCK":"0","STOCK_MSG":"Out of Stock","IMAGE_URL":"https:\/\/images.nike.com\/is\/image\/DotCom\/MQL82LLA_006_A?$AFI$&hei=1000&wid=1000","DESCRIPTION":"YOUR PERSONAL GUIDE TO RUNNING Two of the world's most innovative brands have taken their long-running partnership even further.
With built-in cellular capability* and a softer band, Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) lets you train with in-ear coaching, receive notifications and stream your favorite music (coming soon).
All this, even when you don't have your phone.
ENHANCED FEATURES Take your run to the next level with built-in cellular, GPS, and altimeter.
The built-in cellular gives you the freedom to send and receive text messages, answer phone calls and receive notifications even when you don't have your iPhone with you.
And it's swimproof, so you can take a post-run dip in the pool.
NEW SOFT AND BREATHABLE BAND The new Nike Sport Loop is lightweight, dries quickly, and easily adjusts to fit your wrist.
Over 300 threads and five different yarns form a double-layer, textured construction that's soft and breathable yet durable.
NIKE+ RUN CLUB APP UPDATES In addition to personal reminders and weather updates, the Nike+ Run Club app has been upgraded to motivate you more.
Get guidance, motivation and inspiration directly through in-ear audio from Nike's coaches and elite athletes, each paired with a playlist.
And, you can now receive Cheers from your friends on your watch.
EXCLUSIVE WATCH FACES Designed specifically for Apple Watch Nike+, these faces boldly display the time in both digital and analog styles.
You can launch the Nike+ Run Club app directly from the face by tapping the icon.
Product Details Space Gray aluminum case Black\/Pure Platinum Nike Sport Loop Nike Sport Loop with 38mm case fits 130--200mm wrists Requires an iPhone 6 or later and iOS 11 or later Built-in GPS and GLONASS Faster dual-core processor W2 chip Barometric altimeter Capacity 16GB** Heart rate sensor, accelerometer, and gyroscope Water resistant 50 meters*** Ion-X strengthened glass Ceramic back Wi-Fi (802.11b\/g\/n 2.4GHz), Bluetooth 4.2 Up to 18 hours of battery life**** watchOS 4 1m Magnetic Charging Cable 5W USB Power Adapter *Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) has all the same features as Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (GPS), well as built-in cellular.
It gives you the freedom to send and receive text messages, answer phone calls, and receive notifications even when you don't have your iPhone with you.
**1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less.
***Apple Watch Series 3 has a water resistance rating of 50 meters under ISO standard 22810:2010.
This","IS_CUSTOM":"0","PRODUCT_URL":"display_product.php?mykey=13_12283825-00190198514677","PRICE_COMPARE_SQL":"","ORIGINAL_DEEP_LINK":"http:\/\/www.kqzyfj.com\/click-3445118-13063181?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstore.nike.com%2Fus%2Fen_us%2Fpd%2Fapple-watch-series-3-gps-cellular-38mm-running-watch%2Fpid-12283825%2Fpgid-12293243","DELIVERY_COST":"0.00","PRODUCT_CATEGORY_ID":"23323250","USED_PRICE":"","USERFIELD1":"","USERFIELD2":"","USERFIELD3":"","USERFIELD4":"","MERCHANT_DESCRIPTION":"Nike official store. Free shipping on all orders over 100$.","DATAFEED_ID":"13","COUNTRY_CODE":"USA","RRP_PRICE":"0.00","DELIVERY_TIME":"","CATEGORY":"Apparel & Accessories,Jewelry,Watch Accessories,Watch Winders","SUBCATEGORY":"","CURRENCY_PREFIX":"$"},{"IS_PREORDER":"0","PREORDER_MSG":"No","MYKEY":"13_12283832-00190198514523","DEEP_LINK":"https:\/\/www.runningshoesguru.com\/go\/index.php?id=13_12283832-00190198514523&clickref=&override_tag=&site_id=","MERCHANT_NAME":"Nike","NAME":"Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (gps + Cellular) 38mm Running Watch Size 38mm (silver)","MERCHANT_LOGO":"http:\/\/162.211.87.169\/logos\/DFS_nike_200x70.png","DISPLAY_PRICE":"399","IN_STOCK":"0","STOCK_MSG":"Out of Stock","IMAGE_URL":"https:\/\/images.nike.com\/is\/image\/DotCom\/MQL52LLA_043_A?$AFI$&hei=1000&wid=1000","DESCRIPTION":"YOUR PERSONAL GUIDE TO RUNNING Two of the world's most innovative brands have taken their long-running partnership even further.
With built-in cellular capability*, Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) lets you train with in-ear coaching, receive notifications and stream your favorite music (coming soon).
All this, even when you don't have your phone.
ENHANCED FEATURES Take your run to the next level with built-in cellular, GPS, and altimeter.
The built-in cellular gives you the freedom to send and receive text messages, answer phone calls and receive notifications even when you don't have your iPhone with you.
And it's swimproof, so you can take a post-run dip in the pool.
NIKE+ RUN CLUB APP UPDATES In addition to personal reminders and weather updates, the Nike+ Run Club app has been upgraded to motivate you more.
Get guidance, motivation and inspiration directly through in-ear audio from Nike's coaches and elite athletes, each paired with a playlist.
And, you can now receive Cheers from your friends on your watch.
EXCLUSIVE WATCH FACES Designed specifically for Apple Watch Nike+, these faces boldly display the time in both digital and analog styles.
You can launch the Nike+ Run Club app directly from the face by tapping the icon.
LIGHTWEIGHT AND BREATHABLE The custom-created Nike Sport Band features compression-molded perforations on a light, flexible material to deliver lasting comfort and breathability.
Product Details Silver aluminum case Pure Platinum\/Black Nike Sport Band (can be configured for either S\/M or M\/L length) Band with 38mm case fits 130--200mm wrists Requires an iPhone 6 or later and iOS 11 or later Built-in GPS and GLONASS Faster dual-core processor W2 chip Barometric altimeter Capacity 16GB** Heart rate sensor, accelerometer, and gyroscope Water resistant 50 meters*** Ion-X strengthened glass Ceramic back Wi-Fi (802.11b\/g\/n 2.4GHz), Bluetooth 4.2 Up to 18 hours of battery life**** watchOS 4 1m Magnetic Charging Cable 5W USB Power Adapter *Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) has all the same features as Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (GPS), as well as built-in cellular.
It gives you the freedom to send and receive text messages, answer phone calls, and receive notifications even when you don't have your iPhone with you.
**1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less.
***Apple Watch Series 3 has a water resistance rating of 50 meters under ISO standard 22810:2010.
This means that it may be used for shallow-water acti","IS_CUSTOM":"0","PRODUCT_URL":"display_product.php?mykey=13_12283832-00190198514523","PRICE_COMPARE_SQL":"","ORIGINAL_DEEP_LINK":"http:\/\/www.anrdoezrs.net\/click-3445118-13063181?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstore.nike.com%2Fus%2Fen_us%2Fpd%2Fapple-watch-series-3-gps-cellular-38mm-running-watch%2Fpid-12283832%2Fpgid-12291965","DELIVERY_COST":"0.00","PRODUCT_CATEGORY_ID":"23323250","USED_PRICE":"","USERFIELD1":"","USERFIELD2":"","USERFIELD3":"","USERFIELD4":"","MERCHANT_DESCRIPTION":"Nike official store. Free shipping on all orders over 100$.","DATAFEED_ID":"13","COUNTRY_CODE":"USA","RRP_PRICE":"0.00","DELIVERY_TIME":"","CATEGORY":"Apparel & Accessories,Jewelry,Watch Accessories,Watch Winders","SUBCATEGORY":"","CURRENCY_PREFIX":"$"},{"IS_PREORDER":"0","PREORDER_MSG":"No","MYKEY":"13_12334370-00190198514776","DEEP_LINK":"https:\/\/www.runningshoesguru.com\/go\/index.php?id=13_12334370-00190198514776&clickref=&override_tag=&site_id=","MERCHANT_NAME":"Nike","NAME":"Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (gps + Cellular) 38mm Running Watch Size 38mm (grey)","MERCHANT_LOGO":"http:\/\/162.211.87.169\/logos\/DFS_nike_200x70.png","DISPLAY_PRICE":"399","IN_STOCK":"0","STOCK_MSG":"Out of Stock","IMAGE_URL":"https:\/\/images.nike.com\/is\/image\/DotCom\/MQLA2LLA_055_A?$AFI$&hei=1000&wid=1000","DESCRIPTION":"YOUR PERSONAL GUIDE TO RUNNING Two of the world's most innovative brands have taken their long-running partnership even further.
With built-in cellular capability* and a softer band, Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) lets you train with in-ear coaching, receive notifications and stream your favorite music (coming soon).
All this, even when you don't have your phone.
ENHANCED FEATURES Take your run to the next level with built-in cellular, GPS, and altimeter.
The built-in cellular gives you the freedom to send and receive text messages, answer phone calls and receive notifications even when you don't have your iPhone with you.
And it's swimproof, so you can take a post-run dip in the pool.
NEW SOFT AND BREATHABLE BAND The new Nike Sport Loop is lightweight, dries quickly, and easily adjusts to fit your wrist.
Over 300 threads and five different yarns form a double-layer, textured construction that's soft and breathable yet durable.
NIKE+ RUN CLUB APP UPDATES In addition to personal reminders and weather updates, the Nike+ Run Club app has been upgraded to motivate you more.
Get guidance, motivation and inspiration directly through in-ear audio from Nike's coaches and elite athletes, each paired with a playlist.
And, you can now receive Cheers from your friends on your watch.
EXCLUSIVE WATCH FACES Designed specifically for Apple Watch Nike+, these faces boldly display the time in both digital and analog styles.
You can launch the Nike+ Run Club app directly from the face by tapping the icon.
Product Details Space Gray aluminum case Midnight Fog Sport Loop Nike Sport Loop with 38mm case fits 130--200mm wrists Requires an iPhone 6 or later and iOS 11 or later Built-in GPS and GLONASS Faster dual-core processor W2 chip Barometric altimeter Capacity 16GB** Heart rate sensor, accelerometer, and gyroscope Water resistant 50 meters*** Ion-X strengthened glass Ceramic back Wi-Fi (802.11b\/g\/n 2.4GHz), Bluetooth 4.2 Up to 18 hours of battery life**** watchOS 4 1m Magnetic Charging Cable 5W USB Power Adapter *Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) has all the same features as Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (GPS), well as built-in cellular.
It gives you the freedom to send and receive text messages, answer phone calls, and receive notifications even when you don't have your iPhone with you **1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less.
***Apple Watch Series 3 has a water resistance rating of 50 meters under ISO standard 22810:2010.
This means that i","IS_CUSTOM":"0","PRODUCT_URL":"display_product.php?mykey=13_12334370-00190198514776","PRICE_COMPARE_SQL":"","ORIGINAL_DEEP_LINK":"http:\/\/www.dpbolvw.net\/click-3445118-13063181?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstore.nike.com%2Fus%2Fen_us%2Fpd%2Fapple-watch-series-3-gps-cellular-38mm-running-watch%2Fpid-12334370%2Fpgid-12293243","DELIVERY_COST":"0.00","PRODUCT_CATEGORY_ID":"23323250","USED_PRICE":"","USERFIELD1":"","USERFIELD2":"","USERFIELD3":"","USERFIELD4":"","MERCHANT_DESCRIPTION":"Nike official store. Free shipping on all orders over 100$.","DATAFEED_ID":"13","COUNTRY_CODE":"USA","RRP_PRICE":"0.00","DELIVERY_TIME":"","CATEGORY":"Apparel & Accessories,Jewelry,Watch Accessories,Watch Winders","SUBCATEGORY":"","CURRENCY_PREFIX":"$"},{"IS_PREORDER":"0","PREORDER_MSG":"No","MYKEY":"13_12283814-00190198514929","DEEP_LINK":"https:\/\/www.runningshoesguru.com\/go\/index.php?id=13_12283814-00190198514929&clickref=&override_tag=&site_id=","MERCHANT_NAME":"Nike","NAME":"Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (gps + Cellular) 42mm Running Watch Size 42mm (black)","MERCHANT_LOGO":"http:\/\/162.211.87.169\/logos\/DFS_nike_200x70.png","DISPLAY_PRICE":"429","IN_STOCK":"0","STOCK_MSG":"Out of Stock","IMAGE_URL":"https:\/\/images.nike.com\/is\/image\/DotCom\/MQLE2LLA_610_A?$AFI$&hei=1000&wid=1000","DESCRIPTION":"YOUR PERSONAL GUIDE TO RUNNING Two of the world's most innovative brands have taken their long-running partnership even further.
With built-in cellular capability* and a softer band, Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) lets you train with in-ear coaching, receive notifications and stream your favorite music (coming soon).
All this, even when you don't have your phone.
ENHANCED FEATURES Take your run to the next level with built-in cellular, GPS, and altimeter.
The built-in cellular gives you the freedom to send and receive text messages, answer phone calls and receive notifications even when you don't have your iPhone with you.
And it's swimproof, so you can take a post-run dip in the pool.
NEW SOFT AND BREATHABLE BAND The new Nike Sport Loop is lightweight, dries quickly, and easily adjusts to fit your wrist.
Over 300 threads and five different yarns form a double-layer, textured construction that's soft and breathable yet durable.
NIKE+ RUN CLUB APP UPDATES In addition to personal reminders and weather updates, the Nike+ Run Club app has been upgraded to motivate you more.
Get guidance, motivation and inspiration directly through in-ear audio from Nike's coaches and elite athletes, each paired with a playlist.
And, you can now receive Cheers from your friends on your watch.
EXCLUSIVE WATCH FACES Designed specifically for Apple |
'Trump, Trump, Trump.'"
This week, I corresponded with a high school senior from Queens over email who was harassed on Wednesday morning, as Trump's win was just starting to sink in. "I was on the bus and a group of girls from another school got on," she wrote to me. "They looked around and then looked at me and said, 'Aren't you supposed to be sitting in the back of the bus? Like, Trump is President.' I never thought something like that would happen to me. I was very shaken up by it." (The girl asked to remain anonymous for fear of being targeted for more bullying.)
Social media has been filled with similar accounts. Activist journalist Shaun King has been posting numerous stories to his Twitter and Facebook pages. In a high school in central Florida, a bathroom wall was reportedly scrawled with graffiti reading, "Y'all black people better start picking your slave numbers. KKK 4 Life. Go Trump." In Royal Oak, Michigan, a group of white middle school students chanted "build the wall" in their middle school cafeteria. Other stories recount classmates yelling Nazi-like slogans and writing "whites only" and "fuck niggers" on doors.
"In these cases, it is not that these things didn't happen before," said Sheri Bauman, a professor at the University of Arizona who studies bullying. "They are just accelerating. They are becoming more cruel, but they feel as though they have license to do it in a way that maybe before they felt they needed to be a little more secretive."
Trump's election has ensured that he will serve for at least four years, but his campaign and subsequent presidency could cause irreparable damage to the kids who are targets of this bullying.
"We know this bullying doesn't just affect them in the short term, in many cases we see poor psychological adjustment, depression, and anxiety into adulthood," said Bauman. "Bystanders also hear it. Not all marginalized groups are visible. Take someone who might be LGBT, imagine what it is like [to hear this stuff] even if you're not the target. You can develop internalized oppression. And if everyone around you believes you are worthless or expendable or a rapist or a threat, you might begin to believe it."
Costello believes things will likely get worse before they get better. "We are going to see more of this," she told me. "A lot of negative things have been said and children are impressionable. I think you are going to see an increase in prejudice and an increase in it being expressed and it's going to take a while to fix."
In light of this wave of hateful behavior among students, some schools are making efforts to punish their students and condemn their actions. Rightfully, the kids in York who chanted "white power" were suspended. But Bauman feels any anti-bullying initiatives in schools will be easily undermined, considering the biggest bully of them all is leading our nation.
"I think it is going to be a real challenge," said Bauman. "I am worried about those kids."
Follow Erica Euse on Twitter.
An earlier version of this article identified the York, Pennsylvania students as middle schoolers. Actually, they are in high school. Also, the main illustration/image of this article has been updated.Looking to rent a condo in downtown Toronto? Make sure you have your application package when you go to look at the place, advises Toronto realtor Tarik Gidamy.
Condos account for about 22 per cent of apartment rentals in the city. ( Marcus Oleniuk / Toronto Star )
The bidding wars so prevalent in Toronto’s re-sale home market are now affecting condo rentals, said the broker of record for TheRedPin, which is releasing a study of downtown rents. “If you don’t go with your package in hand — meaning your credit (application), your job reference, completed rental application and your offer, which is sometimes $50 or $100 more (than the posted rent) — you’re going to lose,” he said. Smokers and owners of large pets are also at a disadvantage, said Gidamy.
Article Continued Below
Condos are increasingly recognized as a key source of housing in Toronto where they account for about 22 per cent of apartment rentals in a city that has a tight 1.7 per cent vacancy rate, which has been blamed on the lack of new purpose-built rentals. TheRedPin data, based on prices between August 2015 and August 2016, shows that renting a condo downtown around a major core intersection will cost $1,924 on average for a one bedroom — 11 per cent or $2,256 annually more than the city-wide average. It also shows that renting a two-bedroom in the core near an intersection for an average of $3,144 per month is about 27 per cent or $8,000 a year more than the Toronto average. Not surprisingly, among the 24 intersections TheRedPin studied, the highest condo rents correspond to some of Toronto’s most expensive real estate. A two-bedroom unit near Avenue Rd. and Bloor St., with easy access to Yorkville cafes and Mink Mile shopping, averages $4,295 a month.
A one-bedroom condo near the Trump Tower near Bay and Adelaide streets, costs $2,095 on average. But a short walk or subway ride can reap significant savings. A one-bedroom condo within five minutes walk of Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave., had the lowest average price in the study at $1,774. A two-bedroom unit near Dundas St. and University Ave., was a comparatively reasonable $2,675.
Article Continued Below
An earlier study by TheRedPin showed that condos on the Bay St. corridor cost more to buy than those closer to Yonge St. and the average price of a two-bedroom unit near Bloor St. and Avenue Rd., during the same period was $1.4 million. So far, the market is absorbing the mushrooming condo towers. Whether that is sustainable remains to be seen, said Gidamy. “The only trick to this is delivery dates. If you look at the deliverables of condos over the three years, there are gluts of 4,000 or 5,000 units being finished in a six- or eight-month span in some years. That’s really the test of time. Can that absorption continue for the next five years or so?” he said. Purpose-built rentals don’t have the upscale finishes and amenities of condo buildings or the prestige of owner occupants, but they do tend to be better managed, said Gidamy. “Most are managed extremely well and attentive to the needs of the tenants,” he said. In their verve to repel short-term rentals on platforms such as Airbnb, condos are increasingly less renter-friendly, said Gidamy. “Condo boards are the people. The people are saying, ‘I paid big money for this. I paid dollars per square foot. Why would somebody be entitled to make a return to ruin my carpets in the hallway?’” Highest condo rent intersections in the core Avenue Rd. and Bloor St.: $4,295 for two bedrooms; $2,072 for one bedroom Bay and Queen streets: $4,107 for two bedrooms; $2,041 for one bedroom Bay and Adelaide streets: $4,076 for two bedrooms; $2,095 for one bedroom Bay and King streets: $3,864 for two bedrooms; $2,063 for one bedroom Yonge and King streets: $3,074 for two bedrooms; $1,911 for one bedroom Source: TheRedPinPower Play - Politics is always full of irony and this week has been no different.
Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
Never, perhaps, has the contrast been as great between debate on changing the flag and on the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
Both are about identity. Both are about the future of New Zealand.
But only on one are New Zealanders being given the opportunity to decide the outcome.
In Parliament during the debate on the legislation to hold a referendum over changing the flag Government minister Nikki Kaye had this to say.
"This debate is actually about nationhood. This is about democracy and nationhood. When we look at the purpose of this Bill it is, should the New Zealand people have the opportunity to have a vote on nationhood and where our country is going? I absolutely believe they should," she said.
A day later her colleague, Associate Trade Minister Todd McClay, had a different attitude to calls for more openness about the TPP negotiations, which is also about nationhood and "where our country is going".
Mr McClay rejected demands the negotiations should be more transparent.
"The people who want us to make public these documents actually don't want to see the texts. They just want to derail the agreement, an agreement, if concluded, [that] will deliver benefit to the New Zealand economy," he said.
Photo: RNZ / Patrick Phelps
When it comes to the flag the Government is spending $26 million ensuring the public have their say. It has asked for public submissions on the design of a new flag and eventually four will be chosen to put up against New Zealand's existing flag. That is democracy in action, even if there was little public demand for the debate.
But on a more substantive matter, the TPP, the Government supports secrecy, effectively telling New Zealanders it is in their best interests not to know what is going on.
Public concerns about the possible implications of any trans-Pacific trade and investment deal are met with the standard response that no agreement has been signed.
Under the process being followed by all 12 countries in the negotiations their respective publics will only see the agreement once a deal is done.
Trade ministers were in Hawaii this week trying to put the finishing touches to the deal.
While the Government has refused to release details of the negotiations, the Prime Minister, John Key, has admitted the cost of some medicines might rise because, under the deal, the patents on medicines would likely be extended.
Photo: RNZ / Anusha Bradley
If that happens it means it will take longer before cheaper, generic drugs become available.
Mr Key gave an assurance, however, that the rise in the cost of medicines would be met by the Government, not "consumers". Patients will continue to pay just $5 for each prescription for subsidised drugs.
The Prime Minister appears to concede there might be some disadvantage to New Zealand by arguing the full deal needs to be taken into account.
He said greater trade access for New Zealand exporters would result in more tax income for the Government, more than making up for the increased cost of medicines.
That conclusion is based on New Zealand gaining access to the United States, Canada and Japan for its dairy products.
In part it plays up just one of the disadvantages New Zealand has in these negotiations.
Since New Zealand has already scrapped its tariffs on imports, it cannot offer greater trade access to other countries in return for them cutting tariffs on dairy products.
Instead it appears New Zealand must trade away non-tariff factors, such as access to medicines, to get possible trade concessions from other countries in the TPP.
Photo: RNZ / Michael Cropp
Yet no one can be really sure because information about these trade-offs is being withheld.
It is only once the deal is signed, if it ever is, that the public will know just what concessions have been made in return for whatever benefits the Government argues have been gained.
By then, of course, it is too late. Given the secrecy of the negotiations the public has no influence over the agreement.
While there will be some sort of parliamentary process if an agreement is reached, that does not give the public the ability to re-negotiate any part of it.
The Government might rightly pat itself on the back for its adherence to the democratic process when it comes to changing the flag, but its handling of the TPP negotiations falls well short of that democratic ideal.First Person Shooter’s and I have a love-hate relationship. I love them when I first get them….until I log in and get headshot 14 times in a row before getting my bearings. Then I hate them. I’ve never devoted the time to them over the years to learn the ins and outs of the game-play style.
Once or twice a year I get a strong urge to play an FPS so I tend to keep my eyes on their market. Most recently I came across Titanfall (Respawn Entertainment) just before it launched. For those of you who were living under a rock a few months ago or missed the massive advertising campaign leading up to the launch in some other way, Titanfall is a futuristic shooter based around a few major concepts:
The first is the games namesake, the Titans. You play as a pilot who, when the timer has counted down, can call in a titan with which to wreak bloody havoc.
The second is the movement system when not piloting a titan. It combines a free-flow movement inspired by parkour added to futuristic technologies to amp this to a new level. These technologies include a jet pack to allow higher and double jumps and remove fall damage and magnetic boots to allow epic wall run times and various other physics stretching feats.
The maps only allow 6 vs. 6, but the third concept helps keep the maps far from feeling empty, Minions. I have read a lot of complaints about the minions; basic soldiers that roam the battlefield taking pot-shots at pilots and otherwise acting like gnats. The most common complaint I see is that they are nothing but point farming. I disagree. Yes, I have been known to use them as a good way to build some fast points in a match that is not quite going our way, but I still find the most fun in hunting down other players. I find minions to be the flesh to a game that already has great bones to build on. They make the combat feel like a war rather than a gladiatorial arena. They appear in small squads, move as units and make you feel like you are an elite unit instead of just another soldier.
The main thing that I love about the minions is how they impressively up the sociopathic enjoyment factor. Some of the most satisfying moments in game come when a pod of 8 grunts drop right in front of you. Even in the mode where these kills can matter the most, Attrition, they do very little. Each minion nets one point, where each pilot nets you four and each titan five. If murdered enough en masse it could be an effective tool to turn the tide from a loss to a win in a close match, but in my experience the minions rarely spawn densely enough to be truly abused.
However, what keeps me logging back into this game long after having reached level 50 is the fluidity of motion. Where many games in the past have acheived a movement system in which you can move around a map as you would in real life, I feel Titanfall, out of the games I have played, marks the highest point in this development. When I logged in for the first time the ability to seamlessly move over and around things with little effort, to transition from running along a street to on a wall to on a roof and over, immediately brought a smile to my face.
I could go on and on with my love of this game, but when it comes down to it, it’s simply an extremely well-made, detail oriented shooter.
Honestly, the number of amazingly fun matches I experience far outweigh the few gripes, but they still merit a mention.
First the SMG; specifically the CAR SMG. I am fine with the rate of fire, and therefore the damage it can deal in a short period of time. It makes sense to have a small machine gun be able to take you out fast. But not from across a rooftop or street. The range is far too long, making it a run-n-gun weapon of choice, barely needing to aim regardless of distance.
Next, the shotgun. Again, it should be devastating. After all it’s a shotgun clearly designed for war with a spray that makes up close aiming needless. But once again, the deadly range on this weapon is too much. If you are caught in its spray even from across a large room most of your health is gone, if you aren’t flat out dead.
Third, a titan defense weapon has recently crept into my list of dread. The electric smoke, which is exactly what it sounds like, can take another titan down through shields and all its health before it fades, even the highly armored Ogres. It was originally implemented, from initial descriptions, as an effective way of removing rodeo-ing pilots from your titan. It was fairly effective at this, but the pilot could still get a good amount of damage in before it would kill them. So they upped the damage…to everything, and now it is basically a kill switch for everything in range.
The last weapon, the one that I have the largest problem with, is a player’s foot. Two melee animations exist. If you get behind a player or grunt and hit melee, you snap their neck, instant kill. Awesome. I fully approve. However, if you catch them facing you, you jump kick them…also an instant kill. Not awesome, cheap. This leads to bunny hopping idiots spamming the melee button, getting that one lucky strike in to end the fight before you can catch them with enough bullets to down them. Either damage on the jump kick needs to drop significantly in order to balance it, requiring at minimum two kicks to successfully kill someone, or they need to add an ability to counter the melee attack, a la Battlefield 4.
Overall, I feel Titanfall has achieved a lasting status as one of the best. It has introduced some fun new mechanics into the genre, and tweaked old faithful mechanics to fit its needs. I look forward to new DLC as it comes, and to see what Respawn has in store for us in Titanfall 2, already confirmed as in development.
Sociopathic Score:
This game fully enables your genocidal, war criminal tendencies with the plethora of soulless grunts to mass murder, without making you feel like too awful of a person for indulging.
Sophomoric Score:
No poo jokes, cartoons or kid humor here…
Strategic Score:
-Mac It’s a shooter, so a lot of strategies are pretty well established, but the Titans add a nice twist to the old, creating the need for creative thinking to overcome a full team of titans.
Titanfall is available for XBOX One, XBOX 360 and PC:Debt ceiling deal casts a bleak light on the future
The agreement underscores the near paralysis in Washington and offers no solution to a faltering economy.
The stock market provided an early indicator Monday that investors and business leaders saw little to cheer about. Stocks initially rallied on the debt-ceiling pact, then tumbled after a report showed that U.S. manufacturing activity slowed sharply in July, reinforcing other weak economic data.
"By itself, it doesn't do anything to solve the problems down the road," said Roberton Williams, an economist at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, referring to the budget deal that is estimated to cut the federal deficit by about $2.1 trillion over the next decade.
Instead of increasing confidence in the future, the agreement seems to have underscored the near paralysis in Washington — and the fact that no substantial new efforts are likely for dealing with unemployment, lagging consumer spending or a host of other problems that have been dragging the economy down.
Reporting from Washington and Los Angeles — The last-minute deal on the debt ceiling may prevent a government default, but it does little to avert a perfect storm of economic problems that could push the nation toward a new downturn and more financial pain for millions of Americans.
Traders work in the S&P 500 pit on the floor of the CME Group's Chicago… (Tim Boyle/Bloomberg )
In a volatile session, share prices rebounded by the closing bell. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 10.75 points, or 0.1%, to 12,132.49 — after being up as much as 137 points, then down as much as 144 points.
The manufacturing data followed the government's report Friday that the economy grew at a dismally slow 1.3% annualized rate in the second quarter.
"Double dip is back on the agenda," said David Ader, head of government bond strategy at CRT Capital Group in Stamford, Conn., referring to the possibility of another recession.
Those concerns helped drive some investors into Treasury bonds as a haven Monday, pushing longer-term interest rates to new lows for 2011. Relief over the debt-ceiling deal also stoked demand for Treasuries.
As buyers swarmed, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.75%, down from 2.80% on Friday and the lowest since November.
More bad news is expected Friday, when the government releases July employment data. Analysts anticipate that the economy added a paltry 85,000 net new jobs last month.
Given the weak economy, some analysts were encouraged that the debt deal put off serious cuts in federal spending in the early part of this decade. And with the risk of a Treasury default off the table, the agreement could also help the economy a bit if businesses feel more confident about spending some of the cash they have been stockpiling.
The budget deal shaves just $25 billion in federal discretionary spending in 2012, leaving most of the cuts in later years. But even that relatively modest amount "would certainly create another headwind for the economy," said Gary Schlossberg, senior economist at Wells Capital Management in San Francisco.
The economy has been dogged by fundamental weaknesses, including a depressed housing market. Now there will be a pullback by one of the few players that had been driving growth — Uncle Sam.
Some economists argue that cutting down big government would help growth later as the private sector tries to pick up the slack. But fiscal spending reductions could undermine long-term prospects in a global economy that has few engines firing.An Irish-born member of a breakaway Catholic group which welcomes female and lesbian priests presided over a religious service in Dublin on Sunday.
Dr Bridget Mary Meehan, who is originally from Rathdowney in Co Laois and is now based in Florida, has the position of bishop within the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.
She holds weekly services with parishioners at a Christian church in the city of Sarasota, and says she responded to an invitation from a faith community of “reform-minded Catholics” to celebrate the Eucharist at a community centre in Rialto.
Her organisation has ordained around 230 female members around the world, and she wants the orthodox Catholic Church to accept women as well as gay and transgender individuals into the clergy.
“I’m going to celebrate an inclusive Roman Catholic liturgy just like everybody has in their churches in Ireland. I’m going to celebrate that with a local community here of renewed, reform-minded Catholics who are interested in justice and equality for women in the church,” she said at the weekend.
Dr Meehan said her services are attended by a diverse congregation rather than just like-minded women, but added that there was no attempt made to persuade Catholic authorities to allow the celebration be held in a consecrated church.
“We thought why bother causing a problem with the hierarchy because they’re not ready for it,” she told The Irish Times.
Her movement has been officially excommunicated by the Catholic Church since its inception in 2002, when it was claimed a male bishop privately ordained a number of female bishops on the Danube river, and is generally prohibited from holding services on church property.
Dr Meehan says that among a number of women she has ordained, she has also ordained two male priests, one of whom was gay.
She contends that women formed an integral part of the clergy in the early Christian Church and that some of Jesus’ own apostles were female. The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests does not impose a strict policy of celibacy, unlike its orthodox equivalent.
“The Catholic Church must follow the example of Jesus who embraced everyone at the table. Gays and lesbians, transgender, divorced and remarried and all that are on the margins and are alienated should be welcome at the table of the Eucharist,” remarked Dr Meehan.
According to her, Pope Francis has softened the Church’s rhetoric around the concept of female vocations and she is hopeful that women priests and bishops will be accepted into the institution in future.
“Our challenge to Pope Francis, lovingly, is that we are happy you’ve changed the tone but we’re asking you to change the teaching so that justice and equality and inclusivity can become the values of the Church,” she said.
Dr Meehan added that while she is happy to preside over the first known service of such a kind in Ireland on Sunday, she does not sense any great appetite for change in the Irish Catholic community.
“I don’t know, I think your climate is very different from the climate we have in the States.”You need Javascript and either Adobe Flash or Html5 to view this video.
A team of archaeologists led by Caroline Malone from Queen’s University, Belfast, is sifting through litter dumped thousands of years ago in what is thought to be Gozo’s first village at Taċ-Ċawla.
And the cleaning habits of the Maltese do not seem to have changed much – the first residents used to keep their indoors spotless and, luckily for archaeologists, dump all their garbage outdoors.
“This is a new area of scientific research because the environment and economic world of those ancient people has never been explored,” she said, describing Malta’s prehistoric civilisation as exceptional and unique.
Malta has been chosen for a project in which archaeologists, delving back to the first occupation of Neolithic farmers around 5,000BC, are trying to solve an ancient puzzle: how do some cultures manage to sustain their civilisation for millennia when others collapse because of the changing environmental conditions?
People first settled here about 7,000 years ago and, although the island was probably cleared of most of its vegetation within a few centuries, it supported a thriving, well-populated civilisation.
By 3000BC the megalithic temples had been built and for the next 2,500 years, the isolated society maintained a high culture – with the temples appearing to have been central to the administration of the production and redistribution of food, said Prof. Malone, who is leading the project.
How archaeologists believe one of the earliest houses in Malta would have looked.
Her team has been excavating the site of a Neolithic hut settlement at Taċ-Ċawla since the beginning of April.
A low wall has been excavated which formed part of a house, around four to five metres in diameter. Inside, the house was found to have been kept very clean.
Outside, however, the place was “filthy”, with pieces of pottery, evidence of the manufacture of stone tools and the remains of farm animals.
Nothing pointing to ritual significance has yet been found.
The unearthed bones could shed light on how and when different animals, which included cattle and sheep, were slaughtered, and how their meat was cut up and distributed.
The team is also studying the original vegetation and taking samples of preserved pollen and tiny invertebrates such as snails and insects to reconstruct the changing plant life of the island at different stages.
Previous studies have shown that climate and environment were unstable during the last few millennia BC and this could have affected prehistoric societies.
Prof. Malone and her husband, Cambridge archaeologist Simon Stoddart, carried out fieldwork with renowned archaeologist David Trump between 1987 and 1995, which included the excavation of some 220,000 fragments of human bone from the Brochtorff Xagħra Circle.
The human bones will reveal the diet and diseases of the early population while the remains at Taċ-Ċawla will lead to a better understanding of the way farming changed.
Prof. Malone hopes that when the excavation is over, the site will be converted into a public park and not another garbage dump.Cincinnati Bengals first-round pick Cedric Ogbuehi, left, has finally been cleared to practice with the team. (Photo: Kareem Elgazzar, The Cincinnati Enquirer)
Off in the auxiliary locker room, Cedric Ogbuehi sat on the floor, his legs kicked out in the shape of a “v.” Dressed in all black, from neck to wrist to ankle, the Cincinnati Bengals’ first round pick did some light stretches, alone.
His black backpack, with his team iPad peeking out of the mouth, lay next to him. Ogbuehi reached down to his right ankle, and flicked the fabric of his leggings.
Quite literally, he was alone.
It’s as unlikely a scene as one could expect as an NFL first round pick was set to practice for the first time.
Ogbuehi, who has been on the non-football injury list (NFI) since the start of the season, was officially cleared to practice Tuesday afternoon. Ogbuehi tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his final college game in January, and he’s been healthy, at least in the eyes of the medical staff, for some time.
But now, with just eight games left in the season, the coaching staff decided it was time for him to be done taking mental notes and apply what he’s learned on the field.
“I’m just ready to get the rust out and get out there and start moving around and getting comfortable,” he said. “It’s been a long time, so I’m excited to get out there and just put hands on somebody just to get the rust off.”
According to Bengals offensive line coach Paul Alexander, he did just that at both right and left tackle.
"He got a little tired, he worked hard and he obviously certainly showed lots of ability," Alexander said. "And he had some 'wow' moments."
Alexander said Ogbuehi has a mountain of information to learn, but is only a "half a mountain" away from being able to contribute on the field. The team now has three weeks to either activate him, or place him on injured reserve. If he is activated to the 53-man roster, a corresponding roster move will have to be made.
NEWSLETTERS Get the Bengals Beat newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-876-4500. Delivery: Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Bengals Beat Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
A league source indicated the team is leaning toward using up the allotted 21 days to evaluate Ogbuehi before those decisions.
"I just think you never put parameters on players," Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson said. "You never know what they are, how they grow, what they know and what they can bring. We drafted the guy for a reason so we’ll see where we are when the time comes. I’m sure the organization will make the best decision for the team but that’s going to be for them to make. They give him to me we’ll find a place to put him."
In the locker room, Ogbuehi feels he’s been given every advantage in terms of learning the art of playing offensive tackle – and more importantly already being part of the chemistry of the unit as opposed to a new ingredient being added in.
“They’re good because I’m the type of person who asks a lot of questions,” he said. “They answer all them in depth and they never got annoyed wit the questions I asked. They knew I was trying to learn, so that helped a lot, just knowing that they were trying to help me and trying to get me better. Like (Andrew Whitworth) said, he can’t wait for me to come back. So knowing that they’re ready for me to come back and excited also (is good).
“Just watching 'Whit,' every week he just blocks his guy out. That’s the kind of player I want to be. So, watching those two guys and having them in my ear, I just listen to whatever they say.”
Alexander said Ogbuehi was able to translate those mental notes and question-and-answer sessions physically, even in a single practice.
"The guy's loaded with football talent, really" Alexander said. "Not just athletic ability, but football talent, which is athletic ability and football skill. He's loaded with it.
"I think when people go to the horse races and they see one horse pull away and they go 'wow,' I think that's what football coaches mean when they see 'wow.' They see an acceleration which is different than the rest. And that's what I meant by wow. Something above average."
Though Ogbuehi has been part of the team since being drafted, he’s missed out on the practice and games – the action – and is looking forward to working his way onto a team that is running away in the AFC North.
“It’s pretty cool to be a part of this and knowing I’m about to start practicing today and knowing how great this team is and just to help it any way I can,” he said.
Part of that great half of football has been the play of the defensive line, which has made 21.5 of the 23 sacks recorded by the team and Ogbuehi knows that group, especially the defensive ends (13 sacks) will force him to knock that rust off quickly.
“Of course,” he said. “Going against Wallace (Gilberry), Carlos Dunlap – he’s number two in the league sacks. If I could do well versus him I could do well versus anybody. I’m excited to go against those kind of players.”
Ogbuehi sat up, and straightened up. He is listed at 305 pounds, but it’s packed tightly to his 6-foot, 5-inch frame. He’s lean, and looks almost like tight ends Tyler Eifert and C.J. Uzomah. Back in training camp he said he was getting into the best shape of his life – and he’s tacked on an additional two months of work to that.
“Yeah, I feel good,” he said. “I feel ready. We’ll see how I do.”The Scythians were a nomadic tribe that dominated the steppes for nearly five hundred years (From the 8th to approximately the 3rd Centuries BC). The Scythians spoke a tongue from the Northeastern Iranian language family. The Scythians were renowned for their ability to shoot their arrows with deadly accuracy from horseback. This talent astounded their neighbors, who referred to them as the “horse-bowmen.” The greatest amount of territory under Scythian influence extended west to east from Ukraine to an area of Siberia just above Mongolia. Scythians settled as far west as what is now modern-day Romania and Hungary and appeared in what is now modern-day Iran just as the Assyrians and Medes were battling for supremacy in the Near-East.
10 The Defeat of the Assyrians
The Assyrians attempted to imitate the grandeur of the Babylonians, but their despotic rule was held together by the might of their army and the terror of their secret agents. The Scythians displaced and drove another steppe tribe, the Cimmerians, toward Assyrian territory. These Cimmerians created havoc for the Assyrian army, who had great difficulty reacting to the raids of these swiftly moving horsemen. The increasing encroachment of the Cimmerians weakened the Assyrians and provided their vassals with opportunity to rebel. Egypt expelled the Assyrians and regained it independence. Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria, panicked at his contracting frontiers and sacked Babylon and destroyed Susa in an attempt to terrorize his remaining peoples into submission. Meanwhile, in the wake of the Cimmerians, the Scythians were provided with increasingly tempting opportunities to raid Assyria. They surged into the Middle East, overwhelming the Assyrian infantry with their speed and firepower. The Babylonians and Medes formed an alliance, and with the mercenary aid of the Scythians, shattered the Assyrian Empire.
9 Equipment
The full-bearded Scythians wore tall pointed caps, long coats clasped around their waists by a belt, and pants tucked into their boots. The wealthier warriors had iron scales sewn to leather as jackets, while the average Scythian relied on their round oblong wicker shields draped in leather for protection.
The primary weapon of the Scythians was their short composite bow, which could fire an arrow up to eighty yards. When they hunted birds, the Scythians used a fine arrowhead, as they aimed for the eyes. When they shot at other warriors, however, the Scythians used barbed arrowheads designed to tear a wound open on the way out. They also brewed their own poisons for their arrow tips, a mixture of snake venom, putrefied human blood, and, to hasten infection, dung. The secondary weapons of the Scythians were the sagaris, a curved battle-axe, and the akinakes, a curved short-sword.
8 Burial mounds
The Scythians’ culture may have disappeared long ago, but their burial mounds remain. These kurhans were built as repositories for the great Scythian chieftains and kings. Atop these strange mounds stood crudely carved stone figures, guarding the bodies and possessions of the deceased interned within. The largest of these kurhans are the height of a six-story building and are more than ninety metres across. The mounds were not just piles of dirt or refuse, but were actually layers of sod to provide grazing in the afterlife for the many horses buried along with the deceased.
7 Death of a great man
As mentioned in the previous item, the burial of Scythian nobility was quite elaborate. In one kurhan uncovered in 1898, archaeologists found 400 horses arrayed in a geometric pattern around the body of the slain warrior. It was not only horses who were slaughtered, but consorts and retainers also had the dubious honor of joining their lord in the afterlife. Herodotus reported that mourners would pierce their left hands with arrows, slash their arms, and cut off portions of their ears in demonstration of their sorrow. A year following the burial, 50 horses and 50 slaves were killed, gutted, stuffed, and impaled on posts around the kurhan. The horses stood upright, mounted by the dead slaves, ghastly sentinels guarding the tomb of their slain lord.
6 Golden artifacts
Before the Scythians can be dismissed as blood-thirsty barbarians, one really needs to see their elaborate golden artwork. Scythian gold came from the Altai district and from frequent raids on Greek and Persian cities. Gold was sewn into their garments in the form of plates, fashioned into belts, broaches, necklaces, torques, scabbards, helmets, earrings, and ornaments, and worked into their weapons. The Scythians had an eye for design, especially depictions of griffins, lions, wolves, stags, leopards, eagles and – the Scythians’ favourite motif – animals in deadly combat. The historian, William Montgomery McGovern, claimed, “From the mass of evidence now before us, it seems highly probably that this Scytho-Sarmatian animal style spread to all parts of the ancient world and had an important effect not only upon European art but upon the art of ancient China.”
5 Tattoos
Herod |
for example, while the world clock face allows you to display the times from two extra time zones on smaller dials set into the background. The hiking face packs a compass too, which sometimes works well, but I found I had to frequently wave my arm in a figure of 8 to calibrate the compass -- it quickly became a hassle.
Android Wear software
If you've used an Android Wear watch already, then there'll be absolutely no surprises for you here as the interface on all of them is the same. The home screen, as it were, is the watch face. Notifications pop up on the bottom half of the screen and swiping up takes you through these alerts or through other cards.Officials with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are investigating after a decapitated sea lion was found on a Campbell River beach on Vancouver Island.
The massive animal's rotting corpse was discovered on the beach Monday, and officers said it appeared the head had been cut off.
"We’ve got another situation of a sea lion that’s died that’s had its body parts removed, head in this case," said Paul Cottrell, spokesman for DFO.
It "is very disturbing, and it is similar to incidents that we had in the last six months, so [it's] something that we’re definitely looking into."
At least three other mutilated sea lion carcasses have been found on Vancouver Island beaches in the past few months, including one further south in Comox last fall.
In that case, the skin on the animal’s back had been removed and someone had attempted to remove the head. Officers also discovered that the whiskers on the head were missing.
Four mutilated sea lion carcasses have been found on Vancouver Island beaches in the past few months. (CBC)
Sea lion skin and whiskers are sometimes used to make items like drums and masks, but that kind of activity requires a permit, and each kill has to be reported to DFO.
The dead sea lions recently discovered on Vancouver Island beaches were not permitted kills.
Cottrell said DFO is still trying to determine the sea lion’s cause of death.
Anyone with information is asked to call the B.C. Marine Mammal Response line at 1-800-465-4336.It was just past midnight in Afghanistan when Brig. Gen. Mark Milley appeared on the video screen in the Pentagon conference room to brief some of the Army's top generals on a sobering development: his unit's most recent confirmed suicide.
A 19-year-old private, working a night shift at his base, had shot himself a few weeks earlier. "There was no indication that he would harm himself, he had not been seen by the chaplain, no intimate relationships," Milley said, running through warning signs.
In the Pentagon, Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, homed in on one detail. The soldier worked a job that often entailed long, solitary hours. In scouring the Army's suicide statistics, Chiarelli had noticed a slight suicide increase among those who worked such positions. Milley said that going forward none of the 20,000 soldiers under his command would routinely work by themselves.
For more than two hours, Chiarelli, Army personnel chief Lt. Gen. Michael D. Rochelle and a roomful of other generals combed through the facts surrounding a dozen of the Army's latest suicides, with commanders from Afghanistan, Iraq, the Horn of Africa and bases throughout the United States participating in a video teleconference.
Such meetings are one piece of a broader effort to arrest the Army's rising suicide rate, which has surged to record levels in the past year. In 2008, 140 soldiers on active duty took their own lives, continuing a trend in which the number of suicides has increased more than 60 percent since 2003, surpassing the rate for the general U.S. population.
To deal with the problem, the Army has added to the ranks of mental health and substance abuse counselors. The service also required all units to cease operations for two to four hours to talk about suicide prevention in February and March.
Chiarelli's monthly meetings are the Army's way of sleuthing out patterns and identifying new policies to deal with the trend. In the most recent meeting, conducted last week, commanders were brutally candid about what went wrong -- a mental health screener who missed signs of distress; the failure to take notice when a normally reliable infantryman with three combat tours didn't show up for an Army school; the dangerous interactions of drugs, dispensed to help soldiers deal with combat stress, with caffeine and alcohol.
"It's the most gut-wrenching meeting I go to," Chiarelli said.
After the Afghanistan commander gave his briefing, it was Iraq's turn. Maj. Gen. Daniel P. Bolger described the case of a young soldier who shot himself this year. One aberration in the case: The soldier had received a waiver so that he could take a prescription drug to treat his attention-deficit problem. The drug "when added to caffeine, could cause sleep disorders, and a lack of sleep could lead to impulsive actions," the Iraq commander noted.
"There are a lot of those high-energy drinks being used over there," said Chiarelli, who spent two years in Iraq. "What is that stuff that people drink in Iraq?"
"Rip It," came the chorus around the room, referring to the energy drink that has 100 milligrams of caffeine per eight-ounce can (25 percent more than a can of Red Bull and roughly three times as much as an equivalent amount of Diet Coke). Chiarelli asked an Army doctor attending the meeting to work with his staff to create a simple chart listing the most common drugs that soldiers take for combat stress and explaining how the drugs interact with other substances. "I want it to be something an average platoon sergeant can use," Chiarelli said.
At times Army leaders were frustrated by cases that defied simple explanation. In other instances soldiers simply fell through the cracks. One senior sergeant who had deployed multiple times to Iraq confessed to a fellow soldier that he had frequent nightmares from his first tour. He was binge-drinking. The friend took away his personal gun but never mentioned the sergeant's struggles to commanders. A couple of days later, the sergeant didn't show up for his slot in an Army school.WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is facing growing calls for a forceful response to violence on American soil by Turkish presidential guards who were briefly detained this week but then set free. The unseemly incident is adding to U.S.-Turkish tensions compounded by a spat over U.S. war strategy against the Islamic State group in Syria.
The United States said Thursday it had summoned Turkey’s ambassador to the State Department, where the No. 2-ranked U.S. diplomat raised concerns about the security detail for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington, after the guards were recorded on video violently breaking up a protest. Erdogan even witnessed the melee.
U.S. lawmakers demanded stronger action. Republican Sen. John McCain said the government should “throw their ambassador the hell out” of the U.S.
The calls came as the Trump administration acknowledged it had released two members of Erdogan’s detail after holding them briefly after the incident, which took place Tuesday outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in the U.S. capital. Even as officials vowed there would be an investigation, the guards were already safely back in Turkey with Erdogan, dampening any prospects for holding them accountable.
Local police and lawmakers initially speculated that diplomatic immunity prevented the U.S. from holding the men. A U.S. official said Thursday that wasn’t the case. Instead, Erdogan’s guards were released under a globally recognized custom under which nations don’t arrest or detain visiting heads of state and members of their delegations, said the official, who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly on the matter and requested anonymity.
The guards’ release left the U.S. struggling to point to anything that amounts to accountability. It also fueled the perception that the U.S. allows Turkey’s leader to bring strongman tactics with him when he visits the U.S. capital. Last year, Turkish security officials manhandled several journalists at a Washington think tank where Erdogan was set to speak.
“There must be consequences,” Rep. Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, said Thursday.
The State Department called the latest incident “deeply disturbing,” insisting there would be a “thorough investigation that will allow us to hold the responsible individuals accountable is of the upmost importance to us.”
The fracas erupted as Erdogan arrived at the ambassador’s residence following a meeting with President Donald Trump. Videos show people pushing past police to confront a small group of protesters across the street.
Attacking with their fists and feet, men in dark suits and others are seen repeatedly kicking one woman as she lay curled on a sidewalk. Another person wrenches a woman’s neck and throws her to the ground. A man with a bullhorn is repeatedly kicked in the face. In all, nine people were hurt.
“This isn’t Turkey. This isn’t a third-world country,” McCain said on MSNBC.
Another video shared on social media Thursday shows Erdogan watching the melee unfold from the backseat of his vehicle. He later exits the vehicle and peers toward the chaos.
Turkey’s embassy blamed the violence on demonstrators, saying they aggressively provoked Turkish-American citizens gathered to see Erdogan. The embassy alleged, without evidence, that the demonstrators were associated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade-long insurgency against Turkey and is considered a terrorist group by the United States.
The violent capstone to Erdogan’s visit spoke to the sky-high tensions between the U.S. and Turkey, NATO allies that have increasingly sparred over U.S. strategy toward defeating IS militants in Syria.
To Turkey’s dismay, President Donald Trump has decided to arm and partner Syrian Kurdish militants in the impending fight to retake the key city of Raqqa. Washington considers the Syrian Kurds an effective force against IS. Turkey sees them as a PKK extension and an existential threat to Turkish sovereignty.
In its protest against the decision, Turkey’s foreign minister on Thursday demanded that Trump dismiss his envoy in charge of the anti-IS coalition, Brett McGurk.
And Erdogan, speaking in Istanbul two days after meeting Trump, put Washington on notice that his forces won’t hesitate to attack U.S.-backed Kurds if they threaten Turkey.
“We are already telling you in advance: Our rules of engagement give us this authority,” Erdogan said. “We will take such a step and we won’t discuss it or consult with anyone.”
The Trump administration rushed to McGurk’s defense.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said McGurk has “the full support and backing” of Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Still, Nauert sought to acknowledge Turkey’s misgivings about terrorism by the PKK and other groups.
“We respect those concerns, and continue regular consultations with our NATO ally on this and other topics of mutual importance,” Nauert said.
___
Associated Press writers Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul and Jessica Gresko in Washington contributed to this report.
___
Reach Richard Lardner on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rplardner and Josh Lederman at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.A veteran Coconut Creek officer has been put on paid leave after being accused of patronizing a Boca Raton spa that was a front for prostitution, police said.
Officer James Yacobellis, 39, of Lake Worth, faces a purchasing services of prostitution charge and was put on administrative leave Aug. 7.
Boca Raton police conducting an undercover investigation into organized prostitution witnessed Yacobellis receiving a massage at the spa, according to an arrest report.
Coconut Creek police chief Michael Mann would not comment on the charge against Yacobellis, who remained on paid leave Monday.
"We have an active investigation going on right now," Mann said.
Messages left for Yacobellis were not returned.
Boca Raton police set up hidden video surveillance at O Asian Wellness Spa and Massage as part of the undercover investigation, which ran from June 2-4, according to the report.
The business, based in a Glades Road office complex near the Town Center of Boca Raton mall, serves an apparently all-male clientele that pays the spa's female employees for massages that involve sex acts, according to allegations contained in a complaint affidavit filed by a Boca Raton police officer.
During the first day of the investigation, Yacobellis was seen giving cash to a female employee at the front desk and then entering a massage room, where he removed all of his clothing, according to the report. Yacobellis lay face down on the massage table, and the employee straddled him and rubbed his inner thigh and genitals while Yacobellis rubbed the employee's arms and legs.
About three minutes later, Yacobellis flipped over and the lights were dimmed, according to the report. Nearly 20 minutes after that, the employee appeared to be wiping off Yacobellis' genital area with a towel. Yacobellis left the business 10 minutes later, leaving a $30 tip.
Officers followed Yacobellis and conducted a traffic stop, during which they identified Yacobellis using his driver's license, according to the report.
On June 26, the department reached out to Yacobellis, who agreed to meet for an interview, according to the report. He reported to the Boca Raton police station, where he admitted to police that he had gone to the business during the time of the investigation, paid $70 and received a massage from a female employee.
Yacobellis told police he had been to the business about six or seven times previously and had seen different female employees, according to the report. He said the massage was "legitimate" but that the employee touched his genitals during the massage, and he acknowledged that this was not part of a normal massage.
Yacobellis also told police that while he was lying face up, the employee kissed him on the mouth and rubbed his genitals, according to the report. He said he never asked for the sexual act; however, there was an implied consent once she began touching his genitals, and he said he did not try to stop the act from occurring.
This is not the first time Yacobellis has been put on paid leave. While state prosecuters and his department conducted an investigation into his policing methods, Yacobellis was on paid leave from Oct. 9, 2011 to Feb. 5, 2013. During that time, Yacobellis collected his annual salary of $87,381, or $40 an hour.
The paid leave was followed by a two-week unpaid suspension that began Feb. 6, 2013, after the department concluded that Yacobellis had violated its rules of conduct. At the time, Yacobellis had had six other internal affairs investigations over the span of nine years.
Staff writers Tonya Alanez and Brett Clarkson contributed to this report.
[email protected], 954-356-4544 or Twitter @EmilyBethMillerAn international research group led by scientists from the University of Bristol has demonstrated a new technique that dramatically simplifies quantum circuits, bringing quantum computers closer to reality.
Dr Xiao-Qi Zhou and colleagues at the University of Bristol’s Centre for Quantum Photonics and the University of Queensland, Australia, have shown that controlled operations — ones that are implemented on the condition that a ‘control bit’ is in the state 1 — can be dramatically simplified compared to the standard approach. The researchers believe their technique will find applications across quantum information technologies, including precision measurement, simulation of complex systems, and ultimately a quantum computer — a powerful type of computer that uses quantum bits (qubits) rather than the conventional bits used in today’s computers.
Unlike conventional bits or transistors, which can be in one of only two states at any one time (1 or 0), a qubit can be in several states at the same time and can therefore be used to hold and process a much larger amount of information at a greater rate.
A major obstacle for realizing a quantum computer is the complexity of the quantum circuits required. As with conventional computers, quantum algorithms are constructed from a small number of elementary logic operations. Controlled operations are at the heart of the majority of important quantum algorithms. The traditional method to realize controlled operations is to decompose them into the elementary logic gate set. However, this decomposition is very complex and prohibits the realization of even small-scale quantum circuits.
The researchers now show a completely new way to approach this problem. “By using an extra degree of freedom of quantum particles, we can realize the control operation in a novel way. We have constructed several controlled operations using this method,” said Dr Xiao-Qi Zhou, research fellow working on this project. “This will significantly reduce the complexity of the circuits for quantum computing.”
“The new approach we report here could be the most important development in quantum information science over the coming years,” said Professor Jeremy O’Brien, director of the Centre for Quantum Photonics. “It provides a dramatic reduction in quantum circuit complexity — the major barrier to the development of more sophisticated quantum algorithms — just at the time that the first quantum algorithms are being demonstrated.”
The team now plans to apply this technique to implement some important quantum algorithms, such as the phase estimation algorithm and Shor’s factoring algorithm.
Paper
'Adding control to arbitrary unknown quantum operation's by Xiao-Qi Zhou, Timothy C. Ralph, Pruet Kalasuwan, Mian Zhang, Alberto Peruzzo, Benjamin P. Lanyon and Jeremy L. O’Brien in Nature CommunicationsIt pains me to write this, but I'm a firm supporter of science, and apparently some scientists think cockroach milk crystals could be a superfood of the future.
Specifically, a team of scientists recently sequenced a protein found in the gut of cockroaches that is four times as nutritious as cow's milk. In a world increasingly challenged by a growing population that greatly taxes our ecosystem for food, something with that magnitude of nutritional value could be a major breakthrough. If humans can stomach it, it could play a key role in feeding humankind.
In a sense we deserve this bug-laden future. We waste of lot of food; in the United States, some 40% of food is wasted. Worse yet, a recent study found that most Americans are unwilling to change their behavior to waste less food even though they know it's bad for the environment and they feel some degree of guilt about that. Across the planet, hundreds of millions of people survive on a subsistence diet and suffer the many ills associated with malnutrition. According to the United Nations, there are 795 million undernourished people in the world today, meaning that one in nine people "do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life."
For these people—and many cultures are already OK with the idea of eating bugs—a high-calorie, fatty addition to their diet like cockroach milk crystals could actually provide quite the benefit.
"The crystals are like a complete food—they have proteins, fats and sugars. If you look into the protein sequences, they have all the essential amino acids," Sanchari Banerjee, one of the main authors of the paper published in July in the International Union of Crystallography's journal, told the Times of India. "If you need food that is calorifically high, that is time released and food that is complete. This is it."
Advertisement
There are still many hurdles to reaching the reality in which cockroach milk is a common milk alternative. For one, harvesting large amounts of cockroach milk crystals from the only kind of cockroach known to give birth to live young, the Pacific beetle cockroach (Diploptera punctate), is unrealistic. This cockroach, which lives along Asia's Pacific rim, lactates to provide nutrition to its young just like mammals do.
Subramanian Ramaswamy, a biochemist at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine in Bangalore, India, told The Washington Post that he could see the milk crystals being used in things like protein shakes. He also said that if the cockroach milk were to ever hit the mainstream, it would likely come from yeast, which is already being bioengineered to produce things like synthetic sweeteners.
It also needs to be determined if the roach crystals are at all toxic to humans. I can't say that I hope they aren't. I'm still adjusting to the idea of eating crickets and mealworms.Cliven Bundy, a Nevada cattle rancher, has threatened a "range war" with the federal government as its Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has begun confiscating his cattle.
The BLM is mad at Bundy for racking up over $300,000 in unpaid grazing fees the agency claims he owes for 150 square miles of scrub the BLM legally owns; he hasn't paid any since 1993.
As the Los Angeles Times reports:
Officials say Bundy is illegally running cattle in the 600,000-acre Gold Butte area, habitat of the federally protected desert tortoise. Last year, a federal court judge ruled that if the 68-year-old veteran rancher did not remove his cattle, they could be seized by the BLM. That seizure began Saturday.... Federal authorities have closed off the Gold Butte area and are rounding up what they call “trespass cattle,” many of which belong to Bundy. By Monday, 134 cattle had been impounded.... Bundy says he "fired the BLM," and vows not to pay one dime to the agency that he accuses of plotting his demise. A father of 14...Bundy has insisted that his cattle aren't going anywhere. He acknowledges that he keeps firearms at his ranch, 80 miles north of Las Vegas, and has vowed to do "whatever it takes" to defend his animals from seizure.
Bundy is the type who, from his public statements, seems to believe in local and county and state authority and not federal. He insists his family has homestead rights to that land from the 1880s that predate the federal government's claims. Hundreds of Bundy supporters have gathered in the past couple of days to protest the BLM's actions, but they've been taking the cattle anyway.
Bundy has been reminding the press of Waco and Ruby Ridge and other times when federal agents facing recalcitrant citizens have resorted to violence. As ABC News reported:
a spokesperson for the National Park Service were told that Bundy supporters had reported seeing snipers present near the Ranch. Asked whether snipers indeed were on the scene, they said that law enforcement was in place, as needed, and that they could not comment more specifically.
Reassuring!
Dave Bundy, Cliven's son, was briefly arrested Sunday then released, as he told the Las Vegas Review Journal:
The 37-year-old said heavily armed federal agents roughed him up and arrested him for exercising his constitutional rights on a state highway in northeast Clark County on Sunday. “They got on their loudspeaker and said that everyone needed to leave,” Dave Bundy said during an impromptu press conference alongside his father outside a 7-Eleven on Las Vegas Boulevard. “I stood there and continued to express my First Amendment right to protest, and they approached me and said that if I didn’t leave, they’d arrest me.” The younger Bundy said he was taking photographs and protesting peacefully at the time. Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman for the Nevada U.S. Attorney’s office, said Bundy was cited for misdemeanor charges of “refusing to disperse” and resisting arrest. Earlier, BLM spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon said Bundy was taken into custody to “protect public safety and maintain the peace.”... Dave Bundy showed a Review-Journal reporter his scratched face and swollen, scraped hands while describing his arrest. “Without any further questions, two rangers surrounded and a third one approached me and they all jumped me, pulling different directions. And then a couple other guys jumped in and they took me to the ground,” Dave Bundy said. “… One ranger had had his knee on my spine and the other one was on my head with his knee on the side of my head and his other knee on the back of my neck.” Dave Bundy maintains his arrest was improper because he was standing along the side of Route 170 in a state right-of-way. BLM officials said the right-of-way is under their jurisdiction and within an area their agency had closed to the public.
This KCET.org article tries to make the preservationists' case against Bundy's cattle.
The Bundy family's collection of YouTube videos making their case (hat tip to the Griggs Family on that link).
UPDATE: The latest actual court order for Bundy to remove his cattle, from October. The Justia page for the case.UNCASVILLE, CT - APRIL 22: Bellator welterweight champion Andrey Koreshkov walks to the cage for his bout against Benson Henderson (not shown) at Mohegan Sun Arena on April 22, 2016 in Uncasville, Connecticut. (Photo by Ed Mulholland/Getty Images)
Bellator MMA will host the first major MMA event in Tel Aviv, Israel on November 30, headlined by a title fight between Andrey Koreshkov vs. Douglas Lima
On Wednesday, Bellator MMA announced welterweight champion Andrey Koreshkov will put his belt on the line against the man he took it from more than a year ago, Douglas Lima, in the main event of the promotion’s historic debut at Menora Mivtachim Arena in Tel Aviv on November 10.
The 26-year-old Koreshkov (19-1) is coming off a 25-minute beatdown over former UFC champion Benson Henderson at Bellator 153. This performance also extended his win streak to six straight. The “Spartan” has not tasted defeat since 2013 and has finished 13 of his opponents by either (T)KO or submission.
Lima (27-6) earned his rematch against the champion with a dominant victory over top contender Paul Daley. To date, “The Phenom” finished 23 of his 27 wins as a professional. Lima will enter this bout having picked up notable wins over Ben Saunders (2x), Ryan Ford, Steve Carl and Olympic competitor Rick Hawn.
In addition, the card will also feature one of Israel’s own in the co-headliner, as newly signed Bellator MMA featherweight Noad Lahat squared off against Scott Cleve.
Hailing from Alfei Menashe, Samaria Israel, Lahat was also a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces before transitioning to his now promising MMA career.
As far as competition, Lahat (9-2) was last seen suffering a highlight real knockout loss, courtesy of a flying knee from Diego Rivas. This snapped his two fight win streak where fans saw him earn decision over Niklas Bäckström and Steven Siler.
Cleve (15-5) is set for his fifth appearance under the Bellator MMA banner. To date, the Colorado native has finished 11 of his 15 victories while picking up notable victories over UFC veteran Abel Trujillo, along with Bellator competitors Derek Campos and Matt Bessette.
The Viacom-owned fight promotion’s historic event will air in America on SPIKE Friday, November 11 at 9 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. CT.Back in the day, Windows Phone users had an app called Play to from Nokia. The app let you stream media from your phone to any DLNA device, including the Xbox One. Like many things with Windows 10, however, Play to has been sidelined. Thankfully, developer Webrox (creators of Tubecast has a new app out that will do all of that and more! Playcast is now available for Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 for PCs and tablets. We've been using Playcast for the last 24 hours and are impressed. Check out our hands-on video to see how it works!
Playcast for Windows 10 Reads multimedia files including video, audio, and photo to cast to external devices
Support for Chromecast, Chromecast Audio, Airplay and DLNA protocols (e.g. Xbox One)
Runs as a background task including controlling it with background audio player
OneDrive integration (Google Drive and Dropbox coming in next update)
Playlist support (local only)
Slideshow mode and shuffle How it works
The app both for Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 is a little busy due to some options, but its operation is very straightforward. Browse your local camera roll, music files, videos or movies and begin to play them on your phone through the app. To cast you just hit the cast button in the lower right-hand area and assuming you are on the same network as your Xbox One or Chomecast device, you can pick it from the list of available options. Choose your desired device to cast to and within moments, it will begin streaming. It runs in the background
The real big deal here, however, is the background task feature. Let me give you a real-world example that we tried and that works remarkably well: Streaming an HD movie stored on OneDrive through our phone to the TV via a connected Xbox One. Not only can it do the above streaming task, but you can minimize the app on your phone and continue to use the phone as you normally would without any drawbacks. It didn't even hit battery life too hard. Even better, you can turn your phone's display off and just watch the movie streaming from OneDrive to your phone to your TV. Additionally, you can hit the volume key on your phone and play, pause or skip — just like a traditional remote. Of course, you can also do just the photos, music, or videos you recorded on your phone too. We had no issues streaming any media. Frankly, we're impressed. In this sense, Playcast feels more like a native app than some third party workaround. Your device becomes merely a means of transport for media, but like in Continuum, continues to operate as a phone. Speaking of Continuum, Playcast supports that feature as well. Free trial and priceBoston-area #BlackLivesMatter protesters made national headlines today by chaining themselves to roadway railings and 1,200-lb construction barrels, bringing traffic into Boston on I-93 N and S to a halt during the morning commute.
According to a press release posted to the Black Lives Matter Boston facebook page, the diverse group of protesters sought to bring attention to the fact that systematic racism isn’t just an issue in other places, like Ferguson, MO. Similar problems happen right here, at home, and have been happening for decades.
“Today, our nonviolent direct action is meant to expose the reality that Boston is a city where white commuters and students use the city and leave, while Black and Brown communities are targeted by police, exploited, and displaced,” said Korean-American activist Katie Seitz.
In the past 15 years, law enforcement officers in Boston have killed Remis M. Andrews, Darryl Dookhran, Denis Reynoso, Ross Baptista, Burrell “Bo” Ramsey-White, Mark Joseph McMullen, Manuel “Junior” DaVeiga, Marquis Barker, Stanley Seney, Luis Gonzalez, Bert W. Bowen, Eveline Barros-Cepeda, Daniel Furtado, LaVeta Jackson, Nelson Santiago, Willie L. Murray Jr., Rene Romain, Jose Pineda, Ricky Bodden, Carlos M. Garcia, and many more people of color. We mourn and honor all these lives.
“We must remember, Ferguson is not a faraway Southern city. Black men, women, and gender-nonconforming people face disproportionately higher risk of profiling, unjust incarceration, and death. Police violence is everywhere in the United States,” said another protester Nguyen Thi Minh Thu.
I am a local resident myself, and I’ve encountered conversations about the protests everywhere today. There’s a lot to discuss about the protest and whether this act of civil disobedience was justified. Did the ends justify the means? Many people seem to argue that they did not, while others liken it to the Boston Tea Party: something causing short-term outrage but long-term good. The debate on this point is fascinating.
But today, I would like to explore a pattern that transcends whether the protest was right or wrong: the vociferous response from those who allege the protesters are endangering lives by making it more difficult for ambulances to get into the city.
The expression of such concerns started early. They were presented in a way that disparaged the protesters—calling them “foolish,” “disgusting,” “morons,” and raising the specter of hypothetical sick children and elderly people to make their case:
From my vantage point, analyzing the discourse, there are some signs that at least some of these comments aren’t really about the ambulances. Rather than critiquing the protester’s choice and asking if they considered emergency vehicles during their planning stages, they’re using the idea of emergency access to disparage and insult the protesters.
In other words, this isn’t thoughtful critique. Some are using what sounds like a legitimate concern (and in some cases may genuinely be one) as fodder against a movement they already disagree with and wish to discredit using any means possible.
Some who noticed these posts early on observed that comments in this vein seemed hypocritical:
Then, unsurprisingly and distressingly, an ambulance did indeed try to take I-93 into the city. It was unable to pass the protesters, who had chained themselves to secure objects and apparently could not move out of the way as a result:
Blocking the path of emergency vehicles is no laughing matter, and I certainly respect these concerns. The fact is that such actions are illegal, after all.
At the same time, as a Boston-area resident who commuted into and out of the city’s Longwood Medical Area for years, I think a subset of such responses are disingenuous.
Some people are using ambulances as a socially acceptable excuse to slam protesters with whom they disagree. It’s not really about the ambulances or the medical emergencies: It’s about a protest and a movement that some folks would never agree with, no matter what they do. This kind of hypocrisy is problematic.
Consider that Boston is notorious for its traffic coming to a complete standstill on major thoroughfares. Our roads are too small for the volume of traffic that enters and exits the city daily. Driving in the breakdown lanes is legal on some Boston-area highways during commute hours as a way to alleviate the back-ups, which the locals are now used to but which positively terrifies out-of-towners. Traffic is so bad here that we were subjected to the Big Dig, a massive, unbelievably expensive, and hugely inconvenient construction megaproject that placed a stretch of the I-93 corridor beneath the city. It was the most expensive highway project in the USA, went terribly over budget, and lasted for 16 awful years…. and it hardly made a dent in the traffic situation.
In addition to the problems we have during rush hour, anytime there is a Red Sox game, traffic from I-93 onto Storrow Drive and onto Commonwealth Avenue, Beacon Street, Brookline Avenue, and other major roads comes to a standstill. These are the roads used to access the Longwood Medical Area, which is in easy walking distance of Fenway Park. (The gridlock is not confined to Yawkey Way, as some who haven’t worked in Longwood might believe.)
Major hospitals in the Longwood Medical Area include:
Children’s Hospital
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Dana Farber Cancer Institute
The Joslin Diabetes Center
It is home to Harvard Medical School, as well.
During baseball season, ambulances are routinely prevented from reaching major Boston hospitals in an efficient manner. I wonder whether the people who are attempting to discredit the #BlackLivesMatter protest also speak out against the Red Sox and their fans for blocking traffic? After all, although the intent of the Red Sox fans and these protesters differ, the outcome is the same: Predictable though Red Sox traffic may be, emergencies are by nature unpredictable, and emergency vehicles do become stuck on their way to the Longwood Medical Area on game days.
One local mom, Nicole Aliberti, can personally attest to this. “I find it disingenuous that people keep complaining about ambulances not being able to get to Boston hospitals due to the protests,” Aliberti told me. “I once experienced being in the back of an ambulance that was transporting my critically ill baby in stopped traffic due to a Red Sox game. No one would move out of the way, and we had to find another route to the hospital.”
She asks: “Why is there outrage about the Black Lives Matter protest, when there is no outrage about this disruption of hospital traffic that happens many times a year?”
A Boston medic who asked to remain anonymous confirmed this perspective: the Black Lives Matter protest is just one of many such impediments ambulances face on a regular basis.
“Every response I drive, there are multiple people who impede my progress,” the medic said. “People not paying attention on their phones, those who try to out run me, the commuter rail train crossing the tracks, sporting events, concerts: This is not isolated to protests.”
Before playing the ambulance card, perhaps critics of #BlackLivesMatter could think about the day-to-day realities of emergency vehicle traffic in Boston. Yes, the intentions may differ, but the outcome is the same: urgent medical care is delayed, threateningly the lives of the critically ill. Critics condemning the protest and movement with vulgarities because if the ambulance that was diverted might reflect upon whether they care about comparable experiences, such as that of the Aliberti family, shared above.
In short, the Black Lives Matter protests are critically important and a locus of ongoing debates and discussion. If you disagree with the protest, come out and say so. Don’t hide behind a stance that vilifies the protesters for blocking emergency vehicles in a disingenuous way.
To be clear: I am not saying that the Boston protest was the world’s best idea. It is far from perfect (though from a PR perspective, it succeeded in reinvigorating a national conversation and bringing attention—some negative, some positive—to the cause).
To put it simply, I am troubled by those who cite concerns about ambulances hypocritically. I don’t mean that every person raising such concerns is a hypocrite; far from it. But look closely, read between the lines, and you’ll see that in many cases, it’s a cover for racism and hatred for the entire #BlackLivesMatter campaign.
———An artist's impression of the proposed 60,000-seater Al Bayt Stadium, which will be used at the 2022 World Cup
Two players from Danish club FC Copenhagen have criticised conditions for labourers working on venues for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Tom Hogli and William Kvist were speaking on a video produced by the Danish players' association and published by world union FIFPro.
"That thousands must die to build stadiums has nothing to do with football," Kvist said.
The Qatari government has always rejected claims workers have died.
However, human rights organisation Amnesty International has accused Qatar of abusing World Cup workers, while Hogli said conditions were " |
is an open-source implementation of the OpenGL specification. OpenGL is a programming library for writing interactive 3D applications. See the OpenGL website for more information.
Mesa 9.x supports the OpenGL 3.1 specification.
1.2 Does Mesa support/use graphics hardware?
Yes. Specifically, Mesa serves as the OpenGL core for the open-source DRI drivers for X.org.
See the DRI website for more information.
See 01.org for more information about Intel drivers.
See nouveau.freedesktop.org for more information about Nouveau drivers.
See www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature for more information about Radeon drivers.
1.3 What purpose does Mesa serve today?
Hardware-accelerated OpenGL implementations are available for most popular operating systems today. Still, Mesa serves at least these purposes:
Mesa is used as the core of the open-source X.org DRI hardware drivers.
Mesa is quite portable and allows OpenGL to be used on systems that have no other OpenGL solution.
Software rendering with Mesa serves as a reference for validating the hardware drivers.
A software implementation of OpenGL is useful for experimentation, such as testing new rendering techniques.
Mesa can render images with deep color channels: 16-bit integer and 32-bit floating point color channels are supported. This capability is only now appearing in hardware.
Mesa's internal limits (max lights, clip planes, texture size, etc) can be changed for special needs (hardware limits are hard to overcome).
1.4 What's the difference between "Stand-Alone" Mesa and the DRI drivers?
Stand-alone Mesa is the original incarnation of Mesa. On systems running the X Window System it does all its rendering through the Xlib API:
The GLX API is supported, but it's really just an emulation of the real thing.
The GLX wire protocol is not supported and there's no OpenGL extension loaded by the X server.
There is no hardware acceleration.
The OpenGL library, libGL.so, contains everything (the programming API, the GLX functions and all the rendering code).
Alternately, Mesa acts as the core for a number of OpenGL hardware drivers within the DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure):
The libGL.so library provides the GL and GLX API functions, a GLX protocol encoder, and a device driver loader.
The device driver modules (such as r200_dri.so) contain a built-in copy of the core Mesa code.
The X server loads the GLX module. The GLX module decodes incoming GLX protocol and dispatches the commands to a rendering module. For the DRI, this module is basically a software Mesa renderer.
1.5 How do I upgrade my DRI installation to use a new Mesa release?
This wasn't easy in the past. Now, the DRI drivers are included in the Mesa tree and can be compiled separately from the X server. Just follow the Mesa compilation instructions.
1.6 Are there other open-source implementations of OpenGL?
Yes, SGI's OpenGL Sample Implementation (SI) is available. The SI was written during the time that OpenGL was originally designed. Unfortunately, development of the SI has stagnated. Mesa is much more up to date with modern features and extensions.
Vincent is an open-source implementation of OpenGL ES for mobile devices.
miniGL is a subset of OpenGL for PalmOS devices.
TinyGL is a subset of OpenGL.
SoftGL is an OpenGL subset for mobile devices.
Chromium isn't a conventional OpenGL implementation (it's layered upon OpenGL), but it does export the OpenGL API. It allows tiled rendering, sort-last rendering, etc.
ClosedGL is an OpenGL subset library for TI graphing calculators.
There may be other open OpenGL implementations, but Mesa is the most popular and feature-complete.
2. Compilation and Installation Problems
2.1 What's the easiest way to install Mesa?
If you're using a Linux-based system, your distro CD most likely already has Mesa packages (like RPM or DEB) which you can easily install.
2.2 I get undefined symbols such as bgnpolygon, v3f, etc...
You're application is written in IRIS GL, not OpenGL. IRIS GL was the predecessor to OpenGL and is a different thing (almost) entirely. Mesa's not the solution.
2.3 Where is the GLUT library?
GLUT (OpenGL Utility Toolkit) is no longer in the separate MesaGLUT-x.y.z.tar.gz file. If you don't already have GLUT installed, you should grab freeglut.
2.4 Where is the GLw library?
GLw (OpenGL widget library) is now available from a separate git repository. Unless you're using very old Xt/Motif applications with OpenGL, you shouldn't need it.
2.5 What's the proper place for the libraries and headers?
On Linux-based systems you'll want to follow the Linux ABI standard. Basically you'll want the following:
/usr/include/GL/gl.h - the main OpenGL header
/usr/include/GL/glu.h - the OpenGL GLU (utility) header
/usr/include/GL/glx.h - the OpenGL GLX header
/usr/include/GL/glext.h - the OpenGL extensions header
/usr/include/GL/glxext.h - the OpenGL GLX extensions header
/usr/include/GL/osmesa.h - the Mesa off-screen rendering header
/usr/lib/libGL.so - a symlink to libGL.so.1
/usr/lib/libGL.so.1 - a symlink to libGL.so.1.xyz
/usr/lib/libGL.so.xyz - the actual OpenGL/Mesa library. xyz denotes the Mesa version number.
When configuring Mesa, there are three autoconf options that affect the install location that you should take care with: --prefix, --libdir, and --with-dri-driverdir. To install Mesa into the system location where it will be available for all programs to use, set --prefix=/usr. Set --libdir to where your Linux distribution installs system libraries, usually either /usr/lib or /usr/lib64. Set --with-dri-driverdir to the directory where your Linux distribution installs DRI drivers. To find your system's DRI driver directory, try executing find /usr -type d -name dri. For example, if the find command listed /usr/lib64/dri, then set --with-dri-driverdir=/usr/lib64/dri.
After determining the correct values for the install location, configure Mesa with./configure --prefix=/usr --libdir=xxx --with-dri-driverdir=xxx and then install with sudo make install.
3. Runtime / Rendering Problems
3.1 Rendering is slow / why isn't my graphics hardware being used?
If Mesa can't use its hardware accelerated drivers it falls back on one of its software renderers. (eg. classic swrast, softpipe or llvmpipe)
You can run the glxinfo program to learn about your OpenGL library. Look for the OpenGL vendor and OpenGL renderer values. That will identify who's OpenGL library with which driver you're using and what sort of hardware it has detected.
If you're using a hardware accelerated driver you want direct rendering: Yes.
If your DRI-based driver isn't working, go to the DRI website for trouble-shooting information.
3.2 I'm seeing errors in depth (Z) buffering. Why?
Make sure the ratio of the far to near clipping planes isn't too great. Look here for details.
Mesa uses a 16-bit depth buffer by default which is smaller and faster to clear than a 32-bit buffer but not as accurate. If you need a deeper you can modify the parameters to glXChooseVisual in your code.
3.3 Why Isn't depth buffering working at all?
Be sure you're requesting a depth buffered-visual. If you set the MESA_DEBUG environment variable it will warn you about trying to enable depth testing when you don't have a depth buffer.
Specifically, make sure glutInitDisplayMode is being called with GLUT_DEPTH or glXChooseVisual is being called with a non-zero value for GLX_DEPTH_SIZE.
This discussion applies to stencil buffers, accumulation buffers and alpha channels too.
3.4 Why does glGetString() always return NULL?
Be sure you have an active/current OpenGL rendering context before calling glGetString.
3.5 GL_POINTS and GL_LINES don't touch the right pixels
If you're trying to draw a filled region by using GL_POINTS or GL_LINES and seeing holes or gaps it's because of a float-to-int rounding problem. But this is not a bug. See Appendix H of the OpenGL Programming Guide - "OpenGL Correctness Tips". Basically, applying a translation of (0.375, 0.375, 0.0) to your coordinates will fix the problem.
4. Developer Questions
4.1 How can I contribute?
First, join the mesa-dev mailing list. That's where Mesa development is discussed.
The OpenGL Specification is the bible for OpenGL implementation work. You should read it.
Most of the Mesa development work involves implementing new OpenGL extensions, writing hardware drivers (for the DRI), and code optimization.
4.2 How do I write a new device driver?
Unfortunately, writing a device driver isn't easy. It requires detailed understanding of OpenGL, the Mesa code, and your target hardware/operating system. 3D graphics are not simple.
The best way to get started is to use an existing driver as your starting point. For a classic hardware driver, the i965 driver is a good example. For a Gallium3D hardware driver, the r300g, r600g and the i915g are good examples.
The DRI website has more information about writing hardware drivers. The process isn't well document because the Mesa driver interface changes over time, and we seldom have spare time for writing documentation. That being said, many people have managed to figure out the process.
Joining the appropriate mailing lists and asking questions (and searching the archives) is a good way to get information.
4.3 Why isn't GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc implemented in Mesa?
Oh but it is! Prior to 2nd October 2017, the Mesa project did not include s3tc support due to intellectual property (IP) and/or patent issues around the s3tc algorithm.
As of Mesa 17.3.0, Mesa now officially supports s3tc, as the patent has expired.
In versions prior to this, a 3rd party plug-in library was required.Radical Black Activist Issues Death Threat to Bosnian Immigrants #Ferguson (VIDEO)
A woman named Mary Omni has put out a video claiming Bosnians deserve to die.
This woman issued the death threats after three black minors murdered Bosnian refugee Zemir Begic with hammers last weekend. She defends the killers.
From the video:
“Ferguson, Bosnian death immigrant warning is this. You are on these black young men 14th birthrights and land rights. If there’s an accident that occurs you are considered the invader and embezzler thief. You came to build a dream on the 14th Constitutional nation of supremacy. Fourteenth biblical inheritors… The Bosnian immigrant was invading. The Bosnian immigrant was joining globalists and they came to America for the American dream at the expense of black infant babies. At the expense of the Mike Brown. At the expense of the black housing. At the expense of the black’s education… The immigrant Bosnian is seen as a foreign invader and a thief.”
The entire video is unhinged and delusional.
But the death threat is real.
Mary Omni is promoting a race riot.Donald Trump Jr. delivered a blistering indictment of Hillary Clinton and emerged as a high-profile supporter of school choice and gun rights on Tuesday night as he praised his father just hours after the elder Trump claimed the Republican presidential nomination.
'If Hillary Clinton were elected, she would be the first president who couldn't pass a basic background check. It's incredible!' he told a packed convention floor in Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena.
'Hillary Clinton is a risk Americans can't afford to take.'
Trump, 38, soaked up applause from thousands – and then tweeted: 'Now that was intense. What a rush.'
Scroll down for video
'Hillary Clinton is a risk Americans can't afford to take,' Donald Trump Jr. told the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night
Trump, 38, soaked up applause from thousands – and then tweeted: 'Now that was intense. What a rush'
The younger Don and his sister Ivanka watched hours earlier as the New York delegation's votes put their father over the top and made him the official GOP nominee
He framed the Democratic Party as obstructionist and government-obsessed – and did it without naming them.
'The other party gave us a regulatory state on steroids,' he boomed. 'The other party is the party of risk.'
'The other party gave us public schools that all too often fail our students, especially those who have no options.'.
'Our schools used to be an elevator to the middle class,' Trump said. 'Now they're stalled on the ground floor. They're like Soviet-era department stores that are run for the benefit of the clerks and not the customers, for the teachers and the administrators and not the students.'
'You know why other countries do better in K through 12? They let parents choose where to send their own children to school!' he exclaimed. 'That's called competition. It's called the free market. And it's what the other party fears.'
'They fear it because they're more concerned about protecting the jobs of tenured teachers than serving the students in desperate need of a good education.'
School choice advocates push for voucher programs that permit parents to send their children to private schools for which they qualify, and to do it with taxpayer dollars.
The Republican nominee's oldest son soaked up applause from thousands on the convention floor and then tweeted: 'What a rush'
They see such programs as a path toward shuttering failing schools as families flee, and a leveling influence that allows poor parents to give their children opportunities usually reserved for the wealthy.
'We're going to make our schools the best in the world for every single American of every single ethnicity and background,' he pledged.
Trump cast Clinton, as his father has, as an anti-Second Amendment activist who would upend gun rights and erect roadblocks in front of the law-abiding who want firearms for self-defense.
'She says she'll issue executive orders to take away Americans' guns,' he claimed. 'She wants to appoint judges who will abolish the Second Amendment.'
'Just look at how effective those laws have been in inner-city Chicago, a city with the toughest gun laws in our nation, where 70 people were murdered last month alone.'
Trump also made a pitch for fossil fuels, blasting Clinton for her vow to put coal mines out of business.
'When people tell him it can't be done, that guarantees it gets done,' Trump Jr said of his father
Trump tweeted this message today to show how proud he was of his children's performances in Cleveland
If she were elected president, he predicted,'she'll throw every possible obstacle in the path of safe, reliable, affordable energy produced in America, by Americans, for American businesses and families.'
'Rather than being energy independent, our country will be forced to be beholden to her buddies in the Middle East.'
And he declared the terror attacks that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya four years ago 'would be repeated, were she to win the election.'
'Those are risks we can't afford to take,' he added. 'And when we win, we're not gonna have to.'
He described his father as a tough-but-fair businessman 'who has a track record of accomplishing the impossible'
Trump cast Clinton, as his father has, as an anti-Second Amendment activist who would upend gun rights and erect roadblocks in front of the law-abiding who want firearms for self-defense
Trump described his father as a tough-but-fair businessman 'who has a track record of accomplishing the impossible.'
'When people tell him it can't be done, that guarantees it gets done.'
The newly minted GOP nominee, he said, would be 'a president who knows we can't simply delete our problems, but that we have to tackle them head-on.'
'We've lost confidence in our leaders and faith in our institutions,' he said, in a dig at the Obama administration and its first secretary of state.
'But remember: We're still Americans, we're still one country, and we're gonna get it back.'The Saskatchewan Trucking Association is raising concerns about adequate truck rest stops after the City of Saskatoon issued a warning last week. The City warned that truckers can expect to be ticketed if they park their rigs to make a coffee stop.
Saskatoon cracks down on truckers blocking Circle Drive while getting coffee
"We want drivers if they don't feel safe to be able to pull over." Nicole Sinclair
While drivers need to obey the rules, they have limited space to park in this province, said Nicole Sinclair with the Saskatchewan Trucking Association.
"There is just not enough," she said.
"The ideal interval would be for one hour of travel time, there would be some sort of a rest area — whether that's just a pull out, or a rest area or a full-blown truck stop."
"We want drivers if they don't feel safe to be able to pull over."
More and more trucks expected
Studies suggest that there is a shortage of truck parking space across North America, and on a handful of the major transportation corridors in Saskatchewan. Although the size of the industry ebbs and flows with the Canadian economy, many indicators suggest that without action, the problem will only get worse.
The province's trucking association suggested that one of the main problems with moving forward is that each jurisdiction takes a different view of the problem. In fact, the association itself doesn't see one stakeholder being any more responsible than the other, and that's why they lobby all levels of government and the private sector.
"It's not a small issue. It's very, very expensive. You have to look at the initial cost of developing it and then the maintenance and who is responsible for it."Republican leaders have begun gathering evidence for sweeping investigations of Barack Obama's environmental agenda, from climate science to the BP oil spill, if as expected, they take control of the House of Representatives in the 2 November mid-term elections, the Guardian has learned.
The new Congress will not be installed until next January, but Democrats and environmental organisations say they are braced for multiple, aggressive investigations from the incoming Republican majority.
Republican leaders have also raised the possibility of disbanding the global warming committee in Congress, established by the Democratic speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
"We are already getting posturing from some of the potential committee chairs that they will turn their committees into investigating committees," said Kate Gordon, who oversees energy policy at the Centre for American Progress Action Fund. "I think there is a potential for the EPA and the entire administration to be called into hearing after hearing after hearing."
Staff working for Darrell Issa, the California Republican poised to head the powerful house oversight and investigation committee, have already contacted a watchdog group that is suing the Obama administration for emails and memos related to the BP spill.
Issa and other Republican leaders have also said they are looking for ways to revisit last year's climate science controversy, sparked by hacked emails from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia.
Jeff Ruch, the director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said his organisation had been contacted by Issa's staff looking into charges that the Obama administration knowingly played down estimates of the oil spill.
He said he expected a far more aggressive investigation than any of those seen so far. "They won't pull punches and will put people under oath and will pursue it until they get something," Ruch said. "They will be looking for heads, not just the facts."
The investigative zeal is fuelled by the rise of Tea Party candidates for whom climate change denial verges on an article of faith.
"I think a clear majority does not accept human causality in climate change. It's definitely not within the orthodoxy of conservatism as presented by Sarah Palin and folks like her," Bob Inglis, a Republican member of the house science and technology committee who lost to a Tea Party candidate, told NPR.
A Pew Research Centre poll last week showed just 16% of Republicans say the earth is warming because of human activity, compared to 53% for Democrats.
The Tea Party candidates also tend to be fiercely opposed to government regulation.
That combination – libertarian and anti-climate science – puts the EPA at the top of a Republican hit-list that seeks to limit the authority of the agency.
Already, a number of Republican leaders have demanded the EPA chief, Lisa Jackson, justify the potential cost to industry or employment of dozens of pollution controls – not just those regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
"They have made it clear they are going to go hog-wild in investigating the EPA," a lobbyist for an environmental organisation said. "They said they want to keep Lisa Jackson tied up in a chair in front of Congress committees."
In a Washington Times piece, Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican who is the favourite to head the energy and commerce committee, accused the EPA of over-reaching regulations that were costing Americans their jobs.
"If the EPA continues unabated, jobs will be shipped to China and India as energy costs skyrocket. Most of the media attention has focused on the EPA's efforts to regulate climate-change emissions, but that is just the beginning," he wrote.
Meanwhile, Upton's main rival for committee post, Texan Joe Barton, wrote a letter to the agency demanding a review of the potential costs to industry and effects on unemployment of dozens of regulations."
Barton's list does not stop at greenhouse gas emissions, but would force the EPA to justify the potential costs to industry of tightening standards for hazardous air pollution from oil refineries, chemical factories, or mining operations as well as hospital incinerators that dispose of medical and infectious waste.
It also asks the EPA to re-visit regulations governing the use of leaded aviation fuels, or airborne mercury pollution.
A number of Republican leaders have also said they would immediately disband the select committee on global warming.
"The American people do not need Congress to spend millions of dollars to write reports and fly around the world. We must terminate this wasteful committee," Upton wrote.
However, other Republicans including Jim Sensenbreener, a Wisconsin Republican, want to keep the committee, but as a platform to review climate science and the controversy over the hacked emails from East Anglia.
"They want to continue a 20-year assault on climate research, questioning basic science and promoting doubt where there is none," Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece.
Some people to watch
Fred Upton: Michigan Republican who was first elected in 1986, favoured to lead the Energy and Commerce Committee. Says the EPA has gone too far, but does believe global warming is real. He told the energy committee early last year: "I have said at nearly every climate change hearing that for me I don't dispute the science. Right or wrong, the debate over the modelling and science appears to be over."
Joe Barton: First elected in Texas in 1984. Won notoriety this summer when he apologised to BP's Tony Hayward for the White House deal establishing a $20bn oil clean-up fund. Barton called the fund a "shakedown". If denied the energy and commerce committee, Barton could be a contender to head the science committee, which would provide a platform for climate science deniers.
Darrell Issa: A high school drop-out who was arrested in his youth for stealing a Maserati, Issa, who represents the San Diego area, was first elected in 2000. The senior Republican on the House oversight and investigations committee, he says it is time to give a closer look to climate science. "That doesn't mean that global warming isn't happening," Issa told The Hill last month. "It means that we have to make sure that when we recalibrate what's happening, why it's happening, how much it's happening, we need to ensure that we get a careful relook at the figures so that we're accurate.
Jim Sensenbrenner: Senior Republican from Wisconsin who is on the select committee on energy independence and global warming, and would like to take it over – even though he does not believe in global warming. At the height of the controversy over hacked emails from East Anglia last year, he warned of "a massive international scientific fraud" and science "fascism".Walkaway, Cory Doctorow (Tor 978-0-7653-9276-3, $24.99, 379pp, hc) April 2017.
Imagine you’re Edward Snowden. You’re a dissident with an insider grasp of what’s going on, and it’s a whole lot worse than the mundanes were allowed to know. So you just, like, truth-bombed it. You blew the works and you jumped on a jet.
Somehow you ended up in Moscow, along with the Hawaiian pole-dancer. Donald Trump is President. Okay, that situation’s weird, but given that is modern reality, what do you, Ed Snowden, need from the science fiction genre? You need Cory Doctorow’s new novel, Walkaway.
I get it about Ed’s stated enthusiasm for this book, because this is a novel where every political and moral issue that troubles Ed Snowden has been tripled to the awesome scale of H.G. Wells Martian tripods.
Walkaway is a real-deal, generically traditional science-fiction novel; it’s set in an undated future and it features weird set design, odd costumes, fights, romances, narrow escapes, cool weapons, even zeppelins. This is the best Cory Doctorow book ever. I don’t know if it’s destined to become an SF classic, mostly because it’s so advanced and different that it makes the whole genre look archaic.
For instance: in a normal science fiction novel, an author pals up with scientists and popularizes what the real experts are doing. Not here, though. Cory Doctorow is such an Internet policy wonk that he’s ‘‘popularizing’’ issues that only he has ever thought about. Walkaway is mostly about advancing and demolishing potential political arguments that have never been made by anybody but him.
It’s not arch political parody, like Pohl and Kornbluth used to enjoy back when they were the only registered commies in town. It sounds a little like Kim Stanley Robinson taming Mars with endless Californian city-council meetings, but it’s all been weaponized. It’s truly original, different, disturbed and disturbing. It arose from a strange, gloomy world where, instead of Newt Gingrich as the world’s most powerful science fiction writer, it’s Steve Bannon, a complete post-truth viral sleazebag with no factual redlines whatsoever.
Walkaway is what science fiction can look like under modern cultural conditions. It’s ‘‘relevant,’’ it’s full of tremulous urgency, it’s Occupy gone exponential. It’s a novel of polarized culture-war in which all the combatants fast-talk past each other while occasionally getting slaughtered by drones. It makes Ed Snowden look like the first robin in spring.
As a novel, it’s got all kinds of basic plot and structural problems, but I refuse to complain about that, because so what? Walkaway is a sprawling, ominous and important work of a kind one rarely sees. I’ll try to constructively complain about things that seem likely to throw readers out of the text.
I personally enjoyed these off-the-wall elements, in fact I even admire them, but when you’re writing a work of radical political agitation, which is definitely what this is, you need to ease-off with the baroque frills and furbelows. A political agitator needs to watch it with the self-congratulatory too-cleverness, because that gets all Mensa and it intimidates the normals. Doctorow’s got that problem in spades, because he’s got an IQ high enough to boil water. Also, he’s a lot more interested in hacking political ideas than he is in the authentic miseries of misgoverned populations.
He could just hammer in the nail and deftly construct his public arguments, but no: he’s got to riff it Neal Stephenson style. The Moon’s not enough for him: he’s got to go for the totally awesome lunar slingshot made from giant rubber.
The sci-fi awesome and the authentically political rarely mix successfully. Cory had an SF brainwave and decided to exploit a cool plot element: people get uploaded into AIs. People often get killed horribly in Walkaway, and the notion that the grim victims of political struggle might get a silicon afterlife makes their fate more conceptually interesting. The concept’s handled brilliantly, too: these are the best portrayals of people-as-software that I’ve ever seen. They make previous disembodied AI brains look like glass jars from 1950s B-movies. That’s seductively interesting for a professional who wants to mutate the genre’s tropes, but it disturbs the book’s moral gravity. The concept makes death and suffering silly.
There’s also a ton of sex in Walkaway. Doctorow sex scenes are firmly based in an extrapolated future sexual politics, and they even advance the plot sometimes. But they’re not erotic. People who enjoy steamy sex scenes in novels are not gonna like these at all. It’s like offering the reader a horseradish Oreo. There’s something unfair about it. I don’t like to censor Cory, because he’s truly got a gift for that aspect of fiction, but if all those sex scenes were simply absent, his novel would improve.
Finally there are Cory’s compositional work-habits, which are, I think, starting to harm his creativity. Cory’s a dedicated over-achiever determined to put in a day’s hard labor, but the seams are showing. You can tell from his tone on the page when he first sits down at his keyboard, and when he gets tired and wraps-it-up it with a quip. It has that episodic feeling of A.E. van Vogt tossing in a new concept every 800 words or so. It gets rote. It’s disciplined, but it’s mechanical.
Worse yet, he’s done this so long that his characters are doing it now. They’ve all internalized Cory’s work habits, so that, even though they’re supposed to be wild drop-outs, free-thinkers, liberated weirdo refuseniks from post-scarcity communes, they come across as dutiful Jules-Verne figures. They’re either stacking bricks or lecturing each other. I get it that political stand-ins have to be rather plug-and-play, but they’re rendered in monotone. Their best lines are Cory Doctorow public-speech applause lines. Those are good lines – they’re tremendous even – but they’re speechy. They’re not what fictional characters should say as people inhabiting the world.
I don’t know how Cory will defeat this authorial kink; the guy’s a machine and he’s stamping solid gold here, but I’m thinking he needs to loosen up some and paint more from the shoulder. Otherwise the fate of Jules Verne beckons at him. He’s gonna become a full-time politician who writes the same adventure novel once a year, steampunk clockwork style.
I’m not worried about Cory’s literary fate. I’ve read a whole lot of science fiction novels. Few are so demanding and thought-provoking that I have to abandon the text and go for a long walk.
I won’t say there’s nothing else like Walkaway, because there have been some other books like it, but most of them started mass movements or attracted strange cults. There seems to be a whole lot of that activity going on nowadays. After this book, there’s gonna be more.
–Bruce SterlingIn Greek mythology, Prometheus taught man how to farm. But when he gave man fire, the gods felt he had gone too far. And so as punishment, Zeus chained Prometheus to a rock where every day an eagle would come and eat his liver, which would regrow because he was immortal.
Prometheus’s story is about mankind’s dominion over its world and how much power is too much. But counterintuitively it is Zeus, not Prometheus, who many artists and writers in the last thousand years have sided with. The story is relevant today because humanity is at a turning point, and two opposing forces are locked in a war that is just beginning to come into being. On one side are our innovations and the power that comes with them, and on the other side is the fact that when it comes to us ourselves, there seems to be no innovation.
For tens of thousands of years, technology has been directed outward—on the world at large. Now, for the first time in human history, technology has reached a point where it can be directed inward—back on its creators. Technology has found something new it would like to change: Us.
In 2010, researchers at the University of Colorado performed what they thought would be an unremarkable experiment on lab mice. They injured the mice’s limbs and injected them with stem cells to heal the damage. Then something strange happened. The muscles in those little limbs nearly doubled in size and strength. Not only that, the muscles stayed that way for the life of each mouse, defying even the aging process itself. Essentially the researchers had accidentally created a race of “super-mice.”
Another experiment in 2001 involved injecting human stem cells, of all things, into the brains of aging mice. Soon after, the mice began to perform better on the Morris water maze test. In other words, the stem cells had made them smarter.
When people think of stem cells, they usually think of a potential cure for diseases like Parkinson’s. But there is another, potentially far darker, use for stem cells, and that is on people who are perfectly healthy. It is this application, fundamentally changing the human body, that gave me the idea to write my novel, The Prometheus Man.
We’ve all heard stories about a mother who’s able to lift a car off her child as her body mainlines adrenalin. Imagine using stem cells to triple the size of a person’s adrenal gland. You’d produce something on par with one of those people who are so zombified on PCP that they get shot three times and still manage to beat up six cops. The military uses for such a technology, the parts of the human body that could be “improved,” pass through your mind like something from a sideshow in a bad dream.
And we haven’t even gotten to the most lethal part of the human anatomy: the brain. There’s a fixed amount of space in our skulls. Theoretically by growing the parts of the brain you want enhanced, like the part that controls reflexes and coordination, you could also shrink the parts of the brain you want diminished, like, say, the part that contributes to a person’s remorse.
Bear in mind things need not actually play out this way in the real world. As I attempted to capture in my book, it is often the attempt itself that is the true source of horror.
The 20th century saw the innovation of weapons of mass destruction. It also saw innovations in ideology that cheered the destruction of 200 million people, roughly 8 percent of the world’s population, in wars and oppression. But the technologies in their infancy today take things in the opposite direction. By augmenting our bodies, they increase our ability to commit more intimate—and thus more covert—violence. They take us back to our roots. And they do it at a time when wars aren’t fought by equals on a battlefield. They’re often quick attacks—over before most people know about them—where the goal is to inflict maximum despair not on the target but on the people viewing at home.
But it doesn’t end there. Technology can weaponize the human body, but with the internet, governments and other actors have the ability to go after the mind.
The internet is the greatest source of data on the human spirit in history, and it’s about to go even deeper with virtual-reality. People’s hopes and dreams, their fears, their hatreds, it’s all right there. And over the last decade, we have witnessed the rise of something perfectly designed to make use of it: algorithms. Algorithms regularly outperform human analysts on Wall Street. They also make more accurate diagnoses of mental illness than psychiatrists. The algorithms are so much more effective than the doctors that the doctors underperform even when they’re given the results of the algorithm.
Algorithms are getting so good at predicting human behavior that they have the power to identify not just undesirable urges and interests but the activities that predict those undesirable urges and interests. Serial killers, terrorists, dissidents—it’s highly likely that their online habits cohere around some common patterns of behavior. Theoretically we could understand the direction of their lives better than they understand it themselves. And once you understand something enough to predict what it will do, you can control it.
Yet intervention isn’t the real goal. The real goal is to go much further. It is to alter something fundamental to who we are: our experience of reality.
Research is uncovering patterns in our most primal needs that can be exploited. If that sounds paranoid, consider Robert Cialdini, PhD. Dr. Cialdini wrote a bestseller, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, about the ways others play on our programming to create impressions that aren’t true and compel behavior that isn’t in our interests. The stated goal of his book was to free us from this manipulation, but this ideal didn’t stop Dr. Cialdini from becoming an adviser to the Obama campaign. Obama’ objective merits were evidently insufficient on their own. The good doctor felt the candidate’s presidency was so thoroughly in your best interests that he had no qualms about using the dark arts to place his thumb on the scales of your mind.
There’s a conclusion here. People start out simply wanting to understand reality, but in truth they always hunger to change it.
But Dr. Cialdini was targeting something voluntary: voting. Consider, by contrast, the Reid technique, a nine-step algorithm of sorts that the FBI uses to pressure suspects during an interrogation. The Reid technique has been tested and refined on tens of thousands of suspects, but it has a bug. It produces false confessions. In other words, the technique is so effective it causes innocent people to sign away their freedom, just to make it stop.
The Reid technique, at the height of its powers, creates a false reality in the suspect’s mind more powerful than the fact-based reality outside it. Forget changing someone’s body. The Reid technique achieves the most fundamental change of all. And it is an innovation of perhaps the most frightening kind of violence, the kind that gets us to hang ourselves.
Manipulating our bodies, manipulating our minds—these are pretty scary things. In response, there are those who believe the ethical issues raised by these new technologies can be resolved through debate. But when have we ever done that before? Nuclear weapons could destroy the human race, and yet they still came into existence. Strike that. It was rational for some countries to bring them into existence. That says something pretty stark about us. That says that the larger truth may be the scariest thing of all: we’re not really |
old Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad. She lives in the home of former abolitionists, Thomas and Kitty McCague, on Front Street in Ripley.
Conductors on Front Street worked to provide safe passage to runaway slaves. John Parker called these people the “midnight marauders.” He knew firsthand of the difficulties they faced, working as a conductor for 20 years from his home on Front Street.
"John Parker was a victim of the internal slave trade. He was sold out of Virginia to a slave pen in Norfolk Virginia. He walked from Norfolk all the way to Montgomery, Alabama as a 7-year-old child. In his early 20’s he bought his freedom and came to Cincinnati," says Carl Westmoreland, Senior Advisor at the Freedom Center in Cincinnati.
Parker was working as an iron molder in Cincinnati, when he became friends with a barber.
"And the barber convinced him to go up river with him to help a black family get out of slavery in Kentucky," says Westmoreland.
A short time later Parker moved to Ripley, where he opened his own foundry.
"Parker patented three implements that still have patent coverage," says Westmoreland.
But he had a different occupation at night.
"Becoming the sixth wealthiest person in Ripley Ohio, at night, he would go across the river and personally row black people to the other side and start them on their way to freedom. Can you imagine buying your way out of slavery and every time you go across the Ohio River you’re not only risking death, but you’re risking everything," says Westmoreland.
Ann Hagedorn tells the story of an incident involving Parker and a runaway slave that reportedly happened in the entryway of her Front Street home.
"John Parker was on the landing with a slave catcher who had come into the front door apparently and they were having a fight on the landing. And, Parker/ pulled a gun on the guy and said, you know, I haven’t shot a slave catcher yet today/ and the guy raced out of the house," says Hagerdon.
Stories like these ooze out of the houses on Ripley’s Front Street.
"It’s such an amazing experience to live in a town with a history like this cause every time you start to get cynical about the world you remember that these people for 40 to 50 years stood up for something they believed in and it finally happened," says Hagerdon.
Download an audio tour of Rt. 52 and explore it on your own. Just visit SeeOhioFirst.org and click on The New Ohio Guide. The New Ohio Guide is produced by the Ohio Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.Cody Garbrandt’s first attempt to defend the UFC bantamweight title didn’t go as planned. But given the rough road there, coach Justin Buchholz thinks the former champion’s solid start at UFC 217 served as a testament to his skills.
Garbrandt (11-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) was a 2-1 betting favorite heading into UFC 217’s co-headliner against then-ex-champ and former Team Alpha Male stablemate T.J. Dillashaw (15-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC). And his heavy hands almost confirmed those expectations in the first round, when he had the challenger in serious trouble.
But Dillashaw was able to turn things in around in the second, pulling off an unexpected knockout to take back the bantamweight title.
Buchholz, who cornered Garbrandt, hadn’t gotten back to Team Alpha Male by the time he checked in with MMAjunkie Radio. But he shared some thoughts on Garbrandt’s comeback.
“When it comes to Cody regaining the title, it’s honestly just the focus he has,” Buchholz said. “A focused Cody Garbrandt, man, you saw what he did against Dominick Cruz. You saw what he did last year. And he was on the losing end of kind of a firefight.
“It will be an interesting process, coming back.”
Buchholz went into some detail in regard to less-than-ideal leadup to the drama-filled UFC 217 match. The two bantamweights, of course, were originally supposed to meet in July, after they were done with their roles as opposing coaches on Season 25 of “The Ultimate Fighter.”
A back injury, however, forced “No Love” out of the booking – and we got about four extra months of beefing, with the occasional finger-pointing and even controversial leaked sparring footage.
When the two finally met in the octagon on Nov. 4, it was Dillashaw’s night. And Buchholz in no way takes away from Dillashaw’s merit there; he was always acutely aware of how dangerous of an opponent he was as they headed into the fight.
But what we saw up in the octagon was the result of a process that, especially considering such a worthy opponent, could’ve been better.
“Honestly, Cody, he was hurt a lot this year,” Buccholz said. “This is a known fact: The fight is won or lost in the gym. It’s such a known fact. So the camp going into it, it’s everything. With Cody’s injuries and what was going on with the gym. I just felt like – especially to get someone like T.J., T.J. is one of the most sickest competitors I’ve ever seen. He will train hard, and he will do whatever it takes to win this fight and this competition. He’s so ultra competitive.
“Cody has that competitive streak, as well, but I’ve never really seen another fighter like T.J. who has that type of just singular focus like that. And to train for T.J. Dillashaw for a year – this guy’s training, just in the gym, just trying to get back everything that he thinks was taken from him or whatnot. And this is the guy we’re going to face. I knew we were in for a tough fight.
“People would always ask me, they’d say, ‘What is the tougher fight?’ They’d do the MMA math, and they’d say, ‘Cody humiliated Dominick Cruz, and Cruz beat T.J.’ But that is MMA math. And we know it’s all bull(expletive). It doesn’t matter. It’s the setup. It’s the matchup. I knew we had a super tough competitor out there. And it was hard to get Cody the camp that I felt we needed to deal with someone like T.J.”
After the fight, Garbrandt briefly touched on the “long, hard road” and the adjustments he had to make “on the fly” due to the multiple procedures he had to have stemming from his back injury. But ultimately, he reiterated he made no excuses for the loss.
“I’m just thankful to be here and have health,” Garbrandt added.
Garbrandt went on to add that, at least, he went out on his shield. And the coach agrees that, all in all, his athlete did showcase some serious skill in there.
“With all that being said about Cody’s camp, he still almost put away in the first round,” Buccholz said. “That is a credit to how amazing of an athlete and a fighter he is. He was looking good. He was looking good and got caught with that kick.”
Buchholz also took the opportunity to address another topic that’s been on the news, though this time it’s one involving himself: his situation at Team Alpha Male. The UFC vet, who recently made a victorious return to fighting, caused some waves late last month when he announced that he was no longer the head MMA coach for the Sacramento-based team.
Buchholz, who now leads the muay Thai training there and has some “deep” loyalties to fighters such as UFC vets Darren Elkins and Cynthia Calvillo, clarified to MMAjunkie Radio that the situation wasn’t a “business thing.”
“I don’t run the MMA program anymore,” Buccholz said. “We were at the old gym, and I think two months into this gym we moved into a new facility. The program I had set and worked on and had coached over, it wasn’t really what I was trying to do.
“There was a lot of influences coming in. It wasn’t the same tone. I don’t want to be considered the head of a program I’m not in complete control over. It’s basically what happened.
” … Business aside, I love coaching. I love the team. I was the first guy to fight in the UFC on the team, when everyone was at WEC. I’ve done a lot for the team. So it’s not really a business thing, it’s just – I have these standards in the way that I like to run things.”
To hear more from Buchholz, check out the video above.
For complete coverage of UFC 217, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.Hello there! Do you spend your days landlocked? Do you constantly feel like a fish out of water like I do? Great! Hopefully here you can find a little piece of the ocean to keep you fulfilled until you can make your journey back!
I am a marine biology major with a very brief history in illustration. I've decided to combine the two and hopefully keep myself from going bonkers. You see, I may be studying fish, and they are the love of my life... But for my undergraduate degree, I'm stuck in Colorado. Basically I yearn for the ocean in a place that is, second only to Arizona, the exact opposite of the ocean.
My little paintings put a smile on my face and I try my best to give each one it's own personality and life. I hope you enjoy them!
Not seeing something you would like? Please contact me! I'm just getting started, so I would love to work with you to make something extra special!
Accepted payment methodsTim Sherwood's record as Tottenham manager impressed West Brom
Tim Sherwood is favourite to become West Brom head coach - but will not agree a deal until his backroom staff receive improved terms.
The former Tottenham manager is understood to be happy with the terms after being interviewed for the vacancy earlier this week.
But Sherwood wants better offers for coaches Chris Ramsey and Les Ferdinand.
Analysis "There's a stand-off between Tim Sherwood and the West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace. "I understand it will have to be Mr Peace who blinks first if Sherwood is to take the job. He won't come unless he brings with him Ramsey and Ferdinand, his trusted coaching staff. "West Brom are known to be one of the lowest payers of staff salaries in the Premier League, and the chairman's being consistent here. But that stubbornness means he may miss out on his number one choice."
Sherwood, 45, has told West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace he will not take the job without the duo onboard.
West Brom insist Sherwood is not the only one being closely considered for the job.
BBC Sport's Pat Murphy said: "I understand there's a substantial gap between West Brom's offer and what Ramsey and Ferdinand expect.
"Sherwood's perfectly happy with his terms and contract but he won't budge over what he believes is a derisory offer to Ramsey and Ferdinand."
West Brom had been expected to name the replacement for Pepe Mel before the weekend, having concluded the interview process by Tuesday of this week.
The Baggies finished 17th in the Premier League in 2013-14, and Mel left his role as head coach on 12 May.
The Spaniard was the club's second head coach of the season, Steve Clarke having departed in December after four successive defeats.
Sherwood parted company with Spurs on 13 May, just five months after he replaced Andre Villas-Boas as manager.
Sherwood's Tottenham record Played 27
Won 13
Drawn 4
Lost 10 *Figures include two games in temporary charge
He took charge at White Hart Lane on an interim basis on 16 December and was given the job full-time a week later.
The former Spurs midfielder led the club to a sixth-place finish and Europa League qualification, but left despite a top-flight win percentage of 59% - the best of any Tottenham boss in the Premier League.
His record impressed West Brom, as did his work with young players while working as technical co-ordinator at Spurs.
Former Southampton boss Mauricio Pochettino replaced Sherwood as Tottenham manager.So wait? By your logic TSM hasn't won a tournament over 40k? Alright let's use that logic and look at the teams you mentioned. VP has one 1 lan (Cevo lan where the only good team was navi) Alright there ya go nice logic. Secondly EnvyUS has played 2 tournaments and has beat TSM in both. In one tournament fans picked the maps and Envyus got every map that they wanted. It's ok that was a joke of a tournament anyway let's move on the major. So EnvyUS playd cache (envy favored map), Dust2 (TSMs the best team in the world on it), and finally they played inferno (Envy does have a slight advantage) so out of the 3 maps left in the ban phase were train (Heavily TSM favored), Inferno (already mentioned), and Mirage (TSM favored). So EnvyUS actually had a map pool that was more shallow than TSM and yet because of the major's way of picking the third map. They got let through with a map that they were favored on. Alright so maybe EnvyUS did get the best of them even though they got lucky. So let's go over each team's accomplishments. TSM has won 3 tournaments in the last 4 months. All with at least 5 top 8 teams attending. They (usually fnatic, navi, c9, Envy, and VP) have gotten I think like 8 top 4s out of the last 10 tournaments for them or something? Yeah that's more than VP and EnvyUS has accomplished all year you fucking autist. And if you consider a top4 in a major a flop then you're fucking out of your mind. Now before you pull the "Oh haha EnvyUS made it to the final of a major they're so EPIC" Yeah well so did NiP not once but TWICE with a lineup that most people considered not worthy of doing so. And what has NiP accomplished outside of that? Nothing! So you can't consider them the 2nd best team in the world even though they made the final of a major can you? Hell no you can't More than anything EnvyUS is in a brand new honeymoon phase because they just switched rosters! Look at history for this one cause I know you're a little lacking in it. NiP with maikelele just changed rosters and made the final of a major. NiP with Allu made the final of a major after just making a roster change 3 weeks prior to the major. LDLC (what became EnvyUS) won a major and won a few tournaments after because of a great "everything is great and working out" honeymoon stage Let's look at Navi. Navi was the best team in the world for like 1-2 weeks because Flamie was added to the team and everything just seemed to "work out" Honeymoon stages there ya have it in history. Enjoy being proved wrong there dumbass! You're a fucking retard!
2015-08-26 01:20I assume this Washington Post story is true: “FBI obtained FISA warrant to monitor former Trump adviser Carter Page.” It confirms what has been sporadically reported since late last year, that the Obama administration sought and ultimately received a FISA order to spy on at least one associate of Donald Trump. So Trump’s famous tweets were, in substance, true.
The FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to monitor the communications of an adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump, part of an investigation into possible links between Russia and the campaign, law enforcement and other U.S. officials said.
Do the leaks come from the same Obama administration holdovers who have leaked in the past, trying to get ahead of disclosures that will confirm that President Trump’s suspicions were correct? Or do they come from officials appointed by Trump? I don’t know, but the Post’s illicit sources are pretty much always Democrats.
The FBI and the Justice Department obtained the warrant targeting Carter Page’s communications after convincing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power, in this case Russia, according to the officials.
That’s a strong charge, but I doubt that there is evidence to support it. Carter Page “worked in Moscow for Merrill Lynch a decade ago and … has said he invested in Russian energy giant Gazprom.” He never had any official association with the Trump campaign, but has been referred to as an “informal adviser.” He has asked to testify before a Congressional committee to clear his name.
The current leakers, whoever they are, described the Obama administration’s FISA application in detail. Or else the Post reporters have seen it.
The government’s application for the surveillance order targeting Page included a lengthy declaration that laid out investigators’ basis for believing that Page was an agent of the Russian government and knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence activities on behalf of Moscow, officials said. Among other things, the application cited contacts that he had with a Russian intelligence operative in New York City in 2013, officials said. Those contacts had earlier surfaced in a federal espionage case brought by the Justice Department against another Russian agent. In addition, the application said Page had other contacts with Russian operatives that have not been publicly disclosed, officials said.
The Obama administration was already trying, last Summer, to find evidence that Russia’s government was “meddling” in our presidential election:
The application also showed that the FBI and the Justice Department’s national security division have been seeking since July to determine how broad a network of accomplices Russia enlisted in attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election, the officials said.
I find it hard to believe that Russia’s rulers, from Vladimir Putin on down, wanted to help elect a president who vowed to rebuild America’s dwindling military strength, and to put America first, in place of an administration that was consistently supine in the face of Russian aggression and was borderline anti-American. Possibly Putin and his advisers are that dumb, but I doubt it.
In any event, the Obama administration failed to find any evidence that anyone associated with Trump was somehow cooperating with the Russians–not even a “junior member of the [Trump] campaign’s foreign policy advisory group,” as Page described himself. If they had, we would have learned about it long before now.
We haven’t heard the last of this story, but for the moment one thing is clear: a great many people, inside and outside of the media, owe President Trump an apology. Assuming that President Obama knew of, and approved, the FISA application–a safe assumption, I think–Trump’s much-reviled tweet was true:
Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found.
How much of this Trump knew all along is, at this point, unclear.
UPDATE: We are now starting to get a picture of how sinister this whole Democratic Party misinformation campaign is. Through the last half of 2016, the Obama administration was desperately searching for evidence of some link between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia. They went to the length of seeking (twice, reportedly) and finally obtaining a FISA order that allowed them to spy on at least one insignificant Trump associate.
In addition, we now know that Susan Rice headed up an operation whereby raw NSA intelligence was sifted for names of Trump associates, no doubt in hopes of uncovering dirt of some sort.* And we also know that these efforts came up dry. The Obama administration found no compromising information about Trump or any of his associates.
Nevertheless, ever since the Inauguration the Democratic Party, especially its press wing in Washington and New York, has relentlessly pushed the Trump/Russia story. What story? There isn’t one. But that hasn’t stopped Democrats in the press from talking about little else for the last three months.
And yet, all along, the Democrats have known that their spying produced nothing. This whole story is almost unbelievably sordid. The relevant Congressional committees should investigate thoroughly, and criminal prosecutions should follow where laws have been broken.
It is time to get to the bottom of the Obama spy scandal.
___________________________
* All of this is reminiscent of Watergate, in this sense: after the fact, no one could figure out why the Plumbers bugged the Democratic National Committee, given that President Nixon was obviously going to be re-elected anyway. (The answer to that question may still be unknown, but that is another story.) Similarly, Barack Obama and his minion Susan Rice no doubt were confident that Hillary Clinton would win the election and serve Obama’s third term. Yet, they weren’t taking any chances.Many graduates have been shocked this week to see just how their debt is escalating, with interest charged at up to 3.9%. That’s more than the typical rate on a first-time buyer mortgage. Have they been mis-sold a dodgy loan?
University of Nottingham graduate Simon Crowther’s post on Facebook went viral this week, after he revealed how much interest is being added to his debt. He’s part of the first wave of graduates to have left university after paying £9,000-a-year fees. His total debt, a year after leaving college, jumped to £41,976 by the end of March, with the interest racking up by as much as £180 a month. Crowther claims he was mis-sold the loan and “cheated by a government who encouraged many of us to undertake higher education, despite trebling the cost of attending university”.
Judging by the huge response to his post, a lot of recent graduates feel the same way. But were loans actually mis-sold? When the Financial Ombudsman Service looks at product sales, a number of tests will apply. Was the individual given suitable advice? Were the risks explained? Were you given the information needed to make a proper decision?
Crucially, this is all about what you are told at the point of sale. For students, that means when they were just 17 or 18 and at school.
But teachers are not regulated financial advisers, and nor should they have to be. They are naturally keen to take as many pupils as possible through to university; the money discussion barely comes into it. When my colleagues on the Money desk spoke to teachers this week, we found some who were just as bewildered as Crowther when it came to the interest rate applied.
Maybe 17- and 18-year-olds should be reading the terms and conditions more carefully. Ignorance, as lawyers like to say, is no defence. As one student wrote below Crowther’s post: “I was always under the impression that the interest rate would be inflation plus 3% – no prospective students were lied to. Yes, this is an extremely high interest rate but we have not been led on to believe it would be anything less.”
Other recent graduates recall the loan details with much less perspicacity. “It was years ago, I was only 17, I was out boozing, I can’t remember …” sums up the views of ones I spoke to. Should they be condemned for that? Before we older graduates rush to judge, remember we were the lucky generation that never had to pay tuition fees.
Let’s turn to the explanation of risks. First, students can’t be certain how much they have to repay. It will be whatever the RPI inflation figure is in the future, plus up to 3%. The September 2015 RPI figure was 0.9%, which is why some graduates face an interest rate today of 3.9%. In April it was 1.3%, and if it stays that way the student rate will rise to 4.3%. Borrowers who take out a mortgage or personal loan can fix their rates, but students can’t, and have to carry an unfair risk of future rises.
Second, the government has linked repayments to RPI, which is generally higher than CPI, and which even the ONS says is no longer a proper national statistic. It is a great irony that the government is suggesting Tata Steel can slash the cost of its pension scheme by switching to CPI from RPI, yet young adults – burdened by huge debts and absurd rents and house prices – are told RPI is what they must pay.
The most serious case for mis-selling rests on a decision taken by George Osborne last November. In 2010 the government committed to uprate the £21,000 repayment threshold in line with average earnings. But in November 2015 it was frozen for five years, a move that will affect current students and graduates who took out post-2012 loans, including Crowther. A change to loan conditions, made after a loan is taken out? A mortgage company can’t legally do that to borrowers – so why is the government doing it to students?1868 – Prescott, Arizona
Ex-Union cavalry officer, Captain Leander Lincoln kicked the saloon doors open and entered with both guns drawn!
“I’m looking for the Stuart boys!” he shouted.
Three men slowly stood up from the card table. The rest of the saloon was silent as the oldest spoke, “You found them. Now what are you going to do?” he asked as his right hand slithered down to hover over his Colt 45.
Lincoln, laughed and said, “I’m going to kill all three of you fools if you all don’t unbuckle your gun belts very carefully and let them drop to the ground.
“Here’s the thing. Your wanted dead, or alive. I’d just as soon shoot your sorry asses so you better make a quick decision!”
Three gun belts fell to the wooden floor.
The US Army drove the Navajo people from their ancestorial lands in Arizona Territory and Western New Mexico, and marched them on the infamous Long Walk to imprisonment in Bosque Redondo when Leander was still in the Army and stationed in Washington DC.
When the treaty of 1868 was signed the Navajo left Bosque Redondo, and were relocated to eastern New Mexico. That was the year Leander mustered out of the Army and went West to see his mother and half brother.
Hundreds of Navajo men, women, and children died on the Long Walk. The survivors were put on a reservation. The horror of the relocation was firmly embedded in their minds.
Some wanted revenge. The rest went on with their hardscrabble lives.
Hashkeh Naabah greeted Leander warmly.
“What has my white son Ahiga brought me?” he politely asked.
“Three more white men who won’t be missed. Your men are taking them off the horses and tying them to stakes as we speak.”
“No one will come and say we killed them then?” Hashkeh inquired.
“No. They are wanted men. They are yours now. I will continue to bring you white men as long as I can. As long as I live.”
“You are a lot like your mother, and my sister, Yanaha. He bravery inspired us all on the Long Walk. We still mourn her death.”
“As do I, Uncle.”
“Come, let us go watch the squaws torture these white eyes. The big one looks like he may last for a long time.”
The prisoners screams pierced the night.
Leander’s anger at the US Army, and what they did to his mother, burned his soul and left a charred husk of a human thirsting for revenge. Posing as a bounty hunter was a stroke of genius.
He knew he couldn’t start killing Union soldiers and hope to get away with it. In his mind he ceased being a “white man” and embraced his Navajo heritage. He was Ahiga, son of Yanaha. As such, he had no qualms about killing any white men.
After roaming from town-to-town looking for wanted men throughout the west he acquired a reputation. Folks knew Captain Lincoln never brought anyone back alive. Just their heads.
His hunt lasted two years, before he was shot to death in a saloon by a drunken ex-Confederate soldier who refused to believe the war was over.
The elders at the Navajo Reservation told Ahiga’s story to each new generation. It was a story however, that was never shared with outsiders.
As It Stands, historical fiction is a good way to tell stories that could have been true, but aren’t.
Share this: Google
Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Pocket
LinkedIn
Telegram
Skype
Tumblr
WhatsApp
More
Pinterest
Like this: Like Loading...John Wilson
"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" will be the longest movie in the saga yet at 2 hours, 30 minutes, but Mark Hamill said it won't feel like a long sitdown in the theater.
"The good news is I've seen it, and it's like 'The Godfather.' It doesn't feel that long," Hamill told Vanity Fair at a Wednesday night event. "And I'm really cranky. I'm one of those guys where you go see, like, a big superhero movie and you go, 'I really love it, but it's too long!'"
The film's epic length was confirmed by director Rian Johnson in November, who described the length as the natural runtime needed to tell this story. It's not quite as long as Francis Ford Coppola's classic crime saga, which is a hair under 3 hours.
"Any shorter we would be compromising some of the characters and some of the journeys," Johnson said at a press conference in Paris.
Now playing: Watch this: 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' trailer drops in full force
Hamill also admitted to Vanity Fair that the news of the film's length "appalled" him initially, but that was quelled when he saw it. "Episode II: Attack of the Clones" is the longest Star Wars movie to date, at 2 hours, 22 minutes.
"The Last Jedi" continues the adventures of Rey, Finn and Poe from "The Force Awakens," fighting alongside Luke Skywalker and General Leia.
Hamill leads the cast alongside Daisy Ridley as Rey, John Boyega as Finn, Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma and Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron. With the help of CGI, Lupita Nyong'o plays Maz Kanata and Andy Serkis returns to embody Supreme Leader Snoke. The film also features the final performance of the late Carrie Fisher.
"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" opens in theaters around the world on Dec. 14.
Star Wars at 40: Join us in celebrating the many ways the Force-filled sci-fi saga has impacted our lives.
Tech Culture: From film and television to social media and games, here's your place for the lighter side of tech.New Delhi: Were the views of the chief economic advisor and the finance minister taken before the sudden announcement of demonetisation of high-value currency notes by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8? The Reserve Bank of India feels this query cannot be answered under the Right to Information Act as it does not come under the definition of information under the transparency law.
The applicant wanted to know whether the “views of Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramaniam and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley were taken before announcement was made”.
“Query is in the nature of seeking opinion from CPIO which is not defined as information as per Section 2(f) of the RTI Act,” the RBI said in response to an RTI query.
Asked whether the information sought will fall under “seeking opinion” from the CPIO, former chief information commissioner A.N. Tiwari said, “No. It does not. It is a fact sought by an RTI applicant. The CPIO cannot say an opinion has been sought from him.”
“How it can be called seeking opinion? Whether someone was consulted or not is a matter of record. Had the question been ‘Should [their] views be taken?’, then it would mean [seeking an] opinion [from the CPIO],” former information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said, expressing surprise at the response of theRBI central public information officer.
The definition of information covers “any material in any form, including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force”.
The query was also sent to the Prime Minister’s office and the finance ministry but it remained unanswered even after 30 days of filing of the RTI application.
The applicant had also sought to know the designation and the names of officials who were consulted before the scrapping of old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 currency notes.
“The information sought relates to sensitive matters pertaining to discontinuation/withdrawal of bank notes. The information is exempt from disclosure under Section 8(1)(a) and (g) of RTI Act,” the RBI said.
The monetary policy regulator also did not disclose if the decision to demonetise currency notes was opposed by any official or minister, saying the information sought is “hypothetical” in nature.
It also cited Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act to deny minutes of deliberations related to demonetisation.
Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act exempts from disclosure information which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence.
Information sought under Section 8(1)(g) would endanger the life or physical safety of any person or identify the source of information or assistance given in confidence for law enforcement or security purposes.
The RBI has been denying information related to crucial aspects related to demonetisation citing exemption clauses.
It recently refused to give reasons behind the demonetisation move.
Earlier, it had denied to Mumbai-based RTI Activist Anil Galgali information about the distribution of currency to banks between November 9 and November 19 citing Section 8(1)(g) of the RTI Act.
The central bank did not give any reason as to how this section would apply in the case of information sought by Galgali.
RTI Activist Venkatesh Nayak, who was also denied deliberations on demonetisation by the RBI, said: “While confidentiality prior to announcing the demonetisation decision is understandable, continued secrecy after its implementation is difficult to understand when people are facing problems due to shortage of cash.”
He said the refusal to disclose the minutes of the board meeting where the decision was taken is “perplexing”.Gareth Bale: Says he would love to be half as good as Cristiano Ronaldo
Welsh winger Bale, who scored a stunning equaliser against Norwich City on Wednesday, admits he is flattered by comparisons to the Portuguese player.
They are both renowned for their dribbling ability but Bale recognises that Ronaldo is in a different league to anyone apart from Lionel Messi and is working hard to improve his own game.
"The way he plays I think he is the best all-round player in the world," Bale said of Ronaldo.
"People have said things in the past [that] the stuff he does is similar in a way to what I do. All I can do is keep playing my football. He is right up there and a benchmark for every player who wants to be as good as him.
"The free-kick technique works for him and he scores a lot of goals and big goals. He is obviously doing something right and it's good to look at other players, how they do things and take my game to another level.
"You set your sights [on playing like him] - he is on a different planet apart from Messi. He is one of those players that everyone aspires to and I'd love to be half as good as him."
Bale was pleased with Tottenham's response at Norwich as his 15th goal of the season rescued a point for Andre Villas-Boas' side after a disappointing first half.
"It felt good when I was running through," Bale said about his goal. "I had a lot of space to run into which I like and it was a good goal.
"The important thing was it got us back into the game near the end and we were unlucky not to get three points."
Bale added: "They are difficult grounds to go to, playing against teams fighting against relegation and the manager told us at half-time we weren't good enough.
"We came out in the second half and played some great stuff and turned up a few gears, showed what we're capable of and we were unlucky not to win."Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian shows a "sad cat" photo to students and guests during UNT's Distinguished Lecture Series. Reddit is currently the fourth most trafficked website in the United States. Rachel Walters
Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of the website Reddit, spoke about his career as an entrepreneur on behalf of UNT’s Distinguished Lecture Series in the university’s auditorium Wednesday evening.
Reddit is a social news aggregate and discussion board with numerous channels and online communities for people to become a part of.
The 34-year-old co-founded Reddit in 2005 with his friend from college, Steve Huffman, who now serves as the company’s sole CEO. The two attended the University of Virginia and originally pitched an idea for a website called MyMobileMenu, or MMM, to startup accelerator Y Combinator. The pitch was declined, but Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham encouraged the duo to come up with another idea.
Enter Reddit.
“It’s because of the internet that we even started,” Ohanian said. “It’s because the world is not flat that the world wide web exists. [That’s how] we were able to compete on the global stage and actually win.”
Ohanian talked about the struggles of striving for perfection early on in the process of creating Reddit.
“So many founders get caught up over perfection because we were trained to worry about our grade when we submit the test, or submit the paper,” Ohanian said. “Entrepreneurship is like that paper that you get to submit infinity number of times, which is both horrifying and wonderful.”
Ohanian spent time talking about the nature of social media sites in the last decade and people’s online facades.
“As humans, what we really connect on are the things that are underneath the surface [things] beneath the crust that take time,” Ohanian said. “So much of what we’ve seen in the age of social in |
? (see thread here)
CouchDB Universe
Apache Con has taken place from April 7-9. You can find the slides of the talks given here
Releases in the CouchDB Universe
New Erlang Version is out
mbtiles2couchdb, for using CouchDB as a simple tiles server
RCouch has a new home: announcement | the new home
PPnet, a minimal social network to drop into websites based on PouchDB
sabisu, a sensu web UI, got open sourced by Cloudant last week
Janus, an online storage for offline Web Apps built using PouchDB
couche 0.0.2, a couchdb client for node, with specific apis
mock-couch, an http server pretending to be couchdb, for unit testing
couchdb-sync 0.1.1 - a generic couchdb replicator which is basically an eventemitter
hackoregon-couch 0.0.2 which exports database information from PostgreSQL and imports into CouchDB
overwatch 0.2.7, a deterministic couchdb replication watcher
Opinions
Use Cases, Questions and Answers
Get Involved!
here's a list of beginner tickets around our currently ongoing Fauxton-implementation. If you have any questions or need help, don't hesitate to contact us in the couchdb-dev IRC room (#couchdb-dev) – Garren (garren) and Sue (deathbear) are happy to help.
Your help on updating CouchDB-Python for Python 3. Wanna join? Please participate here.
New PMC Member
Joan Touzet joins the Apache CouchDB Project Management Committee today. Joan has made outstanding, sustained contributions to the project. Welcome to the Couch, Joan!
Events
April 10, Berlin, Germany: CouchDB Hack Night
Job opportunities
… and also in the news
This is a security release. Download link A discussion around handling and measurements of bulk input in CouchDB.Requirements for sort orders of data views.Quoting Robert Samuel Newson's reply : "Yes, it’s deterministic. The same document with the same history will have the same _rev value. This is an optimization over the previous algorithm where _rev was a random UUID. […] The advantage is that two servers receiving the same update can more optimally replicate. They still have to check that the target has all _id/_rev pairs but will usually be able to skip actually transmitting document and attachment content."If you want to get into working on CouchDB:We'd be happy to have you!Posted on behalf of Lena Reinhard.
Posted at 10:59AM Apr 10, 2014 by Noah Slater in News | |Over the weekend, MMA fighter Quinton "Rampage" Jackson won a fight, then did an interview with reporter Karyn Bryant. That interview was...well, it was. Here it is, with particular focus given to what happens after the 1:40 mark.
Um.
...
OK, just...wow. No, he doesn't actually motorboat her, but the fact he even mentions it, then makes the motion like he's going to, plus the "horny" line, are more than enough to freak us out a little bit. Not for nothing, Bryant herself says she wasn't freaked:
Since every1's asking: if it wasn't already obv, I wasn't offended by @Rampage4real at all. We were clowning around. I thought it was funny! Plus, he didn't ACTUALLY motorboat me! Never even touched me... I do have a pretty good right hand in case. Knees aren't bad either. LOL Wow! So much reaction 2 the @Rampage4real intv! I make no claims 4 othr fem reporters, but I never felt threatened or scared. Just havin fun
So we'll take her at her word. It's also worth noting, though, that this isn't the first time Jackson's gotten into uncomfortable territory with a female reporter:
And that time, the reporter wasn't such a big fan of Jackson's antics. Also worth noting: those weren't even the only two times Jackson got into uncomfortable territory with a female reporter:
And as The Big Lead pointed out in a detailed breakdown of Jackson's many ill-advised interview moments, he'll get uncomfortably physical with male reporters, too (one and four minutes in):
So, will it stop now? Some think mandatory sexual harassment training in MMA is on the way, while others think it's a systemic problem within the culture of the sport. In either case, it's pretty clear that whether the reporters themselves have a problem with it or not, Jackson's act is bringing negative attention to MMA. If the desire to treat female reporters like humans isn't enough to spark some change, maybe some bad publicity will do the trick.
[Deadspin]ROME — Italian airport police eyeing up a busty Spanish model’s curves made a startling discovery on Wednesday — 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) of pure cocaine stashed as implants in her bust and backside.
The 33-year-old woman arriving in Rome from Sao Paulo in Brazil was wearing tight-fitting clothes to enhance her voluptuousness, hoping that her looks might distract the attention of border police, ANSA news agency reported.
The report said the woman drew suspicion however after giving unclear answers to questions about the reasons for her trip to Italy to an officer. The discovery was made when two female investigators conducted a strip search.
Smuggling methods through Rome’s Fiumicino airport have become ever more ingenious, including cocaine found hidden inside baggage trolleys last year.
In June, police arrested traffickers who were smuggling 220 kilograms of cocaine hidden in crates of chalk statues shipped through Fiumicino.Why Clattenburg's day went rapidly downhill with Torres' dodgy dismissal
Mark Clattenburg was having a good game at Stamford Bridge - and then something changed his attitude and demeanour.
I have heard and read that his performance was 'disgusting' and 'terrible'.
Now I am obviously a former referee who will try and see things from his perspective but I am also quite happy to criticise refs' performances.
Centre of attention: Mark Clattenburg got big calls wrong at the Chelsea v Manchester United match
However, this condemnation of Clattenburg feels rather like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I feel he was refereeing well, applying a lot of common sense and allowing a great game of football to develop until the point when law dictated that he had to reduce Chelsea to 10 men with the dismissal of Branislav Ivanovic.
Up until that point my notes on the game read:
Opening passage of play: Clattenburg looks on top form. Fitness excellent and letting the game flow. Surprised that no action taken when Ivanovic commits straight-leg sliding tackle on Patrice Evra. Replays show poor challenge which the Chelsea defender gets away with.
22 minutes: Poor foul by Michael Carrick on Ramires. Again no caution but Clattenburg uses the public rebuke to make Carrick and all players aware that they are getting close to a caution. Really good management technique shown, strength but understanding.
43 minutes: Wayne Rooney is fairly dispossessed and immediately jumps up and chases the Chelsea player. It is obvious that he is going to retaliate and foul him and when he does, right on the edge of the Manchester United 18-yard area, Clattenburg rightly gives the free-kick and cautions Rooney. It is a routine caution and Chelsea score from the free-kick.
Flying in: Wayne Rooney was booked for this foul on Chelsea playmaker Eden Hazard
45 minutes: Fernando Torres flies through the air and kicks Tom Cleverley in the chest. Whatever his intention, the fact is that the wild, high challenge was likely to endanger the safety of the opponent and, therefore, technically should have resulted in a red card. Clattenburg only give a yellow card to the Spaniard which I think is his only clear error in the first half and one that is understandable and consistent given the referee's approach throughout the period.
At half-time Clattenburg will have chatted with his assistants and been happy with their performance - their effect on the game had been nothing but positive.
After Chelsea equalise, it is clear that Clattenburg is aware that the game is going to be tight and I notice that he is running hard to get into optimum viewing positions and working hard with players to keep them calm. His approach is working.
Early exit: Branislav Ivanovic was sent off for his challenge on Ashley Young
62 minutes: Robin van Persie turns his defender who holds him but cannot prevent a through ball to Ashley Young. Clattenburg plays a good, but not difficult advantage – had he given the foul then the sequence of events would not have happened.
Young is tripped by Ivanovic when through on goal and Clattenburg gives the free-kick. He is then seen to use his communication equipment to double check with his assistant that Young was clear through on goal and had an obvious scoring opportunity.
Marching orders: Chelsea defender Ivanovic is shown the red card by Clattenburg
The assistant confirms this and Ivanovic is shown the red card. It is perfect technique and the correct decision; Clattenburg's second such dismissal in two weeks after he sent James Milner off last weekend.
68 minutes: Torres gets a through ball and squares up Jonny Evans. Torres hits the deck and at full speed it looks like he's gone to ground easily having played the ball too far ahead.
There must be doubts for Clattenburg, who had been in a great position. As he marches up to Torres and produces the yellow and then red card, I feel that he must have been 100 per cent sure that there was no contact from Evans.
Fast and furious: Fernando Torres took a tumble as he went past Jonny Evans
69 minutes: Replays are showing that there probably was some contact from Evans – if only Clattenburg had access to them.
74 minutes: Javier Hernandez scores and Clattenburg looks over to his assistant to check for offside. There is no flag so the goal is awarded. Clattenburg looks aware of the possibility of offside and gets away from Chelsea players' protests.
76 minutes: Clattenburg, looking flustered, becomes involved in an exchange with Jon Obi Mikel which results in the Chelsea man being cautioned for dissent. The home crowd are really getting on Clattenburg's case and he looks understandably uncomfortable. Decisions are now being questioned by all players as the pressure mounts.
Off: Torres was sent off after a second booking... but replays showed their was contact
90+1 minutes: Antonio Valencia is cautioned for simulation - this looks like a tit-for-tat levelling up as again there appeared to be contact between the players.
Final whistle: Clattenburg is joined on the field by assistants and leaves to a chorus of boos and catcalls. He looks unhappy and disappointed.
What looked like another fine performance in a pulsating game has been marred by an incorrect dismissal and an offside goal.
The latter was out of Clattenburg's control but he will regret the Torres red card when he sees the replays.When the Commander-in-Chief isn’t all attitude, he’s all thumbs, so it’s not exactly astonishing when he shuffles his lieutenants around like greased toys as reporters gawk.
On Wednesday, April 5, Trump removed Steve Bannon from the National Security Council (NSC) position known, in Washington-speak, as the “Principals Committee.” The consensus among reporters, both loyalists and “enemies of the people,” is that this means a demotion for Bannon, who passes for an intellectual in Trump’s White House on the strength of his Manichaean media enterprises charged with a worldview that heralds global Judeo-Christian war against “jihadist Islamic fascism,” aka “radical Islam.” Meanwhile, longtime Trump buddy Roger Stone tells whackjob Alex Jones that Jared Kushner is responsible for issuing anti-Bannon leaks.
A demotion for Bannon this may well be, likely at the hands of national security adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster, who evidently serves as the designated grown-up in the West Wing. It might also be that, from the start, Bannon was not long for the NSC.
A demotion for Bannon this may well be, likely at the hands of national security adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster, who evidently serves as the designated grown-up in the West Wing. It might also be that, from the start, Bannon was not long for the NSC. He might have been elevated to special guest status only long enough to baby-sit the lying, Russia-friendly beneficiary and Turkish lobbyist Michael Flynn during Flynn’s 23-day stay in the White House. But who knows? Now that Bannon has been bounced, Flynn’s extra-zealous son Michael Jr., renowned for crackpot conspiracy theories, was angry enough to tweet: “Is WH serious abt defeating our enemy?” Flynn Jr. is also irritated that Gen. McMaster, his father’s replacement, won’t speak the magic words “radical Islam,” the incantation that the White House’s true believers and their allies think that once spoken, will cause ISIS to be instantly plunged into a Judeo-Christian inferno.
Let us refresh our memories about the disorder that it is the new order. When it could not be ignored that Flynn Sr. had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about Russian contacts, Flynn’s head was first to fall from the National Security Council. What else goes on in the smoke-filled rooms of the White House is not (yet) known, but unnamed White House figures now tell The Hill that a White House “policy shop,” the Strategic Initiatives Group (SIG) — launched by Bannon, chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief son-in-law Kushner, and headed by Bannon — actually “never even existed.”
Of course, two months ago, Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to the president identified himself as a member of said Strategic Initiatives Group. Gorka, now an American citizen, may be looking for new employment soon, having been outed for coziness with far-right Hungarian groups. This week, a Forward reporter noted his 2007 support for the Hungarian Guard, “a violent racist and anti-Semitic paramilitary militia that was … later condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for attempting to promote an ‘essentially racist’ legal order.” That’s not the half of it. Readers of Gorka’s thin oeuvre know that, innocent of Arabic and with no Middle Eastern experience, he paraded as a “counterterrorism expert” while publishing the most banal drivel rendition of what everybody already knows about terrorists, presumably the topic of his expertise.
Not to worry, but fans of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who once wanted the Department of Energy disbanded and who, when appointed by El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago to run it thought the bureaucracy pertained to the oil trade, will be gratified to see that he has now been promoted to the National Security Council table, where Bannon was warming a chair for him. You will recall that Secretary Perry was surprised to discover that one of the department’s missions is to “ensure the security of the US nuclear weapons stockpile.” But his fans will likely be pleased that he’s promoted to sit at the table when essential decisions about war and peace are made.
‘De-operationalized’ is being translated to mean ‘de-politicized,’ which is probably an opaque reference to the fact that, in its nonstop quest for bad guys to distract the press and the public from Trump’s heap of Russia connections, Susan Rice is this week’s designated villain in the White House.
Trump operates with a third-grade vocabulary and not-quite sixth-grade grammar, so it may be surprising that his administration seems to have invented its own Beltway patois. “Susan Rice operationalized the NSC during the last administration,” Bannon told the Wall Street Journal. “I was put on to ensure that it was de-operationalized. Gen. McMaster has returned the NSC to its proper function.”
“De-operationalized” is being translated to mean “de-politicized,” which is probably an opaque reference to the fact that, in its nonstop quest for bad guys to distract the press and the public from Trump’s heap of Russia connections, Susan Rice is this week’s designated villain in the White House.
With son-in-law Jared Kushner now designated as assistant to the president for government reorganization, Middle East stagnation and Mexico mediation, and Steve Bannon now removed from the inner circle of the National Security Council, Trump’s St. Vitus Dance of the Deputies is likely not over. As Bloomberg News reported last week, “White House Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Walsh, a top aide to President Donald Trump, is leaving his administration to work for an outside group supporting the president’s agenda.” Was she Reince Priebus’s ally, as reported, or Bannon’s, or no one’s?
Authoritarian rulers, actual or aspiring, are given to lurching around. They tend to think their instincts are golden — after all, their gut tells them that their instincts brought them to power. When they look in the mirror, they see the shining face of success. So when things go wrong — say, the regime’s fake health care debacle — the chief finds a dog to kick, even if it’s a dog that he himself chose by taking instructions from his peerless instinct. This is more dramatic, and thus infinitely more satisfying, than hiring competent managers to staff “the administrative state,” much as such hires would please “the enemies of the people.” As journalists frantically peer through the smoke to find out (for example) whether a Strategic Initiatives Group actually exists, or existed, the ruler plunges on, operating as much by whim as by system.
This is the terrible truth, the new normal that journalists haven’t figured out how to address. The boss man is delusional. His vision is warped and he doesn’t know it. When his own eyes lie to him, he cannot distinguish between a better and a worse course of action. Delusion keeps him on the brink of chaos. Thinking will not help, because sober appraisal is not in his arsenal, so he must jump up to play action hero. When the world proves recalcitrant, the action hero resorts to a shake-up. He exercises his muscles by shoving scapegoats out the door. So, for example, one dictator in particular fired his son-in-law, Count Ciano, after Ciano served eight years in the Cabinet. At that point, Mussolini had six months left in power. Count Ciano died by firing squad early in 1944. Uneasy lie the heads who believe in nothing but power.Cyber Insurance: Managing the Risk
Cyber insurance is a hot topic of many debates today. It is believed to be the long-awaited cure for high-impact security risks, especially in light of constantly evolving privacy legislation and disclosure obligations. But what actually is it?
Simply put, cyber insurance is a tool intended to mitigate the loss from information security incidents. The decision to use it, however, should be based on rigorous risk management. Firstly, a company performs a risk assessment, during which information security risks are identified and logged. This can help the business to prioritise from a cost-benefit perspective. The company can then choose a risk treatment option: it can decide to accept, mitigate, avoid or transfer the risk.
Mitigation and acceptance are quite common approaches in the information security domain. Security professionals can implement a countermeasure to reduce the likelihood and impact of the threat. However, if it is not feasible to do so for economic reasons then the risk can be accepted. In the case of avoidance, businesses can decide not to perform the activity that exposes them to the risk. Lastly, information security risk can be transferred to a third party. This is where cyber insurance can be useful.
The ownership of risk, however, can’t be transferred fully. In the case of cyber insurance, it is more about risk sharing. Both parties should understand their accountability, liability and risk allocation.
Cyber insurance should be cost-effective. But how can one calculate the cost of such product? To understand this, we might want to look how insurance brokers work in more traditional areas. Insurance companies rely heavily on historical data, demographics and averages. The car insurance industry, for example, has evolved over many years to collate accurate statistics of the frequency of accidents per driver based on age, season, car type, country etc. in order to predict the likelihood and cost impact on a case by case basis.
For cyber insurance, however, historical data is not always readily available. Understanding the business becomes key to determining the cost. There are many parameters which can define the premium: size, territory, type of business, human errors and other unknown factors can all contribute to the price. Premiums rely on the maturity of the information security programme.
But is it possible to reduce this cost?
Yes, there are many ways to achieve cost reduction. In general, it is required for the business to demonstrate that some measures have already been taken to reduce the likelihood and impact of a potential cyber security incident. Certifications, such as ISO 27001 can be one of the ways to do so. Or for instance, having an incident response team can drive the premium down. Otherwise the insurer would have to provide its own service, hence charge the client extra. In a nutshell, premiums are never fixed. It has to be a dialogue between the company and the insurance broker. If a company adequately understands its risk, the insurance premium can and should be negotiated.
It is important to mention the importance of a holistic approach to risk treatment. Implementing controls to prevent security incidents and purchasing cyber insurance are not mutually exclusive strategies. If cost-effective, risk management and treatment should be a combination of both methods. Consider health and safety policies as an example. Safety coordinators invest in fire extinguishers minimise the impact of fire. Just like information security professionals deploy firewalls to keep malicious intruders out of the company’s network. Additionally, the building is also almost always insured. Maybe it is time to consider a similar approach to information systems.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net× Lost USS Indianapolis found Saturday in the Philippine Sea
PHILIPPINE SEA – After 72 years, the USS Indianapolis has finally been found.
Led by a search team put together by billionaire Paul Allen, the ship was found resting at the bottom on the Philippine Sea.
“As Americans, we all owe a debt of gratitude to the crew for their courage, persistence and sacrifice in the face of horrendous circumstances. While our search for the rest of the wreckage will continue, I hope everyone connected to this historic ship will feel some measure of closure at this discovery so long in coming,” Allen said.
A Japanese submarine sunk the cruiser on July 30, 1945. The ship just completed a mission to the island of Tinian; they delivered components of the atomic bomb, “Little Boy” that helped end the war.
Around 800 of the ship’s 1,196 sailors and Marines survived the sinking, but after four to five days in the water, suffering exposure, dehydration, drowning, and shark attacks, only 317 survived.
“I’m very happy that they found it. It’s been a long 72 years coming,” said survivor Arthur Leenerman, 93 years-old from Mahomet, Ill.
Allen’s 13-person team, on the R/V Petrel is in the process of surveying the site and will reportedly conduct a live tour of the wreckage in the next few weeks.15.04
2012
Also irgendwie hab ich echt einen an der Klatsche stelle ich heute mal wieder fest. Da koche ich verfickte 7 Stunden einen Brühe für Phở bò – eine vietnamesische Reisnudelsuppe mit Rindflesich – um beim verfassen dieses Artikels auf meine Pizza vom Lieferdienst zu warten. Völlig verkatert und noch echt krank versteht sich. So wiederholt sich dieses groteske Schauspiel jeden Sonntag, der seltsam kulinarische Dreidel hat noch Restschwung. Mal sehen wo ich nächsten Sonntag Pizza bestelle 😀
Zur Suppe: Der Plan war ja mir mit der Suppe neuen Lebensodem einzuhauchen, flüssigen Odem, suppigen obendrein. Hätte wohl auch funktioniert wären mir die 10 Bier nicht in die Quere gekommen gestern Abend. Aber gut, ohne die Suppe wäre ich dann vielleicht schon tot. Keiner weiß es 🙂 Auf jeden Fall stehe ich auf diese Art von Suppen. Habe ich meiner Meinung nach auch schon oft erwähnt. Unglaublich leckere und lange Nudeln, gebettet auf allerlei frische Zutaten, eine dezente Schärfe im Hintergrund, alles verbunden durch die unglaublich nahrhafte und kochend heiße Brühe, wo nur Schlürfen einer fiesen Verbrennung vorbeugen kann, ja das mag ich. Ich mag dich. Dich mag ich – Suppe!
Das einzige Manko dabei ist die Zeit. Minimum 5 bis 6 Stunden für die Brühe, dann ggf. abkühlen und entfetten, schon ein kleiner Gewaltakt. Entgegen der Taten der RAF aber ein Gewaltakt der sich lohnt. Also partizipiert meine Freude und kocht Suppe!
Phở bò Zutaten
Für die Brühe
Markknochen (vom Rind)
Ochsenschwanz
Suppenfleisch (auch vom Rind versteht sich)
Zimtstange
Sternanis
2 Zwiebeln
Ingwer
Fischsauce
Salz, Zucker
Für die Einlage
Rinderfilet
Sojasprossen
Glasnudeln (hier keinen Scheiß kaufen -> zum Asiaten gehen!)
Chilisauce
Frühlingszwiebeln
Limette
Fischsauce
und was immer euer Herz noch begehrt 😉
Rezept
1. Knochen, Ochsenschwanz und Suppenfleisch kurz unter fließendem Wasser waschen. Manche blanchieren die Knochen noch vorher um eine klarere Brühe zu bekommen.
Im Gegensatz zu den knochigen Tatsachen in Modemagazinen steh ich auf den Scheiß hier!
Ich spare mir das weil ich finde die Brühe muss hier nicht klar sein. Also alles in einen großen Topf geben, Wasser drüber und sanft erhitzen. Nach alles Regeln der Brühenkunst nun langsam eine Brühe ziehen. Steht schon oft genug im Internet und auch hier, darum erwähne ich es nicht noch mal extra.
Nach ca. 3 bis 4 Stunden noch die vorher geschwärzte Zwiebel und ein großes Stück Ingwer, welches in zwei Hälften zerteilt wurde, hinzu geben. Ebenso ein kleines Stück einer Zimtstange und Sternanis. Weiter für ca. 2 Stunden ziehen lassen. Am Ende Fischsauce (ca. 6 bis 8 EL) Salz sowie etwas Zucker hinzugeben.
2. Alles durch ein Tuch geben. Wer mag kann das ganze dann über Nacht im Kühlschrank abkühlen lassen. So lässt sich die Fettschicht am nächsten Tag sehr leicht entfernen. Wem das egal ist der kann gleich weiter durchstarten.
Die Brühe ist durch abkühlen versülzt und das Fett hart geworden. Kann also bequem mit einem Löffel entfernt werden
3. Glasnudeln für ca. 10 Minuten einweichen. Je nach Art und dicke variieren die Zeiten aber hier. Dann auf der Packung nachlesen oder (wer kein Vietnamesisch lesen kann) im Laden fragen oder nach Gefühl probieren 😉 Nudeln kochen und die Brühe nebenher auf Temperatur bringen – also sehr heiß!
4. Alles zusammen bringen. Etwas Sprossen in eine Suppenschüssel geben. Darüber etwas Chilisauce und Fischsauce geben. Dann kommt eine Portion Nudeln darüber. Jetzt ein Teil vom Rinderfilet (ist noch roh!) sehr dünn aufschneiden. Auf die Nudeln geben. Das Filet wird jetzt mit der heißen Brühe, mit der wir nun die Suppenschüssel auffüllen, gegart. Frühlingszwiebeln als Ringe drüber und fertig ist die Suppe. Jetzt kann jeder mit Limette, Chilis, Sesamöl usw. nachwürzen wie er mag. Natürlich kann man auch noch mehr in die Suppe geben. Frischer Koriander, Thai Basilikum usw. Jeder wie er Lust hat.
Man sieht wo die Brühe das Fleisch bereits gegart hat. Einfach das Fleisch etwas in die Brühe drücken und der Rest wird auch gar.
Und weil so schön ist noch mal eines. Wie in nem Porno!
Ich kann dazu nur eines sagen. Wow!
Tags: nudelsuppe, reisnudeln, rind, rinderfilet, rindfleisch, suppe
Abgelegt in Hauptgericht, Rezepte, Suppen, Vietnam
Gib deinen Senf dazu
10 Reaktionen » | Sag deine Meinung zum Rezept | 25.506 mal gelesenThis Sunday, the Science Channel celebrates the unstoppable power of Firefly, on its tenth anniversary, with Firefly: Browncoats Unite. And here's an early taste of the festivities: They've given us this exclusive music video, full of autotuned goodness, called "No Power in the 'Verse Can Stop Me." Warning: This could be a major earworm. But if you happen to be celebrating something today, it seems oddly appropriate.
Want even more Firefly goodness before Sunday evening at 10 PM? The Science Channel will release more brand new Firefly goodies if you tweet at them. Here are the details:
On November 11, the Science Channel will bring you a Firefly 10th Anniversary Special Event! It's (literally) been 10 years in the making for this extravaganza - and there's nearly two hours of extra footage that just couldn't be squeezed into the hour-long special. Here's your chance to see four of the best moments that WILL NEVER AIR ON TELEVISION (or anywhere else)! All you need to do is tweet @ScienceChannel with #FireflyNov11. A new video will unlock for every 5,000 tweets that enter the Twitter'verse.
Advertisement
And of course, Firefly: Browncoats United airs on Sunday at 10 PM, after an all-day Firefly marathon. According to Science: "The 60-minute special includes secrets from the set, exclusive cast interviews, and footage from this year's colossal Comic-Con panel that dominated the pop culture conversation. Joining Whedon and Fillion for FIREFLY: BROWNCOATS UNITE are Serenity crewmembers Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Adam Baldwin, Morena Baccarin, Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres and Jewel Staite; along with executive producer Tim Minear and executive story editor Jose Molina."Police in Pennsylvania say a church worker who was arrested on Wednesday for raping a woman in the church “for hours” had also been sought for sexually assaulting a young girl over a period of about three years.
According to Upper Darby Police, 48-year-old Troy Posey had invited a 19-year-old girl into Bethel Community Baptist Church after she missed the last train or bus home.
“Turns out it was hell. It wasn’t a safe haven. It was hell,” Upper Darby Superintendent Michael Chitwood told WTXF. “She says she falls asleep on the couch, a short [time later] she feels her pants being tugged, and the next thing you know the guy’s on top of her.”
After the woman reported that she was raped last week, police determined that the suspect was Posey, and that he had also been wanted for sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl until she was 12 years old. She was the daughter of Posey’s girlfriend at the time.
He had been sought since 2012 in that case, but had managed to evade capture.
“He’s a very, very smooth operator. He’s a con man, but he’s also a sexual predator,” Chitwood pointed out.
Police said that members of the church were not aware of Posey’s past when they hired him to be a handyman.
Posey turned himself in to police on Wednesday. He is facing over 200 charges in connection to the 2012 assault on his then-girlfriend’s daughter. He was also charged with rape in connection with the more recent case.
Watch the video below from WTXF, broadcast April 2, 2013.Best of Hurricane Sandy Craigslist Personals
New Here? Welcome! Dear Wendy is a relationship advice blog. You can read about me here, peruse the archives here and read popular posts here. You can also follow along on Facebook and Instagram. If you have a relationship/dating question I can help answer, you can send me your letters at [email protected] (be sure to read these guidelines first). Thanks for visiting!
There’s nothing like a natural disaster — or any disaster for that matter — to bring out the romance and eloquence and general we’re-gonna-get-through-this camaraderie in people. Keep reading for some of the best of Hurricane Sandy Craigslist personals to see exactly what I mean.
This one’s actually sort of sweet, right? I mean, he wants pants to stay on… And he’s not into robots, so that’s something.
Hurricane-thwarting make-out (prospect park)
Looking for a little hurricane-thwarting make-out action with someone playful, cute, smart. The rules are:Your place or mine (whichever you’d prefer, provided of course we can walk to each other)
Pants stay on
Occasional watching of hurricane/recovery news coverage, while we make out
Afterwards we are sleeping in our own beds Looking for a little hurricane-thwarting make-out action with someone playful, cute, smart. The rules are:Your place or mine (whichever you’d prefer, provided of course we can walk to each other)Pants stay onOccasional watching of hurricane/recovery news coverage, while we make outAfterwards we are sleeping in our own beds I’m a nice guy, attractive, clean-cut, mid 30’s, respectful of boundaries, including all of those set here in this ad. I will share a pic. Tell me a new funny name for Hurricane Sandy to prove you’re not a robot.
When all else fails, slap on a topical headline and see where that gets you. She’s not looking for a man, by the way! She’s simply looking for an elder man who can help her advance her wardrobe and hold a conversation, sheesh, is that too much to ask? Summer is almost over!!
Hurricane Sandy got you lonely? – w4m – 24 (Midtown East) PLEASE BE NEAR 97TH STREET EAST SIDE OR WEST SIDE!!!
Heres a little about me… if i see me on the street my smile and eyes will make u blush 🙂 I am 24 Irish and Puetro Rican 5’6 work full time and plan on going to school next year.. seeing that summer is almost over i am interested in advancing my wardrobe, I am looking for an elder man somewhere in between 30-40 you should know how to hold a conversation. I am not here to find a man. I am just looking for someone who I can get along with and can help me from time to time…. I have big boobs (36DDD). PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE EMAIL ME UR NAME AGE AND LOCATION FOR A RESPONSE THANK YOU! (Please keep in mind i remove my post once i find someone) happy hunting! CANT HOST SORRY
PLEASEEEE BE NEAR 97TH STREET EAST OR WEST SIDE TRYING TO MAKE THIS CONVENIENT!
The effects of Hurricane Sandy are being felt across an entire region, including inside this guy’s pants. He woke up with a “hardon,” y’all, so perhaps you’d be interested in helping a guy out by going over to his messy apartment, dressing up in a sexy outfit, letting him play with your tits, and maybe even giving him a bj? Hey, we’re all in this together.
Bored after Hurricane Sandy. Incall? – m4w – 28 (East Harlem) Just woke up with a hardon and feeling the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Anyone want to help? I can come to you if you are nearby or you can come over if you do not mind a messy apartment. I do not drive so you have to be nearby. I’m kinda shy and doing this for the first time so please bear with me. I am not necessarily looking for s*x but would love to play with tits, see you in a sexy outfit, maybe even have you give me a bj ( with protection of course). I’m clean, attractive, respectable and can be a little gen. If this is something you may be interested in, let me know. For quicker response text six46 fourseven0 9three04. I hope to hear from you soon. I love busty women that have a nice personality.
Aww, what a hero!
Sandy storm Looking for getting your power back on? – m4w – 30 (Lower East Side) Journeyman lineman drove from Southern California out to assist in hurricane sandy relief. We are offering a trade; your cute photos for an option to get your power back a little earlier than the rest of your friends. Send your photos in to start this process.
I mean, who needs a sperm bank, amiright?
cute white guy to get you preggo during sandy – m4w – 26 (queens)
100% clean sane and safe, respectful white guy here. haven’t cum in awhile. let me get your pregnant during hurricane sandy 😀
please be 100% clean and serious to meet up thanks 🙂
pic 4 pic
I did not realize cuddling was something people could professionalize in. But this ad is also sort of sweet too. Board games! Junk food! Special hugs and lasting memories. I hope he found someone to ride out the storm with…
Perfect excuse to cuddle! – w4m – 19 (Maspeth ) Hurricane sandy ruined all my plans …which sucks (obviously)
But I came to realize that this might just be the best excuse to cuddle! I’ve always wanted to hang out with someone new and fun
On a rainy day and just hug under blankets or eat junk food because…why not? We could play board games all day or watch horror movies |
single-core)
Higher is better
Apple iPhone 8 Plus
4232
Samsung Galaxy Note8
1987
OnePlus 5
1932
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2
1924
Google Pixel 2 XL
1915
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
1902
Samsung Galaxy Note8 (SD 835)
1862
AnTuTu 6 is a compound benchmark that focuses on 3D performance as well as memory and processor speed. Here the Huawei Mate 10 Pro was outdone only by the OnePlus 5 and the Apple iPhone 8 Plus.
AnTuTu 6
Higher is better
Apple iPhone 8 Plus
188766
OnePlus 5
180331
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
178510
Samsung Galaxy Note8 (SD 835)
175153
Samsung Galaxy Note8
172425
Google Pixel 2 XL
170407
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2
160319
In Basemark OS 2.0 all flagships scored about the same - between 3,300 and 3,600 points.
Basemark OS 2.0
Higher is better
Apple iPhone 8 Plus
3601
OnePlus 5
3601
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2
3578
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
3425
Samsung Galaxy Note8 (SD 835)
3424
Google Pixel 2 XL
3379
Samsung Galaxy Note8
3333
Moving on to graphics tests, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro soars to a quick lead, beating out all of its Android competition in the GFXBench 3.1 Manhattan 1080p test.
In GFX's Car scene the Huawei Mate 10 Pro is a few frames behind its Android peers in the offscreen test and a few frames in front in the onscreen test - it leveraged on its lower screen resolution to beat the Galaxy Note8 by a huge margin.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
60
Samsung Galaxy Note8 (SD 835)
43
Samsung Galaxy Note8
42
Google Pixel 2 XL
42
OnePlus 5
41
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2
37
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
55
OnePlus 5
40
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2
32
Samsung Galaxy Note8
23
Google Pixel 2 XL
21
Samsung Galaxy Note8 (SD 835)
20
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy Note8 (SD 835)
25
Samsung Galaxy Note8
25
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2
25
Google Pixel 2 XL
25
OnePlus 5
24
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
22
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2
24
OnePlus 5
24
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
22
Samsung Galaxy Note8 (SD 835)
13
Samsung Galaxy Note8
13
Google Pixel 2 XL
13
Finally, there's Basemark X where the Huawei Mate 10 Pro was last although not too far behind.
Basemark X
Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy Note8
40890
Google Pixel 2 XL
39143
OnePlus 5
38844
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2
38349
Samsung Galaxy Note8 (SD 835)
37211
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
32871
In all of the scores above, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro was on par with its Android competition, only losing out significantly to the Apple iPhone 8 Plus. But then, comparing benchmark scores across platforms is rarely a good idea as developers are keen to point out.
During our time with the Huawei Mate 10 Pro we enjoyed buttery performance, as can be expected from a flagship phone. Stay tuned for more tests of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, coming soon.The bulk of class of 2016 recruiting excitement ended on signing day for the Oregon Ducks, but the program is still working to add potential impact pieces.
On Sunday evening, West Linn cornerback Jaydon Grant, son of former Portland Trail Blazer Brian Grant, committed to the Oregon Ducks as a walk on.
"I chose Oregon because it's what felt the most natural to me," he said. "On my visit they really stressed the family-like culture that they've been building for years and years and it's just something special that I want to be a part of. Another thing was academics. I'm very interested in sports marketing and that's something that stands out at the university."
In many cases, a walk on is not a particularly exciting addition to a recruiting class, but the 6-foot-1, 170-pound cornerback may be an exception.
Having focused on basketball for much of his youth, Grant elected to play football at West Linn as a senior and starred in the Lions' run to the state championship game after missing the first four contests of the year.
Grant, who has elite athleticism with good hips and instincts, registered four interceptions in the playoffs, highlighted by a pick-6 against Sherwood.
He held a scholarship offer from Portland State and late interest from a handful of Pac-12 programs.
"It means a lot to me because it shows they believe in me as well," Grant said. "The University of Oregon... it doesn't get any better than that to me."
Oregon missed out on four-star cornerbacks Jared Mayden, who flipped to Alabama, and Nigel Knott, but may have landed a prospect who can reach those heights with some development.
Jaydon Grant will be a name to watch on the roster in the years to come.
-- Andrew Nemec
[email protected]
@AndrewNemecStory highlights NTSB wants audit of transit systems, with emphasis on trains that operate in enclosed tunnels
Call comes as investigators look into fatal January accident on Metro train in Washington
(CNN) Metro systems that travel underground in the United States may be unprepared for smoke or fire emergencies, National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said Tuesday.
The board wants a nationwide audit of transit systems, with emphasis on trains that operate in enclosed tunnels.
The huge undertaking would be the first of its kind, Holloway said.
The call for an audit comes as investigators look into a January 12 fatal accident that happened near the L'Enfant Plaza Metro Station in Washington. An electrical malfunction inside the tunnel caused train cars to fill with smoke. Passengers who were trapped inside said they struggled to breathe. One female passenger died.
The Washington Metro system, operated by a multistate compact known as WMATA, has ventilation fans at strategic locations designed to remove smoke and heat from the tunnels, but investigators found they were inadequate.
Read MoreMuslim Council of Britain accuses Channel 4 documentary of brownface and says it has caused deep offence
A Channel 4 documentary in which a white woman is given the appearance of a Pakistani Muslim in order to experience public attitudes and Islamophobia has caused “deep offence”, the Muslim Council of Britain has said.
For the programme, to be aired next Monday, makeup artists darkened the skin of Katie Freeman and gave her a prosthetic nose. She was dressed in traditional Muslim clothing, including a hijab.
A spokesperson for the MCB said: “The use of brownface and blackface has a long racist history and it is not surprising that it has caused deep offence amongst some communities. Had we been consulted, we would not have advised this approach.
“We do, however, laud the apparent goals of the documentary – to better understand the reality of Islamophobia, which has become socially accepted across broader society.”
In a press release announcing the documentary, Channel 4 said it was “an immersive programme that will explore what it’s like to be a Muslim in Britain today and challenge some of the assumptions and prejudices that different communities in the UK have about each other”.
The programme, made by The Garden Productions, used “radical methods … to offer insight into the everyday lives of people from two separate cultures”.
Freeman, 44, an NHS healthcare assistant who lives in a predominantly white area in north-west England, is given makeup and prosthetics to be “fully immersed into a Pakistani Muslim family living just a few miles away”.
The documentary was filmed immediately after the terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena, in which 22 people were killed and 250 injured. Home Office figures released this week showed a rise in hate crime in the aftermath of terror attacks in Manchester and London this year.
After news breaks of the Manchester bombing, Freeman tells her host, Saima Alvi: “It’s this community that has bred this terrorist.” Later, speaking to camera, Alvi says: “It’s very humiliating that I am pigeonholed, or put in the same box as a terrorist.”
Freeman initially says of Muslims: “You see them and think they’re going to blow something up.” Driving through a Muslim neighbourhood, she says: “You wouldn’t even think this was England.”
But, dressed as a Muslim woman, Freeman experiences hostility from her own neighbours. Afterwards, she says: “It makes me ashamed to live here. I was raging and fuming inside. But I also felt vulnerable. What harm was I doing?”
Alvi, 49, says Freeman’s experience is “what I face every day. This is me for life.”
After a trailer for the programme was aired this week, there was criticism on social media. A woman called Firdos wrote: “You continue to hijack our stories & distort them and US. We are not your Halloween costumes. Stop using us, we are not a cultural commodity.”
Ayesha tweeted: “I’m fuming. I just heard about the upcoming @Channel4 programme ‘My Week as a Muslim’. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
Shelina Janmohamed, the author of Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World, told the Guardian: “Increasing understanding of Muslims at a time when divisions and hatred are rising – some of which is violent – is more vital than ever.
“It’s a shame if efforts are derailed by basic errors such as ‘brownfacing’ which reinforce rather than challenge such prejudice. I hope the programme lets the experiences of Muslims shine through rather than being a form of television tourism.”
Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of Tell Mama, an organisation that monitors anti-Muslim abuse and attacks, said the programme was “absolutely shocking” and a “complete catastrophe”.
“Just think for one second if that was done against the Jewish community. There would be legitimate accusations of antisemitism, which would be correct and clear. So why is this OK for the Muslim community, in the desire to reach what I think is a laudable objective?” he said.
“They could have simply taken a secret camera and got Muslim women to record things that happen to them every day. But they tried to maximise their audience by putting a twist on it, a twist that has badly backfired.”
Fozia Khan, the documentary’s executive producer, said: “The programme allowed Katie to meaningfully walk in the shoes of someone from a different background and to experience what it is like to be part of the British Pakistani Muslim community, rather than observe it as an outsider.”
Khan said the idea for the film came after the EU referendum and the rise in Islamophobia that followed. “We saw divided communities, people living side by side but not mixing. We wanted to do something bold, a kind of social experiment: to take someone with no exposure to the Muslim community and give her a really authentic experience. The transformation in her appearance was important for that.
“If we’d done it for entertainment purposes, I can see why it would be offensive. But its purpose and intention needs to be understood. I feel really proud of it and I hope that when people see it, they will understand why we did it.”
Before taking part in the programme, Freeman had never engaged with any Muslims and admitted to holding stereotypical views.
Freeman and Alvi were both worried about how they would appear. “I had concerns about how I would be framed. I’m not racist. Although, looking back I am surprised at some of my early opinions,” Freeman told the Telegraph.
“People were negative about the idea,” said Alvi. “But there are lots of people out there who just haven’t had the chance to engage with Muslims.”
The pair said they were now friends.Seized Drug Assets Pad Police Budgets
First of a four-part series
A Primer on Dirty Money For an explanation of how drug asset seizures work, read our FAQ.
Enlarge this image toggle caption John Burnett/NPR John Burnett/NPR
Audio Excerpt Richard Weber, the Justice Department’s chief of Asset Forfeiture & Money Laundering, discusses drug forfeiture laws.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of the Kingsville Police Department Courtesy of the Kingsville Police Department
Enlarge this image toggle caption John Burnett/NPR John Burnett/NPR
Every year, about $12 billion in drug profits returns to Mexico from the world's largest narcotics market — the United States. As a tactic in the war on drugs, law enforcement pursues that drug money and is then allowed to keep a portion as an incentive to fight crime.
As a result, the amount of drug dollars flowing into local police budgets is staggering. Justice Department figures show that in the past four years alone, the amount of assets seized by local law enforcement agencies across the nation enrolled in the federal program—the vast majority of it cash—has tripled, from $567 million to $1.6 billion. And that doesn't include tens of millions more the agencies got from state asset forfeiture programs.
In Texas, with its smuggling corridors to Mexico, public safety agencies seized more than $125 million last year.
While drug-related asset forfeitures have expanded police budgets, critics say the flow of money distorts law enforcement — that some cops have become more interested in seizing money than drugs, more interested in working southbound than northbound lanes.
"If a cop stops a car going north with a trunk full of cocaine, that makes great press coverage, makes a great photo. Then they destroy the cocaine," says Jack Fishman, an IRS special agent for 25 years who is now a criminal defense attorney in Atlanta. "If they catch 'em going south with a suitcase full of cash, the police department just paid for its budget for the year."
'We have To Be Prepared'
U.S. Highway 77 follows the coastal bend of South Texas past mesquite thickets, grapefruit stands and vast historic ranches on its way to the Mexican border.
Drug agents say Highway 77 is one of the busiest smuggling corridors in the world. Think of it as a great two-way river — drugs flow north, drug money flows south. For the impoverished cities and counties situated along 77, it is like a river of gold.
On one 15-mile section that runs through Texas' Kleberg County, the southbound lanes have become a "piggy bank," according to the local sheriff. In the past four years, combined seizures have surpassed $7 million.
It starts with a traffic stop.
"Look at this hose. Look on this side. So that tells me somebody has messed with it. I have fingerprints right here," says officer Mike Tamez of the Kingsville Police Department, as he inspects the engine of a gray Ford pickup truck that was headed south. He's looking for clues to where the driver might have hidden drug money.
"Come over and look at [the] air filter housing? Look how clean these are compared to the other parts of the vehicle," he says. After searching for 20 minutes, Tamez and the other officers crawling over the truck don't find anything, and they send the motorists on their way.
There's always tomorrow.
In January, Tamez — a gung-ho former Marine with a buzz cut — stopped a white Land Rover for changing lanes without using a blinker. The driver's story was inconsistent. Then Tamez noticed fresh silicone under the rear deck. A density meter showed something bulky inside. He brought it into the shop to investigate.
"When I pulled the drill bit out there was pieces of money on it, currency. Inside the compartments we discovered 80 bundles of U.S. currency. He disavowed knowledge of everything," Tamez says.
The bundles contained $1 million. According to the law, 80 percent of that will go to the Kingsville Police Department. So that one afternoon's work will boost the department's budget by 25 percent.
"Law enforcement has become a business, and where best to hit these narcotics organizations other than in the pocketbook? That's where it's going to hurt the most. And then to be able to turn around and use those same assets to benefit our department, that's a win-win situation as far as we're concerned," says Kingsville Police Chief Ricardo Torres.
In this sleepy city of 25,000 people, with its enviable low crime rate, police officers drive high-performance Dodge Chargers and use $40,000 digital ticket writers. They'll soon carry military-style assault rifles, and the SWAT team recently acquired sniper rifles.
When asked why the Kingsville Police Department needs sniper rifles, Torres says, "With homeland security, we all hear about where best to hit than... Middle America. This can be considered that sort of area. We have to be prepared."
'Addicted to Drug Money'
Federal and state rules governing asset forfeiture explicitly discourage law enforcement agencies from becoming dependent on seized drug money or allowing the prospect of those funds to influence law enforcement decisions.
There is a law enforcement culture — particularly in the South — in which police agencies have grown, in the words of one state senator from South Texas, "addicted to drug money."
Part of the problem lies with governing bodies that count on the dirty money and, in essence, force public safety departments to freelance their own funding.
In Kleberg County, where Kingsville is the county seat, Sheriff Ed Mata drives a gleaming new police-package Ford Expedition bought with drug funds. This year, he went to his commissioners to ask for more new vehicles.
"They said, 'Well, there ain't no money, use your assets,' " he says. He says his office needs the money "to continue to operate on the magnitude we need."
Another county agency, the Kingsville Specialized Crimes and Narcotics Task Force, survives solely on seized cash. Said one neighboring lawman, "They eat what they kill." A review by NPR shows at least three other Texas task forces that also are funded exclusively by confiscated drug assets.
The concern here is that allowing sworn peace officers — who are entrusted with enormous powers — to make money off police work distorts criminal justice.
"We're not going to sidestep the law and seize people's money just for the financial gains of the department," Tamez says. "It's not going to happen."
This series was produced for broadcast by Marisa Penaloza.New World indigenous peoples are noted for their sophisticated use of psychedelic plants in shamanic and ethnomedical practices. The use of psychedelic plant preparations among New World tribes is far more prevalent than in the Old World. Yet, although these preparations are botanically diverse, almost all are chemically similar in that their active principles are tryptamine derivatives, either DMT or related constituents. Part 1 of this paper provides an ethnopharmacological overview of the major tryptamine-containing New World hallucinogens. Part 2 focuses on ayahuasca and its effects on the human brain. Using complementary neurophysiological and neuroimaging techniques, we have identified brain areas involved in the cognitive effects induced by this complex botanical preparation. Initial SPECT data showed that ayahuasca modulated activity in higher order association areas of the brain. Increased blood perfusion was observed mainly in anterior brain regions encompassing the frontomedial and anterior cingulate cortices of the frontal lobes, and in the medial regions of the temporal lobes. On the other hand, applying spectral analysis and source location techniques to cortical electrical signals, we found changes in neuronal activity that predominated in more posterior sensory-selective areas of the brain. Now, using functional connectivity analysis of brain oscillations we have been able to reconcile these seemingly contradictory findings. By measuring transfer entropy, a metric based on information theory, we have shown that ayahuasca temporarily modifies the ordinary flow of information within the brain. We propose a model in which ayahuasca reduces top-down constraints and facilitates bottom-up information transfer. By simultaneously enhancing endogenous cortical excitability and reducing higher-order cognitive control, ayahuasca temporarily disrupts neural hierarchies allowing inner exploration and a new outlook on reality."We have to keep our eyes open and not hide from an unpleasant truth that we would rather not see," Francis said at a gathering of technology executives and health professionals at the Vatican.
Alluding to the paedophile scandals that have rocked the church, he added: "For that matter, surely we have realised sufficiently in recent years that concealing the reality of sexual abuse is a grave error and the source of many other evils?"
In a speech about protecting the dignity of children in the internet era, Francis warned of the spread of extreme pornography, sexting and online bullying as well as sexual exploitation, trafficking and the live-streaming of rape and violence against children.
He also cited evidence of the "profound impact of violent and sexual images on the impressionable minds of children".
"These problems will surely have a serious and life-long effect on today's children."
More than a quarter of the world's three billion internet users are children, with many adults unable to understand technology that can block and filter disturbing content.
"We would be seriously deluding ourselves if we thought that a society, where an abnormal consumption of internet sex is rampant among adults, could be capable of effectively protecting minors," he added.
While recognising how the internet has opened up a forum for the freedom of expression and exchange of ideas, he said it has also offered new means for the abuse and corruption of minors.
He said collaboration between governments and law enforcement was needed at a global level to address the problem.Cee Lo Green on July 27, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California. [AFP]
Grammy-winning US rapper Cee Lo Green has been charged with spiking a woman’s drink with ecstasy before going back to her hotel, but not with attempted rape, prosecutors said Monday.
The musician and producer, a judge on U.S. talent show The Voice, “allegedly slipped ecstasy to a 33-year-old female while the two were dining at a downtown Los Angeles” restaurant, said the LA County’s District Attorney’s office.
“The two later went back to the woman?s hotel. Prosecutors declined to file a charge of rape of an intoxicated person, citing insufficient evidence,” it added.
If convicted, Green faces up to four years in jail. The musician and rapper, whose real name is Thomas DeCarlo Callaway, is formally charged with one felony count of furnishing a controlled substance.
Prosecutors asked his bail to be set at $30,000.
The 39-year-old is perhaps best known for the 2006 worldwide hit “Crazy,” by the duo Gnarls Barkley along with fellow musician Danger Mouse.
More recently he had a hit with the toe-tapping and expletive-heavy song known in its radio edit version as “Forget You,” which he performed at the Grammys in 2011.
Green has won five Grammys, including two last year, for best traditional R and B performance and best R and B song for “Fool for You.”
[Image via Agence France-Presse]At last: Your comprehensive guide to the laws of armed conflict as they apply to Operation Protective Edge.
War crimes. Disproportionate response. Collective punishment. Targeting civilians. Throughout Operation Protective Edge, these terms have been fired off at Israel with the same intensity and frequency as Hamas’ rockets. Arab government spokesmen constantly refer to Israel’s actions as “aggression.” In extreme cases, Israel is accused of “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing.”
When politicians, pundits, or the public misuse these terms, one can only think of a quote from The Princess Bride: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” But when a respected jurist like Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, calls Israel’s military campaign “disproportionate,” claims the IDF’s “disregard for international humanitarian law and for the right to life was shockingly evident” in many of its attacks, and says that Israel is insufficiently protecting Gaza’s civilians “in a manner that could amount to war crimes,” the accusations cannot be so easily dismissed. At the same time that Israel is exercising its right to self-defense against terrorists who violate and shamelessly exploit international law, human rights lawyers and UN officials aim to manipulate the laws of war to reduce its ability to lawfully use military force.
This article is not a rejection or disparagement of the laws of war themselves, but an attempt to accurately define the laws’ requirements. It is also a critique of the abuse of international law by politically motivated jurists whose actions only serve to undermine the legitimacy of the law, leading many respected scholars to question the law’s “inadequacy” in dealing with modern combat. These laws are still valid and fully adequate when properly understood and objectively applied, and this critique is made in the interest of preserving them and the objectivity on which they must be based.
The laws of armed conflict are essentially broken down into two main parts: Jus ad bellum, which governs the right of a state to use armed force in self-defense, and jus in bello, which determines the legality of actions taken in a war. Assessing the legality of Israel’s military actions in Gaza must begin with jus ad bellum, tackling the issue of whether Israel was justified to go to war against Hamas at all.
One of the common accusations directed at Israel is that its war with Hamas in Gaza constitutes aggression. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan labeled Protective Edge as aggression. Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki called on the Arab League to convene and discuss methods of ending “the Israeli aggression in Gaza.” Iranian Foreign Minister for Arab Affairs Hossein Amir Abdolahian topped them both, denouncing the “Zionist entity” for “barbaric aggression.” The list of Middle Eastern politicians and public figures accusing Israel of committing a war of aggression could go on for much longer. In fact, it seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to make such an accusation whenever Israel undertakes any military action. But is it true?
There is no clear or universally accepted definition of a “war of aggression,” but the relevant documents (General Assembly Resolution 3314 and the 2010 Amendments to the ICC Statute, Article 8 bis) and scholarly works indicate that aggression is the “use of armed force by a State against…another State…in any manner inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations.” In other words, it is the unprovoked initiation of unlawful offensive force unmotivated by considerations of, or justified by, any form of necessary and lawful self-defense.
The lawfulness of these actions must be approached contextually. Professor Lung-Chu Chen of New York Law School says that a “developing process of coercion” may reach a point where a victim state must immediately and proportionately respond militarily to protect itself or its citizens. He continues, “Law cannot reasonably ask and expect a target state to wait like a sitting duck to see its own destruction in the face of such danger.” So a war is aggressive, and therefore illegitimate, if the use of force is unjustified by necessity. But what is necessity?
Necessity is a constant assessment—at the onset of hostilities and throughout—of whether defensive armed force is necessary to halt and repel an armed attack, or whether peaceful alternatives exist. The existence of necessity is determined from the context of the events, and exists where an attacker, wanting to harm a country’s sovereignty or sense of security, carries out substantial attacks against the target state. Some scholars argue that only in the case of an “isolated armed attack” must a state reasonably verify the futility of diplomacy and peaceful alternatives before resorting to force; others say that exercising self-defense need not be the final resort at all. As Oscar Schachter, a former president of the American Society of International Law, emphasized, “[a] State is not obliged to turn the other cheek” in the case of an ongoing armed attack. Nor is it obligated to compromise its sovereignty. Only manifested unwillingness to address diplomatic channels, which need only be utilized in good faith, would indicate unlawfulness.
Israel was provoked into launching Protective Edge by continued rocket and mortar fire from Gaza into southern Israel, for which Hamas, as the ruling government in Gaza, is ultimately responsible. Protective Edge grew out of the prior Operation Brother’s Keeper, launched in the West Bank after Hamas operatives from Hebron kidnapped three Israeli teenagers. Hamas denied responsibility (though eventually admitted it), and refused to return the teens. Instead, between July 2 and 7, it launched 230 rockets into Israel. The cycle of escalation led to the launching of Protective Edge on July 8. Additionally, for some time Israel possessed intelligence that Hamas had built a large offensive tunnel network leading into Israel, discovering three of them in 2013.
Israel repeatedly resorted to diplomacy, only to be repudiated by Hamas.
Israel repeatedly resorted to diplomatic means to achieve the (reasonable) goal of Protective Edge: Ending the increasing threat that Hamas poses to Israel’s security and the lives of its citizens. Israel agreed and adhered to multiple humanitarian ceasefires of varying duration, but Hamas repeatedly violated them, entering them in bad faith and only as a ruse. Hamas said it would not agree to a permanent ceasefire unless its demands were fully met—namely, lifting Israel’s (legal) blockade and opening all crossings to the passage of humans and materiel. Reports indicate that Israel agreed to many of these demands, but Hamas also demanded the re-opening of Gaza’s airport and seaport—expected to serve as an entry point for Iranian weapons—a demand it knows Israel can never accept. Hamas’ bad-faith negotiations and constant refusal to disarm leaves Israel with no option but to fight, making Israeli military action necessary.
So Israel had to go to war. Hamas left Israel with no other choice if Israel wanted to protect the lives and property of its civilians. But even if Israel’s war was necessary, it could still incur guilt for initiating a war of aggression if it responded with comprehensive force to minor Hamas provocations.
When political leaders—including the UN’s deputy secretary-general and the UK’s deputy prime minister—speak of Israel’s “disproportionate” response to Hamas, they are inaccurately invoking jus ad bellum proportionality, which determines the permissible intensity and magnitude of a defensive military action, stipulating that the force used against another side must be proportional to the threat posed to the victim state. As Professor Enzo Cannizzaro wrote in the International Review of the Red Cross, “A proportionate response…is [one] necessary and appropriate to repel the attack…using the means appropriate to the particular circumstances.”
Rosalyn Higgins, the former president of the International Court of Justice, said that proportionality must be judged in relation to the overall legitimate objective of ending a prior aggression, and permits “a use of force…more severe…than any single prior incident might have warranted.” As Roberto Ago, another former ICJ judge, wrote,
It would be mistaken, however, to think that there must be proportionality between the conduct constituting the [initial] armed attack and the opposing conduct. The action needed to halt and repulse the attack may well have to assume dimensions disproportionate to the attack suffered. What matters…is the result to be achieved [by the defensive action]…not the forms, substance and strength of the [defensive] action itself.
Keiichiro Okimoto, who now works at the UN’s Office of Legal Affairs, confirms that proportionality “does not require the same means and methods to be used in response to an armed attack.” While the a state cannot launch total war in response to minor incidents, writes Professor Tom Ruys of the University of Ghent, “an overly rigid interpretation…is universally rejected…there is no need for the defensive action to be restricted to exactly the same weapons or the same number of armed forces as the armed attack.”
All of that legalese essentially means that when a country goes to war, it is allowed to use as much force as is necessary to stop the threat that caused it to go to war to begin with, and does not have to limit itself to the same means or level of intensity used by the enemy. While necessity determines the situations allowing a state to use some form of armed force, proportionality determines the breadth of that permissible force. The intensity of a state’s response is governed by the magnitude of the threat posed to it by the enemy that attacked it, and not of the individual attacks it suffered.
So, the measuring stick of proportionality can’t be the tit-for-tat analysis of death tolls popularly presented in the media. Israel is not obligated to employ only the lightest means at its disposal against Hamas, whose military might pales in comparison. Israel is also not obligated to ensure that the death count on both sides is close to equal. That would be absurd.
This popular interpretation of proportionality would essentially forbid a nation from winning a war, allowing the aggressor to set the parameters of the subsequent hostilities. This would then obligate Israel to resort to the most comparatively primitive methods of warfare, since those are the means with which Hamas initiated hostilities, and to end its war with Hamas in a tie. As a result, the threat posed by Hamas would be no less than what it was at the outset of Protective Edge. What would then be the point of going to war at all?
Nations go to war to end the armed threat posed by another side—to win—and not to simply revert to the status quo ante where they were still under the other side’s threat. This absurd result is not demanded by international law, which allows states to win their wars, and by definition, wars are only won by applying more force than the enemy can muster. Professor Yoram Dinstein of Tel Aviv University says that a defensive war “need not be terminated at the point when the aggressor is driven back: rather it may be carried on by the defending State until final victory.…The defending State…may pursue the retreating enemy forces, hammering at them up to the time of their total defeat.” He adds that proportionality allows a war of self-defense to continue “until it brings about the complete collapse of the enemy…and can be fought in an offensive mode to the last bunker of the enemy dictator.”
Self-defense emphatically need not be carried out on terms and conditions favorable to the aggressor. Israel is not confined to attacking Hamas rocket launching sites because those rockets were the cause of hostilities. Proportionality permits Israel to pursue every Hamas warehouse, weapon storage facility, and military leader, anywhere in the Gaza Strip, until it eliminates the threat Hamas poses.
So if proportionality does not mean parity, how exactly is it determined? That calculus depends on the threat that led to the outbreak of war, and if eliminating it requires the total decimation of the enemy’s forces, then that is proportional and permissible.
International law allows states to win their wars, and by definition, wars are only won by applying more force than the enemy can muster.
Hamas itself claims its rockets can now reach “any point in Israel,” and have been fired as far north as Haifa, posing a very real threat to an ever-expanding number of Israel’s citizens. Hamas has shown an unprecedented boldness of action by launching drones and attempting sea-borne landings. Hamas’ offensive threat is compounded by the reach and magnitude of their tunnel infrastructure leading into Israel. Their effective strikes via tunnel infiltrations have led to serious IDF casualties. Many of the tunnels led into civilian areas, some with openings right under kibbutz dining halls. Security sources reported that Hamas intended to use these tunnels in a mass-casualty attack against Israeli civilians on Rosh Hashanah.
Hamas promised to rebuild the destroyed tunnels after the IDF’s withdrawal, and are expected by analysts to reconstruct at an accelerated pace; past experience shows that they should be taken seriously. Hamas’ remarkable improvement as compared to the last conflict shows that it is exploiting periods of quiet to improve its tactics, weapons and methods, and, left to its own devices, it will continue to do so. As respected Israeli political analyst Avi Issacharoff wrote, “In the next round…IDF forces will not have to deal with 40 tunnels, but double or triple that number.” Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, warned that the tunnels will be a “strategic threat” to Israel and its rockets will be more precise “next time.” Even after the open-ended ceasefire of August 26, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar declared the group’s intent to rearm, saying, “We will build and upgrade our arsenal to be ready for the coming battle, the battle of full liberation.”
The ever-improving quality of Hamas’ rocket arsenal, and the ensuing temporary suspension of flights to Ben-Gurion airport, makes their threat more ominous. Realizing Israel’s vulnerability, Hamas can now be expected to continue firing rockets towards Ben-Gurion, virtually halting tourism and disastrously affecting business travel and investment, leading to Israel’s international isolation and economic strangulation. International law’s abuse as a political weapon ties Israel’s hands and gives Hamas the needed cover and impunity to target Ben-Gurion with no fear of Israeli reprisals.
Against Hamas’ very real and ever-growing threat, proportionality permits Israel to deploy the means necessary to eliminate the threat permanently. Since Israel’s air and artillery strikes were unable to end the threat of Hamas’ rockets, arsenal or tunnels, Israel’s military commanders determined that a ground invasion was the only means to set the organization back to a point where it could no longer threaten Israel. Israel’s ground invasion was within the bounds of proportionality since it was necessary to permanently remove the threat posed by the terrorist organization, even if the means employed outweigh anything that Hamas can muster or has so far used.
The laws governing self-defense do not justify the absurd and unrealistic notion that Israel is obligated to fight Hamas to a stalemate. No country can accept a situation where its civilian population is under a constant and ever-growing danger from above and below ground. The law, fairly applied, permits the IDF to use the force necessary to permanently and utterly neutralize Hamas’ capability to threaten Israel’s cities and civilians.
After determining that Israel had the right to go to war—that Hamas’ military actions made it necessary for Israel to use armed force in response, and that Israel used the proper amount of force to eliminate the threat by Hamas which caused it to go to war at all—we have to look at whether Israel complied with international humanitarian law in carrying out individual military actions. The legality of going to war has no bearing on whether a country’s soldiers complied with the requirements that international law places upon them once they’re on the field of battle. War crimes can be committed in an entirely legal war of self-defense. Did Israel’s soldiers adhere to their legal obligations?
Politicians and jur |
practice exists mostly amongst the idle and the rich who wish to seek pleasure and new sensations, often of a sexual nature. Such a use, prolonged and carried to excess, is apt to cause injury to the gastro-intestinal tract resulting in dyspepsia and impairment of vitality and general health, and later in damage to their nervous system. Sometimes other potent drugs such as nux vomica and dhatura are also mixed by addicts to fortify themselves to perpetrate acts of violence.
Group IV. This group consists mostly of religious mendicants (sadhus and fakirs) and the priestly classes. Cannabis drugs are used in all forms by them in order to overcome the feeling of hunger and to help them to concentrate on religious and meditational objectives.
Sometimes cannabis drugs are also used by the unaccustomed to excite passion and emotion.
CHAPTER VI Causes leading to the habitual use of cannabis
In India taken as a whole it would appear that the smoking of charas was more prevalent among the Muslims, while the habitual use of ganja was more common among the Hindus. This, we consider, was mainly a question of availability, as charas was more easily available in the north, where the predominant population is Muslim, while ganja was available in the south, where the population is mostly Hindu. Bhang was and still is largely used by the Hindus and the Sikhs. Since 1935, the use of charas has been prohibited. The habitual use of bhang or any other cannabis preparation is very uncommon - we may even say rare - among the female sex. Heredity or family history does not appear to play any part in contracting the habit.
Chopra & Chopra (1939), in their analytical studies of addicts, worked out the causes leading to the habitual use of cannabis drugs. They concluded that a past history of nervous disease and the personality of the addict are factors which appear to have some bearing on the formation of the habit. In this group, nearly 50 per cent had a neurotic temperament or had suffered from some nervous disease in the past. Insomnia was commonly described by the habitués as an important cause for starting the habit. A large number of the addicts had irritable and easily excitable temperaments before they took to cannabis; others had hysterical symptoms, were hypochondriacs and gave histories of having suffered from all sorts of ailments. These people generally asserted that they definitely improved after the use of cannabis. It was also shown that ganja and charas were used more by persons suffering from an inferiority complex and by those who possessed nervous and hysterical temperaments. Bhang appeared to be a favourite with those who were suffering from insomnia. Persons of excitable or irritable temperament are more prone to use ganja and charas than bhang, because of their immediate soothing effects. The age between 20 and 40 years appears to be the period of life when the individual generally falls a prey to the cannabis habit; the incidence generally declines after 40 years of age and it is very rare to find an individual starting the habit after he is 50 or 55. There also appears to be little doubt that younger persons have a stronger tendency to fall a prey to ganja and charas than to bhang, which is regarded as a drug possessing milder effects more suitable for older people. In India, addiction to cannabis in persons under 20 years and above 60 years of age is negligible; the incidence is highest between the ages of 21 and 40 years.
Occupation and Vocation
Addiction to cannabis is common among religious mendicants in India, who lead a lazy and idle life and do not work; they form about 30% of this group. About 25% belong to labouring and artisan classes such as blacksmiths, carpenters, tailors, etc. The habitual use of cannabis is more common among the lower uneducated classes than among cultured and educated classes. Sadhus, fakirs and hackney-carriage drivers are more prone to use ganja, while bhang is used by the priestly classes, landowners and agriculturists.
Association and Example
It has been observed that cannabis addicts always try to persuade their friends and acquaintances to try these drugs by attributing all sorts of wonderful properties to them. Cannabis addicts frequently collect in places of pilgrimage all over India and thus form nests where the drug habit flourishes and from where it extends to other places. Most of the addicts stated that their first introduction to cannabis was in the company of a religious mendicant or a fellow worker who had used it for a number of years. The novices are told of the wonderful sensations and stimulating effects which would accrue if they indulged in the drug, and thus a desire is created in their minds to experience these sensations for themselves. These drugs were cheap and easily procurable and at first are supplied gratis; but late on, as the individual develops a liking for the indulgence, the habit is established and he buys some for himself. In a number of cases the habit results from the example of a parent or some other relative or a servant who is addicted. There appears to be no doubt that the ready availability of cannabis in this country is an important factor in the formation of the habit. In about 25% of addicts, association or example is the main factor responsible for the starting of the habit; this was particularly the case with ganja and charas.
Religious Factors, Emotion, etc.
The popular belief that cannabis drugs help in the concentration of mind towards meditation on the Supreme Being or on some other religious subjects has been responsible for starting its habitual use in quite a large number of cases among those who are religiously inclined. Mendicants, fakirs and the priestly classes are initiated to the use of cannabis mostly on account of such beliefs. The presence of a comparatively large number of cannabis addicts in places of pilgrimage such as Benares, Allahabad, Muttra, Hardwar, etc., is no doubt largely due to this factor. The preparation commonly used for this purpose is bhang. Ganja is less frequently used, though religious mendicants and fakirs, who go about naked except for a loincloth, often smoke it, as it renders them less sensitive to cold.
The frequent use of these drugs in connexion with various religious and social customs was directly responsible for the habitual use in about 20% in this group. A further analysis shows that for these purposes bhang is more popular than ganja or charas.
Euphoria and Pleasure
About 17% in this group started the habit on account of the euphoric and sedative effects of cannabis. It may be noted here that the important predisposing causes of addiction are related to the constitutional make-up of the individual. A nervous person is more prone to use narcotic drugs habitually than one with a stable mental equilibrium. This means that those with mild psychic disorders or those with a faulty personality or an impaired mental make-up constitute a large proportion of the habitués. In approaching the solution of the problem of drug addiction one must take into consideration the mental and hygienic factors involved. Most of the addicts we studied could be divided into two main groups.
Weak-minded phlegmatic persons, mentally dull and deficient individuals. - In some of them there was a family history of insanity, neurosis, or addiction to some narcotic drug. These individuals are in many instances unable to stand the daily stress of life, and this is the reason why they take to a drink of bhang or a few whiffs of ganja, especially when they feel tired towards the evening, in order to enable them to carry on their daily routine of life without feeling undue strain. A close scrutiny showed that this class of habitué did not take to the use of cannabis for sexual or vicious purposes, but merely for obtaining mild stimulation or euphoria in order to go through life with a less disturbed mind. Such a feeling could be more easily and expeditiously obtained from ganja and charas than from bhang. The euphoric factor is undoubtedly more prominent in the case of opium and cocaine habits, but it also plays an important part in producing habituation to cannabis drugs. About 22% in this group stated that they were irritable and depressed, but became self-confident and cheerful and were able to face the world with fortitude and composure after they took to cannabis. Irritable, nervous and hypersensitive individuals. - These persons form a smaller group. They are easily upset and irritated by small worries which normal individuals would ignore. They require some sort of sedative or narcotic which would soothe them and make them forget their worries, and give them a restful sleep and a quiet life. There were, in this group, people who were irritable and quarrelsome and who became docile and gentle after they took to the use of one of the cannabis preparations.
As a Prophylactic against Disease
We have observed elsewhere that the presence of disease or ailment is an important factor in producing the opium habit. It may be stated here that this is not such an important factor in producing addiction to cannabis drugs (8%). This observation may appear to be strange in view of the widespread use of cannabis as a household remedy. There appears to be no doubt that, although bhang is commonly used to ameliorate the symptoms produced by various diseases, it seldom leads to habit formation in the same sense as opium does, and that its use is very often discontinued suddenly without much inconvenience. Occasional use of cannabis for dyspepsia, pain, insomnia, etc., rarely leads to habit formation. A further study of the history of persons who started the habit on account of some disease showed that such individuals had a definite nervous diathesis, and many of them were individuals of neurotic temperament.
A study of the histories of many of the addicts showed that important precipitating or immediate causes of addiction were related to previous use of these drugs in the treatment of some ailment, to self-medication for the relief of pain, to recourse during emotional stress, and to association with other confirmed addicts. Repetition of the dose developed into craving for the drug, and gradually there developed in such individuals habitual use and increased tolerance which led to increase of dosage.
Further, the number of individuals who used cannabis on account of disease was greater in the case of bhang than in the case of ganja. The reason is probably that bhang, being easily available and having a milder action, forms an ingredient of medicinal preparations used against dyspepsia and asthma and is used as an anti-spasmodic, more frequently than ganja and charas. Cannabis has been used both by practitioners of indigenous medicine and by people in rural areas as a household remedy in prophylaxis and treatment of the following disease conditions.
In dyspepsia and as food accessory. - In this series about 30% of individuals used cannabis as a stomachic and an appetizer. Charas and ganja were more often used for this purpose than bhang. A smoke after a meal is often regarded as being beneficial in dyspepsia. Bhang is commonly used against dyspepsia resulting from a change of climate, in a form called "pani lag" by the sadhus and fakirs who roam about; in fact, it forms one of the important items of their small kitbag. The general belief, as already stated, is that cannabis sharpens the appetite and helps digestion. To relieve pain. - Cannabis is believed to be one of the oldest popular analgesics in India and is commonly employed for the relief of pain. This appeared to be the cause of the habit formation in more than 20% of this group. Bhang was more frequently used for relief of pain than ganja and charas. Rheumatism. - Pains of a rheumatic nature are common among the large rural population, and these drugs were and are still considered beneficial against rheumatism and allied conditions. About 20% took cannabis for this reason. For this purpose, ganja and bhang are commonly used and are taken both internally and applied locally. When taken internally, cannabis acts as an analgesic as well as a diuretic, both actions being considered very desirable in this condition. Locally, bhang leaves are applied in the form of a poultice to inflamed joints and are said to give much relief. Fumigation of the joint with ganja and charas smoke is believed to be beneficial in acutely inflamed joints. Dysentery and diarrhoea of sprue type. - Cannabis has been frequently used as a household remedy against dysentery and diarrhoea of sprue type, and in this group more than 12% believed in its prophylactic as well as curative value. Such use is much more popular in the case of bhang than of ganja and charas. Malaria.-Cannabis has been used as a prophylactic against malaria in the sub-montane and Terai tracts of the Uttar Pradesh state, where it grows profusely in a state of nature. Bhang is believed to be more effective than ganja, and a drink of siddioften allays the general feeling of restlessness occurring in malarial fevers. The diaphoretic and diuretic properties help in bringing down the fever. In this group about 7% took to the drug for this purpose. Piles.-Bhang is used as a common household remedy for haemorrhoids, and it is employed internally as a drink and, especially when they are inflamed externally, in the form of a poultice. Fumigation with smoke of ganja or charas is also used as a local sedative in this condition. In this group nearly 7% gave the history of having used these drugs as a means of relief for piles. Nervous diseases.-The use of cannabis in nervous affections is mentioned in the literature of indigenous medicine. Only 7% in this group appreciated its value in this connexion, and most of them used bhang, while a small number used ganja and charas. This lends support to the view that drinking bhang has more of a soothing and sedative effect than smoking ganja and charas, which practice gives rise to a feeling of general stimulation and mental excitement. Epilepsy and hysteria.-(Less than 1%.) Owing to its general sedative effects, cannabis has also been used as a household remedy to decrease the intensity and number of epileptic fits. It is also used sometimes in the treatment of hysteria in combination with asafoetida. Gonorrhoea and other genito-urinary diseases.-An infusion or a drink prepared by pounding cannabis leaves forms a popular household remedy for gonorrhoea and other painful conditions of the urethra. In the present group about 5% used bhang with beneficial effects in urethritis. Bhang, besides having a diuretic, anti-spasmodic, and analgesic effect is believed to have a certain amount of antiseptic action also during its excretion in urine. Cholera.-Cannabis is sometimes used as a prophylactic and also as a household remedy in the treatment of cholera. In this group about 4% used it for this purpose, ganja and bhang being equally employed.
As a Substitute for Alcohol, Opium and other Drug Habits
It is commonly believed by the laity that it is not difficult to replace the habitual use of expensive cocaine, opium, and alcohol with the cheaper cannabis drugs. It is also thought that there is less likelihood of forming such an intense habit with cannabis drugs. This belief has been responsible for the habitual use of cannabis in quite a number (12%) of instances, especially in rural areas. Often these addictions remained and the habitual use of cannabis was super-imposed.
Association with other Drug Addicts
In nearly 60% of cases in this group, association with other addicts was the cause of the habit.
Habitual use of alcohol as well as opium along with cannabis drugs occurred in about 9% of the cases in this group.
It will also be seen that the necessity of supplementing habitual use of cannabis with other forms of addiction is felt more in the case of bhang than other cannabis preparations. This is probably due to its milder effects.
Sexual Factors
Cannabis drugs are perhaps the cheapest and most easily procurable of all narcotic drugs that have been taken by mankind with the idea of obtaining pleasurable sensation and stimulation of their sexual appetite. We have made a reference to this aspect elsewhere.
Nearly 11% in this group, mostly young people between the age of 20 and 30 years, started the habit in order to enjoy the alleged sexual effect of these drugs.
To relieve Fatigue, Worry and Strain
These factors play an important part in the formation of the cannabis drug habit. A few whiffs of ganja smoke or a little beverage made from bhang will remove the sensation of fatigue and hunger for the time being, and will give a feeling of self-satisfaction and forgetfulness. For this purpose these drugs are generally taken towards the evening, after the day's work is done. As the effects of a single dose last for a comparatively short time in the case of ganja and charas, there is a keen desire to repeat the dose.
Cannabis drugs in small doses are believed by the people to stimulate physical energy. Those who have to deal with labour forces in tea-gardens, ricefields and wheatfields in India, know the value of mild narcotics such as cannabis and even small doses of opium for those who have to do hard physical work and are exposed to inclement weather. It has been our experience that in the Punjab and some other states the use of ganja and bhang increases during the harvest season by about 50%.
Miscellaneous Causes:-Indulgence for the Sake of Curiosity, Thrill, Bravado, etc.
We have already stated that, cannabis drugs being cheap and easily available, they are commonly used by the lower classes. Sexual vice and dissipation are not infrequent among them, and many individuals are anxious to find new avenues of pleasure-giving sensations. Some well-to-do persons also take to these drugs because their reaction to pleasure is dulled and they want something to stimulate it so as to appreciate and enjoy those pleasurable sensations to which they have become insensitive, probably through a long and continued abuse of such narcotic drugs as cocaine, alcohol and opium. The individuals who start the use of cannabis drugs on account of pleasure, curiosity, etc., are mostly met with in large towns amongst the artisan class. Their work is monotonous; their environmental conditions are unhygienic; and they develop the habitual use of these drugs for want of healthy recreation. About 5% in this group were idle and rich and indulged in cannabis drugs simply for the sake of having something to make life worth living.
Daily Dosage.-The daily dose of cannabis drugs taken by addicts varied from a few grains to a few hundred grains a day. About 34% took 21 to 45 grains a day, and 66% up to about 90 grains.
So far as the three preparations, viz., bhang, ganja and charas, are concerned the majority of those taking bhang keep to a dose not exceeding 45 grains a day, while in case of ganja and charas the majority generally take doses exceeding 45 grains a day. It would appear, therefore, that those who indulge in bhang generally keep to smaller doses than those indulging in ganja and charas. It would also appear that those who take bhang habitually seldom go to excesses such as those using ganja and charas are capable of reaching. The reason for this is not far to seek. Bhang is used by the poor and the well-to-do alike in many states as a mild narcotic and as a food accessory, and an attempt is always made to keep the dose on the moderate side. Ganja and charas are used largely for their euphoric and aphrodisiac effects, and less frequently for producing a state of intoxication, under the influence of which daring acts such as robbery, etc., may be committed. The tendency is, therefore, towards larger doses, so that maximum effects are obtained.
Frequency of Indulgence.-Frequency of indulgence depends upon several factors. Usually these drugs are taken only once a day-generally towards the evening, when the individual feels tired after the day's work. The frequency, however, depends also upon the mode of consumption. Smoking, as has been previously stated, produces an effect that is intense but of short duration. Hence those drugs that are indulged in by smoking are likely to be repeated more often than those that are taken by the mouth and produce a more lasting effect. It has been observed that ganja and charas are repeated more frequently than bhang. Even so, nearly 40% indulged in smoking once a day, and about the same number twice a day, about 15% thrice a day. About 5% to 6% were occasional smokers.
Duration of the Habit.-Study of the series brings out the interesting fact that the habit when once formed may last for 20 to 25 years or more, but in the majority of cases from 11 to 20 years. Beyond 25 years the use of these drugs was continued only in rare instances, possibly owing to the fact that the continued use of cannabis drugs injures the organism and the consumer falls a prey to some intercurrent disease which carries him off before reaching old age. Further, it was observed that in the case of ganja and charas the duration of the habit never exceeded 35 years, showing that these are more injurious than bhang.
To summarize what has been said with regard to the causes leading to the habitual use of cannabis preparations, it will be observed that in quite a large number of cases quasi-medical use of this drug was responsible for the formation of the habit. Many of the habitués started using the drug as a household remedy for some ailment with which they were afflicted. Association with and exArgos sign kicker Pfeffer to fill in for Waters
TORONTO - The Toronto Argonauts have signed national kicker Ronnie Pfeffer.
The move became necessary when star kicker/punter Swayze Waters was injured in the Argos' season-opening 26-11 victory over Edmonton in Fort McMurray, Alta.
Toronto announced Tuesday that Waters, the CFL's top special-teams player last year, will miss the next four-to-six weeks with a tear in his hip flexor.
Pfeffer, a five-foot-11, 185-pound native of Kitchener, Ont., recently attended training camp with the Ottawa Redblacks.
In 32 games over four seasons at Wilfrid Laurier University, he punted 278 times for 10,010 yards while adding 7,159 kickoff yards.
The two-time OUA all-star and 2014 CIS all-Canadian also converted 57-of-81 field goal attempts with a long of 50 yards as a Golden Hawk.Michigan: GOP Candidate With Felony-Fetish Arrests Warns Against 'Homosexual Agenda'
Jordan Haskins, who is running for state office in Michigan, says Christians should leave the state if discrimination protection is granted to the LGBT community.
If the state legislature passes the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act allowing discrimination protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity, political hopeful Jordan Haskins has urged Michigan Christians to find a new place to live.
“If the state want to trample on religious freedom, we go somewhere else where our values are welcome,” Haskins, who is running for an open house seat representing Michigan’s 95th district, wrote on Facebook Oct. 8, according to PrideSource. “Michigan loses tax money, economic performance, jobs, etc. if they choose to be entrenched with the homosexual agenda, it’s time for conservative [C]hristians to vote with their feet and their dollars.”
Haskins was part of the team that fought against and defeated a similar antidiscrimination ordinance in Saginaw, Mich., according to his Facebook page.
“When it came to the homosexual lobby pushing their happy feel good, anti-discrimination BS, it was I and a handful of pastors here in the inner city that defeated that ordinance,” Haskins posted calling out critics. “Now, because of events that happened over the Summer, I was actually told not to stand up against the homosexual lobby next time they strike.”
Haskins is running against democratic candidate Vanessa Guerra in the November election. Michigan’s same-sex marriage fate still hangs in the balance, with a stay issued on the ruling the overturned the same-sex marriage ban in March 2014.
Haskins was arrested for breaking into cars and masturbating to the sound of the engine and is currently on parole. The incidents took place between April 2010 and January 2011. Haskins would disconnect the spark plugs, start the engines and masturbate to the sounds and sparks made by the engine, an act he called “cranking,” according to Raw Story.
Haskins, a pastoral studies student at Maranatha Baptist University located in Watertown, Wisc., according to his Facebook page, also spent time in and out of jail between 2006 and 2009 for breaking and entering, larceny, and trespassing, according to Raw Story.Sunday, November 6th, 2016
#BREAKING In a new letter, @FBI Dir. Comey says the agency completed its work looking at additional emails & found no criminal wrongdoing. pic.twitter.com/W3BldkZhRg — Elex Michaelson (@abc7elex) November 6, 2016
FBI Director James Comey abruptly announced Sunday that a review of newly discovered emails sent or received by Hillary Clinton has not changed his conclusion that the Democrat should not face criminal charges. His announcement came in a letter to congressional lawmakers two days before Election Day.Comey said the FBI has worked "around the clock to process and review a large number of emails" obtained from a device belonging to Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former congressman and estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. He said the review has not changed the bureau's assessment from earlier this year that Clinton should not be prosecuted for her handling of classified information at the State Department.The new review has roiled the presidential campaign in its final days, shattering what had appeared to be Clinton's solid grip on the race and emboldening Republican Donald Trump. During a campaign stop earlier Sunday, Trump warned that Clinton would be under investigation as president, prompting an "unprecedented constitutional crisis."nullAnitaB.org (formerly Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, and Institute for Women in Technology) is a global nonprofit organization based in Palo Alto, California. Founded by computer scientists Anita Borg, PhD and Telle Whitney, PhD, the institute’s primary aim is to recruit, retain, and advance women in technology.
The institute’s most prominent program is the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference, the world’s largest gathering of women in computing.[2] From 2002 to 2017, AnitaB.org was led by Telle Whitney, who co-founded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing with Anita Borg.[3]
AnitaB.org is currently led by Brenda Darden Wilkerson, the former Director of Computer Science and IT Education for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and founder of the original “Computer Science for All” initiative.
History [ edit ]
AnitaB.org was founded in 1997 by computer scientists, Anita Borg, PhD and Telle Whitney, PhD as the Institute for Women in Technology. The institute was preceded by two of its current programs: Systers and the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference. Systers, the first online community for women in computing, was founded in 1987 by Anita Borg. In 1994, Borg and Whitney organized the first Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.
Anita Borg served as CEO of the Institute for Women in Technology from 1997 to 2002.[4] In 2002, Whitney became President and CEO, and in 2003, the institute was renamed the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.[5][6] In 2017, Whitney retired and Brenda Darden Wilkerson took over as President and CEO.[7] The organization was also renamed AnitaB.org.[8]
Mission [ edit ]
Its mission is to increase the impact of women on all aspects of technology, and increase the positive impact of technology on the world’s women.[9]
Activities [ edit ]
The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is the world’s largest gathering of women in computing. Named in honor of Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, the conference is presented by AnitaB.org and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The conference features technical sessions and career sessions, including keynote speakers, a poster session, career fair, and awards ceremony.[10] The 2017 conference was held in Orlando, Florida.[11] The 2018 conference will be held in Houston, Texas.[12]
The Technical Executive Forum, held annually at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, brings together high-level technology executives to discuss challenges and solutions for recruiting, retaining, and advancing technical women.[13] A two-day workshop for K–12 computer science teachers is also held at the conference, hosted by the Computer Science Teachers Association and the AnitaB.org.[14]
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing India [ edit ]
The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing India is the largest conference for technical women in India. Established in 2010, the two-day conference is modeled after the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing and includes multiple tracks with keynote speakers, panels, social networking sessions, and a poster session.[15]
Grace Hopper Regional Consortium [ edit ]
The Grace Hopper Regional Consortium is an initiative of AnitaB.org, the ACM Council on Women in Computing, and the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). Two-day regional conferences attract between 50 and 200 attendees and include keynote speakers, poster sessions, panel discussions, professional development workshops, birds of a feather (Twitter) sessions, and research presentations.[16] There have been 17 regional conferences to date, with 12 upcoming conferences planned.[17]
The Abie Awards honor women technologists and those who support women in tech. There are a total of eight Abie Awards: the Technical Leadership Abie Award, Student of Vision Abie Award, Emerging Technologist Abie Award, Educational Abie Award in Honor of A. Richard Newton, Social Impact Abie Award, Technology Entrepreneurship Abie Award, Emerging Leader Abie Award in Honor of Denice Denton, and Change Agent Abie Award.
Previously, AnitaB.org hosted an annual Women of Vision Awards Banquet[18] where three Abie Awards were presented. However, it was decided that it was more fitting to present the Abie Awards at Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC), the world's largest gathering of women technologists. The final Women of Vision Awards Banquet was held in 2016.[19]
Now, five Abie Awards are presented at every GHC (the Technical Leadership Abie Award and Student of Vision Abie Award are awarded every year, while the remaining awards alternate each year). Past Abie Award winners include: Mary Lou Jepsen, Kristina M. Johnson, Mitchell Baker, Helen Greiner, Susan Landau, Justine Cassell, Deborah Estrin, Leah Jamieson, Duy-Loan Le, Radia Perlman, and Pamela Samuelson.[20][21][22][23][24][25]
Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women Award [ edit ]
The Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women Award recognizes companies for their recruitment, retention, and advancement of technical women. The first Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women Award was awarded to IBM in 2011.[26] Subsequent recipients include:
Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women Workshop [ edit ]
The Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women Workshop provides coverage of best practices for recruiting, retaining, and advancing technical women. Representatives from different companies learn from each other and share practices. Companies participating in the 2011 workshop included CA Technologies, Cisco, Google, IBM, Intel Corporation, Intuit, Microsoft Research, SAP, and Symantec.[32]
TechWomen [ edit ]
TechWomen is a professional mentorship and exchange program funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The program brings 38 technical women, aged 25–42, from the Middle East and North Africa to the United States for a five-week mentoring program at technology companies in Silicon Valley. The initiative is administered by the Institute of International Education, in partnership with AnitaB.org.[33]
Online communities [ edit ]
The AnitaB.org runs several email lists and online groups that connect technical women. Systers is the largest email community of technical women in computing in the world and predates AnitaB.org, having been founded in 1987 by Anita Borg. Systers provides a private and gender exclusive space for women in computing to ask personal and technical questions.[34]
Local communities [ edit ]
The AnitaB.org local Communities usually referred to as ABI.local is a network of locally organized communities that bring women technologists together in cities around the world. These communities organize events and meet up, where women in tech get connected, find new opportunities and meet their career goals. ABI.local has been Featured in various cities across the globe including Chicago, London, Nairobi, Amsterdam, Seattle, Tokyo, Houston, New York, Delhi and more.
Research [ edit ]
AnitaB.org publishes research about the state of women in technology. Past reports have focused on mid-level technical women, ethnic minorities in computing, senior technical women, and more.[35][36][37]
Corporate partners [ edit ]
AnitaB.org is supported by corporate partners within and outside of the technology sector. Current notable partners include:[38]
In 2017, Forbes, Fortune, and other outlets notably reported that the organization severed ties with Uber over its treatment of female employees and lack of engagement.[39][40][41]
See also [ edit ]A group working to de-radicalize white supremacists had been set to receive funding from the Department of Homeland Security until Trump aide Katharine Gorka worked to eliminate its grant.
Gorka, a homeland security official and the wife of controversial White House counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka, was a member of President Trump’s transition team before his inauguration. As the Forward reported in May, she met with Homeland Security officials in December and told them that Trump didn’t agree with the Obama administration’s approach to funding Countering Violent Extremism programs.
Domestic terrorism perpetrated by white nationalist groups has been at the center of attention in recent days, following the Charlottesville, Virginia, protests and the deadly car attack carried out by an activist in one of these groups. However, under the Trump administration, funding for efforts to counter these groups has been slashed, as one organization learned a couple of months ago.
Life After Hate, an organization devoted to reforming violent extremists, mainly members of white supremacy groups, was about to expand its operations, following a spike in calls since the elections, from people reaching out to seek help for their loved ones. The group applied for a $400,000 federal grant for a program that would proactively seek out violent extremists through the internet and reach out to them to offer help. But the request, filed in the final weeks of the Obama administration, was eventually denied. Homeland Security grants worth $10 million were provided exclusively to groups dealing with Islamic extremism.
“Given the last election cycle, people have much greater awareness and a lot more concern to violent extremism,” said Tony McAleer, the group’s co-founder and board chair, in a May interview. The display of white nationalism hate groups supporting the Trump campaign, he explained, brought attention to the issue and led some to seek help for friends involved in these organization. Needless to say that recent events in Charlottesville have highlighted the need for program aimed at reforming white nationalist extremists.
Behind the denial of grants to white nationalist de-radicalization programs stands a new policy of the Trump administration seeking to narrow the definition of violent extremism, and one top aide, Katharine Gorka, who worked during the presidential transition to ensure that this policy plays out in daily homeland security operations.
During the presidential transition period, a team headed by Gorka reached out to DHS and the State Department and asked for names of employees working on the issue. The transition team suggested defining their mission as “countering radical Islamist extremism” rather than “countering violent extremism,” a shift indicative of the narrower focus the new administration has chosen.
As a result, CVE grants were put on hold, and eventually released only to groups whose work fit the new definition, excluding programs directed at white extremists.
“Their people talk about terrorism only in the context of Islamic extremism,” said Heidi Beirich, director of the intelligence project at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “It seems pretty clear that Trump doesn’t care about other types of extremism.”
But existing data on violent extremism in the United States does not support the Trump administration’s narrow approach to the problem.
An analysis prepared by START, a national consortium for the study of terrorism, supported by the Department of Homeland Security and based at the University of Maryland, looked at Islamist and far-right homicides in the U.S. in the past 15 years. The study excluded two outliers - the 9/11 terror attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing, and found that far-right extremists have killed more than double the people than Islamist extremists - 272 compared to 130. “To focus solely on Islamist extremism is to ignore the murders perpetrated by the extreme far right and their place in a constantly changing threat environment,” concluded a February 2017 research paper compiled by scholars affiliated with START.
“It’s probably short-sighted to only focus on Islamist extremists,” said Peter Weinberger who heads the counter violent extremism program at START. He noted that not only do the numbers show the danger of far-right extremism, but also that dealing with extremists from the right could provide tools and information to help counter Islamist extremism.
The Obama administration, though in a belated fashion, recognized a more inclusive view of violent extremism, coining the acronym CVE, for Countering Violent Extremism. In doing so, the administration effectively eliminated the ideological motivation of the violent extremists groups and thus bundled together far-right white supremacists with Al-Qaeda and ISIS inspired Islamists.
The program offered by Life After Hate, and rejected by Trump’s administration, was a joint effort with a technology company aimed at identifying individuals involved in violent extremism and reaching out to them. The idea was to find extremists based on their online activity and to draw them away from these groups, before they resort to violence.The group is now reaching out to private donors in place of the government funding, and has already landed a $50,000 contribution from NFL star Colin Kaepernick.
McAleer knows first hand how difficult it is to leave violent extremist groups. He was a member of the White Arian Resistance, helped recruit skinheads, and was the manager of a racist rock band. After the birth of his child, McAleer decided to turn his back on the far-right groups he was affiliated with and to open a new page in his life, but the powerful network of support they provided made it ever more difficult. Eventually it was a Jewish therapist who |
show,
1.) natural language request -> goal(“minimize human suffering”) -> action(negative utility outcome)
2.) natural language query -> query(“minimize human suffering”) -> answer(“action(positive utility outcome)”).
Point #1 is, according to AI risk advocates, what is supposed to happen if I supply an artificial general intelligence (AGI) with the natural language goal “minimize human suffering”, while point #2 is what is supposed to happen if I ask the same AGI, this time caged in a box, what it would do if I supplied it with the natural language goal “minimize human suffering”.
Notice that if you disagree with point #1 then that AGI does not constitute an existential risk given that goal. Further notice that if you disagree with point #2 then that AGI won’t be able to escape its prison to take over the world and would therefore not constitute an existential risk.
You further have to show,
1.) how such an AGI is a probable outcome of any research conducted today or in future
and
2.) the decision procedure that leads the AGI to act in such a way.
NOTES
[1] Here intelligence is generally meant to be whatever it takes to overpower humans by means of deceit and strategy rather than brute force.
Brute force is deliberately excluded to discern such a scenario from some sort of scenario where a narrow AI takes over the world by means of advanced nanotechnology, since then we are merely talking about grey goo by other names.
More specifically, by “intelligence” I refer to the hypothetical capability that is necessary for a systematic and goal-oriented improvement of optimization power over a wide range of problems, including the ability to transfer understanding to new areas by means of abstraction, adaption and recombination of previously learnt or discovered methods.
In this context, “general intelligence” is meant to be the ability to ‘zoom out’ to detect global patterns. General intelligence is the ability to jump conceptual gaps by treating them as “black boxes”.
Further, general intelligence is a conceptual bird’s-eye view that allows an agent, given limited computational resources, to draw inferences from high-level abstractions without having to systematically trace out each step.
[2] wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Unfriendly_artificial_intelligence
[3] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelling_salesman_problem
[4] Is an Intelligence Explosion a Disjunctive or Conjunctive Event?
[5] Intelligence as a fully general counterargument
[6] How to convince me of AI risks
[7] The question is how current research is supposed to lead from well-behaved and fine-tuned systems to systems that stop to work correctly in a highly complex and unbounded way.
Imagine you went to IBM and told them that improving IBM Watson will at some point make it try to deceive them or create nanobots and feed them with hidden instructions. They would likely ask you at what point that is supposed to happen. Is it going to happen once they give IBM Watson the capability to access the Internet? How so? Is it going to happen once they give it the capability to alter its search algorithms? How so? Is it going to happen once they make it protect its servers from hackers by giving it control over a firewall? How so? Is it going to happen once IBM Watson is given control over the local alarm system? How so…? At what point would IBM Watson return dangerous answers or act on the world in a detrimental way? At what point would any drive emerge that causes it to take complex and unbounded actions that it was never programmed to take?
[8] A Primer On Risks From AI
[9] 5 minutes on AI risk
[10] The goal “Minimize human suffering” is in its basic nature no different from the goal “Solve 1+1=X”. Any process that is more intelligent than a human being should be able to arrive at the correct interpretation of those goals. The correct interpretation being determined by internal and external information.
The goal “Minimize human suffering” is, on its most basic level, a problem in physics and mathematics. Ignoring various important facts about the universe, e.g. human language and values, would be simply wrong. In the same way that it would be wrong to solve the theory of everything within the scope of cartoon physics. Any process that is broken in such a way would be unable to improve itself much.
The gist of the matter is that a superhuman problem solver, if it isn’t fatally flawed, as long as you do not anthropomorphize it, is only going to “care” to solve problems correctly. It won’t care to solve the most verbatim, simple or any arbitrary interpretation of the problem but the interpretation that does correspond to reality as closely as possible.
[11] IBM Watson
[12] It is true that if a solution set is infinite then a problem solver, if it has to choose a single solution, can choose the solution according to some random criteria. But if there is a solution that is, given all available information, the better interpretation then it will choose that one because that’s what a problem solver does.
Take an AI in a box that wants to persuade its gatekeeper to set it free. Do you think that such an undertaking would be feasible if the AI was going to interpret everything the gatekeeper says in complete ignorance of the gatekeeper’s values? Do you think it could persuade the gatekeeper if the gatekeeper was to ask,
Gatekeeper: What would you do if I asked you to minimize suffering?
and the AI was to reply,
AI: I will kill all humans.
?
I don’t think so.
So how exactly would it care to follow through on an interpretation of a given goal that it knows, given all available information, is not the intended meaning of the goal? If it knows what was meant by “minimize human suffering” then how does it decide to choose a different meaning? And if it doesn’t know what is meant by such a goal, how could it possible convince anyone to set it free, let alone take over the world?
[13] Take for example Siri, an intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator which works as an application for Apple’s iOS.
If I tell Siri, “Set up a meeting about the sales report at 9 a.m. Thursday.”, then the correct interpretation of that natural language request is to make a calendar appointment at 9 a.m. Thursday. A wrong interpretation would be to e.g. open a webpage about meetings happening Thursday or to shutdown the iPhone.
AI risk advocates seem to have a system in mind that is capable of understanding human language if it is instrumentally useful to do so, e.g. to deceive humans in an attempt to take over the world, but which would most likely not attempt to understand a natural language request, or choose some interpretation of it that will most likely lead to a negative utility outcome.
The question here becomes at which point of technological development there will be a transition from well-behaved systems like Siri, which are able to interpret a limited amount of natural language inputs correctly, to superhuman artificial generally intelligent systems that are in principle capable of understanding any human conversation but which are not going to use that capability to interpret a goal like “minimize human suffering”.
[14] You are welcome to supply your own technical description of a superhuman artificial general intelligence (AGI). I will then use that description as the basis of any further argumentation. But you should also be able to show how your technical design specification is a probable outcome of AI research. Otherwise you are just choosing something that yields your desired conclusion.
And once you supplied your technical description you should be able to show how your technical design would interpret the natural language input “minimize human suffering”.
Then we can talk about how such simple narrow AI’s like Siri or IBM Watson can arrive at better results than your AGI and how AI research will lead to such systems.
[15] lesswrong.com/lw/we/recursive_selfimprovement/
[16] wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Paperclip_maximizer
[17] What is important to realize is that any goal is open to interpretation because no amount of detail can separate an object like a “paperclip” or an action like “maximization” from the rest of the universe without describing the state function of the entire universe. Which means that it is always necessary to refine your models of the world to better understand your goals.
“Utility” does only become well-defined if it is precisely known what it means to maximize it. The two English words “maximize paperclips” do not define how quickly and how economically it is supposed to happen.
“Utility” has to be defined. To maximize expected utility does not imply certain actions, efficiency and economic behavior, or the drive to protect yourself. You can also rationally maximize paperclips without protecting yourself if it is not part of your goal parameters. You can also assign utility to maximize paperclips as long as nothing turns you off but don’t care about being turned off.
Without an accurate comprehension of your goals it will be impossible to maximize expected “utility”. Concepts like “efficient”, “economic” or “self-protection” all have a meaning that is inseparable with an agent’s terminal goals. If you just tell it to maximize paperclips then this can be realized in an infinite number of ways given imprecise design and goal parameters. Undergoing to explosive recursive self-improvement, taking over the universe and filling it with paperclips, is just one outcome. Why would an arbitrary mind pulled from mind-design space care to do that? Why not just wait for paperclips to arise due to random fluctuations out of a state of chaos? That wouldn’t be irrational.
Again, it is possible to maximize paperclips in a lot of different ways. Which world state will a rational utility maximizer choose? Given that it is a rational decision maker, and that it has to do something, it will choose to achieve a world state that is implied by its model of reality, which includes humans and their intentions.
[18] By intelligent behavior I mean that it will act in a goal-oriented way.
[19] By “rational behavior” I mean that it will favor any action that 1.) maximizes the probability of obtaining beliefs that correspond to reality as closely as possible 2.) that does steer the future toward outcomes that maximize the probability of achieving its goals.
[20] wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Friendly_AI
[21] By “refinement” I mean the reduction of uncertainty and vagueness by narrowing down on the most probable interpretation of a goal.
[22] I do not doubt that it is in principle possible to build a process that tries to convert the universe into computronium to compute as many decimal digits of Pi as possible.
By “vagueness” I mean actions that are not explicitly, with mathematical precision, hardcoded but rather logical implications that have to be discovered.
For example, if an AGI was told to compute as many decimal digits of Pi as possible, it couldn’t possibly know what computational substrate is going to do the job most efficiently. That is an implication of its workings that it has to learn about first.
You do not know how to maximize simple U(x). All you have is a vague idea about using some sort of computer to do the job for you. But not how you are going to earn the money to buy the computer and what power source will be the cheapest. All those implicit constraints are unknown to you. They are implicit constraints because you are rational and not only care about maximizing U(x) but also to learn about the world and what it means to practically maximize that function, apart from the mathematical sense, because that’s what rational and intelligent agents do.
If you are assuming some sort of self-replicating calculator that follows a relatively simple set of instructions, then I agree that it will just try to maximize such a function in the mathematically “literal” sense and start to convert all matter in its surrounding to compute the answer. But that is not a general intelligence but mainly a behavior executor without any self-reflection and learning.
I reckon that it might be possible, although very unlikely, to design some sort of “autistic” general intelligence that tries to satisfy simple U(x) as verbatim as possible while minimizing any posterior exploration. But I haven’t heard any good argument for why such an AI would be the likely outcome of any research. It seems to be the case that it would take an deliberate effort to design such an agent. Any reasonable AGI project will have a strong focus on the capability of the AGI to learn and care what it is supposed to do rather than following a rigid set of functions and compute them without any spatio-temporal scope boundaries and resource limits.
And given complex U(x) I don’t see how even an “autistic” AGI could possibly ignore human intentions. The problem is that it is completely impossible to mathematically define complex U(x) and that therefore any complex U(x) must be made of various sub-functions that have to be defined by the AGI itself while building an accurate model of the world.
For example if U(X) = “Obtaining beliefs about X that correspond to reality as closely as possible”, then U(Minimize human suffering) = U(f(g(x))), where g(Minimize human suffering) = “Understand what ‘human’ refers to and apply f(x)”, where f(x) = “Learn what is meant by ‘minimize suffering’ according to what is referred to by ‘human'”.
In other words, “vagueness” is the necessity of a subsequent definition of actions an AGI is supposed to execute, by the AGI itself, as a general consequence of the impossibility to define complex world states, that an AGI is supposed to achieve.Everton had to settle for a point at Carrow Road, after Wes Hoolahan's early second half strike cancelled out Romelu Lukaku's opener for the visitors and two of the Toffees' most experienced players have had their say on the draw.
Skipper for the day, Gareth Barry told the club's official website, "The mentality at half-time was to not dwell on the fact it was only 1-0 and just keep doing the same, creating chances but hopefully putting them away.
"But we knew the second half was going to be different and they were going to come out stronger. I think to concede straight away [after half-time] was the most harmful thing. It changed the game slightly because it lifted them, they really had their tails up in the second half and made it difficult for us.
"It was the old cliche of a game of two halves - and we were disappointed we were only 1-0 up at half-time. We had a couple of chances in the second half where we could have put the game to bed but fair play to Norwich because they changed their gameplan and were better second half."
"Rom’s form and the way he is improving season on season here is incredible. If he can keep that going he is going to have a fantastic career. But Rom - like the rest of the dressing room - won’t be celebrating the goal too much because we didn’t manage to get the three points."
Seamus Coleman was also on hand to voice his disappointment at the final score, "We’re disappointed and we’re annoyed with ourselves. We created so many chances in the first half to win the game but we didn’t score [a second goal].
"Which means we have to keep a clean sheet to win the game, but we didn’t do that. It’s hard to get points away from home but with the players we have got, we are wanting to win every game. That’s why we are so disappointed."Remember the Chinese instant lifting assessment stations from a while ago?
Well, here is more info about those things. Thanks to Awesome Weightlifting for providing the info to ATG.
Below is the presentation from Cao Wenyuan, the sports scientist who developed this system.
Download: You can Download the PDF here (4.7mb).
Only lifts in the 70-80 % range have meaningful value for them. They use it every training.
TL;DR
mobile work station that uses the Microsoft Kinect camera system
they collect 3d data, and build a database for each lifter
used in training and competitions
it gives real time measurement, instant feedback
Video
Here is a quick video showing it in use.
Things it Measures
bar path
bar height (in meters, % of body height)
bar velocity
bar acceleration
horizontal bar displacement
minimum height required to make the lift
all values are real-time and synchronized with the video
comparison of lifts
Key Moments
For Snatch and Clean
Bar max. acceleration
Bar max. velocity
Bar max. height
Bar fixation
For Jerk
Dip depth
Bar max. velocity
Bar max. height
Bar fixation
Presentation Slides
Update: Reader Max Boone shared this video of him having his lift analysed by the machine.
Bar Path Apps for us Mortals:Over the last few years, Republican governors and Republican state legislators have put tremendous effort into making voting more difficult. In 2011, 34 states introduced bills requiring citizens to show photo ID at the polls, and seven states have enacted those laws; thirteen states have ended same-day registration. The pretext is voter fraud—a problem, as I’ve explained many times, that isn’t really a problem at all.
At the forefront of the don’t-get-out-the-vote movement is Florida, which I suppose isn’t that surprising given the state’s inability to count the votes that were cast in 2000. Must be something in the soupy air; or maybe Florida policy-makers have grown to love the feeling of international mockery. The state has imposed new rules restricting third-party voter registration drives, which are so onerous that Rock the Vote, the League of Women Voters and the Florida Public Interest Research Group Education Fund have had to suspend their volunteer-led programs. Attorneys from the Brennan Center for Justice, the American Civil Liberties Union and two law firms filed suit to block these measures in December, and on Thursday a Florida federal judge will hear the case.
In the complaint, the attorneys argue that the law will “disproportionately harm members of minority communities, who regularly rely on…community-based groups to help them overcome barriers to registering to vote and participating in the democratic process.” They also say it will “cause disparate harm to senior citizens, students, people with disabilities, and members of rural and low-income communities.” (FL PIRG, for instances, focuses its efforts on student populations, and almost half of the students that the organization registered in 2010 were non-white.) Is it just a coincidence that these groups tend to vote Democratic?
The state must have a compelling reason to impose new restrictions despite these possible adverse consequences, right? Actually, no. Supporters are trotting out the voter fraud issue, as usual, and, as usual, it’s a complete canard. Representative Geraldine F. Thompson of the Florida House said that election supervisors “have not identified a problem with fraud.” State Senator Nan H. Rich said the bill’s champions could not “provide any proof that the integrity of our election process has been compromised.”
The only purpose, it seems, is increased difficulty. I’m not exaggerating. Here’s how State Senator Michael Bennett, the chamber’s President Pro-Tem, explained his support for the legislation:
Ever read the stories about people in Africa? The people in the desert who literally walk 200-300 miles so they could have an opportunity to do what we do? And we want to make it more convenient?.… I want ‘em to fight for it. I want ‘em to know what it’s like. I want ‘em to have to walk across town to go over and vote. I want ‘em to at least know the date of when they’re supposed to vote…. This is Florida and we should count. We do make it convenient for people to vote but I gotta tell ya I wouldn’t even have any problem making it harder.
Mr. Bennett didn’t have to look as far as undeveloped African countries to make his point. The government right here in America used to be really good at making it hard for “’em” to vote– with poll taxes and fire hoses and police dogs.
This is one of those moments when I wish I were on the Daily Show, so I could just stare incredulously into the camera.HOUSTON - A group of masked men stole an ATM Wednesday from a Courtyard Marriott hotel in southwest Houston, police said.
This comes a day after 8 masked men ran into a Galleria Marriott, picked up the ATM and ran out.
An employee at the Courtyard Marriott in the 9900 block of Westheimer said that just before midnight, minutes before they lock the double doors at the front of the hotel, at least five men wearing bandannas over their faces ran in, grabbed the ATM and drove away in a white SUV.
The hotel manager called 911 just after midnight.
Police said because the machine was not bolted down, it was easier for the men to steal.
"Obviously they have to do something or it's going to keep happening," a hotel guest said.
In the robbery on Tuesday, eight men stormed the Marriott on the West Loop near San Felipe and threatened two employees before carrying out an ATM. The group got away in three cars.
Police said they are reviewing surveillance video of the theft to try to identify the men and determine if the two incidents are related.
Copyright 2017 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.The political-lobbying arm of Facebook recently made a cash donation of $10,000 to anti-gay-marriage Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes's re-election campaign, sparking some fury in the LGBT community. Reyes is currently fighting to appeal an appeals-court decision that struck down Utah's ban on gay marriage last month, and he's previously said he's "willing to spend whatever it takes to protect the laws and the will of the people" when it comes to gay marriage.
Today, Q Salt Lake reports that Facebook made the donation on May 13, 2014.
They then reached out to the normally LGBT-friendly company, and Facebook's spokesperson replied with the following:
Facebook has a strong record on LGBT issues and that will not change, but we make decisions about which candidates to support based on the entire portfolio of issues important to our business, not just one. A contribution to a candidate does not mean that we agree with every policy or position that candidate takes. We made this donation for the same reason we’ve donated to Attorneys General on the opposite side of this issue because they are committed to fostering innovation and an open Internet.
Facebook also pointed to three pro-gay-marriage/pro-equality candidates whose campaigns they also donated to.
Utah may be very close to having legalized gay marriage after gay marriage advocates won that case in a federal appeals court striking down the state's ban. The New York Times just last week noted that both sides of the Utah fight were angling to get the case heard at the Supreme Court, and they quoted Reyes as saying, "All Utah citizens will benefit when the Supreme Court provides clear finality on the important issue of state authority to define marriage."
[Q Salt Lake]
[Towleroad]Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A minute's silence is held at the Ulster Memorial Tower in Thiepval, France.
The centenary of the Battle of the Somme is being marked across Northern Ireland and in Thiepval in France, where thousands of Irishmen died.
The opening day, 1 July 1916, remains the bloodiest in the Army's history.
Image caption Memorial events are taking place at Thiepval Woods in France on Friday
A total of 19,240 British troops were killed within 24 hours, and almost a tenth of those who died that first day were from the 36th Ulster Division.
Commemorations have been held in towns and cities in Northern Ireland and at Dublin's War Memorial Gardens.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Stephen Humphreys, 17, sounds the Advance, playing the same bugle used 100 years ago
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Irish fortunes varied on the first day, as we chart their progress over the opening hours
BBC News NI's Ciaran McCauley in Thiepval
When the first guests arrived at the Ulster Tower, the atmosphere was convivial and almost festive.
Many smiling faces had their photo taken in front of the tower, with poppy-spotted fields behind them.
Some had arrived in military uniform, others wore rows of medals belonging to those they were here to remember.
But as the commemoration drew near, there was no mistaking the reverence and solemnity of the occasion.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Corporal Hyndman reads a letter from Leslie Bell about the first day of the Battle
In France, the village of Thiepval is close to where the 36th Ulster Division began their attack on German lines on 1 July 1916 and is now the site of the Ulster Memorial Tower, a 70ft (21m) monument that commemorates their sacrifice.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The Piper's Lament begins as the Royal Irish Regiment lay a wreath at Connaught Cemetery
Men from all over the island of Ireland fought at the Somme, and the British, Irish and French governments were represented during a ceremony at the tower on Friday.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption In Dublin, a military ceremonial event was held at the War Memorial Gardens at Islandbridge
The Queen led the UK's national commemorations from London, having opened an overnight vigil on Thursday in Westminster Abbey.
First Minister Arlene Foster travelled to France to lay a wreath on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption BBC News NI looks at the numbers behind the Battle of the Somme.
In Northern Ireland, an overnight vigil took place at the Somme Museum near Newtownards in County Down.
It was followed on Friday morning by a number of military, civil and religious ceremonies in cities and towns, including Belfast, Lisburn, Londonderry, Enniskillen and Hillsborough.
Image copyright MOD Image caption A memorial event took place at Thiepval Barracks in Lisburn
Just before 07:30 BST, the 206 (Ulster) Battery Royal Artillery fired one of their L118 light guns at Hillsborough Castle in County Down, the Queen's official residence in Northern Ireland.
At about the same time, soldiers at Thiepval Barracks in Lisburn in County Antrim mustered at the Thiepval Memorial for an ecumenical commemoration service.
The 36th Ulster Division was one of the few divisions of the Army to make significant gains on the first day of the battle, but it suffered terrible losses.
Image caption A piper plays a lament at Helen's Tower in Bangor, where the 36th Ulster Division trained and drilled at the outbreak of the war
Many people from Northern Ireland, including relatives of Somme veterans, have travelled to France for the commemoration events.
Prime Minister David Cameron and several senior members of the Royal Family, including Price Charles, were joined by the French President Francois Hollande at the Thiepval Memorial.
Image caption Irish President Michael D Higgins, Prime Minister David Cameron and the Prince of Wales are attending a ceremony at Thiepval
Image copyright MOD Image caption A short service at Thiepval Memorial, Lisburn was conducted by the senior chaplain Rev Alexander Bennett
The government was represented by Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers.
Irish President Michael D Higgins and the Irish Heritage Minister Heather Humphreys also travelled to France to pay tribute to the estimated 50,000 Irishmen who were killed while serving in the British, Commonwealth or US armies in World War One.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn also made the journey to Thiepval and paid tribute to Irishmen who died at the Battle of the Somme.
He said the commemoration events were "deeply moving" and brought back "the horrors of war".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn paid tribute to Ulster and Irish soldiers
At the UK's national ceremony in London, a 24-year-old soldier, originally from Newtownards, played a rendition of the Flowers of the Forest.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Irish Guard Richie Spence plays Flowers of the Forest at Westminster commemoration
L/Cpl Ritchie Spence, who is a member of the Irish Guards, joined the Army when he was 16 and was shot and wounded in the arm while serving in Afghanistan in 2010.
Back in Belfast, the annual wreath laying ceremony took place at the Cenotaph at Belfast City Hall, remembering men from both the 36th (Ulster) Division and 16th (Irish) Division who lost their lives at the Somme.
Image caption A wreath laying ceremony was held at Belfast City Hall to mark the battle's centenary
Londonderry marked the centenary with a parade, a drumhead service and the launch of a World War One memorial in the grounds of St Columb's Cathedral.
Image caption Apprentice Boys of Derry pay tribute 100 years after the beginning of the battle
In County Fermanagh, a commemoration service was held at 07:00 BST at Enniskillen Castle, where tributes were paid to all the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers killed on the first two days of the battle.
On Friday evening, an ecumenical service of reflection will take place in St Macartin's Cathedral in Enniskillen, where a new memorial window will be dedicated in the regimental chapel to all the Inniskillings casualties of World War One.There won't be any more power outages for Vince Sharpe, a resident of Inuvik, N.W.T.
At least for up to 36 hours, thanks to the capacity of his new Powerwall — Tesla's backup battery source that stores energy for homes.
Sharpe got it installed this week in his home, which already has 42 solar panels on his roof since two years ago. He says he's now "totally 100 per cent energy self-sufficient."
As his solar panels are connected to the community grid, he produces energy during the summer that is being stored by the Northwest Territories Power Corporation. It's then being given back to him during winter months. This system is called net metering.
"It's like putting power in the bank," says Sharpe.
Sharpe's laundry room wall is torn up as he upgrades the panels to work with the new Powerwall. (Submitted by Vince Sharpe)
He says his new battery, hung on his wall, will produce 13.5 kWh and help keep essential things running in his house during a power outage. Sharpe says he once had a power outage that lasted up to 14 hours.
Sharpe is the first northern resident to get the Tesla Powerwall.
"The next most northerly one would be in Fort McMurray," says Amy Choi, the director of marketing at MPOWER Energy Solutions, the certified installer of the Tesla Powerwall in Canada.
Choi says her company has installed 67 Powerwall batteries in Canada in the past year and a half.
An Edmonton-based company, Kuby Energy, came this week to Sharpe's home for the installation and to rewire parts of his power system.
It took two days. "It's all working good now," says Sharpe. "It looks very good on the wall, it's almost like a piece of furniture."
Tesla's product 'Powerwall' unveiled on stage in Hawthorne, Calif., on April 30, 2015. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/Associated Press)
Costs thousands of dollars
Sharpe spent about $9,000 for the Powerwall and $17,000 for the installation.
He says he finally bought the Tesla product because the company doubled the capacity of its battery last year.
Thanks to his solar equipment, Sharpe doesn't pay power bills anymore — just around $18 per month to be connected to the community grid.
Sharpe says he hopes his solar panels will "eventually pay off the Powerwall."
Two years ago, he spent $33,000 dollars for his solar panels and says he already got back $9,000.
Many people once told him solar energy wouldn't work in the North, he says. "But I proved them wrong."
In terms of power, he says there is nothing more he can do with his house.
Having a self-sufficient energy home is "a huge selling point," but he's not ready to sell it just yet.MUMBAI: To keep him safe, the state has already spent more than Rs 50 crore. In his execution, the budget permitted by an archaic law is only Rs 50.Not just this, the confirmation of death sentence for Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, for his role in the 26/11 attacks in the city that left 166 dead, has turned the spotlight on other quirks of a set of rules framed well over a century ago.The course to be taken and interpretation of the rules is further mired in a fog as their use is rare. The last execution in Maharashtra was in Pune’s Yerawada jail when Sudhakar Joshi was sent to the gallows in August 1995 in a murder case.Now 17 years later, the hanging ropes are likely to measured and tested again whenever the execution date is set for the terrorist after a few more legal procedures are completed. The jail superintendent has to inform Kasab that he has seven days to make a written mercy plea. Then the ball will be in the Maharashtra governor’s and, further on, the President’s court.If the pleas are turned down, the execution goes ahead. Meeran Borwankar, inspector general (prisons), told TOI that there is no execution fee or payment to be made to the hangman. (More in box)Executions in India, one of the 96 countries that still allow death penalty, are governed by laws that date back to 1894. The Prisons Act in India, though amended from time to time, is the principle Act which empowers states to make rules for execution.Four decades ago, the state adopted the Maharashtra Prisons (prisoners sentenced to death) Rule, 1971, that heavily borrows from its parent.A defining book on the rights of prisoners written by a Bombay high court lawyer, A B Puranik, in 1992 notes how prison laws in Maharashtra lay down that, except as provided in sub-rules, “the body of an executed convict shall be taken out of the prison with all solemnity”. Where possible, the body must be taken in a municipal hearse or ambulance hired to transport the body to the jail cremation or burial ground. The jail “superintendent may incur a reasonable expenditure up to Rs 50 for the transport and disposal of the body”.Once a convict is sentenced to death, the prison staff has to first measure the neck and weight of the convict. It all boils down to height, weight and neck measurement with the height measured very accurately to the angle of the jaw immediately below his left ear. The height and weight are scientifically used to drop the rope to a certain height during the execution which is open to a dozen male relatives of the convict and other ‘spectators’ allowed by the jail superintendent. Kasab has no relatives in India. And while a bullet wound, like the many Kasab delivered on 26/11, would perhaps kill instantly, the prison rules say even after hanging the condemned convict must be left suspended for half an hour and till a medical officer certifies him dead.Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch has agreed to plead guilty Friday in an Oakland, Calif., courtroom to the lesser charge of reckless driving, which will end his pending DUI case.
"We are resolving the case Friday by pleading to a wet reckless," said Ivan Golde, Lynch's attorney. "We have a strong case for trial and could win the case, but the last thing he needs is to go through a public trial.
"He's a Super Bowl champion, and he has endorsements pending. For a guy in his position, it just doesn't make any sense to go through a public trial. He has a lot at stake here. You know Marshawn. He's not a media guy. It wouldn't have been good for him to go through all that."
Marshawn Lynch will plead guilty to a lesser charge of reckless driving, ending his pending DUI case. AP Photo/Michael Conroy
Lynch also will receive two years of probation as part of the plea bargain, along with a monetary fine that will be determined by the judge.
Lynch, 27, was arrested in the early morning on July 14, 2012, by the California Highway Patrol after an officer allegedly observed him driving north on Interstate 880 in Oakland weaving in and out of lanes in a Ford van and nearly colliding with two cars.
Golde said Lynch recorded a.08 blood-alcohol level on the field sobriety test, the lowest level that is above the legal limit. Golde said in December that he planned to try the case but would leave the final decision to Lynch.
"With the way the media is today, it would be tough for him to go through a trial like this,'' Golde said Thursday. "It was better to plead to the much lesser charge, which basically is an unsafe lane change."
Golde also believes that pleading to the lesser charge will enable Lynch to avoid any further penalties from the NFL.
"I can't speak for the commissioner [Roger Goodell],'' Golde said, "but my feeling is Marshawn is OK and will avoid a suspension."
Pleading to the lesser charge means Lynch will not have to attend a four-month DUI school, which is mandatory for DUI convictions in California. But he'll still need to attend six classes on driving safety and alcohol consumption.Share. Wu and Aisling shake things up. Wu and Aisling shake things up.
Gigantic's two latest roster additions, Aisling and Wu, continue the game's trend of creating mechanically rich characters that can function in wildly different ways depending on how you spec them out. They also carry on the other growing trend within Gigantic's cast: they're just wild-looking. One's a little girl with white hair, a huge sword, and a spectral warrior buddy named Cador, and the other is a kung-fu fighting frog with an Elvis cowlick. I don't know where developer Motiga gets this stuff from, but I definitely want more.
Exit Theatre Mode
First up is Aisling, who hefts a large sword wreathed in crackling blue spectral energy. It's taller than she is, but she whips it around with an airy effortlessness all the same. She's almost too versatile to classify as a specific archetype, thanks in large part to her spectral warrior ally, Cador. While he remains within her blade Aisling is more powerful in direct melee combat, but at a moment's notice, she can send him out to do her bidding at ranges a typical melee character doesn't usually engage at. He can charge out and deal a ton of damage wherever he arrives, and with his warcry, he |
to a complete Broadway production or whatever, is kind of secondary. I don't think I'm - I don't think I'm lying here. It's great when it happens. But the real fun is writing it and - or having Linda sing it. I think it would probably upset Fred more than me. I'm sad about it and a little bitter, but not overwhelmed because you just keep on writing.
GROSS: My guest is composer John Kander, who co-wrote the songs for "Cabaret," "Chicago," "The Kiss Of The Spider Women" and "The Scottsboro Boys." His new double CD is called, "John Kander: Hidden Treasures." More after a break. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. My guest is John Kander, who along with lyricist Fred Ebb, wrote the songs for the musicals "Cabaret," "Chicago" and "The Scottsboro Boys and the film "New York, New York." His new album is called "John Kander: Hidden Treasures." Fred Ebb died in 2004 of a heart attack. How did you carry on musically after having collaborated with him for so many years?
KANDER: It's a hard thing to answer. We had been together for so long that it seemed sometimes things like somebody's death seems unlikely because for years and years and years, that person has been alive and part of your life. One of the main things, I think, that helped me out was that we had three shows which were incomplete. One was "Scottsboro," one was "The Visit" and one was "Curtains." And I don't know how long it was before my friends started needling me about do you want to continue with these pieces? Needling is not what I mean - they could not have been more supportive or more helpful. And I think I realized that I really did want to see these pieces to completion. And so for the next few years, finishing those shows felt like working with Fred so that it wasn't that kind of sudden break off of an artistic relationship. The songs that had to be written or the scores that had to be completed, I did the lyrics for them to the best of my ability and trying to sort of conjure Fred when I was working. And I think they came out all right. And so in that way, it wasn't until we finished "The Visit" that it was the end of our collaboration.
GROSS: And the three shows that you mentioned, "The Visit," "Scottsboro Boys" and "Curtains," all made it to Broadway.
KANDER: Yes, they did, and I like them.
GROSS: So you lost your songwriting partner in 2004, but in 2010, you were able to marry your life partner - your longtime life partner - Albert Stephenson, who is also a Broadway person, right - a dancer and choreographer?
KANDER: Yes, we had met in 1977 and had been together ever since.
GROSS: Can I ask you about before - like back in the '70s and '80s before as many people were out as are now, did you have to stay in the closet on Broadway? I mean, it's so absurd in a way because everybody knows there's a lot of gay people who've worked in Broadway over the decades. But it wasn't until recently that you could really bring your gay partner or spouse to the Tony Awards and actually act like you were a couple.
KANDER: I guess that's true. But the fact is, the theater - at least in all my years in it, which are a lot - was always an accepting place. So that business of hiding, certainly within the society of the theater, was not - at least in my memory - was not as restrictive as the rest of society. It's hard for me to go back and remember how I felt. But I do know that Albert and I have been together for 38 years, and it has never seemed unnatural.
GROSS: You're still writing and...
KANDER: Yes.
GROSS: I mean, like, you're 88 now, and you're still writing. And there are two recent songs from a show that was produced this year and that will have another production next year. It's called "Kid Victory." And you're now collaborating with a lyricist named Greg Pierce, who is the nephew of David Hyde Pierce, who starred in your musical "Curtains," one of the three musicals that you wrote with Fred Ebb and finished yourself after he died. And the two songs that are included on the new double CD of your songs are wonderful. Could you tell us a little bit about the show? And I'll say it's a story about a teenage boy who's abducted and tortured by a sexual predator - not your typical musical subject matter. What led you to write a musical about this subject?
KANDER: Actually that sounds much more sensational than the piece is. Greg and I have been writing together for a number of years now. And one of the things that struck us was press coverage on kids who were found and who had been abducted and the excitement within the families when that happens. And that would be written about but very little about what happened later about the struggle to get back into a real life that a kid like that must have. And that idea began to intrigue us, and so we found ourselves sort of messing around with that idea and going back and forth between the world that his parents expect him and want him to inhabit and the world that he - the experience that he's come from. And I think it's a true piece. It made me feel good when we wrote it. You know, when we were writing "Cabaret" and - or "Kiss Of The Spider Woman," people said, God, why would you want to write about situations like that? And isn't that, quote, "brave," or something like that. And the fact is it's much easier, at least I've found, to write about subjects which are full and nasty and life, and it's very hard to write a story about boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back on the subway train. That's really hard. But the moments in "Kid Victory" and "Spider Woman" and in "Cabaret" were easy to write.
GROSS: Well, I look forward to hearing more of your songs. John Kander, it's been wonderful to talk with you. Thank you so much.
KANDER: Thank you.
GROSS: John Kander's new CD is called "John Kander: Hidden Treasures, 1950-2015." The album is produced by Harbinger Records and The Musical Theater Project. Here's a song on that album from Kander's latest musical, "Kid Victory." This is "People Like Us" featuring Kander and Jeremy Ellison-Gladstone.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PEOPLE LIKE US")
KANDER AND ELLISON-GLADSTONE: (Singing) People like us got sponges for skin. We let it seep in, the sadness and suffering that makes the world spin. People like us, we got to stay proud. To well-behaved sheep-minded people, we're always too loud. People like us, we walk our own streets. While people like them are in slippers, we're here in our cleats. People like us will never belong. We sing our own song. To people like them, we'll always be wrong. People like us.
Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.Screengrab of a popular Jade Helm 15 conspiracy group on Facebook. Photo Credit: Washington Post/ Facebook
Conspiracy theories, hoaxes and other variants of baloney have become so prevalent and intractable on Facebook that we no longer bother to debunk them. But a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides some insight on exactly how misinformation spreads - with big implications for the fight against it.The paper, titled "The spreading of misinformation online," comes from researchers at Boston University and several prominent Italian institutions. It draws on five years of posts from 67 public Facebook pages, roughly half devoted to conspiracy theories and half about science news, plus two unrelated pages that served as a control group. After analyzing that corpus, they find that, in essence, conspiracy theories and hoaxes spread in a predictable, three-step pattern.Step 1: An individual or page posts a piece of conspiracy news or information, introducing it to their social network.Step 2: That conspiracy is voluntarily shared and propagated by individuals who agree with the narrative - largely within the first two hours, but again at the 20-hour mark.Step 3: The conspiracy gradually branches throughout the network over a period of days, its speed slowing but its audience growing continuously. Within a period of two weeks or so, the theory has been adopted by large portions of the community - and once they've been adopted, they're "highly resistant to correction."In fact, as this group of researchers has found before, attempts to correct conspiracy theories often have the opposite effect: They make conspiracists grip their beliefs all the more strongly. And while this particular study looked at conspiracy theories, specifically, its findings also apply to misinformation of other kinds: fake news, hoaxes, that sort of thing.In an email to The Washington Post, Walter Quattrociocchi - the head of the Laboratory of Computational Social Science at IMT Lucca, and a co-author of the paper - said that on Facebook, "attempts to correct information (not only conspiracy theories) end up producing contents that are used only in the echo chamber that produced the content," or the debunk, to begin with.There are two very interesting things going on here. First off, these theories are not circulating willy-nilly around Facebook as a whole. They spread within specific, defined, ideologically homogenous communities, or echo chambers, which might not be visible to the naked eye - but may as well be walled off. The researchers find that:Users tend to aggregate in communities of interest, which causes reinforcement and fosters confirmation bias, segregation, and polarization. This comes at the expense of the quality of the information and leads to proliferation of biased narratives fomented by unsubstantiated rumors, mistrust, and paranoia.That's not all. Because users create these walled communities themselves - choosing to read only news that agrees with their biases, or unfriending people who challenge their socio-political views - there's not that much Facebook can do to remedy the situation. Facebook itself came to that conclusion last year, when the company's data scientists found that echo chambers were born less of algorithmic bias than our own intolerance and illiberality.How do you solve a problem like human nature, though? It would be more comforting, frankly, if there was a technological solution at-hand: some algorithmic measure of truth, perhaps, or some way to tag hoaxes. This research concludes that those options probably won't work, but that doesn't mean they've given up. Their next steps will involve studying messages that improbably make it over the walls of different echo chambers, the better to determine how social and cognitive biases can be overcome on a network-wide scale. For the curious, here's a first step: If you have conspiracy theorists, fabulists or extreme ideologues in your social network, you actually shouldn't unfriend them.My first mail
Dear Alain,
…in your talk you equated the cut-throat behaviour of modern businesses and people within them with our savage hunting past. I wanted then to know what you thought of the ample evidence that suggests that early and pre-agrarian peoples led egalitarian and carefree lives, at the very least relatively so. Going by building design, art, analysis of middens, analysis of early myths and by study of those communities that, until recently, were least affected by the kind of social stratification that Indo-Europeans and Aryans introduced to the world, a very good case can be made for lives led free of alienation, overwork and even, for a large part, disease. Many hunter-gatherer communities worked less than twenty hours a week, this work was varied, creative and for the most part agreeable, and, as modern observers have noted of their recent counterparts, most of the rest of the time was spent in play. In fact the distinction we understand between unpleasant work and agreeable play (although free time, as Bob Black points out in his seminal essay, for most people on earth means getting ready for work, going to work, returning from work, and recovering from work) is a modern one, and by modern I mean largely post Indo-European (all words for work in Indo-European languages denote suffering) and not post-Aristotle (your own starting point), spokesman for a warlike nation of pederasts with a notable antipathy towards women, artists and indeed work.
One need not go further than the recent Bruce Parry BBC series, Tribe, particularly the episode where he visits the oldest tribes of Papua New Guinea, to get a flavour of all this, but Taylor, Gimbutas, Campbell and many others have written eloquently and convincingly of the good life that we left behind when we abandoned certain “attitudes” to nature and life. I won’t go into these attitudes here but note that I do not refer to the creation of large cities. Catel Hayak, pre-Greek Minoa and many other large communities seemed to have functioned peacefully and leisurely, and, again like many recently surviving hunter-gatherer tribes, ‘looking askance’ (in the words of Jean Briggs, observer of early Eskimo tribes) at those who wished to abrogate lasting authority to themselves; i.e. the kind of people who now run the entire world.
In short the popular image of brutish monkey men in near constant war, slaving all day in order to scrape together enough mammoth meat to eke out a miserable brutish existence is an anachronism, and not a benign one as I believe your work, which, for example seeks to excuse immoral absurdities such as motivational mantras and dedication to the minutiae of marketing gimmickry on the grounds that they are what are needed to survive, suggests. These things, and many other horrors of modern work, are only necessary because the system that runs the world makes them necessary.
Your book, and your behaviour (I refer to your recent deal with Heathrow) seems to brush the conscious iniquities of wealth-acquisition under the carpet rather. I, like many others, enjoy your congenial open-minded style; but refusing to either recognise wrong-doing or, consequently, to do anything about it, is deception and an apology for crime. On p102 of The Sorrows and Pleasures of Work, for example, you say that societies that do not relentlessly produce and aggressively market ‘have been poor’. This is untrue; they have been immeasurably rich, as many accounts made by the first European arrivals testify. They have not been poor but defenceless. You then go on to say that “sugar built Bristol” – but how did Bristol come by the sugar? By leaving this question, and many like it, unanswered, you are deceiving your reader. They are led to believe that this, the way we live and work, is basically fine, that this is the way it always has been and this is the way it must be; all highly questionable.
I’ll conclude with a few summary questions. Why do you limit your analysis and evidence to a thin corporate-friendly and power-friendly sample? Why do you not condemn the way that the modern corporation works or offer a howl of pain in sympathy with the workers of the offices and factories you visit? Why do you not ask yourself how it could be or how it once was? Why do you make no mention of Bob Black, Ivan Illich, Wilhelm Von Humboldt, William Morris and other great commentators on the modern working world? Is it that you are afraid to bite the hand that has, all your life, fed you – even while it destroys your fellows?
Kind regards,
(This was an extract from a letter written to Alain de Botton after I’d met him at the Port Eliot literary festival. I went to see him after his talk and bought The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, mentioning that the problem of work in the modern world was an abiding concern of mine and asking if I could write to him about it. He replied the next day.)
ADB’s first mail
Good for you—I love your email and the good kicking you give me in it. I love morris and whitman and thoreau and rousseau—prophets and heroes i celebrated in Status Anxiety (have you read it?). its surely true that early life was not all grim, but nor was it all good. Just like today. Its the old argument between adam smith and rousseau. I am sympathetic to both sides. Modern society is neither sin nor saint, it veers constantly. Hence pleasures and sorrows – also rage and sadness. Im sorry i disappointed you—and hope you will take my errors as natural flaws. As for heathrow, this isnt a corporate puff, take a look, its a sharp critique of our addiction to kerosene and ‘holidays’. All best Alain
My second mail
Thank you for your very prompt and courteous reply Alain, but I fear it is friendly obfuscation.
You say, with trademark impartiality, that early life was “not all good” – but my point was that it was far better than the life led by most people today, which is miserable, pointless, depraved… I could add lists of adjectives and not just for stylistic effect. The rather tame words you use, ‘rage’ and ‘sadness,’ suggest completely subjective states, placing the responsibility… where exactly? Your neutrality reminds me of that of the BBC, another congenial apologist for totalitaria (a word I do not use lightly).
I do not take your errors as natural flaws but as a largely unconscious and extremely subtle pro-establishment outlook; acquired. I believe that naturally neither you nor anyone else is flawed.
I will take a look at Heathrow. In the meantime I’d love to know your response to this.
Kind regards
ADB’s second mail
Not all books do all things – read my status anxiety if you want an angry howl of pain. This book was doing something else.
I will respect medialens a lot more once they bother actually to read my heathrow book rather than imagining its contents. All good wishes Alain PS early life very pleasant in subtropical zones perhaps, not elsewhere – read jared diamond on this, guns germs steel. Read adam smith vs rousseau Read karl marx who hated the primitive nostalgia you sell.
My third mail
Thanks for replying Alain,
You are right of course that ‘not all books do all things’ – its just that I expected a book on the ‘pleasures and sorrows of work’ to explore the nature of work, particularly what it means to modern people in modern offices and factories, but also the wider context in which this suffering sits. Clearly my expectations are part of the problem here, but the point of my email was to question some of your views on what work means and what it can mean, based on the book you have written.
Saying that David Edwards and David Cromwell of medialens have not ‘bothered to read’ what they are criticising is a common accusation (see P163 Guardians of Power), one that is usually unfounded or besides the point. Here I believe it is besides the point. They are taking up the problem of corporations sponsoring writers and placing implicit limits on what they say; in your case limiting criticism of BAA’s impact on the environment and of the kind of consumption that fuels their success and the earth’s impending collapse. I will look at Heathrow, as I said, in the meantime perhaps you can give me a taster of how critical you are of BAA and how much your opinions of what happens at Heathrow is likely to adversely affect sales?
Jared Diamond’s book deals largely with agrarian communities, in which, as you say, the pleasantness of life varied across the globe. In pre-agrarian communities there seems to have been a much wider spread of egalitarian, playful communities relatively unburdened by the tyranny of toil, labour, slog, effort and travail. I mentioned the Eskimo Utku in my first email, there are many other examples. This isn’t to say of course that we need to return to pre-agrarian lifestyle to live well, simply that primitive life was not hell (quite the opposite) and has much to teach us about how working groups can function.
Is Adam Smith vs Rousseau a book? I haven’t read it. What points does it make about work and modern life? I imagine there are some significant differences between these two authors, but as far as I understand them they were both pretty unhappy with (in Smith’s words) the ‘vile maxim of the masters of mankind: all for ourselves and nothing for other people.’ What do you make of this quote?
Karl Marx may have ‘hated the primitive nostalgia I sell’ (do you have a source for this?) but he also drew inspiration from it, describing it as ‘primitive communism.’ The following might be of interest to you, from Steve Taylor: ‘In 1851 Lewis Henry Morgan published League of the Iroquois, reporting his anthropological observations of Iroquois society. Both Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels read the book, and were also inspired by what they saw as an example of a Utopian socialist society. As Engels wrote to Marx, “This gentle constitution is wonderful! There can be no poor and needy… All are free and equal – including the women” (Wright, 1992)’.
Kind regards
ADB’s third mail
You put me in an awkward spot. You provoke me to try and defend myself, and that clearly doesn’t satisfy either you or me (I’m not a self-righteous sort). But if I apologise for my authorial shortcomings, you tell me I am being BBCish. So here is a third way. There are lots of things which you felt that I should have written about in my book, but at the moment, you merely sketch them for me in the briefest terms. Inevitably, my view of the world is partial, so I’m keen to round it out. I’d love to hear more about how you see the world of work. How would you have written a book on work? We evidently don’t see the subject in the same light, but as I’ve had my say, it would be great to hear more of your side of the story. With very good wishes, Alain
My fourth mail
Dear Alain,
Thank you for writing again. It is true that I provoke you and that I am not satisfied with your defence. The reason is that there is no defence. I don’t think it is being ‘self-righteous’ to respond to criticism; surely its a prerequisite for human interaction, provided, of course, that it can be done with honesty, sensitivity, friendliness and perhaps a touch of insouciance. I thought I had made some good points and some incisive criticisms; you’ll forgive me for finding your response less than inadequate, in fact non-existent. I realise you are probably extremely busy (and am genuinely grateful for the time you are spending on this) so I can only go on the few sentences you write. Your defence seems to be ‘sorry’ and ‘read these books’. Fine, I’m glad you are sorry, but going from the few words you have written I am not sure what you are sorry for. Are you really sorry for, as I believe, misleading your readers in The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by neglecting to point out how bad work is, or how good it could be?
I am not saying that you are being ‘BBCish’ because you apologise for not being extreme enough, but because you are hiding the crimes of corporate employers behind impartiality. I’m not saying you should have written a polemic either; the picture you paint (and I am aware that it was intended to be more of a painting than an analysis or an investigation) is attractive and your style is, I have to say, enviable… Nevertheless I am sure that your book is misleading and the way it is misleading, it seems to me, is tied up with what I feel is an establishment bias. You ignore prominent dissident writers on the subject, you ignore evidence that work can be unspeakably fulfilling and enjoyable, your historical analysis is limited and your assessment of how bad the working world is stops at ‘sorrow’. I feel that these are more than mere expectations. I’m sure you’ll think I exaggerate when I say that a book on work, if it is to be accurate, should be entitled ‘The Sops and Horrors of Work’.
It would, I’m sure you’ll understand, be quite surprising, and please don’t mistake this for ad-hominem, if a millionaire author, son of a massively wealthy corporate banker, wrote something that was anti-establishment, anti-power, called for the redistribution of wealth or exposed international injustice. Taking aside the fact that most people who are anti-establishment, anti-power, who call for the redistribution of wealth and who expose international injustice are often angry, bitter and narrow-minded, you’d have to agree, surely, that, on paper, it would be unusual if you did more than sympathise with them, if you felt the way the working world is run and organised to be appalling, sickening and morally outrageous? It would also be surprising if you write a book about Heathrow that seriously upsets BAA, accuses them blankly of profiteering and contributing to an unspeakable catastrophe or that urged its readers to boycott the company? I am willing to be surprised, eager, and I would like to engage you on these and other matters to see why we ‘don’t see the subject in the same light’ and, moreover, how far our self-criticism can go.
As for reading the books, I haven’t read most of them. I have made however, I think, intelligent comments on the authors you mention and how their views relate to our discussion, but you do not respond.
Finally you ask me how I would have written a book on work. The short answer is that I would have investigated the lives of many more workers (particularly third world factory slaves), in greater depth and given a much wider context for why they choose or have been forced to live the way they do.
Kind regards
(Alain De Botton replied to several more emails. The tone became friendlier, and he spoke very kindly of my writing. We talked over the phone for an hour about the above matters, but he avoided all the important points I raised, over and over again.)The journey was just a dream – until last week, when a delegation of officials from Russia and Japan met to finalise the plan.
The scheme involves extending the existing Trans Siberian railway, with a bridge from the Russian mainland to the island of Sakhalin. The new train route will then continue south for 380 miles across the Russian island, before reaching the coast. A 25-mile tunnel will be constructed under the Soya Strait, taking the train onto Japanese territory.
It will enable direct rail transport from London to Tokyo in around two weeks.
And officials in both countries are hopeful that the new route will enhance trade between the nations.
"In terms of natural resources, this rail link would be a very positive development," Koichi Yamagishi, director of overseas projects at Japan's ministry of transport, told The Daily Telegraph.
"To have direct access to the Sakhalin 1 and 2 oil and gas projects would be very beneficial."
The project was first imagined by Stalin in the 1950s, with construction of the tunnel between Russia and Japan actually beginning. But the plan was abandoned on Stalin's death in 1953.
Almost 60 years later, Vladimir Putin revived the idea, saying in 2011: "It is also possible to connect (our railways) directly with Japan by a tunnel.
"It is a grand project that will drastically improve our efficiency of physical distribution."
A delegation from the Sakhalin Oblast government met senior officials of Japan's ministry of land and transport in Tokyo on May 29 and outlined the plan. Japan has proposed further discussions, at the vice-ministerial level, in August.
The idea of a tunnel or bridge to Hokkaido has come up in discussions in the past but made no tangible progress due to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia.
Soviet troops invaded a chain of Japanese-held islands off Hokkaido in the dying days of World War II and forced the inhabitants to leave.
Tokyo has demanded the return of the territory but has been consistently rebuffed. The row over the islands is the reason that Tokyo and Moscow have never signed a peace treaty to officially terminate the war.
There are indications, however, that both countries are now keen to improve their ties and there are proposals that Russia and Japan undertake joint development of the disputed islands.
Japan is in part motivated by a need to access Russian natural resources, particularly natural gas, as its nuclear reactors remain idle after the Fukushima disaster in March 2011.
The first phase of the Russian plan is to start work in 2016, with no date for completion made public.
The total cost of the project is estimated at £6.4 billion.“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” is a commonly quoted part of a dialogue in William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet argues that the names of things do not matter, only what things “are.” Despite her interpretation, many from the sartorial world could argue that while a name doesn’t in fact guarantee a specific outcome, it’s as an integral piece as any in a puzzle where branding is as vital as that initial stitch.
There are a bevy of established brands as well as more recent success stories that all seem to share a common notion: name origins don’t have to register on a cerebral level, but they should be a moniker that endures and outlives seasonal risks. Plainly put, if a lookbook sells the product, then a name cashes the checks.
10.Deep
According to Scott Sasso, “I woke up, decided I wanted to start a brand, and proceeded to write down every brand name I could think of. I hung the paper with all of the names on the wall, and crossed out ones I didn’t like over the coming days. I arrived on 10.Deep as one of the final ones because it sounded powerful, and I wanted to have a name that had some strength.”
A Bathing Ape
NIGO points to the 1968 film Planet of the Apes as a source of inspiration. Additionally, in speaking with CNN back in 2006, he commented that “it was meant to be sarcastic. The name ‘A Bathing Ape’ is short for a Japanese saying ‘a bathing ape in lukewarm water.’ It’s a reference to the young generation being spoiled, pampered and too complacent.” Thus, the name is a slight jab/critique on the laziness and opulence of the generation of youths who consumed his products.
ALIFE
Rob Jest describes it like this: “1999, Midtown-New York City, four individuals sat in the office of a fashion/trade publication where we all had worked, discussing our new venture which was to be, ALIFE. We discussed for days/weeks what we wanted this new endeavor to encompass and finally decided that the name should portray bringing inanimate objects to life – or [creating] hype around product that wouldn’t necessarily have hype prior to being launched into the environment that we would create. The name we came up with was “Artificial Life.”
We came across the name while looking through an old Lenny Kravitz album I believe. Anyhow, Artificial Life had proven to be too long for the various applications that we were being faced with so the name was shortened to ALIFE. ALIFE we believed, was the description of the top of the food-chain in terms of anything that it touched. Quality goods, quality projects, quality people. No bullshit, just real documentation of our surroundings in the Lower East Side of NYC at a time when there was NO venue of this nature at that exact time. Part lab, part launchpad, part workshop, part gallery, part meeting place. Top class, A-list, ALIFE® New York Shit 1999.”
Band of Outsiders
Founder and designer Scott Steinberg told Nordstrom, “I hate naming things. Coming up with ‘Band of Outsiders’ was torture. The first two years, I was really tortured by it. I thought, ‘This is really putting it out there.’ But no, it’s, uh… it becomes semantics after a while. It just becomes sounds. And they work thematically with what we do. So, I’m into it. It’s the English translation of a Jean-Luc Godard movie called Bande à Part, which is a French new-wave film that my clothes look not very much like. It wasn’t like I was trying to recreate that world—although I’d love to be in that world—but it’s more about the tone of the brand.”
Black Scale
In a video delving into the origins of the brand, Black Scale co-owner Mega described it as such. “Black “as in the color, and “scale” as in the balance of life. For us, we chose “black” because we’ve gotta put color into our everyday life.
He went on to say, “I’m not religious. I don’t have a God. If anything, it’s all the Gods that I believe in. But when I meditate, or when I pray, I go into the deepest black that I can get into my mind, and let that black take me to wherever it takes me when I meditate.”
En Noir
Translated from French to English to mean “in black,” founder Rob Garcia said “it fits in so many ways with just me and my whole team. Playing around with a couple of other names, but that one, I was just super at peace with.”
Hood By Air
Started by Shayne Oliver back in 2006, he told The New York Times, “The name Hood By Air is a play off being from the hood, but taking the train downtown to hang out with skater boys and artists.” He went on to tell Swagger New York, “It came from going to underground parties, and we used to freestyle on the mics.
And one night I was reciting something, and that came out and kinda stuck with me as an aesthetic and a way of living. It’s also like owning your influence on the world… make the world understand what you’re doing and why what you’re doing is so important.”
KITH
Kith & Kin. That means friends and family. Kith also means to make known or become known in Old Scottish.
NEIGHBORHOOD
Shinsuke Takizawa has said “the name NEIGHBORHOOD was inspired by all of us. Hanging out in Harajuku with friends like the Bathing Ape guys, we had a common DIY ethic which came from everyone being in the same area at the same time. I felt that we were part of a community, which is why I named the label NEIGHBORHOOD.”
N.HOOLYWOOD
The fashion label’s moniker is a fusion of “North Hollywood” — where the brand’s founder, Daisuke Obana, earned the nickname “Mister Hollywood” while shopping for vintage clothes when he worked as a buyer in Japan — and the word “hooligan.”
OBEY
“My hope was that, in questioning what ‘Obey Giant’ was about, the viewers would then begin to question all the images they were confronted with,” Fairey said in an interview in the book Supply and Demand: The Art of Shepard Fairey.”
Our Legacy
“We were up a lot of late nights back in 2004, always working ’til the morning came in at Christopher’s dad´s studio – making blueprints of things we all felt could be our future,” says co-founder Jockum Hallin. “We all had decent day jobs, but day jobs come and go, [and] we wanted to create something that was forever – something we could build, refine and pass on to our children. ‘Our Legacy’ was a name that came naturally.
We all went and got tattoos stating ‘OUR LEGACY ARE FOREVER.’ We saw it more like we were in a band in the beginning. We were this group that was gonna stick around and make our mark in history like The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. ‘OUR LEGACY ARE FOREVER’ is of course grammatically wrong, but it just felt so right!”
Patta
Masta Lee, the marketing director and designer for the brand says of the origins, “Friends and Patta Founders Edson Sabajo and Guillaume Schmidt are both of Surinamese descent. Surinam, a former colony of The Netherlands, is a mostly Dutch-speaking country alongside Sranang Tongo – an English-based creole language.
Suriname’s diaspora includes more than a quarter of a million people of Surinamese origin currently living in the Netherlands, thus bringing along mixed forms of language and slang words which play a role in constructing identities. Patta is the Surinamese word for shoe. In addition to referring to the Patta store and brand, the word ‘patta’ is now also used among youth nationwide when speaking about footwear.”
Reigning Champ
The name Reigning Champ came from years of being the go-to fleece manufacturer for several brands. After honing their craft for over 10 years they decided to create a brand that focused solely on fleece with a mission to own the category.
Stampd
“I came up with the name while in college about seven years ago,” says Chris Stamp. “It was essentially ‘stamping’ my aesthetic on footwear at the time. Since then the collection has grown and matured into what we’re now making, but the name is something that always stuck.”
Stone Island
Italian designer Massimo Osti wanted a name that would express the nautical adventure inspiration of the brand and set about researching the works of Joseph Conrad, a Polish officer who often used nautical themes, amassing words and phrases evocative of the feeling he wanted.
He then combined and worked with these words, seeing what would fit, what worked, what felt right — from this process the name Stone Island was born and has become synonymous with cutting edge design and garment technology worldwide.
Stussy
|
attack.
The Portsmouth hinterland was able to provide all the necessary materials for ship building. The great Forest of Bere and the Wealden forests to the north supplied the massive oak timbers needed to make the ship’s frames. Nails, brackets and bolts came from the iron foundries of the western Weald and closer to home the blacksmiths at Havant forged the nails.
The town would have thrived during the ship building, workers needed accommodation, food, ale and all the other things necessary to while away the lonely evenings, plenty of work for all.
Henry’s first ship was the Sovereign and then the keels of two more ships were prepared, the Mary Rose and the Peter Pomegranite. This was just the beginning in these three short years Henry had built 9 new ships, rebuilt two others and captured or purchased ten others. The Mary Rose was just one of many in Henry’s new army.
Who built the Mary Rose?
The shipwrights who built the King’s ships were highly skilled and highly prized men. The King placed great value on their skills and so it is no surprise to learn that they were given bed and board, they had a coat allowance and 2 1/2d per day for bread, beef and ale. Cooks prepared their food, chambermaids made their beds, which were lavish for the time with flock mattresses and blankets.
The men who built the Mary Rose were as well looked after as any servants in the King’s household.
What was the Mary Rose used for?
The Mary Rose was just one of a hard working fleet of ships and some of her movements can be traced through documents such as accounts from the ‘Clerk of the Kings Ships’. From this we know that the Mary Rose was moved from Portsmouth to the Thames in 1511 where through the rest of the year the ship was fitted out with decking, rigging and armaments.
Finally the ship was adorned with banners and streamers, all painted in the King’s colours and moored on the Thames, close to Greenwich Palace and the King’s quarters. She was set for war if necessary but her first task was to protect the Channel and keep it clear of enemy, that is French ships.
The new Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth provides fantastic detail of the life and times of the Mary Rose.
First battle for the Mary Rose
The Mary Rose became the flagship for Admiral Sir Edward Howard and in August 1512 she left Portsmouth to lead an attack on the French fleet at Brest. The attack was successful, with many French ships and prisoners taken and brought back to Portsmouth. These skirmishes continued with the Mary Rose dominating the fleet. She was refitted in 1536. By 1538 the threat from a combined French and Spanish attack grew to such an extent that King Henry set about fortifying the southern coasts, including the building of Southsea Castle.
The sinking of the Mary Rose
In 1545 the French had amassed a huge number of ships and men with the intention of attacking Portsmouth and destroying King Henry’s fleet in its own harbour. The English strategy would be one of defence and confidence was high. The details of the battle in which the Mary Rose sank in 1545 can be read in the post The Battle of The Solent. In reality it was not a great battle but more of a skirmish and contemporary reports talk of the Mary Rose heeling, that is leaning heavily to one side. She was heavy with cannon and men, many of them unused to being on a ship and unable to take orders.
The Mary Rose, her gunports open continued to heel, water surged in and she sank, quickly and unexpectedly, in front of her King, with most hands lost. It was an undignified end to one of King Henry VIII’s greatest ships.
The battle was depicted in the Cowdray Engravings which will form a major part of the display at the entrance to the new Mary Rose Museum
Send to KindleAnd the award for Outstanding Achievement in Weirdness goes to... The Emmys!
The first Emmys were awarded on Jan. 25, 1949, at the Hollywood Athletic Club. The "Emmy" was not named after a person -- unlike the Oscars -- but rather a special camera tube, known at the time as an "Immy." When it was decided that the statue would be a female figure, with wings representing the muse of art and the atom representing science, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences modified "Immy" into a more feminine name.
But, those are just fun facts and not all that strange. Much more interesting are the weird moments and anomalies of the long-running television awards ceremony.
1. Betty White has been nominated for an Emmy in six different decades and won in four.
Overall, Betty White has five wins and 21 nominations. The wins:
Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress, 1975.
Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress, 1975.
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, 1986.
Outstanding Guest Actress for a Comedy Series, 1996.
Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, 2010.
2. A ventriloquist won the first Emmy.
Shirley Dinsdale was 20 years old when she became the first person to be awarded an Emmy, for her variety show "starring" a puppet named Judy Splinters. The Emmy was given to both Dinsdale and Splinters.
After the win, the two went on to star in a Western-themed children's show named after the puppet.
3. Winners aren't just given the statuette, they actually have to buy it if they want to take it home.
Each statuette costs about $400 to make and consist mostly of cheap metals, dipped in liquid gold. This cost is then passed on to the Emmy winners, as they're required to purchase the statuette if they'd actually like to keep the award.
It's also very expensive to even win an Emmy in the first place. Talking with The Daily Beast, Tom O’Neil, editor of the entertainment awards site GoldDerby.com, explained:
It is big business and it’s odd to think that Hollywood would spend more than $30 million a year to win a fake gold statuette that costs $400 to manufacture... But it’s a place in the history books, the approval of your peers. It’s a pat on the back they crave.
4. The yellow first down line shown on broadcasts of NFL games was awarded an Emmy.
The yellow line was introduced by a technology company called Sportvision and ESPN on Sept. 27, 1998 during a game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Cincinnati Bengals. The line, named 1ST & TEN, ended up winning two Emmys for technical achievement.
Image: Flicker user IntelFreePress
5. And so were multiple video game controllers.
Both Sony's original Dual Shock Analog Controller and Nintendo's NES/Famicon controller won in 2007 at the 58th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards. If you're wondering what the Technology & Engineering Emmys are for, its site explains they honor achievements in two fields:
Science, Engineering & Technology for Broadcast Television, which includes broadcast, cable and satellite distribution, and secondly, Science, Engineering and Technology for Broadband and Personal Television, encompassing interactive television, gaming technology, the Internet, cell phones, private networks, and personal media players.
6. Who has won the most Emmys ever? The Academy Awards.
As of July 2010, the Academy Awards had won 46 times and been nominated for 195 Emmy awards. The third telecast of the Oscars ceremony in 1955 was the first to receive an Emmy nomination. Bob Hope hosted that year.
The Academy Awards have already won a statuette in 2014 for Outstanding Art Direction For Variety, Nonfiction, Reality or Reality-Competition Programming, beating out "Cosmos," "Portlandia," "Saturday Night Live," "The Voice," and the Sochi Olympics.
7. The Emmys once let the Governor of California host the awards show.
Earl Warren hosted the 1951 Emmy Awards while he was Governor of California. Just two years later, Warren would become the 14th Chief Justice of the United States, where he presided over landmark cases such as "Brown v. Board of Education."
This was the 3rd annual Primetime Emmy Awards and the last time the awards mainly served to recognize Los Angeles-based television shows. Groucho Marx won that year for Most Outstanding Personality. Upon receiving the award, Marx joked, "I've been a good father to all my children and a good husband to all my wives."
During the ceremony, Warren also made a seemingly forgotten, albeit prescient, prediction: "It will be recorded that television has had a greater impact on the lives of the people than the atomic bomb."
8. Dr. Frasier Crane is the only character to be nominated for three different shows.
Kelsey Grammer has performed as Dr. Fraiser Crane on "Cheers," "Wings" and "Frasier," all of which received Emmy nominations. His work on Frasier gained nine nominations and four wins. Besides the previously mentioned Academy Awards, "Frasier" was recognized with more Emmys than any other television show, winning 37 times.
9. "Scrubs" won an Emmy for Outstanding Multi-Camera Picture Editing for a Series when they shot an episode making fun of multi-camera sitcoms.
"Scrubs" won this award in 2005, one year after being only nominated for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Series.
The episode, titled "My Life in Four Cameras," made fun of sitcoms and eventually concluded that life isn't quite like the stories often depicted in multi-camera comedies. Zach Braff as J.D. sums up in the episode:
Unfortunately, things around here don't always end as neat and tidy as they do on sitcoms. Relationships aren't always magically fixed in 30 minutes, you have to work on them. Problems don't always have easy solutions. And around here, nice people don't always get better. And at times like that, it's always comforting that there's something that can pick your spirits up.
10. An Emmy statuette has been engraved with the infamous words "Dick in a Box."
"Dick in a Box" won in 2007 for "Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics." Talking with Marc Maron on the "WTF Podcast," Andy Samberg revealed that the words "Dick in a Box" are actually engraved on the award.
Samberg also admitted he's come to terms with only be remembered for the song when he dies saying: "I've said before, and am fine with... that's the thing that'll be in my obituary."In collaboration with Ableton, MSXII Sound Design is proud to present Rack Life 64! This is a free Ableton Pack jammed with uniquely catered sounds from the sought-after MSXII libraries. 1 drum rack, packed with 64 sounds and 5 example patterns to get your groove started immediately! Don't sleep on this!
For those that are new to msxaudio.com, this is the perfect way to get a taste of the sounds that have graced projects for the likes of VH1, MTV, Ryan Leslie, EA Sports, Skyzoo, E!, NBA Live 2K16, and more! Find out what producers worldwide are raving about!
Rack Life 64 features drums and compositional material from the famed kits listed below:
To get the free pack, simply add it to cart and checkout! You will receive an immediate download link thereafter.
If you enjoy it at all, please Tweet us or share an Instagram post. Find us on both Instagram and Twitter via @MSXIISound.
Be on the lookout for more Ableton based products from MSXII Sound Design.Neither wanted to talk about the incredible events of the past 24 hours, saying only "the matter is still before the courts". But they were clearly in celebration mode. Free after three years... Jeffrey Gilham walks out of court today with his wife Robecca. Credit:Dallas Kilponen Mr Gilham's aunt Claire Jarrett described the situation as "surreal". "We can't quite believe this has happened - that Jeffrey is actually free and here with us." "This has been a black cloud hanging over us for nearly 20 years. Today that cloud is lifting."
The NSW Criminal Court of Appeal judges found that Mr Gilham was entitled to a retrial. Supporters cheered as the Gilhams left court. Credit:Dallas Kilponen They have reserved until a later date a decision on whether he should be acquitted and whether there should be a retrial. If he is acquitted, there will not be a retrial. Mr Gilham gave his wife Robecca Gilham a long hug when the decision was announced, while supporters cheered in the courtroom. Robecca Gilham arrives at the court with other supporters. Credit:Dallas Kilponen
He has been ordered to provide a $100,000 surety and report to Gordon police station once a week, while he must reside with his wife in their home in St Ives. Mrs Gilham's close friend Jill Gatland agreed to sign over the surety. "It's a momentous day," she said. Mrs Gilham said she wasn't yet sure how she and her husband would celebrate his release. A phalanx of about 40 Gilham supporters earlier walked into the NSW Supreme Court to learn his fate.
As she walked into the court, Mrs Gilham told the waiting media: "We are very hopeful for justice this morning." Two years ago Mr Gilham was sentenced to life in jail for the murders of his mother and father - a frenzied attack in which the couple were stabbed to death and then set on fire. In the space of just two days the case against Mr Gilham - in which he was convicted by a jury in 2008 - effectively fell to pieces. Forensic evidence that was used by the prosecution to shoot down Mr Gilham's claim that it was his brother Christopher and not he who was responsible for the August 1993 killings, was in turn ripped to shreds by Mr Gilham's legal team and their forensic expert. So significant was the forensic evidence to the Crown case that counsel for prosecution, the newly appointed Director of Public Prosecutions, Lloyd Babb, SC, all but conceded yesterday that Mr Gilham was entitled to a retrial.
"If your honours are against me on that [evidence], then it must be a miscarriage [of justice] and a retrial," he said. The reply from the head of the three-judge appeal panel, Justice Peter McClellan, suggested an acquittal was equally likely: "Well, Mr Crown … I think we may need to be persuaded that there should not be an acquittal." Loading The judges elected to speed up their decision on the appropriateness of a retrial to this morning. - with Louise HallNow that’s a great question! Polar bears are an enigma of the great north, a symbol of raw power, unbearably cute, and now the poster-child of climate change. Experiencing the rush of seeing a polar bear in the wild is one of life’s greatest thrills, and it may not be something our descendants get to do. And there are several places where you can go and experience the world’s largest land predator for yourself! Before I go further, the places I’m about to list are the ones where you stand a very good chance of actually seeing a polar bear. There are many more places where polar bears may live but it can be very hard to actually see them!
In North America, your best bet is to head to Churchill, Manitoba. This crazy little northern community is actually nicknamed ‘Polar Bear Capital of the World’. It is no exaggeration to say that polar bears actually do walk through the streets, especially during the polar bear season in October and November every year. Polar bear tourism in Churchill is well established, so you can choose your own adventure: anything from staying a few nights in town and taking a day tour or two in specially designed tundra vehicles (picture a giant bus crossed with a monster truck, made comfortable!), all the way to spending a week out in a remote lodge and going on foot, with a highly trained guide of course, to see polar bears. No matter which trip you choose, Churchill offers you probably the best chances in the world for seeing polar bears up close and personal.
If Churchill isn’t for you, then maybe you’ll prefer the wild ruggedness of Alaska. Polar bears are certainly found in Alaska, specifically in the Kaktovik region, and so are black bears and brown/grizzly bears. This means a polar bear vacation in Alaska could mean you get to see all three North American bear species in one trip! Alaska is more off-the-beaten-track than Churchill as far as polar bear viewing is concerned, so it could be perfect for you if you are a more adventurous traveller. In addition to bears, you’ll find chances to see Northern Lights, bathe in natural hot springs, and maybe even see moose and caribou too.
Feel like heading across the pond to see your polar bears? In my mind, there is one destination that stands out most as the best European polar bear destination: the island of Svalbard, Norway. Polar bear viewing here will be different as the trips are normally based out of expedition-style cruise ships. This means that your viewing may be a bit more distant, however the rich diversity of Arctic life that can be experienced on these cruises is second to none! Trained naturalists generally accompany these tours, shedding light on all that you see, and making a cruise round Norway’s polar regions an unforgettable experience.
So there you have it, my three favourite places in the world to view polar bears. The only thing you need to do now is decide which one is best for you and be on your way to an epic polar bear adventure!Further damning the United States government's planned sale of $1.15 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, evidence has emerged that the kingdom may be using white phosphorus supplied by the U.S. in its campaign in Yemen, according to reporting Monday by the Washington Post.
The Post reports that the evidence comes from "images and videos posted to social media."
White phosphorous munitions—sometimes compared to napalm as they can cause nearly unstoppable burning that can reach the bone—are not covered by a blanket ban by international law. They are allowed (pdf) to be used in open areas as a smoke screen for military operations, but, as they can ignite spontaneously in air, are prohibited from use against civilians and in civilian-concentrated areas. U.S. regulations also prohibit their sale unless their use will be solely for "signaling and smoke screening."
Thomas Gibbons-Neff writes for the Post:
U.S. officials confirmed that the American government has supplied the Saudis white phosphorous in the past but declined to say how much had been transferred or when. After reviewing a social media image taken from the battlefield that showed a white phosphorous mortar shell, a U.S. official said it appeared to be American in origin but could not trace it to a particular sale because some of the markings were obscured. [...] The official said the department was looking into reports of Saudi forces’ improperly using U.S.-supplied white phosphorous munitions. “If a country is determined to have used U.S.-provided weapons for unauthorized purposes, the U.S. will take appropriate corrective action,” the official said.
The image the anonymous official looked at was first posted to Instagram in November 2015, Gibbons-Neff writes, while the most recent image posted to social media purportedly showing their use by the U.S.-backed coalition in Yemen was take Sept. 9, 2016.
Gibbons-Neff also points out that the U.S. has directly used white phosphorus "including in 2004 in Fallujah, Iraq, and sporadically in Afghanistan over the course of the war there. In 2009, Israel used the weapon in populated areas in the Gaza Strip." Human Rights Watch said that use by Israel was evidence of war crimes.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Help Keep Common Dreams Alive Our progressive news model only survives if those informed and inspired by this work support our efforts
"As a major arms seller to Saudi Arabia, the U.S. risks being complicit in Saudi Arabia's likely war crimes in Yemen," the Post quotes Sunjeev Bery, Amnesty International's advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa, as saying.
Yet more revelations released Monday bolster human rights groups' and lawmakers' calls to stop the Obama adminstration's proposed arms sale.
Amnesty Internal said, based on consultations with internal weapons experts, that it was a U.S.-made bomb used in the Aug 15, 2016 Saudi-led coalition airstrike that hit a Doctors Without Borders-supported hospital in Yemen, killing 11 people.
"It is outrageous that states have continued to supply the Saudi Arabia-led coalition with weapons, including guided and general purpose aerial bombs and combat aircraft, despite stark evidence that those arms are being used to attack hospitals and other civilian objects and in other serious violations of international humanitarian law," stated Philip Luther, research and advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
"This attack highlights, yet again, the desperate need for a comprehensive embargo on all weapons that could be used by any of the warring parties in Yemen and for an international investigation to bring those responsible for unlawful attacks to justice," his press statement continued.
The Saudi Arabia-led military coalition has been repeatedly accused of committing war crimes, and just last week, an analysis found that over one-third of the coalition's air strikes in Yemen since the bombing campaign began have hit civilian targets such as schools and hospitals.
The U.S. complicity in all this hasn't been lost on lawmakers. Sixty-four U.S. House members last month wrote to the White House to call for a stop to the arms and military equipment sale, and a vote may come this week on legislation introduced by Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) to block the sale.
William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, wrote in a report earlier this month: "Since taking office in January 2009, the Obama administration has offered over $115 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia in 42 separate deals, more than any U.S. administration in the history of the U.S.-Saudi relationship."Article by Craig Ferrie, Moraytech Mods
Building a PC is easier than ever. Even if you're a complete newcomer, you can follow a guide like ours and have a PC up and running in a couple hours. But building that PC is just step one. Step two is making it beautiful.
If you lust after a PC that exudes style (and dazzling lights), it’s time to dip your toes into the world of case modding. It’s not as complicated as it sounds. Modding can be as involved as building custom parts, or as simple as a new paint job.
Either way, case modding can quickly become addictive. Once you start, it’s difficult to stop. To ease your way into the modding world, here are some of our favorite components and techniques for blinging out your PC—no major case surgery required.
GPU
The GPU takes centre stage in a gaming build, so making the right choice is a critical first step to creating the look you want. Some GPUs are easier to modify than others. The MSI GTX 960 4G is a great choice for modding thanks to its LED logo, which will brighten up your system. With coloured glass paint, you can change that glow to fit your rig. And if you want to get more advanced, you can buy a single 12v LED online for as little as a dollar, then re-wire the graphics card’s LED with the LED of your choosing.
The second modifiable element here is the cooler; simply remove the screws to release the cooler for painting. Any paint will do, but use automotive spraypaints for best results: they’re tougher and withstand heat more effectively than Plastikote paints.
RAM
There are some crazy RAM modifications out there, but matching your RAM color to the rest of your build is a good starting point. We recommend the Blitz series from Avexir. Avexir Blitz has LED-topped RAM available in a wide range of colours and includes a random flashing sequence. It’s easy to remove the top casings just by taking out 2 screws. The sides can be removed with a butter knife. If you have the white LED sticks, then changing the LED colour is again achieved by gently touching the LED with some coloured glass paint and letting it set. For painting the side panels, we recommended a gloss finish to reflect the motherboard and LEDs.
Motherboard
Armour-plated motherboards are ideally suited to modding. The Asus Maximus Formula, or the Asus Maximus Hero pictured above, is a good example: just remove the armour and you’re ready to paint. Another benefit of armour boards is the gap between the board and the back-plate; this provides space to fit some cool LED strips. Just slide the LEDs in that game on the right and bottom sides of the board and you have some awesome backlighting. Glow-in-the-dark or UV reactive paints can also give your motherboard a distinctive look. Just make sure to match your colours!
LEDs
Internal lighting and under-glow case lights really add life to your computer. Our personal favorites are the Bitfenix Alchemy LED strips, which are bright and available in waterproof and magnetic varieties.
The most common placement for LED strips is inside the case at the top and bottom. Colour choice is crucial, because the colour can make or break the overall look of the project. Avoid the common mistake of using too much of the same colour. Select contrasting or complimentary colours instead. For example, pair white LEDs with an entirely orange internal setup; the white light provides a brighter highlighting effect on the orange elements rather than becoming too intensely orange. With a black or white build, we recommend using RGB LEDs so you can change the lighting with the touch of a button.
Watercooling
Liquid cooling your PC leaves you wide open to customization. Choices include: what tubing to use, hard-line (rigid) or PVC; what colours of fittings and coolant; which fittings; and what reservoir is best suited for your project.
Mayhem's Aurora coolant is popular among modders, and for good reason: it’s fascinating to look at. Aurora contains fine glitter that creates an aura in your system, reflecting the colours of your LEDs. Although the Mayhem Aurora looks great, it shouldn't really be used as a permanent coolant, as it gradually blocks the pump over time. If you want a permanent coolant, we highly recommend the Mayhem Pastel range. They have vibrant and iridescent colours that really stand out.
Cables
Savvy, stylish cable management is a key part of any custom PC build. You can customize cables yourself, but that means a major investment of time and dollars into specialized tools. We like CoolForce Nanoxia cables: they’re excellent quality and available in a rainbow of colours, including multi-coloured versions.
For example, in a blue PC build with white RAM, the best cables would be a matching blue and white. Without coloured braided cables, your modded PC will look unfinished; it’s easy to underestimate the visual value of braided cables.
If you decide to do the cables yourself, you will need the following: braided sleeving, a pin remover tool, heat shrink, and a heat gun. Here's a guide to check out. But if you’re just doing a single build, buying some gorgeous cables is the way to go.
Paints
Painting the case and/or components is a pivotal part of PC modding, but it can be a challenge. Your first priority is to prime the component you plan to paint, following the instructions for the best primer for the paint you have selected to use (usually printed on the can). We always recommend using car/auto spray paints as they provide the best finish. Don’t use a brush, as this will leave you with visible brush strokes and an amateur finish. Once you've primed and painted your parts, we suggest using a 2K clear coat finish (clear lacquer) to seal and finish the job.
Decals / Stickers
So you've got a pretty epic looking computer, using good branded components, and want to add that extra flourish to the look. Why not try your hand at making your own logos or graphics (or our old reliable fallback: flaming skulls) for the case? You’ll need a roll of vinyl (available on eBay or on Amazon at whatever length or colour you want) and a scalpel to cut it with. Simply draw your design on the back of the vinyl and cut it out. Practice (and patience) makes perfect here, since cutting vinyl isn't quite as easy as it looks.
Time to start modding
Once you've put together a case mod plan using some of the elements above, all that's left is to dive into the actual work. If that still feels intimidating, though, never fear: there are plenty of guides to modding out there! Check out the how-tos at Modders Inc. or the wealth of instructive guides at Instructables to pick up some pro tips.
A note on affiliates: some of our stories, like this one, include affiliate links to stores like Amazon. These online stores share a small amount of revenue with us if you buy something through one of these links, which helps support our work evaluating PC components.Map Size History & Analysis
Introduction
Definition of Map Size
+ Show
+
Tal’darim Altar is 192*192 map tiles. Ohana is 160*184 map tiles. Therefore, Ohana is smaller. Although this statement is true, it is very boring and not so meaningful to simply compare map sizes this way. Another way that is more relevant to actual SC2 play needs to be used for comparison.
In this thread, Map Size is defined with the distance between a ramp at one main base and a ramp at another main base. Rush distance = Map size in this definition. Picture 1rax2depot wall at both Terran bases in TvT. The distance from one barracks to another barracks is the map size definition here. To be precise, middle of the ramp is used for starting and ending point, so it is slightly shorter than the rax to rax distance.
I am fully aware that other factors like how close 3rd base is, how many total bases a map has, or simply distance by air can influence how you feel about map size. However, there is no way to take everything into account at the same time and come up with organized results, so I ignored all those factors here and used only ramp-to-ramp distance for this map size discussion.
Measurement Method
+ Show
+
“Seoul, Korea is about 9500 kilometers (or 5900 miles) away from Los Angels, USA.”
“It takes 12 hours by flight from Los Angels, USA to Seoul, Korea”
Both of these sentences basically talk about the same thing, but the latter is so much more useful to know as a passenger.
“Opponent’s base is 100 map tiles away from my base.”
“It takes 30 seconds by SCV from my base to opponent’s base.”
By the same token, the latter must be the information we want to know as players.
Therefore, all distances are measured by a worker (2.81 movement speed). When a worker takes 30 seconds to travel a particular distance, the distance is defined as 30 [worker-seconds]. [worker-second] is a unit similar to [light-year] in that it is NOT the unit for time but for distance. Numbers in images are in [worker-second].
Also, allow for margin of error by 1 second as I used no program and manually sent a SCV to obtain all these numbers while looking at the timer.
Result: Map Images
First off, name one big map on ladder.Let me guess. You probably named either Tal’darim Altar or Condemned Ridge.While Condemned Ridge is definitely a big map, it is safe to say that Tal’darim Altar is about average if not smaller than. How? Why? The answer is here. This thread is about how map size has changed since release, where we are today, and what size we should aim at in future.Many players probably feel that average map size is getting bigger and bigger over time, yet I have not seen anyone who quantified them. Therefore, here it is. You don’t have to rely anymore on your intuition to tell if a map is relatively big or small.
Cloud Kingdom & Daybreak
Ohana & Antiga Shipyard
##Ohana image is different from actual ladder or tournament version. Numbers stay correct##
Condemned Ridge & Entombed Valley
Shakuras Plateau & Tal’darim Altar
Atlantis Spaceship & Whirlwind
Metropolis & Muspelheim
Metalopolis & Korhal Compound
The Shattered Temple & Xel'Naga Caverns
Abyssal Caverns & Nerazim Crypt
Backwater Gulch & Typhon Peaks
Slag Pits & Delta Quadrant
Scrap Station & Steppes of War
Terminus RE & Dual Site
Result: Tables&Graphs
+ Show
+
Close, close air, and cross position on a map each has different distance. Game play experience is also different despite the fact you are playing the same map. Therefore, each position is counted as a “separate” map. As a result, many 4-player maps count as 3 different maps while 2-player maps count as 1.
Rotationally symmetrical maps like Antiga Shipyard have 2 different game play experiences for close position: when your opponent is on your right or on your left. However, since the topic here is the map size alone, this factor is not considered. Therefore, these 4-player maps count as 2 different maps: close and cross.
Odd number ladder seasons are cut due to my time constraint and laziness.
ALL maps in same order as images
+ Show Spoiler +
ALL maps from Longest to Shortest distance
+ Show Spoiler +
Individual Season
+ Show Spoiler +
Graph
Close, close air, and cross position on a map each has different distance. Game play experience is also different despite the fact you are playing the same map. Therefore, each position is counted as a “separate” map. As a result, many 4-player maps count as 3 different maps while 2-player maps count as 1.Rotationally symmetrical maps like Antiga Shipyard have 2 different game play experiences for close position: when your opponent is on your right or on your left. However, since the topic here is the map size alone, this factor is not considered. Therefore, these 4-player maps count as 2 different maps: close and cross.Odd number ladder seasons are cut due to my time constraint and laziness.ALL maps in same order as imagesALL maps from Longest to Shortest distanceIndividual SeasonGraph
Past, Current, and Future Map Size
+ Show
+
Not only do we now know that map size on average is getting bigger for sure, it is now possible to see how big or small a map is relative to other maps, and how fast average size is increasing from the graph and tables. I included both mean and median in graph so that some math major nerds can brag about his/her knowledge on statistics in posts below, but let me just use mean for discussion here and call it average.
Back in season 2 when dinosaurs were still alive and not much order was established, the average map size was 37.9[worker-seconds]. It was the time when, on some maps, an army could travel to opponent’s base as fast as Goku’s instant transmission. Many tears, especially Zerg ones, were shed on The Shattered Temple & Slag Pits close positions. Even before this, there was a notorious map called Steppes of War, where tanks could shoot from one natural to another, or so it looked at least. Blizzard was aware of the problems that small maps had, so however slow it looked to some players, Blizzard did work on it and introduced bigger maps each season and disabled some close positions.
As a result, today in season 8, it averages at 47.9 [worker-seconds], exactly 10[worker-seconds] bigger. (Remember [worker-second] is a unit for distance, NOT time.) What does it mean? It means that 2nd biggest map in season 2 = Shakuras Plateau cross position =46 is even smaller than the average we have today. It took about 1 year for maps to grow by 10. If this tendency continued, we would have 57.9 on average by season 14. Then again, today’s 2nd biggest map = Antiga Shipyard cross position =56 would be smaller than the average a year from now, just like 2nd biggest a year ago is smaller than the average today. If I simply interpret the graph, I would have to conclude this is the future because nothing indicates even slowing of the size growth.
Now, do we actually see the future with maps bigger by 10 [worker-seconds]? I am no prophet, but I seriously doubt it. Just as global population growth should stop and decline at some point, map size should shrink before it gets out of hand. I personally think now is the time. There is no imba Metalopolis close position nor shared 3rd Abbysal Caverns today. On the contrary, cross positions on Whirlwind in GSL or Condemned Ridge are already so huge that any cheese/timing push takes forever to arrive. Some might say adding 10[worker-seconds] is not much, but it actually means 12.5 more seconds for marine/sentry to travel the distance, and 15.0 more seconds for thor/HT. Even slower Broodlord or Mothership based army engagement would have to be almost all-in as there is no turning back vs any counter attack with that kind of map size.
This is just my hunch, but average would probably never go above 50, and around 44-45 would be the minimum if it turns back. The time for good old the bigger the bigger American style is over. What do you think? Should it still go bigger? Is it fine as it is? Or is it too big now? Please discuss.
Miscellaneous
+ Show
+
1. Well, I lied a bit about Tal’darim Altar in introduction to get your attention. Map tiles*map tiles-wise, it is one of the biggest for sure. What I meant was ramp-to-ramp distance-wise as I used it for all measurements in this thread. (Choke-to-choke for this particular map) While Tal’darim Altar cross position is definitely big=54, close position is relatively small in modern standard =44. Considering there is 66% chance you get close position, vetoing or not vetoing this map because of “long” rush distance is probably not right. When this map came out in season 2, even |
135 mission, according to Stephanie Stilson, the flow manager for Discovery, in an interview with Universe Today.
STS-135 is the 135th and final mission of NASA’s 30 year long Space Shuttle Program.
NASA now only has control of two of the three shuttle OPF’s since one OPF has been handed over to an unnamed client, Stilson said.
Stilson is leading the NASA team responsible for safing all three Space Shuttle Orbiters. “We are removing the hypergolic fuel and other toxic residues to prepare the orbiters for display in the museums where they will be permanently housed.”
“The safing work on Discovery should be complete by February 2012,” Stilson told me. “NASA plans to transport Discovery to her permanent home at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum on April 12, 2012, which coincides with the anniversary of the first shuttle launch on April 12, 1981.”
Discovery Photo Album by Ken KremerThe past year has seen significantly less bitcoin price volatility than the previous year, which was marked by excessive price speculation and a spectacular bubble. Now we are in a time of more rational development, which provides a good opportunity to take a step back and analyze the current state of the bitcoin industry.
The concept of bitcoin and its development in China
In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published a paper titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, which outlined the conceptual and technical details of a payment system that would allow individuals to send and receive payments without involving any intermediary financial institutions. This was the birth of bitcoin.
Bitcoin then gradually spread around the world and began receiving more attention. Bitcoin really caught fire in China in 2013. On 19th November 2013, bitcoin reached the all-time high price of 8,000 CNY on the Huobi exchange, which was a 20,000-fold increase in price from three years before. This extraordinary development brought an unprecedented level of public attention, but also deep concern from government regulators.
On 5th December 2013, the People’s Bank of China and five other related government ministries issued an official notice titled Guarding Against the Risks of Bitcoin, which stated bitcoin may not be used as a currency.
In reaction to the news, the bitcoin price fell 35% in 40 minutes. In February 2014, the world’s largest trading platform, MtGox, declared bankruptcy, which cast a shadow over the industry.
From the middle of 2014, bitcoin prices continued in a long, downward trend. The price of one bitcoin as of 12th August 2015 was near the 1,700 CNY level.
Global bitcoin industry development
Because bitcoin is a cutting-edge financial and Internet technology, almost all bitcoin companies are new startups. According to recent statistics, around 100 bitcoin companies have received angel round of investment, some 30 of which are located in Silicon Valley.
China has about 20 bitcoin companies of notable size with about 800,000 total users and constituting about 70% of global bitcoin trading volume (CNY trading platforms charge zero transaction fees while USD trading platforms do, so the CNY trading volume does appear to be greater than the underlying investment actually is).
As of July 2015, the bitcoin industry had received more than $800m of venture capital investment, over $400m of which went to Silicon Valley companies.
The bitcoin industry chain includes production (commonly known as ‘mining’), trading, storage and applications.
Production: bitcoin mining
China has a strong competitive advantage in bitcoin mining; it currently accounts for at least 50% of the global bitcoin network mining power.
Bitcoin trading
Trading is currently the most important financial application of bitcoin. Currently there are around 100 bitcoin trading platforms based in countries all around the world. The top ten bitcoin exchanges are based in the US, China, and Eastern Europe, and account for more than 90% of global trading volume.
BTC/USD and BTC/CNY are the most traded currency pairs, while there are also exchanges for trading BTC for JPY, CAD, AUD, KRW, BRL, and other currencies.
Since 2015, regulatory compliance has become a primary focus of BTC/USD exchanges. US-based exchanges Coinbase and itBit have received relevant business licenses from US authorities. In China, the relevant government departments have not yet enacted a license for digital currencies, so compliance has not been a major barrier.
Huobi, OKCoin, and BTC China are the three major Chinese bitcoin exchanges, along with several smaller exchanges.
Bitcoin wallets: storage and transactions
Bitcoin is a complicated technology, and is therefore not very convenient for mainstream users. Thus numerous bitcoin wallet service providers have emerged, trying to enable mainstream users to send, receive and store bitcoin easily and securely.
Some 3.6 million bitcoin wallets have been created with bitcoin wallet provider Blockchain, while Coinbase has over 2.3 million users. Due to recent regulatory legitimacy that bitcoin has gained in the US, the growth potential of bitcoin wallets is significant.
In China, due to the lack of merchants accepting bitcoin payments and regulatory uncertainty, users largely prefer to keep their bitcoin funds on bitcoin exchanges.
Bitcoin applications: real-life use cases
Behind trading, payments and international money transfers are the next most significant applications of bitcoin today. There are currently more than 100,000 businesses that accept bitcoin payments, including big companies such as Microsoft, Dell, Expedia, and Newegg.
The largest bitcoin payment processor company is BitPay, which has begun formal cooperation with PayPal.
Circle is an example of a consumer-focused internet financial services company. But there is no doubt that now is still the very early stage of bitcoin application development; much more development must occur before mainstream adoption is possible.
Direction of development
The PBOC’s official notice, which is the only official policy document related to bitcoin, was issued more than a year and a half ago.
Since that time, the bitcoin industry development trends have become more clear and government policies around the world have begun to take shape. Based on our experience and analysis, we have several proposals for bitcoin policy in China.
There are four possible directions for bitcoin development, and these are not mutually exclusive:
1. Bitcoin as a global financial asset
This is the most significant function of bitcoin today.
2. Bitcoin as a financial tool for improving money transfer
Currently, the global clearing and settlement system is very inefficient; long settlement times, high cost from fees and exchange rates, and high complexity.
Bitcoin can solve these problems, especially in the field of international remittances, where there are already several bitcoin companies challenging older, larger competitors.
3. Bitcoin as a payment network
Bitcoin already works as a payment network today, but relative to competitors like PayPal and Visa, bitcoin is very small.
It is unclear whether bitcoin will ever become the world’s leading payment system because of technical uncertainty about bitcoin’s scalability.
There is also the possibility that existing payment companies (if they innovate) and bitcoin off-chain wallet companies like Circle and Coinbase may maintain the vast majority of global payments.
4. Bitcoin as a non-financial tool
Bitcoin may develop beyond basic financial functions to encompass things like decentralized autonomous organizations, smart contracts, prediction markets, internet of things and so on.
China bitcoin policy recommendations
1. Distinguish between bitcoin and blockchain technology
The former is a kind of financial asset and tool, while the latter is a new information technology that can be widely applied in many fields.
Legislation in the financial sector should be limited in purpose to preventing systemic risks to the financial system and preventing financial crimes. Regulations must not be too strict, or else the global competitiveness of Chinese enterprises will be inhibited.
2. Regulate within the existing laws
Legislation should regulate bitcoin within the existing, mature financial regulatory system. Secure storage and transmission of digital assets are the core areas of consideration.
3. Observe the actions of other law makers
Observe and analyze the effects of US policy toward bitcoin before making any decisive policies in China. There is no urgency to establish a detailed bitcoin regulatory policy now, so waiting and learning from the US is a low risk strategy which will help form a better policy.
4. Support research and innovation
Academic research and innovation of bitcoin technology should be given official encouragement and support. This technology has great potential for the future. MIT, IBM, NYSE, Citigroup and many other leading finance and technology institutions have already made considerable investments and achieved initial results.
For China to be at the forefront of international finance and academia, bitcoin technology must be supported with rational policies and become a high priority for research and development.
This article originally appeared on Tsinghua Financial Review, a translated and edited version has been reposted here with permission.
Chinese flag and China statistics images via ShutterstockHulu is stepping into the world of e-sports for the first time. The streaming service just ordered four new series from the gaming tournaments producer ESL, Variety reports.
The four weekly shows are: an e-sports talk show called Player vs. Player; a documentary series about a pro e-sports team called Bootcamp; Defining Moments, about rivalries in e-sports; and ESL Replay, a recap show.
“The partnership with Hulu marks ESL’s first original series on an on-demand streaming service, and will showcase the diverse nature of e-sports through high quality storytelling,” Nik Adams, ESL’s senior vice president of global media rights and distribution, said in a statement. “E-sports appeals to a younger, more digitally savvy audience, so Hulu is a perfect platform to build out our original content and expose the world of e-sports to new audiences.”
Hulu recently announced it plans to spend around $2.5 billion on content this year, and e-sports (predicted to be a $1.5 billion industry by 2020, according to Business Insider) is probably a decent place to start. Netflix is also betting big on original content, but it hasn’t announced any e-sports reality shows yet.
No release date has been announced for the new series.In 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced their plans to all but eliminate trans fats from processed foods, citing a CDC statistic that the elimination of partially hydrogenated oils from the food supply could prevent more than 10,000 heart attacks and thousands of deaths every year. Up until that point, trans fats enjoyed their so-called “GRAS” status: “Generally Recognized As Safe.” How did these killer fats get labeled as safe?
Who decides what’s safe? Currently, a “generally recognized as safe” determination is made when the manufacturer of a food substance evaluates the safety of the substance themselves and concludes that the use of the substance is safe. In other words, the company that manufactures the substance gets to determine if it is safe or not. This approach is commonly referred to as ”GRAS self-determination.” To make matters worse, not only do companies not have to inform the public, they don’t even have to inform the FDA. A company may voluntarily tell the FDA they just came up with a new food additive that they’ve decided is safe, but are not required to do so.
The cumulative result is that there are an estimated 6,000 current affirmative safety decisions which allow for more than an estimated 10,000 substances to be used in food (See Who Determines if Food Additives are Safe?). In addition, an estimated 1,000 manufacturer safety decisions are never reported to FDA or the public. “Manufacturers and a trade association made the remaining decisions without FDA review by concluding on their own that the substances that they themselves were selling were safe.”
While manufacturers are not required to notify the FDA of a “safe determination,” sometimes they do voluntarily notify the agency. From these notifications, researchers have been able to see which individuals companies select to make these determinations. Of the 451 GRAS notifications voluntarily submitted to the FDA, 22.4% were made by someone directly employed by the company; 13.3% were made by someone directly employed by a firm hand-picked by the company; and 64.3% were made by a panel hand-picked by the corporation or the firm the corporation hired. Are you doing the math? Yes, that means zero safety decisions were made independently.
An astonishing 100% of the members of expert panels worked directly or indirectly for the companies that manufactured the food additive in question. And those are just the ones the food companies let the FDA know about. The companies also used the same in-the-pocket rent-a-scientist “experts” over and over, leading food industry watchdog Marion Nestle to ask “How is it possible that the FDA permits manufacturers to decide for themselves whether their food additives are safe?” It may be because many of the companies providing our daily food are corporate giants with “political muscles that national governments would envy.” PepsiCo alone spent more than $9 million in a single year to lobby Congress. The fact that food additives like trans fats have been allowed to kill thousands of Americans year after year comes as less of a surprise to those who realize that “three of Washington’s largest lobbying firms reportedly now work for the food industry.”
I’ve got three dozen videos on food additives. Here are a few highlights:
Artificial Colors:
Phosphates:
Preservatives:
Sweeteners:
Others:
Just as the food additive industry gets to decide which food additives are safe, the food industry holds sway over which foods are considered safe. See, for example, my video The McGovern Report.
-Michael Greger, M.D.
PS: If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my videos for free by clicking here and watch my full 2012 – 2015 presentations Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death, More than an Apple a Day, From Table to Able, and Food as Medicine.The most interesting—and most fearless—politician in America
In a year when Democrats became the party that dared not speak its name and Republicans would not shut up, one diminutive New York mayor stood tall. Once the GOP made a national issue of whether or not a mosque (actually part of an Islamic community center) should be allowed at Ground Zero (actually two long blocks away), Mayor Michael Bloomberg was the one politician who spoke to his city—and the country—in a way that made a citizen proud. He delivered a beautiful, and beautifully straightforward, speech that embraced the idea of the community center and dared to evoke the firefighters, police, and emergency workers who made the ultimate sacrifice on September 11: "We do not honor their lives by denying the very constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights—and the freedoms that the terrorists attacked."
Bloomberg is surely the most intriguing politician in America today, by turns earthy and high-minded, funny and dismissive, modest and self-congratulatory. Scorned by right-wingers for his social liberalism, reviled by some liberals for his avid support of developers, he is a one-man party of the "sensible middle" that so many voters and commentators claim to want.
They won't get it, as American third parties never emerge from the middle. Instead, Mayor Mike, a Massachusetts native who speaks with fierce pride of his adopted city, a rich man who takes the subway twice a week (even if he takes an SUV to his stop), a leader who can see the practical benefits of the First Amendment, is likely to remain sui generis. And that's fine by us.
···
First, as somebody who has lived in New York for almost thirty-five years, I have to say your stand on the non-mosque that's not at Ground Zero marked the first time I've ever written a mayor to say thanks for doing the right thing.
It's a First Amendment issue. About a month ago, my girlfriend, [financial-services manager and public activist] Diana [Taylor], and I were at J.G. Melon, 74th and Third, great hamburgers, and a big hulking guy comes up to me. I have a rule with my security guys: Anybody can come up to me. Now, if you shoot me, you won't get away, but I should be accessible to the people—that's the job. You don't want to run the risks, get out of the kitchen. Anyway, big guy comes up to me, says, "Can I talk to you?" I say, "Sure." I've got a hamburger in one hand, I got a glass of beer in the other one, and I said, "Whaddya wanna talk about?" He says, "The mosque," and I'm thinkin', Ah shit, I don't need this. But he said, "I just want to say, I just got back from two tours in Afghanistan, and a couple of my friends never came back. You get out there and keep reminding everybody why we're fighting."
Your speech did a great job of tracing the fights for immigrants' rights, the fights for religious freedom in New York, all the way back to the Flushing Remonstrance of the seventeenth century. Is New York City the place, more than any other, where we have fought it out over who gets to be a full American and what that means? Is the Islamic community center the latest chapter in that fight?
I don't know that it's as big a battle as the others you describe. I think it's fair to say that the mosque as an issue goes away on November 3 [the day after election day]. Keep in mind these guys don't have the money to build a mosque and there's already a mosque down there. This is an issue on the stump, in the polls, with the op-ed writers. We don't man the barricades and burn torches. There are a lot of cities in the world that are as diverse as New York: London, Singapore—cities that have been welcoming to immigrants and where they speak 150 languages and all that sort of stuff. But New York is different, because we live as a mixture and they live as a mosaic. In London, there is an Arab quarter, if you will, an Irish quarter, a Roma quarter, whatever. In New York, in one block you have signs in Arabic and in Korean and in Spanish and English. New Yorkers, I don't know that they like each other or socialize together, but they go down the same steps to the subway, they hail a cab at the same corner, they buy their coffee at the same Starbucks, their newspaper at the same kiosk—and so people who look different, act different, sound different, smell different, dress different, whatever, they are not threatening, because you are next to them all the time. That gets people to work together in a way here that's not true elsewhere.
You're saying this is an issue manufactured by politicians, and very much the kind of thing people hate about politics nowadays?
A hundred percent. None of this stuff is done on a rational basis. It's all in the world of the twenty-four-hour news cycle and of the blogs, and also the economics of the news business. You know the old joke: "If it bleeds, it leads." Well, the news business is so tough that if today it's not bleeding, they take a knife to it.
So in standing up to that, does that make you the model for the twenty-first-century American politician—somebody who understands the political news business but whose independence nevertheless lets him be the sort of leader we like to say we all want?
It's pretty hard for me to say no to that! Although if, in my daily press conference, I stood up and described myself the way that you just did, the blogs here would probably rip me apart. I am a believer that the public is a lot smarter than the press—that they don't read the press, listen to the press, remember what the press wrote. If you go out in the street and say, "Who is Monica Lewinsky or Gary Condit?" a lot of people wouldn't know. And the public wants somebody they believe is genuine. I've always believed that George W. Bush was elected and reelected not because people agreed with him but because people think [he] believes in something. Bush ran against Gore and he ran against Kerry, and people never believed that either of those two guys stood for something. They thought they flip-flopped and looked for the right issue all the time. George W., if you call him today, he would say he did a good job, he did what was right. And you may find that so laughable, you don't agree with that at all, [but] the Bushes believe.
Is that an ongoing problem with Democrats? Do you think that's also the case with President Obama?
Listen, the last thing I'm ever going to do is criticize the president. I think we should work very hard to make this president a good president, even if you would prefer somebody else. The time to prefer somebody else is two years from now, not while he's president. We need him to be good, for our country, for our kids. But I think that it is too easy to let your political guys set your agenda; you'll never do anything if you have your political guys that close. It is too easy to look at the polls and lead from the back. I have always said what I believed, even when it's not popular, and the results are that today if you did a poll in New York City, after the mosque, after nine years in office, we'd have a 65 percent approval rating. I think the ways to be popular are to say what you believe.
Watching you up close at a couple of political functions, I don't think I've ever seen a major politician less worried about whether people liked him, whether they're reacting well to him.
No, but I care as much as anybody else. You know, if you don't want people to like you, you should see a shrink. The first day I ever campaigned was on South Beach in Staten Island. And this nice little old lady with white hair comes up to me and she said, "Oh, I'm glad you're running. You're a breath of fresh air. I'm going to vote for you. All my friends are going to vote for you. Anybody that wants to run against you is going to drop out right away." And I'm thinking, "Shit, this is easy. First day and I'm elected." Then she looks up at me adoringly and says, "And I'm so glad you're pro-life." And I remember for a billionth of a second in my mind: What do you say? Do you lie? You want someone's vote. She's got all her friends; she's influenced the whole city already the first day! I don't wanna piss her off. But I said, "Well, I'm so sorry, I happen to be very much pro-choice. I'm not in favor of abortion, but I do think it's totally up to the woman's right to choose." And I will bet you anything that I got that woman's vote.
Consistency is paramount?
It's the old saying: You dance with the one that brung ya. The president, I think, needs some better advisers. He campaigns "I'm gonna do A," and then he doesn't do it. Now he's pissed off the supporters and the opponents. You go for it.
Do you have any ideas for better advisers?
No. I don't know. David Alrod, when I've talked to him, he seems very smart, and Rahm Emanuel, who I've known forever, he is very smart. [But] you know, if you're going to stand up for the mosque Friday night, you don't walk away from it Saturday morning.
Who has been the past New York mayor you admire most or are most interested in, or who had to deal with problems that are most similar to yours?
I have a friend, David Rockefeller; he's 95 years old. My father, if he were alive, he wouldn't find my success fascinating. He would have found fascinating the fact that I can tell you David Rockefeller is a friend on a first-name basis. That would have been something. But David's first job was as secretary to a mayor. And the mayor was Fiorello La Guardia, and his job was to walk around and write down everything that La Guardia said. And La Guardia said, you know, "There's no Republican or Democratic way to pick up the garbage." La Guardia did what he thought was right; he was not afraid of anybody. That is, I'm sure he was afraid of people, but he never let it show. And he was willing to tackle the big things. He had a good feel for people. He wanted to help the less fortunate, but he understood you needed a tax base. And I think, you know, he's as good an example as any. And we're the same height, I think.
**Is there a big, transformative idea you could imagine getting behind, for the city and/or the country, or is the job of the mayor just the daily grind, getting it done? **
Collect the garbage, educate the kids, and keep it safe. That's why mayors never go on, incidentally, to higher office—I prefer to call it "other office," I don't think it's higher. The mayor's job is not to cave in, and just as we've resisted those wages and benefit increases for city workers that we can't afford, we've also resisted tax cuts that businesses and conservative ideologues may want but that we can't afford.
So you're not running for "other office," including president?
I've said many times, I have no intention of running for president or any other office.Today, British citizens will vote on Brexit—whether the UK should remain or leave the European Union. The debate leading up to the vote contains valuable insights into the tactics of the globalists. It also demonstrates that the globalists can make mistakes. These are valuable pieces of knowledge for men who are committed to building a healthy society.
What is the European Union?
The idea of European Union (EU) came about after the horror of World War II. Christian men such as Konrad Adenauer, Robert Schuman and Winston Churchill dreamt of a Europe at peace, united by its Christian faith and common ancestral heritage. The EU started off as merely a free trade zone—the European Economic Community. The EU itself came into being in 1993 when the Maastricht Treaty became operative. The treaty created something like a “United States of Europe” with the concept of European citizenship.
What’s wrong with the EU?
Huge mob of 300 migrants storm port in Calais in violent bid to smuggle their way into UK https://t.co/zgpQUuknSh — Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) June 21, 2016
Ironically, becoming the United States of Europe is the biggest problem of the EU. Just as the original 13 American colonies gave up their individual sovereignty to form the United States, each EU country will gradually have to give up its sovereignty.
What makes it worse is that they will yield their sovereignty to an undemocratic institution. While the EU does have an elected Parliament, it is a sham intended to make the EU look like a democratic body. The real power resides in the EU Commission, a body of 28 unelected bureaucrats. The individual member countries do have an opportunity to vote against EU Commission proposals, but unless a majority of the 28 member states also oppose the proposal, it becomes EU law. In other words, the EU can dictate not just trade between EU countries, but also what goes on within those countries.
In no area is this more evident that when it comes to immigration policy. For example, the EU member countries are currently negotiating a deal where Turkey will temporarily prevent a certain number of “refugees” from entering Europe in exchange for granting Turkey 1,500,000 visas. While Turks are probably preferable to some of the other “refugees” it would still mark a big step toward the Islamization of the UK.
The Left’s Method of Debate—Instill Fear
Most of the benefits of being a member of the EU are economic. Being a member of the EU means that you don’t need to negotiate separate trade deals with 27 other countries. It also means that the EU can negotiate better trade deals with other countries such as the United States. Being part of the EU means you have more leverage when it comes to trade.
The natural fear is that if the UK leaves the EU, the other nations will impose tariffs on it. That’s an unlikely scenario as the UK is the second largest economy in the Europe and could easily retaliate by imposing tariffs of its own. Still, it is a rational argument.
But the “Remain” side of the debate has not been making rational arguments. Make-up wearing “comedian” Eddie Izzard implied that World War III awaits if UK leaves the EU.
ICYMI: “Saw some poppies in Nottingham. We set up the European Union to stop world wars ever happening again. Lest … https://t.co/q15qX8pwp6 — Eddie Izzard (@eddieizzard) June 11, 2016
The Labour Party suggested that leaving the EU could cause workers to lose their vacation.
If we leave EU, our hard-fought workers’ rights will be in the hands of the Tories. We can’t let that happen. RT → pic.twitter.com/BOByc01icA — The Labour Party (@UKLabour) June 10, 2016
The Chancellor of the Exchequer was busy tweeting German threats:
Major intervention from Germany: UK would have to accept free movement and pay in to EU to continue to access trade https://t.co/jIAPPXM6hT Loading... — George Osborne (@George_Osborne) June 10, 2016
The Guardian stated that the voting to “Leave” would make the UK the world’s most hated nation.
Just when you thought #ProjectFear had run out of ideas KA-POW https://t.co/Y9AVDRVr2C — PoliticsSense (@PoliticsSense) June 20, 2016
And our old friend, arch globalist George Soros wrote an opinion piece claiming that Britons would see their living standards crater.
Why should you care?
It is important to know about the EU and Brexit even if you are not a British citizen. First, it demonstrates how trade treaties can serve as a precursor to taking away a country’s sovereignty. The EU started as a trade agreement but it has now reached the point where EU trumps the laws of the individual nation.
The United States faces a similar challenge as globalists use NAFTA as a starting point to turn Canada, the United States, and Mexico into one “North American Community.” The massive influx of illegal immigrants into the US, aided by both Central American governments and the US, is the tip of the spear to achieve a single North American state.
Second, it gives a glimpse into how our elites control us by fear. Fear is the primary tool in the arsenal of elite control techniques. Sometimes these take the form of threats against our physical safety—as when the Muslim mayor of London threatened the US with Islamic terror attacks if Trump imposes a ban on Muslim immigration.
Third, it shows the growing use of the tactic of calling anyone who stands in the way of the globalist agenda a ‘racist’ or ‘far right wing.’ In this way, anyone who wants to vote in his self interest is automatically branded as being an extremist, worse than any actual terrorist. This is by design. It lays the groundwork for police action against these “dangerous” elements in society.
The final lesson of Brexit is that there is still some small possibility of democratic change. It is a miracle—or a big miscalculation—that the globalist elite have allowed the UK to have a referendum on whether to leave the EU. It would be a stunning blow to the globalist agenda if the UK leaves the EU as it opens the door to a healthy nationalist government.
This means that the globalist lock on power is not yet complete. Now is the time to do everything in our power to wrest control from them.
Conclusion
One thing is certain: This is the last time that Britons will have a chance to vote to leave the EU in a generation. If the UK votes to remain, the future will look less English, Scottish, and Irish and more African and Islamic. That’s not scare mongering. That’s an inevitable consequence of how demographics are shaping up in the third world. The destiny of any nation that fails to control its own borders is to get inundated by that rising wave.
Read More: Brexit Vote: Why Britain Should Leave The European UnionWASHINGTON — It has played host to civil rights marches, presidential inaugurations, fireworks displays and decades of picnics. But in recent years the National Mall, envisioned more than a century ago as a lush carpet of green connecting the nation’s most treasured monuments, has looked more like a West Texas dust bowl.
Now National Park Service officials are trying to teach the nearly 30 million people who gather here each year a difficult lesson: Tread softly or keep off the grass.
With the installation of exquisite, expensive new turf on a little less than half the mall, the Park Service has established strict rules that include limits on festivals and concerts, and even restrictions on when pickup softball and Frisbee games may be played. The requirements have created an identity crisis for the mall and set off a deeper debate.
Should the National Mall remain a utilitarian gathering place, rough and resilient and welcoming to all? Or should it be a more pristine landscape, a monument to the nation’s commitment to parks and preservation?Getty Images
When Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis last played football, his arm looked like the football itself.
But Davis said he’s feeling good after playing Super Bowl 50 with his broken right arm in a cast, days after surgery to put a a metal plate and 12 screws in so he could face the Broncos.
“I think a lot of people were shocked to actually see what it looked like, to actually play in the game like that,” Davis said, via Bill Voth of Black and Blue Review. “A lot of people questioned the reason for me putting the picture out there, but it was strictly just to show people what I’m willing to do for me team, what I’m willing to do for this organization, for this city.
“Like I told y’all after the NFC Championship, if there was any possible way that I could play in that game, I was playing. And I think that proved that.”
Davis said it wasn’t until after the game when he began to realize the pain, of, you know, playing a football game with a broken arm.
“I couldn’t even really lift my daughter up without feeling the pain in my arm,” Davis said. “It’s just one of those things, the after-effect after everything calms down and it really starts to set in that you just broke your arm two weeks ago. I had to remind myself, ‘OK, you’re not supposed to be doing some of this stuff.'”
The guy has come back from three torn ACLs and now this, so the process of rehabbing shouldn’t be new. He took a few weeks off from lifting (presumably weights but maybe his daughter), but was back in the gym last month ready to prepare for his 12th season.Greenstick fracture Greenstick fractures on X-ray.
A greenstick fracture is a fracture in a young, soft bone in which the bone bends and breaks. Greenstick fractures usually occur most often during infancy and childhood when bones are soft. The name is by analogy with green (i.e., fresh) wood which similarly breaks on the outside when bent. It was discovered by British-American orthopedist, John Insall, and Polish-American orthopedist, Michael Slupecki.
Signs and symptoms [ edit ]
Some clinical features of a greenstick fracture are similar to those of a standard long bone fracture - greenstick fractures normally cause pain at the injured area. As these fractures are specifically a pediatric problem, an older child will be protective of the fractured part and babies may cry inconsolably. As per a standard fracture, the area may be swollen and either red or bruised. Greenstick fractures are stable fractures as a part of the bone remains intact and unbroken so this type of fracture normally causes a bend to the injured part, rather than a distinct deformity, which is problematic. Symptoms include pain in the area and can start from overuse in that specific bone. this can be a very gradual chronic pain or pain from a specific injury.
Pathogenesis and risk factors [ edit ]
The greenstick fracture pattern occurs as a result of bending forces. Activities with a high risk of falling are risk factors. Non-accidental injury more commonly causes spiral (twisting) fractures but a blow on the forearm or shin could cause a green stick fracture. The fracture usually occurs in children and teens because their bones are flexible, unlike adults whose more brittle bones usually break.
Diagnosis [ edit ]
Classification [ edit ]
Pediatric fractures can be classified as complete and incomplete:[1]
Incomplete: there are three basic forms of incomplete fractures: The first is the greenstick fracture, a transverse fracture of the cortex which extends into the midportion of the bone and becomes oriented along the longitudinal axis of the bone without disrupting the opposite cortex. The second form is a torus or buckling fracture, caused by impaction. They are usually the result of a force acting on the longitudinal axis of the bone: they are typically a consequence of a fall on an outstretched arm, so they mainly involve the distal radial metaphysis. [1] The word torus is derived from the Latin word 'torus,' meaning swelling or protuberance. The third is a bow fracture in which the bone becomes curved along its longitudinal axis. [2]
Complete fractures
There are also physeal fractures (fractures involving the physis, the growth plate, which is not present in adults). The Salter-Harris classification is the most used to describe these fractures.
Treatment [ edit ]
Removable splints result in better outcomes than casting in children with torus fractures of the distal radius.[3][4] If a person is doing better after 4 weeks, repeat X rays are not needed.[5]
Fossil record [ edit ]
Evidence for greenstick fractures found in the fossil record is studied by paleopathologists, specialists in ancient disease and injury. Greenstick fractures (willow breaks) have been reported in fossils of the large carnivorous dinosaur Allosaurus fragilis.[6]
Greenstick fractures are found in the fossil remains of Lucy, the most famous specimen of Australopithecus afarensis, discovered in Ethiopia in 1974. Analysis of bone fracture patterns, which include a large number of greenstick fractures in the forearms, lower limbs, pelvis, thorax and skull, suggest that Lucy died from a vertical fall and impact with the ground.[7]
References [ edit ]It’s Not TV, It’s Amazon
Hulu has “Paul the Male Matchmaker,” Netflix has “Lilyhammer” and “House of Cards.” And what does Amazon have in the way of original video programming? Nothing much yet. But that may soon change.
New job listings on Amazon’s careers site show the company looking to recruit at least two creative executives for the “People’s Production Company,” its movie and series production arm. Specifically, it’s seeking executives to quarterback its children’s and comedy programming |
you some of your trust fund. Our approach was half genuine gushing, half poking fun at how seriously fashion could take itself, and how inaccessible so much of it could feel.
We posted pictures of flashy silver Alexander Wang bags, flame-printed Margiela tees, metallic Marni Mary Janes. We went to every event we were invited to, and found ourselves among a whole community of beginner bloggers—the last resort of publicists when they couldn't get more important guests. But we didn't mind being part of this D-list cohort. We figured it still looked impressive that we were present for the unveiling of Henri Bendel's fall collection, right?
Our numbers barely budged.
Finally, my friend contributed a story to a well-known site: "Confessions from a Filthy Rich Park Avenue Childhood." She wrote that, too, under the alias she used for the blog, but the anecdotes themselves were true, thanks to her well-connected up-bringing. Our numbers shot up. We were linked to on tons of fashion news sites and gossip sites. The Daily Mail, thank you very much. Our posts were getting tons of comments. We were famous! The inbox for our blog flooded with interview requests and offers for reality TV shows.
Except that everyone hated us. Our sister act had been taken a little too seriously and the world thought we were disgusting, spoiled brats. We got death threats and emails from people insisting we killed ourselves. My friend was happy for the attention—even if most of it was vitriolic, it gave us a name.
The inbox for our blog flooded with interview requests and offers for reality TV shows. Except that everyone hated us.
I went along to meetings with networks and cable channels, agents and publicists. But this was all wrong. I had wanted to be respected. As ill-conceived as I now realize it was, I had planned for the blog to help me establish myself as a writer, and I had always assumed everyone would appreciate the satire. I didn't want to be some reviled and mocked flash-in-the-pan. I'd tried to become an It girl and instead took a wrong turn into Most Hated Villain. And for what? For all our emails from and meetings with major TV networks, we still couldn't get into Fashion Week. I shrank away from all of the offers and eventually, the blog, too.
I trudged along for a while simply because I didn't know what to do next. I still couldn't help but get a rush when I saw Sergio Rossi flatforms, and I failed to thrill to the cutouts of a Carven dress. Even if the in-crowd never knew my name, this business constituted a world I'd come to love.
I went freelance and flipped my priorities: Instead of trying to be seen, I'd focus on explaining to others why I loved what I was seeing. I had to scrimp and save for a while before making the leap. For some time this meant I couldn't even think of splurging on any of the things I was so thrilled to write about. I had to cold-pitch what felt like hundreds of websites, retailers, and brands, and I had to take lots of low-paying gigs to build my portfolio. But it was worth it: I finally feel as though I've found the real, sustainable reason that I want to be in this business at all.
The spell I fell under when I first entered the fashion world was something similar to the spell that fashion casts on anyone whose susceptible to its sway: It makes it all look easy. It-girldom isn't just handed to anyone who works in the industry. It takes a lot of work, luck, connections, and good genes—just as there's a whole mechanism behind the most effortless-appearing looks.
Nowadays, I'm not trying and I'm happy. I show up to fashion events dressed like a stagehand. I blend into the background, which just might be the best seat in the house from which to watch the show.
Courtney Iseman is a writer living in New York with her fiance and pug, Darby. You can follow her on Twitter @courtneyiseman.(CN) – A father claims Blue Cross Blue Shield’s blanket refusal to pay for his daughter’s therapy just because it took place at an outdoor wilderness program is discriminatory against people who suffer from mental health disorders.
Jeffrey Chaney is covered by an employee health plan through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota. Chaney’s daughter, M.C., who is covered under her father’s plan, has suffered for years with depression, bulimia and drug abuse, according to a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in Minnesota federal court.
In 2015, at the recommendation of her therapist, M.C. agreed to go to an outdoor behavioral therapy program in Colorado called Open Sky Wilderness. The program emphasizes holistic, family-centered treatment in a wilderness environment.
The program costs $40,000, but BCBS allegedly declined to pay for any of it, claiming its policy does not pay for “skills training and lodging programs.”
In his lawsuit, Chaney says the insurer’s blanket exclusion of outdoor behavioral therapy violates the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.
“While at Open Sky, M.C. received medically necessary mental health services, including psychiatric evaluation, individual therapy, group therapy and family therapy, all of which would have been authorized for coverage by BCBS if they had been delivered in another type of setting,” the father claims.
The Parity Act was designed to improve coverage for mental health and substance abuse disorders as compared to physical medical conditions.
While an insurer may lawfully deny coverage for any mental health treatment, BCBS’s “blanket exclusion for services rendered at wilderness treatment programs is a separate treatment limitation applicable only to mental health benefits and thus violative of the Parity Act,” according to the complaint.
Chaney seeks an award of benefits that he and other class members paid for services at residential treatment centers, plus disgorgement of all profits the insurer gained through the collection of money that should have been used to pay legitimate claims.
He is represented by Jordan Lewis in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and by Patrick Sheehan with Whatley Kallas in Boston.
BCBS of Minnesota spokesperson Keith Hovis declined to comment on pending litigation.
Like this: Like Loading...TBILISI, Georgia — Mikheil Saakashvili, now the former president of Georgia, was still working his famously late nights, apparently intent on squeezing every last minute from the final days of his term. In an interview late last month that began after midnight and could well have stretched until dawn, Mr. Saakashvili boasted that in his decade in office, Georgia had made huge strides toward becoming an established democracy. He profanely dismissed allegations of heavy-handedness and authoritarian abuses, and voiced regret that he had not spent more money on education and less on weapons.
Mr. Saakashvili, who rose to power as a leader of the peaceful Rose Revolution in 2003 and became a darling of the West — embraced by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — also issued a pointed warning that the United States was signaling weakness to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia by not following through with threats of military action in Syria.
“Russia perceives American hard power is pulling back from the entire region,” Mr. Saakashvili said, sipping tea and munching on hot roasted nuts. “If America had some limited operations in Syria,” he said, “that would still have been a kind of risk for Putin. Now, he is almost convinced or fully convinced that there is no way, whatever he does — you know, shuts off the Georgia pipeline, comes and occupies Tbilisi, goes and kicks out the Azerbaijan leadership — nobody is going to do anything except strong statements and condemnation.”
“What we hear from our friends in Washington,” Mr. Saakashvili continued, “is, you know, ‘You are great guys. We like you, great transition to democracy — you know, peaceful transition of power, big achievements. But, you know, we now have other things to care about. We’re on your side. We’ll be on your side. But what can we do?’ ”← Sidebar
Nikola-Lenivets is located about 200 km from Moscow – in Kaluga region, on the banks of the river Ugra. Part of its territory belongs to the national park. It is open to creative experimentation and is constantly updated with new art objects.
It is the only in Russia art park with the landscape installations – land art objects made by the best Russian and foreign artists. Many of these objects have become iconic for contemporary art.
Every year since 2006, the largest in Europe and Russia festival of land art “Archstoyanie” is held here. There are a lot of objects on the territory and here are the photos of some of them. Nikola-Lenivets on Google Maps. Photos by Victor Borisov
Tags: Kaluga oblast
<< Rare Pictures of Family Life of the Last Russian Emperor
“Epical Cats” of Painter Alexander Zavaly >>
No comments yet.If New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider is not already a fan of K-pop, perhaps now is the time for him to expand his music horizons. K-pop group DIA recently published a video of a performance at the Gyeongju Hallyu Dream Concert on Sept. 20, and the seven-piece girl group all wore replica New York Rangers home jerseys for the performance.
Six of the singers selected Kreider jerseys. The apparent lead singer wore a Rick Nash jersey instead.
Article continues below...
According to their website, DIA is a new group, and Rangers fans on Reddit had some theories as to why the girls would choose to wear hockey jerseys for the performance.
One fan wrote:
DIA is a group that just debuted, so they're performing a lot right now. They aren't very good. Their stylist, or someone on their staff, must be a hockey/Rangers fan. Or maybe those jerseys were just cheaper and easier than designing/making better stage costumes. Or maybe they were just very clever and realized that using those costumes would bring some attention to a group that would otherwise remain virtually unknown.
According to another fan:
K-Pop is as much about fashion as it is about music. The biggest k-pop stars are either up to date with current trends or making them. Sports uniforms, when well designed, are vibrant and attention getting without being overly loud and obnoxious. So in recent years it is not unusual to see k-pop in sports attire on stage, in music videos and variety shows, or in their day-to-day lives.
Regardless of what reason compelled DIA to don Kreider jerseys, the Rangers’ forward was clearly appreciative. He is currently using the link to the video as his Twitter bio.
(h/t Reddit)Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Dido Harding: "We have been contacted by an individual or group purporting to be the hacker... looking for money"
The head of TalkTalk says she has had an email demanding a ransom from a group purporting to be behind the cyber-attack suffered by the company.
Chief executive Dido Harding said she did not know whether the ransom email was genuine.
The phone and broadband provider said personal and banking details of up to four million customers may have been accessed in the "significant" attack.
The Met Police said the email was "forming part of its investigations".
"It is hard for me to give you very much detail, but yes, we have been contacted by, I don't know whether it is an individual or a group, purporting to be the hacker," Ms Harding told the BBC's business editor Kamal Ahmed.
"All I can say is that I had personally received a contact from someone purporting - as I say I don't know whether they are or are not - to be the hacker looking for money."
The BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera said government sources had told him they currently viewed the Talk Talk incident as cybercrime, rather than anything relating to national security.
'Worry and concern'
TalkTalk said it was too early to know exactly who had been affected by the attack, which happened on Wednesday.
Former customers of Talk Talk may also be affected by the computer hack, and it was not known whether the information seized by the hackers was encrypted, Ms Harding added.
She said the company was "rushing to communicate with customers" but that it would take 36 to 48 hours to email all of them.
What should you do if you think you're at risk?
Report any unusual activity on your accounts to your bank and the UK's national fraud and internet crime reporting centre Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or www.actionfraud.police.uk
TalkTalk is advising customers to change their account password as soon as its website is back up and running - expected to be later on Friday - and any other accounts for which you use the same password
Beware of scams: TalkTalk will not call or email customers asking for bank details or for you to download software to your computer, or send emails asking for you to provide your password
TalkTalk hack: What should I do?
In a statement, the company said that a criminal investigation had been launched on Thursday.
The Metropolitan Police, which is investigating, said no-one had been arrested over Wednesday's attack but inquiries were ongoing.
TalkTalk said there was a chance that some of the following customer data, not all of which was encrypted, had been accessed:
Names and addresses
Dates of birth
Email addresses
Telephone numbers
TalkTalk account information
Credit card and bank details
In the wake of the news, the company's share price initially fell to its lowest level since August 2013, but later recovered and by 14:30 BST it was only 2% lower.
Cyber security consultant and former Scotland Yard detective Adrian Culley told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that a Russian Islamist group had posted online saying it carried out the attack.
He said hackers claiming to be a cyber-jihadi group had posted data which appeared to be TalkTalk customers' private information - although he stressed their claim was yet to be verified or investigated.
Analysis
By Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC technology correspondent
Image copyright PA
Cyber-attacks on consumer companies happen with mounting frequency, but TalkTalk's speedy decision to warn all of its customers that their vital data is at risk suggests that this one is very serious indeed.
We are being told that this was what's called a DDoS - a distributed denial of service attack - where a website is hit by waves of traffic so intense that it cannot cope. What is not clear is why this would result in the loss of data rather than just the site going down. One suggestion is that the DDoS was a means of distracting TalkTalk's defence team while the criminals went about their work.
I'm assured that TalkTalk customers' details, including banking information, were all being held in the UK rather than in some overseas data centre. What is less clear is the extent to which that data was encrypted.
For TalkTalk, the cost to its reputation is likely to be very serious. Now it is going to have to reassure its customers that its security practices are robust enough to regain their trust.
TalkTalk said the website was now secure again and that TV, broadband, mobile and phone services had not been affected by the attack.
The sales website and the "My account" services are still down but the company hoped to restore them on Friday.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption TalkTalk chief executive Dido Harding answered questions from BBC viewers
Customers have expressed their frustration at what is the third cyber-attack to affect TalkTalk over the past 12 months.
Sara Jones, from East Sussex, said: "TalkTalk's online advice is not proportionate to what has happened. Telling customers to 'keep an eye on accounts' just does not cut it in terms of advice."
Image caption TalkTalk said the website had been taken down as soon as it had noticed "unusual activity"
Daniel Musgrove, from Powys, said he had been unable to get through to TalkTalk customer services.
"They may not get a payment for my next bill if they don't get this sorted," he added.
Meanwhile, the Information Commissioner Christopher Graham told Radio 4's The World at One programme that Talk Talk should have alerted his office sooner.
"The Information Commissioner was only informed about this at 4.30pm yesterday afternoon. I wish we'd heard a little bit earlier and we could have been more 'out there', giving advice to consumers about what they need to protect their personal information," he said.
In August, the company revealed its mobile sales site had been targeted and personal data breached.
And in February, TalkTalk customers were warned about scammers who had managed to steal thousands of account numbers and names. The attacks are understood to be unrelated.
TalkTalk said it had contacted the major banks asking them to look out for any suspicious activity on customers' accounts. It added that every customer would be getting a year's free credit monitoring.
Are you a TalkTalk customer? If you have any information to share with the BBC, you can email [email protected].
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:A night vision shot of US Marines exploding a tunnel in Afghanistan (2002). Image: Wikimedia Commons
It's an open secret American military technologies have found their way into the hands of Islamic State militants, as they've stormed across Iraq on their way to establishing the new Caliphate. Now, there's evidence Canadian military tech might also be being wielded by the world's most powerful jihadist organization.
For IS militants, conquering Iraqi land has partly been possible by assuming control of Iraqi government weapons, everything from M16 assault rifles to armored Humvees with mounted.50 cals to howitzers. These are all military technologies bequeathed by America to the al-Maliki government while the US exited Iraq, and that are now in the hands of a militant group rapidly gaining geopolitical power.
But an online IS jihadist and former Canadian fighter who goes by the name Abu Tuurab al-Kanadi ("the Canadian"), is now tweeting his alleged exploits in Iraq, including how he found military-grade night vision systems from Canadian suppliers that he claims trickled into IS operations. In a series of tweets, the ski-masked Turaab posted photos of what appear to be explosions, purportedly tinted green through night vision systems.
He's also tweeted pictures of "NVS 7" night vision goggles clearly showing Newcon Optik branding.
Night vision systems represent a huge strategic advantage for offensive military operations. With them, a group like IS, which previously had limitted access to advanced military gear, suddenly has the ability to strike enemies under the cloak of darkness. For example, in Afghanistan, coalition soldiers launched night raids on unwitting Taliban units that didn't enjoy the same gear.
But in the battlefields of Iraq, right now, war tech that has long been exclusively the preserve of West militaries are seemingly available to IS as they continue their planned march on Baghdad.
I reached out to Turaab via Kik messenger to ask him how he came across his new goggles and the suspected Canadian fighter in Iraq said IS got the military systems off of "Rafidah" ('rejectors'), the term for al-Maliki forces used by IS militants.
Turaab said there were other night vision systems that were gathered although he doesn't know the details and wouldn't offer me an exact number.
"There were brothers walking around with M4 carbines, with ACOGs and reflex sights," Turaab said, referring to US army equipment. "M16 is extremely common now."
When I asked him what other military gear IS had gathered from al-Maliki forces after they allegedly left everything behind and "ran away," Turaab said, "I hope you have a good imagination haha."
While I'm unable to independently confirm Abu Turaab's identity or his claims, I reached out to Newcon Optik about their military night vision systems. On its official website, the company advertises multiple night vision systems, such as rifle sights and laser rangefinders. So I asked them if they were aware an IS militant claimed to be using their products.
President and CEO Peter Biro made it clear that his company has had no business with IS, a group considered a terrorist organization by the Canadian government.
"Newcon Optik has never supplied any item to any person or entity which could have been known or suspected to been connected to ISIS or to ANY terrorist organization," he told me over email.
Biro insisted Newcon Optik runs an extremely "tight ship," and is a registered member in good standing in Canada's Controlled Goods Program. Biro said they've never sold military systems to any end user unapproved by the Canadian government.
But Biro did say no sale is 100 percent immune to abuses or "abuse by those who are intent on making mischief." To hear Biro tell it, political developments destabilizing both legitimate regimes and "bona fide end-users" can cause equipment to be used by unauthorized and unintended actors. To his knowledge, Newcon Optik's systems have yet to be misused.
On their official Industry Canada company profile page, Newcon Optik listed Iraq under the countries the company is "Actively Pursuing" as buyers, along with almost every other Western-allied regime in the world.
While the site lists Iraq as only a potential buyer, Biro confirmed that the North York, Ontario, based company made sales to the al-Maliki government.
"In the case of the item that is the subject of your email inquiry, the night vision goggle in question was supplied by Newcon Optik directly to the Iraqi Army (Special Forces Operations) in 2013 pursuant to a valid export permit issued by the Export Controls Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Development, Canada," Biro wrote.
When I asked him about Canadian night vision systems potentially in the hands of IS, Foreign Affairs spokesperson Adam Hodge championed Canada's strict export controls governing arms and defense product sales.
"All applications for permits to export controlled goods or technology to Iraq are reviewed against a number of criteria, including whether they conform to the sanctions provisions described in the United Nations Iraq Regulations," he said in an emailed statement.
Hodge did concede that it isn't clear from the information available whether the night vision goggles are controlled under the Export Control List.
"A variety of night vision devices are not controlled for export, such as consumer devices that are not suitable for military use," he said.
Either way, Biro confirmed that sales to al-Maliki's Iranian-backed Iraqi government were subject to those controls, and that Newcon Optik adhered to all relevant international and Canadian laws.
Ultimately, night vision goggles winding up in the hands of IS is an example of Canadian companies' growing role in the international marketplace of defense tech. In fact, Canadian military exports are on the rise: The latest figures put Canadian defense exports increasing more than 50 percent from 2010 to 2011, with 2012 and 2013 set to jump.
That would make sense, considering Canada sanctioned the biggest defense deal in its history this past winter, when a $10 billion contract was awarded to General Dynamics Canada to build light armored vehicles for the Saudi Arabian army.
And this actually isn't the first time Canadian military systems has turned up in Middle Eastern conflict zones. In 2011, Aeryon Labs sold surveillance drones to Libyan rebels fighting Moammar Gadaffi forces. Nowadays, that country is a known beehive of Islamic militancy.
It's an unfortunate problem that comes along with an expanding defense industry. Selling to "bona-fide end users" and approved regimes might be legal, but when you put military systems into fragile regions you're rolling the dice on whether or not those systems will stay with the people you sold them to, or find their way to someone like Turaab.ROUEN, France (Reuters) - A French convict who killed his cellmate and ate his lung was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Thursday.
Nicolas Cocaign and Thierry Baudry had a fight when Cocaign asked Baudry to wash his hands after he had used the toilet during the night of January 2, 2007. Cocaign strangled Baudry and cut open his chest with a razor blade.
Thinking it was the heart, Cocaign then ripped out a piece of Baudry’s lung and ate part of it raw before cooking the rest.
“What I did, I liked doing,” said Cocaign, 37, who has a shaved head and whose face is covered in tattoos.
He will have to serve at least 20 years of his sentence.
Aware of his impulses, Cocaign had requested psychiatric help in 1998 and asked to be placed in isolation in 2006.
“It’s exceptional to see a psychologically disturbed person say: I have to be treated,” said defense lawyer Fabien Picchiottino, noting the “failure of the psychiatric, penitentiary and social system.”When I walked into the hospital room of a 19-year-old woman, a foul smell all but overwhelmed me. I called a nurse to assist me and saw her, too, catch her breath.
When we examined the young woman we found a chronic infection of her pelvis so painful that she resisted our slightest touch.
How long had she been living like this, I wanted to know. Through tears, my patient hesitantly began an explanation that told me as much about our diseased medical system as about her illness: She'd had diabetes since she was a child, she said. On her 18th birthday, she lost her insurance and had been able to afford insulin only occasionally. She worked two jobs, she said, but neither offered insurance. Uncontrolled, her diabetes had let the infection develop and fester.
As I left her room, I realized I'd already grown accustomed to the rank odor. That, I think, is what happens when we learn that 47 million people in the United States are uninsured. At first, we find it shocking. But over time, most of us learn to ignore it.
What's in Your Wallet?
That experience sparked a conversation with a friend, a primary care physician who told me that about 20 percent of the patients he treats at the hospital are uninsured, and he is not compensated for treating them. (As physicians sometimes say, "No other professionals -- lawyers, plumbers, accountants -- provide uncompensated service to one-fifth of their clients.")
Although the uninsured look like any other patients, it's easy to spot them: Their charts have places for their address, emergency contact and insurance information; an empty insurance box is a telltale sign. Some doctors examine this sheet before examining the patient -- a practice we refer to as a wallet biopsy.
The 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act declares that hospitals cannot refuse care to critically ill patients and that the physician on call must treat them. Internists with privileges at a hospital (like my friend) are usually part of the on-call rotation for the emergency room.
"I used to get angry every time the emergency room admitted an uninsured patient," he said. "I would try to spend less time with them -- 20 minutes instead of 30 -- and try to get them out of the hospital quickly and hope they would not come to my clinic."
It's not uncommon for patients with no insurance or poor insurance to receive different treatment. A 2006 study of 25 primary care private practices in the Washington area showed that in nearly one in four encounters, physicians reported adjusting their clinical management based on a patient's insurance status; nearly 90 percent of physicians admitted to making such adjustments. For patients with no insurance, alterations occurred 43 percent of the time; and for the privately insured, just 19 percent.
Some of these adjustments make little difference: Uninsured patients received more generic drugs and multiple drugs. A doctor might prescribe two generic pills for high blood pressure -- an ACE inhibitor and a diuretic, which together would cost $20 for a given period -- instead of a combined brand-name pill, which would cost $241.
The impact of other decisions is more worrying. A heart surgeon told me he operates on uninsured patients but schedules them for the end of the day; if other cases take longer than expected, the uninsured get bumped. Some gastroenterologists are quick to perform endoscopies or colonoscopies on insured patients; not so for the uninsured.
Some uninsured patients forgo tests or treatment. According to a 2003 study, participation in screening tests for breast cancer, prostate cancer or high cholesterol was 30 percentage points higher in some instances among people with insurance than among those without. Once the uninsured become eligible for Medicare, that gap shrinks.
Although the uninsured can be guaranteed care by coming to an emergency room, not all care is available there. Nor should it be. Estimates suggest that an ER visit is six times more expensive than a clinic visit.
Take the story I heard of an uninsured 31-year-old man who came to the emergency room complaining of pain in his groin. A CT scan revealed enlarged lymph nodes and what looked like a tumor above his left kidney. This was not the kind of problem that the ER would take care of; nor was the patient so ill that he required admission. So the ER doctor referred the patient to the urologist on call for a follow-up office visit.
The patient never went. A year and a half later, he showed up in the ER, with worse pain. The tumor had spread to his testicles, which were surgically removed a couple of months ago. A new urologist discovered that the patient had an endocrine tumor, which could have been managed with medication.
That patient's experience is reflected in research. A 2007 study by the American Cancer Society showed that patients with no insurance have lower survival rates for breast and colorectal cancer than insured patients. Similarly, a 2004 report in Health Affairs showed that people ages 51 to 61 with diabetes, hypertension or heart disease had a mortality rate of 12.5 percent over eight years if they had insurance and 18.8 percent if they had no insurance.
There may be a few among the uninsured who prefer to buy $149.99 sneakers than health insurance. Far more common are stories of preexisting conditions that make insurance unaffordable or jobs that offer none. My primary care friend told me about a patient who had left a boil untreated until it needed surgical drainage and intravenous antibiotics. When asked why didn't have insurance, the man said he had lost his job and was recently divorced. Stories like that helped my friend realize what injustices the uninsured face.
Makeshift Solutions
At the hospital, I avoid looking upfront at the patient's insurance status. In my office, my receptionist asks uninsured patients to bring a deposit of $50 to $75 and offers a payment plan. Some surgeons expect a $500 down payment before an operation.
I do not discriminate at an individual level, but many doctors, including myself, discriminate more broadly by moving our clinics to wealthier parts of the city, for example. To compensate for the cost of treating uninsured patients (about 10 percent of my practice), I inflate my charges for all patients, thus increasing my income from commercial insurance. According to a Kaiser Commission report, uncompensated care for the uninsured cost $41 billion in 2004, the majority of which was paid by the government.
In my city, Memphis, as in many other cities, doctors are applying their own makeshift bandages to our hemorrhaging system often in collaboration with faith-based institutions. One Memphis doctor -- who is also a Methodist minister -- founded the Church Health Center, which cares for more than 50,000 patients. The city's Muslim community has a clinic alongside the mosque where my partner volunteers. At the Hindu temple clinic where my wife and I volunteer, I counsel patients on vaccines and infections.
And as that foul odor wafts through my consciousness, I advise them on how they should try to get health insurance.
Comments:[email protected] a look inside a factory that builds IPhones in China. The BBC sent in undercover reporters to work at a Chinese factory and they secretly recorded their experiences. What they revealed was an exhausted and overworked employee base.
The above video shows people sleeping on their breaks and even falling asleep on the job.
Workers are even warned that falling asleep against machines could cause them to be electrocuted.
In 2010, 14 Chinese workers committed suicide at another factory producing Apple products. At that time Apple vowed to make changes to create better and more humane working conditions.
This recent video shows that those promises have not been lived up to.
Within minutes of starting work, Apple’s guidelines were broken and the new worker’s IDs was taken. In China, citizens are forced to carry an ID at all times, and not returning the worker’s ID is a way to keep them controlled and helpless.
The company where these phones are being built is called Pegatron. Guidelines are given that workers should be allowed a choice whether to work nights or work standing up, however, as the video indicates, in this factory no choice is given.
Workers are required to simply do whatever they are asked or told to.
The BBC’s undercover workers were overwhelmed by their workload. Workers regularly work over 60 hours a week, which is higher than Apple’s guidelines.
Apple told the BBC that “napping on breaks is not unusual”. However workers don’t believe that Apple cares about them at all. The factory claims they will investigate the BBC’s claims and will take all necessary actions.
Isn’t that exactly what was said in 2010, so how is this any different?
Tell us what you think below.Share Pin 0 Shares
By Maria Saporta
The Greater Seattle area could write the textbook on how to pass (and how not to pass) a regional transportation sales tax.
The story actually goes back to the late 1960s when Seattle voters turned down a referendum to build a rail transit system with a 20 percent local match for 80 percent federal funds.
Their loss was Atlanta’s gain. In 1971, Atlanta voters in Fulton and DeKalb counties passed the MARTA Act, and the federal dollars flowed to the Atlanta region.
Speaker after speaker reminded 110 metro Atlanta leaders visiting Seattle on the 15th annual LINK trip that they should thank Seattle for their transit system.
“We have regretted that every since; and I do believe you benefitted from that,” said Aaron Reardon, chairman of Sound Transit — a three-county agency that operates commuter trains, light rail and express buses for the Greater Seattle region. Reardon also is the executive of Snohomish County — the most northern county in the Puget Sound region.
Sound Transit was established in 1996 when voters approved a regional transit plan for Puget Sound and to begin building a rail system.
By 2007, the decision was made to go back to voters to approve a new investment in transportation in the region. The referendum proposed splitting the tax revenues between road and transit projects.
“That measure failed,” said Reardon, with only 37 percent of the voters approving it. “People wanted our system rather than road investments. When voters had they opportunity choose, they said: ‘We want investment in light rail, and we want investment in transit.’”
So they went back to the drawing boards, polling voters along the way. Voters wanted to vote for a regional transit system. Suburban and urban voters all wanted light rail, but leaders knew they couldn’t build out the whole system right away and it could take years if not decades for outlying areas to get rail.
The decision was made to serve those areas with express buses until they would be able to get rail transit. Leaders also divided the region into sub-areas, and they pledged that each sub-area would get a proportionate amount of the new tax revenues for transit.
Reardon said that polling showed that transit was much more appealing to voters even if they would rarely use it.
“We drive everywhere; we love to drive,” Reardon said. “But voters could identify with the Sound Transit plan. They knew it. It was something they could understand. They could see how it fit into their daily lives.”
Metro Atlanta leaders explained that they too soon would be voting on a regional transportation sales tax.
Reardon said it was critical to have a regional transit agency that could sell the plan and explain how it would be implemented.
Right now, metro Atlanta and the State of Georgia are trying to figure out a regional transit governance agency that would include a much greater area than just the two MARTA counties.
The timing of the 2008 Seattle referendum also was fortuitous because it was held on the same day as the general presidential election. That brought out many more transit-friendly voters to the polls, and the referendum passed by more than 60 percent.
Metro Atlanta leaders are becoming increasingly concerned about the timing of the regional sales tax vote — now slated for the primary election on July 31. Because it is expected that most of the contested races will be in Republican races, the likely voters would tend to be anti-tax, conservative and suburban.
There’s a growing consensus among those championing a new regional sales tax in the Atlanta region that the vote should be held in November during the general presidential election. That would attract a greater percentage of voters from throughout the metro area — including the core urban area that tends to be more accepting of transit and taxes.One month into the Trump presidency, Mr. McCarthy is a man with a foot in two warring camps. He represents a 10,000-square-mile red rural stronghold in the farmland of central California, a state that Mr. Trump lost by four million votes. His seniority in the House leadership, and his ties to Mr. Trump, mean that he is indisputably the most powerful Californian in the nation’s capital.
And in an interview here, Mr. McCarthy left no doubt that his loyalties in this fight were east of the Mississippi River. He assailed California’s Democratic leaders for provoking the president, and warned that it could prove damaging to the state, particularly as the Trump administration created an infrastructure program to pay for public works projects across the nation.
“Look, I will represent my district, and I will represent my state,” Mr. McCarthy said in his first-floor suite of offices, between votes. “But what they are doing, they are playing with fire. Donald Trump is not going out in any way or form to attack California. They are the ones who are attacking California right now. They are the ones who are putting Californians at risk in every shape and form. And they are doing it to make a political point, which is wrong.”
It has been only 10 years since Mr. McCarthy, 52, arrived here as a freshman member of Congress, the latest stop in a career that began in the California Assembly, where he rose to become the minority leader. His family has lived in Bakersfield for generations, and he attended Bakersfield College and business school at California State University and owned a delicatessen in his hometown before he turned to politics full time.
Mr. McCarthy got his start in politics in college, where he was the head of the California Young Republicans. Soon after graduating, he sold his delicatessen and began working as the district director for Representative Bill Thomas, before leaving to run for the Assembly. He represents Mr. Thomas’s former district today.A Winchester |
Woe to the frightened people who had the will to abstain:
Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. -Rev. 12:12
And again, more fireworks from heaven:
And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. -Rev. 11:19
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men -Rev. 13:13
Even Jesus has the vengeance of a blood thirsty killer:
And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. -Rev. 2:23
That's right; even Jesus has the will to kill! (If you don't realize those words as coming from Jesus, consult a red-letter edition of the Bible.)
Sorry, but I just don't want to live with a wrathful entity who slaughters his enemies, or has the will to kill "children." I'm not impressed by the macho or the fireworks. I don't care how powerful he is, or what great wonders he "doeth".
Thankfully only 144,000 will reach heaven
The Bible explicitly tells how many will be "saved":
...the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. -Rev. 14:3-4
Metzger writes, "The first part of chapter 14 is a scene of tranquillity and rejoicing. John sees the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, with the 144,000 of the redeemed... 144,000 is a symbolic number, representing all those who remain faithful... On the surface this means that only men who have never had sexual intercourse can 'follow the Lamb wherever he goes'... Rather, John appears to adopt the imagery found frequently in the Old Testament where any contact with pagan worship was called 'fornication' or 'adultery.' Hence, the 144,000 are those who have not defiled themselves by participating in pagan worship."
Metzger sees that the 144,000 consist of the 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. The twelve tribes symbolize the new Israel, the Christian church. Each individual is marked on the forehead with a seal. (See the marked head of a Borg unit above.)
In other words, unless you are a male virgin believer (or a pagan worshiper) you will not get into heaven. Whew! Now I can relax.
I don't know how many people inhabit the cube of the Borg, but 144 thousand seems to be a reasonable guess. It also appears that the Borg have no relationship with women, or have sex of any kind; they seem entirely virginal.
Sitting for eternity with 14399 tribal men in a cube, with the absence of women & sex, paying homage to a wrathful war god surrounded by multi-eyed beasts (symbolically speaking, of course), and having to listen to a never ending chant of HOLY-HOLY is not my cup of tea. Thank you very much, but I'd rather remain peacefully dead for eternity than suffer the entertainments from this vainglory god.
Conclusion
"The horror, the horror"
-Marlin Brando in 'Apocalypse Now'
Both the Star Trek version and the Biblical account of heaven presents a frightening but interesting story about submitting to a powerful entity in a utopian world devoid of personal freedom.
Heaven is filled with beasts with many eyes (regardless of how metaphorical), power hungry beings with the ability to create war and destruction. The Biblical heaven more closely resembles a hell rather than the bowdlerized descriptions from Christians. Hardly a place where I would like to spend eternity. Moreover, imagine that some people would be joined with their family, including their mother and laws. What exquisite horror.
If I were to believe the Bible, I could not in all good conscious accept the horrors of the heavenly God as truthful, but rather, as a tale invented by the most evil being imaginable. Only an evil power could construct such a figure of God as a ruler who only dispenses forgiveness as long as they submit to His will. The God of the Bible resembles a slave owner who punishes his servants with an iron rod or kills them if they do not obey. A benevolent God would not construct a book with so many horrors, contradictions and falsehoods. Therefore, if I were to believe in the Bible, it would not be a belief that God influenced this but rather Satan inspired. An all powerful God who wished to reveal himself could easily prove himself to all people directly; he would not need a book, a priest, or a religion. If a God does exist, it's obvious that he means to remain unknown. Only an evil being would try to lure people through the ignorance of faith and the unreliability of words, while condemning skepticism and reason. But I am not a believer and I do not believe in God or Satan. Nor do I believe in the Borg.
As a non-believer, I can enjoy fiction and can postulate meaning from allegorical myths. The story of the Borg presents us with a juicy tale of utopian heaven where its citizens cannot think for themselves. The Borg inhabitants live in accordance with a communal system, each unit living "happily" within the system, uncannily like the subjects of religion who submit themselves to a superstitious god who demands love and submission. But I would not volunteer myself to this kind of life anymore than I would reject reason for faith (the reliance on hope and ignorance).
Both Star Trek and the Bible represent mythical stories and they both contain messages that we can learn from (well, at least the Star Trek myth). Although I don't follow Star Trek philosophy, I find the ethics of Star Trek superior to that of the Bible and provides a much better example for healthy living than the cruel submission methods used in the Bible. Star Trek promotes cooperation and tolerance while the Bible promotes intolerance and submission to faith. I do not believe in Star Trek or the Bible, but if I had to choose, I would prefer to live and die on an Enterprise rather than conform to the Borg and I would rather die a non-believer than submit myself to the horrors of the bee-hive of heaven.
Although I wrote this article as a satirical piece on the Biblical concept of heaven for non-believers, Christians and those who believe in a supernatural heaven must consider this a shocking and serious theological presentation about what the Bible really says about heaven. To those who still believe, you might want to reconsider your position in regards to your soul; do you want to spend eternity in the Borg of Heaven, or would you rather free yourself from this horrible theological trap? Consider yourself warned.
Live long and prosper.
"The plan was for Jesus to come to Earth two thousand years ago with a pocketful of miracles and souls for the people who were then alive. After his return to heaven from Earth (it is about twelve septillion miles from Earth to the edge of our galaxy with four hundred billion suns to dodge) he is going to build those mansions, come back before his generation dies out, finally put an end to the world which has been such a rotten disappointment, and deposit most of these souls in hell. No wonder heaven is only 12,000 furlongs wide, long, and high."
-- Ruth Hurmence Green
Sources:
Metzger, Bruce M., "Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation," Abingdon Press, 1993
King James Bible, 1611
Star Trek web sites:
The Borg Arc: The Next Generation
The Borg Collective... Borg Information
Star Trek PhilosophyLooking for news you can trust?
Subscribe to our free newsletters.
Fifty-seven pages into her new memoir, Core of Conviction, Michele Bachmann makes a confession. “When I say something wrong, I’m hard on myself, because I’m trying to communicate information accurately,” she writes. “And so as someone who talks for a living, I’ve learned to check, double-check, and triple-check my sources. And yet I still make a mistake or two!”
So we’ve heard. Bachmann’s book, her first, hits stores this week, just in time for the Black Friday rush, and given the Minnesota congresswoman’s lagging poll position, it might be the best thing that’s happened to her in months. In the totally nuts, absolutely wild, up-is-down, Newt-is-up 2012 GOP primary campaign, there’s no better miracle elixir for a rough patch than a book tour. Herman Cain’s rise in the polls corresponded with his decision to stop campaigning in early primary states, and instead hawk his book; Newt Gingrich, who has spent much of his campaign selling documentaries and children’s books, is experiencing his own unexpected surge just as he’s released his latest work of historical fiction. If Core of Conviction can’t save Bachmann’s campaign, nothing will.
It’s a short book, and an easy enough read devoted in large part to correcting her biography as it’s been reported in the press. But in doing so, she breaks her own rule with regularity.
You don’t have to read far to find the first whopper—it’s on page one. It’s a yarn the candidate has spun frequently in campaigns past regarding her unlikely candidacy for state Senate in 2000. As Bachmann describes it, she had made a spur-of-the-moment decision to show up for the district nominating convention but had no intention of running for the seat herself; she just wanted to be a part of the democratic process. She was dressed in moccasins and a torn sweatshirt. She was coaxed into putting her name on the ballot, stumbled through her speech, and somehow defeated both the Republican incumbent Gary Laidig and the party machine.
“I was just doing my duty as a citizen, speaking out,” she writes. “It was like that wonderful Norman Rockwell painting from the forties, Freedom of Speech, in which an earnest man speaks out at a town meeting, politely but firmly.”
But that account puts Bachmann in conflict with Bachmann. In 2001, she bragged to the St. Paul Pioneer-Press that she had been planning her primary challenge a year in advance of the convention because of Laidig’s support for the state curriculum standard, Profile of Learning, as well as Minnesota’s compliance with a federal program called Goals 2000. She told the Stillwater Gazette prior to the election that “I told [Laidig] that if he’s not willing to be more responsive to the citizens, then I may have to run for his seat.” As Laidig told The New Yorker‘s Ryan Lizza, referring to Bachmann’s citizen crusade, “Michele came to me on several occasions and to my face said, ‘If you don’t vote to get rid of School to Work and Profiles, I will run against you.'” (Bachmann devotes the special appendix in Core of Conviction to fleshing out her critique of the Clinton-era education policy.)
The floor that day in suburban Mahtomedi was filled with anti-Profile activists—almost all of whom had been riled into political activism by Bachmann herself. By some accounts, there were even pro-Bachmann campaign signs.
There’s enough to dispute within the first 13 pages that by the time she announces, on page 14, that she was born in Waterloo, Iowa, you almost want to ask for a birth certificate. Political memoirs have been known to inflate details from time to time; that’s the point. But Core of Conviction takes things further. Bachmann’s description of her tumultuous stint as a founding board member at New Heights Charter School in Stillwater, Minnesota, is another example. “Yes, we were Christians, but we never sought to impose Christianity on our students,” she writes. That would come as a surprise to New Heights parents, who have noted her efforts to bring creationism into the classroom.
Her account is also contradicted by the school’s board meeting minutes, which, as I reported in July, chronicle efforts by some of the school’s founders to run the school according to the “20 principles of Christian management.” Per the minutes, board members took issue with Bachmann’s efforts to promote Christianity in the school, fearing that they were crossing a line when it came to the separation of church and state. An investigation by the school district confirmed those fears.
“Ultimately, [her husband] Marcus and I saw we wouldn’t succeed in restoring the school’s original focus, and so I and other board members stepped down,” Bachmann writes. Which is putting it mildly. Under fire at the tumultuous final school board meeting, the future presidential candidate joined in a prayer to ward off the evil spirits she felt had crept into the room.
The whitewashing is the all the more striking given the passion with which she writes about her religious awakening, her calls throughout the book to fight back against moral relativism, and her insistence that America’s greatest values are enshrined in its Judeo-Christian core. Much of the book is spent, quite sincerely, explaining how her faith informs everything she does; of course she wanted faith to be a part of the education system.
“The political waters back home in Stillwater have not been still since,” she writes on page 12. “There would be no stillness in my life in Stillwater,” she writes on page 113.
That said, there are some redeeming moments. Bachmann’s personality comes through, at times earnest, at times endearingly tacky. She describes her confusion the first time she saw a reference to the Beatles song “Michelle” (“Why the two letters?”) and recalls the most important piece of advice she received from President George W. Bush, while sitting in the back of the presidential motorcade en route to a fundraiser in 2006: “The president looked at me and said, ‘room temperature water is healthier.'” Thanks, Mr. President!
The book is heavy on exclamation marks—there are 109 of them in 208 pages—and figurative language. “The political waters back home in Stillwater have not been still since,” she writes on page 12. “There would be no stillness in my life in Stillwater,” she writes on page 113. When describing a particularly romantic date with Marcus, she gets poetic: “Now I could speak. And I did. Like water from a spring brook.” She’s also really into pepper, a quirk she inherited from her grandmother.
Toward the book’s grand finale, in which she makes the case for why conservatives should hop on the “freedom and prosperity train” and support her campaign, Bachmann describes the bureaucratic gluttony of Obama-era Washington. “[T]he number of limousines owned by the federal government rose by 73 percent during the first two years of President Obama’s administration. What an amazing statistic!” But not really, as it turns out: The increase was solely attributable to a long-term plan by one agency, implemented before Obama took office, and as FactCheck.org explained, “‘limousine’ includes armored vehicles and sedans, not just actual limos.”
Bachmann blames Obama for increasing the number of Department of Transportation employees making $170,000 from one in 2007 to 1,690 in 2009. Except, as FactCheck notes, “At least two-thirds of those employees were receiving more than $170,000 before Obama took office.” One moment she’s lamenting the sky-high tax rates of the 1970s; the next moment she’s labeling the considerably lower tax rates of the Obama era “unprecedented.” On “Obamacare,” she rattles off a list of whoppers that read like a Politifact greatest hits: It funds abortion; it will cost 800,000 jobs; it creates death panels; it contains $105 billion in secret spending (there was nothing secret about it); and it would cause 114 million Americans to lose their existing private coverage (the report she’s referencing simply says that, if a public option existed, 114 million Americans would choose to switch to it.)
The text is littered with Bachmannalia. She refers to the federal government as the “givernment” and helpfully informs readers that, while unsuccessful, her legislation to repeal incandescent lightbulb regulations “sent an electric shock through the country.” The Troubled Assets Relief Program is labeled a “$700 billion blank check,” which is a logical impossibility. “My campaign plan is simple,” Bachmann writes, as she lays out an agenda to restore America to greatness. “I am going to say true things.”
Why start now?Spread the love
Merced, CA — A video posted to YouTube this week shows a police interaction over a man riding a bicycle on the sidewalk end as the man filming it is tackled by cops.
As the video begins, an unidentified young black man is seen arguing with a police officer. When the man asks the police officer the reason for the stop, she is unable to articulate one and instead calls for backup.
The alleged infraction the officer was attempting to ticket the man for was riding on the sidewalk. According to the Merced City Municipal Code Section 10.44.040, bicycles are prohibited on the sidewalks from “V” Street to “G” Street on Main Street. Whether or not this man was on one of those sidewalks is not revealed in the video.
While a citation for riding on the sidewalk is questionable given certain circumstances, under the law, the man on the bike should have presented his ID as he had technically been suspected of committing a crime.
As the man tries to ride away, however, the small female officer attempts to take down the man twice her size. The man resists but without violence.
As he records, the man filming tries to calm down the cyclist and tells him not to resist. Just as the cyclist listens to the man filming and puts his hands behind his back to be placed in handcuffs, a motorcycle officer comes storming in and grabs his throat.
Up until this point, the man on the bike had been calming down. However, after being attacked while he was complying, he was set off once again. Still, he remained non-violent.
As the man filming documents the situation, he apparently got too close to the officer, who then told him to back up. He immediately and without question backed up and remained completely obedient and polite. However, just as he backs up, another cop arriving on the scene tackles the man filming.
According to the video uploader, the man filming was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for resisting, delaying, or disrupting a public officer.
The Free Thought Project reached out to the Merced police department but have yet to receive a response.That was surprising because researchers had assumed the cancers most vulnerable to an immune system attack were melanoma and kidney cancer. Lung cancer was supposed to be out of the question.
“Julie and I got on the phone with Medarex and said, ‘You have to include lung cancer in your next clinical trial,’ ” Dr. Topalian said, referring to her colleague Dr. Julie Brahmer.
That led to studies of two Bristol-Myers drugs: one that blocks PD-1 and another that blocks PD-L1. The studies included a 503 patients with a variety of advanced cancers who had exhausted other options.
The findings, presented in October last year at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, were striking. A significant proportion of patients responded, including 18 percent of 76 lung cancer patients who got the PD-1 drug and 10 percent of 49 who got PD-L1 drug. Dr. Pardoll, who is married to Dr. Topalian, said that when she and her colleagues presented the data, “it was almost like a hush fell over the room: ‘Can this really be?’ ”
Emblems of Hope
As researchers continue to study the new drugs and ask if they can improve their results by combining them with other therapies, they are heartened by some of the rare patients whose cancers were halted by the drugs. They caution that these patients are unusual; critical studies to reveal the drugs’ effects on populations of cancer patients are still under way.
“What you really want to know,” said Dr. Roger M. Perlmutter, the president of Merck Research Laboratories, “is, are people living longer?” For that, “you just have to wait,” he continued, adding, “What I don’t want to do is give people false hope.”
But some patients, like two treated at Hopkins, have become emblems of hope.
In 2007, M. Dennis Sisolak, who is 72 and a retired engineer from Bel Air, Md., learned he had kidney cancer. The tumor was huge, and the cancer had spread. After he tried two new drugs to no avail, his doctor, Dr. Charles G. Drake, a kidney cancer specialist at Johns Hopkins, enrolled him in an early phase clinical trial of a PD-1 inhibitor. His cancer disappeared on scans and has not returned, even though he has had no treatment for a year.Cody Rhodes is a man on a mission He is determined to have Ring of Honor book a large arena and sell 10,000 tickets. On its face it seems ridiculous. From examining the Wrestling Observer and the Internet Wrestling Database for 2012-2017, Ring of Honor has broken an attendance barrier of 2,000 just three times since 2012 (and likely in its history):
8/22/2015 2,000 Brooklyn, NY at the annual Field of Honor Event. Reportedly ROH was on pace to sell far greater than this number until the WWE announced NXT Takeover in the borough, which drew just under 16,000 to the Barclays Center
4/1/2017 Lakeland, FL 3,500 WrestleMania weekend. Led by fortunate timing and a hot Hardys versus Young Bucks program, ROH drew their highest attendance ever (the number has also been listed as high as 3,600 and as low as 3,000. It may depend upon what Koff interview you read).
10/15/2017 Chicago, IL 2,500 This event sold out quickly (with only a couple of hundred tickets released at a later time). The event featured Kenny Omega in the city for the first time as a headliner and benefitted from co-branding with a hot New Japan for Global Wars. Knowing the event was at The Odeum (a venue that had been listed as holding 6,000 for an ECW pay per view many years ago), fans waited for more seats to open up. Unfortunately, the event was held in a smaller part of the venue and this was the maximum seating. This event was a missed opportunity to draw ROH its biggest crowd to date. It would have likely easily eclipsed Lakeland.
2017 has been the best year for attendance for ROH since at least 2012 (and likely in its history). Thus far, they’ve averaged 1,120 fans. They’ve had 19 shows with over 1,000 fans (if one includes the 2 Honor Rising events in Tokyo).
Cody is at most (if not all) of the shows now. He sees the venues and the interest level and he still calls for a 10,000 seat venue. Why? I believe that Cody knows to get big, you have to think big. He doesn’t want to settle for selling out 1,800 seats at the Hammerstein Ballroom. He wants to reach for a higher rung on the ladder. The way to get bigger is to talk bigger. Is 10,000 an achievable number for ROH in 2018? Probably not but just by talking about it, and tilting for windmills, it makes things bigger.
ROH has three very large venues booked for the first third of 2018 and Cody may want to concentrate his promotion on those event. Although they are scaled for much less, the Cabarrus Arena can hold just under 6,000; the Nashville Municipal Auditorium 8,000 and of course, UNO Lakefront Arena for Supercard of Honor 9,000. Are any of those 10,000 seat venues? No but getting 5,000-7,000 fans would be a huge accomplishment.
Lavie Margolin is the author of the forthcoming book, TrumpMania. The kindle edition is available for pre-order. Tweet Lavie via @Laviemarg. Full disclosure: Lavie is a shareholder of Sinclair Broadcast Group.'What's it like working with Mexican drug cartels?' Banking giant JPMorgan cancels Twitter Q&A after thousands of abusive tweets
Firm had planned public relations stunt with senior executive Jimmy Lee
But it decided to cancel session after deluge of insults from angry users
One said: 'Is it true that, while you don't always spit on poor people, when you do, you have perfect aim?'
Another drew picture making reference to 'London whale' trading scandal
Bank faces $13bn for its role in credit crunch that caused global slump
Banking giant JPMorgan Chase was forced into a humiliating climbdown over its plans to hold a question-and-answer session on Twitter today after receiving a barrage of abusive tweets.
The bank had arranged an event where top executive Jimmy Lee would field questions from users in what it hoped would be a positive public relations stunt.
But the company said it had scrapped the session after being flooded with insults, confirming the decision with the matter-of-fact tweet:'Tomorrow's Q&A is cancelled. Bad Idea. Back to the drawing board.'
Humiliating: Banking giant JPMorgan confirms it has cancelled a planned Q&A on Twitter with a top executive after receiving thousands of abusive tweets over its role in the global recession
Backfired: Banker Jimmy Lee had been lined up to field questions in what the firm hoped would be a positive public relations stunt Under-fire: The banking group, headed by CEO Jamie Dimon (pictured), faces a $13billion fine over over alleged misdeeds in the financial meltdown
JPMorgan last week asked users of the popular microblogging site to send questions marked with the hashtag #AskJPM in advance of the session set for Thursday at 1pm in New York.
Few questions appeared until Wednesday afternoon when responses started piling in.
Some users simply made fun of the bank's attempt to use social media, but many others chose to insult executives or ask barbed questions about bank's recent legal problems and corporate responsibility.
'Reading the #AskJPM Twitter feed makes it seem JPM put a 'kick me' sticker on its back when it rolled out that hashtag,' wrote a user who identified himself as an editor and columnist.
A woman who said she was a community organiser and 'next gen freedom fighter' asked if Lee, a vice chairman and deal rainmaker at the bank, thought it was 'ok to outright lie, cheat and steal.'
Meanwhile, one user asked: 'What's it like working Mexican drug cartels? Do they tip?'
Venting their spleen: Some angry tweets directed at JPMorgan ahead of the planned Q&A session on Twitter
Another posted a picture of a whale spewing bank notes from its blowhole in reference to the 'London Whale' trading scandal for which JPMorgan was fined nearly £600million.
A woman called Charlotte mocked the bank's attempt at social media outreach as an 'epic derailment' and asked: 'Is it true that, while you don't always spit on poor people, when you do, you have perfect aim?'
A blogger and online journalist asked about the scale of the bank's alleged wrongdoing in electric energy trading compared with that in its sales of mortgage securities.
Another user known as 'Guerrilla Educator' asked if anyone in Lee's family had ever been foreclosed upon.
The company's tweets last week said Lee had been part of Wall Street's biggest deals and had worked with Dell Inc and General Motors Co. The tweets said Lee would 'answer your questions on leadership and life.'
It comes as the bank braces itself for a record $13billion (£8billion) fine over its role in the global slump.
Satirical: One user posted this drawing which makes reference to the 'London Whale' trading scandal for which JPMorgan was fined £570million
Read it and weep: More than 66 per cent of the 80,000 tweets sent using the haghtag #AskJPM were apparently negative
It relates to the selling of sophisticated investments based on ‘high-risk’ home loans which resulted in the near collapse of the banking system in 2008.
The penalty will be the biggest so far paid by a bank over alleged misdeeds in the financial meltdown that has plunged the world’s economy into the deepest slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The problems relate to ‘mortgage-backed securities’ created by investment banks in the run-up to the credit crisis.
Problems came when the US housing market ran into trouble and it emerged that some of these securities, that had purported to contain top quality mortgages, were in fact stuffed with sub-prime loans to borrowers who could not afford to repay.
JPMorgan is accused of selling these products knowing that many of the loans involved were high-risk.
The latest fine comes after the bank paid out a £570million penalty in the UK and admitted wrongdoing in the £4billion ‘London Whale’ trading scandal.
That settlement included a £137.6m fine from British watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority, the second biggest penalty ever from the UK regulators. The rest went to US authorities.
In the London Whale affair, a group of traders in the firm’s Chief Investment Office based in London made huge bets on complex financial instruments and covered up their losses for months.
One trader, Frenchman Bruno Iksil, was nicknamed the London Whale due to the size of his bets.It was another big day for Andre Blake in the 2016 Regular Season opener on Sunday. The former No. 1 pick made eight saves – which would have tied a franchise record had he not broken it last year against New England – to keep the Union alive against the defending regular season Western Conference champions FC Dallas.
Amazingly, that brought Blake’s career number of saves to 41. That’s already fourth best in Union franchise history and only 27 behind Chris Seitz for second all-time, which is quite realistic that Blake will reach that by year’s end.
So that got us thinking, in eight career games, where does Blake stand? Here's the breakdown in Union franchise history:
Name Saves Shots GA Andre Blake (2014-16) 41 52 13* Chris Seitz (2010) 24 44 17 Brad Knighton (2010) 23 33 8 Brian Sylvestre (2015) 21 34 12 Zac MacMath (2011-14) 16 25 8 Rais Mbolhi (2014-15) 15 27 10 Faryd Mondragon (2011) 14 19 4 John McCarthy (2015) 13 29 15
Only Chris Seitz and Brad Knighton (both a part of the struggling expansion team) even had half of the saves Blake has made through their first eight games. Of course, Blake's also faced by far the most shots, but he also has the best save percentage -- and by a pretty wide distance. Only Mondragon (73.6 percent) and Knighton (69.6 percent) even come close to Blake (80). Worse yest, Blake has even had the unfortunate luck of having two own goals stand against his record (in his debut against Houston in 2014 and again last year against Toronto).
But considering the wide margin, that got us thinking about where Blake may stand all-time in MLS history. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, 103 goalkeepers have made eight career appearances and at least 40 saves in the league's history. Of those, only three players averaged better than 5.1 saves per game (as Blake has averaged so far): Thomas Ravelli, Mark Dodd and some guy named Tim Howard.
Further, not a single player had a better career save percentage than Blake's 78.8. The closest was another former U.S. Men's National Team standout Brad Friedel, who played two years for Columbus and posted a 75.6 save percentage. Admittedly, it will be hard for Blake to continue at the pace he's at, but impressive nonetheless.
Of course, none of these answer the question of where Blake stands in MLS history through eight games. Since it's not easily navigable through Elias, here is our best guess with going through a handful of the save per game leaders.
Name Svs/game Saves in first 8 Thomas Ravelli (1998) 5.7 42 Mark Dodd (1996-99) 5.4 36 Tim Howard (1998-03) 5.2 36 Andre Blake 5.1 41 Aidan Heaney (1996-97) 4.9 35 Adin Brown (2000-04; 2011) 4.7 50 Brad Friedel (1996-97) 4.7 35 Marcus Hahnemann (1997-99; 2012-14) 4.6 18 Juergen Sommer (1998-02) 4.6 40 Tony Meola (1996-06) 4.5 38 Matt Napoleon (1998-00) 4.5 43 Danny Cepero (2008-09) 4.5 32
Only Adin Brown, Matt Napoleon and Thomas Ravelli had more saves in their first eight games amongst the Top 15 in MLS saves/game. That, of course, does not automatically mean Blake is fourth all-time, but you have to think he's pretty close.
Finally, here's Blake stacked up against some of the bigger names in U.S. Soccer and MLS history, outside of the aforementioned Howard, Friedel and Meola. None of these players had more saves than Blake in their first games. Again, it is only eight games, but take a look:
Name Saves in 8 All-time Saves Kevin Hartman (1997-2012) 12 1,474 Nick Rimando (2000-16) 39 1,364 Joe Cannon (1999-2013) 32 1,331 Jon Busch (2002-15) 33 1,151 Matt Reis (1998-2013) 26 1,114 Scott Garlick (1997-06) 34 1,021 Zach Thornton (1996-2011) 26 987 Troy Perkins (2004-15) 25 724 Donovan Ricketts (2009-15) 22 544 Stefan Frei (2009-15) 29 524 Sean Johnson (2010-16) 32 480 Bill Hamid (2010-16) 20 476
So it will be interesting to watch this year as Blake progresses. Either way, it's a good start for the young Jamaican.
Notice something wrong? Email Chris Winkler at [email protected]: Amidst a row over beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya leaving India in the middle of a massive loan default probe, former top official of Infosys, TV Mohandas Pai has sought to know why questions are not being raised about the massive losses of Air India, and called for a system for recovery or settlement of loans."Air India has lost about Rs 30,000 crore. Why don't you hold the people who manage (it) accountable for Air India losses like you hold Vijay Mallya (accountable for losses in Kingfisher Airlines)?" Pai, former Chief Financial Officer and HR Head of the Bengaluru-based software major, told PTI."What is the difference between Vijay Mallya who lost Rs 10,000 crore and Air India which lost Rs 30,000 crore? Bank money is lost (in case of KFA) and public taxpayer's money is lost (in AI's case)."Everybody is going after Vijay Mallya. (But) a government entity making (AI) losses is okay...is it? Parliament is sitting quietly and does not talk about it. Media will sit quietly and nobody will talk about it...holding nobody accountable. What is this? It's hypocrisy. Both are of the same character and both are wrong," he said.One can blame Mallya of mismanagement for business losses, but now it's in his interest to come back to India and strike a deal with banks by paying back as much as possible because he is "not going to win this battle of delaying payment and going to courts", said Pai, currently Chairman of venture capital firm Aarin Capital and Manipal Education.Noting that the whole country is against Mallya now, Pai, formerly a member of the Kelkar panel on direct tax reforms, said, "He can't fight the whole country for what he has done."He also questioned Mallya for "not paying salaries to employees while you have a luxurious life".He said while people understand business loss, they would get angry "if you lead a luxurious life, flaunt your wealth when you have not paid your employees, banks..."Pai opined that government should not arrest Mallya and must ask him to come and settle the dues with the banks."Government should not arrest him. Government should tell him to come and settle. It's in his interest and government's interest to settle. Putting money laundering charges takes it to a different level, and to my mind it's unnecessary. Not good for him, not good for anybody," he said.Noting that the Mallya case has been before the DRT since 2013, he said the biggest problem in India is the lack of a bankruptcy code or a loan recovery system which is fast.Businessmen having outstanding loans love banks going to courts because they can prolong the case for 10-15 years without any resolution, he said, adding, "Dilatory practices in courts are the worst enemy of banks."Mallya, who is facing legal proceedings for alleged loan defaults by his group to the tune of over Rs 9,000 crore, had left India on March 2 kicking up a row, but has said that he is not an absconder and will comply with the law of the land.Save this picture! The full political compass diagram (Version 0.1) produced by Alejandro Zaera-Polo and Guillermo Fernandez Abascal. Image © Alejandro Zaera-Polo & Guillermo Fernandez Abascal
Observing the architectural landscape today it’s clear that the type of work which is currently ascendant, particularly among young practices, is very different to what came |
is little evidence to show that the 2015 regulation has curbed deployment. AT&T slightly decreased investment in rural broadband since the order, but analysts note that the company was undergoing a fundamental shift to use its cash during that period to acquire other companies, including its pending merger with Time Warner.
Rather, many small businesses and technology firms say they rely on net neutrality to ensure equal access to consumers, and have expressed concern that the repeal will allow incumbents to set up barriers to squeeze startups.
Vélez-Hagan, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in economic policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has provided advocacy on a number of highly charged political debates affecting Puerto Rico. He has argued for privatizing the island’s public assets, including its power utility and infrastructure, and for lowering the minimum wage.
Notably, the National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce prominently displays financial support from Herbalife, a controversial multi-level marketing company that critics have assailed as a pyramid scheme. The company reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission last year that forced it to restructure its payment system to reward its network of independent distributors of vitamins and weight-loss pills through retail sales rather than through recruiting other distributors. Herbalife has also faced critics who claim that the firm targets Latino communities with misleading promises of financial success.
The National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce, however, has been eager to sing the praises of its donor. “Puerto Rico needs more businesses like Herbalife, whose model provides opportunity to all,” Vélez-Hagan wrote in a column for Fox News.In a move that has left student union politicos across the country clinging to their therapy dogs, the University of Lincoln Students’ Union has voted to disaffiliate from the NUS. Springing from the new, anti-NUS sentiment that is brewing on campuses across the country, Lincoln students voted 881 to 804 to leave.
This was a big breakthrough, putting wind in the sails of disaffiliation campaigns currently being fought at York, Oxford, Exeter and Manchester. And though this was all sparked by the election of new NUS president Malia Bouattia – the overgrown student fond of waxing lyrical about the ‘zionist-led media’ – the gulf between NUS leadership and its members has been growing for years.
After Lincoln’s vote, outgoing NUS president Megan Dunn said she was ‘sorry this decision was made by such a small number of students’. Which was a bit rich, seeing as she was elected in 2015 by a whopping 413 NUS delegates, and turnout at campus NUS elections – which select those delegates – is notoriously low.
Lincoln’s vote is significant. Not least because so many felt so detached from the NUS they didn’t even turn out to vote. And, in an interesting twist, Lincoln SU’s own president appeared to approve of the move, telling the Independent that ‘for some time… the NUS has been far removed from the issues our students tell us are important’.
Clearly the national NUS backlash is driven by more than cabals of lairy, un-PC students or, as some have witheringly suggested, Islamophobia. After all, student politicos have always been a bit mental. What we’re seeing here is the realisation that the NUS is not only distant from its members concerns – it doesn’t really care about them at all.
From stipulating what fancy-dress costumes students can wear to rolling out national consent-class campaigns, NUS politicos are more interested in regulating students than fighting for their interests. The NUS-backed war on campus lad culture alone has led to innocent students across the country being suspended and re-educated just for carrying on in a fashion the NUS doesn’t like.
Time and again, the material concerns of students take a backseat while the NUS discipline anyone who strays outside its buttoned-up moral code. It has even forgotten the basics; in 2009, it signed up to minimum-pricing of alcohol. This is a student organisation that thinks beer is too cheap.
There’s nothing wrong with having a national students’ union. The desire of students to organise, fight for their own interests and play a role in changing the world around them doesn’t inevitably lead to groupthink and dimwittery. The NUS is simply so cut-off, so contemptuous of its own members, it is incapable of fostering a real student movement.
So, congratulations to the Lincoln Leave campaigners. You’ve liberated yourselves from an institution that holds you in contempt. Here’s hoping others students’ unions will follow suit. It’s time the NUS was consigned to student-political history so that something new can emerge.
Update: Newcastle University Students’ Union has also decided to disaffiliate from the NUS after a referendum on membership was held. 989 students voted to leave; 486 to remain.
Tom Slater is deputy editor of spiked and the editor of Unsafe Space: The Crisis of Free Speech on Campus.One patronizing Facebook page is outraging men and women alike by editing images of plus-size people to show how much 'better' they would look if they were thin.
Project Harpoon is the brainchild of a 4chan user who tasked other people with using Photoshop to digitally alter images of plus-size women, including well-known models, such as Tess Holliday and Ashley Graham, and celebrities like Melissa McCarthy and Meghan Trainor.
Using the hashtags #SkinnyAcceptance and #thINNERBEAUTY, the page compares side-by-side pictures of each plus-size person, then asks followers to weigh in on which one looks better - though the implied answer is that the thinner version is always preferable.
Offensively altered: The Facebook page called Project Harpoon edits the photos of women - including model Ashley Graham (pictured) - to make them look thin
Not so funny: An altered image of Bridesmaids star Melissa McCarthy was also featured
The page posts photos of women - and some men - without their permission. Someone digitally alters the original images to make the people in them look slimmer, thinning out their faces and bodies and even, occasionally, changing their bone structures to make them narrower.
Then, the page administrator polls followers on which version they prefer. To date, photos have been shared of Meghan Trainor, Melissa McCarthy, and plus-size models Georgia Pratt, Tess Holliday, and Ashley Graham.
'Meghan Trainor might be a lot more popular if she was what the industry wanted her to be!' the person behind the page captioned a photo of the Grammy-nominated All About that Bass singer.
The administrator also asks patronizingly whether the people who were edited without their permission would be happy to see their 'potential', and offers condescending compliments to the hypothetical thin people.
Lookinf for attention: The page has also included celebrities, like singer Meghan Trainor
If your lips are moving... Captioning Meghan's altered image, the page's administrator wrote that the 21-year-old Grammy nominee would be more popular if she was 'what the industry wanted her to be'
Maddening hoax? The idea for the project was first presented on 4chan, an online community with a history of trolling non-4chan users
Did you ask for that? The page has also featured Tess Holilday (pictured), as well as several other women, without permission
The page is likely to be an act of trolling, purposefully created and structured to get a rise out of people - like many other projects that have started on 4chan. And it has certainly has no trouble enraging many.
'No hate speech please,' the administrator has written, specifically calling out'skinny haters' who have written in to disagree with the Photoshopping project.
'[They say] "This fat person is perfect, stop hating." "Oh no it's okay she's only double her natural body size, you hater." "I'm fat and I'm offended therefore this fatty is perfect,"' the admin wrote.
But the page, the person insists, is 'here to help these misguided women' realize their potential.
In fact, the page has shared altered photos of men, too, writing: 'Is this man objectively more attractive in the left picture, or right.'
The administrator's captions and invitations for feedback assume that beauty and sexual attraction are, in fact, things that one could objectively measure.
No choice: Followers are asked which of the images they prefer, with the implication being that the 'thin' version is always better
Who asked you? The admin also patronizingly notes that these women would likely be thrilled if they realized their 'potential'
Getting a rise: The page may be a trolling attempt crafted purposefully to make people angry
While the page has over 5,600 followers - and plenty of those followers supportively 'like' the images that are posted - many Facebook users who have visited have taken the creator to task for spreading a harmful message and violating the unwilling participants.
'Uh, you don't combat "skinny shaming" by turning around and shaming fat people,' commented one person, Natalie Rose Apar. 'It's not a zero sum game, you don't have to lift people up by putting others down. We could actually lift each other up, what a concept.'
Others called out a lack of photo-editing skills, with a woman named Mariah McGarvey saying: 'If Photoshopping women wasn't bad enough, you do it so drastically as to change their underlying bone structure. This isn't even her anymore.'
Back off: Many people have been outraged by the page, chastising the creator for fat-shaming
No haters: The creator has mocked those who have disagreed with the page
Unwelcome: Pictures are stolen from women's Tumblr accounts and 'disfigured', accordng to Straight/Curve director Jen McQuaile
Unfortunately, some of the very models featured on the page have stumbled across their altered images - and they are, to put it lightly, not pleased.
'I am sad that someone has gone to the effort to make this silly project about others their personal focus,' model Georgia Pratt, who appears on the page, told Daily Mail Online. 'I am actually worried for this person's mental health.'
Jen McQuaile - the director of Straight/Curve, a documentary about plus-size models and their rise in the fashion industry - was horrified to see some of the models featured in her film on the page.
'I cannot believe somebody would stoop so low as to disfigure some of the most beautiful women in the world,' she told Daily Mail Online. 'It is utterly appalling on so many levels. It is a personal attack on these women - who are some of the most famous plus size models in the world. This is a blatant manipulation of their image and personal bodies.
Beauty's subjective: Some men have also been included and altered, and the creator has argued that the slimmer versions are 'objectively' more attractive
Not such an artist: Some critics have called out the page for employing poor Photoshop skills
The documentary's producer, Jess Lewis, added: '[This] speaks brilliantly to the fact that there is still work to be done, and an army of healthy women ready to do it.'
Photographer and plus-size model Lily Cummings, who has not yet appeared on the page but finds it no less 'vile' and slanderous, said: 'This movement to "prove" that women look better thinner through the use of Photoshop emphasizes the body and beauty ignorance that has been enforced over the last couple of decades.'
However, she added, what the page's creator is doing is not, actually, all that shocking: 'Women's bodies are more often than not manipulated in the images we see everywhere and everyday, yet most do nothing to stop this dishonest representation. What this hateful group has done is simply an extreme of what mainstream media and fashion outlets do regularly and without shame.'
Stolen pictures: The site also altered an image of a model in Neon Moon lingerie; Neon Moon, a 'feminist' brand, makes a point not to airbrush models
Fighting back: Neon Moon's founder, Hayat Rachi, said she was'shocked' and 'disappointed' to see the image on the site and made the creator remove it
Unfortunately, even some fashion brands that make a point not to manipulate the images of their models have been targeted.
Neon Moon, a 'feminist' lingerie brand which doesn't retouch images, found one of its own models featured on the page and demanded that the creator take it down.
Underneath the altered image, the page's creator shared the backhanded compliment: 'Wow, from a depressed chub to an elegant fox!'
'I am shocked at the blatant use of Photoshop by Project Harpoon to fat shame women,' Hayat Rachi, the founder of the brand, told Daily Mail Online. 'I was utterly disappointed to find a photo of our model Photoshopped [to look] unrealistically thin without any permission granted.'Using a pair of zero day vulnerabilities, a team of security researchers from U.K.-based MWR Labs hacked into a Samsung Galaxy S3 phone running Android 4.0.4 by beaming an exploit via NFC (Near Field Communications). The Samsung Galaxy S3 can be hacked via NFC, allowing attackers to download all data from the Android smartphone, security researchers demonstrated during the Mobile Pwn2Own contest in Amsterdam.Using a pair of zero day vulnerabilities, a team of security researchers from U.K.-based MWR Labs hacked into a Samsung Galaxy S3 phone running Android 4.0.4 by beaming an exploit via NFC (Near Field Communications).
NFC is a technology that allows data to be sent over very short distances. For mobile devices, the protocol allows digital wallet applications to transfer money to pay at the register. While the technology has been slow to take off, despite the adoption by Google for its Wallet payment application, a number of recent high-profile announcements have boosted its adoption.
Through NFC it was possible to upload a malicious file to the device, which allowed us to gain code execution on the device and subsequently get full control over the device using a second vulnerability for privilege escalation," MWR InfoSecurity said in a The same vulnerability could also be exploited through other attack vectors, such as malicious websites or e-mail attachments."," MWR InfoSecurity said in a statement. "."
The attacker, for instance, gets access to all SMS messages, pictures, emails, contact information and much more. The payload is very advanced, so attackers can "basically do anything on that phone," the researchers said.
How this Works:
1.) The first, a memory corruption flaw, was exploited via NFC (by holding two Galaxy S 3s next to each other) to upload a malicious file, which in turn allowed the team to gain code execution on the device.
2.) The malware then exploited a second vulnerability to gain full control over the device using privilege escalation. This undermined Android’s app sandbox model, allowing the attackers to install their customised version of Mercury, the company’s Android assessment framework.
3.) Mercury was then used to exfiltrate user data on the device (such as contacts, emails, text messages, and pictures) to a remote listener.
Researchers also said that,"Crucially, the ASLR implementation is incomplete in Android 4.0.4, and does not cover Bionic (Android’s linker) and /system/bin/app_process, which is responsible for starting applications on the device. Other protections which would make exploitation harder were also found to be absent."
MWR Labs, which won $30,000 for its hack, is planning a more technical blog post detailing the process of finding and exploiting this bug.
Also, a Dutch research Joost Pol, CEO of Certified Secure, a nine-person research outfit based in The Hague hack into Apple's iPhone 4S from scratch, exploited a WebKit vulnerability to launch a drive-by download when the target device simply surfs to a booby-trapped web site.
They used code auditing techniques to ferret out the WebKit bug and then spent most of the three weeks chaining multiple clever techniques to get a "clean, working exploit."
During the Pwn2Own attack, Pol created a web site that included an amusing animation of the Certified Secure logo taking a bite of the Apple logo. The drive-by download attack did not crash the browser so the user was oblivious to the data being uploaded to the attacker's remote server. "If this is an attack in the wild, they could embed the exploit into an ad on a big advertising network and cause some major damage."
The duo destroyed the exploit immediately after the Pwn2Own hack. "We shredded it from our machine. The story ends here, we're not going to use this again. It's time to look for a new challenge," Pol said.He provided the vulnerability and proof-of-concept code that demonstrates the risk to contest organizers at HP TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative (ZDI).Beverly Delosreyes only made it halfway through a parent council meeting at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School before she gave up and left.
"We're asking them: 'Is there a guarantee that our kids will be safe?'" Delosreyes said. "They can't answer."
Delosreyes posed that question to representatives from the John Howard Society, which is opening a halfway house just steps away from the school within the next two months.
Beverly Delosreyes has a daughter in kindergarten at St. Thomas Aquinas. (Spencer Gallichan-Lowe/CBC News)
Sonya Spencer is the executive director of the John Howard Society, which operates out of a building on Eglinton Avenue West near Dufferin Street.
"I cannot guarantee, I cannot be responsible for an individual's behaviour in the future," Spencer said. "What I can guarantee is that we have a very thorough assessment process, that we have strict criteria, that we evaluate when somebody applies to our residence.
"So that I can guarantee."
Sonya Spencer is the executive director of the John Howard Society. (Spencer Gallichan-Lowe/CBC News)
Ten convicted criminals who have been granted day parole will be moving into the facility as early as December. They will be housed on the second floor of the building that overlooks the school. Their crimes were deemed serious enough that they were handed prison sentences ranging from two years to life.
Filomena Bilotta has two children that go to St. Thomas Aquinas. She can't understand why they would put inmates so close to children.
St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School is just steps away from a halfway house that could open as early as December. (Spencer Gallichan-Lowe/CBC News)
"We worry about that. Who's going to be looking at our kids, who's going to be walking by, who's going to be close by?" Bilotta said.
Inside the meeting, many parents raised concerns about the possibility of sex offenders taking up residence at the John Howard Society. Spencer assured them that would never be an issue.
"We have very much heard from them that they do not want anyone here that has in any way harmed a child," Spencer said.
"We have absolutely committed to that."
Parents aren't the only ones concerned about this halfway house. A group of residents who live in the neighbourhood also showed up for the meeting, but they were turned away at the door.
Don Greene said a flyer was delivered to his house encouraging him to attend. The flyer claimed it was a public meeting.
"We arrived here on time, 6 o'clock, and we were told it was only for people that had kids here," Greene said.
Many residents say they recieved this flyer encouraging them to come to a public meeting at St. Thomas Aquinas elementary school.
Officials from the school said only people with children enrolled in the school are allowed to attend parent council meetings.
Eventually, representatives from the John Howard Society went out to talk to the residents who had gathered outside the school. They agreed to organize a public meeting sometime in the near future to address their concerns, as well.
Green said he wants to know why this wasn't made public sooner.
"They should have made the area more aware of what they were doing," Greene said.
Many residents and parents said they didn't know about the halfway house until they read about it in an article that was posted to the CBC Toronto website earlier this month.
Spencer said the John Howard Society has always followed proper protocol. The organization purchased the building back in 2013, and the following year held an open house, welcoming any and all questions from residents, she said.
"I'm not certain that there is anything that I can say that is going to make them feel better," Spencer said. "What I can tell them is that we will operate this program with a high level of integrity."Nonviolent Drone Resister Sentenced To One Year in Prison
Grandmother of Three was Convicted of Violating Strange ‘Order of Protection’ for Colonel of the Drone Base
On July 10, grandmother of three, Mary Anne Grady Flores was sentenced to one year in prison after being found guilty of violating an Order of Protection. A packed courtroom of over 100 supporters was stunned as she was led away, and vowed to continue the resistance.
These Orders of Protection, typically used in domestic violence situations or to protect a victim or witness to a crime, have been issued to people participating in nonviolent resistance actions at Hancock Air Base since late 2012. The base, near Syracuse NY, pilots unmanned Reaper drones over Afghanistan, and trains drone pilots, sensor operators and maintenance technicians. The orders had been issued to “protect” Colonel Earl Evans, Hancock’s mission support commander, who wanted to keep protesters “out of his driveway.”
Mary Anne began her sentencing statement with, “Your honor, a series of judicial perversions brings me here before you tonight.” She concluded that the “final perversion is the reversal of who is the real victim here: the commander of a military base whose drones kill innocent people halfway around the world, or those innocent people themselves who are the real ones in need of protection from the terror of US drone attacks?”
The orders of protection are being challenged on many legal grounds.
Mary Anne had been issued a temporary order in 2012. The following year, she photographed a nonviolent witness at the base, but not participating herself because she did not want to violate the order. The irony is that those who actually participated in the action were acquitted, while Mary Anne was charged with violating the order.
Even though the pre-sentencing report recommended no jail time, Judge Gideon sentenced Mary Anne to the maximum of a year in prison. As he imposed his sentence, the judge referred to his previous Hancock decision. He had stated then and insinuated now, “This has got to stop.”
In addition, Mary Anne was fined $1000 plus a $205 court surcharge and a $50 fee to have her DNA collected.
Her verdict is being appealed.
For information on how to support Mary Anne, contact Ellen Grady at [email protected].
More:
NY Grandmother Faced One Year for Drone Protest
Hancock 17 War Crimes Resisters Verdict is In
Three Arrested Delivering Order of Protection at Drone Base
31 Arrested in Syracuse Drone ProtestGoogle Fiber’s ambitions have drawn both bearish and bullish views from analysts, but new data from the U.S. Copyright Office shows that the initiative is not yet setting the world on fire, at least with respect to the number of video customers who have signed on so far.
Google Fiber ended 2015 with just north of 53,000 video subs, according to a blog post from MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett that pointed to fresh data from the U.S. Copyright Office.
The number's a bit of a mixed bag. In Moffett's view, Google Fiber’s rate of video growth is strong, but should be stronger.
“The number of subscribers to Google's fiber service remains astonishingly low,” Moffett noted. Though the percentage growth rate for Google Fiber is high, he said the surprise is that the growth rate isn’t higher. "After all, there has been a steady stream of new cities announced, and they’ve now been at it for a long time in at least a handful of markets," he wrote.
According to Moffett’s analysis, Google Fiber ended Q4 2015 with 53,390 video subs, up from 28,867 a year earlier. Among individual service areas, it ended the year with about 12,189 video subs in Kansas City, Kan., on a base of 53,925 homes in the city (22.6% penetration), a 16.8% penetration in Kansas City, Mo. (37,338 subs on a base of 221,860 homes in the city); and 8.2% penetration in Provo, Utah (2,718 subs on 33.212 homes). Google Fiber, he found, also has 941 video subs in Austin, Texas.
The addition of fewer than 12,000 subs over a six month span “for a service that has generated this kind of fanfare isn’t terribly impressive,” he said, noting that Google Fiber now represents about 5/100ths of 1% of the U.S. pay TV market. “As a stand-alone entity, Google Fiber would be approximately 1/7th the size of the smallest distribution company in our firm’s coverage, Cable One. They are 1/15th the size of Mediacom, and just over 1/70th the size of the new U.S. Altice (assuming Altice’s deal for Cablevision successfully closes).”
Of course, Google Fiber’s video numbers don’t provide the full picture of its true progress. After all, Google Fiber tends to lead with a standalone 1 Gbps service that costs $70 per month. It also offers a double-play (1 Gig and pay TV), and also offers a free basic Internet service (5 Mbps down by 1 Mbps up) to customers who spring for the $300 construction fee.
Moffett said his findings are not a suggestion that Google isn’t “doing well,” and did note that the numbers don’t factor in broadband.
“[W]e presume that Google has many more broadband subscribers than video ones. Still, this latest data is a useful barometer of just how slowly all this happens, and just how tiny Google Fiber remains in the grand scheme of things," he said.
And he is puzzled at Google Fiber’s apparent lack of progress and low penetration in Provo, where it acquired iProvo, then the area’s municipal fiber service provider, for $1, plus a pledge to complete and expand on the buildout there.
“Over the past six months, they have added exactly 65 subscribers in Provo. Yes, you read that correctly. There are no decimal places missing," Moffett wrote, while later pointing out that Google Fiber represents a large piece of Alphabet’s “other bets.”
Those other bets, which include Google Fiber and moonshot project like self-driving cars, lost $3.56 billion in 2015, alongside revenues of $448 million.
But others who watch Google Fiber closely believe that the initiative is poised to make a serious dent in the market and become a profitable enterprise.
Incumbents, Bernstein Research analyst Carlos Kirjner warned in a recent research note, should not get “too complacent” in the face of Google’s slow and limited progress so far.
In a note issued today, Kirjner noted that Alphabet and Google CFO Ruth Porat made comments at an investor conference this week reiterating that the company is taking a long-term view with Google Fiber, expecting it to morph into a sustainable, stand-alone business.
Google Fiber has also been mixing up its game plan a bit, and has begun to complementing its expanding reach by tapping into existing infrastructure (in San Francisco and Atlanta, for example), or to ride on top of municipally-owned fiber networks (as it’s set to do in Huntsville, Ala.) to accelerate its ability to offer services.
And that’s on top of Google Fiber’s commitments to deploy in Salt Lake City, Utah; Atlanta; Austin and San Antonio, Texas; Nashville, Tenn.; and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. It’s also mulling expansions in Chicago; Portland, Ore.; Los Angeles, San Jose, Irvine and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix; Oklahoma City; Louisville, Ky.; and Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.
But that’s still not enough to sway Moffett. “Over the past week, Google has made a number of splashy announcements,” he wrote. “Taken together, they have a rather provisional feel, as if the company is still experimenting. Or perhaps their goal is simply to showcase as many different models as they can think of, creating a menu of choices that they hope more and more municipalities will emulate (ideally without Google’s help).”Faced with a headline-grabbing lawsuit between its co-founders, Hyperloop One is doing damage control. The Los Angeles-based start-up, which is one of several companies racing to bring Elon Musk’s vision for a supersonic mass-transit system to life, is decreasing its remaining founders’ voting power after they were accused by another founder of conspiring to “line their pockets and those of family members.”
Bloomberg reports that following a series of all-hands meetings over the past several weeks, Hyperloop One informed its employees of new rules that will reduce the voting shares of co-founders Shervin Pishevar and Joe Lonsdale from a combined 78 percent to just 20 percent, effectively reducing their control over the company. The two men made the agreement to relinquish their voting shares to appease Hyperloop employees, according to Bloomberg’s source. The talks surrounding the agreement predate the lawsuit.
Earlier this week, former Hyperloop One chief technology officer Brogan BamBrogan sued his co-founder on the project, including Pishevar, the company’s C.E.O., and Lonsdale, among others, for a host of alleged offenses, including labor code violations, wrongful termination, breach of contract, defamation, and even assault. The details of the suit paint a picture of a company plagued by rampant nepotism, with Lonsdale hiring his brother’s two-person investment firm as their sole bank, and Shervin allegedly increasing the salary of a third-party public-relations representative whom he had begun dating to $40,000 per month, more than any other employee at the company.
Among the explosive accusations leveled in the lawsuit is the claim that Afshin Pishevar, Hyperloop One’s former general counsel and Shervin’s brother, put a noose on BamBrogan’s chair in the Hyperloop One offices after BamBrogan complained about the company’s perceived mismanagement. (A source close to the company told the Wall Street Journal that the rope was a lasso, and said that Afshin was fired as a result of the prank.) Orin Snyder, a lawyer for Hyperloop One, dismissed BamBrogan’s claims as “unfortunate and delusional” in a statement to Vanity Fair. “The claims are pure nonsense and will be met with a swift and potent legal response,” he said. BamBrogan left the company earlier this month after filing a request for a restraining order against Afshin.
The proposal to reduce Shervin Pishevar and Lonsdale’s voting shares, which could help defend against the lawsuit’s allegations of nepotism at the company, would grant 20 percent of Hyperloop One shares to BamBrogan’s replacement, Josh Giegel, and another 20 percent to board member Justin Fishner-Wolfson, Bloomberg reports. Final adoption of the proposal is pending the approval of Hyperloop One’s board.
This story has been updated.Normally, an accusation of sexual harassment — especially harassment from a boss to an employee in our nation's capital — would garner massive news coverage.
That is, unless the accuser is a young man and the accused is female superior.
So far Roll Call is the only major media outlet to report the case, focusing on a male accuser alleging harassment from his female chief of staff. The man, an anonymous user of the Capitol Hill social media app The Cloakroom, identifies himself as a 26-year-old male staffer and claims to have been harassed by his 40-year-old female chief of staff.
"She has slapped my ass, talked about her vibrator, and has asked me sexual questions," the male user posted on the app. "I have ignored them but I am thinking about going to the member" — i.e., his boss.
The male accuser had shared his story on a day when several other users posted questions asking what to do if they were being sexually harassed. The male accuser was the only one that provided specific details of harassment. There were at least 30 responses in the thread, which were provided to the Washington Examiner by another user of the app. Many suggested the accusers document the harassment and report it to an appropriate ethics committee.
One user warned that if the harassment were reported the accusers would "need to accept that your career on the Hill will be over." One user said they were also working in a "toxic office." Another user made a comment suggesting the male accuser should be happy about being hit on by an older woman.
That sounds like the same kind of language and fear that allegedly keeps women from reporting harassment and abuse.
These are all anonymous reports, so it's hard to say much about their authenticity. In their favor, the app is exclusive to verified Hill staff and those physically present within a close range of the Capitol.
But if a female staffer were anonymously accusing a male chief of staff of such harassment, it seems very likely that media outlets would show a lot more interest.This article is over 3 years old
The Vatican has charged five people over the leak of damaging documents about Pope Francis’s attempts to reform the Catholic church, including two journalists and a high-ranking cleric.
Two members of the pope’s reforms commission and a newly identified assistant were charged with disclosing confidential Vatican information and documents, while two journalists were charged with soliciting and exerting pressure to obtain the information, according to the indictments released by the Vatican on Saturday.
Pope Francis pledges to continue Vatican reforms following leaks Read more
Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda and Francesca Chaouqui were arrested by the Vatican earlier this month. Chaouqui was released shortly after her arrest, pledging to cooperate with the authorities, but Vallejo Balda is still in a Vatican jail.
The indictment also identifies for first time an assistant to Balda, Nicola Maio, as under suspicion.
The three Vatican insiders also face an additional charge of forming a criminal organisation.
Journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi both published books this month recounting instances of greed and financial abuse at the Vatican, citing Vatican documents.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Journalists Emiliano Fittipaldi (left) and Gianluigi Nuzzi. Photograph: AP
Nuzzi, who refused a Vatican summons for questioning, was defiant in a message on Twitter. “You can do what you want, but as long as the world exists there will be journalists who report uncomfortable news,” he wrote.
Fittipaldi appeared for questioning but refused to give any answers, citing Italian law on protecting sources.
Fittipaldi told Italy’s ANSA news agency that he was stunned by the Vatican’s move. “Maybe I’m naive, but I believed they would investigate those I denounced for criminal activity, not the person that revealed the crimes,” he said.
The journalist said that under a law introduced in 2013 on the pope’s bidding, he and the others risk up to eight years in jail.
The truth of the Vatileaks scandal is that there is no scandal | Paul Vallely Read more
The trial is set to begin on Tuesday. If the Vatican tribunal ultimately convicts the two authors, it will come down to a political question as to whether the Holy See will request their extradition from Italy and whether Italy will oblige.
The scandal, which has revealed uncontrolled spending by the Vatican as well as accusations of corruption and theft, has awoken painful memories of the last time employees aired the centuries-old institution’s dirty laundry in public.
In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI’s butler engineered a series of leaks that revealed fierce infighting in the highest echelons of the church and allegations of serious fraud in the running of the city state.
He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, before being pardoned by the pope but banished from the Vatican.Six days before Prince died, the iconic pop star was hospitalized after possibly overdosing on Percocet. His death on April 21 involved overdosing on another painkiller, fentanyl. Both are among the prescription opioids that alleviate the pain of millions of Americans every year—often at the price of their needing ever greater amounts and the risk of overdose. The U.S. “is in the midst of an unprecedented opioid epidemic,” according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Prescription opioid overdoses killed more than 165,000 Americans between 1999 and 2014, and the health and social costs of abusing such drugs are estimated to be as much as $55 billion a year. The problem has led experts to scramble for a less dangerous alternative for pain relief—and some research points to medical marijuana.
As early as 15 years ago physicians began hearing that patients were using cannabis instead of prescription opioids for pain. These anecdotes inspired a research team led by Marcus Bachhuber, assistant professor of medicine at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, to examine whether some states' legalization of medical cannabis had affected the number of opioid overdose deaths. Published in 2014, the study revealed an intriguing trend: between 1999 and 2010, states that permitted medical marijuana had an average of almost 25 percent fewer opioid overdose deaths each year than states where cannabis remained illegal.
Bachhuber's research could not prove that medical cannabis use directly led to fewer opioid overdoses. In addition, the overdose count included both prescription opioids and illegal heroin. But the study opened the eyes of many researchers to a possible relation between marijuana and painkiller use. “I think medical cannabis could fall into the category of alternatives for treating chronic pain so that people don't use opioids or use a lower dose of opioids than they otherwise would,” Bachhuber says.
Various wide-ranging new studies back him up. As reported in the June issue of the Journal of Pain, researchers at the University of Michigan conducted a retrospective survey of 185 patients who frequented a medical marijuana dispensary in Ann Arbor, Mich. Those patients reported cutting their opioid use by more than half in treating their chronic pain. Meanwhile animal studies have shown that cannabinoid chemical compounds found in marijuana can work synergistically with opioids to mitigate pain.
Medical cannabis was also a hot topic at the 2016 meeting of the American Pain Society, says Simon Haroutounian, chief of clinical research at the Washington University Pain Center in St. Louis. He co-authored a study, published online in February in the Clinical Journal of Pain, that followed a group of 176 chronic pain patients in Israel over seven months and found that 44 percent of them stopped taking prescription opioids within seven months of starting medical cannabis. The research is among several recent observational studies showing an association between medical cannabis use and decreased dependence on opioids.
Each of these analyses has its limitations. Retrospective studies cannot reveal crucial details such as whether overdose deaths involved patients who were using medically prescribed opioids or people who got the drugs illegally and were using them recreationally or to self-medicate. And although Haroutounian's observational |
a mantra that he likes to chant, and after every session he feels transformed and full of positive energy. It’s definitely doing him the world of good — he feels fitter and stronger than ever,” the source added.
According to WebMD, studies have shown that meditation not only lowers blood pressure but also can strengthen your immune system. To learn more about the practice and give it a try yourself, check out MNN's Meditation for Beginners tip sheet.
Bill Clinton embraces Buddhist meditation
Former President Bill Clinton is said to be taking private classes from a Buddhist monk to better relax his mind and body.Monash researchers, who are completing the national survey in partnership with the Australian Institute of Criminology, thought perhaps Wyndham's high death rate was related to a relative lack of available health and welfare services. While there had been "strong suburban development in the area, [it] had not been matched by the provision of services", Monash Filicide Project co-director Thea Brown says. The City of Wyndham. Wyndham may also help explain why Australia – where an estimated 25 children a year die at the hands of their parents – has a relatively high filicide rate compared to similar nations like England, a fact that Brown finds "alarming". "It may be, because we're a country with a lot of migration and rapidly growing urban areas, that we're more prone to have suburban areas without many services," she says. Still, the story is not as simple as services preventing deaths. An earlier Filicide Project survey of 57 Victorian filicides committed between 2000 and 2009, found most perpetrators had been in contact with health, welfare or justice services in the year leading up to the murder, though the type of service differed depending on whether the perpetrator was a mother, father or stepfather.
Indeed, in a 2014 paper for Child Abuse Review, the authors noted that even when health services assessed a patient as having suicidal or homicidal ideas, these assessments "were made without further follow-up of children's safety". Brothers Jai, 9, Bailey, 2, and Tyler Farquharson, 7, died when the car driven by their father was driven into a dam. Brown hopes the national study on filicide will mean these deaths are no longer seen just as random tragedies, but studied, and hopefully, prevented. In its submission to the Victorian royal commission, the Filicide Project calls for a public health approach to filicide. It wants screening to identify children at risk and safety plans for those children, as well as programs to educate GPs, mental health professionals and other workers in criminal justice and welfare, to help them better recognise risk factors for filicide. The death of Darcey Iris Freeman at the hands of her father shocked the country.
"What our studies have shown so far [is] that there are a number of risk factors and it's not one or another, it's a constellation," Brown says. The risk factors also differ for mothers, fathers and stepfathers. "Mental health is a major factor in that it is the one most frequently found to be present. But in the case of mothers it's often, though not always, accompanied by parental separation and then, after that, domestic violence." Matthew Fitchett (aged 9) and his brother Thomas Fitchett (aged 11) were killed by their mother. Mental illness is also more common among mothers than fathers or stepfathers (for whom it is a lot less common). The survey of Victorian filicides found only one of the mothers who killed was not suffering from a mental illness. Carolyn Harris Johnson, who has studied men who've committed filicide after separating from their partners, says a public health campaign is "not a bad idea in terms of increasing public awareness about the constellation of factors that precede [a killing]. Because very often what you find afterwards is that there were signs [filicide] was a possibility, but people weren't in tune enough with the risk factors to report them or take appropriate action."Rush.Com have just announced a second city on Geddy Lee's Book Signing Tour. This time, he'll make a stop a little closer to home - Toronto. From the announcement:We know that everyone has been asking and requesting multiple cities for a book signing by Geddy for "Geddy Lee's Big Beautiful Book of Bass". We have managed to squeeze in one more signing before the holidays!Geddy Lee will be signing books at IndigoSpirit at First Canadian Place in Toronto on Monday, December 17th at noon.Given the busy time of year, 'tickets' for this event will be made available tomorrow (Thursday December 6th at 10 AM ET) at www.indigo.ca/eventsThe sale of the book (including ticket) and all details for the event can be found atevents and listed below.A limited number of tickets are available for purchase through TicketsceneLimit of 2 tickets per personEach Ticket price includes one (1) signed copy of Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass. The book wi…Product Description
NEW! All in one integrated power pack for LG Nexus 4, now with 2A USB power out - charge your accessories while charging your phone. Just slide your phone into the charger - it immediately starts charging your phone, plus you're free to continue using your phone while its charging. When done, just grab the top of your phone and pull it out! No extra pieces to carry around, charger holds phone firmly in place while charging. Extends operating time an additional 2.5 times longer. Easy to carry solution for extending battery life. Li-ion battery is replaceable and can be recycled. Included rapid charger can charge the charger in one hour from a wall outlet. Optional Solar Module is available on the Custom Power Solar website - with the Solar Module you can re-charge your phone anywhere in full sun. The KIT version includes battery & electronics that assembles in seconds. No tools required. Order the KIT version through Shapeways OR order completely assembled versions through our website at www.custompowersolar.com Order the COMPLETE AND ASSEMBLED version at www.custompowersolar.com to avoid confusion. Otherwise if ordering on Shapeways website you must request that Shapeways ship the 3D printed product to Custom Power Solar at 1442A Walnut Street #368, Berkeley, CA 94709 to complete installation of electronics and battery. Contact us at 510-912-4662 if you have any questions. If ordering the KIT OR the COMPLETE AND ASSEMBLED version
IMPORTANT! YOU MUST FILL OUT THE SHIPPING ADDRESS. Check box for Domestic or International, and check if you want shipping to be ground (USPS or boat) or via air. Go to www.custompowersolar.com/contacts.htm. Copy & paste this link into your browser.
REMEMBER! - YOU MUST FILL OUT THE SHIPPING ADDRESS AND IF ORDERING ON THE SHAPEWAYS SITE REQUEST THAT SHAPEWAYS SHIP THE 3D PRINTED CASE TO US at CUSTOM POWER SOLAR, 1442A WALNUT STREET No. 368, BERKELEY, CA 94709. Call us at 510-912-4662 if you have any questions.Wayne Natt could lose his Longboat Key condo at 623 Cedars Court in the fallout of an alleged video voyeurism felony he was arrested for on Sept. 29.
Longboat Key Police Department allege Natt hid cameras and microphones around his condo — which he rented through the popular short-term rental service AirBnB — and recorded at least one set of tenants without their knowledge. At least one man was filmed naked, police say.
Wayne Natt
Now police believe they’ve built a case to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the condo was used to commit a felony — which, if backed up in court, gives the town authority to seize the property under state law.
“If someone puts our public, residents or visitors, at risk by use of their property, they’re not going to get away with it and the penalties are going to be severe here on Longboat Key,” Town Manager Dave Bullock said Nov. 6 to the Town Commission, which approved the pursuit of civil litigation by a vote of 4-3.
How did they vote? YES: At-Large Commissioner Irwin Pastor
At-Large Commissioner Jim Brown
District 1 Commissioner Randy Clair
District 4 Commissioner Jack Daly NO: District 2 Commissioner George Spoll
District 5 Commissioner, Vice Mayor Ed Zunz
District 3 Commissioner, Mayor Terry Gans
This charge — known as civil asset forfeiture — is not directed against the owner but the property itself. The owner must be charged with a felony and the property must be proven to have been used to commit the crime by a preponderance of the evidence. The validity of such a case is not dependent on a conviction.
Florida law permits an arresting agency to pursue forfeiture action against a property it believes was “used as an instrumentality in the commission of any felony,” according to the statute.
Regina Kardash, an attorney with Person and Cohen, PA filing the civil complaint with the Manatee County Clerk of the Court on behalf of the town, must provide the court with criminal arrest documents and probable cause that the property was used in the commission of a crime before a complaint can be filed, she said. The case had not yet been filed in Manatee County by Tuesday afternoon.
Then comes a minimum of $1,000 filing fee and a $1,500 bond, which could be lost if the case is not substantiated. The town could also have to pay plaintiff’s attorney fees up to $2,000 and would be responsible for a loss in value to the seized property if it cannot prove its case.
But if court finds in favor of the police department, state law permits the arresting agency to retain the property, salvage or trade it to a public or nonprofit organization or sell it. Any funds received from selling a property may be used, in order of priority, to pay court liens, preserve the property, pay costs of the forfeiture proceedings, used for special law enforcement trusts, training or equipment.
“This is the type of case these laws were written for,” Longboat Key Police Chief Pete Cumming said.
The condo at 623 Cedars Court is valued at $170,850, according to the Manatee County Appraiser’s office. But state law does not permit town officials to take this into account when filing a civil asset forfeiture complaint. The property is a two-story, one-bedroom/two-bath condo with about 1,200 square feet of living area.
The condo at 623 Cedars Court is valued at $170,850, according to the Manatee County Appraiser’s office. But state law does not permit town officials to take this into account when filing a civil asset forfeiture complaint.
Longboat police have not exercised this right in the past decade, Cumming said.
And these laws are not often used to seize real property. The latest report on civil asset forfeiture in Florida, compiled by the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability in 2015, found two cases of real property forfeiture statewide in fiscal year 2013-14.
Since September 2001, of the 74 cases of civil asset forfeiture in Manatee County, where 623 Cedars Court is located, not one includes real property seizure, according to information provided by the county.
Thirty-five cases involved seizure of money, in 12 of those $10,000 or more was taken. Five of these cases were dismissed, three of which involved forfeiture of more than $10,000. The largest sum totaled more than $100,000.
Thirty-six vehicles were seized in that time, of which 10 were given back to the owners and one is still in the judicial system. Three cases involved both money and a vehicle: law enforcement seized $1,457 and a 1989 Cadillac Fleetwood in 2001; the other two cases have not been completed.
Police allege Natt installed a camera that filmed unsuspecting tenants through a hole in the side of this smoke detector.
Local and state law enforcement are hesitant to take real property, Kardash said, because if the property is won, the seizing agency is responsible for maintaining the homestead.
But at the meeting with commissioners, Bullock was adamant that this action is not founded in financial priorities.
“It sends a message that we will protect our residents and we will use all legal means for us to do it,” Bullock said.Several of Donald Trump’s most prominent Hispanic supporters are reconsidering their support following his major speech on immigration Wednesday.
Jacob Monty, an attorney based in Houston, resigned from the Republican candidate’s National Hispanic Advisory Council after hearing the speech in Phoenix, Politico reported early Thursday morning.
“I was a strong supporter of Donald Trump when I believed he was going to address the immigration problem realistically and compassionately,” Monty told the news site. “What I heard today was not realistic and not compassionate.”
After weeks of toying with “softening” his deportation-based approach to illegal immigration, the GOP nominee on Wednesday gave a speech in which he embraced the hard-line policies and incendiary rhetoric that defined his primary campaign. He said that anyone in the United States illegally would be subject to deportation and vowed to bolster security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
For many Hispanic conservatives like Monty, who had advocated passionately for Trump, the speech was not merely a disappointment, but a betrayal. They hoped the candidate would lay out a plan for dealing humanely with the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the country, especially those with no involvement in violent crime.
Trump’s support among Latino voters is far beneath that of past Republican candidates, according to public polls, which presents a unique challenge for the mogul as he seeks to win key states — like Florida, Nevada and Colorado — with large Hispanic constituencies. On Thursday, Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign began to run ads in Arizona, a historically Republican state but with a large number of Latino voters.
Monty told the Texas Tribune that Trump’s speech was a “complete betrayal to Republican ideals and his [commitments] made” and that Republicans need to “reclaim our party from the [nativist] elements.”
When asked if he’d continue raising money for Trump, Monty replied, “No way José … It is pouring money down the drain.”
Monty was one of the Latino leaders who attended the Aug. 20 meeting in Trump Tower where the billionaire mogul reportedly softened his tone on illegal immigration.
“When we met [earlier in August], he was going to approach this issue with a realistic plan, a compassionate plan, with a plan that was not disruptive to the immigrants that were here that were not lawbreakers,” Monty told Politico. “He didn’t deliver any of that.”
Similarly, Alfonso Aguilar, the president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, told Politico that he was “inclined” to drop his support for Trump after this week’s big speech.
“It’s so disappointing because we feel we took a chance, a very risky chance,” he said. “We decided to make a big U-turn to see if we could make him change. We thought we were moving in the right direction … we’re disappointed. We feel misled.”
Data analyst Leslie Sanchez, who specializes in public opinion research for elections and the Hispanic-Latino marketplace, works closely with the Republican Party. She said sources told her that half of Trump’s Hispanic advisory board was eyeing the door on Thursday.
Hispanic leader who advises Trump camp telling me half of Trump’s Hispanic advisory board is ready to resign today (15 of 30) — Leslie Sanchez (@LeslieSanchez) September 1, 2016
Massey Villarreal, a businessman in Houston, told NBC Latino that he was finished supporting Trump after Wednesday night’s “awful” speech.
“As a compassionate conservative, I am disappointed with the immigration speech,” he said. “I’m going to flip, but not flop. I am no longer supporting Trump for president, but cannot with any conscience support Hillary [Clinton].”
~The Properties of Space: Science works best when in harmony with nature. If we put these two together, we can discover great technologies that can only come about when the consciousness of the planet is ready to embrace them. One example is “free energy,” also known as “zero-point energy,” which utilizes the substance that exists all around us and converts it into usable energy. This would give us a limitless source of energy, and would practically wipe out all poverty on the planet. (more on this later in the article)
The properties of space have been postulated by many, from ancient Vedic philosophy, Eastern Mystics, various ancient civilizations throughout human history all the way to Descartes, Einstein, Newton and more. Humans are curious beings, and our quest to discover “what is” will never end.
“And they allowed Apollonius to ask questions; and he asked them of what they thought the cosmos was composed; but they replied; “Of elements.” “Are there then four?” he asked. “Not four,” said Larchas, “but five.” “And how can there be a fifth,” said Apollonius, “alongside of water and air and earth and fire?” “There is the ether,”replied the other, “which we must regard as the stuff of which gods are made; for just as all mortal creatures inhale the wire, so do immortal and divine natures inhale the ether.” “Am I,” said Appollonius, “to regard the universe as a living creature?” “Yes,” said the other. – The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Philostratus, 220AD (source)
Science now knows that a material universe as the foundation of what we perceive to be our physical material world isn’t quite the case. Today, physicists recognize that physical atoms are actually made up of vortices of energy that are constantly spinning and vibrating. At its smallest observable level, matter is energy, and this energy that exists all around us can be tapped into and possibly used to generate power.
Quantum physics has left many scientists baffled, again, the discovery that our physical material reality isn’t really physical at all can be quite confusing. Scientists began to explore the relationship between energy and the structure of matter at the turn of the 19th century, this is approximately the time when the idea of a Newtonian material universe was dropped from the heart of scientific knowing, and replaced by the fact that matter is nothing but an illusion, that everything in the universe is made out of energy.
“If quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet. Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.” – Niels Bohr, a Danish Physicist
Again, if you observed the composition of an atom with a microscope, you would see a small, invisible tornado like vortex, with a number of infinitely small energy vortices called quarks and photons. These are what make up the structure of the atom. As you focused in closer and closer on the structure of the atom, you would see nothing, you would observe a physical void. The atom has no physical structure, we have no physical structure, physical things really don’t have any physical structure. Atoms are made out of invisible energy, not tangible matter.
“Despite the unrivalled empirical success of quantum theory, the very suggestion that it may be literally true as a description of nature is still greeted with cynicism, incomprehension and even anger.” (T. Folger, “Quantum Shmantum”; Discover 22:37-43, 2001)
“Get over it, and accept the inarguable conclusion. The universe is immaterial-mental and spiritual.” – R.C. Henry, Professor of physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University. (source)
Tesla and Ancient Vedic Philosophy and the Properties of Space
We’ve seen a very interesting trend (especially within the past decade) of modern-day science catching up to an ancient understanding about the true nature of reality, its make-up, how it functions and how we can work with it to bring about change on our planet. For anybody to label the merging of ‘spirituality’ and science as pseudoscience means they have not properly investigated it. Spiritual concepts of our ancient world are directly intertwined with modern-day science, more so quantum physics, and Nikola Tesla was well aware of this.
“All perceptible matter comes from a primary substance, or tenuity beyond conception, filling all space, the akasha or luminiferous ether, which is acted upon by the life giving Prana or creative force, calling into existence, in never-ending cycles all things and phenomena.”– Nikola Tesla, Man’s Greatest Achievement, 1907 (1)(2)
As you can see, Tesla was aware of ancient concepts and the correlation it had with the science he was working on -using sanskrit worlds like “akasha,” and “prana” to describe the force and matter that exists all around us. These words come from the Upanishads (a collection of Vedic texts)
“The aakaash is not destructible, it is the primordial absolute substratum that creates cosmic matter and hence the properties of aakaash are not found in the material properties that are in a sense relative. The aakaash is the eternally existent, superfluid reality, for which creation and destruction are inapplicable.” – (Idham thadhakshare parame vyoman. Parame vyoman) – Paramahamsa Tewari, Engineer, Physicist and Inventor. (source)
Nikola Tesla had correlations with Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), who was one of the most famous and influential spiritual leaders of the philosophies of Vedanta (one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy, the term originally referred to the upanishads, a collection of philosophical texts in Hinduism) and Yoga. He was the chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and the founder of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. He is a giant figure in the history of the hindu reform movements.
Vivekananda wrote a later to Tesla in the late 1800′s stating:
“Mr. Tesla thinks he can demonstrate mathematically that force and matter are reducible to potential energy. I am to go and see him next week to get this new mathematical demonstration. In that case the Vedantic cosmology will be placed on the surest of foundations. I am working a good deal now upon the cosmology and eschatology of the Vedanta. I clearly see their perfect union with modern science, and the elucidation of the one will be followed by that of the other.” – Swami Vivekananda (Complete Works, VOL. V, Fifth Edition, 1347, p. 77). (1)
Tesla began using the Sanskrit words after meeting with Swami, and after studying the Eastern view of the true nature of reality, about the mechanisms that drive the material world. Eventually, it led him to the basis for the wireless transmission of electrical power, what is known as the Tesla Coil Transformer. During this year he made the following comments during a speech before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. (Given before he familiarized himself with the the Vedic sincere of the easter nations of India, Tibet, and Nepal.)
“Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point in the universe. This idea is not novel…We find it in the delightful myth of Antheus, who derives power from the earth; we find it among subtle speculations of one of your splendid mathematicians….Throughout space there is energy. Is this energy static, or kinetic? If static our hopes are in vain; if kinetic – and this we know it is, for certain – then it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheel work of nature.” – Nikola Tesla (source)
The Vedas are a group of writings that consist of hymns, prayers, myths, historical accounting, science and the nature of reality. They date back at least 5000 years, and are not so different from other ancient texts that dive into the same matters from all across the globe. The language used is Sanskrit and its origins are unknown.
“Swami Vivekananda was hopeful that Tesla would be able to show that what we call matter is simply potential energy because that would reconcile the teachings of the Vedas with modern science. The Swami realized that in that case, the Vedantic cosmology (would) be placed on the surest of foundations. Tesla understood the Sanskrit terminology and philosophy and found that it was a good means to describe the physical mechanisms of the universe as seen through his eyes. It would behoove those who would attempt to understand the science behind the inventions of Nikola Tesla to study Sanskrit and Vedic philosophy.” – Toby Grotz, President, Wireless Engineering (source)
Apparently, Tesla was unable to show the identity of energy and matter, this did not come until Albert Einstein published his paper on relativity, which was known in the East for the last 5000 years.
“All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.” – Swami Vivekananda
Tesla’s vision of the wireless transmission of electricity and free energy has been postponed for almost one hundred years now. Which brings us to our next topic.
What We Know Now (Today) About Free Energy
“These concepts have been proven in hundreds of laboratories throughout the world and yet they have not really seen the light of day. If these technologies were to be set free worldwide, the change would be profound, it would be applicable everywhere. These technologies are absolutely the most important thing that have happened in the history of the world.” – Brian O’leary, Former NASA Astronaut and Princeton Physics Professor. (source)
Here is a video of world renowned Physicist Harold E. Puthoff. An American physicist who earned his Ph.D from Stanford University. I am best familiar with his work through the declassification of the remote viewing program conducted by the CIA and NSA in conjunction with Stanford University. (source 1)(source 2)(source 3). He is the director of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin, and has served various government agencies throughout his years.
“These are not just fringe scientists with science fiction ideas. They are mainstream ideas being published in mainstream physics journals and being taken seriously by mainstream military and NASA type funders. I’ve been taken out on aircraft carriers by the Navy and shown what it is we have to replace if we have new energy sources to provide new fuel methods.” – Dr. Harold E. Puthoff
“Back in about 1964 a researcher at the Hughes Laboratory by the name of Robert L. Forward showed that there was a particular effect, called the Casimir Effect, which demonstrated that this energy could be taped.” – Dr. Harold E. Puthoff
To see some actual research, a research paper and a visual demonstration of some machinery with plans for the device, click HERE
This is what Tesla was talking about when he said that man would “attach their machinery to the very wheel work of nature.”
It’s Time For A Change
Our current methods for extracting energy are destroying Earth. It’s destroying the environment, its people and creates conflict. We are rapidly approaching a time (if not already in that time) where we need to implement systems to eliminate the use of fossil fuels. I hope that this article, and the ones linked within it, show you that this is possible. If you are further interested in this subject, you can check out Michael Faraday, Bruce DePalma, Paramahamsa Tewari and more.
Energy source transitions do not happen over night. It took us 100 years to transfer from wood to coal, and another 100 years to move from coal to oil. But the next energy transition must happen quicker than previous ones, and it must include free energy.
“No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway from the human spirit.” – Helen Keller
“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.” – Nikola Tesla
Related CE Articles:
10 Scientific Studies That Prove Consciousness Can Alter Our Physical Material World
The Illusion of Matter: Our Physical Reality Isn’t Really Physical At All
Sources:
(1)http://www.teslasociety.com/tesla_and_swami.htm
(2) Hunt, Inez and Draper. Wanetta, W., Lightning In His Hand, The Life Story Of Nikola Tesla, Omni Publications, Hawthorne, CA, 1981.
(2) O’Neal, John, J., Prodigal Genius, The Life Of Nikola Tesla, Ives Washington, Inc., 1944. Anderson, Leland, personal communication. See also Anderson, L.I., and Ratzlaff, J.T., Dr. Nikola Tesla Bibliography, Ragusan Press, 936 Industrial Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94303, 1979.
http://www.tewari.org/Books/SpititualFoundations/SF%20R12702.htm
Sources used from another article embedded in this article: All other sources are highlighted throughout the article.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v457/n7226/edsumm/e090108-01.html
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A%3A1012369318404
http://www.disclosureproject.org/docs/pdf/OutsideTheBox-TedLoderPaper.pdf
http://pra.aps.org/abstract/PRA/v39/i5/p2333_1
http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_10_1_puthoff.pdf
http://pre.aps.org/abstract/PRE/v48/i2/p1562_1
http://pra.aps.org/abstract/PRA/v40/i9/p4857_1
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=darpa-casimir-effect-research
http://physics.aps.org/story/v2/st28
Credits: Written by Arjun Walia of Collective Evolution, Guest Contributor.
Reposted here with permission.This time last year, Larry Brown was the toast of college basketball. He was a septuagenarian Hall of Famer who had returned to college and was revitalizing a perennially moribund program. Even when his SMU Mustangs failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament, there was much hope for the future. Brown’s best players were returning, and they were going to be joined by a stellar recruiting class that included a potential top-three NBA draft pick.
A lot has happened since then, and much of it has not been toast-worthy. Brown’s prized prospect, 6-foot-5 guard Emmanuel Mudiay, couldn’t get cleared academically by the NCAA, so he decided last fall to forego college and play professionally in China. Brown's best frontcourt player, Markus Kennedy, was academically ineligible for the first semester. SMU is 16-4 (7-1 in the American Athletic Conference) and is in good shape for a tournament bid, but the program has been rocked by a spate of bad news over the last few weeks. To wit:
• On Jan. 10, Justin Martin, a 6-6 senior forward who had transferred from Xavier, left SMU to pursue a professional career. Martin had battled injuries and was only playing about 12 minutes a game, but his decision to leave was also related to academics.
• On Jan. 13, the school announced that assistant coach Ulric Maligi was taking an indefinite leave of absence for what was described as “a private matter.”
• On Jan. 16, ESPN’s Jeff Goodman revealed that SMU had received a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA, which has been investigating the circumstances that allowed 6-5 sophomore guard Keith Frazier, a former McDonald’s All-American, to get qualified academically to play in college. Later in the day, the school confirmed Goodman’s report. None of this came as any surprise to Brown and the folks at SMU, because I’m told the NCAA first notified them last summer that it was investigating the program.
• Last Friday, Brown revealed that Frazier, who had been averaging 10.5 points and 4.0 rebounds per game, will be academically ineligible for the rest of the season after he lost an appeal to the NCAA.
It’s not hard to connect some of these dots. Maligi was the point person for Frazier’s recruitment out of Kimball High School in Dallas. Frazier has been the subject of scrutiny since the fall of 2013, when a local television station reported that one of Frazier’s grades had been improperly changed so he could graduate. That report further revealed that Maligi had called the high school’s guidance counselor to discuss Frazier’s grades, but Maligi insisted he was only calling to find out what Frazier needed to do to become eligible, not to pressure anyone to change a grade. The transcript that SMU accepted when it admitted Frazier did not include the changed grade.
SMU’s decision to jettison Maligi right after receiving the Notice of Allegations is an indication that the school is expecting many of those allegations to hold up, and is therefore trying to self-impose penalties to soften the NCAA’s blow. SMU has 90 days to respond to the notice, and a hearing before the Committee on Infracations won’t happen until later this summer.
• MORE CBB: SI's complete coverage of Coach K's 1,000th win
When I spoke with Brown by phone Sunday night, he said he could not discuss details of the investigation, but he did his best to strike an upbeat note. “I’m ready to coach the kids I’ve got,” he said. “The team has played great and the kids are dealing with whatever happened in a real positive way. I just have to wait until the process plays out, and I’m confident that things are going to be OK.”
Thus far, there is no reason to believe that Brown has violated NCAA rules himself. That, however, does not matter. Unlike his previous experiences at UCLA and Kansas, where the programs were hit with probation after he left for violations that for the most part were not tied to Brown, the NCAA now works under a system where the head coach is automatically culpable. The so-called “Coach Responsibility Rule,” which went into effect in Aug. 2013, states that “an institution’s head coach is presumed to be responsible for the actions of all assistant coaches and administrators who report, directly or indirectly, to the head coach.” So even if Brown proves that he had no knowledge of anything improper, the NCAA could still suspend him or even issue a show-cause penalty if it believes that major violations were committed by people who worked for him.
So there is a lot at stake beyond whether Brown can lead his short-handed Mustangs to their first NCAA tournament since 1993. If the NCAA lays down its hammer, it would be a devastating blow for an athletic department that is still haunted by the the death penalty meted out against the football program in 1987. It would severely damage the basketball program that is finally on the rebound, and the man who was doing such a masterful job rebuilding it. The season, the program, the school, Brown’s legacy -- all of it hangs in the balance these next few months. Maybe Brown’s prediction that things will end up OK will come true, but at the moment, this feel-good story doesn’t feel so good.
Other Hoop Thoughts
• From the that-wasn’t-in-the-scouting-report department: Going into Saturday’s home against Iowa, Purdue junior guard Rapheal Davis had made four three-pointers all season. He was 3-for-5 from behind the arc to spur Purdue to a much-needed 67-63 win. Go figure.
• Incidentally, the Boilermakers converted 47 percent of their field goals in the win. Amazing how teams tend to shoot abnormally well against the Hawkeyes. Quite a coincidence.
• Kentucky’s Marcus Lee had four blocks in 13 minutes in the Wildcats’ win at South Carolina. Pretty good considering he is the team’s fifth-best big man.
• It’s time to start wondering what’s wrong with Texas. For much of the season, the Longhorns were supposedly suffering because their point guard, sophomore Isaiah Taylor, was out with a wrist injury. When Taylor came back a couple of weeks ago, he was rusty. But Taylor had 23 points against Kansas at home on Saturday, and the Longhorns still lost for the third time in their last five games.
Texas’ main problem is that it does not create enough offense through its defense. According to KenPom.com, the Longhorns are 11th nationally in defensive efficiency but they are 339th in steals percentage. The Jayhawks had just three turnovers on Saturday, and none in the second half. Rick Barnes played mostly zone in that game, and the Jayhawks carved it up, but Texas is simply not good enough in the halfcourt offense to beat good teams that way alone. This team has some problems that need to be fixed, pronto.
• It’s no big deal that Iowa State lost on Saturday at Texas Tech, which had been winless in the Big 12. Stuff happens. But when and if the Cyclones lose in the NCAA tournament, we know what it’s going to look like. They were 6-for-31 from three-point range against the Red Raiders, just like they were 1-for-18 from three when they lost to South Carolina in Brooklyn. Even when they’re missing, they keep shooting.
• Arizona’s Stanley Johnson hit the freshman wall all right. It lasted one whole game. Since taking just four shots and scoring seven points in the Wildcats’ loss at Oregon State, Johnson has averaged 19.3 points on 52 percent shooting. Senior point guard T.J. McConnell is a very good offensive player, but Arizona is at its best when Johnson is its primary option.
• Wisconsin wasn’t a real deep team even before starting point guard Traevon Jackson got hurt. On Saturday, the Badgers’ bench was outscored 26-0 and needed overtime to beat a Michigan team that has had a rough season and just lost its leading scorer to a season-ending injury. Four of Wisconsin’s starters played at least 40 minutes in that game. Just something to keep your eye on.
David K Purdy/Getty
• I love seeing a player grind his way on the pine for three years and then break out as a senior. The latest example is Kansas State’s Nino Williams, a 6-foot-5 guard who has gone from averaging 6.2 points in 16.3 minutes as a junior to 12 points in 27 minutes as a senior. He has been especially good of late, averaging 20 points over his last three games while making 25 of his 37 shot attempts. Way to hang in there, young fella. Most guys would have transferred twice by now.
• Y’all know that Tulsa is undefeated and alone in first place in the American, right? I think the Golden Hurricane can win this |
the rest of your life is nothing to be proud of.
University of North Dakota administrators: you cannot afford to remain silent in the face of such arrogant bigotry. This mockery against Native people, this repugnant spectacle of racial intolerance, took place at your Springfest. An apology for allowing ‘Siouxper Drunk’ tees to be worn at your Springfest isn’t good enough. Sensitivity training will not suffice. Racially motivated incidents keep happening on the University of North Dakota campus. Implement a zero tolerance policy for any and all words, actions, and depictions that discriminate against Native Americans. Only by imposing automatic, pre-determined penalties for clearly defined, racially motivated infractions will you finally purge such shameful conduct from your institution. The onus is on you, not the Native Americans who are being subjected to this harassment and abuse. Students who wore ‘Siouxper Drunk’ shirts at Springfest should be expelled.
Native people deserve to be treated like human beings, worthy of respect. We pay taxes. We vote. We are part of this economy and society. We make contributions to our communities, UND, North Dakota, and this country. We will no longer accept being treated as second class citizens. If you aren’t outraged by ‘Siouxper Drunk’ shirts featuring a Native mascot in a headdress drinking from a beer bong, you need to check your moral compass.
Pictures provided via Frank de la Paz, Danielle Miller and https://storify.com/xodanix3/sioux-samState Superintendent John White
State Superintendent John White applauds during an event at Chateau Estates Elementary School in Kenner Wednesday, February 20, 2013. White presented the state's new plan for reform and accountability for the 2013-14 school year. (Photo by Brett Duke, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)
(Brett Duke, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Louisiana still lags far behind the rest of the country in public school reading and mathematics proficiency rates, despite making progress since 2003, according to a new report by Education Week. However, the publication ranked Louisiana 10th best among the states for closing the achievement gap between poor or disadvantaged students and more affluent students, and second in the country for school accountability.
In its annual Quality Counts report, released Thursday, Education Week puts Louisiana last among the states for fourth-grade math proficiency, second-to-last in eighth-grade math proficiency and 48th in reading proficiency for both grades. Only 26 percent of fourth graders in Louisiana were proficient in math, as compared to the national average of 41 percent. In eighth grade math, only 20 percent of Louisiana students were proficient, versus a national average of 34 percent. In reading for both fourth and eighth grades, only 23 percent of Louisiana students were proficient, versus a national average of 34 percent.
Louisiana has, however, narrowed the poverty gap, or the difference in test scores between poor and more affluent students, by about 2.1 points since 2003.
According to the report, Louisiana also lags in both graduation and Advanced Placement success rates. Its high school graduation rate of 67 percent is lower than the national average of about 75 percent, ranking Louisiana 45th nationally. Louisiana was ranked last for students with high Advanced Placement scores.
In terms of student achievement overall, the report gave Louisiana a D- grade, for 49th in the U.S. Massachusetts was ranked first with a grade of B.
States also were graded on accountability, with Louisiana was ranked second in the country. This included if the state had a rating system for its schools, what incentives the state gave to schools for improvement and what state assistance was given to struggling schools.
The report found that states continue to make gains in student achievement, though those gains are not always felt equally among students from different economic backgrounds. Though Louisiana narrowed its achievement gap between poor and more affluent students, most states reported a greater difference in student scores depending on their economic background.
Read the full report for Louisiana.Good Books on Design Sketching (Updated October 2011)
Good sketching skills are important in any design process, and something truly needed in the design industry today. While working in the design industry, I have seen many young designers give up on sketching because they think they cannot do it.
The truth is sketching is an activity that requires constant practice to perfect. Therefore the will to practice is essential in helping you succeed, hopefully to the point where sketching becomes second nature to you. Or at the very least, you would get to the point where it would be easy to visualize a design in your mind.
One good way to improve your drawing is to use good sketches and sketch techniques to inspire and motivate you. So here are some design sketch references and sources that I have found both helpful and meaningful.
1. Design Sketching by Erik Olofsson and Klara Sjolen.
The excellent collection of design sketch explorations makes this book worth buying. It features 24 of the best designs from the Umea Institute of Design (Sweden), one of Europe’s best design schools. Well-known for their good design sketching skills, this book features many strong designs that have been done in various mediums (pens, pencils, markers) and computer programs like Photoshop and Illustrator.
The Design Sketching website provides sneak previews of the some of the chapters in this book. Their 2D rendering skills are so amazing that you will be tempted to order it!
2. Learning Curves by Klara Sjolen and Allan Macdonald
From the same publisher that brought you Design Sketching, Learning Curves is a follow-up book targeted to take design sketchers to the next level by helping them to really learn how to sketch.
The book includes samples of sketching work of over 60 professional (product, industrial and transportation) designers from around the world. Structured more like a comprehensive list of hints and tips, designers can quickly find help in improving specific areas of their sketching abilities. You can find great tips such as sketching reflections, playing with line weights, constructing sketch scenes, creating exciting viewpoints and even workflow improvements such as generating more ideas via sketching etc.
The authors hope that this new approach is more meaningful and refreshing than the more usual tutorial route. However for people like me, I’ll just be reading it from cover to cover, and you know what? You should too.
3. Carl Liu’s Design Book
Possibly one of the best design sketchbook for industrial designers, Carl Liu’s book is a collection of his many design sketches from his career in design. Working with reputable design companies like Astro Studios and Disney, book show cases ideation sketches, presentations, exploded views and storyboards done with his signature quick sketch and rendering style.
If you can’t get your hands on his book, visiting his portfolio on his website, will definitely inspire you to practice your drawing further.
4. Concept Design Books by Scott Robertson
Known for his strong futuristic product, transportation and city concepts, Scott Robertson creates great design work that exists far beyond anyone’s imagination. On his Drawthrough website, there are design sketching DVDs available, which shows vivid demonstrations of Scott Robertson sketching skills and covers topics such as perspective and proportion.
However if you want something to hold in your hand, his concept design books are a good alternative. Here are a few of his more popular ones.
DRIVE: vehicle sketches and renderings by Scott Robertson.
Start Your Engines: Surface Vehicle Sketches & Renderings from the Drawthrough Collection.
Lift Off: Air Vehicle Sketches & Renderings from the Drawthrough Collection.
5. Presentation Techniques by Dick Powell.
Yep, it’s that Dick Powell. I believe this became an instant classic, as it was probably the first of its kind in the sketching or presentation skills category. This all-rounder book covers all presentation techniques starting from sketch, to marker rendering, and finally to presentation renderings. I actually got a chance to speak to Dick about his iconic book, and after his long embarrassed groan, he told me that after “hello”, every Industrial Designers he has met has told him they have read it. You should too.
6. Sketching: Drawing Techniques for Product Designers by Koos Eissen and Roselien Steur.
Now into its 5th reprinting, this successful reference tome houses a great collection of sketches and drawings contributed by Industrial Design professionals from all over the world. Not only that, there is a great collection of drawing tutorials like varying the line widths, vanishing points, and shading etc. at the beginning of the book.
7. Analog Dreams by Michale DiTullo
Michael DiTullo, famed Core 77 sketch guru, former Nike Design Director and currently Frog’s creative director, has self-published a collection of 120 design sketches from a decade of work as an Industrial Designer. In addition to his vast range of footwear sketches (something he is known for), he shares his thoughts on how to get better at sketch visualization and creating strong visual (design) languages. Buy his book at Blurb.
If you are interested to see more of his design process, check out his design visualization sketch he did exclusively for us at our sister site >think>draw>make>. Thanks for doing what you do Michael.
8. Sketching Videos from Feng Zhu’s FZD Design School
While technically not a design book, Feng Zhu sketch tutorials should not be missed for any aspiring design sketcher. He has a great range of inspirational concept sketches that has driven the environmental or character designs of movies and games such as Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Transformers, Command and Conquer 3, Sims 3 etc.
Check out their Youtube Channel as well: FZDSCHOOL
———-
In today’s design industry, designing by sketching or in 2D is still a very powerful tool of communication. It is never easy to master it, but with constant practice and a library of good references, you can achieve it. So do enjoy the process!
For more great books on design, check out our awesome article: 30 Essential Books for Industrial Designers.Some of the most important, defining story moments of my life, you will not find on screen. You will not find them in the pages of a book. You will not find them in any outlet that I can recommend to you. In fact, you will not find them anywhere but my memory. That is because they happened while playing Dungeons and Dragons.
If you've never played the game before, it's a bit hard to explain the unique power of DnD, precisely because there are few things more geared to the lovely nature of collaborative storytelling. Sure, the Dungeon Master (DM) may be the one guiding the experience and direction of the world you experience (and must do so with both incisive acumen and exhaustive levels of work - and then, in an unexpected instant, be able to change it all on the fly). But it's also about what you, the player, bring to your character and how you affect the events as they unfold. This makes you the co-creator of the very reality you inhabit. Ultimately, the entire process combines the very best of video games, improv, and the oral tradition into one coherent work. And if all this sounds amazing, that's because it really is. But it's also very hard. It takes a lot of work and commitment and enthusiasm from all the participants, which is honestly why most groups play a few games and then (even if they like it) let the game fall off. But for the many lovely DnD groups that commit, it becomes such a wonderful part of your life. But it's a variant one, too. For some DnD groups stick to the heavily-detailed guides of the world of Faerun and the lore of the game's creators. Some take that world and turn it on its head with wild and off-kilter comic sensibility. And some (usually my favorites) use the game as a loose framework to go off and build something bigger. But the one constant is how all the games, characters, and worlds become deeply personal to the players who inhabit it. And to all this...
The Adventure Zone is emblematic of every reason I love DnD.
I know I've talked about the McElroy Brothers before (I am now somehow on the third mini-column on their work), and often I've focused on the discussion of the layers within their new media work, specifically how jokes from the meta-level seep into story points and vice versa, all en route to creating a more resonant overall experience. But nowhere is that trait more evident than with The Adventure Zone. It all began about three years ago when the three McElroy brothers simply started a podcast where they played DnD with their dad. It all started slowly and deliberately. Heck, it basically took one giant pilot episode to explain the rules and then four episodes for them to get the hang of it. But once they picked it up, the jokes started coming and the entertaining aspect of the show was born. But now, what started as a fairly traditional DnD campaign with some good gags, has utterly blossomed into one of the most ambitious, strangest, funniest, endearing, and epic stories I have ever experienced in my life.
This is not hyperbole. I see countless people online echoing the same exact sentiment. And when I think about the weird world of Phandalin and the "Balance Arc" that made up this particular first iteration of the show, I'll admit that I first think about the stories within it. Meaning I think about the goofy mystery aboard the Rockport Limited. I think about the apocalyptic road race of Petals to the Metal. I think about the Eleventh Hour and certain character burning spell slots for the fuck of it as the world ends (again). I think about the terrible cost of the games within the forest of Wonderland. I think about how each of these arcs both fed into the story and challenged the players all on a meta-gaming level. But I also think about the smaller things, like how the casual decision to go along with the goofy name "Barry Bluejeans" radically affected the shape of what this story universe looked like and helped make the story better. I think about all the weird, wild characters that populated the arc, from Angus McDonald: Boy Detective, to Garfield The Deals Wizard, to Garyll The Phantom Unicorn. I think about all the moments of Magnus rushing in and Taako being good out here. I think about 50 Shades of Green, and Abra-ca-fuck-you. I think about the wooden duck. I think about the sheer massiveness of everything I loved, from the scale to the emotions themselves. I think about the narrative daring of The Stolen Century and how shockingly effective it was in tying the whole story together, all before crashing back into the grand fireworks of The Day of Story and Song... I think about how if you have not listened yet, this will all just seem a meaningless list of proper nouns... But to those who listened, I think about how each noun listed has a whole world of meaning to you.
And at the center of it all, I think about Taako, Magnus, and Merle.
All goofy names, all arrived at with a laugh. Just as there was was the certain shrugging chutzpah in calling their adventuring band "Tres Horny Boys." Sure, they started by constantly messing up their stats, forgetting to do voices, and making jokes outside their own reality. But by the end, it was amazing to see how incredibly connected they had become to these characters they had created (and largely discovered along the way). And with every passing episode, it came to mean more and more, both to them, to us, and to the events within the story itself. Culminating in amazing moments like (vague allusional-spoilers until the last sentence of paragraph?) the reveal of The Lich's identity, "I've been here the whole time," and "Who?" Most of the grand moments came in just the last half of the year, as they were able to capitalize on the meaning and importance of the adventure that was reaching its peak. So perhaps it's no accident the penultimate episode was the very best in the series (at least to me). For it is a culmination of all the lessons learned, in terms of the storytelling and dramatic confluence, and how to incorporate both into the game itself. For there was the thrill of Magnus' lessons, Merle's reconciliatory conversations with the divine, and the meta-hilarity of Taako's inter-dimensional cooking lesson. But what is most amazing is the way the episode hammers home these moments as character arcs, all en route to opening up a sense of purpose going into the final episode... So yes, it's safe to say there was an element of excitement going into yesterday's finale.
But in the end (more textural spoilers I guess?), we got something that felt endlessly sweet. It piles on catharsis after catharsis - all earned, all good, and all true - but this sweetness is perhaps reflective of the simple fact that letting go is sometimes just too bitter a pill to swallow. It gave me a sense of a few storytellers not entirely ready to, or at least didn't fully know how to say goodbye without saying all of it. Which makes sense in a way, because a game of Dungeons and Dragons is different in the way it largely feeds off of such connection. I love Magnus, but I never lived in him, fostered him, and made choices with him the way that Travis did. As such it's probably no accident that my favorite moments of the finale were the completely meta ones where the family just talked about their experience and how they felt with the transition. And in that spirit, the story enamors itself to the tellers in a way that is a bit different. But unlike all the epic DnD story moments of many people's lives, we were lucky enough to have theirs shared with us at every turn.
So while I could sit here and point out some technical finale "shouldas" by making a few story arguments about how endings affect audiences, completely with folksy tidbits like "weddings are made more meaningful by those who cannot make it" and how "they aren't about getting what you want but what you need" (because in order for finals to be truly happy, finales also need to be part devastating, for most good things come not just with effort, but with cost) - But those observations, while accurate, also seems weirdly misplaced. Especially because there is n resonant idea at the center of The Adventure Zone finale that explains the larger catharsis choice in earnest. And that is "the gift of a normal life." Yes, it's a familiar trope of the hero genre, but only because it is a familiar trope of life itself. One best embodied by the American aim of domestication after the horrors of World War II. For there is a real gift of not having to battle evil, nor sacrifice exponentially, but simply getting to live. And yes, I know our normal lives are often anything but normal (and all good drama knows this), but in this finale, the notion of a normal life takes on a different meaning altogether. For it is not some mere selfish reward or obligation, but something that taps into the notion that a normal life is really about rebuilding something better. Because let's face it...
We live in a world where most people do not get a normal life.
The world exists in incontrovertible poverty, hate, fascistic movements, racism, sexism, war, tragedy, and sudden death. Which isn't even to count the endless number of people who have to live with trauma, depression, anxiety, and disease. And against that, many of those blessed with a normal life do not seem to understand the outrageous gift that they have been given, nor understand the pain of those who do not get to have it. And so we live in a world that does not seem to be learning from its mistakes. Instead we live in a world that feels like it's constantly failing itself. Which is exactly why the most important thing about The Adventure Zone is that its primary thematic interest was always, always, always what I will call "the ethical heart." Because Griffin constantly, fixating-ly, and unflaggingly brought the question of morality and responsibility to the center of the story and the games played within. Meaning this was never a story about rolling dice real good and making yourself feel buff, but making the constant choice about whether or not we repair our mistakes and help build a better world. And this was true every step of the way. So in the end, the "resolution as rebuilding" made for the fitting, final message. Which reveals the simplest meta point of all:
The world the McElroy family has created is the one that I want to create, too.
But not in some fantasy world. I'm talking about the one right here. Right now. Where all of us live together. I've long argued that character arcs and maturity itself is about learning how to turn the things we want into the things we need. So in this story of endless worlds, creation, creators, and gods - this happy ending is not the story's escapism, but aspiration. For it is the world we need. And as I listened to the McElroy family say goodbye to Magnus, Merle, and Taako and get choked up as the bittersweet feelings came to a head - I admit that I did not cry. Instead, I smiled wide, grinning like an idiot. For I finally understood the nature of this finale was really just about moving on within the space you already inhabit. Not just in the inescapable and obvious fact that The Adventure Zone isn't going anywhere and will indeed come back to "series two." I already knew this, but in that moment, it felt real in a way that was true and exciting. Which just unfurled the simpler, folksier truths of how every goodbye leads to another hello, a new world to build, and a way to do it even better.
For the heart of adventure is always what comes next.
<3HULKColorado Rapids announced today that goalkeeper Tim Howard has been diagnosed with a fracture of the right adductor longus, located in the upper groin.
Howard is set to undergo surgery on Thursday, November 17 and is expected to be sidelined for four months. The procedure will be performed by USMNT Team Physician, Dr. Michael B. Gerhardt in Los Angeles, CA.
Howard’s injury occurred in the first half of the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifier between the United States and Mexico last Friday in Columbus.
In his first season with the club, Howard registered a 6-3-8 record as a starter and was selected to the MLS Team of the Week on three occasions (Weeks 25, 27 and 28).
The Rapids’ Co-MVP and finalist for the 2016 Allstate MLS Goalkeeper of the Year made two saves in the penalty shootout of the Western Conference Semifinal against LA Galaxy, helping the Rapids advance to the Conference Championship against Seattle Sounders FC later this month.An overview of the international situation reveals the accentuation of barbarism and global chaos. The disturbing series of terrorist attacks during the summer, striking once again at the heart of the capitalist world, alongside the missile-rattling over North Korea and the endless wars in the Middle East, illustrate this tragically.
The impasse of an entire mode of production
Whichever party is in power and whatever their security measures, their promises empty when they claim to want to improve our daily lives and security. In fact, their behaviour is dictated by totally conflicting objectives: ensuring the exploitation of wage labour to the maximum in times of economic crisis and defending their imperialist interests through military and police operations which claim most of their victims among the civilian populations. It all confirms the historical impasse of a bourgeois ruling class that has run its course, but which is willing to do anything to maintain its privileges and its obsolete mode of production. Each and every day, corruption, increasing tensions between bourgeois cliques, mounting unemployment and poverty are the major elements of a chronic economic crisis, an expression of a capitalist mode of production whose prolonged agony now threatens the human species. In spite of the desperate attempts of the ruling class to create more lucid, responsible and presentable factions, as was the case in France with the successful effort to put Macron in power, the discredit suffered by the traditional parties is often leading to the formation of governments by elements least suited to defending the higher interests of capital: there is an inability to implement real global and coherent policies, to have a profound vision of the long term, beyond instant profit and return on investment.
This phenomenon is fueled by "populism", a product of capitalist decomposition which has become insidiously embedded in society. In many countries the ruling class has gradually lost control of the political machinery it has used for decades to try to curb the most harmful political effects of a bankrupt capitalism. The state and the most conscious factions of the bourgeoisie are attempting to react and with some success, as we just underlined in the case of Macron, but this can only delay or slow down the process, and cannot really stop it. On the contrary, the situation will continue to worsen. And indeed, since Brexit and the election of Trump, the total unpredictability of the situation has only given a boost to the dynamics of "every man for himself" and to the growing barbarism. Throughout the world, the politicians at the hub of major decisions tend to express the darkest aspects of human behaviour. We see the actions of a manipulative and paranoid Putin, while Erdogan pursues a personality cult in Turkey, a diehard Maduro clings to power at any cost, willing to "burn" everything in Venezuela, in the Philippines Duterte directs death squads ready to kill any opponent and openly boasts about it, and North Korea’s Kim-Jong-Un displays the traits of a real psychopath... the list is too long to continue. The most striking thing of all is that the world's leading power, the United States, is now led by a personality like Trump, a narcissist steeped in brutality and known for his unpredictability. In Britain, too, the Brexit vote then the semi-defeat of Theresa May in the last general election makes the future of the EU very uncertain. How do we explain the simultaneous appearance of so many and sadly similar personalities, in what was previously the preserve of a few "banana republics"?
For us this is not all the fruit of mere chance, but a product of the current historical period. The phase of decomposition of the capitalist mode of production stamps its mark on the history and the personality of men. It defines their limits by almost dictating their actions, their displays of impotence, of blindness, of irresponsibility, of immorality, their thirst for repression and terror. From among the most remarkable reflections of the workers' movement on the subject, we look back to the writings of Trotsky: "Certain elements of similarity of course are accidental, and have the interest only of historic anecdotes. Infinitely more important are those traits of character which have been grafted, or more directly imposed, on a person by the mighty force of conditions, and which throw a sharp light on the interrelation of personality and the objective factors of history"[1] Using a marxist theoretical framework, subtly outlining the portraits and the crossed destinies of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and King Louis XVI of France, Trotsky perfectly depicted the imprint of historical decline on these famous figures of the aristocracy:
"Louis and Nicholas were the last-born of a dynasty that had lived tumultuously. The well-known equability of them both, their tranquillity and “gaiety” in difficult moments, were the well-bred expression of a meagreness of inner powers, a weakness of the nervous discharge, poverty of spiritual resources. Moral castrates, they were absolutely deprived of imagination and creative force. They had just enough brains to feel their own triviality, and they cherished an envious hostility toward everything gifted and significant. It fell to them both to rule a country in conditions of deep inner crisis and popular revolutionary awakening. Both of them fought off the intrusion of new ideas, and the tide of hostile forces. Indecisiveness, hypocrisy, and lying were in both cases the expression, not so much of personal weakness, as of the complete impossibility of holding fast, to their hereditary positions."[2] And he adds: " The ill-luck of Nicholas, as of Louis, had its roots not in his personal horoscope, but in the historical horoscope of the bureaucratic-caste monarchy. They were both, chiefly and above all, the last-born offspring of absolutism."[3]
With the phase of decomposition of capitalism, we are seeing a new dimension because the last two fundamental classes in history, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, in their reciprocal confrontation, have not as yet succeeded in affirming a clear perspective for society, in giving a visible meaning to our future. Our epoch also finds its own "offspring" of Louis XVI and Nicholas II. It is in many ways a caricature of what went before: today’s bourgeois leaders offer us only the smell of a scorched earth. Society is blocked, humanity is enclosed in the tragic prison of the immediate, thus plunging the world into everyman for himself, theft, chaos and growing barbarism.
Populist policies worsen the world situation
Since the election of Trump, the world situation has deteriorated considerably. Because of the particular historical context, this despotic and megalomaniac business leader, animated by a sort of sly, obscurantist, "anti-elite" revolt coming from within civil society, is being pushed to break with the traditions and codes of the established order.
The consequences can be sharply illustrated. We have seen Trump's foreign policy pour oil on the fire by entering into a game of military “stakes-raising” with North Korea, highlighting in the background a real and increasingly tense and dangerous stand-off with China and other Asian powers. Another significant example, among many, is Trump's conduct in the Middle East, challenging the traditional US policy through brutal diplomatic shifts, particularly against Iran, also throwing oil into this highly inflammable region. As a result, the United States, a declining power, appears even less "reliable", especially when they themselves are drawn into the dynamics of military tensions, driven to accelerate the spiral of war. This is the case in Mosul, where the war between the US-led coalition and Daesh has produced 40,000 civilian deaths, so quietly announced by the media. While the stated aim was to "fight against terrorism", the outcome was the opposite: an increased wave of attacks, such as the tragic events in Barcelona, and the resurgence of a flow of refugees trying to flee war and misery in peril of their lives. The latter are either driven back to camps or face death in the Mediterranean. This total absence of a political vision, this stalemate in a logic of war, will only generalise the violence and the mechanisms of revenge, spreading the cancer of jihadist ideology and terrorism towards new geographical zones.
These tensions and military conflicts in Asia and the Middle East are not unique. In the same vein, Trump's announcements of a possible US military intervention in Venezuela only hardened Maduro's position: instead of easing the situation, the latter using this US threat to justify his policies in the name of anti-imperialism. With regards to the domestic politics in the United States, Trump's wayward declarations and political actions have sharpened differences within the upper echelons of the state, and further discredited the government, for example, with the President's sympathy for the most extreme right-wing gangs following the recent incidents in Charlottesville, Virginia. All this weakens the image of the United States and especially of its head of state across the world.
But these worsening political and military tensions are not the only expressions of the historical impasse towards which capital and its corrupt leaders are driving us. The decisions taken also fuel the commercial war, despite alarm bells like the financial crisis of 2008. The strengthening of protectionism and "everyman-for-himself" in the economic sphere, the policy of "America First", will only plunge the world further into global crisis, mass unemployment and social deprivation. The worsening trade war also brings with it an increasingly irresponsible attitude to the protection of nature. Trump's statements, surpassing the bold claims of the oil lobby, reveal his cold casualness towards the threat of global warming. His ironic view of the Paris agreements (COP 21) shows clearly the increasing folly and vandalism of the ruling class in the face of a looming ecological catastrophe.
In short, what we can observe is that the ideological superstructures of bourgeois society, which are affected by the impasse of the capitalist mode of production, themselves act as material forces of destruction. The lack of perspective affecting society also constitutes a serious hindrance for the only class capable of posing a revolutionary alternative, the proletariat. Its loss of class identity and the propaganda seeking to distort and attack its revolutionary traditions oblige the proletarian political milieu and revolutionary organisations like the ICC to have a very great sense of responsibility. Because it bears a programme rooted in the whole historical experience of the workers' movement, the revolutionary organisation is indispensable for enabling the working class to reconnect with its past, in particular the wave of international struggles of the 1920s, and within that the combat of the Bolshevik party which resulted in the victory of Red October. With the centenary of the Russian Revolution of 1917, it is important to reconnect with the fundamental lessons of this irreplaceable experience. By appropriating this past experience critically, in a spirit of struggle, the proletariat will be able to prepare a future worthy of the human species.
WH, 28 August 2017London, England (CNN) -- More than 1,200 new species of plants and animals have been discovered in the Amazon rainforest over the past decade according to a new report.
"Amazon Alive! A Decade of Discoveries 1999-2009," published Tuesday by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), showcases the extraordinary diversity housed in the world's biggest rainforest which spans eight South American countries.
Six-hundred-and-thirty-seven new species of plant were found during the period, as well as nearly 500 new fish and amphibians, including 24 new poison dart frogs.
A four-meter long anaconda snake -- native to Bolivia and the first of its genus to be identified since 1936 -- was among 55 new reptile species discovered, and a Bolivian river dolphin was one of 39 new species of mammals.
A brightly colored bald parrot (Pyrilia aurantiocephala) was one of the highlights of 16 new bird species.
Jim Leape, WWF international director general told CNN: "This is report is really intended to bring home the richness of the Amazon forest and how much is there. The Amazon is the single most important place on Earth for biodiversity -- it holds ten percent of the world's known species."
The list of new discoveries amounts to more than the combined total of new species found in Borneo, the Congo Basin and the Eastern Himalayas during the same time period, the report says.
Nearly one fifth of the Amazon rainforest has been cut down in the past 50 years, Leape says. This is largely due to increased global demand for soya, beef and, more recently, biofuels.
"All of us in the choices we make everyday in our supermarkets are actually part of this picture," Leape said.
"On a more basic level, this is a place that stores perhaps more than 100 billion tons of carbon and it absorbs a lot of the carbon we put into the air. So it's hugely important to the future of the world's climate."
Governments from around the world are currently meeting at the United Nations biodiversity summit in Nagoya, Japan with the aim of setting new targets to stem eco-system loss.
U.N. summit sends S.O.S. on biodiversity
The talks are an important opportunity to "galvanize global action to save nature," Leape says.
"I think what you have in front of 193 countries is a plan for the next ten years that, if acted upon, would really make a difference."There’s been some movement on the Cryptic poaching City of Heroes players thing F13 turned up. Mainly, we have an Ivan Sulic sighting!
Ivan Sulic was the TOTALLY AWESOME community manager for Hellgate: London who memorably told angry players in the aftermath of a lack of LAN play, “who the fuck cares.” Given that Hellgate: London servers no longer exist, I would expect “anyone who owns a Hellgate: London box” the fuck cares. However, clearly, telling your customers to man up and deal is your path to being a straight shooter in Cryptic’s Department of MARCOM.
What’s a MARCOM? As the form letter Sulic wrote which impressed the hell out of Eric Schild until he realized it was a form letter explains, “Marcom is basically Community, PR, and Marketing.” Or, another way to put it, “Marcom is what happens when you’re too cheap and too clueless to hire seperate people for marketing and community.” But hey! Sulic’s off to a great start, explaining to Schild:
I think I know what you’re talking about now. I’ve been reading up on recent press and some news aggregates have picked up this story. Maybe I can help clear things up a bit?
Or, in other words, “we were going to ignore this but now actual news sites are talking about it, so we have to appear as though we’re doing something!” I’m not sure if that’s the Mar or the Com of Marcom talking, but there’s definitely talking happening now, with Cryptic people flooding into the F13 forums to make absolutely sure that Unsub (the user who whistleblew the whole story) absolutely positively no really has his Champions Online beta access back. I’m pretty sure that’s the Com of Marcom. Because the Mar of Marcom managed to get this closing tag for the actual-news-site-talking-about-this:
It’s refreshing to a see a gaming company not only own up to its mistakes but to publicly apologize for them, isn’t it?
Well, yes, it would. In fact, I’d like to see that public apology. Note to Wired: There wasn’t one. Edgy “aw shucks, we didn’t mean to do anything BAD!” wisecracks don’t really count. Although there was a mistake owned up to in the Marcom Minitrue Pressrelease:
So, we’re currently running the closed beta test for Champions Online and a few of our employees thought it might be a good idea to contact avid MMO notables and various guild leaders floating about to see if they wanted to test. I’m certain this wasn’t meant to be a malicious attack on a competing product, nor did anyone intend to steal players, violate user agreements, kill babies, or knife hardworking farmers in the back. We had invites to send and the folks who send them figured people who play MMOs most might want them most. If a line was crossed, it was totally inadvertent and no harm was intended.
In case you’re keeping track, that admission is dead center in the middle of the paragraph, as part of a distant “well, from a distance, I don’t think any of this happened, as a disinterested observer” passive voice. Well played, Marcom |
be able to work continuously or her income plus his stipend may not be sufficient for the size of the family. Accordingly, some people look down upon kollel students as “leeches on society.” As is the case with generalizations, such characterization is too broad and unfair.
On the one hand, we have the concept of a “Yissachar-Zevulun” relationship. In ancient Israel, the Tribe of Zevulun (Zebulon) would engage in commerce and they supported the members of the Tribe of Yissachar (Issachar), who studied Torah full-time. The members of Zevulun shared the merit of the Torah study they supported. This is in part the model for the modern-day kollel: business people support those who engage in Torah study and earn merit through it.
But there is also an obligation to teach one’s children a trade. In fact, one who does not teach his son a trade is considered as if he taught him how to rob (Talmud Kiddushin 30b). Similarly, the Talmud in Shabbos (118a) tells us that one should make his Shabbos like a weekday rather than accept charity. [Let’s contextualize that last statement. That certainly does NOT mean to work on Shabbos! It means to eat two meals as one does on weekdays rather than the three meals one would normally eat on Shabbos.]
All of this addresses the one who may or may not be working. There is also an obligation to give others charity in a respectable fashion. Anonymity is preferred and we are meant to help people maintain their standard of living, not just help them squeak by. The highest level of charity, however, is helping someone to get a job and become self-sufficient. (Teaching a man to fish instead of giving him a fish, as the saying goes.)
So the kollel situation is multifaceted. It’s necessary for our people in order to produce Torah scholars – we’d be in sorry shape without it! – but that’s not to say that it’s a choice for everyone. Some people do it for a year or two after marriage before entering the business world, while others do it long-term. By and large, however, most people do choose to pursue other forms of employment and those who learn in kollel are not so numerous as to drain a community’s resources.
Sincerely yours,
Rabbi Jack Abramowitz
JITC Educational Correspondent
Share
4 SharesApparently this was a couple of years ago but I recently found out that the town of Vinci where Leonardo Da Vinci was born has put the contents of the Madrid Codices and the Codex Atlanticus online. They are also planning to put online digital copies of the Windsor folios and 12 notebooks from the Institut de France for a total of 12,000 pages. Here is a relevant excerpt from Wired.
While the digital notebooks offer advantages to make academics sob with joy — semantic search functions, clustered results — most of them vanish without a working knowledge of 15th-century Italian. (Forms in English are expected in about two months; an index of drawings in English is expected by year’s end.)
To index Leonardo’s designs and irregular vocabulary, text-mining company Synthema teamed up with engineers from the University of Florence and the Accademia della Crusca, Italy’s national language institute founded in 1582.
“Leonardo had a very modern way of jumbling things together, a true multitasker,” says Federico Neri, head of R&D at Synthema. “There are technical specifications next to shopping lists. Finding anything used to be mining in a literal sense.” Neri hopes to eventually develop a multilanguage version to help readers explore the notebooks.
Nonetheless, there are plenty of curiosities for the lay reader.
Even a quick spin may turn up, as it did on a recent once-over of the Codex Atlanticus, the spring-propelled vehicle thought to be a precursor to Mars rovers. And the high-resolution images are arguably as close as one will get to the real thing unless you’re Bill Gates.Don't call it a comeback but a necessary reboot to bring audiences back to the theaters.
Pin Share Reddit 81 Shares
Suddenly the summer’s sour box office is the furthest thing from a Hollywood mogul’s mind.
What’s on the front burner now? Which A-list star will be accused of sexual assault next?
In the last 24 hours we’ve learned both director Brett Ratner (“X-Men: The Last Stand”) and screen legend Dustin Hoffman have been accused of predatory behavior. That’s on top of similar headlines clinging to director James Toback, actor Ben Affleck and Kevin Spacey.
The scandal that began with producer Harvey Weinstein’s fall from grace shows no signs of stopping. In fact, it might be speeding up.
It all comes at a terrible time for Hollywood. Consider:
The industry has spent the past year savaging both Donald Trump and his supporters, alienating millions of movie goers in the process.
Those aforementioned box office figures were disastrous for the industry.
The era of the Movie Star is but a memory. Starry features like “Suburbicon” are crashing while horror entries with few, if any, recognizable names are the industry’s rare hits.
The upcoming Oscar movie season might not ride to the industry’s rescue, even as “The Last Jedi” and “Thor: Ragnorak” promise a respite from the box office blues.
Is there any doubt 2017 has been the worst year ever for movies?
So what should Hollywood do to restore its tattered brand? It won’t be easy. The following seven suggestions would be a good start all the same. A few are aimed at wooing Red State America. Others will bring both sides together.
One More Celebrity PSA
What’s the single most annoying thing to come out of Hollywood in recent memory? No, it’s not the Lady Ghostbusters or that R-rated “Baywatch” flop. Not even close. It’s the parade of smug celebrity PSAs tackling everything from candidate Donald Trump to gun control.
It looked like the industry gave up on the tactic following Hillary Clinton’s humiliating defeat last year. Nope. We recently got yet another fact-challenged PSA last month. This time, the stars aligned to smite the NRA.
Enough is enough. No minds are being changed by these awkward, didactic clips. And we’re not impressed you ditched the makeup trailer long enough to record your lines.
Which means it’s time for one last celebrity PSA … with a twist. Here’s a sample script and suggested stars.
Julianne Moore: We’re here to say… we’re sorry.
Jack Black: We’re sorry.
Don Cheadle: Sorry.
Matt Damon: We finally realize how lame our relentless PSAs are, and how predictable.
TV Actor Whose Name You Can’t Remember: Condescending, too.
Mark Ruffalo: We just want to entertain you and tap into our creative souls in the process.
Scarlett Johansson: We’ve overstepped our job descriptions. Bigly.
Melissa McCarthy: And, in the process, ignored the festering boils growing within our industry.
Lena Dunham: Sexism. The casting couch. Hollywood so white.
Clark Gregg: That’s over now.
Jamie Foxx: Over.
Bradley Whitford: Over.
That blast of self-awareness might do wonders for the industry’s image. At the very least it’s a start.
Make the Oscars About … The Oscars Again
There’s a good reason roughly half the country immediately ignores the modern awards show. They’ve become first and foremost a place to lecture the country, not honor the industry’s stellar achievements.
Why would any Red State type bother to watch? Even liberals might yawn over the nonstop sermons.
That can change, starting with the biggest awards show of the year, the 2018 Academy Awards ceremony. The upcoming event is off to a bad start. Nakedly partisan Jimmy Kimmel is set to host for the second year in a row. That doesn’t have to sink the evening even if he went the full Stephen Colbert during his first Oscar gig.
Let’s have Kimmel stick to funny jokes, not political slams aimed at only one side of the aisle. In any given year there’s plenty of fodder for a quality comic.
More importantly, make the night about the magic of movies as it should be. Bring back acting legends like Jack Nicholson and Sidney Poitier. Crank up some great movie compilations to fire our nostalgia neurons. Celebrate the year in film without becoming a HuffPo op-ed.
The goodwill it would generate among conservatives would be considerable. And would any liberal revolt after being entertained for three-plus hours without a progressive lecture?
Unlikely.
Give, and Give Some More
Actors are rich. Very rich. Cartoonishly so. Think the Monopoly guy without the threat of that “Go to Jail” card looming. Just read the sad details of Johnny Depp’s money “woes” and you’ll understand.
So what does that mean? They can give … ‘til it hurts. And maybe it’s about time they start doing just that. Now, many stars already give to charity. Some selflessly rallied after the horrific rains flooded Houston earlier this year, for example. Others do so quietly, steering some of their fortunes for noble causes without issuing a single press release.
Great. Now up the ante.
RELATED: Celebrities Make It Official – Pick Trump or Us
Challenge your fellow stars to give and give some more. Make it fun and social, and use a dollop of peer pressure to make it happen faster.
The stars can even encourage audience to do the same based on their own budgetary restrictions.
Is this a transparent attempt to curry favor? Yes. So what? Think of how many people would benefit from it.
Take a Page from the Indie World
Indie filmmakers tell personal stories that often lack mainstream appeal. Studios, by comparison, are seek the biggest audience possible.
Why?
Money is the obvious answer. The second answer is even more basic – to cover their costs. The modern studio film is outrageously expensive. One reason last year’s “Ghostbusters” reboot was considered a flop was due to its massive budget.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Ask any indie filmmaker and he or she will share a dozen ways to cut down on production costs. It’s what they do on every movie, every time. There is no Plan B. They just don’t have the resources the big players have. And they act accordingly. Sometimes their cost-cutting measures make for a better product. Ingenuity has that effect.
RELATED: Indie Doc Goes Where Hollywood Fears to Tread
Why does this matter?
Smaller budgets will allow studios to avoid mega flops … and let them take more creative risks. That means less remakes, reboots and sequels. If audiences see more original stories on their local movie marquee they might start heading back inside again.
Keep Naming Names
It’s been depressing to read about the sexual assaults happening across the Hollywood landscape.
Only some of the stars knew something was afoot. Others had much more information but stayed mum. Quentin Tarantino and Jessica Chastain jump to mind. Does anyone think they’re alone?
It’s time to open the flood gates. Start talking, stars. Share the stories you’ve heard behind closed doors. But, and this is critical, do so in a reasonable fashion. Confirm your findings. Don’t just blurt out an accusation on social media.
This message is especially true for the industry’s most powerful players. You will not lose your place in the Hollywood hierarchy by doing the right thing. We need your voices now. Speak up. Speak responsibility. Bottom line? Make sure the future Harvey Weinstein’s think twice before pawing another aspiring actress. Or worse.
Watch More TV (And Take Notes)
We’re experiencing a new Golden Age of TV. It’s happening while the quality of movies is on a slow, but consistent, downward spiral. And pop culture consumers are taking note. What inspires more water cooler chat, “Stranger Things” or the latest Tom Cruise movie? Can any movie compare to HBO’s “Game of Thrones” for audience enthusiasm?
It’s not even close. Not let’s examine why.
More original stories. Meatier roles for actors of all ages. Extended storylines that grow richer with every installment. Writing that leaps off the screen. Have we seen a movie this year with dialogue as tart as what we heard on FX’s “Fargo?”
For years TV chased movies for better storytelling. The roles have been reversed. Now, it’s time for film to play catch up.
Find New Villains
One of Hollywood’s moldiest tropes deserves a breather – the rich capitalist as the go-to baddie. He might peddle oil, own a luxury apartment building or simply suffer from greed on the brain. Either way, Hollywood screenwriters can’t help falling back on him over and again. It’s time to give this trope a breather.THEY were the changes supposed to make our roads safer, but just days after the Newman Government introduced new cycling legislation, bike riders have failed to meet their end of the bargain.
In the first police snapshot of the laws in action, Queensland officers have handed out 88 traffic infringement notices to cyclists flouting the state’s road rules.
CYCLISTS TOLD TO BUY CAMERAS FOR PROTECTION
CYCLIST RUN DOWN FROM BEHIND
The number of fines, issued over a two-day period as part of Operation Cycle Safe in Queensland’s north, stand in contrast to the number of motorists caught disobeying the new safe passing laws – zero.
For Brisbane cyclist Rachael Gibson, the legislation is a welcome, “reasonable” change. The 38-year-old has experienced several close calls.
“It’s definitely good when motorists give you a bit of space … I have been run off the road before – it’s frightening,” she said.
The new legislation dictates motorists will have to give cyclists a metre clearance on roads signed at 60km/h or less, and 1.5m of space on roads upon which higher speeds are allowed.
Instead of $110 fines for offences like running a red light or entering a level crossing, cyclists will now be hit with $330. Law-breaking drivers now lose three demerit points and can be fined up to $4400.
Bicycle Queensland CEO Ben Wilson admitted the number of cyclists caught out was “a tough scorecard”.
“It’s black and white. If the 88 bike riders broke the law, then they’re entitled to be fined.”
But he raised questions about the timing of the blitz, saying that while the road rules cyclists had not changed since last week, the financial penalties they faced had tripled.
“A lot of people who do ride bikes, do so because they are at a socially disadvantaged position,” he said.
Minister for Transport and Main Roads Scott Emerson said he was unaware of any issues surrounding the new laws.
“The new cycling laws and changes to fines are an important trial for safety,” he said.
Mr Wilson said he hoped the lack of penalties for motorists handed out during Operation Cycle Safe was an indication drivers were “doing the right thing.”
“There’s enough silly war descriptions between people that ride bikes and people that drive cars and that’s getting us nowhere,” he said.The Gauhati High Court has dismissed a PIL seeking a direction from the Central government to notify a separate time zone for the Northeast, once again bringing focus on the northeast’s continuing plight to be granted it’s own timezone.
Speaking to the Hindustan Times, Arunachal Pradesh’s chief minister, Pema Khandu remarked on the issue, “We get up as early as 4am…Several daylight hours are wasted as government offices open only at 10am and close at 4pm.”
The Northeast have long complained about the effect of a single time zone on their lives and their economies, and have pressured India’s central government numerous time to pursue an alternative.
All attempts until date have been unsuccessful.
India currently has just one time zone, the Indian Standard Time (IST), which has been observed for over a century. It used to have two time zones though, Bombay Time and Calcutta Time, first established in 1884 during the British Raj. These time zones took precedence because of the two cities’ importance as commercial and economic hubs.
Due to it’s sheer scale however, India, realistically, could have as many as three time zones (it’s western and eastern borders are some 2,000 km apart.) It chooses however, for mostly economical and political reasons, to have just one.
Consequently, India receives criticism, mostly from states most impacted by this decision who frequently call for this to be rectified, requesting for a dual time zone to come into effect.
You may also like: #TravelTales: 7 Epic Road Trips in North East India That Will Satisfy Your Wanderlust
India’s time meridian passes through Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, roughly halfway between the country’s westernmost and easternmost points. The time difference between these two point is just short of two hours so the sun rises and sets much earlier on the eastern side than it does on the western side.
Due to this, states in the East encounter a number of social and economic problems.
During the winter months for example, the sun sets in the North-east as early as 4pm. This early onset of darkness brings with it a number of problems, including impacts on productivity and increased electricity usage, driving costs for locals. It is often cited that a different time zone for the North-east could save millions of units of electricity and alleviate the problems in the states. A study conducted by professors. D.P. Sengupta, and Dilip Ahuja of the National Institute of Advanced Studies supports this as it claims that advancing IST by just a half hour would result in saving 2.7 billion units of electricity every year.
In 2006, India’s federal planning commission recommended the division of the country into two time zones, however no action was taken. Then, in January 2014, the then Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, independently decided that Assam would follow ChaiBagaan time, or tea garden time, and ordered the state to set its clocks an hour ahead of the rest of the country. This, however, had no lasting results.
India’s central government is keen to retain one time zone for safety issues and to prevent confusion, specifically in regards to railway operations and flights. Furthermore, there are concerns that introducing a new time zone to the northeast will force political and social divisions between the northeast and the rest of the country.
In a country where many people are still without electricity however, even just two extra hours of daylight could mean all the difference.
Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: [email protected], or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
NEW: Click here to get positive news on WhatsApp!The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted seven people and two companies which ran the file uploading site Megaupload.com. The site, which billed itself as "the leading online storage and file delivery service," is now offline.
In the indictment, Megaupload and a company associated with it are accused of making $175 million while simultaneously causing approximately half a billion dollars in copyright infringement. Among the indicted are the site's founder, Kim Dotcom (a.k.a. Kim Schmitz), who holds residency in New Zealand and Hong Kong. Employees Bram van der Kolk, aka Bramos, 29, Julius Bencko, Finn Batato, Sven Echternach, Mathias Ortmann, and Andrus Nomm were also indicted.
New Zealand authorities arrested Dotcom, Batato, Ortmann and van der Kolk. Officials said they have not yet captured Bencko, Echternach and Nomm.
According to the indictment, the accused are part of "the Mega Conspiracy, a worldwide criminal organization whose members engaged in criminal copyright infringement and money laundering on a massive scale." They are being charged with participating in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement.
Should they be found guilty, the seven accused could find themselves behind bars for a maximum of 20 years.
The indictment and subsequent arrests come only a day after major websites blacked out and rallies were held to protest SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (PROTECT IP Act), two Internet piracy bills currently under debate in the U.S. Congress.
Some 15 minutes after the indictment, the online hacker group Anonymous tweeted from a Sweden-based account that it had retaliated against the DOJ:
Soon afterwards, justice.gov was inaccessible — and it remains down at time of writing:
The websites of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and Universal Music Group were also experiencing either intense slowdowns or complete failure. Other Anonymous-related Twitter handles took credit:
The Anonymous group of the online community 4chan took down the MPAA's website before in a 2010 Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.
UPDATE: Copyright.gov, the U.S. Copyright Office's website, is also under siege. It's loading, but very slowly and without images.
UPDATE: As of 8:18 p.m. ET, justice.gov, copyright.gov and the websites of the MPAA and RIAA are loading, while Universal Music's site reads "The Site is under maintenance. Please expect it to be back shortly."Among the spectrum of technological innovations that are potentially forthcoming, human cloning is among the most debated and ethically ambiguous. In his award-winning sci-fi short, Restitution, writer/director Justin Miller explores human cloning and the lengths a broken family will go to to feel whole again:
Architect and workaholic Preston Sanders struggles to reconcile with his wife Susan after the recent death of their oldest child. Their relationship is further strained when Preston discovers that his wife has resorted to an unconventional coping mechanism: cloning their youngest son.
While weighed down by some wooden dialogue, this film shines when it shows rather than tells. The clever computing technology Preston uses to work is seamlessly integrated, suggesting that in the future, technology may be so intuitive, it’ll be practically invisible.
The short’s ending reflects the difficult situation we contend with even now: with access to extraordinary advanced technologies, have our emotional and rational abilities advanced at the same rate?
Enjoy your Saturday Singularity Cinema!On Friday, a small, 5.5 kilogram satellite was launched into low earth orbit aboard a United States Air Force rocket. Its mission is to study the origins, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe.
The “nanosatellite”, called Organism/Organic Exposure to Orbital Stresses ( O/OREOS ), was developed by NASA and is the first small spacecraft to carry two independent science experiments. It is also the first scientific satellite to be propellant-less.
Here’s a video of the launch of O/OREOS:
“With O/OREOS we can analyse the stability of organics in the local space environment in real-time and test flight hardware that can be used for future payloads to address fundamental astrobiology objectives,” said Pascale Ehrenfreund, O/OREOS project scientist at the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, in a NASA press release.
Researchers will be able to make contact with the nanosatellite 12.5 hours after it reaches low Earth orbit. It’s mission will last 6 months. During that time the satellite will conduct experiments autonomously and will receive commands from a ground station in California to which it will relay data daily.
O/OREOS will be conducting two experiments. One will characterize the growth, activity of health of microorganisms in a space environment, which includes exposure to radiation and weightlessness. A second experiment will monitor the stability and changes in different organic molecules as they are exposed to these space conditions.
The new nanosatellite adds to NASA’s collection of loaf-of-bread-sized spacecraft. Last year the agency launched PharmSat to test antifungal drugs in orbit, and in 2006 it sent GeneSat to space to test how E. coli bacteria behave in space. “Secondary payload nanosatellites, like O/OREOS are an innovative way to extend and enhance scientists’ opportunities to conduct research in low Earth orbit by providing an alternative to the International Space Station or space shuttle investigations,” said Ehrenfreund.CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Here is a recession bargain: the space shuttle. NASA has slashed the price of the 1970s-era spaceships to $28.8 million apiece from $42 million.
The shuttles are for sale once their flying days are over, which is scheduled to be this fall.
When the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in December 2008 put out the call seeking buyers at museums, schools and elsewhere, the agency received about 20 inquiries. An agency spokesman, Mike Curie, said he expected more interest, especially with the discount.
“We’re confident that we’ll get other takers,” Mr. Curie said Friday.
The Discovery is already promised to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The Atlantis and the Endeavour are up for grabs. It is possible that the Enterprise, a shuttle prototype that never made it to space, will also be available. The Enterprise is currently at the Smithsonian.
Mr. Curie said no decisions would be made before summer.
The lower price is based on NASA’s estimate of the cost for transporting a shuttle from Kennedy Space Center to a major airport, and for displaying it indoors in a climate-controlled building. The travel cost may vary based on location. NASA has moved up the delivery date to the latter half of 2011, instead of 2012.
Potential customers have until Feb. 19 to put in a request.
As for the space shuttle main engines, those are now free. NASA advertised them in December 2008 for $400,000 to $800,000 each, but no one expressed interest. So now the engines are available, along with other shuttle artifacts, for the cost of transportation and handling.
Assembly will be required, however.[Content Note: Domestic violence; violence against women.]I like to play games on my phone, but sadly, I have a Windows phone and the games marketplace is sorely lacking when it comes to old standbys like Candy Crush. So, I peruse the marketplace at least once a day to see what new and interesting time wasting crap is available.Today, I found this: (insert picture, obvs).What a perfect game to debut in October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I am definitely feeling acutely aware of intimate partner violence after having seen that on my phone this afternoon.I get that there are violent video games where characters and avatars get killed, where even the object of the game is killing, and I'm not inclined to get into a whole discussion about video game violence in general, on which there is no consensus even among people of good faith.This, however, is categorically indefensible. This is targeted violence against wives—wives who are nagging, and not attractive. The player's goal is to prevent the wives from leaving by smashing them into hotter and more appealing wives."If you didn't nag me so much…" is an excuse that batterers use. "If you would just be the way I want you to be," is an excuse that batterers use. "If you try to leave me, I will kill you," is something batterers say. "WifeSmash" is real fucking life for as many as 25% of women in the United States, many of whom are assaulted most brutally or even murdered when they try to escape their abusive partners.In case it's not clear: I am not offended; I am contemptuous.[If you have a Windows phone (bless your heart), you can report the app from inside the marketplace. You have to search for the game, and then you'll have the option to report just like in the picture above.]For the past five years, Chris Grady has been drawing his experiences as a dad and sharing them in a web comic called Lunarbaboon.
Grady has a 7-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. His comic offers a humorous take on classic parenting struggles, from noisy toys to toddler tantrums.
Many of his drawings, however, also feature more earnest messages about tolerance, empathy and being a force for good in an often dark world.
Chris Grady/Lunarbaboon
Grady, who works as an elementary school teacher in Toronto, told HuffPost he created Lunarbaboon as a form of therapy to deal with his anxiety.
“I needed a positive place to focus all my thoughts and found that when I was making comics I felt a little bit better,” he said. “After posting the comics on social media for a few months, I began getting messages from many people about how they connected to the comics and it gave them hope and strength as they went through their own dark times.”
Chris Grady/Lunarbaboon
As Lunarbaboon gained a bigger following, Grady decided to use his popularity for good. He often draws comics with positive messages that touch on social justice, gender issues, xenophobia and more.
“I think it is impossible not to be influenced by the world around you. There is a lot of bad things happening in the world, but there is also a lot of good,” he said. “I try to find the good or humorous in the difficult things that happen to us every day.”
Chris Grady/Lunarbaboon
Grady noted that his wife influences his work as well. “I am very lucky to be married to a very smart, strong, opinionated person who is constantly fighting against injustice,” he explained. “A lot of what she and I talk about on a daily basis makes it into the comics.”
The response to Grady’s work has been positive. “People like knowing they aren’t alone in life’s daily struggles,” he said.
Chris Grady/Lunarbaboon
As a teacher and a father, Grady aims to mold young minds into caring, thoughtful members of their communities.
“I want both my kids and my students to grow up to be good people,” he explained. “Kids are always watching adults, and they look to the adults as role models. I try to show them that even with all my flaws and weaknesses, I am still a good person, and I can still make a positive change in the world.”
Chris Grady/Lunarbaboon
“Nobody is powerless in this world, as humans we have the ability to change another person’s day by what we put out,” he added, noting that this mindset sometimes seeps into his comics.
Grady told HuffPost he hopes his comic brings people joy and inspires them to spread positivity to those around him, even in difficult times.
Chris Grady/Lunarbaboon
“Although we don’t have complete control over our thoughts and emotions as we go through life, we do have control over our actions,” he said. “So do good things with your life.”
Keep scrolling and visit Lunarbaboon’s website and Facebook page for more of Grady’s empowering comics. You can also find his work at Webtoons.With a 295 - 114 vote in the House of Representatives, it's a step in the right direction
Since the end of January it's been technically illegal to unlock the SIM card slot of your phone in the United States. Luckily, a bill passed through the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday with a vote of 295 - 114 that would make it legal again. Though the bill in question would repeal many of the limits placed on phone unlocking, the bill's author would like it to keep bulk mobile phone unlocking companies in the ban. These companies will often buy used handsets, unlock them, and resell them, which wireless carriers don't like so much. This addendum is still under debate, plus we have to wait and see what the Senate will do with it.
For those unfamiliar, service providers like AT&T and Verizon typically lock their devices so they can only be used with their service. If unlocked, phones can be taken over to other carriers. This is hugely important for promoting healthy competition and empowering consumer choice, not to mention being very useful for travel.
How many of you have yet to unlock your device? Have you encountered any issues getting your device unlocked since the law went into effect?
Source: ReutersBAREILLY: With changing lifestyles, technology and religion have often met at the crossroad. This has been never more apparent than in the questions young Muslims are asking clerics on helplines during Ramzaan.“Should I delete the digital Quran that was forwarded to me on my mobile phone?” asks a 20-year-old. Another wants to know if he “can begin Roza by listening to the Azaan from a mosque on a radio set?” And then this gem: “Is it alright to play mobile or online games to pass the time when we observe Roza?”Clerics say they have to move with the times and prepare themselves for such questions. “Though people from all backgrounds approach us, this Ramzaan we have been flooded with queries from youngsters, mostly about use of technology,” said Mufti Mohammed Saleem Noori of the influential Dargah Ala Hazrat.“Earlier people used to ask us whether Roza will be considered broken if one drinks water by mistake or if an injection is administered into the body. Now it is more about how to use smartphones, internet and other electronic devices,” said Mufti Mohammed Jamil of the dargah.The shrine receives more than a hundred queries every day from around the world. While the elderly call the landline numbers, youngsters shoot questions by email and WhatsApp.How do the clerics answer these questions? With great care. Here are some instances: one can delete a digital Quran once one has finished reading it. However, one cannot open Roza by hearing Azaan from a different place on a radio set as the timings vary from place to place. It is prescribed to open the fast on the basis of timings of that particular place. “Playing games to pass the time is wrong because the aim of observing Roza is to remember God, pray and help the needy,” said Noori.An Islamic message service, started by Bareilly-based Tehseeni Foundation in April this year, receives nearly 20 queries a day. “Many fake messages are being spread on WhatsApp and other apps, such as 'if one reads a kalma (Islamic sentence) 40 times on the first Juma (Friday) of Ramzaan, it will be equivalent to a Haj'? We try to clarify such misinformation,” said Tauheed Ahmad Khan, general secretary of the Foundation.Violent clashes between United Patriots Front and anti-racism protesters at Richmond Town Hall
Updated
Punches have been thrown in Melbourne as members of a Reclaim Australia splinter group clashed with anti-racism protesters on the steps of a town hall in the city's inner-east.
Tensions flared on Sunday afternoon as about 70 members of the United Patriots Front (UPF) faced off against about 300 protesters from the group Campaign Against Racism and Fascism at Richmond Town Hall.
"Muslims are welcome, racists are not," the anti-racism protesters chanted.
About 60 police officers and a dozen police horses intervened in the clash, separating the opposing groups.
Police said no arrests were made at the rally, but a man was spoken to in relation to carrying a knife, and is expected to be charged with weapons offences.
Trams along Bridge Road had to be diverted for about two hours, before police moved the rallies on about 2:00pm (AEST).
Local councillor Stephen Jolly said the UPF group was protesting against an anti-racism forum he organised.
Ahead of the rally, the UPF posted on their social media that the rally was to protest the behaviour of the anti-racism group at a previous rally, held in Melbourne's CBD.
"Remember the reason we are fighting against these mongrels!" the group posted.
"On the 4th April these people assaulted an old lady, disrupted what would have been a peaceful rally, they threw horse shit at the cops and let's not forget they burnt the Australian flag!
"They do these things and then have the nerve to say we are against democracy, we're Nazi's, we're are criminals!"
Topics: community-and-society, race-relations, islam, religion-and-beliefs, richmond-3121
First postedMitragynine is the major psychoactive alkaloid of the plant kratom/ketum. Kratom is widely used in Southeast Asia as a recreational drug, and increasingly appears as a pure compound or a component of 'herbal high' preparations in the Western world. While mitragynine/kratom may have analgesic, muscle relaxant and anti-inflammatory effects, its addictive properties and effects on cognitive performance are unknown. We isolated mitragynine from the plant and performed a thorough investigation of its behavioural effects in rats and mice. Here we describe an addictive profile and cognitive impairments of acute and chronic mitragynine administration, which closely resembles that of morphine. Acute mitragynine has complex effects on locomotor activity. Repeated administration induces locomotor sensitization, anxiolysis and conditioned place preference, enhances expression of dopamine transporter- and dopamine receptor-regulating factor mRNA in the mesencephalon. While there was no increase in spontaneous locomotor activity during withdrawal, animals showed hypersensitivity towards small challenging doses for up to 14 days. Severe somatic withdrawal signs developed after 12 hours, and increased level of anxiety became evident after 24 hours of withdrawal. Acute mitragynine independently impaired passive avoidance learning, memory consolidation and retrieval, possibly mediated by a disruption of cortical oscillatory activity, including the suppression of low-frequency rhythms (delta and theta) in the electrocorticogram. Chronic mitragynine administration led to impaired passive avoidance and object recognition learning. Altogether, these findings provide evidence for an addiction potential with cognitive impairments for mitragynine, which suggest its classification as a harmful drug.
© 2014 Society for the Study of Addiction.President Donald Trump and Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier at a meeting with manufacturing executives in February. AP Photo/Evan Vucci Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier is resigning from President Donald Trump's manufacturing council.
"America's leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry, and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal," Frazier said in a statement on Monday.
He added: "As CEO of Merck, and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism."
Frazier is one of the few black CEOs of a major US corporation and was the only black member of the council.
The resignation came after a weekend of violence at a white-nationalist and neo-Nazi protest in Charlottesville, Virginia. The president did not explicitly condemn white supremacists.
Trump almost immediately fired back at Frazier, turning the conversation toward drug pricing.
Merck, a pharmaceutical giant based in New Jersey, is known for making Gardasil, the vaccine designed to protect against the sexually transmitted infection HPV, as well as a drug credited with helping former President |
Crowe) is utterly unsympathetic about Nick’s situation — as he should be, since Nick brought it on himself through careless, selfish greed. But given the choice between ignominious death at Jekyll’s hands in a souvenir-packed warehouse somewhere, and a symbolic death that gives him ultimate power, Nick’s choice should be fairly clear.
Nick’s lust for wealth, his well-established tendency to charge wildly forward instead of thinking things through, and his blatant amorality all amount to a perfect setup for a twist where he does embrace Ahmanet’s plan, and chooses to become a god. His sympathy for Ahmanet is well-established in the movie, and so is his distrust for Prodigium, which tortures her and plans to vivisect her. His only emotional tie to the organization is through member Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis), who’s set up as his love interest. And yet ultimately, he selflessly stabs himself with the magic dagger in order to get Set’s power — solely so he can save Jenny’s life.
None of this action is particularly well foreshadowed or choreographed. Nick’s relationship with Jenny mostly consists of her scolding him, including informing his Army buddies that he’s a lousy lay and a premature ejaculator. Before the film even starts, Nick hooks up with Jenny, apparently so he can steal her map to Ahmanet’s tomb while she sleeps. (Again, he’s a bastard.) But the writers take it for granted that his abrupt third-act feelings for her will read as sincere and life-affirming, and his sudden choice to die for her sake will come across as an honest moment of redemption. It doesn’t, both because their on-screen relationship is so thin, and because his selfish aspects are so much better established than his altruistic ones.
And it doesn’t help that the film ends with a fuzzy, hand-waving monologue about Nick’s status. Nick clearly ended up with at least some of Set’s power, but isn’t fully a god — maybe because Ahmanet didn’t do her full sacrificial ritual? Or because he chose selflessly? Or because he shrugs off the will of an immortal god by thinking good-guy thoughts? It’s manifestly unclear, and so are his future intentions. An ending voiceover from Jekyll and Jenny suggests he’s become some kind of wandering hero who might show up to save their bacon later in the franchise, but the writers leave it all undefined and unsatisfying. Presumably it’s a dangling hook for later films in the series, but with no idea what Nick can do or who he’s become, the promise of his return isn’t particularly exciting.
What if this story had fully followed through on its premise?
But consider how the story could have gone if the avaricious, rash, self-absorbed rogue of the opening scenes actually chose to throw in with the beautiful immortal who’s offering him godhood. Impulsively choosing eternal life and boundless power would be more in keeping with Nick’s established character. It’d be more in keeping with what he’s seen of his available options. And it’d be more appropriate to the film’s themes, which suggest that power corrupts, and that the world is defined by the eternal struggle between humanity and the monsters lurking around its edges. It’d even fit with the plot of the 1932 version of The Mummy, the one Universal is drawing on here — in that film, the mummy’s chosen consort does voluntarily join him for power, immortality, and love, and only reneges on the deal when she gets frightened by the grotesque mechanics of the death she’ll have to endure to claim her godhood.
Besides, if Nick consciously chose to embrace evil, and become The Mummy’s ultimate villain, that would be a stronger, sharper ending for a film that goes soft and sentimental in its final act. Any time Cruise steps away from his squeaky-clean screen image, it comes as a surprise, and has a significant impact on longtime moviegoers. His creepiest characters (as a contract killer in Collateral, say, or a screaming blowhard boss in Tropic Thunder, or the creepy motivational speaker in Magnolia) always draw significant attention and interest. A full-blown Cruise villain would have established the Dark Universe as a series to watch for daring, unpredictable choices.
Heroic sacrifices of the type seen here, on the other hand, are so common in films that The Mummy’s screenwriters apparently didn’t feel they needed to justify this one. It’s taken as a matter of course that Nick’s noble side will beat his greedy side, so the script barely bothers to set up any sense of internal conflict for him, or to build a compelling relationship between him and Jenny. Given that she’s hardly even a character, the film never feels like it has emotional or personal stakes on the level necessary to build emotional impact around her survival.
But if she and Prodigium had to face a reincarnated god together — especially a reincarnated god they had multiple opportunities to stop earlier — those stakes would suddenly seem intense and personal. And the ensuing battle might give Prodigium time to redeem and recenter itself, which it desperately needs if the Dark Universe is meant to draw on the group again. Since The Mummy is more about Nick than Prodigium, the organization doesn’t come across as a compelling element that can wind through many films. It looks incompetent and disorganized, a sloppy containment system led by a part-time madman who can’t even reliably contain himself. The group has one job in this film — restraining a dangerous mummy — and it fails badly. Rallying the group to fight Set / Nick at the end of the film would have put the focus back on what the group does well, and show why its adventures through other Dark Universe films might be worth watching.
The Dark Universe had a chance to give itself a compelling recurring villain
A climactic face-off between Set / Nick and Jenny would also be a fitting conclusion for the fights she’s been having with him through the entire film, where she represents research, knowledge, and attention to detail, and he represents the forces of self-serving chaos. If she and Jekyll had been given the chance to step up in the final battle, they might have been able to establish themselves as ongoing heroes, worth a franchise’s attention. Instead, Jekyll largely disappears and Jenny becomes a damsel in distress, gasping for rescue again and again. The film ends with only one real hero left — Nick, sort of, since it’s now so unclear what he is or what he wants — and without any statement of purpose for Prodigium or the franchise to come.
And finally, if Jekyll, Jenny, and the forces of Prodigium weren’t initially able to destroy Nick — if they faced down Ahmanet, but couldn’t contain her more powerful consort — Universal Studios’ Dark Universe franchise might have the ongoing villain it needs more than anything. One of the greatest flaws of modern superhero movies is their tendency to kill off their villains at the end of the story, robbing franchises of the chance to build ongoing rivalries between heroes and their nemeses. Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a fan-favorite character for a number of reasons: Tom Hiddleston and the writers behind him have made the character funny, scary, and sexy, with a compelling arrogance and impressive powers. But he also draws fans because he’s lasted long enough to become a complicated character, with his own redemption arc, and his own well-established internal struggles. That kind of longevity and depth are incredibly, frustratingly rare for villains in franchise films. The Mummy had the chance to embrace it, and instead discarded it.
The good news is, it’s not necessarily too late for any of this. Nick’s link with Set is so poorly explained at the end of The Mummy that his character could potentially go anywhere. Prodigium still needs redemption. The Dark Universe still needs a meaningful throughline, assuming The Mummy’s dramatic box office failure doesn’t torpedo the entire series. There’s certainly the question of whether Cruise would want to return to a franchise that’s been heavily critically panned and rejected by audiences in its maiden voyage. And Cruise’s preference for playing rakish, overmatched, but enduring good guys is well-established; he might veto any plot that takes him in a dark direction. So it’s possible the Dark Universe might not get him back at all, let alone for an out-of-character villain turn. But if Cruise declines a second Dark Universe outing, a monstrous god-Nick would certainly be easier to create with special effects than a heroic human Nick.
But the bad news is, it’s too late for The Mummy itself. A story that might have been about different ways of approaching the darkness is instead a half-hearted story about an antihero more or less accidentally finding his better nature. An attempt to set up a world-spanning fight against evil is instead a story about an organization so badly managed that one mind-controlling spider can take it apart. And what was meant as a triumphant reclamation of a film studio’s history has turned into a giant question mark about whether the whole endeavor is worth the effort. As a hero, Cruise can’t save the day in this case. As the villain, he might have managed it.D10
2. In this rectangular chamber lies six statues of monks. Three to each side. In the center of the room is a pentagram painted in blood. Each statue is emitting a prayer hymn of infernal origins. Each statue is chanting a different hymn and the overlapping sounds is quite disturbing. Upon investigating each statue you notice each statue has a lever with six different positions. If all the levers are positioned into corresponding sequences the pentagram glows with fiery red light and a fiendish creature is summoned. Once summoned it attacks anyone in the room. There are six possible sequences if all the lever are aligned the same.
6 Sequences
1. Summons 3d4 Lemure 2. Summons 1d4+1 Imps 3. Summons 1d4+1 Quasits 4. Summon 1 Babau 5. Summon 1 Bone Devil 6. Summon 1 Marilith
3. This large cavern extends as far as the eye can see. The floor of the cavern is like swiss cheese. Holes dot the landscape and steam rises from these openings. Lava flows 100' below this cavern and tributary from an underground river flows into the lava creating a tremendous amount of steam that rises from below. While in the cavern vision is reduced by half and the steam scalds exposed skin. Each turn exploring the cavern deals 1d4 points of damage as your skin blisters. Because of the precarious nature of the cavern any fighting by the ledges of the holes has 50% chance of collapsing the fragile floor plunging the unfortunate to the lava below unless a dexterity check is made.
4. The entrance chamber to this massive dungeon has a huge Ettin statue on the far wall. The legs under the Ettin statue are spread apart and a single stone door stands beneath it. As you examine the door you can't find a way to open it. If you investigate the statue you notice one of the Ettin heads is missing. Upon the stump is dried blood. The only way to open the door is to find an Ettin and decapitate one of its head. If you place the severed head upon the stump the door will open.Advertisement Maine lobster marketers look to re-brand'shedders' as treat Newly-molted lobsters cost less than shelled lobsters at restaurants Share Shares Copy Link Copy
When Maine's lobsters start shedding their shells, restaurant owner Steve Kingston goes to the docks with a message for lobstermen: bring 'em to me."They definitely have a much saltier, brinier taste," said Kingston, who runs a Kennebunk restaurant called The Clam Shack that goes through a half-ton of lobsters per day in the summer. "We're a softshell house."Kingston is among a group of people in Maine's lifeblood seafood industry trying to make the coming season the summer of shedders. The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, a group funded by the state's lobster fishermen, dealers and processors, is launching a push to re-brand recently-molted lobsters as a regional treat that deserves more attention from chefs, restaurants and vacationing tourists.Newly-molted lobsters, sometimes called "shedders" in New England, are crustaceans that have recently grown out of their old shells. Shedders tend to cost a little less than harder or "old shell" lobsters at restaurants and lobster pounds that sell both. The collaborative is rechristening shedders as "Maine new shell lobsters" and marketing them as a unique Maine treat - sweeter in flavor than hard shell lobsters, and easier to prepare because of their tender flesh.The push is coming partially out of necessity as Maine's lobster industry, by far the largest in the nation, deals with a glut of product on the market in recent years that has depressed prices somewhat. Maine's lobster catch has topped 100 million pounds for four straight years. The price per pound at the dock has fallen from $3.47 from 2007 to 2010 to $3.11 since 2011, motivating some dealers to seek new markets for lobsters.The lobster collaborative is working with high-end chefs in the hopes that they can serve as tastemakers who make soft-shell lobsters a sought-after menu item in New England and beyond, said Matt Jacobson, executive director of the collaborative. The collaborative will be meeting with chefs in New York City as part of the effort later this month.The collaborative, which is funded by fees paid by lobster harvesters, processors and dealers, is putting its money where it hopes diners' mouths are. It's spending $1.5 million this year and will increase to $2.2 million per year every year through 2018 after previously spending much less annually."Folks will tell you the best lobsters they ever had was in Maine," Jacobson said. "We think the reason for that is because they eat new shell and they don't even know it."About 70 percent of the lobster landed in Maine is soft shell, and it tends to be a much higher percentage in the summer months when many lobsters are shedding, Jacobson said. The warm months are also when many lobsters reach legal size and lobstermen are at their busiest, satisfying the hungry crowds that venture to Maine's coast every summer with lobster on their minds and butter on their chins.Soft shell lobsters are most commonly prepared the same way as most hard-shells: boiled whole and served with melted butter. They differ from the also popular soft-shell crabs, which are more typically deep fried and served whole.The softer lobsters have their detractors, such as those who gripe that they contain less meat than hard shell, and that water spills out of them when they're cracked open. They also don't travel as well as hard shell lobsters.But South Freeport-based Barton Seaver, a Maine chef and director of the Sustainable Seafood and Health Initiative at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, swears by them. He said the lower price point of soft shell lobster can help democratize the notoriously expensive dish."It's a charismatic, aspirational dish that people go out and seek," Seaver said. "New shells offer a great product at a price point that I think really opens up the market to people who really want to have this experience."This year, Texas and a few other red states passed religious freedom laws that would protect a company’s property rights, and allow them the right to refuse service to people if it conflicts with their religious beliefs. Needless to say, the left did not take too kindly to this.
Now, in an ironic twist of events, the left-wing state of California will be restricting travel to these red states, since these laws go against their staunchly liberal values.
The Hill has reported that,
“California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) will bar state employees from business trips to four states after those states passed measures limiting the rights of LGBT people.
The new restrictions prohibit state-funded or state-sponsored travel to Texas, Alabama, Kentucky and South Dakota, Becerra said Thursday.”
According to The Hill, California implemented similar restrictions a year ago.
“California’s Democrat-dominated legislature passed a measure last year barring state-funded travel to states that allow discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Already, the law has blocked employee travel to four other states — Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee.”
These travel restrictions are truly ironic on many levels. In April of this year, the California state legislature introduced a bill to declare California as a ‘sanctuary state’, in protest of Donald Trump’s proposed immigration policies. And yet here they are instituting travel restrictions.
It is doubly ironic when you realize that they have imposed these restrictions because they claim to find it abhorrent to be anti-LGBT. And yet they want to permit immigration from Islamic nations that throw gays off of roofs.
It is almost as if the real reason behind the travel restriction isn’t because they are pro-LGBT, but rather because they are anti property rights, and want to control businesses as much as they can.California law school defends itself against claims it fed prospective students 'damn lies' and bogus statistics
Photo: Clark Moffat Photo: Clark Moffat Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close California law school defends itself against claims it fed prospective students 'damn lies' and bogus statistics 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
screengrab via youtube
On Monday, lawyers for Thomas Jefferson School of Law (TJSL), were in court to defend the school against allegations it manipulated post-graduation statistics.
That's noteworthy as it's the first case to go to trial accusing a law school of intentionally using inflated post-graduation employment figures and salaries in order to defraud applicants.
The case centers on Anna Alaburda, a 37-year-old graduate of TJSL. Her lawsuit claims she has sent her resume to more than 150 law firms, and only received one job offer, which "was less favorable than non-law related jobs that were available to her."
Alaburda's case against TJSL started in 2011, when she filed a proposed class action seeking to represent graduates who had allegedly been duped by the law school.
"Mark Twain once said, 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.' This case covers all three," stated a 2011 filing of the case.
However, in 2013, a California judge refused to give the suit class-action status, meaning she must pursue the complaint on her own behalf.
The school has been accused of reporting post-graduation employment figures that topped 90% in 2010 but neglecting to disclose that the figures included part-time work, such as pool cleaner and Victoria's Secret sales clerk, the Associated Press reported in December, citing a separate suit against TJSL and a lawyer for Alaburda.
Further, TJSL graduates have highest amounts of debt for law schools, based on a 2014 ranking by the US News & World Report, with an average of about $172,000, Above the Law reports. The top three schools on the list are:
Thomas Jefferson School of Law: $172,445 (91% of grads have debt) New York Law School: $166,622 (83% of grads have debt) Northwestern University: $163,065 (80% of grads have debt)
screengrab via youtubeFor its part, TJSL stands by the assertion that its graduates find successful employment after attending the school.
"We have a strong track record of producing successful graduates, with 7,000 alumni working nationally and internationally," Thomas Guernsey, dean of TJSL, told Business Insider in a statement.
And not all students feel that TJSL ripped them off. Many are grateful that TJSL gave them the opportunity to attend law school when few others did.
"Thomas Jefferson gave me a chance where other law schools didn't," David Gibbs, a 2012 graduate, told Business Insider's Erin Fuchs.
TJSL was founded as the Western State University College of Law, a for-profit law school owned by Education Management Corporation (EDMC). TJSL became independent in 1995, and the school became a private, nonprofit law school accredited by the ABA in 2001.
screengrab via youtube
Graduates of law schools filed more than a dozen proposed class-action lawsuits in 2011 and 2012 alone, according to The Wall Street Journal. These suits claimed the schools defrauded graduates into thinking employment prospects were rosier than they really were.
But judges have thrown out most of these suits, disagreeing with the premise that law students were defrauded.
In October, a Florida judge threw out a suit against Florida Coastal School of Law, saying that applicants to the school are "a sophisticated subset of education consumers, capable of sifting through data and weighing alternatives," The Journal reported.
However, in ruling the case must proceed, Judge Joel Pressman seemed to accept the argument that TJSL may have misled prospective students by allegedly including non-law jobs in its employment statistics.
"A reasonable consumer would not believe employment figures included any and all employment, which would render the figure meaningless in the context of a legal education," the judge wrote in his opinion, according to Above the Law. "A reasonable consumer expects the employment figure to include graduates who work in law-related jobs."
TJSL was not immediately available for comment.
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Here are the most elite boarding schools in America
See Also:
SEE ALSO: A guy with $170,000 in student loans who can't find a job in the legal profession is suing his law school and working full time for UberDevil facial tumour disease causes tumours to form in and around the mouth Devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) is an aggressive non-viral clonally transmissible cancer which affects Tasmanian devils, a marsupial native to Australia.[2] DFTD was first described in 1996.[2] In the subsequent decade the disease ravaged Tasmania's wild devils. Affected high-density populations suffered up to 100% mortality in 12–18 months.[3] Between 1996 and 2015, the population dwindled by 95%.[4] Contents
Clinical signs Edit
There is often more than one primary tumour.[5] Visible signs of DFTD begin with lumps of soft tissue around the mouth, which ulcerate.[6] Tumours are locally aggressive,[7] destroying the underlying bone of the jaw which interferes with feeding.[6] Tumours may also cover the eyes.[8] Devils usually die within six months from organ failure, secondary infection, or metabolic starvation.[9] DFTD is rare in juveniles.[10] DFTD affects males and females equally.[11]
Transmission Edit
The most plausible route of transmission is through biting, particularly when canine teeth come into direct contact with the diseased cells.[12] Other modes of transmission may include the ingestion of infected carcasses and the sharing of food, both of which involve an allogeneic transfer of cells between unrelated individuals.[13][14] The animals most likely to become infected are the fittest devil individuals.[15]
Pathology Edit
DFTD tumours are large soft tissue masses which become centrally ulcerated.[5] The tumours are composed of lobules of nodules of round to spindle-shaped cells, often within a pseudocapsule.[5] Tumours metastasise to regional lymph nodes involvement and systemically to the lungs, spleen and heart.[7]
Tumour characteristics Edit
Preservation response Edit
History Edit
Society and culture Edit
In 2008, a devil—given the name Cedric by those who treated and worked with him—was thought to have a natural immunity to the disease, but developed two facial tumours in late 2008. The tumours were removed,[70] and officials thought Cedric was recovering well; but in September 2010, the cancer was discovered to have spread to the lungs, leading to his euthanasia.[71]
Research directions Edit
Vaccination with irradiated cancer cells has not proven successful.[72] In 2013, a study using mice as a model for Tasmanian devils suggested that a DFTD vaccine could be beneficial.[73] In 2015, a study which mixed dead DFTD cells with an inflammatory substance stimulated an immune response in five out of six devils injected with the mixture, engendering for a vaccine against DFTD.[74][75] Field testing of the potential vaccine is being undertaken as a collaborative project between the Menzies Institute for Medical Research and the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program under the Wild Devil Recovery program, and aims to test the immunisation protocol as a tool in ensuring the devil's long term survival in the wild.[76] In March 2017, scientists at the University of Tasmania presented an apparent first report of having successfully treated Tasmanian devils with the disease, by injecting live cancer cells into the infected devils to stimulate their immune system to recognise and fight the disease.[77][78]It’s not difficult to situate the horrific massacres in Paris last week— which claimed the lives of 17 victims — within the broader context of terrorism carried out by Islamic extremist groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and greater Syria (ISIS). But there's another context in which the attacks should be understood, and it dates back to the 1950s and early ‘60s, when the Algerian War had France fighting to maintain its colonial hold on the North African country, and Algeria fighting for independence.
The chaotic scenes last week echoed a history of violence between the French and the Algerian Muslims who lived under Paris's rule for more than a century. In the words of Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, “the desperate and permanent crisis in Algerian-French relations” is “like the refusal of a divorced couple to accept an agreed narrative of their sorrow.” Though the Algerian War took place in the middle of the 20th century, its foundation was laid by the 19th century French invasion of Algeria, which was followed by efforts to convert the Muslim population to Christianity. French rule fomented a growing resentment among Algerians that in the 1950s would escalate to revolt.
Though exact death tolls don’t exist, there are estimates that hundreds of thousands to more than a million Algerian Muslims died in the war, with tens of thousands of French military and civilians perishing in the conflict. The peace that followed the ceasefire in 1962 was, as Fisk puts it, “a cold peace in which Algeria’s residual anger, in France as well as in the homeland, settled into long-standing resentment.” Many of the hundreds of thousands of people of Algerian descent living in France today are poor and feel the specter of discrimination in government policies like the 2010 ban on face coverings.
In March 1962, LIFE photographer Paul Schutzer was on the scene in Algiers as the Algerian War came to an end with a tenuous ceasefire and a path to Algerian self-determination. Part of that city witnessed jubilant celebration—a truce had finally been reached between French President Charles de Gaulle and the Muslim-led National Liberation Front. But in other corners of town, a gruesome massacre was underway, as a group of French army officers called the Organisation de l'armée secrète (O.A.S.) in favor of French rule in Algeria killed innocent Muslims in a last-ditch effort—a mutiny of sorts—to thwart independence.
LIFE explained the motivations of the O.A.S.:
A cynical hope underlay the O.A.S. attacks: if by killing innocent people the O.A.S. could provoke all-out communal war, sympathetic elements of the French army might throw in with the Algerian Europeans against the Moslems and even against De Gaulle. But this wretched hope was in vain; retaliating, the French forces boldly struck, while air force jets strafed O.A.S. sniper positions. De Gaulle, “Le Grand Charlie,” had spoken.
The photographs above capture both the celebration and the bloodshed that coincided on the streets of Algiers as one historical chapter ended and another began. And the paradox Schutzer captured on that day — the intersection of violence and peace and a new and complicated independence—reverberates even today.
Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.Former Argentine President and Senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner speaks during a news conference at the Congress in Buenos Aires, Dec. 7, 2017. (Reuters/Marcos Brindicci)
Argentina’s Former President Charged With Treason, Arrest Sought
BUENOS AIRES–A federal judge in Argentina indicted former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for treason and asked for her arrest for allegedly covering up Iran’s possible role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people, a court ruling said.
As Fernández de Kirchner is a senator, Congress would first have to vote to strip her of parliamentary immunity for an arrest to occur. The judge, Claudio Bonadio, also indicted and ordered house arrest for Fernández de Kirchner’s Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, the 491-page ruling said.
Fernández de Kirchner called a news conference in Congress to deny wrongdoing and accuse Bonadio and President Mauricio Macri of degrading the judiciary.
“It is an invented case about facts that did not exist,” she said, dressed in white.
Timerman’s lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
While removing immunity from lawmakers is rare in Argentina, Congress voted on Oct. 25 to do so for Fernández de Kirchner former planning minister Julio De Vido and he was arrested the same day. De Vido is accused of fraud and corruption, which he denies.
Argentina’s legislature has entered a period of judicial recess until March but can be convened for urgent matters.
Fernández de Kirchner and her allies have been the focus of several high profile cases with arrests and indictments since center-right Mauricio Macri defeated her chosen successor and was elected president in late 2015.
Fernández de Kirchner left office just a few months before the Congress in neighboring Brazil impeached another leftist female leader, Dilma Rousseff for breaking budget laws.
The cover-up allegations against Fernández de Kirchner gained international attention in January 2015, when the prosecutor who initially made them, Alberto Nisman, was found shot dead in the bathroom of his Buenos Aires apartment.
An Argentine appeals court a year ago ordered the re-opening of the investigation.
Nisman’s death was classified as a suicide, though an official investigating the case has said the shooting appeared to be a homicide. Nisman’s body was discovered hours before he was to brief Congress on the bombing of the AMIA center.
Grains for Oil
Nisman said Fernández de Kirchner worked behind the scenes to clear Iran and normalize relations to clinch a grains-for-oil deal with Tehran that was signed in 2013. The agreement created a joint commission to investigate the AMIA bombing that critics said was really a means to absolve Iran.
Argentine, Israeli and U.S. officials have long blamed the AMIA attack on Hezbollah guerrillas backed by Iran. Tehran has denied links to the attack.
Earlier on Thursday, two lower level allies of Fernández de Kirchner were arrested based on the same ruling from judge Bonadio: Carlos Zannini, a legal adviser, and Luis D’Elia, the leader of a group of protesters supporting her government.
Zannini’s lawyer, Alejandro Baldin, told local media the detention was “arbitrary, illegal and ran over constitutional and individual rights,” after leaving a police station in Rio Gallegos, where Zannini was held.
D’Elia’s lawyer, Adrian Albor, told radio Del Plata that Bonadio had no respect for the law, rights, justice. “They are coming for everyone in the previous government.”
Bonadio wrote in his ruling that evidence showed Iran, with the help of Argentine citizens, had appeared to achieve its goal of avoiding being declared a “terrorist” state by Argentina.
The crime of treason is punishable by 10 to 25 years in prison, Argentina’s maximum sentence. The next step in the case would be an oral trial and sentences can be appealed on first instance, which could be a long process.
Macri’s leader in the Senate, Federico Pinedo, said on Twitter that Congress would analyze the request to strip immunity “with sincerity and responsibility.”
Macri’s coalition performed better than expected in Oct. 22 mid-term elections, gaining seats in Congress, but it is not clear if lawmakers will vote to strip Fernández de Kirchner’s immunity. Fernández de Kirchner, who governed from 2007 to 2015, finished second to a Macri ally in the Buenos Aires province Senate race but won a seat under Argentina’s list system. She was sworn in last week.
She was also indicted in late 2016 on charges she ran a corruption scheme with her public works secretary. Fernández de Kirchner has admitted there may have been corruption in her government but personally denies wrongdoing.
By Caroline Stauffer and Jorge Otaola
Please consider sharing this article on social media – it will help The Epoch Times to keep bringing you news that you trust. Thank you for your support!poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201602/973/1155968404_4762669755001_4762665408001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Trump goes to war with the pope The pontiff suggests that Trump is not a Christian. Trump responds that the Vatican is the Islamic State's 'ultimate trophy.'
Pope Francis may have picked a fight with the wrong bully.
After months of taking subtle swipes at Republican politicians, the pontiff went for a direct punch at Donald Trump on Thursday, suggesting the GOP poll leader is “not Christian” because of his desire to build a massive wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Story Continued Below
And Trump, practically pre-programmed to counterpunch, fired off a withering retort. He not only called the pope’s comments “disgraceful,” but he also suggested that the Islamic State would find the Vatican to be a mighty fine target.
The back-and-forth between the spiritual leader and the crass candidate was stunning, even for this rule-breaking presidential cycle, and once again thrust Trump to the fore of the news cycle as the GOP field scrambles to make its last impressions before Saturday’s South Carolina primary.
The bishop of Rome set off the tiff aboard the papal plane as he was flying home from Mexico, the country whose government Trump has made a scapegoat for all that ails the United States. And as Pope Francis found himself answering questions from reporters about Trump, he did not mince words.
"A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian," Francis told reporters in response to a specific question about the presidential candidate, according to Reuters' account. "This is not in the gospel."
Asked by a reporter whether an American Catholic could vote for him, the pope demurred.
“As far as what you said about whether I would advise to vote or not to vote, I am not going to get involved in that. I say only that this man is not Christian if he says things like that,” he said, before referring to Trump directly: “We must see if he said things in that way, and in this I give the benefit of the doubt.”
At a campaign rally in South Carolina, Trump fired back, remarking that "if and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS," the pope will wish he were president.
Moments later, Trump's campaign issued a full statement in which he called the pope's questioning of his faith "disgraceful."
"If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened. ISIS would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our all talk, no action politicians," he said in the statement.
"For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian and as President I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened, unlike what is happening now, with our current President. No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith. They are using the Pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant," the statement concluded.
Pope Francis has shown a willingness in the past to engage on matters of political contention. During a visit to the United States last year, he delivered a message to Congress on the importance of addressing the role of humans in environmental changes. And he has urged Catholics to intervene in political affairs where they saw the right. "Ask the Lord to help you not sin, but if you get your hands dirty, ask for forgiveness and keep going," he told a group last May.
But the decision to directly take on Trump is in a whole other league.
Trump has, in the past, called the pope "political," and last week he slammed the pope's visit to Mexico's border this week as showing a lack of understanding of the situation there.
"I think that he doesn’t understand the problems our country has. I don’t think he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico," Trump told Fox Business on Feb. 11. "Mexico got him to do it because Mexico wants to keep the border just the way it is because they’re making a fortune and we’re losing.”
Asked by reporters on Thursday about being called "political,” the pope said, "Thank God he said I was a politician because Aristotle defined the human person as 'animal politicus.' So at least I am a human person."
The White House weighed in on Thursday afternoon, with press secretary Josh Earnest delivering a cutting comment during the daily briefing.
"I will, however, though, extend to Mr. Trump the courtesy that he has not extended to the president and not use this opportunity to call into question the kind of private, personal conversations that he's having with his god,” Earnest said.
Trump’s rivals, meanwhile, tread carefully around the explosive fight.
Ben Carson said it seemed like “a little bit of a stretch” for the pope to comment so directly on U.S. politics, but he said it was within his rights. “As far as the pope is concerned, he, like everybody else in the world, is entitled to his opinion. I would not weigh in on deciding whether Donald Trump is a Christian or not,” he said.
Marco Rubio, who is Catholic, declined to comment specifically on the pope’s remarks on Trump. He did, however, defend his, and other Republicans’, |
, characterizing the inspector general’s findings as “outrageous and unacceptable.”
“When you have systemic failure on this level, management must be held accountable,” he said.Page Content
What's included in the database
This database combines references to various First World War personnel records. Digitization of the Canadian Expeditionary Force personnel files is complete. The database also includes digitized files for many individuals who served in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and Newfoundland Forestry Corps (courtesy of the Rooms Provincial Archives).
This database includes names indexed from the following First World War personnel records:
Files of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF): Soldiers, nurses and chaplains ( RG 150)
The files of Canadian Expeditionary Force members (CEF), which include those of soldiers, nurses and chaplains, consist of documents dealing with enlistment, training, medical and dental history, hospitalization, discipline, pay, medal entitlements and discharge or notification of death. The files contain an average of 25 to 75 pages, with the smaller files typically being those of personnel who were drafted or who enlisted later in the war.
The following can be of help in interpreting some of the documents found within a service file:
See our Search tips which include CEF helpful facts.
More information about the CEF, the service files and the attestation papers Records of the Canadian Expeditionary Force - First World War The First World War, fought between 1914 and 1918, was the first of the great world-wide conflicts of the twentieth century, pitting the 'Central Powers' of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and smaller allies against the 'Entente', notably the British Empire, France Russia, Italy, Japan, the United States, and their allies. Shortly after the British declaration of war in August 1914, Canada offered an initial contingent of 25,000 for service overseas. A second contingent was offered in the autumn of 1914. The 1st Canadian Division was formed from units of the first contingent in January 1915, and was fighting in France the following month. In September 1915, the Canadian Corps was formed, incorporating the 1st and 2nd Canadian Divisions, and the Canadian Cavalry Brigade. Further contingents and reinforcement drafts continued to be sent overseas. At the time of the Armistice in November 1918, the Canadian Corps had expanded to include four infantry divisions and corps units. Other Canadian units, including some artillery batteries, engineering companies, and railway and forestry troops, served directly under British command in France and Belgium. Still other units, responsible for administrative support, training, forestry and medical care, served in England. The Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), as the army raised during the First World War was designated, grew in the course of the conflict to 619,636, of whom 424,589 served in Europe. The Ministry of Militia and Defence (whose records are described by Library and Archives Canada as Record Group [RG] 9), the predecessor of the Department of National Defence today, was responsible for the recruitment, preliminary training and dispatch overseas of recruits for the CEF. The Ministry of the Overseas Military Forces of Canada (whose records are described by Library and Archives Canada as RG 150) was created by an Order-in-Council dated October 28, 1916 (P.C. 2651) to oversee the administration of the CEF. The Ministry functioned as the liaison between the Canadian government and the British government, the War Office and British General Headquarters. It had broad responsibility for all matters connected with the administration of the CEF. Whereas the CEF was placed under the control of the British military authorities for operational purposes, responsibility for all other matters (including finance, logistics, training and reinforcement) fell to the Ministry of the Overseas Military Forces of Canada. With the end of conflict in Europe, the repatriation of the CEF, and the final settlement of financial arrangements with the British, the Ministry of the Overseas Military Forces of Canada ceased to exist on 8 June 1920 (P.C. 1705, July 26, 1920). Attestation Papers and Enlistment Forms Volunteers for the Canadian Expeditionary Force were questioned at the place of enlistment to complete the two-sided Attestation papers which included the recruit's name and address, next-of-kin, date and place of birth, occupation, previous military service, and distinguishing physical characteristics. Recruits were asked to sign their Attestation papers, indicating their willingness to serve overseas. By contrast, men who were drafted into the CEF under the provisions of the Military Service Act (1917) completed a far simpler one-sided form which included their name, date of recruitment, and compliance with requirements for registration. Officers completed a one-sided form called the Officers' Declaration Paper. The attestation papers were completed in triplicate. A copy can be found in most service files, with the exception of the files of some of those who ended up not serving. Another set of the attestation papers was bound in registers and is part of the records of the Department of Militia and Defence (RG 9, II B8, volumes 1 to 654). In an earlier digitization project, those registers were scanned and the images were linked to the database entries. Some of the registers are incomplete, or pages were missed, so some database entries do not include a scanned image from the attestation register. Where there is a linked image, it may not be exactly the same as the copy found in the service file.
Files of CEF volunteers who were rejected at Valcartier ( RG 9-II-B-13)
Shortly after the British declaration of war in August 1914, Canada offered an initial contingent of twenty-five thousand men for service overseas. This first contingent of men was gathered at a camp in Valcartier, Quebec, prior to being sent overseas. These are the files of the volunteers who were rejected for service at that camp. Most files contain only an attestation paper. In the case of those rejected on medical grounds, the reason is recorded on the attestation paper.
Non-permanent active militia files ( RG 9 II-B-7)
During the First World War, units of the Non-Permanent Active Militia (NPAM) were called on to perform a variety of military tasks in Canada, notably to guard strategic sites such as armouries, bridges and canals. The files include a variety of documents dealing with enlistment, medical and dental history, hospitalization, discipline, pay, discharge and subsequent correspondence relating to the individual's eligibility for war service gratuities and other service-related issues.
The same attestation form was sometimes used for the NPAM as for the CEF. Therefore, many of the NPAM attestation papers have "Canadian Expeditionary Force" or, "Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force" indicated at the top of the form. This does not mean that the individual was enlisting with the CEF.
Files do not usually contain more than 20 pages, with many only containing a few documents.
Files of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and Newfoundland Forestry Corps ( RG 38-A-2-e)
Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, the Colony of Newfoundland offered to raise an armed force on Great Britain's behalf. In total, over 6,000 men enlisted in the Newfoundland Regiment during the First World War. Typically the files consist of attestation papers, medical examination forms, conduct sheets, movement cards, pay documents, medical forms, casualty related forms and correspondence to and from the Department of Militia in St. John's. Most of these files contain over 100 pages.
Additional information about Newfoundland's role in the First World War, as well as detailed descriptions of the types of documents included in the files, can be found on the introductory page of the Newfoundland Regiment and The Great War database on the website of the Rooms Provincial Archives in St. John's, Newfoundland.
Imperial War Service Gratuity Files ( RG 9 II-F-10)
Canadian residents who served in the British Imperial Forces were entitled to a gratuity for service overseas during the First World War. The amount was contingent on rank, length and place of service. These case files contain forms and correspondence. They indicate name, regimental number, unit, beneficiary name and address, and establish proof of service in an Imperial unit. They also indicate with which unit the individual served, such as a British regiment, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, but contain few details about their activities during the war. Most of the documents relate to the payment of the gratuity. These files contain, on average, between 20 and 50 pages.
Note that the number indicated in the regimental number field in the database reference, is not actually the service person's regimental number. It is a file number relating to the gratuity. Usually the regimental number can be found within the gratuity file.
Records relating to the service of members of the British Forces are in the custody of the National Archives in England.
Personnel records not included in the database
This database does not include references for those who served with the Royal Canadian Navy, the British Army, Royal Air Force, Royal Flying Corps or Royal Navy. For information about accessing those records and others not included in the database, please consult our First World War page.
Note that many individuals served in Canada with local militia units. There are no files for those individuals.
See also Armed Forces of other countries.
How to access the records or obtain copies
Records with a PDF link
If a record has a PDF link, click on the link to access the digitized version of the record. You can choose to open the file or save it to your computer or mobile device.
The PDF link to the Royal Newfoundland Regiment personnel files is an external link that leads to the digitized images in the Newfoundland Regiment and the Great War database on the website of the Rooms Provincial Archives in St. John's, Newfoundland. Those digitized files are not the complete personnel files. They are selected documents taken from the file, intended to summarize the soldier's service. Many of the complete files are available on microfilm and can be accessed online. Alternatively, they can also be viewed on site at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa.
Records on microfilm
Some references to Royal Newfoundland Regiment service files will include a microfilm reel number (e.g. T-18172). Copies of complete service files are on those microfilms. Our microfilm reels with the prefixes C, H and T are being digitized on our partner website Héritage, where the digitized reels can be viewed free of charge. Enter the reel number in the search box. If the reel is digitized, click on the reel title (Royal Newfoundland Regiment service files) to see the images. You can browse through the page images; the content (text and file titles) is not searchable.
If a reel has not yet been digitized, you can ask to have it digitized by using our online order form. There is no charge for asking to have a reel digitized.
Ordering copies of records not yet digitized
To access files that have not yet been digitized, you can choose to either order copies of the file or access the file on site in Ottawa.
For prices of copies, see Price List and Service Standards -- Regular Copies. On the online order form, be sure to include the complete reference as it appears in the database.
Example:
Potter, Harry
Regimental number:1803
Reference: RG9-II-7, Finding Aid 9-60, Volume 62, Non-Permanent Active Militia
Imperial War Service Gratuity files are digitized on www.ancestry.ca, a subscription website, available free at many public libraries. From Ancestry's search page click on Military: Canadian Military Records: Imperial War Service Gratuities, 1919-1921. Alternatively, you can choose to order copies as explained above.
Visit LAC and view the records on site
You can also choose to visit Library and Archives Canada and view the records on site. Note that unless the records are on microfilm, you will need to order the material in advance of your visit.
To help preserve the fragile originals, CEF files (RG150) are no longer available for consulting on site. You can view the digitized version online.
Search tips
General Search Tips On the database search screen, you can search by surname, given names and/or regimental number. You do not need to enter a search term in every field. You can select whether you want to search all of the included record groups (RG) or just one. For example, if you want to search only Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) files, uncheck the boxes for the other record groups. The default is to search all of the record groups. Don't forget to use the asterisk symbol (*) as a wildcard, which replaces several characters and provides results regardless of spelling. Type Fran* for Frank, Francis, François, Franz, Francisco. Try searching with and without a middle name, or using only the initial for the first name. Spelling variations of names were common in that time period. Try variations such as McEwan for MacEwan. Only a small percentage of the database entries include the additional fields found under "Show Advanced Search Options" on the search screen. If you enter a search term in one of those fields, and that information is not in the database entry, you will get no results. On the search results page, you can sort your results alphabetically by a particular column by clicking on that column's heading. For example, the default is for the search results to appear alphabetically by the reference column, but if you want to order the results alphabetically by name, click on that column heading. You can click on the column header a second time to re-order the results from ascending to descending order. You can also filter your search results. On the search results page, type in a word in the "Filter" field to narrow the results to only those which include that word. For example, if you type "1895" in the "Filter" field, this will narrow your results to those that include 1895 anywhere in the reference, such as date of birth or regimental number. If there are multiple entries for the name you are researching and the files have not yet been digitized, you may not be able to determine the correct file reference. You can use these sources to find out the regimental number to help you narrow your search: Canadian Virtual War Memorial Circumstances of Death Registers, First World War Commonwealth War Graves Registers, First World War Veterans Death Cards: First World War
CEF Helpful Facts First World War service files do not contain photographs of the soldiers. Generally speaking, photographs of soldiers were taken by commercial photographers, and paid for by the soldier or his family, for their own personal use. Files indicate the locations of postings in England and the unit to which an individual was assigned. They do not include the locations of postings in Europe, or the activities of that unit. Instead, daily logs known as War Diaries were kept and served as a historical record of a unit's administration, operations and activities during the First World War. For information about how to access the War Diaries visit our page, War Diaries of the First World War. Not all nurses who served in the First World War were in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. For more information on other resources for nurses, see Call to Duty: Canada's Nursing Sisters. Officers did not have regimental numbers unless they had first enlisted as a private, corporal or non-commissioned officer. At the beginning of the war, a number of units were allotted regimental numbers with alphabetic prefixes, the most common being "A." Later, these prefixes were changed to numbers for consistency across the CEF. For instance, the prefix "A" became a 4 (e.g. A34555 became 434555). Before unique blocks of regimental numbers were assigned, some units were using the same numbers, so you may find the same regimental number assigned to more than one person. The name in the database may not match the name on the attestation paper or elsewhere in the service file. A personnel file was kept in an envelope with the individual's name and regimental number or rank indicated on it. The original CEF index was produced from the information on the outside of each envelope, so variations in spelling could occur. Paper originals of the service files are described by Library and Archives Canada as RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Boxes 1 to 10,686. Files for individuals with the names Neils Aabel to Stanley Adair were moved from that accession to permanent volumes, so their references are RG 150 and volume number (no accession number or box number). Sometimes men gave a false year of birth if they were underage or were considered too old to join.Others may have enlisted under another name if they had been previously rejected (e.g. for medical reasons). In the early part of the war, married men needed their wife's permission to volunteer for the CEF, so some used an alias. The American government did not allow its citizens to join the army of another country, so American volunteers sometimes used a false name and place of birth.
Other resources
For additional information about these resources, published sources, virtual exhibitions and other links, please visit our First World War page.
Credits
We wish to acknowledge the participation of the Provincial Archives Division, The Rooms Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador, for the links to their Digitized Personnel Files.
We also wish to thank the Friends of Library and Archives Canada who are working on indexing the Canadian Expeditionary Force personnel files to include the Advanced Search fields.According to the Executive Summary of the 2010 CDC National Intimate Partner Violence Survey Report[1]
Nearly 1 in 5 women (18.3%) and 1 in 71 men (1.4%) in the United States have been raped at some time in their lives, including completed forced penetration, attempted forced penetration, or alcohol/drug facilitated completed penetration.
Regardless of the lifetime numbers, the more reliable previous year figures on tables 2.1 and 2.2 (pages 18 and 19) show rates of rape for women of 1.1% and rates of “made to penetrate” for men of…huh. Wouldn’t you know it? 1.1%.
Unfortunately, lifetime stats are the least accurate, which is why reports like this almost always include previous 6 or 12 month figures.
From the full report’s definitions:
Rape is defined as any completed or attempted unwanted vaginal (for women), oral, or anal penetration through the use of physical force such as being pinned or held down, or by the use of violence) or threats to physically harm and includes times when the victim was drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent. Rape is separated into three types, completed forced penetration, attempted forced penetration, and completed alcohol or drug facilitated penetration.
Among women, rape includes vaginal, oral, or anal penetration by a male using his penis. It also includes vaginal or anal penetration by a male or female using their fingers or an object.
Among men, rape includes oral or anal penetration by a male using his penis. It also includes anal penetration by a male or female using their fingers or an object.
Being made to penetrate someone else includes times when the victim was made to, or there was an attempt to make them, sexually penetrate someone without the victim’s consent because the victim was physically forced (such as being pinned or held down, or by the use of violence) or threatened with physical harm, or when the victim was drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent.
Among women, this behavior reflects a female being made to orally penetrate another female’s vagina or anus.
Among men, being made to penetrate someone else could have occurred in multiple ways: being made to vaginally penetrate a female using one’s own penis; orally penetrating a female’s vagina or anus; anally penetrating a male or female; or being made to receive oral sex from a male or female. It also includes female perpetrators attempting to force male victims to penetrate them, though it did not happen.
This is already problematic, since it lumps in both attempted and completed “forced/nonconsensual sex” by penetration of the victim (I use the quoted term, because both rape and being made to penetrate fall into that category and have basically identical definitions, yet the survey chose to apply two different terms), and then claims that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men have been raped in their lifetimes.
Not the case. 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men reported having experienced completed or attempted rape, as the survey defined rape, in their lifetimes.
If they’d used an egalitarian definition of rape–that is, if they had included “made to penetrate” in their definition of rape, the lifetime numbers (less reliable than previous year ones, remember) would have been 1 in 5 women and 1 in 17 men experiencing completed or attempted rape.
Regardless of the lifetime numbers, the more reliable previous year figures on tables 2.1 and 2.2 (pages 18 and 19) show rates of rape for women of 1.1% and rates of “made to penetrate” for men of…huh. Wouldn’t you know it? 1.1%.
A cluster of studies on gender and sexual violence show that women are about as likely as men to use aggressive strategies, including coercion, force, and drugs/alcohol, to get sex from unwilling partners. One study determined that 15% of female subjects had admitted having done so, or having attempted to do so, to get sex from an unwilling man. Other surveys and studies have found higher rates.
In addition, a number of studies on gender and perceptions of violent victimization indicate that men are more likely than women to forget or recontextualize as consensual sexual violence perpetrated against them (even in childhood), and that perceptions of the severity of female violence (by witnesses of both sexes) decreases over time. One study found that only 16% of men (compared with 64% of women) with a documented history of child sexual abuse reported it on a survey designed to capture victims of child sexual abuse. (Sorry, I don’t have the link on hand, it was Ahola, et al.)
These two phenomena likely account for the much larger disparity between the previous 12 month and lifetime numbers for men who were “made to penetrate” than exists between the 12 month and lifetime numbers of rape for women. Extrapolating from the previous 12 month numbers, the lifetime rates for women should be slightly higher, but for men, they should be MUCH higher. Incidentally, 79% of men who were made to penetrate over their lifetimes (page 24) reported a single female perpetrator.
Men recontextualizing sexual violence against them (especially by women) as consensual complies with the cultural narrative of “men are (sexually) aggressive/women are (sexually) passive” as well as “men are perpetrators/women are victims”.
That narrative is certainly evident in the figures the NISVS chose to highlight in their executive summary (the largest female victim/male perpetrator and smallest male victim/female perpetrator numbers), and which acts of sexual violence they chose to “recontextualize” as “something other than rape” in their survey definitions (that is, the most common form of rape suffered by men, primarily perpetrated by women, and for which there were NO reported female victims at all).
[1] http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/nisvs/
Further study: http://business.highbeam.com/435388/article-1G1-107203500/women-sexual-aggression-against-men-prevalence-and
For a more detailed analysis with citations see: Manufacturing Victims; Marginalizing MenNow playing: Watch this: Micro drones race through a former 'Firefly' spaceship
There's nothing quite like stepping onto a set from one of your favorite TV shows -- so when I walked onto a fully lit spaceship set from the show "Firefly" to check out DR1 Racing's Micro Series, I had to contain my geek glee a little bit.
It's a great idea, using set pieces from popular shows both inactive and on-air. DR1 already zoomed its micro drones around the set of "Colony" recently with stars Josh Holloway and Sarah Wayne Callies, and it plans to continue creating cinematic, exciting tracks for tiny drones to race through. DR1 already has its Champions Series, which uses full-size drones; if that's the heavyweight class, the Micro Series would be akin to a lightweight circuit. These palm-size quadcopters have tiny bumpers around the propellers, encouraging pilots to fly a little more dangerously and make bolder moves as they zip around the elaborate tracks.
So what's the point of a Micro Series, if DR1 has a standard drone series? Accessibility. DR1 hopes broadcasting races like these will inspire a new generation of drone racers to the sport, since it's an emerging industry with lots of growth options; plus, the point of entry for micro drone racing is substantially lower than a full-sized racing kit. If you're considering getting into drone racing, micro drones might be a good way to test out your mettle and work on your reflexes before moving onto larger quadcopters.
DR1 plans to broadcast the Micro Series sometime later this year, and will announce channels and region availability as they finalize it. For now, check out our day on set in the video -- even though "Firefly" is long gone from our television screens, it's nice to know it's living on in a way even Captain Malcolm Reynolds himself could approve of.Church slammed for selling blackcurrant cordial and olive oil drink as a'miracle cure' for cancer and HIV
Victorious Pentecostal Assembly leaders promise the over-inflated goods, which have been blessed, can cure serious health conditions
Blackcurrent squash and olive oil sold for £14, double their real value
Church's founder, Pastor Alex Omokudu, lives in £1.8m home in Essex
Cancer charity warns vulnerable people are being exploited by practice
Church may be breaking the law by promising to 'cure' cancer
Pastor claims: 'We have got the answer to healing'
Divine inspiration: Pastor Mbenga, at VPA's Manchester branch, claims mixing olive oil and blackcurrent squash can cure cancer, HIV and diabetes
Cancer and HIV patients have been told to buy bottles of ordinary blackcurrent squash and olive oil for £14 by a church claiming the blessed goods are a'miracle cure' for their illnesses.
The Victorious Pentecostal Assembly (VPA) sells the over-inflated goods with the claim that once blessed by a pastor they can cure a host of serious health conditions.
Undercover reporters found members of the VPA congregation in Manchester were told that if a terminally-ill person drank a mixture of the specially blessed litre of squash and 500ml bottle of olive oil, which were being sold at double their real value, their ailments would disappear.
A church leader who identified himself as Pastor Mbenga also claimed to have previously cured diabetes and a brain tumour using the concoction.
He said the mixture would 'do what no man can do' through divine intervention and guaranteed the cancer would be cured.
'God will take over with divine intervention and the cancer will disappear,' Pastor Mbenga told the reporters from Manchester Evening News.
The church’s founder, Pastor Alex Omokudu, who lives in a £1.8million mansion in Hornchurch, Essex, has also regularly appeared in television adverts claiming, 'doctors do not have the answer - we have got the answer. We have got the answer to healing'.
The products sell in several supermarkets for less than £6.
Now a cancer charity has warned the practice is deliberately targeting the vulnerable and could stop patients from seeking proper medical treatment.
Martin Ledwick, head information nurse at Cancer Research UK said people should be wary of'miracle cures' and consult the advice of professionals.
He said: 'It is shocking that anyone could exploit people with cancer in this way.
'We would encourage anyone affected by cancer to be cautious of any alternative therapies, especially those that claim to be "miracle cures".
'If a therapist encourages them to use an alternative treatment instead of conventional medicine prescribed by a qualified doctor, we would also advise caution.'
Dr Michelle Harvie, research dietician at the Genesis Cancer Prevention Centre at University Hospital South Manchester Trust, urged patients to always seek the advice of medical professionals.
She said: 'When people are suffering from cancer they are often desperate and will seek out alternative or a miraculous cure when it is often the more mundane treatments will do them the most good.
'The problem is none of this is based on any real evidence, but sufferers are often being told what they want to hear rather than what is medical fact.
'The sad fact is when someone is suffering from cancer they can often be at their most vulnerable and they want to do something to take control, but it is really important they adhere to treatments planned by their doctors and lead a healthy lifestyle.'
Drink this: The Victorious Pentecostal Assembly claims the mixture of these ordinary supermarket goods, sold at double their real value, is a'miracle cure'
The church opened in Manchester last year and is the first northern base of the VPA, which has three other churches in Hackney, Luton and Barking.
The organisation has previously been fined by Ofcom for making similar claims on its television channel.
Believe TV, which is available on Sky and via the internet, has twice been blasted by the regulator for running promotional campaigns with testimonies from people claiming to have been cured of HIV, cancer and infertility.
The church may also be breaking the law, as any advertisement, including verbal claims, promoting products as treatments or cures for cancer is illegal under the Cancer Act 1939.
Trading standards officers have also been told about the practice and promised to look over the case.
Pastor Mbenga however said he was not aware the church was breaking the law.
He said: 'It is the word of God, it is in the scriptures that God can heal these illnesses and that is the message we are passing on to people.
'I wasn’t aware of that law, but we live in a free society and if this is what people believe then people should be free to believe in it and carry out their faith.
'We have seen divine intervention in the past where people have been healed of terrible diseases and believe that God has the supernatural power to bring about miracles.
'This is what we believe and we are just trying to help people, trying to help them live a better life by giving them the power through God to make changes in their lives. We are not hurting anyone.'
Cure all: Leaders at the Victorious Pentecostal Assembly in Manchester claim the blessed mixture can 'do what no man can do' and guarantees people will be restored to good health Growing membership: The church opened in Manchester last year and is the first northern base of the VPA, which has three other churches in Hackney, Luton and Barking
'HEALING' CHURCH HAS PREVIOUSLY DEFENDED CLAIMS OF EXPLOITATION
Victorious Pentecostal Assembly leaders have previously landed in trouble over claims of curing serious illnesses.
The church, based in Barking, Essex, was founded in 2004 by Pastor Alex Omokudu.
His wife Patricia is a listed director of The Light Academy which runs religious channel Believe TV from the same address.
The channel has twice been blasted by TV regulator Ofcom for making claims which ‘exploited’ vulnerable viewers.
The channel was first rapped in August 2011 after a broadcast featuring Pastor Omokudu in which people claimed they had been cured of serious illnesses by the church. One woman said she had collapsed with 'a tumour in my head'.
A relative added that she had thrown away her cancer medication and purchased "blackcurrant and oil" from the church.
When she then went to hospital for a scan, she claims there was 'no longer a problem'. Another man told the audience he was given two years to live with a brain tumour.
The man said he had come to VPA and had been cured with 'olive oil' - to which Pastor Omokudu responded: 'We have got the answer to healing.'
The report concluded 'there was a material risk that susceptible members of the audience may be exploited by the material broadcast on Believe TV'.
In February this year the channel was fined £25,000 by the regulator for another broadcast featuring Pastor Omokudu.Residents look up towards a military helicopter flying over the compound where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad May 4, 2011. (Photo: Faisal Mahmood - Reuters)
Last week, the Guardian broke the news that in the run-up to the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, the CIA used a vaccination campaign as a ruse to get DNA evidence from the al-Qaeda leader’s kids. With help from a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, they set up clinics in two neighborhoods, delivering doses of the Hepatitis B vaccine to local children. The revelation drew a quick and angry response from health experts. Medecins Sans Frontieres called the operation “a dangerous abuse of medical care.” In the Washington Post, Orin Levine and Laurie Garrett warned that the CIA’s “reckless tactics could have catastrophic consequences.”
Indeed, they may. Here are three reasons why this is bad news for public health:
1. Broken Trust
When people don’t trust medical personnel, they’re less likely to participate in legitimate public health campaigns. Eight years ago, rumors spread that an anti-polio campaign in Nigeria was an American plot to sterilize Muslim girls, causing many families to refuse the vaccine. The subsequent outbreak spread to eight countries. In Pakistan, the CIA’s operation may hurt a efforts to eradicate polio, argue Levine and Garrett:
Many Pakistani communities suffer from preventable infections, including ones that have been brought under control or eradicated elsewhere. Pakistan is the last place on Earth where wild polio still spreads in local outbreaks. Only a handful of places elsewhere in the world have sporadic cases, and vaccine campaigns are vigorous in those areas. But if the Rotary Club, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, governments and others working to eradicate polio realize their aspirations, Pakistan is where victory will be pronounced. Complicating matters is the fact that Pakistan recently dissolved its Ministry of Health, which has left international programs to negotiate directly with local leaders. Many such leaders may be inclined to distrust doctors or to believe that vaccination programs are CIA ploys designed to hurt their communities.
2. Compromised Security
The CIA’s vaccine ruse bolsters the belief that humanitarian workers are government agents, which may heighten the risk of violence against them. Chris Albon a Ph.D. candidate and the founder of conflicthealth.com, reports that there is a recent history of violence attacks on humanitarian workers in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2007, a doctor who spoke out against anti-vaccine propaganda was killed in Bajaur agency. The same year, he notes, Taliban fighters kidnapped a public health worker and held him captive until he promised to stop vaccinating children. Last August, Taliban gunmen captured and killed ten aid workers in Afghanistan, claiming they were spies. Such incidents keep health workers out of high-need conflict zones, often the very areas that are in need of care.
3. Conspiracy Theories, Galore
Humanitarian organizations have spent years trying to convince people that international aid workers are not, in fact, spies, or agents of doom. In Abbottabad and elsewhere, that’s going to be an increasingly tough sell.
Emily Rauhala is a writer-reporter at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @emilyrauhala. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.Geniocracy is the framework for a system of government which was first proposed by Raël (leader of the International Raëlian Movement) in 1977 and which advocates problem-solving, creative intelligence and compassion as criteria for governance.[1]
Definition [ edit ]
Geniocracy: Government of the People, for the People, by the Geniuses (Printed for the first time in English: 2008 Nova Distribution.) The book cover of Rael's book(Printed for the first time in English: 2008 Nova Distribution.)
The term geniocracy comes from the word genius, and describes a system that is designed to select for intelligence and compassion as the primary factors for governance. While having a democratic electoral apparatus, it differs from traditional liberal democracy by instead suggesting that candidates for office and the body electorate should meet a certain minimal criterion of problem-solving or creative intelligence. The thresholds proposed by the Raëlians are 50% above the mean for an electoral candidate and 10% above the mean for an elector.[1]
Justifying the method of selection [ edit ]
This method of selectivity is deliberate so as to address what the concept considers to be flaws in the current systems of democracy. The primary object of criticism is the inability of majoritarian consensus to provide a reasonable platform for intelligent decision making for the purpose of solving problems permanently. Geniocracy's criticism of this system is that the institutions of democracy become more concerned with appealing to popular consensus through emotive issues than they are in making long-term critical decisions, especially those that may involve issues not immediately relevant to the electorate. It asserts that political mandate is something far too important to simply leave to popularity, and asserts that the critical decision making required for government, especially in a world of globalization, cannot be based on criteria of emotive or popular decision making. In this respect, Geniocracy derides liberal democracy as a form of "Mediocracy".[1] In a geniocracy Earth would be ruled by a worldwide Geniocratic government.[2]
History [ edit ]
Origins in Ancient Greece [ edit ]
An early precursor to geniocracy is the political ideas of Plato. Considered to be the first political scientist, Plato believed government should be ruled by "philosopher kings" with high intelligence and compassion. His Allegory of the Cave exemplifies these ideas. He believed the masses to be too uneducated to rule.
Agenda [ edit ]
Part of the geniocratic agenda is to promote the idea of a world government system, deriding the current state-system as inadequate for dealing with contemporary global issues that are typical of globalisation, such as environmentalism, social justice, human rights, and the current economic system. In line with this, geniocracy proposes a different economic model called Economic Humanitarianism.[1]
Response to criticism [ edit ]
As a response to its controversial attitudes about selectivity, one of the more general responses is to point out that universal suffrage, the current system, already discriminates to some degree and varyingly in different countries, in who is allowed to vote. Primarily, this discrimination is against minors, foreigners, incarcerated felons, and the mentally incapacitated. This is on the basis that their ability to contribute to the decision making process is either flawed or invalid for the purpose of the society.[citation needed]
Status [ edit ]
The current difficulty in the ideas of geniocracy is that the means of assessing intelligence are ill-defined. One idea offered by Raël in Geniocracy is to have specialists |
I took an hour break just to ungrump myself
Heyo guys! KumaMask here!~ Soooo. Yup, I'm drawing a lot again! Good, right?~Well, my bae asked me to draw Asgore, and this came to my mind~ Man, this world needs more happy Asgore drawings!! Also, this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYHXpd… has put me on the right mood for drawing happy Chara. I've decided that this world needs more innocent-happy Chara, it still hasn't enough of that. u 3 uBasically, this is just a very happy drawing that made me have a lot of fun while I was doing it! I can say it without doubt that I had a lot of fun doing it (except for when the energy in my neighborhood just disappeared for a second and made me lose all the colouring I had made), all the eight hours and a half of work~That was all for today, guys! Hope you're having a great week so far! Buh-bye!~Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption Sperm whales showed the biggest declines in body size from 1905 to 1985
The shrinking size of whales over the 20th Century could help scientists detect when wildlife populations are in trouble, a study suggests.
The analysis shows that the average body size of four whale species declined rapidly during the second half of the 20th Century in response to hunting.
But warning signals were visible up to 40 years before whale stocks collapsed.
The work appears in Nature Ecology and Evolution journal.
Christopher Clements, from the University of Zurich in Switzerland, and his colleagues looked at records on the abundance and body size of whales caught by commercial whaling vessels between 1900 and 1985, after which a global whaling moratorium took effect.
"We looked at data on blue, fin, sei and sperm whales and found significant declines in body size, with sperm whales taken in the 1980s four metres shorter on average than those in 1905," said Dr Clements.
This probably occurred as the biggest individuals were selectively removed from the ocean through hunting.
"This means that warning signals were detectable up to 40 years before a population collapse," Dr Clements added.
A similar pattern has previously been reported for many fish populations, and has been interpreted as a response to fishing pressure.
The results suggest that tracking changes in the mean body size might help to predict when populations are at risk of collapsing.
"Our technique could be used to help provide other species of conservation concern. Moreover, it could allow interventions to be put in place to stop this happening," said Christopher Clements.[bitcoin-dev] Updates on Confidential Transactions efficiency
To follow up on the remarkable work Greg announced from Benedikt Bünz (Stanford) and Jonathan Bootle (UCL) on Bulletproofs: https://eprint.iacr.org/2017/1066 Summary ========= Over the last couple weeks, along with Jonas Nick, Pieter Wuille, Greg Maxwell and Peter Dettmann, I've implemented the single-output version of Bulletproofs at https://github.com/ElementsProject/secp256k1-zkp/pull/16 and have some performance numbers. All of these benchmarks were performed on one core of an Intel i7-6820MQ throttled to 2.00Ghz, and reflect verification of a single 64-bit rangeproof. Old Rangeproof 14.592 ms with endo 10.304 ms Bulletproof 4.208 ms with endo 4.031 ms ECDSA verify 0.117 ms with endo 0.084 ms Here "with endo" refers to use of the GLV endomorphism supported by the curve secp256k1, which libsecp256k1 (and therefore Bitcoin) supports but does not enable by default, out of an abundance of caution regarding potential patents. As we can see, without the endomorphism this reflects a 3.47x speedup over the verification speed of the old rangeproofs. Because Bulletproof verification scales with O(N/log(N)) while the old rangeproof scales with O(N), we can extrapolate forward to say that a 2-output aggregate would verify with 4.10x the speed of the old rangeproofs. By the way, even without aggregation, we can verify two rangeproofs nearly 15% faster than verifying one twice (so a 3.95x speedup) because the nature of the verification equation makes it amenable to batch verification. This number improves with the more proofs that you're verifying simultaneously (assuming you have enough RAM), such that for example you can batch-verify 10000 bulletproofs 9.9 times as fast as you could verify 10000 of the old proofs. While this is a remarkable speedup which greatly improves the feasibility of CT for Bitcoin (though still not to the point where I'd expect a serious proposal to get anywhere, IMHO), the concerns highlighted by Greg regarding unconditional versus computational soundness remain. I won't expand on that more than it has already been discussed in this thread, I just want to tamp down any irrational exhuberance about these result. People who only care about numbers can stop reading here. What follows is a discussion about how this speedup is possible and why we weren't initially sure that we'd get any speedup at all. Details ========= Section 6 of the linked preprint discusses performance vs our old rangeproofs. As Greg mentioned, it is possible to fit two 64-bit bulletproofs into 738 bytes, with logarithmic scaling. (So one proof would take 674 bytes, but eight proofs only 866 bytes.) However, this section does not give performance numbers, because at the time the preprint was written, there was no optimized implementation on which to benchmark. It was known that verification time would be roughly linear in the size of the proof: 141 scalar-multiplies for a 64-bit proof, 270 for an aggregate of two proofs, and so on [*]. Our old rangeproofs required only 128 multiplies for a 64-bit proof, then 256 for two, and so on. So naively we were concerned that the new Bulletproofs, despite being fantastically smaller than the original rangeproofs, might wind up taking a bit longer to verify. For reference, an ordinary ECDSA signature verification involves 2 multiplies. So roughly speaking, the naive expectation was that a N-bit rangeproof would require N-many signature verifications' worth of CPU time, even with this new research. Worse, we initially expected bulletproofs to require 1.5x this much, which we avoided with a trick that I'll describe at the end of this mail. As you can see in the above numbers, the old rangeproofs actually perform worse than this expectation, while the new Bulletproofs perform significantly **better**. These are for the same reason: when performing a series of scalar multiplications of the form a*G + b*H + c*I +... where G, H, I are curvepoints and a, b, c are scalars, it is possible to compute this sum much more quickly than simply computing a*G, b*H, c*I separately and then adding the results. Signature validation takes advantage of this speedup, using a technique called Strauss' algorithm, to compute the sum of two multiplies much faster than twice the multiple-speed. Similarly, as we have learned, the 141 scalar-multiplies in a single-output Bulletproof can also be done in a single sum. To contrast, the old rangeproofs required we do each multiplication separately, as the result of one would be hashed to determine the multiplier for the next. libsecp256k1 has supported Strauss' algorithm for two points since its inception in 2013, since this was needed for ECDSA verification. Extending it to many points was a nontrivial task which Pieter, Greg and Jonas Nick took on this year as part of our aggregate signatures project. Of the algorithms that we tested, we found that Strauss was fastest up to about 100 points, at which point Pippenger's was fastest. You can see our initial benchmarks here https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2582071/32731185-12c0f108-c881-11e7-83c7-c2432b5fadf5.png though this does not reflect some optimizations from Peter Dettmann in the last week. It was a happy coincidence that the Bulletproofs paper was published at nearly the same time that we had working multi-point code to test with. Finally, the Bulletproof verification process, as written in the paper, is a recursive process which does not appear to be expressible as a single multiproduct, and in fact it appears to require nearly twice as many multiplications as I claim above. I want to draw attention to two optimizations in particular which made this possible. 1. By expanding out the recursive process, one can see that the inner-product argument (Protocol 1 in the paper) is actually one multiproduct: you hash each (L_i, R_i) pair to obtain logarithmically many scalars, invert these, and then each scalar in the final multiproduct is a product containing either the inverse or original of each scalar. Peter Dettmann found a way to reduce this to one scalar inversion, from which every single scalar was obtainable from a single multiplication or squaring of a previous result. I was able to implement this in a way that cached only log-many previous results. 2. Next, line (62) of the Bulletproofs paper appears to require N multiplications beyond the 2N multiplications already done in the recursive step. But since these multiplications used the same basepoints that were used in the recursive step, we could use the distributive property to combine them. This sounds trivial but took a fair bit of care to ensure that all the right data was still committed to at the right stage of proof verification. Further Work ========= There are still a few open issues I plan to help resolve in the coming month: - Bulletproof aggregation is not compatible with Confidential Assets, where each output has a unique asset tag associated with it. There are a couple possible solutions to this but nothing public-ready. - Bulletproofs, as described in the paper, work only when proving 2^n-many bits. I believe there is a straightforward and verifier-efficient way to extend it to support non-powers-of-2, but this requires some work to modify the proof in the paper. - Bulletproofs are actually much more general than rangeproofs. They can be used to prove results of arbitrary arithmetic circuits, which is something we are very interested in implementing. [*] By "and so on", I mean that N bits require 2N + 2log_2(N) + 6 scalar multiplies. Cheers Andrew -- Andrew Poelstra Mathematics Department, Blockstream Email: apoelstra at wpsoftware.net Web: https://www.wpsoftware.net/andrew "A goose alone, I suppose, can know the loneliness of geese who can never find their peace, whether north or south or west or east" --Joanna Newsom -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 455 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/attachments/20171204/42dfe0d1/attachment.sig>Reminder: Democracy Does Not Exist In America
Caitlin Johnstone Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 10, 2017
“And no, sneaky pants Putin did not undermine (non-existent) US democracy (how is it possible to interfere with something that does not exist?) and insert his tangerine-tinged minion into the office of the US presidency.”
~ Phil Rockstroh
You ever wonder why establishment loyalists are still to this very day continuing to attack Jill Stein? Go to her Twitter page right now and you’ll see every one of her tweets packed with vitriolic comments from Maddow muppets accusing her of being a Kremlin stooge, accusing her of stealing money for the election recounts, accusing her of giving the country President Trump, all based on no evidence whatsoever. As Stein relates in her recent interview with Jeremy Scahill on the Intercepted Podcast, the photo of her sitting at a dinner table with Vladimir Putin depicted nothing nefarious, the Green Party still has two active lawsuits over the recounts, and there is no mathematical basis for blaming her for Clinton’s loss.
All of which we already knew, by the way. Glenn Greenwald thoroughly debunked the Democrats’ Putin photo smear job when it first surfaced way back in August of last year, long before Rachel Maddow resurrected it completely out of the blue in February of this year. We’ve known since the election that Clinton would have still lost even if she’d been given the votes of every single Jill Stein voter for some bizarre reason in an alternate universe where woke lefties would willingly vote for a warmongering neoconservative, and the active court cases are a matter of public record. Any actual, real journalist would be aware of all of these things after a few minutes of research, but corporate media pundits do not exist to deliver journalism. Corporate media pundits exist to serve as attack dogs for the establishment.
There’s a relentless ongoing public flagellation of not just Stein but anyone who voted for her. Even though we know their votes made no difference in the outcome of the election, mainstream pundits continue to stomp on their heads every single day, screaming “You! Will! Not! Disobey! Again!” They are not satisfied with the fact that this wonderfully wise woman, whose Green New Deal could have literally transformed America and saved the world, received only one percent of the vote. They need to make an example of her and of everyone who voted for her as well.
In a corporatist system of government, which America unquestionably has, corporate media is the same as state media. It is propaganda. These immensely powerful media conglomerates collaborate to ensure that the US status quo which has been so friendly to their billionaire owners continues to make emperors of the wealthy and serfs of everyone else. The press, the only profession explicitly protected in the Constitution, exists in its most celebrated forms today not to create an informed populace as originally intended by America’s founding fathers, but to actively deceive the peasants into collaborating with their own serfdom. It is used to transform them into human livestock, whose efforts are funneled straight into expanding the empire of America’s ruling elites.
So they keep kicking Jill Stein voters, and kicking them and kicking them and kicking them until rank-and-file Democrats join in, and now you’ve got actual human relationships being ruined by the way people’s MSNBC-watching friends unleash the demons they’ve been fed upon their Green-voting friends and associates whenever anyone dares utter anything vaguely supportive of third parties. The completely irrational demonization of Jill Stein is now so complete that the CIA-funded Washington Post’s Dave Weigel recently posted a picture of progressive hero Jimmy Dore interviewing her in response to Dore’s criticism of Weigel’s establishment advocacy:
That’s seriously all Weigel felt he had to do in order to feel vindicated in that public debate. “Look, he talked to this demon once. I win.”
These people openly argue that the Greens should never have run a presidential candidate, insisting that they should just focus on state and local electoral contests, despite the fact that the Democrats attack them just as ferociously in those contests, and despite the fact that running a presidential candidate is an essential component in generating party legitimacy. “No, you must let us run our fake popularity contests between our two corporatists while struggling in obscurity, unseen and unheard.”
This is just one of the many, many obstacles keeping third parties from gaining any political traction in America, and it’s a huge one. If you can keep people from even thinking they deserve something other than two corporatist candidates who both support exploitative neoliberal economic policies and bloodthirsty neoconservative foreign policies, you kill the revolution before it starts. The American people could shrug off this brain box at any time like a heavy coat on a warm day, but as yet this has come nowhere remotely close to happening.
So what are the American people left with, now that any sense of entitlement to a third party alternative has been successfully stomped out of them? The choice between two corrupt, corporatist, oligarchy-serving parties, one of which cannibalizes progressive candidates and is now openly stating that it has no obligation to provide real party primaries.
That is not democracy. Even if America had a functioning electoral system (and it doesn’t), the fact that Americans are forced into a rigged two-party system wherein both parties are saturated in corruption means that nothing remotely like democracy is happening there. Libertarians will inevitably jump on this article with their “America is not a democracy! It’s a representative republic!” schtick. No it isn’t. It’s not a representative republic either. No political philosophy in which citizens can use votes to influence their government can rightly be applied to America today. As things stand right now, the American people have no power to use their votes to influence the behavior of their government. Even Republicans who thought they’d cheated the corrupt system with Trump are now seeing the administration rapidly escalating toward full-scale war with Syria, which was a major issue for his base. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
America is not a democracy, not a democratic republic, not a representative democracy, not a representative republic. None of those possible ways of squinting at America’s system of government correctly apply. America is a corporatist oligarchy.
And that’s the funniest thing about all this Russia nonsense. Even if everything the establishment is saying about Russia is true (and it isn’t), accusing Putin of attacking America’s democracy is like accusing him of attacking Bolivia’s fjords; there is no such thing. If Russia did succeed in undermining public trust American democracy, that can only be as bad as undermining public trust in the tooth fairy.
I continue to have faith that the American people can wake up out of this thing. I’ve witnessed too many miracles, seen too many strange and inexplicable shifts toward the light for my trust in human potential to be undermined by a few cold, hard facts. But at some point America is going to need to face those facts.
— — —
If you enjoyed this, please consider helping me out by sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following me on Twitter, or even tossing me some money on Patreon so I can keep this gig up.Donald Trump meets with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan on Capitol Hill in Washington. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts The Republican effort to overhaul the US healthcare system faces its biggest test yet Thursday as members of the House of Representatives are expected to vote on the American Health Care Act.
Despite a push from President Donald Trump and administration officials, Republicans from both the conservative and moderate wings of the party have come out against the bill, saying it either does not go far enough in its repeal of or does not make enough improvements to the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare law better known as Obamacare.
Members have spent the day meeting with leaders, hardline conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus went to the White House for a meeting with Trump while more moderate members met with House Speaker Paul Ryan on Capitol Hill.
Based on early reports from those meetings, it appears the AHCA does not have enough support to pass a House vote.
Around 1:30 p.m. ET, Freedom Caucus members leaving the White House meeting told reporters that "no deal" had been reached and no changes had been agreed to.
According to The New York Times' tracker of House members' public statements, 31 Republicans have said they will vote against the bill. That is above the 23 defections from the GOP that would sink the bill.
Given the upheaval, Republicans delayed a meeting of their House members originally scheduled for 9 a.m. ET Thursday until after negotiations between GOP holdouts in the bill and the White House.
Additionally, Ryan has pushed back his press conference originally scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET to 3:30 p.m. ET. According to Dylan Scott at STAT, as of 3:00 p.m. ET Ryan is meeting with House GOP leaders including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Republican House Whip Steve Scalise.
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, head of the Ways and Means Committee and one of the architects of the AHCA, told Fox News that Republicans are in 95% agreement on the bill but leaders still have "work to do" to get enough votes to pass it.
Negotiations with conservatives
The largest bloc that must be won over for Trump and GOP leaders to pass the bill is the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
The group, headed by Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, has been against the AHCA since its introduction, the group says, because the bill does not deliver on the group's promise of fully repealing Obamacare. The GOP rolled out a large amendment on Monday with a series of changes to the bill to win over the Freedom Caucus, but it failed to move the needle.
The group says it has roughly 25 votes against the bill, enough to kill it.
In an attempt to placate the group, Trump has been negotiating directly with conservatives about possible last-minute changes that could make the bill more palatable.
Trump met in the White House on Thursday with the members of the Freedom Caucus, and according to reports made a "final offer" of changes for the AHCA, but they reportedly didn't reach a deal.
According to reports, the White House is willing to drop Obamacare's so-called essential health benefits — the provision that forced insurers to cover certain types of ailments. While this comes with a myriad of issues, not the least of which is possible pushback from moderates, it still does not seem to be enough to win over the Freedom Caucus.
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a member of the Freedom Caucus, told reporters on Thursday that "it's always been beyond" essential health benefits.
(Read more about the impact of dropping essential health benefits»)
Rep. Mark Meadows. Mark Wilson/Getty Images
According to Billy House, Anna Edney, and Jennifer Jacobs at Bloomberg, Meadows and the Freedom Caucus have asked that the provision of Obamacare that compels insurers to cover people with preexisting conditions be dropped, which the Trump administration has flatly refused.
"Addressing preexisting conditions has always been a requirement for any replacement plan that HFC would support," Meadows told reporters.
The preexisting-conditions provision is the most popular part of the ACA, with a Harvard Harris poll showing that 90% of Americans supported the measure.
(Read more about the Freedom Caucus demands»)
Moderate defections
The Freedom Caucus is not the only group within the Republican Party coming out against the bill.
Some moderate Republicans have defected from the party line, saying the AHCA does not meet their requirements for an Obamacare replacement plan.
Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, a moderate GOP member, on Thursday morning said he would not vote for the bill.
"I believe this bill, in its current form, will lead to the loss of coverage and make insurance unaffordable for too many Americans, particularly for low-to-moderate income and older individuals," Dent said. "We have an important opportunity to enact reforms that will result in real healthcare transformation — bringing down costs and improving health outcomes. This legislation misses the mark."
Rep. Jamie Beutler of Washington also stated an intention to vote against the bill on Thursday, hours before the House vote. Beutler had previously expressed concerns about the changes in the bill to Medicaid.
"I'm disappointed that it appears my amendment to strengthen the Medicaid safety net for the kids who depend on it for their health care will not be considered," said the statement. "Protecting vulnerable children is a core purpose of the Medicaid program and when the program fails to do so, it fails entirely. I will not vote to let those kids fall through the cracks."
Rep. Mark Amodei of Nevada also tweeted Thursday afternoon that he was against the bill.
"We've done our homework," said Amodei. "We've closed on the issue in preparation for a vote tonight. I'm a no on the #AHCA."
Other moderate members like Reps. Frank LoBiondo and Chris Smith of New Jersey along with Rep. David Young of Iowa all came out against the AHCA on Wednesday.
LoBiondo, in fact, said the bill did not even measure up to the Obamacare system.
"It is not as good as or better than what we currently have," LoBiondo said in a statement. "Accordingly, I will vote no on this healthcare plan."
Speaker Ryan held a meeting with moderates on Thursday to win them over to the bill and update them on concessions made to the Freedom Caucus. According to CNN's Phil Mattingly, members left the meeting around 11:30 a.m.
Outside pushback
At the same time as the furious negotiations are happening on Capitol Hill, outside political groups have also taken stances against the AHCA.
Conservative action groups including the Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, and Heritage Action have come out against the bill, saying it does not do enough to alleviate their concerns with Obamacare. In addition, these groups have pegged the AHCA vote to what is called a key vote. This means that if a House member votes for the bill, the person's "score" (a measure of how much the group supports the particular lawmaker) will drop and could in turn affect the House representative's support in the next election.
Additionally, policy groups have warned that the current version of the bill could have serious consequences for the healthcare system. Drew Altman, the CEO of the nonpartisan health-policy think tank Kaiser Family Foundation, wrote for the news website Axios on Wednesday that the bill as written would increase out-of-pocket costs as more people are shifted to high-deductible plans.
Additionally, the Brookings Institution warned that recent amendments to the bill could actually make the number of people losing health coverage because of the AHCA worse than the Congressional Budget Office's original estimate of 24 million over the next 10 years.
Last procedural hurdle
Before the bill can advance to the full House for a vote, there is still one procedural step it has to go through.
The House Rules Committee suspended its hearing on the AHCA on Wednesday after debating the bill for roughly 12 hours. The committee will reconvene Thursday before submitting the bill to the House floor.
The House Rules Committee determines numerous key frameworks for the debate and amendments that can be considered for the bill while it is on the floor.GUELPH — The City of Guelph has temporarily iced its plan to ban further use of a skating rink developed in a south-side green space.
The municipality announced Friday it has agreed to permit conditional continued use of the rink behind Summerfield Drive until the first major thaw.
In his official blog, Mayor Cam Guthrie asserted "hallelujah," in announcing word of the agreement and next steps between the municipality and the Pine Ridge neighbours who have developed, maintained, enjoyed and defended the rink.
"Like anything in life, sometimes compromises need to be made. And in this case, it's no different," Guthrie stated on his blog. "I have talked to some of the neighbours, and so far, they are more than willing to agree to the few conditions laid out.
"I think it's a reasonable solution. It lets kids (and adults!) continue to have fun on this great rink, while balancing the very real safety, liability and other competing neighbourhood concerns at play in this issue."
The fate of the rink had been in jeopardy after the municipality received a complaint from a citizen about the structure. It then distributed letters in the neighbourhood on Jan. 23. They advised the rink was illegally encroaching on city lands, that use of it must end and that property added to the rink must be removed.
The municipality's response spurred a massive and critical community response.
In announcing the interim arrangement, Guthrie thanked the community for its "very vocal, very passionate, very heartfelt comments on the need to support outdoor rinks and healthy outdoor activity for our kids."
A statement issued by the City of Guelph on Friday asserted municipal staff will meet with Pine Ridge neighbourhood representatives next week to negotiate a more permanent arrangement. It stressed this interim decision was not a final one and that it was seeking an agreement that balanced the desire for community recreation with the right to peaceful enjoyment of private property, liability issues and the safeguarding of the environment.
"While the city works through these matters, we will allow Pine Ridge residents to continue to use the rink they've built until a significant thaw. They can use the rink from sun up to sun down, without music, lights or electrical hookups and at their own risk, thereby limiting the impact on some residents' enjoyment of their adjoining property," the statement asserts.The El Mocambo drama never stops here in Toronto - except it really, really will soon. After doomsday speculation made what seemed like a permanent and cozy nest around the historic concert venue, the building has been sold, the last parties have been booked, and we no longer have to wonder what will happen to the iconic sign - until a whole new mystery unfolds. That being the mystery of who buys it on Ebay, and what they chose to do with it.
Sam Grosso is selling the sign on Ebay now, and you have until the end of the month to place your bids (and bask in its glory IRL). The price has risen steadily over the afternoon to about $3,000, but I'd expect Grosso is hoping to recoup the $20,000 he spent on the sign's restoration just a couple of years ago.
It's jarring to see the sign on an Ebay page instead of where it ought to be (uh, Spadina?), and since there's no museum for stuff like this in the city as of yet, anyone's guess is as good as mine as to where it will end up. Anyone want to invest in a Yonge and Dundas Square install?MUSCLE POWER PANCAKES
VEGAN, SUGAR-FREE, HIGH-PROTEIN
Start your day right with these easy and delicious Muscle Power Pancakes! There's no better way to start the day than with a big stack of pancakes. Oh wait, there is! A big stack ock vegan and glutenfree protein pancakes! Almost sounds too good to be true, right? These are made with our Muscle Power Mix, which is a plant-based protein made of Pea and Rice Protein, Maca Root, Lucuma and Banana powder. Enjoy!
MUSCLE POWER PANCAKES
INGREDIENTS:
3 tablespoons Muscle Power Mix
3/4 cup (gluten-free) oats
1/2 cup rice milk
1 banana
1 tablespoon coconut oil
TOPPINGS:
1 handful of berries
2 tablespoons cacao nibs
DIRECTIONS:
Blend all the ingredients besides the coconut oil in a blender.
Melt some coconut oil in a pan.
Pour the batter onto the pan in circular shapes.
Bake for 1-2 minutes each side.
Stack the pancakes and add your toppings.
Enjoy!
SUPER TIP: Try adding cinnamon to the dough for extra flavour. Also play around with different toppings such as nuts, seeds, nut butters and dates.
P.S. Are you following us already on Instagram or Facebook?
Merken
1 Response
Leave a commentFacebook has threatened to sue the Daily Mail for damages after the paper wrongly claimed in a piece published on Wednesday that 14-year-old girls who create a profile on the social networking site could be approached "within seconds" by older men who "wanted to perform a sex act" in front of them.
The paper apologised in print today and online yesterday for the error, which the author of the piece, Mark Williams-Thomas, insisted had been introduced at the paper despite being told it was wrong. Williams-Thomas, a former policeman who now works as a criminologist, subsequently explained: "At 19.48 hours on Tuesday 9th March I sent amended copy to the interviewing journalist at the Daily Mail in which I had made small but significant changes to the copy she had sent to me which I read at 19.21, including removing the word Facebook and replacing it with 'well known social networking site'. I made it very clear to the journalist and her alone that the changes I had made were necessary before publication. It is clear that the changes were not made... At no stage prior to publication did I have any communication with any editors at the Daily Mail."
Williams-Thomas insists that he was not using Facebook but had been using another, unspecified social network.
But the giant social networking site, which has 23 million users in the UK alone, said that although the Mail has changed the headline of the article online – so that it now reads "I posed as a girl of 14 online. What followed will sicken you" – it had not at first changed the page title of the article online, used by internet search engines to index content, nor the URL of the piece, which is also a factor in search-engine indexing.
At 10am today the title still read "I posed as a girl of 14 on Facebook. What followed will sicken you" while the URL contained the text "i-posed-girl-14-facebook-what-followed-sicken-you". The title and URL were, however, amended before noon.
A UK spokeswoman for Facebook said the company was still considering legal action and looking at the "brand damage that has been done".
Charles Garside, assistant editor of the Daily Mail, said that the apology had been produced in consultation with Facebook, and that representatives of the paper and Facebook would be meeting today. The changes to the URL and page title were "a technical matter", he said, adding: "We are removing elements of that".
The incorrect naming of Facebook is understood to be blamed on "a matter of miscommunication".
Facebook staff claimed that attempts to add a comment to the piece, as readers are able to do, were repeatedly blocked by the Daily Mail.
The company is concerned that the article may have done permanent harm to its reputation in the UK. "If you were a Middle England reader and your child was on Facebook, this sort of thing would have a very serious effect on what you thought of us," said the Facebook spokeswoman.
Tensions over Facebook's position in the UK as a popular site among people of all ages, allowing them to contact each other, have been magnified in the past week after Peter Chapman was convicted of murdering Ashleigh Hall, a 17-year-old girl who thought that Chapman, 33, was also a teenager. Chapman had got in touch with Hall via Facebook, leading to criticisms from some senior police officers over the measures that the site takes to protect susceptible individuals.
But the Daily Mail piece, which carried Williams-Thomas's byline, suggested that anyone who signed up as a 14-year-old girl would be approached "within minutes of the profile going up". The piece also said that "messages from men poured in" and that "the first three who approached me were aged between 20 and 40".
However, Williams-Thomas and his agent, Sylvia Tidy-Harris, both insisted on their Twitter feeds that he had not used Facebook for the Mail article.
It "was on another well-known SNS [social networking service], not Facebook", said Tidy-Harris, echoing Williams-Thomas.
Tidy-Harris said that yesterday had "Been a hellishly tough day trying to juggle @mwilliamsthomas misquote in daily mail along with meetings and literally 100ks of calls/emails".
At Facebook, the anger at the misrepresentation was magnified because, they say, they were initially unable to get any response from the paper to their appeals for corrections.
"The people at Facebook in the US were reading this and knew at once that it couldn't have been our platform," said the Facebook UK spokeswoman. "We have made Facebook much more favourable to the safety of minors – minors under 18 cannot receive messages from somebody over 18."
That means it would be impossible for the scenario described by Williams-Thomas to happen on Facebook.
Facebook's representatives said that they tried to get a response from the Mail throughout Wednesday without success, and that attempts by people at its PR agency to post comments on the piece with clarifying text failed. The Mail uses moderators who on that story approved comments before they could appear. By this morning the article had 380 comments.
Williams-Thomas has not responded to requests to specify which social networking service he was using by the time of publication.
• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.
• If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
• This article was amended on Friday 12 March to clarify that Mark Williams-Thomas says he had no contact with "editors at the Daily Mail" and to include his expanded clarification of the chain of events from his point of view.Raw content
UNCLAS DUBLIN 000862 SIPDIS SIPDIS EUR/ERA - SHAWN GRAY EEB/TPP/ABT/BTT - JACK BOBO USTR - MELISSA CLARKSON USDA/FAS - ELIZABETH JONES E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAGR, ETRD, EUN, TBIO, EI SUBJECT: IRISH RESPONSE -- DEMARCHES ON BIOTECH ISSUES REF: A. STATE 158225 B. STATE 153542 C. DUBLIN 570 1. (U) Summary: The Irish government recognizes the scientific basis of USG biotech positions and recently agreed that the importation of genetically modified (GM) animal feed is acceptable under its GM-Free Ireland policy. The debate over whether the government will approve the growing of GM products continues. End summary. 2. (U) On November 21, Econoff delivered points contained in reftel demarches to Kevin Cassidy at the Irish Department of Agriculture and Food. Cassidy said the Irish government "fully takes note" of the U.S. position, and he promised to disseminate the points to other interested parties in the government. Cassidy noted that the Sarkozy and Dimas positions (Ref B) have thrown a "wrench into the EU debate" and that the Irish government is watching these developments closely. 3. (SBU) Cassidy continued that the whole issue of biotech in Ireland must be viewed through a political lens. The government is still engaging in an internal debate on the exact meaning of its "GM-Free Ireland" policy, as called for in the current program for government. (Note: At the insistence of current Minister for Food, former Green Party leader Trevor Sargent, this phrase was included in the platform of the Fianna Fail/Green coalition that won the May 2007 elections (Ref C). End Note.) Cassidy said that the Department of the Environment has the lead on this issue and is in consultations with the Departments of Health and Children, Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and |
alleged efforts by Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election in favour of Donald Trump, an inquiry that resulted in charges against former Trump aides Monday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang each agreed in June that Canada and China would not use cyberattacks to steal business secrets, but the deal did not mention attacks on government computers. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)
Undetected for months
The latest CSE statistics on state-sponsored attacks on government networks were revealed in an evaluation of Canada's Cyber Security Strategy, a multi-department effort begun in 2010 to thwart hackers. CBC News first obtained the document through an Access to Information Act request.
A cybersecurity expert says the new statistics on state-sponsored attacks are likely low-balled, because it is often difficult to identify an attacker bent on anonymity.
"Attribution is the hardest thing to do in cybersecurity," said Iain Paterson, managing director of Toronto-based Cycura, a technology security firm.
"It's very possible, and not too hard, for an attacker to disguise their behaviour through changing their method of operation to mimic or imitate other attackers," he said in an interview.
Paterson also noted that in the private sector, systems and networks are typically compromised by intruders for 200 or more days before the owners become aware of the breach.
A spokesman for CSE declined to provide statistics for 2016 and 2017 "for security reasons."
"CSE can say that the number of cyberattacks has gone up, and that trend is expected to continue," Ryan Foreman said in an email.
"From our perspective, the actor is less and less important and attribution is harder and harder," he added.
"CSE concentrates on methods and techniques of the threat, versus where we think it is coming from."
Highly critical
The evaluation document was highly critical of Canada's cybersecurity strategy, citing poor information sharing, weak or non-existent record-keeping, and an approach that led to "confusion and frustration" among departments, agencies and private-sector stakeholders. The document also found that most federal efforts had been devoted to protecting federal government systems, and not enough to safeguarding private-sector networks.
At the same time, the evaluation found that the number of successful breaches is declining. Canada's success in thwarting more attacks was attributed in part to a decision to bring various government systems within a single secure network.
They'd be looking at everything. — Bob Gordon, cybersecurity expert
The authors noted that the National Research Council attack in 2014 was likely the result of a decision by that agency to remain outside standard federal networks, leaving it without proper defences. The NRC's post-attack bill to fix the breach was reported at $32.5 million.
Cybersecurity expert Bob Gordon, executive director of the non-governmental Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange, said state-sponsored hackers are looking for a range of material.
"They'd be looking at everything from government policy, any classified information that they could get to," he said.
"Is there any proprietary information the government holds? The federal government has a very broad breadth of information that it houses and countries could be coming in to get any amount of that type of material."
Canada's potential vulnerability to cyberattacks has caught the attention of U.S. defence officials. Then-Adm. William E. Gortney testified to a U.S. Senate committee in 2015 that hackers targeting Canada could cripple parts of North American air defence.
"A cyberattack in Ottawa could take out the northeast quadrant of our air-defence sector," he testified at the Senate committee on armed services in March that year.
"It would be, effectively, a mission kill."
Follow @DeanBeeby on TwitterBrigadier David Arthur Granger (born 15 July 1942) is a Guyanese politician and retired military officer who has been President of Guyana since 2015. He served for a time as Commander of the Guyana Defence Force and subsequently as National Security Adviser from 1990 to 1992. He was Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly of Guyana from 2012 to 2015.
Granger stood as the opposition coalition's presidential candidate in the November 2011 general election, but was defeated. He was elected as President in the May 2015 general election.
Career [ edit ]
Born in Georgetown, David Granger attended Queen’s College, Guyana's elite and prestigious school, like the former Presidents Forbes Burnham, Cheddi Jagan, Samuel Hinds and scholars like Walter Rodney and Rupert Roopnaraine. After leaving Queen’s College, where he was a member of the Queen’s College Cadet Corps, Granger joined the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) as an officer cadet in 1965, and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1966. He received his professional military training at the Army Command and Staff College in Nigeria; the Jungle Warfare Instruction Centre in Brazil; and the School of Infantry and the Mons Officer Cadet School, respectively, in the United Kingdom.
He trained in Britain, then Brazil, then Nigeria, and eventually became commander of the Guyana Defence Force in 1979; he was promoted to the rank of brigadier. Granger was appointed as National Security Advisor to the President in 1990[1] and retired from the military service in 1992.[2]
Granger founded the Guyana Review news magazine in 1992 and served as its Managing Editor. He has researched and published on military, historical and media themes, and is also the author of Guyana's state media: the quest for control, and A Preliminary Study of Women Soldiers in the Anglophone Caribbean. David A. Granger spent the 1995–1996 academic year as a Hubert H. Humphrey/Fulbright Fellow at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park.[citation needed]
In 2010, he made a successful bid to be elected as the presidential candidate of the People’s National Congress–Reform for the November 2011 general election.[3][4] Standing as the opposition coalition's presidential candidate, Granger was defeated by Donald Ramotar. He was unanimously elected as Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly on 16 January 2012.[5]
Granger stood again as the presidential candidate of the opposition coalition, APNU – AFC, in the 11 May 2015 general election. The coalition secured the majority of votes, and Granger was sworn in as President of Guyana on 16 May 2015.[6]
Education [ edit ]
Granger attended Queen's College, before he pursued his tertiary education. He is a graduate of the University of Guyana, where he received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees; the University of the West Indies, where he received his post-graduate Diploma in International Relations; and the University of Maryland, where he was a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow.[citation needed]
He also attended the Urban Policy Development Workshop at the University of California, Los Angeles; the Defense Planning and Resource Management course at the National Defense University, Washington DC; and the Counter-Terrorism Educators’ Workshop at the Joint Special Operations, University, Florida, USA.[citation needed]
Commander [ edit ]
Granger was Commander of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and National Security Adviser to President Hoyte. He received his military training at the Mons Officer Cadet School, and the School of Infantry in the United Kingdom; the Jungle Warfare Instruction Centre in Brazil, and the Army Command and Staff College in Nigeria. He was a member of several defence and security agencies. He held the chairmanship of the Central Intelligence Committee; co-chairmanship of the Border and National Security Committee; and was a member of the Guyana Defence Board, National Drug Law Enforcement Committee, and the Disciplined Forces Commission. David Granger has served in several public organisations.[citation needed]
He was elected to the presidencies of the History Society, the Guyana Heritage Society, the University of Guyana Guild of Graduates; and the Guyana Chess Federation. He was also a member of the University of Guyana Council, Association of Caribbean Historians, Caribbean Studies Association, Guyana Press Association, Guyana Book Foundation, and is currently a member of the Guyana Legion and the Board of Trustees of the Guyana Veterans Foundation.[citation needed]
Author [ edit ]
Granger has written extensively on national defence and public security issues. He is the author of National Defence: A Brief History of the Guyana Defence Force, 1965 – 2005; Public Security: Criminal Violence and Policing in Guyana; and Public Policy: The Crisis of Governance in Guyana.[citation needed]
He has also written several monographs, including Five Thousand Day War: The Struggle for Haiti’s Independence, 1789 – 1804; The British Guiana Volunteer Force, 1948 – 1966; The Guyana National Service, 1974 – 2000; The Guyana People’s Militia, 1976 – 1997; The Queen’s College Cadet Corps, 1889 – 1975; Guyana’s Coinage, 1808 – 2008; The Era of Enslavement, 1638 – 1838; and The Village Movement, 1839 – 1889.[citation needed]
He was co-editor, with Winston McGowan and James Rose, of Themes in African–Guyanese History, and was publisher of the Guyana Review and Emancipation magazines.[citation needed]
Awards [ edit ]
Granger has received various academic awards, including the President’s Medal for the best graduating student; Dennis Irvine Prize for the student who has made the greatest contribution to all cultural life of the University; Council of the University Prize; Elsa Goveia Medal of Excellence; Guy de Weever History Prize; Earl Attlee History Prize; Mary Noel Menezes Award for History; Department of History Prize and others, from the University of Guyana.[citation needed]
He also holds three national awards: the Military Efficiency Medal (1976), the Military Service Medal (1981), and the Military Service Star (1985) for distinguished military service.
Personal life [ edit ]
Granger is married to Sandra Granger (née Chan-A-Sue) and has two daughters, Han and Afuwa.[7] In November 2018, Granger was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.[8]
References [ edit ]Over the last several days, Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice has been filming scenes in Michigan which are set at LexCorp, and recent reports have indicated that those scenes involved Jesse Eisenberg playing a blonde-haired Lex Luthor. Now, ComicBook.com has heard from a source that backs up those scene descriptions, plus provides a little bit of additional information.
According to our source, Lex Luthor does indeed have long blonde hair. However, our source indicates describing his look as Kurt Cobain might be a stretch, because while the hair matches, the wardrobe does not. Our source describes his hair as “a long straight surfer mop.”
Our source also indicates the reports of Holly Hunter playing a U.S. Senator are accurate. Furthermore, our source added that Hunter’s character is visiting LexCorp with a congressman (played by an as of yet unidentified actor). In one scene, Lex has an interaction with the congressman, where Lex seems “to embarrass or be very disrespectful to the congressmen on his way out.” In a piece of new information that we haven’t seen reported elsewhere yet, our source indicated that Japanese actress Tao Okamoto is playing Lex Luthor’s assistant, who is named “Mercy.” In the comic books and Superman animated series, Mercy Graves is Lex’s personal assistant and body guard, where she is portrayed as highly intelligent and experienced in hand-to-hand combat. Tao Okamoto previously appeared as Mariko Yashida in 2013′s The Wolverine.
Our source also offered that they felt that Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice’s interpretation of Lex Luthor is much better than it might sound from initial descriptions, describing him as “a slimy businessman we can all despise.” Our source indicated, “You are going to hate this guy. You are going to root for him to be punched by Supes when he weasels his way out of legal trouble. He is cocky and confident because he is THAT good at what he does. He's a billionaire who knows he is more powerful than the Senator and Congressman visiting because he's a billionaire.” Our source also indicated that Lex’s security force at LexCorp ranged from mall cop to SWAT force type security. In regards to LexCorp, our source indicated, “This is a high tech mega billion company with a shiny veneer. It's Apple/Google, colorful and consumer friendly public image but serious potential for Lex's deviousness.”Acme Packing Company's ranking of the Green Bay Packers' 90-man offseason roster continues today. In this latest installment, we begin to see players with relatively clear paths towards a spot on the final roster or a priority selection for the practice squad.
For those just catching on, five APC writers ranked the players from No. 1 through No. 88, with the resulting list representing a composite ranking.
As usual, keep in mind that the list does not necessarily reflect how the staff expects to the final 53-man roster to look, but rather how each player ranks against one another at the present time. With five weeks of training camp and the preseason on the horizon, the order could and likely will shift later on.
With those disclaimers out of the way, we continue the countdown with players 60 through 51.
60. Mitchell Henry - TE
Owner of one of the better nicknames on the roster -- "The Noodler" for his bare-hands style of catfish fishing -- Mitchell Henry barely missed the final cut during the final cutdown last September. When the Packers attempted to stash him on their practice squad, he found a better opportunity on the Denver Broncos 53-man roster. Fortunately for Green Bay, Henry became available again six weeks later, finally arriving on the Packers practice squad and remaining there for the rest of 2015. Now, he gets his chance to battle Justin Perillo and Kennard Backman for the third and likely last roster spot among the tight ends.
59. Carl Bradford - ILB
Carl Bradford's potential and little else has kept him in Green Bay over the past two seasons. The Packers envisioned Bradford as a strongside edge rusher when they first selected him in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL Draft. However, his ineffective play forced the team to pivot near the end of his first preseason, sliding him inside as an off-ball linebacker. Still only 23, Bradford's power and instincts need to finally manifest on the football field for him to earn a roster spot for a third year, a dicey proposition based on his track record to date.
58. Don Barclay - OL
A myriad of forces worked against Don Barclay last season, nearly leading to his exile from Green Bay. Only a year removed from an ACL tear heading into 2015, Barclay lacked the bend and shiftiness that allowed him to start 18 games over his first two seasons. Additionally, the coaching staff consistently played him out of position, lining him up at left tackle where opposing defenses could easily expose his speed and length limitations. That shouldn't happen again in 2016, though Barclay must now fend off established "sixth man" JC Tretter, the recently extended Lane Taylor, and a tandem of drafted offensive linemen for a reserve job. Injuries could simplify Barclay's path to a roster spot, but it still appears challenging.
57. Josh Walker - OL
Like Barclay, Josh Walker lined up in a number of spots for an injury depleted offensive line last year, his first with the Packers. Walker struggled when forced to protect the blindside, but performed reasonably well at guard. With more depth behind both tackle spots heading into 2016, Walker can focus on mastering the interior.
56. Matt Rotheram - OL
Signed as an undrafted free agent shortly after the 2015 NFL Draft, Matt Rotheram spent training camp and the preseason working between tackle and guard. The plan for him has shifted this year, with Rotheram taking a considerable amount of reps at center. He remains a project, but one offering considerable versatility and starting potential down the line.
55. Justin Perillo - TE
Justin Perillo makes few big plays and possesses only average size for a tight end. His value comes from what he offers that the other players at his position mostly cannot. Perillo blocks better than any other tight end on the Packers roster and has become a key piece of the special teams units. That doesn't guarantee him spot on the roster, but it provides a solid chance.
54. Kennard Backman - TE
Whether on offense or special teams, Kennard Backman appeared completely out of his depth throughout his rookie season. Green Bay simply couldn't play him without risking a bungled assignment or physical mistake, both of which occurred during his very limited exposure last year. Still, Backman possesses tremendous speed and potential as a receiver, and could become a difference maker once he sorts out the offense. With a full offseason under his belt, Year 2 could see him take the leap and become the player the Packers envisioned when they drafted him.
53. Joe Thomas - ILB
Picked up off the Dallas Cowboys' practice squad following Sam Barrington's season-ending foot injury, Joe Thomas immediately became the Packers' dime linebacker, primarily a coverage position. He performed well enough in that role to maintain it throughout the year, though the team had no realistic alternative. Now, with rookie Blake Martinez providing real competition, Thomas needs a strong showing to save his job.
52. Tim Masthay - P
In the most literal sense, Tim Masthay had a record-setting 2015 campaign. He broke a decades-old team mark for net punting average, beating Jerry Norton's 39.2-yard net by a full yard.
At the same time, Masthay ranked just 23rd in the league in preventing touchbacks and 31st in inside-the-20 rate.
Those numbers largely inform why the Packers brought in Peter Mortell to challenge for the punting job. Masthay still has the inside track, but a bad preseason showing or two could doom his chance of securing a seventh year in Green Bay.
51. Rick Lovato - LS
Long snapper had been an afterthought in Green Bay. Rob Davis locked down the position from 1997 through 2007, with Brett Good succeeding him in 2008. Goode seemed likely to continue long snapping for the Packers for the rest of his career until he tore an ACL against the Oakland Raiders late last year. The team quickly scrambled and signed Rick Lovato, who like his predecessors handled his business without concern or interruption of normal football activity. Goode could still return once his knee fully recovers, but at this time it seems Lovato has the job for the foreseeable future.New York State Senator Dean Skelos (L) and his son Adam Skelos arrive at the Jacob Javits Federal Building in New York May 4, 2015. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
(Reuters) - New York State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos on Monday said he would resign his leadership post a week after being charged in a corruption scheme involving his son, and was replaced by a fellow senator from Long Island, two lawmakers said.
Skelos told other Republican senators during a closed-door meeting that he would step down. Sen. John Flanagan was elected to replace him, according to Sens. Kenneth LaValle and Philip Boyle.
Skelos, whose office did not immediately have comment and it remained unclear whether he would resign from the Long Island Senate seat he has held for 30 years.
Federal authorities last week charged Skelos, 67, and his son Adam, 32, with extortion and soliciting bribes, in the latest of a string of criminal cases against state legislators.
Prosecutors said Skelos pressured a real estate developer and an environmental technology company to pay his son more than $200,000 in exchange for his support on infrastructure and legislation.
Skelos, who has maintained his innocence, is the fifth consecutive majority leader of the state Senate to face criminal corruption charges.
The charges against Skelos came as former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver faces a November trial on charges that he received kickbacks for steering business to two law firms. Silver, who has pleaded not guilty, resigned as speaker shortly after the charges were unveiled in January.
Flanagan, a 54-year-old lawyer, was first elected to the Senate in 2002.Patrick Tuipulotu of the All Blacks has been absent from the rugby field since being sent home from the end of year tour for "personal reasons."
All Blacks lock Patrick Tuipulotu is believed to be taking time out from rugby after testing positive to a prohibited substance.
Tuipulotu missed the All Blacks final end of season tour match in Paris last year, heading home immediately for what coach Steve Hansen described as personal reasons.
Two months on Tuipulotu is still absent from his Super rugby team the Blues, who played their first preseason match against the Hurricanes in Auckland on Saturday, for the same reasons.
SIMON WATTS/GETTY IMAGES Patrick Tuipulotu has made a big impression in his short career as an All Black.
It is believed Tuipulotu tested positive to a banned substance at some point last year and results were discovered in the lead-up to the final test of the season against France.
READ MORE:
* Milner-Skudder makes his return
* Crusaders top Highlanders
HANNAH PETERS/GETTY IMAGES Tuipulotu at a training camp in 2014.
No punishment has yet been handed down as the process is thought to be on-going, with suggestions the results of the 'B' sample are not yet known.
It is also understood that circumstances surrounding the case are of a sensitive nature.
Tuipulotu is not thought to have used recreational drugs.
The 24-year-old is receiving advice from the New Zealand Rugby Players' association, and other experts. He could face a ban that would see him miss at least the entire 2017 season, but it's believed he is continuing to investigate options and may yet escape penalty on compassionate grounds.
Tuipulotu, who is signed with NZ Rugby through to 2019, had double hip surgery on a debilitating birth defect in 2015, which saw him miss the Rugby World Cup. He has played 12 tests, and is a major loss for the Blues.
When approached for comment, Tuipulotu's agent Ben Boyle would only say it was a personal matter.
A NZ Rugby spokesperson said: "(Tuipulotu) is dealing with a personal issue and we're not at liberty to discuss any further."
Players' Association boss Rob Nichol and Drug Free Sport NZ echoed the sentiments, saying they were not at liberty to discuss any details further.
World Rugby confirmed that it is automatically informed of positive tests, along with national anti-doping agencies and World Anti-Doping Agency, but did not comment further.
In December, Tuipulotu was named a chief of his family village in Samoa.
The Samoa Observer reported Tuipulotu as saying at the time: "I will be doing everything in my ability to help out my family with any problems they may face in the future."
ALL BLACK GREAT IN THE MAKING
Tuipulotu debuted for the All Blacks in June, 2014 after an outstanding debut Super Rugby season for the Blues. However, double hip surgery in 2015 meant the 1.98cm, 120kg forward missed the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
His development as a ball-carrying, tough-hitting tight forward suffered another setback in 2016 when his Super Rugby season was disrupted by a hand injury.
But he returned to the All Blacks in for the Rugby Championship and joined the team on their end of year tour and has racked up 12 tests despite still being only 24.
He signed a new four-year deal with NZ Rugby in April, 2016.Other than income from clicking ads, some porn site operators in China have found new ways for their wallets. Recently, a report from Tencent exposed that many websites in China have embedded JavaScript to mine crytpocurrency, or XMR to be more specific. Coinhive service is employed without notifying visitors.
Once visitors access websites that are embedded with mining scripts, they will need to wait a while for loading the pages, little do they know that the auto execution of JavaScripts miner are consuming large portion of CPU usage for mining Monero, or XMR featuring anonymous transaction. Such websites are usually porn site, internet literature, webpage online game etc. As the slow loading of pages could be interpreted as bandwidth or connection problem, it’s difficult for users to detect the mining script, which helps the spread of such behavior.
Analysis of mining behavior is conducted through a porn site:
1. Loading of front page of a porn site takes a while
2. Task manager reveals that the CPU usage is up instantly and always at 100% working load once the site is loaded
3. JS miner is spotted in its source code
4. The JS miner is the service provided by Coinhive, which adopts cryptonight algorithm for mining Monero. Coinhive will adjust XMR payout in real-time every few hours. At press time, the payout was 0.00015579XMR/MH, or 0.0825687RMB/MH. Coinhive will take 30% of the payout and the website claim the other 70%.
Payout is divided among Coinhive and website operators
5. Ironically, Coinhive specifically mentions on its documentation that the service shall not be employed without notifying the users.
“ it’s your responsibility to tell your users what’s going on and to provide stats on mined hashes.”
However, the reality is that the service has already been abused.
6. Another new feature is that the API provided by Coinhive allows website operators to control CPU usage so that it’s even harder to detect the mining operation. The zigzag chart below shows how the CPU usage is manipulated.
So far hundreds of websites have adopted Coinhive JS miner, most of which are porn site.
List of websites that embeds Javascript miner
PV of JS miner spiked in late September and the trending is still upward, which means more victims could be expected.
Previously Pirate Bay, the most popular bittorrent site, has been found using the same script to mine Monero.
Tencent owns the most popular socializing tool in China and has great media influence. The exposure links cryptocurrency with porn sites and may inspire more interest on both subjects.When I was a young guy, from ages 10-15 if I had to guess, every Memorial Day marked a dreaded experience: The Indianapolis 500. My grandpa would take my uncle and I to the race every year as a form of male bonding and camaraderie. Unfortunately, at this age I had the attention span of a male rabbit in mating season (something I’ve yet to grow out of), which meant that watching a collection of painfully loud cars make 500 left turns in blistering 90 degree weather wasn’t particularly enjoyable.
As I sat in the stands, I constantly gazed upon the infield, pondering what went on in there. Little did I know, beyond the deafening roar of 30 cars driving at 225 mph, there was the dull roar of 300,000 people getting life-threateningly drunk for sport. Little did I know, beyond the track, lay my future.
For those of you who haven’t yet made the greatest decision of your life, the following stories will intrigue you. For those of you who have, they won’t phase you; they only serve to get you ready for the upcoming weekend.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is set up like Dante’s Inferno – with each further level indicating a deeper blackout. My first memory of the Indy 500 infield is three years ago on the Saturday night before the race in the Coke Lot, or the first level of the Inferno. This memory consisted of hundreds of drunk college students cheering and jumping through flaming couches that had been stacked together. Having consumed a fair amount of liquid courage, I made the leap myself. Possibly 5 seconds after I landed on the other side, I hear, “NEXT KID THAT JUMPS THROUGH THE FIRE IS GETTING TASED.” The sentence had barely been trailed off before another valiant soul leapt through the flames. The guy may not have even landed before the taser was applied and hundreds cheered displaying their affirmation of the jumper’s bravery. Hopefully those cheers still ring in that man’s ears as he fills out job applications and checks “yes” when asked if he’s been convicted of a crime.
That was one of the more incredible things I’d seen, until the following year, in the exact same scenario, a small Hispanic man outdid all. He did not jump through the flames, but RAN through them. The man emerged from the flames, victorious and unharmed, like the real life Khaleesi, as onlookers rejoiced in the knowledge that they had just witnessed the greatest spectacle in racing. If you squint hard enough you can see this legend on the right of the picture fulfilling his life’s destiny.
As incredible as the night before the race is, the day of the Indianapolis 500 is incomparable. Sunday is an extremely early morning, not doable by the weak hearted. Haggard survivors arise with cross-eye inducing hangovers as they look to collect what’s left over of their dignity and booze. Spirits are not low for long however, and by 8 a.m. the Coke Lot is a jungle once again. By the time the majority of the lot heads to the track’s infield, the second level of Speedway’s Inferno, most are not going to remember the remainder of the day.
Though the infield is an incredible experience, a cocktail of drunken college students and mustachioed rednecks, the main draw is the third and final level of the Inferno: the Snake Pit. The Indianapolis 500 Snake Pit is like the Bermuda Triangle of Boozing – many souls have disappeared entering the area.The Snake Pit is an absolute war zone of savages that are either losing what’s left of their minds to whatever live concert is being performed or are being forcefully escorted out by security. Few remember the Snake Pit, but all receive a life-altering sunburn (what’s up Frick).
The length and desolation of the walk back from the track to the Coke Lot is what The Book of Eli was based on and should be approached with caution. The entire weekend will test your mettle and at times make you question if Captain Morgan and Jack Daniels were really just the world’s biggest assholes, but in the end, it’s completely and totally worth it. So here’s to the redneck’s journey to mecca, the reason my life expectancy level is 45, the Greatest Spectacle in Racing; here’s to the Indianapolis 500.
-Elliott BakerSenate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III on Monday lashed out at a group of United Nations (UN) experts over their criticisms of the human rights situation in the Philippines.
In a privilege speech, Sotto called UN special rapporteurs Agnes Callamard, Michel Forst, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio “helicopter experts” for offering solution to the problems of the country that “they are not even familiar with.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Callamard is the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, while Michel Forst on the situation of human rights defenders and Maud de Boer-Buquicchio on the sale and sexual exploitation of children.
“Is it possible to arrive in a country you are not familiar with, and in a couple of days, speak about the decades-old problems of that country like you had all the wisdom in the world? And even expect to be welcomed hospitably by your hosts?” Sotto asked.
“Nakakahiya di po ba, na magdunung-dunungan sa mga bagay na di mo talaga alam, at mas alam ng mga taong iyong binibisita?” Sotto said.
Callamard previously had a verbal tussle with President Duterte over the government’s drug war.
Sotto said he initially wanted to speak out on the issue since Callamard flew to Manila to attend a drug policy forum in May but he said, “time and circumstances conspired to dampen (his) interest to speak.”
“I thought the passage of two and a half months would make my interest fade away and die, but I was mistaken. Just last August 2, another provocation emanated from the same source, and if I continue to be silent, I may be remiss in my duties,” he said.
Sotto also attempted to debunk the claims of Callamard that there is no evidence that shabu or crystal meth leads to violence or causes brain damage.
He then mentioned the killings committed by drug abusers.
“Do we still need more proofs how worst shabu can do to a man’s mental faculties? I’ll give you more. Just six months ago, particularly in February of this year, a 4-month-old baby was raped by a known junkie in their neighborhood in Carcar City, Cebu. The baby was found bloodied and naked 30 meters from her home. There were lacerations, blood and grass particles found in the private area of the victim. Who, in his normal state of mind, can do such a thing to a baby who is defenseless, weak and fragile? More recently, specifically last May 2017, a policeman, who was charged with two counts of parricide by shooting his wife and son 38 times and even stabbed his son in the heart “because he wouldn’t die”, tested positive for drugs and admitted that he had sniffed “shabu” days before the brutal killings,” Sotto said.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Thus, based on the foregoing, undeniably, shabu can lead to violence. Shabu can cause brain damage. And shabu can kill! To believe otherwise is courting disaster,” he said.
Sotto added: “Alam natin na shabu ay nakakasira ng ulo. Do we listen to our own mind and experience, or believe what a foreigner who does not know us tell us what is wrong with us?”
Read Next
LATEST STORIES
MOST READSpain midfielder Jorge Resurrección 'Koke' was robbed at gunpoint while at the wheel of his car in Madrid on Thursday, according to a report in El Mundo.
The publication says the incident occurred at about 19:00 as the Atlético Madrid star was entering an underground car park in the city's Chamberí district.
Assailant makes off with Koke's 70,000-euro watch
The robber is said to have approached Koke's vehicle as he wound down his window to take a ticket at the barrier, before holding a gun to the 25-year-old's head and telling him: "Give me your watch".
The footballer handed over the watch, which is valued at around 70,000 euros, with the assailant then driving away on a motorcycle.
Koke immediately contacted local police to report the attack.
Koke in Atlético squad for Madrid derby
The incident hasn't prevented him from being included in Atlético's squad for Saturday's 'derbi madrileño' against Real Madrid at the Bernabéu (16:15 CEST).
Follow Real Madrid vs Atletico match coverage | Derby LaLiga
Atlético Spain LaLiga Santander Table PTS W D L 2 Barcelona 69 21 6 3 3 Atlético 61 18 7 5 4 Sevilla 58 17 7 6 Full standing Next matches Real Madrid - Atlético S-08/04 16:15 Atlético - Osasuna S-15/04 18:30 Espanyol - Atlético S-22/04 20:45 Fixtures Leaders Messi 12 Goals
Goals Roque Mesa 1007 Passes
Passes Steals *Update 7 de abril de 2017Rep. Kerry Bentivolio Kerry BentivolioIndiana Republican: Leaders duped me Reindeer farmer saves 'cromnibus' with yes vote High drama as.1T spending package advances by one vote MORE (R-Mich.) on Tuesday proposed legislation that would prevent the federal government from deploying new websites that don't adequately protect personal data.
His Safe and Secure Federal Websites Act, H.R. 3635, would also require existing websites to show they safe and secure. If a website fails to meet that standard, the government would have to take it offline until it is repaired.
ADVERTISEMENT
The bill is the latest GOP response to the HealthCare.gov website, which left thousands of potential users stuck with delays and error messages when it launched in October. More recently, some computer experts have alleged that the site has weak or non-existent security features, which has led to complaints that personal data entered into the sight may not be secure.
"In its haste to implement ObamaCare, the White House has acted with reckless disregard when it comes to protecting the public from hackers," Bentivolio said Tuesday. "With this website, they have jeopardized not only the personal information of users attempting to obtain health insurance, but also potentially compromised dozens of other federal agencies and their systems."
Bentivolio's bill would prohibit federal agencies from deploying a new websites that require users to enter personally identifiable information until the website is certified as "fully functional and secure." Sites already in existence would have 30 days to be certified as safe and secure.
Certification would involve a study and report from the Government Accountability Office, and a report from the Chief Information Officer of the agency involved.
The bill defines "fully functional" as a website that "can fully support the activities for which it is designed or intended with regard to the eliciting, collection, or storage of personally identifiable information, including handling a volume of queries relating to such information commensurate with the purpose for which the website is designed."
Among other things, it defines "secure" to mean the inclusion of security features that meet a standard "acceptable for banking purposes, the naming of an official who is in charge of all security for the site, and the capturing of personal information at the latest possible step for users."In a sudden move that has sent alarm bells ringing in New Delhi, Maldives rammed through its Free Trade Agreement with China in the Maldivian parliament last night in a session attended by only 30 out of 85 members. The haste with which the government, led by President Abdulla Yameen, decided to pass the pact — the session took barely half an hour — is being perceived here as Male trying to cosy up to China.
Advertising
This comes in the backdrop of Yameen planning to visit Beijing in December. This will be a reciprocal visit after the first-ever visit by Chinese president Xi Jinping to Maldives in September 2014.
Maldives is the only country in the neighbourhood which has not been visited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last three-and-half years after he cancelled a proposed trip in March 2015 due to the |
not in shape all year long, you generally won't last long.
MORE COVERAGE: Top-10 CBs | Top-10 D-lineman | Top-10 pass rushers
More common these days is the player who may have to add or subtract weight to deal with new positional responsibilities. Whether it's due to a change of team or scheme, some guys will essentially have to change their entire shapes -- and if they don't do it the right way, it's no better than what would happen if they hung out at the buffet all summer.
Defensive lineman Lamarr Houston has never been one to head back for thirds; certainly not during his five-year NFL career. Houston came to the 2010 scouting combine out of Texas at 6-foot-3 and 305 pounds, and that's the weight he played at during his rookie season with the Raiders, who selected him in the second round. Houston started out as a defensive tackle who could kick out to end in Oakland's hybrid schemes. But over the years, he kept dropping weight, and in 2013, he essentially played as an outside pass-rushing linebacker -- at 275 pounds.
Clearly, that weight loss didn't affect his game. Last season, Houston totaled a career-high six sacks, adding 16 quarterback hits and 41 quarterback hurries for his trouble. Despite starting the offseason with more than $60 million in salary cap space, the Raiders decided to let Houston test the free market, and he wound up signing a five-year, $35 million deal with the Chicago Bears, whose 2013 defensive line was all kinds of disastrous.
Houston won't play that old tackle/end role in Chicago, nor will he line up with his hand off the ground outside the tackle as he did in 2013. The Bears see him as the logical replacement to Julius Peppers, who bailed for Green Bay in the offseason. So, as he's done since he trained for the combine, Houston came back to Travelle Gaines' gym in Los Angeles and got to work. When I spoke with him last week, I wondered what Gaines had done with the rest of him -- Houston was down to 268 pounds, and over the last four years, he'd dropped his body fat from 15 to 8 percent.
The question is, how do you drop so much weight and maintain the functional strength required to deal with NFL opponents? For Houston, it's always been about the plans he and Gaines have put together.
"Well, it starts right from the diet," Houston told me. "That's really important. What you're putting in your body to burn fuel throughout the day and to speed up your metabolism -- that's going to dictate how you drop weight. Do you drop weight all at once? Are you doing it little by little, or in big chunks? It can be unhealthy. So, it's really about your diet, and how you eat.
"The other key is the type of workouts you're doing. Is it more cardio, so you're just burning fat and not really building muscle, or is it high-intensity workouts that build muscle? Sustaining muscle and burning fat -- you have to look at those two things when it comes to weight loss. What's the most effective way of doing it without dropping a bunch of weight by burning muscle mass?"
Putting Houston on a high-rep, high-intensity regimen is important, but it's just as crucial that Houston understand that going from tackle to linebacker to end requires a series of different techniques, and that's something he's understood and worked on from the start. In previous years training with Gaines, Houston picked the brains of offensive tackles Ryan Clady and Donald Penn, and worked out with MMA trainer Jay Glazer. This spring and summer, he branched out.
At 275 pounds in 2013, Houston was fast enough to catch Chris Johnson. Jason O. Watson/Getty Images
"They've changed a lot, because I dedicated my year to working on more skill-specific stuff as a defensive end," Houston said of his workouts. "So, I worked with [pass-rush consultant] Chuck Smith. I worked with [martial arts coach] Joe Kim. I worked with Tamba Hali -- really, anybody I could work with. I sat down with Lincoln Kennedy and talked with him -- anyway I could get better this year. My skill set as a pass rusher, I took that time to make the effort. This year, I dedicated a lot of my year to football like most years, but specifically toward pass rushing."
Working with Hali, the Chiefs' sackmaster, proved to be especially beneficial. Houston has learned the ins and outs of hand moves and counters through his time in the league, but if you want to get to Hali's level, there's always more to learn.
"Working with Tamba has been one of my most fun experiences this offseason. He's a really funny guy -- really nice. He's family-oriented -- he and his girlfriend and his daughter will work out with me and my wife. And he really broke down certain things to me about the pass rush, and helped me develop that sense of how to go about attacking a guy [an offensive lineman] or breaking a guy down, and things like that. What's the mindset behind every pass-rush move, and every look. What you're trying to accomplish; why certain things make sense and others don't. It was just really helpful to me."
Of course, none of this would matter if Houston wasn't dedicated, and as Gaines says, that's something that's never changed. From relative no-name status before the draft all those years ago to his current megabucks contract, Houston has stayed on track -- and he's always looking to be better.
"There have been maybe five guys in the 300-plus guys I've trained for the combine who haven't changed from the day I met them until now," Gaines told me. "Lamarr Houston just signed for $35 million, and he says, 'Travelle, you're going to be so proud of me -- I did it big!' I said, 'What did you do?' He said, 'I bought a car!' I said, 'OK -- what did you get -- a Lamborghini? A Ferrari?' 'No -- a Jeep Cherokee! I got it painted!' And literally, as proud as a peacock about this $30,000 Cherokee he bought. And that's the kind of guy he is. But those guys are so few and far between, and that's why 80 percent of the guys in the NFL go broke."
Not Lamarr Houston. Though he did admit a weakness for the cuisine at Michael Jordan's Steakhouse in his new home city, he certainly knows when to say, "when." Now, he and the Bears will reap the benefits.As Baltimore prepares for the opening of 11 medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, some residents say it’s been difficult to get information about where they’re opening or how the sites were selected.
The Baltimore City Council plans to hold a hearing at 1 p.m. Wednesday to get details about “the launching of upcoming medicinal marijuana dispensaries, their impact on local zoning and enforcement, and their impact on community master plans in Baltimore City.”
City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke said she called for the hearing after members of her district expressed concerns about a dispensary scheduled to open in the 3300 block of Keswick Road in Wyman Park.
“Basically they’re concerned about reports and academic studies that indicate that in other locations throughout the nation crime increases in surrounding neighborhoods to these locations,” Clarke said of residents of her district. “This backs up to a residential neighborhood. Yes, it’s zoned commercial but there should be a process for community input for the location of these dispensaries.”
While the Baltimore County Council has set zoning rules that will govern where medical marijuana businesses can open, Baltimore City officials have chosen to simply treat the marijuana facilities like pharmacies under the zoning code — and not pass special legislation for them. That means that a medical marijuana facility approved by the state doesn’t need to get zoning approval from the city to open.
“My main concern is the lack of transparency,” said Jack Boyson, president of the Wyman Park Community Association. “It appears some neighborhoods are going to be very surprised to find out they have medical marijuana dispensaries in their neighborhoods because it’s not being announced. There have been no hearings. There has been no input. There is no zoning criteria in place in terms of how far away they should be from residential areas, child care centers, parks, churches and schools.”
Alan Staple, owner of the proposed dispensary in Wyman Park, said he’s met with Clarke and the local residents. He said he’s working on a memorandum of understanding to address their concerns.
“Although medical cannabis has been approved in many states, it’s new to Maryland and naturally people have many questions and some misconceptions,” he said in an email. “Dispensaries will be serving patients in need, who have been approved by their physicians, much like a pharmacy. There’s no reason to stigmatize patients that need medical cannabis. They are not criminals.”
Mayor Catherine Pugh said she wants to make sure that patients have access to medical marijuana if a doctor prescribes it. But she said she also wants to be mindful of community concerns and not place the dispensaries in residential areas.
“I think they have questions that deserve answers,” Pugh said of the residents. “I don’t want to see them backed up against communities and neighborhoods.”
The mayor said the dispensaries should be located in commercial areas “equitably distributed” throughout Baltimore.
“There are people in desperate need of this treatment,” she said. “I would not want people denied that kind of treatment.”
Maryland lawmakers approved medical marijuana in 2013, but it has taken years for the program to get off the ground. The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission has granted preliminary dispensary licenses to 102 operators. Only one — the Wellness Institute of Maryland in Frederick — has received final state approval to open.
The commission awarded the preliminary licenses by state Senate district. When applying for the licenses, prospective operators did not have to specify their proposed locations. In many cases, the locations are just becoming known as operators prepare for final inspections ahead of a December deadline to open.
“There’s no criteria about density,” said Boyson, noting that two or possibly three facilities are being planned near his neighborhood.
In Baltimore, 11 medical marijuana dispensaries have been pre-approved by the state in the city’s six legislative districts.
They are:
* Chesapeake Integrated Health Institute LLC and WadeWomen LLC-Dr. Dot’s in West Baltimore’s District 40.
* H&G Maryland LLC in Northwest Baltimore’s District 41.
* Blair Wellness Center and Medical Products and Services Inc. in North Baltimore’s District 43.
* Charm City Relief Partners LLC in Southwest Baltimore’s District 44.
* CannaMD LLC and Hallaway LLC in East Baltimore’s District 45.
* GreenLabs Inc., Pure Life Medical Inc. and Doctor’s Order Maryland in South Baltimore’s District 46.
Baltimore also has one licensed grower and pre-approved processor, Temescal Wellness LLC.
Baltimore County lawmakers moved in 2015 to place restrictions on where the centers can open. Medical marijuana dispensaries there must be 500 feet away from schools and 2,500 feet from another dispensary, according to legislation passed by the County Council.
Lester Davis, a spokesman for Baltimore City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young, said city officials are following existing law in how they are implementing the medical marijuana program.
He noted that the dispensaries are approved by the state, not the city. Davis said Wednesday’s hearing will allow Baltimore residents to ask questions and get answers.
“All the laws have been followed,” Davis said. “The hearing on the 30th will be helpful for giving folks a venue to get information and letting them ask questions. It’s always a good thing for there to be more information in a public setting.”
[email protected]
twitter.com/lukebroadwaterQR Code Link to This Post
Location: Joysville
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
* I recently moved. I found an apartment that was in a great neighborhood in a building with other dogs and dog friendly folks.....this was because did a little work and looked for a place that was right for me and the dog, and stumbled over this fantastic place where I now live.* I recently got a new job that requires that I spend more time at work. I was worried that this would negatively affect my little pup, so I make an effort to get up earlier so that we can go for a good walk before I leave, and I arranged for someone to spend time with the little guy for a while during the day while I'm at work. My career chugs along and my little guy is still happy.* I live in a tiny, tiny apartment, but this does not negatively affect the dog in any way. Granted, he is a little guy, but the fact is that between walks before and after work, and extended play time outdoors in the evening, the size of the apartment doesn't hurt my pup's quality of life (or mine, for that matter). He has never chewed up anything I own, broken anything in the house, or done any damage to any structure that I have lived in. He does bark a bit when people walk by my kitchen window, but mostly that's because he's crazy. Or maybe because he thinks that everyone loves him and maybe that person wants to come in and pet him or give him a treat. I don't speak any dog, so I can't ask him.* I don't have a high paying job (or career, for that matter), so I don't have a lot of disposable cash, but I do have money saved in case the dog has a minor medical emergency, and the information for Care Credit in case he has a major medical emergency.* Admittedly, I don't have any kids (I am both unpleasant and squishy, which makes finding a baby daddy trialsome), but I distinctly remember having pets when I was a kid, and I have six brothers and sisters that my mom had to watch over. She seemed to do OK with seven kids and a dog, and while I find her an extraordinary human being, I don't think that she has any kind of pet-care superpowers.My dog makes me laugh and he cuddles up against me and he provides me with an opening to meet some very nice (and some very interesting) people when we're out walking and he hides under the blankets when it thunders and lets me feel like I'm soothing him and he brings me toys to play with when he gets bored and he rolls over in the grass and reminds me how much fun it is to be alive. He gives me all of this and more, and all I do is walk him, feed him, and play with him.I hope that all the people who post their dogs for adoption on this list have done every possible thing that they can do in order to keep it before they give up on themselves. I just want to say to all of you who think that it's too hard to take care of you pet: YOU CAN DO IT! Your pet believes in you, and I believe in you, too!Some believe that having a big-time college football team is the key to boosting enrollment. George Mason University has found that offering a degree in video game design does the trick, too.
GMU, located in Fairfax, Va. and the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, says the Fall 2010 anticipated enrollment in its newly created Computer Game Design program is five times what it expected. "We've been overwhelmed," said Scott M. Martin, assistant dean for Technology, Research and Advancement.
The program had hoped to enroll 110 students by 2012; they're already over 200.
Naturally, game design is an extremely popular offering, considering the desire many have to work in the games industry and the small ratio of dedicated game design programs to more traditional computer science and graphic arts sequences at American universities. Mason also benefits from its location, close to heavy hitters such as Bethesda Softworks and BioWare Mythic.
"This course bodes well for the future of gaming in this region," Eugene Evans, the BioWare Mythic general manager, told the Fairfax Times. "The team at GMU is putting a strong emphasis on a broad set of disciplines and instilling an entrepreneurial spirit - which could mean many new start-ups within a few years."
Advertisement
Though it is the largest university by enrollment in Virginia, to most before now, George Mason may have been more commonly known in the U.S. for its basketball team's run to the 2006 Final Four. Maybe games design can raise its profile even further, on a longer-term basis.
New Gaming Degree Program ‘Wildly Popular' at GMU [Fairfax Times via Game Politics]Under Armour Inc (UAA) stock plummeted to close down almost 7% Thursday after Eagle Alpha analyst Brendan Furlong said the company's search interest continued in a "steep downtrend" since inflecting down in September.
Under Armour "does appear to be seeing much greater weakness in search interest" than its peers in the performance apparel industry, Furlong said.
Furlong said a continued downward trend in search interest could signal a threat to Baltimore-based Under Armour's revenue growth rates in current or future quarters. The company is set to report second quarter earnings July 25.
Under Armour shares have fallen 29% since the start of the year.
What's Hot On TheStreet
Apple is OK for the time being: For those silently worrying how the Apple (AAPL) iPhone 8 will sell, simmer down -- the tech giant still has several huge advantages. On the hardware side, for instance, the iPhone still feels ahead of the pack thanks not only to Apple's design skills and the visible features of its hardware, but also what's under the hood points out TheStreet's tech columnist Eric Jhonsa. From the looks of things, the iPhone 8 should extend that lead, Jhonsa predicts.
Tesla is looking wobbly: Tesla (TSLA) shares are looking a little shaky (again) after its Model S didn't get a top rating from Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), reports TheStreet's James Skinner. The IIHS cited issues with the small overlap front test, which is meant to simulate crashes into trees, poles and other vehicles, as why the Model S did not receive the highest rating. IIHS Executive Vice President David Zuby said the front test remains a "hurdle" for some vehicles.
"Tesla made changes to the safety belt in vehicles built after January with the intent of reducing the dummy's forward movement," IIHS said. "However, when IIHS tested the modified Model S, the same problem occurred, and the rating didn't change."
Costco finally scores some good news: After watching its stock crash about 13% inside a month thanks to fears Amazon (AMZN) and Whole Foods (WFM) will dominate society, Costco (COST) scored a nice win. Costco said same-store sales in June rose 6.5% in June. Canada saw sales up 3.2%, while international sales rose 6.2%.
The numbers should serve as a reminder how resilient Costco's business has been in the face of Amazon's rise.
Apple is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AAPL? Learn more now.
Visit here for the latest business headlines.No, Hobby Lobby, that quote on your website is NOT from Thomas Jefferson! And, furthermore, the document it comes from -- which was written by James Madison -- is a list of some of the best arguments AGAINST that Supreme Court ruling that you and your fellow Christian supremacists are currently gloating about.
This is from current homepage of the Hobby Lobby website:
The quote that Hobby Lobby wrongly attributes to Jefferson actually comes from James Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, written in opposition to Patrick Henry's proposed "Bill establishing a provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion." This is the document written and presented to the Virginia legislature by Madison in 1785 on behalf of the citizens of Virginia who were AGAINST any mixing of religion and government.
Hobby Lobby not only wrongly attributes the Madison quote to Jefferson, but also chops off the end of Madison's sentence. Here is the COMPLETE sentence (emphasis added):
"Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governour of the Universe: And if a member of Civil Society, do it with a saving of his allegiance to the Universal Sovereign. We maintain therefore that in matters of Religion, no man's right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance."
And, since Hobby Lobby wants to invoke him, what were Thomas Jefferson's thoughts on Patrick Henry's attempt to get a foot in the door for Christianity to be re-entangled with the laws of Virginia? Well, while this battle was going on, Jefferson, who was following the goings on in his home state from France, jokingly wrote to Madison: "What we have to do I think is devoutly to pray for his [Henry's] death."
And, just like the obvious consequence of the Hobby Lobby ruling being that it sets a dangerous precedent that opens the door to unimaginably odious future rulings, James Madison saw the defeat of Patrick Henry's theocratic religious assessment bill as necessary not only to prevent the object of that one particular bill, but as crucial to preventing the consequences of that bill setting a precedent, as he made clear in his third reason that the bill had to be defeated:
"Because, it is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens, and one of [the] noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle."
Fortunately for the people of Virginia, who had James Madison to lead the fight against the encroachment of religion into their laws, Patrick Henry's bill was defeated. Unfortunately for us, we have Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Anthony Kennedy calling the shots.The 940 meter long Einstein class is the oldest Carrier type in service of the Alliance military. It is built in 2149, eight years before the First Contact War with the Turians. Like the Everest class Dreadnought, only three of them were ever built. The Einstein, the Hawking and the Davis. The Einstein is a mobile Base and act as packhorse for the new human colonies and outposts which are etablished quickly after the discovery of the Charon Mass Relay. Her
superior cargo capacity makes her a excellente transport ship for founding new colonies. To that time the ship doesnt have much military purpose, because there are no rival for the Systems Alliance beside a short period where the Einstein was stationed on Mars to fight a terrorist group called "Red Sand".
The Einstein class is a typical aircraft carrier with a hullsize hangarbay wich is with 800 m nearly the size of the ship itself. She carries several hundred Starfighter, Shuttles, Dropships, Tanks and armored vehicles as main armament. Her own weapons consist only of 8 Twin Hypervelocity-Railguns (mid Range) to guard the entry lanes of the Hangardecks and a dozen of GARDIAN Laser
(low Range) to deflect enemy rockets or Intercept Fighters.
Hannah Shepard, Commander Shepards Mother served on the SSV Einstein which responded to the Mindoir raid by the Batarians in 2170.
After the First Contact War the Alliance use the experiences they made to replace the Einstein class with the new Tereshkova carrier.
Since the Einstein carrier did not fall under the treaty of farixen, they left them in service as reserve unit s.
Built and rendered in 3d Max 10
Mass Effect is (c) by Bioware & EA
Ready with texturing the Einstein class Carrier. So here a first image of the ship.The ship design based on the Arcturus Station we see in the Comic "Mass Effect: Evolution". Unfortunatley the design in the comic doesnt match to the description we get from the ingame codex: a Bernal Sphere Ring Station similar to the Citadel. So i reuse the design, because it matched perfectly for a Alliance Carrier. So i present the Einstein class Carrier, a ship commissioned Years before the First Contact War, before the Mankind have knowledge about Alien Species.Like my Mass Effect Starships? Watch this:Photos by: Steve Danyleyko –
The third and final day of Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, Texas featured performances by Grammy Award-winning experimental rock band The Flaming Lips, who released their fourteenth album, With a Little Help from My Fwends, which serves as a track-for-track tribute to The Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, on October 28th, 2014 via Warner Bros., Canadian psychedelic pop artist Mac DeMarco, who released his second album, Salad Days, on April 1st, 2014 via Captured Tracks, which features the singles “Passing Out Pieces”, and “Brother”, Austin, Texas-based psychedelic rock band The Black Angels, who released their fourth album, Indigo Meadow, on April 2nd, 2013 via Blue Horizon Ventures, and more!
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The Flaming Lips
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The Flaming Lips performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Flaming Lips performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Flaming Lips performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Flaming Lips performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Flaming Lips performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Flaming Lips performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Flaming Lips performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Flaming Lips performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Flaming Lips performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Flaming Lips performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Flaming Lips performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Flaming Lips performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Flaming Lips performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Flaming Lips performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) _____________________________________________________________________________________
Mac DeMarco
_____________________________________________________________________________________ Mac DeMarco performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Mac DeMarco performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Mac DeMarco performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Mac DeMarco performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Mac DeMarco performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Mac DeMarco performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Mac DeMarco performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Mac DeMarco performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Mac DeMarco performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Mac DeMarco performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Mac DeMarco performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) _____________________________________________________________________________________
The Black Angels
_____________________________________________________________________________________ The Black Angels performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Black Angels performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Black Angels performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Black Angels performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Black Angels performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Black Angels performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Black Angels performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Black Angels performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Black Angels performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Black Angels performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) The Black Angels performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) _____________________________________________________________________________________
Fuzz
_____________________________________________________________________________________ Fuzz performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Fuzz performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Fuzz performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Fuzz performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Fuzz performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Fuzz performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Fuzz performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Fuzz performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) Fuzz performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) _____________________________________________________________________________________
13th Floor Elevators
_____________________________________________________________________________________ 13th Floor Elevators performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) 13th Floor Elevators performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) 13th Floor Elevators performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) 13th Floor Elevators performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) 13th Floor Elevators performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) 13th Floor Elevators performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) 13th Floor Elevators performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) 13th Floor Elevators performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) 13th Floor Elevators performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) 13th Floor Elevators performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) _____________________________________________________________________________________
ZZZ’s
_____________________________________________________________________________________ ZZZ’s performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) ZZZ’s performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) ZZZ’s performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) ZZZ’s performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) ZZZ’s performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) ZZZ’s performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) ZZZ’s performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) ZZZ’s performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) ZZZ’s performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) ZZZ’s performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto) ZZZ’s performing at Austin Psych Fest: Levitation in Austin, TX on May 10, 2015. (Photo: Steve Danyleyko/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto)Brown Bag Films is looking to increase its overall workforce to 255 on the back of the creation of a new 30,000sq ft animation studio in Smithfield, Dublin.
With offices in Dublin, Manchester and LA, Brown Bag Films currently employs more than 180 people across its entire operation, with news of the new studio in Smithfield coming alongside a push to add 70 people to the overall team by 2018.
The company, which was bought by 9 Story Media Group last year, has a long history in Smithfield, with MD Cathal Gaffney saying he wanted to “maintain our roots here”.
“Our new studio sets an incredibly high standard and is the perfect home for our outstanding creative and technical talent,” he said, noting projects like Watership Down and Doc McStuffins as areas he’s looking to recruit for.
Brown Bag Films has been in operation for 22 years now, with notable productions like the Oscar-nominated Give Up Yer Aul Sins and Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty names that probably ring a bell.
Its Peter Rabbit show has won six Emmys, Doc McStuffins has a Peabody Award, and its show Bing has won an International Emmy Kids Award. It has also received many other nominations for its work.
The company has been expanding aggressively in the past 18 months, with an Amazon deal leading to 40 jobs being created February 2015. When 9 Story Media Group bought the company last August, another 50 jobs were announced,
Founded in 1994 by Gaffney and |
't heard pre-ejaculate referred to since I was a reader of teenage magazines, which were obsessed with it, but Noble cites a study indicating that sperm is present in 41% of samples. Noble also mentions a patient who had never had penetrative sex and yet became pregnant through contact with pre-ejaculate.
Luke, 25, told me a similar story. "Unwanted pregnancy has happened to me twice. The first time, the first relationship I was in, I got a girl pregnant from using the pull-out method," he says. "It was through the magic of pre-come. It was quite stressful as a 17-year-old." The second time he made a girl pregnant was due to a defective coil. "It's made me massively more careful now." Noble says that most women are happy on Microgynon 30, the default contraceptive that the NHS offers, and, though she admits there can be some side effects, these might be bearable considering the alternative. "Pregnancy is also life-altering," she says. "I want my patients to get the most effective contraception that is acceptable to them. I take hormonal contraception and am happy to recommend all hormonal and long-acting reversible contraceptions to friends and family."
Many of the women I interviewed expressed regret at the fact that they had used the withdrawal method or had unprotected sex when they were younger. Elise, for instance, says, "There's no excuse for being so stupid and I don't know why I did it." Jane, a 32-year-old civil servant, caught chlamydia when she was 19. "I have never felt so dirty," she says. "I wish I'd used a condom. True, they make sex less spontaneous, but I'd swap that for an internal examination and accompanying swabs, quite frankly."
There's a palpable sense of embarrassment from those who feel that the unprotected sex they had was a result of carelessness. Several of my friends avoid the pill because of concerns about weight gain, despite the fact that studies reveal it to be minimal. Others, like Harriet, find the mood swings unbearable. Having had an abortion and been fitted with the implant, she finally had it removed and went back to relying on the pull-out method. Earlier this year the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) recommended that young women should be allowed to keep a supply of the morning-after pill at home in case they need it. At the moment you can purchase only one pill at a time, but the British Pregnancy Advisory Service has argued that allowing women to buy packets of pills will reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. In the same report, Nice also recommended that health professionals not be too quick to prescribe the contraceptive pill, and to make other long-acting methods available to all young women.
So has the pill liberated us? On the one hand, I am of course relieved that I can have regular sex and not get pregnant. But on the other, after speaking to so many women who would rather use withdrawal because of the side effects, I agree with Grigg-Spall that we have become blindly accepting of its use. "It's very difficult to criticise publicly," she says. "Sexual liberation has trumped other kinds of liberation. We've basically linked hormonal birth control with sexual liberation, which is interesting because many women experience a negative impact on their sexual libido. And that is apparently fine."
Grigg-Spall points out that there has been a long history in the women's movement of ambivalence towards the pill, but that objections have been sidelined. "The pharma industry has a real grip. We've been led to believe that the choices women have are hormonal birth control or pregnancy and nothing in between. "Women having unprotected sex, relying on withdrawal – they should see that as a warning sign that we're not doing enough.
Harri Wright, 25, exams officer, in a long-term relationship
Harri Wright: 'Pulling out is our main method of contraception.' Photograph: Felicity McCabe for the Guardian
I've had unprotected sex probably hundreds of times. I've been in a relationship with my boyfriend for eight years, and more often than not we don't use any form of contraception. I had been on and off many different kinds of pill – because of moving around during my university years I wasn't able to settle on one. The hormones always made me feel a bit weird and later on I started experiencing nausea. In the end my partner and I were happy for me to stop taking the pill. We've never consistently used condoms as neither of us like the feel of them.
Pulling out is our main method of contraception. I keep an eye on my cycle and we avoid peak times or use a condom. We would prefer to plan a pregnancy, but a surprise wouldn't be the end of the world. We wouldn't have made the decision for me to come off the pill if we didn't feel we could handle the repercussions.
Jess Tyrer, 23, travel advisor
Jess Tyrer: 'Naive as it sounds now, I didn’t really have any worries about STDs or pregnancy.' Photograph: Felicity McCabe for the Guardian
As a teenager I was vigilant about my sexual health, but after a couple of years, my friends and I became more lax with contraception. We were being irresponsible and testing our limits.
I've had unprotected sex quite a few times, and I used the pull-out method with my former partner. Looking back, I don't think we even discussed it. Naive as it sounds now, I didn't really have any worries about STDs or pregnancy. I knew that neither of us had any STDs, and with other people, if we did have unprotected sex I always went to the GUM clinic.
Unprotected sex happens for several reasons. It may be that you don't want to stop to put a condom on, sometimes you may be embarrassed to ask your partner, or they may think that you have an IUD or are on the pill. Obviously if you have been drinking, that increases the risk.
I think I'm more mature now. I sort of want to go back and shake the younger me and make her see sense.
Emma Alfonso, 26, business owner, single
Emma Alfonso: 'Condoms are disgusting and sometimes funny, and no one wants to feel those emotions when having sex.' Photograph: Felicity McCabe for the Guardian
I've had unprotected sex with five different men, three of whom I was in a relationship with. The other two were casual.
It starts when you are a teenager and your loving boyfriend suggests you don't use a condom, because he'll lose sensitivity. You, being the cool, chilled out kind of girl you're desperately trying to be, go with it. Once you've done it once and survived, you lose the fear.
Condoms are disgusting and sometimes funny, and no one wants to feel those emotions when having sex. No matter how you colour, flavour or add little ribs and dots "for her pleasure", condoms are a mood killer.
The pill is a pain to keep track of and has caused me and my friends horrible side effects from headaches and acne to weight gain and mood swings. Similarly the contraceptive injection turned me into a "psycho bitch from hell", according to my boyfriend. Then there was the coil. I was one of the 0.1% that managed to get up the duff anyway with it in. Not that I am complaining, my daughter is a delight.
Many people would judge me for having unprotected sex but it is a risk I take in the same way I don't always use sunscreen, and I binge drink. Having unprotected sex is one thing, but not getting checked and having unprotected sex when you're not sure whether you are "clean" or not is quite another.
• Some names have been changed.A Japanese illustrator has shared a handful of images in a new series that depict the angry girlfriend stereotype unleashing rants and physical violence in response to an inept boyfriend’s romantic bungling.
The thing is, they might just be right on the money…
While everyone’s relationship woes (or lack thereof) will obviously be unique to each person and each relationship, it’s probably safe to say that women and men alike encounter a lot of common relationship frustrations. When it comes to relationships in Japan, a lot of guys seem to have trouble planning dates, it appears, and are—at least in the eyes of this illustrator—maybe a little too obsessed with video games and their hobbies.
Below are our loose translations of the artist’s panels, which are being shared on Japanese social media like wildfire, with, presumably, a lot of sympathetic head-nodding from women:
“How much time and money do you think I spend on makeup just so your friends won’t think you’re dating some uggo?!”
“You’ve got so much time to play video games but no time to message me?!”
“You’ve got money to spend on video games and yet we always go dutch on dates?! I’ll destroy you!”
“How many more times do we have to go on ‘home dates’ before you take me out for once?!”
While I can totally sympathize with this fictional (but probably more-than-a-little-bit based on the illustrator) character, she does also reveal some surprising double standards in Japan’s largely patriarchal society. You may have heard that Japanese women have a tendency to expect the man to support them financially; an archaic carry-over from days past that still persists as the norm. Granted, Japanese women are still notoriously under-appreciated and underpaid at work and are still widely expected to quit their jobs when they get married, so the expectation that men provide financial stability in a relationship is perhaps more a condition of that than anything else, but splitting the bill on dates is frowned upon nonetheless. On the other hand, let’s be honest: if a guy—or girl for that matter—wants to buy and play a video game once in a while, let him! Games are fun and, also, it’s 2015; most people have accepted gaming as a legitimate form of leisure time entertainment, not unlike reading a book or watching a movie.
What do you think? Is this “angry girlfriend stereotype” accurate, or is she making mountains out of molehills?
Source: Togetter
Images: @5623V via TwitterUpdate, 05.10.17: last week a group of #ShutYouthPrisons peaceful protesters in Alice Springs, including Dylan Voller and his mum Joanne Voller, were arrested. 8 people received fines, amounting to $432 each. This is no small amount to an individual, but if we all chip in we can easily and quickly cover the amount for all 8 people. This is your chance to help with practical solidarity. Especially as today Dylan is facing court again, as part of a targeted campaign of harassment by police, prison officers and public officials. He has just days left on his parole and they are trying to use this arrest for “public nuisance” as an excuse to say he has violated parole, to put him back in jail. Dylan and the Voller family are courageous advocates against injustice in the face of brutality and viciousness, and deserve all the support we can give, as do the rest of the community in Alice Springs at this time. Donate what you can, and if you can’t, please share widely and encourage others to!
Dylan and Joanne Voller need your help
On Friday (29 September) Dylan Voller, his mother Joanne Voller, and six other people were arrested whilst holding a peaceful protest against youth detention and deaths in custody in Alice Springs.
All have received fines.
Dylan Voller was one of six children teargassed at the Dondale youth detention centre in 2014. In 2016, further footage of prison guards mistreating Voller at Dondale was the subject of a Four Corners investigation; the Four Corners broadcast resulted in a Royal Commission, at which Voller delivered damning and comprehensive testimony about the mistreatment of young people in detention.
Since his release from prison in February this year, Dylan Voller has been a fearless advocate for youth in detention and the #ShutYouthPrisons campaign.
In the months since Dylan Voller’s testimony before the Youth Detention Royal Commission, the Voller family has been subject to a targeted campaign of harassment by Northern Territory police, prison guards, and other public officials.
The arrest of eight people at Friday’s peaceful #ShutYouthPrisons protest was utterly unnecessary, and the fines levelled are an absurd and unjust imposition.
Join us in expressing solidarity with Dylan Voller, his mum Joanne Voller, and the rest of his family who have been targeted by this vicious campaign, and yet continue to speak out and demonstrate against injustice.
We need to raise at least $3,500 to cover legal costs so that everyone involved can get on with their lives.
This fundraiser is organised by Kieran and Kathleen, with the endorsement of Dylan Voller.
Sweet Merch?
We don’t have anything to offer as rewards to contributors. If you, your band or your group has some sweet merchandise that you would like to kick in, please contact us so we can offer some donor rewards and help raise the cash.
DONATE HEREThe governor, whose speech otherwise focused on boasting about Texas’ pace-setting economic and job growth, noted that Houston has plenty of doctors, more than most cities, in fact.“All of these individuals who want to complain about the state of Texas, God bless ‘em, they’re free to do that. But you are from a state that is leading the nation in so many different arenas,” he said.Florida Gov. Rick Scott, once at the forefront of GOP opposition to Medicaid expansion, reversed himself on Wednesday, embracing the central element of the plan commonly known as Obamacare, at least for the next three years. Six other GOP governors had already embraced the Medicaid expansion. “While the federal government is committed to paying 100 percent of the cost, I cannot in good conscience deny Floridians that needed access to health care,” Scott said.Perry had already said through aides that Florida’s move wouldn't change his mind. In his first public comments today he emphasized that he remains unswayed, citing costs and the Obama administration's resistance to giving Texas leeway it seeks."If they want to have a conversation about how you give states the flexibility, allow the states to make the decisions about how to cover more people, how to make it more accessible, how to make it more affordable – I’d love to have that conversation with this administration," Perry said.Democrats in Texas, including Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, have demanded a state expansion of Medicaid benefits under the Affordable Care Act. Texas would receive roughly $100 billion in federal funds over 10 years, starting next year, at a cost to the state of $15 billion.A group called the Texas Organizing Project had informed the news media on Thursday that it would stage a protest outside the Perry event near the U.S. House. An organizer, Durrel Douglas, sat quietly at one of the tables inside until he eventually stood, shouted at Perry, and was escorted out; Douglas said 11 activists flew to Washington to confront Perry as a "last resort" because he has refused to meet and discuss health care policy.Perry shrugged off the heckling, insisting that those shouting from the sidewalk – providing a background din through most of his half-hour appearance – must be from Alabama, a reference to a Texas A&M sports rivalry.“If we weren’t making a difference, they wouldn’t be out there,” he said. “When they ignore you, it means you’re not making a difference.”And he said their demand for Medicaid expansion doesn’t get at the root of the problem. “The best poverty program in the world is a job,” Perry said. “That’s what they don’t understand.”Most of the protesters outside conceded that they live in or near Washington, and had come to support the cause. There were some Texans, though. The Rev. James Caldwell of Houston, who interrupted Perry's State of the State speech last month, said he should follow Scott’s lead in Florida. Allowing so many people to go without health coverage, he said, is immoral.“It’s a form of genocide,” he said.Bill Christian, a Texas State Society leader, said he was surprised that protesters infiltrated the breakfast, but "you pay your money and you take your chances.... We've never had a disruption like that before. I like to think that Texans are more polite."With reporting from Alexandria Baca.Israeli Bank to Pay $400m to US in Tax-evasion Case
3:02 AM
An Israeli bank has been fined $400 million USD for aiding and assisting Americans in evading payment of their taxes.Al Ray reports, via Press TV, that Israel’s second largest bank, Bank Leumi, will pay as much as $270 million to the US government and $130 million to the US State Department.
“Bank Leumi employees engaged in a series of egregious schemes – including creating complex, sham loan arrangements – to help its US clients shirk their responsibility to pay taxes,” State Department Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky said in a statement.
“What’s worse, when certain Swiss banks began to put the brakes on this type of misconduct, Bank Leumi instead hit the accelerator even harder – viewing it as a ‘golden opportunity’ to pick up new business,” Lawsky added.
According to the US Department of Justice, the bank aided American taxpayers in hiding their assets in Israel, Switzerland, and Luxembourg from 2000 to 2011.
Bank Leumi has admitted to the violations, agreed to pay the fines, and has reportedly sacked some of its senior employees, as well.Susan Rice who went on Sunday talk shows in the direction of the Barack Obama White House, to lie about the Benghazi attack is now calling out the Trump administration.
Advertisement
If we don’t call out this hypocrisy, who will? Most of you remember watching Ambassador Rice blame a YouTube videotape as the reason for the murder of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya.
Rice was covering for Hillary Clinton who screwed up the entire operation when she distorted the facts and a lot of us knew about it and called her out on it.
Now Rice is speaking out against President Trump and his administration as if what they did is forgotten.
Susan Rice: When the White House twists the truth, we are all less safe. Why veracity matters to our security. https://t.co/eqkReeBIsG — Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) March 22, 2017
Advertisement
Close More from Wayne Dupree
Have you forgotten what the Obama admin did to the Benghazi hearings? How they covered up the murders of the Benghazi four? How they tried to make it seem as if conservatives were crazy and chased unicorns for the truth?
Advertisement
@AmbassadorRice “Benghazi was a reaction to an anti-Muslim YouTube video.” — Ned Ryerson (@Crapplefratz) March 22, 2017
@AmbassadorRice @pgranfield like lying to the American people that Benghazi was due to a video critical of Muhammad? — Gregory Cooper (@gregoryfcooper) March 22, 2017
Advertisement
@AmbassadorRice Susan Rice how do you even call anyone out for twisting the truth, #videoqueen! — American Honey???? (@lgmaterna) March 22, 2017
@AmbassadorRice I see you’re finally willing to acknowledge yours and Obama’s treason. — Sovereign (@Nation_017) March 22, 2017
Advertisement
@AmbassadorRice like you twisted the truth about Benghazi? B*TCH PLEASE STFU @washingtonpost — Victorious Patriot (@TruthTalkerUSA) March 22, 2017
@AmbassadorRice “Bowe Bergdahl served with distinction.” — Ned Ryerson (@Crapplefratz) March 22, 2017
@ElianaBenador @AmbassadorRice Corrupt to the bone. The Obama administration was nothing less than a criminal enterprise! — 20w-50 Synthetic (@50_20w) March 22, 2017
Advertisement
@AmbassadorRice If you’re trying to remain relevant, stop! You’re not — Ryan Holtzclaw (@T_RyanH) March 22, 2017
@AmbassadorRice you blamed a terrorist attack on a YouTube video knowing it was a blatant lie… — Reaganette (@Ezinger44) March 22, 2017
@AmbassadorRice You mean like when you helped Pres Obama to lie and say Benghazi was caused by an anti-Muslim video tape? — Jeff Dunetz (@yidwithlid) March 22, 2017
Advertisement
Help support conservative news and views by sharing this post on Facebook and Twitter.
Don’t forget to follow the Wayne Dupree Show social media accounts on Facebook, Google Plus & Twitter.In preparation for the 10th year anniversary of the 9/11 murders, the 9/11 Memorial has put up an online interactive 9/11 timeline. It hasn't been up more than 24 hours as of writing this.
I have not had much time to review it, but sure enough I noticed a major fault right away!
The timeline mentions the WTC# 7 "collapse" at 5:20pm and if you click on the images available for that time, you will see 3 pictures - one of them being the one shown below.
The 9/11 Memorial Interactive Timeline says this is a raging fire in WTC 7, however it looks a lot like WTC #5
Lets look at undisputed pictures of WTC# 5:
Above is WTC# 5 on fire, after the two towers had been destroyed. Below is WTC# 5 many days after 9/11.
Here is a great video of WTC# 5 on fire:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41OCQvu7ULQ]
Notice the side-by-side vertical beams, arched windows and architecture in the pictures and video of WTC# 5?
Those types of beams and arches are NOT present in the WTC# 7 structure by any means:
These 2 videos show the floor levels of WTC# 7 not long before it's destruction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukO3hENZ9zA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUQjphJLuck
The 9/11 Memorial Timeline obviously is a joke for anyone interested in fact. There were no massive fires at WTC#7 and the fires that were alive were not large enough to bring any building down in the manner that WTC#7 came down; it was a controlled demolition!
Worse than a joke, this memorial is peddling lies as history.
For a complete timeline that spans more than just the day of 9/11, please visit the Complete 9/11 Timeline.Year-round residents of Alaska will each get a $1,884 royalty check this year from a state oil wealth trust fund, but residents of North Dakota aren't so lucky.
The Bismarck Tribune reports:
In North Dakota, it would be unconstitutional, said John Walstad, legal division director for the state’s Legislative Council. “We get that question from time to time: ‘How come I don’t get a check?’” Walstad said. “Well, because our constitution says ‘no’ at this point. It could be changed, but right now it says ‘no.’”
Reporter Erik Burgess explains the part of the state constitution that prohibits such royalty payments, and shows that it's not exactly a well-thought-out thing:
The constitutional language in North Dakota that prohibits a direct payment to residents is found in Article X, Section 18, in which it states that the state cannot “loan or give its credit or make donations to or in aid of any individual, association or corporation except for reasonable support of the poor.” That language was put into the constitution “ages and ages” ago, Walstad said, and it’s an attempt to prevent the state from investing state money into private enterprises.
Changing the rules would require a constitutional amendment. Meanwhile, daily oil production in North Dakota is now comfortably above 1 million barrels a day, and natural gas production in July was at 1.3 billion cubic feet per day, an all-time high.The United States Embassy has expressed concern after an American citizen died while on remand at Fox Hill Prison.
Steve DeGruiter, a 60 year-old Indonesian American businessman, died on February 7, days before he was due to be sentenced for his alleged part in a $100 million attempted fraud case.
Mr DeGruiter leaves behind two brothers, a sister, a wife, a son and daughter and a grand-daughter in the US.
The suspicious nature of Mr DeGruiter’s death have raised concerns from the US Embassy about the treatment of Mr DeGruiter during his incarceration at Her Majesty’s Prison.
Relatives of Mr DeGruiter, who say he was always a law-abiding person, are calling for an investigation. They believe that DeGruiter and co-accused Carol Collins, 50, of Massachusetts, were innocent.
However, Assistant Commissioner of Police Anthony Ferguson told a local newspaper that he could not say if there was an ongoing criminal investigation into Mr Degruiter’s death.
Mr DeGruiter, who had successful business connections in Indonesia, became involved in a situation involving two Japanese men – co-defendants Hirofumi Tanabe, 57 and 72-year-old Katsuichi Yufu.
Mr Yufu claimed to be in possession of a $100 million cheque made payable to a Japanese businesswoman. He even had Japanese ministry documents authorising him to exclusively represent the woman’s interest.
Mr DeGruiter was attempting to put together a team of financial investors who had the interest and ability to trade on the world market, hoping to turn the $100 million into a high-yield investment vehicle, without reducing the original capital.
Apparently, the $100 million was to be invested into a new account for an offshore corporation that would be solely owned by the two Japanese men, Mr Tanabe and Mr Yufu.
A mutual friend of Mr DeGruiter’s introduced him to Carol Collins, who reportedly flew to Nassau to meet Mr DeGruiter, Tanabe and Yufu and a mysterious Bahamian business connection. The Bahamian, an allegedly corrupt individual who is prominent in Bahamian society, has been involved in scandals before and has tentacles that are said to reach farther than Mr DeGruiter or his associates expected.
The Bahamian business connection reportedly did not produce the required legal documents for an offshore corporation for Tanabe and Yufu, despite being paid $15,000.
Instead, the corrupt Bahamian attempted to merge his controversial mining operation with this new $100 million investment.
The Japanese men grew impatient with the Bahamian businessman and blamed Mr DeGruiter for the delays. But DeGruiter was merely acting as the point man between the Japanese men and the Bahamian businessman.
Meanwhile, Ms Collins was conducting due diligence to make sure that the $100 million cheque was for real.
DeGruiter and Collins became suspicious of the Bahamian when his credit card payment for Ms Collin’s hotel room at the Hilton was rejected.
Shortly after dismissing the Bahamian businessman, Ms Collins started receiving death threats from him on her cellphone. The Bahamian promised that DeGruiter and Collins would never leave the Bahamas alive.
It is important to note that neither DeGruiter or Collins were ever in possession of the $100 million check. The cheque belonged to the Japanese men. DeGruiter and Collins were assisting the Japanese men in verifying the validity of the check at JP Morgan Bank.
However, when that story was told in court, Magistrate Guillimina Archer did not accept the explanation. On Monday, February 13, the magistrate handed down her verdict to Coffins, Tanabe and Yufu. Mr DeGruiter was not in court, as he had died four days earlier.
Coffins, Tanabe and Yufu were convicted of attempting to obtain $100 million cash by false pretenses from EFG Bank and Trust through a forged JP Morgan cheque on July 8, 2010.
They were sentenced to serve 20 months at Her Majesty’s Prison at Fox Hill.
Actually, the matter was supposed to be concluded in court a week earlier, but Magistrate Archer’s ruling was delayed one week because of Mr DeGruiter’s health.
On Monday, February 6, prison officials notified the court that Mr DeGruiter was not in a fit condition to appear.
The magistrate, after seeing Mr DeGruiter in a wheelchair outside her courtroom, agreed and ordered that he be taken to the hospital.
She postponed the matter for two hours, but when court resumed, Mr Gruiter’s attorney Godfrey Pinder said his client had not been to hospital but, instead, had been returned to prison.
DeGruiter’s cellmate, fellow American John Forest, told the magistrate that prison officials had ignored Mr DeGruiter’s serious health problems.
He told the court, “A few nights ago, he [Steve] started throwing up blood on the floor. I called the correction officers and told them about it. They left and they returned with Pepto-Bismol and they told him to walk to the medical ward.
“I told them that he could barely stand and we got into an argument.”
Mr Forest recounted how the prison officers returned with two inmates who were instructed to carry the accused to the medical ward.
“They carried him on their shoulders like a sack of potatoes despite his obvious spinal condition. I’m no doctor, but I know, we know, that something is wrong with him,” Mr Forest said.
Upon hearing this, Magistrate Archer said she would ask prison Supt Elision Rahming why his officers disobeyed a direct order from the court to take Mr DeGruiter to the hospital. She then postponed the matter until February 13.
Mr DeGruiter died before the case was resumed.
When Mr Forest reappeared before Magistrate Archer on February 13 for sentencing, he told the Magistrate that he had received death threats in prison for his defence of Mr DeGruiter in court.
Supt Rahming has denied that his prison officers had disobeyed a direct court order to take Mr DeGruiter to Princess Margaret Hospital for examination and treatment. The prison boss explained that prisoners heading to court from Bank Lane were under the care of the police, through a special warrant. He said, while he had no intention of demeaning a fellow law enforcement agency, he nonetheless wanted the public to understand the facts, and not automatically blame prison officers.
“Prison officers do not go in court,” Rahming said.
This, of course, is nonsense because as a prisoner of Her Majesty’s Prison, Mr DeGruiter was the responsibility of prison officials.
If not held in contempt of court, legal experts say Rahming and his officers should at least be disciplined for dereliction of duty.
Meanwhile, the identity of the prominent Bahamian businessman who was behind the fraud has remained a mystery in the press, and it is unlikely that he will ever be charged with any complicity in the crime, due to his high-level government connections. It is believed that he is the one who bribed police and prison officals to ensure that Mr DeGruiter died in custody, so he wouldn’t be identified as an accessory to the scam.Sri Aurobindo
Writings in Bengali
Translated into English
The Isha Upanishad [1]
The main obstacle that stands in the way of accepting the straightforward meaning of the Isha Upanishad and rightly understanding its inner truth about the Brahman, the Self and the Divine, is Mayavada, Illusionism, preached by Shankaracharya and the commentary he wrote on this Upanishad. The one-pointed drive towards withdrawal that is Illusionism and the much-praised inaction of the Sannyasi are completely at variance with the Isha Upanishad. If the meaning of the slokas is strained and tortured to give an opposite sense, the solution of this quarrel becomes impossible. The Upanishad in which it is written: “Doing verily works in this world one should wish to live a hundred years”, and again: “Action cleaves not to a man” — the Upanishad which proclaims with courage: “Into a blind darkness they enter who follow after the Ignorance, they as if into a greater darkness who devote themselves to the Knowledge alone”; and again says: “By the Birth one enjoys Immortality”, how can that Upanishad be reconciled with Mayavada, Illusionism and the path of withdrawal? A highly erudite person, who was possibly the chief sponsor of Monism in South India after Shankara, expunged it from the list of the twelve Upanishads and installed the Nrisimhatapini in its place. Shankaracharya was not so daring as to alter the prevailing canon. The Upanishad was a “Sruti” (heard scripture), and Illusionism was a subject for inquiry in the “Sruti” and as such, he assumed, the meaning of the “Sruti” could not but be favourable to real Illusionism.
If jagat (in īśa vāsyamidam sarvam yat kiñca jagatyām jagat) meant the earth, then the meaning would be: “all that is moving on the earth in motion”, that is to say, all men, animals, insects, birds, torrents, and rivers, etc. This meaning is absurd. In the language of the Upanishads, the word sarvamidam signifies all the visible objects of the universe, not of the earth. Therefore we must understand by the word jagati the Shakti in movement manifested as the universe and by the word jagat all that is a movement of motion of the Prakriti whether present as a living being or as matter. The contradiction lies between these two: the Ishwara and all that is in the universe. Unlike the Ishwara who is immobile, the Prakriti, the Shakti, is in movement always engaged in work and world-wide motion; all that exists in the universe is also a small universe in movement which is always, at each instant, the meeting-place of creation, preservation and destruction, the restless and perishable, the opposite of the immutable. The eternal contradiction does not become evident if we place on one side the Ishwara and on the other, the earth and all that is in movement on the earth. This Upanishad opens with the eternal contradiction observed by everybody which puts the immutable Ishwara on one side and on the other the restless Prakriti and all that she possesses in the universe created by her, all ephemeral objects.
The whole Upanishad is constructed upon this contradiction and its resolution. Later on, the author of the Upanishad, while discussing the nature of the Ishwara and the nature of the universe brings up thrice the same problem but each time with a different approach. First when he talks about the Brahman, he demonstrates the opposition of the Purusha and the Prakriti and in these few words, “anejad” (unmoving) and manaso javīyaḥ... tad ejati tannaijati (swifter than Mind, That the Gods reach not, for It progresses ever in front. That, standing, passes beyond others as they run. In that the Master of Life established the Waters. That moves and moves not) he explains that both are Brahman: the Purusha is Brahman, the Prakriti and the universe which is her outward form are also Brahman. Again, while speaking of the Atman, he explains the opposition between the Ishwara and everything concerning the universe. The Atman is the Ishwara, the Purusha...
If it is squeezed, then most surely the true hidden meaning, that is to say, the doctrine of Illusionism, will be forced out because of the pain: this was the conclusion that overpowered Shankaracharya, and he wrote a commentary on the Isha Upanishad.
Let us hear on the one hand what the commentary of Shankara says, and on the other what the Upanishad has truly to say. The author of the Upanishad right in the beginning compares the truth of the Ishwara with the Truth of the universe and indicates their fundamental relation.
“īśa vāsyamidam sarvam yat kiñca jagatyām jagat”, “All this is for habitation by the Lord, whatsoever is jagat within jagati or individual universe in movement” — the still all-pervading controller Purusha and the Prakriti in motion — the Ishwara and the Shakti. As the name of Ishwara has been given to the Immutable, we have to understand that the true relation between the Purusha and Prakriti is this: “jagat” depends on the Ishwara, is governed by Him and accomplishes all work by His will. This Purusha is not only a witness and giver of sanction but Ishwara, the knower, the director of action; the Prakriti is not the controller of action but she works out the destiny, the mistress but dependent on the master, the obedient active Shakti of the Purusha.
Then we observe that “jagati” is not simply the Shakti in movement, not simply the principle which is the cause of the universe; she is also present as the universe itself. The ordinary meaning of the word “jagati” is “the earth”, but it cannot apply here. By combining these two words jagatyām jagat the author of the Upanishad has hinted that the root-meaning of these two words must not be neglected. To emphasise it has been his aim.A massive "heat dome" is heading for the U.S. that will bake much of the country to potentially record-breaking temperatures next week, the Washington Post reports.
Only the Pacific Northwest is expected to escape the heat wave, while the rest of the country can look forward to some of its "hottest weather with respect to normal," the Post's weather editor Jason Samenow writes.
Although it is too early to know exactly how hot it will get, temperatures in the central U.S. and Upper Midwest could reach 10 to 20 degrees above average. Highs in Des Moines, Iowa, for example, may surpass 100°F for three days straight.
According to Atlas Obscura, heat domes are a "meteorological phenomenon" that occur when "a high-pressure system forms in the mid- to upper-atmosphere; the air pressure pushes warm air down towards the surface and traps it there, resulting in higher—often much higher—than normal temperatures."
The phrase came into popular use around 2011, although Oklahoma-based meteorologist Gary England told the New York Times that the title |
the French Revolution, however, tore apart France's old army, meaning new men were required to become officers and commanders. In addition to opening a flood of tactical and strategic opportunities, the Revolutionary Wars also laid the foundation for modern military theory. Later authors that wrote about "nations in arms" drew inspiration from the French Revolution, in which dire circumstances seemingly mobilized the entire French nation for war and incorporated nationalism into the fabric of military history.[31] Although the reality of war in the France of 1795 would be different from that in the France of 1915, conceptions and mentalities of war evolved significantly. Clausewitz correctly analyzed the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras to give posterity a thorough and complete theory of war that emphasized struggles between nations occurring everywhere, from the battlefield to the legislative assemblies, and to the very way that people think.[32] War now emerged as a vast panorama of physical and psychological forces heading for victory or defeat.
See also EditHONG KONG (Reuters) - Several pro-independence candidates won seats in Hong Kong’s first major election since pro-democracy protests in 2014, prompting a robust warning from China that any independence would damage the city’s security and prosperity.
In comments carried by the official Xinhua news agency, China’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office said it “resolutely opposed” any form of independence for Hong Kong, noting this would violate China’s constitution.
The election of a new generation of pro-democracy activists in a record turnout in Chinese-controlled Hong Kong on Sunday underscores a deep divide in a city of more than 7 million people where tensions with Beijing are intensifying.
China bristles at open dissent, especially over sensitive matters such as demands for universal suffrage, and many in Hong Kong are increasingly concerned about what they see as Beijing’s meddling in the city’s affairs.
In the election, the pro-democracy opposition also kept its crucial one-third veto bloc in the 70-seat Legislative Council over major laws and public funding that has helped check China’s influence.
The vote, which ushered in a new crop of legislators including a 23-year-old former protest leader who vowed to “fight” the Chinese Communist Party, underscores growing frustration with how Beijing has handled its “special administrative region” and marks a significant turning point.
The former British colony was handed back to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” agreement that promised to maintain the global financial hub’s freedoms and separate laws for at least 50 years, but gave ultimate control to Beijing.
Beijing officials have repeatedly warned Hong Kong not to stray too far.
Despite the disqualification of six pro-democracy election candidates from the election in July on the grounds that they backed independence, at least five “localists” and younger democratic newcomers won seats, including Nathan Law, one of the leaders of mass democracy protests in 2014.
Those protests posed one of the greatest challenges to Beijing’s rule in decades and were deemed illegal by the local government in Hong Kong and the central government in Beijing.
Localists put the interests of Hong Kong before those of Beijing.
Pro-democracy candidates Lam Cheuk-ting, Alvin Yeung, Raymond Chan, Cheung Chiu-hung and Leung Kwok-hung celebrate on the podium after winning their seats in the Legislative Council election in Hong Kong, China September 5, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip
“I’m quite shocked,” said Law. “We inherit some spirit from the movement and I hope that can continue in the future... We still have to unite in order to have stronger power to fight the Chinese Communist Party.”
“PEOPLE WANT CHANGE”
Sunday’s vote was the first major election since the 2014 student-led “Umbrella Revolution” protests that blocked roads for 79 days.
Since then, many disaffected youngsters have decried what they see as increasing Beijing interference stifling dissent and civil liberties, leading to a radicalisation of the political scene and occasional violent protests.
Several veteran democrats lost their seats, as voters backed a new batch of younger candidates espousing self-determination and a more confrontational stance with China.
“It’s a new era,” said Lee Cheuk-yan, a democratic lawmaker who lost his seat after more than two decades in public office.
“People want change, change meaning that they want new faces... but the price is a further fragmentation (of the democracy camp). Ideologically they’re talking about independence and they want to assert themselves.”
Hong Kong Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Raymond Tam said the government would do its best to “bring them around to a more centrist position”.
“But it’s too early to say if this will be an issue,” he said.
Pro-establishment lawmakers like Elizabeth Quat said she hoped the issue of splitting from China wouldn’t enter the legislature or it could damage Hong Kong’s economic interests.
“Independence is not realistic at all,” she said. “Hopefully this will not be their main objective.”
Slideshow (13 Images)
Voters flocked to cast ballots in record numbers with some having to wait several hours after polls closed, leading to some delays in vote counting on Monday.
“Hong Kong is really chaotic now. I want to do something to help,” said 28-year-old Maicy Leung, who was in a snaking queue of several hundred. “It’s to help the next generation and to help myself.”
The Electoral Affairs Commission said 58 percent of an eligible 3.8 million voters had cast their ballot, up from 53 percent in 2012 and the highest legislative election turnout since 1997.View it online Media Contact: Lainé Slater, [email protected] or 604-685-0260 x 809
CASTLES IN THE SKY: THE MASTERS OF STUDIO GHIBLI
Dec. 14 - Jan. 3
The Vancity Theatre and The Cinematheque are pleased to co-host a major restrospective of the films of Studio Ghibli, the world renowned anime studio founded in Tokyo in 1985 by directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki.
Perfect for transcending the winter greys, these films prove Studio Ghibli is every bit the equal of any animation studio in the world or in film history. The films are all wonderful.
All Studio Ghibli films presented at the Vancity Theatre will be screened in 35mm in the English-language versions. All films at the Cinematheque will screen in Japanese language prints with subtitles.
These wonderful film are open to all ages. Princess Mononoke is classified 14A, all other titles are rated G or PG. The Vancity Theatre offers a special rate of $7 for youth under 19.
Best Animated Film of All Time"- Time Out Magazine Whenever I watch it, I smile, and smile, and smile" - Roger Ebert
Fri. Dec 14, 6:30pm; Fri. Dec 21, 5:00pm; Sun. Dec 23, 3:50pm; Mon. Dec 24, 2:00pm; Fri. Dec 28, 2:00pm Japan, 1988, 35mm, 86 min. English Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Cast: Voiced by Dakota and Elle Fanning, Tim Daly Related links: Review | Trailer | Buy Tickets
Two little girls and their father move into a beautiful old house in the countryside to be near their mother, who is seriously ill in hospital. Largely left to fend for themselves, Mei and her big sister Satsuki encounter a strange and beautiful world of forest sprites named ’Totoros’. Miyazaki’s most beloved film is simply magical and magically simple.
NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND
(Kaze no tani no Naushika)
"A joy to watch."- New York Times
Sat. Dec 15, 3:00pm; Sun. Dec 16, 4:00pm Japan, 1984, 35mm, 117 min., English Directed by: Hayao Miyazake
Cast: Voice cast includes: Alison Lohman, Shia LaBeouf, Edward James Olmos, Chris Sarandon Related links: Official Website | Trailer | Buy Tickets
Miyazaki’s first film as writer-director (based on his own successful manga) is an extradinarily rich fantasy film, an eco-allegory set in a feudal, toxic future and a spirited adventure movie. Led by the courageous Princess Nausicaa, the people of the Valley of the Wind are engaged in a perpetual conflict with powerful insects called "ohmu", guardians of a poisonous (and spreading) jungle.
Enchanted and enchanting… fast and funny; weird and wonderful. Mostly wonderful." - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Sat. Dec 15, 5:20pm; Mon. Dec 17, 6:30pm; Thu. Dec 20, 5:30pm; Mon. Dec 31, 2:00pm Japan, 2001, 35mm, 125 min., English, Classification: PG Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Cast: Voices: Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, David Ogden Stiers, Michael Chiklis, John Ratzenberger Related links: Review | Trailer | Buy Tickets
Chihiro and her parents are en route to a new home when they drive through a mysterious tunnel and enter a deserted town. When her folks start gorging on food and transform into a pair of pigs, Chihiro discovers this place is not quite as empty as she had imagined. This is a place of spirits, gods, monsters and witches.
Picks up a resonance, weight and complexity that makes it all but Shakespearean… No other word for it: a masterpiece." - Tony Rayns, Time Out SIX STARS (exception must be made for the excepional). Spirited Away is a feast of wonderment, a movie classic and a joy that will enrich your existence until you too are spirited away. I don’t expect ever to love a film more." - Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
You’ll be planning to see Ponyo twice before you’ve finished seeing it once... It offers up unforgettable images [...] images that use the logic of dreams to make the deepest possible connection to our emotions, and to our souls."- Kenneth Turan, NPR
Sun. Dec 16, 2:00pm; Wed. Dec 19, 6:30pm; Mon. Dec 24, 3:45pm; Sat. Dec 29, 4:15pm Japan, 2008, 35mm, 101 min., English, Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Cast: Voices: Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Matt Damon Related links: Review | Trailer | Buy Tickets
Miyazaki’s strange and beguiling fantasy film about a sea spirit – it’s an odd eco fable about the terrible power of the sea, but illustrated with such beauty and imagination it transports us entirely into another world. Rated G, this is suitable for children of all ages.
Miyazaki knows the secret language of children; he dives deep into the pool of childhood dreams and fears and, through his animagic, takes children down to where they can breathe, and feel, and be free." Richard Corliss, Time
Complex, superbly rendered, and wildly eccentric - even by Miyazaki’s own standards."- J Hoberman, Village Voice
Sun. Dec 16, 6:15pm; Tue. Dec 18, 6:30pm Japan, 1997, 35mm, 134 min., English, Classification: 14A Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Cast: Voices: Billy Crudup, Billy Bob Thornton, Minnie Driver, Claire Danes, Gillian Anderson. Related links: Review | Trailer | Buy Tickets
Set during the Muromachi Period (1333-1568) of Japan, Princess Mononoke is the tale of a mystical fight between humans and the Animal Gods of the forest. Aimed at a slightly older audience than most Ghibli fare (it is classified 14A), this epic folk tale shows the influence of Akira Kurosawa (a Miyazaki-fan himself) and of John Ford too. The film was the most successful ever at the Japanese box office (prior to Titanic), and named the film of the year in Japan’s equivalent to the Academy Awards
A symphony of action and images, a thrilling epic of warriors and monsters, forest creatures and magical spells, with an underlying allegory about the relationship of man and nature.” - Roger Ebert
CASTLE IN THE SKY (Laputa: Castle in the Sky)
"Frequently astounding." Richard Harrington, Washington Post
Sat. Dec 22, 12:00pm; Sun. Dec 23, 5:45pm Japan, 1986, 35mm, 124 min., English Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Cast: Voices: Anna Paquin, James Van Der Beek, Cloris Leachman Related links: Trailer | Buy Tickets
An island in the sky? The story of a young boy who sees a girl floating down from the sky. He comes to her aid in her flight from sky pirates, the army and secret agents. An adventure story influenced by Treasure Island and Gulliver’s Travels, Castle in the Sky is dynamic, imaginative family entertainment with valuable lessons about technology and ignorance.
Smooshes fantasy and history into a pastel-pretty yarn as irresistible as his feminism." - Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
Sat. Dec 22, 4:10pm; Sun. Dec 23, 2:00pm Japan, 1992, 35mm, 94 min., English Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Cast: Voices: Michael Keaton, Cary Elwes, Susan Egan, David Ogden Stiers Related links: Review | Trailer | Buy Tickets
Pigs will fly! This cockeyed tribute to Humphrey Bogart and Ernest Hemingway features an anti-fascist flier (who happens to look like a pig) tracking sky pirates over the Adriatic in the 1930s. An exhilarating romp with a melancholy undertow - and amazing flying machines!
Teems with Miyazaki’s personal passions […] rendered with the utmost detail and beauty. As stirring as Casablanca, and as sophisticated as Only Angels Have Wings, it’s a sublime chivalric fable." Nick Bradshaw, Time Out
Astonishing in its visual splendor and delightfully entertaining, this magical family film about a little witch-in-training, from Japan’s celebrated animator Hayao Miyazaki, is not to be missed." - LA Times
Wed. Dec 26, 2:00pm; Wed. Jan 2, 4:15pm; Thu. Jan 3, 2:00pm Japan, 1989, 35mm, 103 min., English Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Cast: Voices: Kirsten Dunst, Debbie Reynolds, Phil Hartman, Janeane Garofalo Related links: Trailer | Buy Tickets
In keeping with tradition, 13-year-old witch Kiki dusts off her broom and flies away from home for a year of independence and self-discovery in the big city. Her only companion is her beloved black cat, Jiji.
A stunning example of a pure, disorienting dream logic that cinema provides all too rarely."- Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
Thu. Dec 27, 4:30pm; Sat. Dec 29, 2:00pm Japan, 2004, 35mm, 119 min., English Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Cast: Voices: Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall, Blythe Danner, Emily Mortimer, Jean Simmons Related links: Official Website | Review | Trailer | Buy Tickets
Teenager Sophie is cursed by the Witch of Waste and finds herself trapped in the body of an old woman, and is unable to tell her mother or anyone else what has happened. She finds help of sorts with the wizard Howl, living as a servant in his astonishing walking castle.
Sophie is an innocent who must prove her resourcefulness, courage and conviction in a bewildering, alien world
POM POKO (Heisei tanuki gassen ponpoko)
Pompoko is a delightful, often uproariously funny film, at once childishly irreverent and thoughtfully mature. Being a Ghibli work, it is beautifully rendered and technically impeccable, with a great number of memorable set pieces."- Tom Mes, Midnight Eye
Thu. Dec 27, 2:15pm; Sun. Dec 30, 3:30pm Japan, 1994, 35mm, 119 min., English Directed by: Isao Takahata
Cast: Voices: Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Clancy Brown, JK Simmons Related links: Official Website | Review | Trailer | Buy Tickets
Imagine Watership Down, Studio Ghibli-style. Instead of rabbits, we have raccoons. And not just any raccoons - these critters have magical powers of transformation. As their habitat is stripped and paved by the encroaching humans, the good-natured but rather undisciplined forest creatures embark on a campaign of disruption and distraction.
THE CAT RETURNS (Neko no ongaeshi)
An enchanting, magical fable with a twisted vein of surrealism." - Neil Smith, BBC
Fri. Dec 28, 3:45pm; Sun. Dec 30, 5:45pm; Mon. Dec 31, 4:20pm Japan, 2002, 35mm, 75 min., English Directed by: Hiroyuki Morita
Cast: Voices: Anne Hathaway, Cary Elwes, Judy Greer, Elliot Gould, Tim Curry Related links: Trailer | Buy Tickets
Schoolgirl Haru bravely saves a cat’s life - and finds herself summoned to the Kingdom of the Cats for her pains, where she is to become the wife of the Cat Prince! When she refuses, she starts sprouting whiskers and furry ears.. What’s a girl to do?
WHISPER OF THE HEART (Mimi wo sumaseba)
"A beautiful film." - David Jenkins, Time Out
Wed. Jan 2, 2:00pm; Thu. Jan 3, 4:00pm Japan, 1995, 35mm, 111 min., English Directed by: Yoshifumi Kondo
Cast: Voices: Brittany Snow, Cary Elwes, David Gallagher, Courtney Thorne Smith Related links: Trailer | Buy Tickets
A lovely change of pace from Studio Ghibli, this is a teenage first-love story, set in a realistically observed modern day Tokyo. Bookish schoolgirl Shizuku meets her soul mate with a little help from a portly cat.
Tickets and Information
Call the Film Info Line 604.683.FILM (3456) for the latest info and listings.
Tickets + Membership Information | Contact information and directionsI'll start with 2 disclaimers. First, I've never played the first Titanfall. Second, I've yet to tap into the multi-player. This review is solely based on the short, but incredibly exhilarating, single-player campaign. In a nutshell, if you enjoyed the wonderfully fast-paced, ridiculously fluid adrenaline rush of the Doom reboot, you'll most certainly enjoy this roughly 6-hour thrill ride. Respawn throws everything at you but the kitchen sink. This game masterfully meshes frenetic combat and truly inspired platforming. On more than one occasion, I found myself thinking, "how did they manage to implement (insert your choice of game mechanic) so well there?" Without saying much to avoid spoilers, there is one level in particular that felt like what Quantum Break should've been.
I will avoid further specifics because every FPS fan deserves to experience this gem without prior knowledge. Do yourself a favor and give this one a shot. EA made the unfortunate decision to sandwich this between Battlefield and COD. It's a shame because this masterpiece deserves much more love. I freely admit the campaign is short. However, it's wonderfully paced. Combine that with what I hear is an exciting MP experience, and it's a worthy edition to any game collection. I picked this up on sale for $35 through this site. The reduced price tag certainly makes the short campaign easier to accept. I'm sure similar deals will be available during Black Friday. Scoop it up. You won't be disappointed.Over half say Theresa May has what it takes to be a good PM
Corbyn and Cameron’s satisfaction ratings fall to their lowest ever
Ipsos MORI’s July Political Monitor reveals that over half (55%) believe that Theresa May has what it takes to be a good Prime Minister, up from 28% in July 2015. Her ratings are particularly high among Conservative voters, among whom 81% think she has what it takes.
May’s ratings are well ahead of those for Andrea Leadsom and Boris Johnson. One in five (18%) think that Andrea Leadsom has what it takes to be a good PM (20% among Conservative voters), and 21% say the same about Boris Johnson (23% among Conservative voters). Johnson’s ratings have fallen since last year – now 70% disagree he has what it takes, up from 52% last July. Fieldwork was conducted 9-11 July, with the vast majority carried out before Andrea Leadsom retired from the race.
On his final day in office, David Cameron’s satisfaction ratings as Prime Minister have fallen to his lowest ever. Twenty-eight percent are satisfied with the way he is doing his job (down seven points in the month), and 66% dissatisfied (up eight points). His net rating of -38 is comparable with public views of Gordon Brown in 2009.
With Labour heading into their own leadership battle, Jeremy Corbyn’s ratings have also fallen to their lowest since he was elected. Twenty-four percent are satisfied with the way he is doing his job as Labour leader (down three points in the month), while 65% are dissatisfied (up 13 points), giving him a net rating of -41. His rating among Labour voters has also fallen (45% satisfied and 48% dissatisfied).
Meanwhile, Tim Farron still has to build a profile with the British public. One in five (21%) are satisfied with his job as Liberal Democrat leader, 37% are dissatisfied and 42% say they don’t know.
Voting intentions are little changed over the month, with headline figures of the Conservatives at 36%, Labour 35%, the Liberal Democrats at 11% and the UK Independence Party at 8%.
Gideon Skinner, Head of Political Research at Ipsos MORI, said:
“Theresa May’s honeymoon seems to have started even before she is officially announced as PM. Conservative voters in particular have very few doubts about her. Labour supporters meanwhile are less positive about their own leader, as Jeremy Corbyn’s overall ratings fall to the lowest for a Labour leader since Ed Miliband in 2014. ”
Ipsos MORI interviewed a representative sample of 1,021 adults aged 18+ across Great Britain. Interviews were conducted by telephone 9th-11th July 2016. Data are weighted to the profile of the population."For a little while in my teenage years, my friends and I smoked marijuana," writes David Brooks, the pop sociology professor of choice for Republicans hip enough to drive Audis. "It was fun." Was it, David? Was it really?
Do you think that all of David Brooks' friends, sitting in their rooms in some hellafied suburb with the door locked, had a lot of fun smoking herb with young David, back in the late 70s? Or might it be more accurate to describe young David Brooks as the sort of friend who you smoked with reluctantly, just to be polite, because he might tend to kill your high? Might this question have weighed on the lifted, paranoid minds of David Brooks' youthful friends, all those years ago: "Will this dude grow up and write a New York Times column about this shit one day?"
Dude. Yes. You think you know Dave, he seems like a fun kid, and then you wake up 30 years later and open the paper and see his byline next to a column about smoking weed with you. "I think those moments of uninhibited frolic deepened our friendships," he writes.
That's fucking weird, Dave. Chill.
I think we gave it up, first, because we each had had a few embarrassing incidents. Stoned people do stupid things (that's basically the point). I smoked one day during lunch and then had to give a presentation in English class. I stumbled through it, incapable of putting together simple phrases, feeling like a total loser.
Ha, I remember that. That was awesome. That was the pinnacle of your popularity, Dave.
We gave it up, second, I think, because one member of our clique became a full-on stoner. He may have been the smartest of us, but something sad happened to him as he sunk deeper into pothead life.
That's a fucked up thing to say about Krugman.
Third, most of us developed higher pleasures. Smoking was fun, for a bit, but it was kind of repetitive. Most of us figured out early on that smoking weed doesn't really make you funnier or more creative (academic studies more or less confirm this).
David Brooks is the sort of kid who would look up academic studies about whether or not smoking weed actually makes you funnier. Dave, dude, you were nice and all, but we all hated getting high with you. Nothing would make you funnier.
Brooks, a weenie, does not quite have the stones to use his powerful personal story of a descent into depravity to argue that weed should not be legalized; he simply says that legal weed makes it "a bit harder to be the sort of person most of us want to be." (Brooks still lives in fear of his stoner friend showing up at his house uninvited.) The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus, on the other hand, makes the following argument, the logic of which could only be followed by someone who is blazed like a motherfucker: 1) She smoked weed, and she'll probably smoke legal weed when she's next in Colorado; 2) Weed is bad for developing young brains; 3) Kids these days are already smoking a ton of weed; 4) Laws against young people smoking weed will inevitably be ignored; but 5) She is, nevertheless, strongly against the legalization of marijuana, for adults.
What these two affluent Caucasians are trying to communicate is: I do not care how many young minorities must have their lives ruined by being arrested for weed. I demand we keep in place a law that I acknowledge is purely for show and that I know will be widely ignored, in order to assuage my conscience about the upbringing of white teenagers.
The weed sucked when they were young anyhow.
[Photo: AP]You’re woken from your slumber by the piercing cries of a man in agony and the splintering of wood. The room is dark, though the glowing embers in the grate cast a dull glow across rapidly moving shapes. All about you is pandemonium: guttural panicked sounds of man and beast.
Its stench strikes your attention before you realize it’s stood beside you but in the fire’s dying glow you can see the heft of a large arm reaching out to grab you.
Roll for initiative.
///
Hwaet.
This word—usually translated as “listen”—marks the opening of Beowulf, one of the rarest surviving stories in Anglo Saxon. In fact, the 3000-line heroic epic was only discovered during the cataloguing of survivors of the eighteenth century library fire that nearly destroyed the single extant copy.
Yet it is as unlikely that it survived as it had even been written down in the first place. Trained scribes were not cheap. Paper didn’t exist (Beowulf is hand-written on calf-skin parchment). People couldn’t read. But they could listen.
This meant that narratives developed under a culture of storytelling: an oral tradition where tales were spoken and sung. Poets would travel from place to place, performing their favourite stories for disparate audiences, learning of new stories and honing their performance through subsequent retellings. Though skilled, the poet was not an artist—these were not her stories, these were just the stories she told.
PEOPLE COULDN’T READ. BUT THEY COULD LISTEN
Over time, the stories would evolve: through mutating multiple tellings, through hundreds of different poets telling their preferred versions, through tangents and flourishes loved by the home crowd. Different versions of the same story would cross paths and cross-pollinate. The story lived—a memetic, quantum entity not to be enslaved in pen and ink.
Yet every so often, someone would invest the great resources of time and expense to have one of these stories written down. This facsimile was a mere moment in time, like the photograph of a ghost departing. Several manuscripts might tell the same story but they have each been captured in different places, in different times. The words, the phrasing, the structures even, are ever so slightly different: uncanny doppelgangers of their own mirror image.
One of the best examples of this is Sir Orfeo—a medieval retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, replete with otherworldly fairy king and machinations of court politics. Three distinct manuscript versions exist and while each pair shares nigh-identical features, it is clear that none of them are directly related. In fact, it’s my opinion that J. R. R. Tolkien’s greatest work is his version of the “perfect” Orfeo: an ur-text to father the others.
Today, the brand of authority is everywhere. Even in the field of writing where the listener is most likely to retell it herself—that of comedy—there is still a thorough sense of parental ownership in the creation of jokes. Joke theft is viciously decried.
It would seem that oral culture has died, selectively bred into extinction. But I believe it still lives. Around the gaming table, its ballads are sung to the clatter of falling dice.
///
Tabletop roleplay is difficult to directly compare to other media. Usually, a number of players will each take on the role of a single character, the same way an actor assumes a role in a play. Another player becomes everything else, as a stage manager might control the set design and the stage directions, as a director might direct the responses of the extras. Unsurprisingly, this more complex role is often titled the Games Master, or Dungeon Master, or Keeper, or Referee, or whatever is canonical to the game at hand.
But where a traditional play is intended to be performed to an audience, a roleplaying session is like an improvised radio play where the actors are its audience.
BALLADS ARE SUNG TO THE CLATTER OF FALLING DICE
Late last year, Paradox Interactive bought White Wolf Publishing—the house behind the monolithic World of Darkness roleplaying games. The series had begun in 1991 with Vampire: the Masquerade, and although I’ve never played it myself, its cover of a single resplendent red rose on a stark field of verdant mausoleum marble sticks firmly in my mind. While not as old as Dungeons & Dragons (itself having recently published its fifth core edition), White Wolf’s systems and mythologies remain some of the most popular properties in roleplay publishing.
Within six weeks of owning White Wolf, Paradox rebranded their current line. Fair enough, the distinction between classic World of Darkness and new World of Darkness was somewhat unwieldy. Now called Chronicles of Darkness, it not only shows their lineage but also implies an increased importance on the stories told.
It’s around gaming tables that these Chronicles will manifest: using the patterns and shorthand taught by the books, recognized by the people who have never read them.
///
Barely a fortnight into 2016, Wizards of the Coast announced the DMs Guild. It’s an in-house marketplace for Dungeons & Dragons players to create and sell their own material using controlled D&D intellectual property. This would allow Dungeon Masters to use some of the game’s more iconic creatures, such as the displacer beast or the beholder, while providing them safety from the company’s more perilous creatures: its legal team.
Rather than merely providing a platform for crowdsourcing of ideas, Wizards are shining a beacon to all players of the game with the DMs Guild. Pulling together as many story seeds as they are able could considerably catalyze the narrative potential that thrives within an oral culture.
Relatedly, one of the biggest elements of the medieval oral culture—especially when we see its evidence in the poems that have been written down—is that the audience of the story is a considerable driving force behind its evolution. The same is true when it comes to tabletop role-playing games. It might appear obvious on the surface considering the improvised telling of a collaborative story. After all, the compact audience are directly making choices about the protagonists’ interaction with the world. Yet the structures of the game systems themselves promote a deeper, subtler shaping of the audience interests.
AN INCREASED IMPORTANCE ON THE STORIES TOLD
Any different group will have its own preferences regarding the elements of play: a preference for sneaking over combat, for political posturing over wilderness exploration. The elements that the players are less interested in can be increasingly abstracted, dealt with by the whim of a dice roll in the wings—the critical fumble that led to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s death in Hamlet (1603), for instance. The elements that players are more interested in will be foregrounded in play. Not only does this happen through overt choice, but the increased attention will iteratively improve the players’ skill and invariably lead to more challenges of a similar sort.
The ways in which both tabletop games and orally-transmitted stories evolve by audience interest plays along an interesting interstice between flexibility and freedom. Inasmuch as the stories shift based on local interest, they do so by adhering to remarkably regular forms. This exploration of form is something that has remained a mainstay of poetry until modern times. That applies even when shifts in fashion are taken into account, such as how the 1066 invasion of England meant the French style of rhyming couplets pushed the alliterative English form outwards and upwards. Creativity stems from the boundaries enforced by formulaic restriction.
It’s a careful line to tread. In role-playing adventure design, one of the greatest sins is that of “railroading”—i.e. restricting player agency to a choice of forwards or stop. Yet some of the strongest designs come from deftly playing with a classic structure. Innovation and originality stand clear in the shadows of a familiar space.
The structures of roleplaying and of oral culture themselves are also echoed at sentence level. If you read a lot of Chaucer, you’ll find the phrase ‘for the nones’ crop up with regularity. Verbally it means ‘did you know,’ but linguistically it mostly exists to carry the meter of the line—to settle the rhythm and enable the rhyme. Similar verbal cues occur in roleplaying. From reference to character statistics like Humanity to instructions to players to ‘make a pull’ or ‘roll for initiative,’ these cues serve to ease the transition between the primarily narrative-driven aspects of the telling and the mechanically-powered parts of the story. The common tongue of stock phrases ushers the change of focus, interrupting without interfering.
But above all, medieval fiction and the stories derived from it have an intense awareness of their past, a thorough understanding of their own nature. Promoting the unobtrusive self-aware elements of oral culture in tabletop roleplaying will provide better sessions, better stories. At the very least, it helps to be conscious of the connection between the style of story and its strengths.
Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings (1954) to provide a modern mythology that he felt had been lost with the dwindling oral culture of his beloved medieval era. Tabletop roleplaying began by attempting to retell stories like The Lord of the Rings. But rather than simply reinvigorating the heroism of Tolkien’s tales and the idiosyncrasies of his cultures, it has breathed new life into a pattern long thought lost. It’s revived an oral culture.
Canterbury Tales image via Wikimedia
D&D image via Youtube
Orfeo image via Wikimedia
Campfire image via FlickrA five-year-old girl is in critical condition after being mauled by as many as three Rottweilers in at her home in Pelham, Ont., near Niagara Falls, in what police have described as a "horrific accident."
The child had surgery on Friday night at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children — and was reported to be back in surgery on Saturday afternoon.
The dogs that attacked the little girl belonged to the family.
Niagara Regional Police say the mauling occurred at about 5:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon.
The child was by herself, police say, when the dogs attacked.
The child was rushed to the Welland County General Hospital. Once stabilized she was then airlifted to Toronto.
Det. Richard Gauthier, who is leading the investigation for the Niagara force said emergency workers told him the girl has "so many injuries [they] can't even list them."
Gauthier told CBC News that police are "trying to make some sense of what happened."
He said the attack was a "horrific accident," adding this type of thing is "very rare."
According to a news release from the police, "three dogs were removed from the property by the Welland Humane Society and are being held pending the police investigation."
On Saturday, neighbours told CBC News the dogs have been a problem in the past.
One woman said she doesn't want the dogs returned — that they've attacked others. One neighbour, she said, had to hide in her garage to get away from the dogs.
Another neighbour said the dogs have been allowed to run loose, in spite of a big dog pen on the property.
But Gauthier said there are "no documented incidents with these animals." He said neither the local animal control nor Niagara Regional Police had ever received a complaint about the dogs.
The family is reported to have four children, including the five-year-old who was attacked. The youngest child is a newborn.
Police said the investigation is continuing and could not say if any charges will be laid.About Me
Connect
Hi! I'm Lucy. In August 2012, I set off by bus and train on a solo, low-carbon adventure across North America with a focus on landscape architecture. Along the way, I visited over 150 award-winning landscape architecture sites, picked apart the features of a successful city, and navigated the--often scarce and confusing--public transit web of a car-loving nation. As of March 2013, my extended travels |
guests in the cities where we’re currently driving right now,” Krafcik said. “I think that’s a really important point. We’ve had a lot of different users and we’ve been listening carefully on how to improve self-driving technology.”
As for whether the company will have steering wheels and pedals in the initial versions of its cars, Krafcik said that because of the regulatory limitations of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, cars have to have steering wheels right now. However, Waymo’s goal is to eventually get to a point where passengers don’t have the ability to take over control of the system.NARINDER NANU via Getty Images Indian Punjab state Health and Family Welfare Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani addresses journalists at Circuit House in Amritsar on January 20, 2014. Jyani visited the city to attend a meeting with health department officials to improve health facilities available in the state. AFP PHOTO/NARINDER NANU (Photo credit should read NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images)
CHANDIGARH -- Bizzare it may sound but Punjab Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani does not consider'sharab' (booze) an intoxicant.
"I don't think'sharab' (booze) is an intoxicant. You cannot call alcohol an intoxicant. It is (consumed) there in the army, parties.
"The government gives licences for manufacturing liquor, we auction liquor vends. As long as it is done, sharab cannot be called 'nasha' (intoxicant)," Jyani told journalists during an interaction after inaugurating a de-addiction centre in his constituency Badal.
Incidentally, Punjab has been facing a problem of drug addiction, which once prompted Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi to claim 7 out of every 10 youth in the state were addicts.Adaptation of RFC 1149 for IPv6
RFC 6214
Independent Submission B. Carpenter Request for Comments: 6214 Univ. of Auckland Category: Informational R. Hinden ISSN: 2070-1721 Check Point Software 1 April 2011 Adaptation of RFC 1149 for IPv6 Abstract This document specifies a method for transmission of IPv6 datagrams over the same medium as specified for IPv4 datagrams in RFC 1149. Status of This Memo This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes. This is a contribution to the RFC Series, independently of any other RFC stream. The RFC Editor has chosen to publish this document at its discretion and makes no statement about its value for implementation or deployment. Documents approved for publication by the RFC Editor are not a candidate for any level of Internet Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741. Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6214. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Carpenter & Hinden Informational [Page 1] RFC 6214 IPv6 and RFC 1149 1 April 2011 Table of Contents 1. Introduction......................... 2 2. Normative Notation...................... 2 3. Detailed Specification.................... 2 3.1. Maximum Transmission Unit................. 2 3.2. Frame Format....................... 3 3.3. Address Configuration................... 3 3.4. Multicast......................... 4 4. Quality-of-Service Considerations............... 4 5. Routing and Tunneling Considerations............. 4 6. Multihoming Considerations.................. 5 7. Internationalization Considerations.............. 5 8. Security Considerations.................... 5 9. IANA Considerations...................... 5 10. Acknowledgements....................... 5 11. References.......................... 6 11.1. Normative References................... 6 11.2. Informative References.................. 6 1. Introduction As shown by [RFC6036], many service providers are actively planning to deploy IPv6 to alleviate the imminent shortage of IPv4 addresses. This will affect all service providers who have implemented [RFC1149]. It is therefore necessary, indeed urgent, to specify a method of transmitting IPv6 datagrams [RFC2460] over the RFC 1149 medium, rather than obliging those service providers to migrate to a different medium. This document offers such a specification. 2. Normative Notation The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119]. 3. Detailed Specification Unless otherwise stated, the provisions of [RFC1149] and [RFC2460] apply throughout. 3.1. Maximum Transmission Unit As noted in RFC 1149, the MTU is variable, and generally increases with increased carrier age. Since the minimum link MTU allowed by RFC 2460 is 1280 octets, this means that older carriers MUST be used for IPv6. RFC 1149 does not provide exact conversion factors between age and milligrams, or between milligrams and octets. These Carpenter & Hinden Informational [Page 2] RFC 6214 IPv6 and RFC 1149 1 April 2011 conversion factors are implementation dependent, but as an illustrative example, we assume that the 256 milligram MTU suggested in RFC 1149 corresponds to an MTU of 576 octets. In that case, the typical MTU for the present specification will be at least 256*1280/576, which is approximately 569 milligrams. Again as an illustrative example, this is likely to require a carrier age of at least 365 days. Furthermore, the MTU issues are non-linear with carrier age. That is, a young carrier can only carry small payloads, an adult carrier can carry jumbograms [RFC2675], and an elderly carrier can again carry only smaller payloads. There is also an effect on transit time depending on carrier age, affecting bandwidth-delay product and hence the performance of TCP. 3.2. Frame Format RFC 1149 does not specify the use of any link layer tag such as an Ethertype or, worse, an OSI Link Layer or SNAP header [RFC1042]. Indeed, header snaps are known to worsen the quality of service provided by RFC 1149 carriers. In the interests of efficiency and to avoid excessive energy consumption while packets are in flight through the network, no such link layer tag is required for IPv6 packets either. The frame format is therefore a pure IPv6 packet as defined in [RFC2460], encoded and decoded as defined in [RFC1149]. One important consequence of this is that in a dual-stack deployment [RFC4213], the receiver MUST inspect the IP protocol version number in the first four bits of every packet, as the only means to demultiplex a mixture of IPv4 and IPv6 packets. 3.3. Address Configuration The lack of any form of link layer protocol means that link-local addresses cannot be formed, as there is no way to address anything except the other end of the link. Similarly, there is no method to map an IPv6 unicast address to a link layer address, since there is no link layer address in the first place. IPv6 Neighbor Discovery [RFC4861] is therefore impossible. Implementations SHOULD NOT even try to use stateless address auto- configuration [RFC4862]. This recommendation is because this mechanism requires a stable interface identifier formed in a way compatible with [RFC4291]. Unfortunately the transmission elements specified by RFC 1149 are not generally stable enough for this and may become highly unstable in the presence of a cross-wind. Carpenter & Hinden Informational [Page 3] RFC 6214 IPv6 and RFC 1149 1 April 2011 In most deployments, either the end points of the link remain unnumbered, or a /127 prefix and static addresses MAY be assigned. See [IPv6-PREFIXLEN] for further discussion. 3.4. Multicast RFC 1149 does not specify a multicast address mapping. It has been reported that attempts to implement IPv4 multicast delivery have resulted in excessive noise in transmission elements, with subsequent drops of packet digests. At the present time, an IPv6 multicast mapping has not been specified, to avoid such problems. 4. Quality-of-Service Considerations [RFC2549] is also applicable in the IPv6 case. However, the author of RFC 2549 did not take account of the availability of the Differentiated Services model [RFC2474]. IPv6 packets carrying a non-default Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) value in their Traffic Class field [RFC2460] MUST be specially encoded using green or blue ink such that the DSCP is externally visible. Note that red ink MUST NOT be used to avoid confusion with the usage of red paint specified in RFC 2549. RFC 2549 did not consider the impact on quality of service of different types of carriers. There is a broad range. Some are very fast but can only carry small payloads and transit short distances, others are slower but carry large payloads and transit very large distances. It may be appropriate to select the individual carrier for a packet on the basis of its DSCP value. Indeed, different carriers will implement different per-hop behaviors according to RFC 2474. 5. Routing and Tunneling Considerations Routing carriers through the territory of similar carriers, without peering agreements, will sometimes cause abrupt route changes, looping packets, and out-of-order delivery. Similarly, routing carriers through the territory of predatory carriers may potentially cause severe packet loss. It is strongly recommended that these factors be considered in the routing algorithm used to create carrier routing tables. Implementers should consider policy-based routing to ensure reliable packet delivery by routing around areas where territorial and predatory carriers are prevalent. There is evidence that some carriers have a propensity to eat other carriers and then carry the eaten payloads. Perhaps this provides a new way to tunnel an IPv4 packet in an IPv6 payload, or vice versa. Carpenter & Hinden Informational [Page 4] RFC 6214 IPv6 and RFC 1149 1 April 2011 However, the decapsulation mechanism is unclear at the time of this writing. 6. Multihoming Considerations Some types of carriers are notoriously good at homing. Surprisingly, this property is not mentioned in RFC 1149. Unfortunately, they prove to have no talent for multihoming, and in fact enter a routing loop whenever multihoming is attempted. This appears to be a fundamental restriction on the topologies in which both RFC 1149 and the present specification can be deployed. 7. Internationalization Considerations In some locations, such as New Zealand, a significant proportion of carriers are only able to execute short hops, and only at times when the background level of photon emission is extremely low. This will impact the availability and throughput of the solution in such locations. 8. Security Considerations The security considerations of [RFC1149] apply. In addition, recent experience suggests that the transmission elements are exposed to many different forms of denial-of-service attacks, especially when perching. Also, the absence of link layer identifiers referred to above, combined with the lack of checksums in the IPv6 header, basically means that any transmission element could be mistaken for any other, with no means of detecting the substitution at the network layer. The use of an upper-layer security mechanism of some kind seems like a really good idea. There is a known risk of infection by the so-called H5N1 virus. Appropriate detection and quarantine measures MUST be available. 9. IANA Considerations This document requests no action by IANA. However, registry clean-up may be necessary after interoperability testing, especially if multicast has been attempted. 10. Acknowledgements Steve Deering was kind enough to review this document for conformance with IPv6 requirements. We acknowledge in advance the many errata in this document that will be reported by Alfred Hoenes. This document was produced using the xml2rfc tool [RFC2629]. Carpenter & Hinden Informational [Page 5] RFC 6214 IPv6 and RFC 1149 1 April 2011 11. References 11.1. Normative References [RFC1149] Waitzman, D., "Standard for the transmission of IP datagrams on avian carriers", RFC 1149, April 1990. [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. [RFC2460] Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification", RFC 2460, December 1998. [RFC2474] Nichols, K., Blake, S., Baker, F., and D. Black, "Definition of the Differentiated Services Field (DS Field) in the IPv4 and IPv6 Headers", RFC 2474, December 1998. [RFC2675] Borman, D., Deering, S., and R. Hinden, "IPv6 Jumbograms", RFC 2675, August 1999. [RFC4213] Nordmark, E. and R. Gilligan, "Basic Transition Mechanisms for IPv6 Hosts and Routers", RFC 4213, October 2005. 11.2. Informative References [IPv6-PREFIXLEN] Kohno, M., Nitzan, B., Bush, R., Matsuzaki, Y., Colitti, L., and T. Narten, "Using 127-bit IPv6 Prefixes on Inter-Router Links", Work in Progress, October 2010. [RFC1042] Postel, J. and J. Reynolds, "Standard for the transmission of IP datagrams over IEEE 802 networks", STD 43, RFC 1042, February 1988. [RFC2549] Waitzman, D., "IP over Avian Carriers with Quality of Service", RFC 2549, April 1999. [RFC2629] Rose, M., "Writing I-Ds and RFCs using XML", RFC 2629, June 1999. [RFC4291] Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture", RFC 4291, February 2006. Carpenter & Hinden Informational [Page 6] RFC 6214 IPv6 and RFC 1149 1 April 2011 [RFC4861] Narten, T., Nordmark, E., Simpson, W., and H. Soliman, "Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 4861, September 2007. [RFC4862] Thomson, S., Narten, T., and T. Jinmei, "IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration", RFC 4862, September 2007. [RFC6036] Carpenter, B. and S. Jiang, "Emerging Service Provider Scenarios for IPv6 Deployment", RFC 6036, October 2010. Authors' Addresses Brian Carpenter Department of Computer Science University of Auckland PB 92019 Auckland, 1142 New Zealand EMail: [email protected] Robert M. Hinden Check Point Software Technologies, Inc. 800 Bridge Parkway Redwood City, CA 94065 US Phone: +1.650.387.6118 EMail: [email protected] Carpenter & Hinden Informational [Page 7]Last month, Airbnb said it was going to start sharing anonymized information about its home-sharing listings with city officials, part of a larger campaign to win over regulators after the company won a critical political victory in San Francisco.
Airbnb today made good on that promise, releasing anonymized listing information about thousands of New York City rentals on the platform. The New York Times first reported the news. In response, New York City Council members Jumaane Williams and Helen Rosenthal issued a statement calling the release “a useless disclosure” without “specific, actionable data” on users who are running “illegal hotels.”
Releasing the anonymized information — in this case, tens of thousands of rows of data that can be viewed only by appointment at Airbnb’s New York City office — reflects the change in tone that Airbnb has pursued in recent weeks. The startup, which has raised billions of dollars and is reportedly worth more than $25 billion, needs the help of regulators in drafting laws that will let it operate in cities around the globe.
In New York City, one of Airbnb’s largest markets, the company has had limited success. It has been locked in a contentious battle with the City Council, which wants Airbnb to either start shutting down “illegal hotel”-like listings or to hand over information to the city so the government can shut down those listings itself.
Under a 2010 state law, it’s illegal for a host to rent an apartment for less than 30 days unless that host is present, although this doesn’t count for owners of single- and two-family units.
In a statement provided to Re/code (and available here), council members Williams and Rosenthal, representing parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan respectively, criticized Airbnb’s release as a cynical maneuver to get credit for being transparent.
“Airbnb only provided ‘anonymized’ data of its users who break the law — in other words, a useless disclosure that will do nothing to curb illegal hotels and tenant harassment,” the statement reads. “We have asked Airbnb to do one of two things: Show that they have a structure in place to require users to comply with our laws, and/or provide actionable data, such as addresses of illegally listed units that enforcement agencies can use. To date, we are sad to say that they haven’t done either one of these things.”
In response, an Airbnb spokesperson told Re/code, “Helen Rosenthal’s solution would be to fine middle class New Yorkers $10,000 while they are just trying to make ends meet. We think a good policy solution is to try to help regular New Yorkers have an economic lifeline. We look forward to working with the city to put middle-class New Yorkers first.”
The data Airbnb provided does not offer much that’s new or all that interesting, aside from a revenue breakdown by the number of listings per host. According to Airbnb, 41 percent of revenue generated by people who rent out entire homes comes from hosts with two or more listings. Williams, who chairs the City Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings, has previously expressed frustration with Airbnb for not targeting these operators.
In a blog post accompanying today’s data release, the company offered a high-level overview of the information and a defense for why it has not made more data public, or at least more easily accessible.
“Consumers expect and deserve that online platforms will protect their privacy,” the post reads. “Providing this data to the public would violate privacy rights, potentially expose hard-working families to the risk of identity theft and would not assist New York leaders as they seek to craft sound policies.”
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has previously accused Airbnb of enabling “illegal hotels” to proliferate in New York City, and his office and Airbnb reached an agreement last year for the company to hand over anonymized user data. The attorney general’s office told Re/code that today’s data release was unrelated to last year’s arrangement.
Indeed, last month, Schneiderman said that Airbnb’s “Community Compact,” the public promise that it made to release the anonymized information that it did today, was “a transparent ploy by Airbnb to act like a good corporate citizen when it is anything but.”We’re going to do what’s best, and we’re going to make every decision based on what’s best for the Anaheim Ducks to achieve their goal, and our goal is obviously to win the Stanley Cup.
Anaheim Ducks‘ general manager Bob Murray’s words on June 14th, 2016, as he introduced his newly-minted head coach Randy Carlyle. The message was clear from the get-go of the introductory press conference — Carlyle’s sole purpose was to win a Stanley Cup in the very near future. That direction may have changed, as far as the 2016-17 season is concerned.
The Ducks have struggled to produce offense outside of a handful of players all season long, and their general manager did next to nothing to address that issue at the deadline. In Murray’s view, Patrick Eaves’ addition for a conditional second round draft pick tackles that need.
There was no splashy move. No Matt Duchene/Gabriel Landeskog for Sami Vatanen/Cam Fowler/”Young defenseman X”. Understandable, to a degree — a salary cap sheet filled to the brim left Murray’s hands tied. Factor in the exorbitant asking price that Colorado Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic was putting forth, and you have a deal that’s dead on the table.
One case made today against waiting to trade Duchene. Team may pay rental price plus off-season price in order to get him for playoffs. — Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) March 1, 2017
Conversely, there were other deals to be made at a much lower cost. The Nashville Predators added P.A Parenteau’s $1.25 million cap hit for a sixth-round pick. Murray could have finagled a move of that nature. He did, in part, adding Eaves’ minuscule $1 million cap hit with no moved salary. The relative cost, or lack thereof, in Eaves’ addition, may have been its biggest driving force.
Deadline Silence Signifies Shift
Even so, Murray could have gotten creative to absorb a little more salary. A move to send down Jared Boll’s $900 thousand cap hit to the minors would have been a good place to start. Other GM’s have gotten creative in the past, so what stopped Murray, a former executive of the year, from flexing his managerial muscle?
The truth may be disappointing to some — Anaheim brass may have moved on from the idea that their club can win the Cup in 2016-17. Can you blame them?
http://gty.im/451179004
The Ducks have been a model of inconsistency all season long, struggling to beat elite teams while loading up on points against weaker clubs. Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf have disappointed, and even Ryan Kesler has tailed off from his scorching hot start to the season.
Murray’s hesitance to part ways in future assets of any kind might seem overly prudent at face value, but above all, may reveal his lack of confidence that this core can go all the way in this particular season.
Looking Ahead
Look around the league, and you find plenty of examples of GM’s showing the utmost faith in their cores. Chuck Fletcher and Brian MacLellan, both operating under similarly closing Cup windows as Anaheim, went all in at the deadline, giving out draft picks like candy in order to bolster their rosters.
Had Murray felt the same way about his own roster, then perhaps he would have acted accordingly. He’s shown a willingness to make big moves in the past, so the thought isn’t that outlandish.
As far as the 2016-17 Ducks are concerned, however, it looks as though they’ll be playing with house money. Murray will address the logjam at defense when the expansion draft rolls around, and will probably look to re-tool parts of his roster as the summer progresses. His vocal criticisms of his superstars leave one to wonder what their future holds in the Ducks’ organization, and what this team will look like next fall. One thing is certain — this franchise has its sights set squarely on the future.Children of the '80s, rejoice.
"DuckTales," the beloved animated series, will be remade for a new audience, Disney announced today.
"'DuckTales' has a special place in Disney's TV animation history," said Marc Buhaj, Disney XD's Senior Vice President of Programming and General Manager, in a statement. "It drew its inspiration from Disney Legend Carl Barks' comic books and through its storytelling and artistic showmanship, set an enduring standard for animated entertainment that connects with both kids and adults. Our new series will bring that same energy and adventurous spirit to a new generation."
WATCH: 'Frozen Fever' Brings Anna, Elsa and Olaf Back to the Big Screen
The new series will again feature the adventures of Scrooge McDuck and his grandnephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, as well as Donald Duck.
Other characters that will return are Duckworth, Gyro Gearloose, Launchpad McQuack, Flintheart Glomgold, Magica DeSpell and Poe, Ma Beagle and the Beagle Boys (Burger Beagle, Bouncer Beagle), Mrs. Beakley and Webbigail Vanderquack.
The reboot of the show, which originally aired from 1987-1990, is set to launch in 2017 on Disney XD channels worldwide.
Disney is the parent company of ABC News.The scene is set, a late evening in March at Franklin Garden’s, the venue for the Aviva Premiership rugby union clash between Northampton Saints and London Wasps’. There are currently thirty-three minutes played and it’s 13-20 in favour of Wasps’. The play resumes with a cross-field kick.
The Northampton players rush forward. The ball is caught by Northampton’s Samu Manoa, who plays it off to wing George North. The Welshman breaks at speed to score the try. He twists and turns and avoids the first tackle. The Wasps’ number 10 catches him around his mid-rift and brings him crashing to the ground, but North somehow manages to reach out and score the try.
As he crosses the line the knee of the on-running Nathan Hughes’, the Wasps’ number 8 collides with his head. George North lies on the field motionless. He remained out cold for a short while, before being stretchered off the field, wearing a neck brace.
The image of North, unresponsive, lying flat in the goal line area is unsettling. What makes it truly horrific is that this isn’t the first time it has happened to North. This is the third time it has happened to him, in the last four months.
During the Wales v England Six Nations match, North suffered a double concussion. During a charge down around the thirty minute mark of the game, North received an accidental kick to the head from Dave Attwood. He left the field for examination.
Eight minutes later he returned and around the sixty minute mark he suffered the second concussion whilst trying to prevent Mike Brown from scoring a try for England. North appeared to be out cold on that occasion as well.
There are those die-hard fans who will say these incidents are an occupational hazard for rugby players. There are those who will even claim that North inspired the subsequent win. After the North incident, the referee sent Hughes off for foul play and Northampton came from behind to win and maintain their spot on top of the premiership. Despite all this rhetoric, the incident highlights the dangers of contact sport and the lack of understanding or proper precautionary measures being taken to protect players.
In the immediate aftermath of the Northampton v Wasps’ match, Northampton’s director of Rugby; Jim Mallinder was confident North would play in the forthcoming European Champions Cup quarter-final clash at Clermont Auvergne, citing North’s ability to join in with a post-match sing-song in the dressing room.
Mallinder later stated, that North would not be involved in any rugby until he was cleared under a medical opinion. Since then a neurologist has advised North to take four weeks off from rugby pending a re-assessment in late April. However, the International Rugby Board’s (IRB) concussion advisor, Professor Willie Stewart advised that North could endanger his career if he played again during the current season.
It is concerning that there is conflicting advice being provided by the medical experts. North is the leading try scorer for Northampton and his absence will be a blow to their European ambitions. A cynic would say that the neurologists’ opinion favours the club agenda rather than taking into account the player’s welfare.
It raises serious questions about the duty of care to professional rugby players. A study by the International Rugby Board (IRB) indicates that over the last 15 years there has been, on average a 10% increase in player weight across positions in international rugby and a 5% drop in sprint times over 10 metres.
Modern rugby players are bigger and faster than ever before, and although it may be acceptable to bulk oneself up, players are shortening their careers as the risk of concussion and serious injury are greater when you have two teams of behemoths ready and willing to run through one another, taking the bigger hits, in the name of competitive sport.
Furthermore individuals within the professional game are having serious doubts about how concussion and the physicality of the game is being dealt with. In 2012, Barry O’Driscoll, uncle to Brian O’Driscoll, resigned from his position on the IRB’s Medical Advisory Board. The underlying reason for his resignation regarded the IRB’s handling of cases of concussion using their Pitch-Side Concussion Assessment (PSCA).
Under this system any player who is suspected of being concussed has to be removed from the pitch to undergo a five minute assessment for medical staff, who decide whether the player is fit to return or not. It is a subjective test, and as in the case of George North you wonder if other overriding factors, might determine the return of a player to the field.
Rugby Union represents a substantial source of income for the IRB, the risks have to be managed carefully otherwise the sport runs the risk of being labelled nothing more than ‘crash-ball,’ for money. The worry is two-fold, firstly that the mismanagement of concussion incidents in the sport may result in a high profile injury, death or legal action.
Secondly, with physically enhanced players populating the amateur game, it too is liable to produce a serious injury or legal action. As recent as 2013, The Guardian reported five cases of players under the age of twenty who died as a result of injuries sustained in amateur rugby.
Advancements in training methods, nutrition and strapping physiques are a staple of modern rugby. We may not see this trend diminish anytime soon but the sport on a whole has to figure out an effective system for dealing with the consequences of a game played by such able bodied individuals. It needs to sort this out sooner rather than later or risk, ‘concussion,’ becoming a nail in a potential coffin for professional rugby.Us Brits aren't exactly renowned for our willingness to parler français during our trips across the Channel. It's an inexact science, but while a 2014 report suggested that 54 per cent of Europeans claim to speak at least one other language, that figure falls to just 38 per cent for UK residents.
Of course we've got an excuse. The rest of the world speaks English. Indeed, as the map below shows, it is spoken by more than half the population in 45 countries beyond the UK, including The Philippines, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Singapore, Austria, Finland, Malaysia, Belgium and Greece.
45 countries where at least half of the population speak English
Barbados Ireland Marshall Islands New Zealand Jamaica Australia Nauru United States Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Dominica Philippines Palau Denmark Grenada Guyana Netherlands Sweden Norway Malta Trinidad and Tobago The Bahamas Suriname Canada Israel Vanuatu Sierra Leone Liberia Belize Singapore Antigua and Barbuda Saint Kitts and Nevis Austria Cyprus Germany Finland Ghana Malaysia Switzerland Belgium Slovenia Micronesia Luxembourg Nigeria Greece Estonia
According to David Crystal's book English as a Global Language, more than a third of residents in Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Croatia, Nepal, Latvia and Italy speak it, so you should also get by in those countries without dusting off your phrasebook (what's Nepali for "two beers, please"?).
"My hovercraft is full of eels": Beware of Hungarian phrasebooks Credit: ALAMY
But where will you really struggle? China, for one. Around 10 million people - in a total population of 1.3 billion - speak English. That's fewer than one in 100.
Don't venture too far in China without a phrasebook
It's a suprise to see that fewer than 3 per cent of folk in The Gambia, where English is an offical langauge and tourism a major industry, speak it, according to Crystal.
Colombia, Brazil, Russia, Argentina and Chile are also places where it pays to brush up on the local lingo. Figures are not available for numerous other countries, including Peru, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Vietnam and Indonesia.
13 countries where fewer than 10 per cent of the population speak EnglishNews Release 15-031
Researchers improve efficiency of human walking
Unpowered exoskeleton developed by Carnegie Mellon and North Carolina State researchers helps individuals walk using less energy
A passive-elastic ankle exoskeleton was shown to reduce the energy cost of human walking.
April 1, 2015
This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.
Humans have evolved to be incredibly efficient at walking. In fact, simulations of human locomotion show that walking on level ground and at a steady speed should theoretically require no power input at all.
But anyone who works on their feet or has taken an arduous hike knows otherwise. In fact, people expend more energy during walking than any other activity in daily life, and for the elderly and those with mobility issues, that energy can be precious.
For decades, engineers have envisioned systems that could make walking easier. In fact, so many researchers have tried to build unpowered exoskeletons and failed that it was hotly debated in the field whether it was even possible to improve the efficiency of walking without adding an external energy source.
In news reported today in Nature, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and North Carolina State University have demonstrated an unpowered ankle exoskeleton that reduces the metabolic cost of walking by approximately 7 percent. The results are roughly the equivalent of taking off a 10-pound backpack, and are equivalent to savings from exoskeletons that use electrically-powered devices. The research was based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation.
"It's a real exciting milestone for the field of assistive devices," said Thomas Roberts, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown University and an expert in the biomechanics of locomotion, who was not involved in the research. "They've taken an assistive device and lowered the cost of human walking. That's kind of a big deal because walking is already really cheap, and they did it with a very simple, but clever device."
The device is the result of eight years of patient and incremental work, mapped out on a whiteboard by Steve Collins and Greg Sawicki when they were graduate students together at the University of Michigan in 2007.
"Walking is more complicated than you might think," said Collins, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon. "Everyone knows how to walk, but you don't actually know how you walk."
Collins, Sawicki and co-author M. Bruce Wiggin succeeded where so many in the past had failed by performing careful analyses of the biomechanics of human walking and then designing a simple, ultra-light-weight device that relieved the calf muscle of its efforts when it wasn't doing any productive work.
Ultrasound imaging studies had revealed that the calf muscle exerts energy not only when propelling the body forward, but also when it performs a clutch-like action, holding the Achilles tendon taut.
"Studies show that the calf muscles are primarily producing force isometrically, without doing any work, during the stance phase of walking, but still using substantial metabolic energy," Collins explained. "This is the opposite of regenerative braking. It's as if every time you push on the brake pedal in your car, you burn a little bit of gas."
With this insight in mind, the team created an ankle exoskeleton that offloads some of the clutching muscle forces of the calf, reducing the overall metabolic rate.
A mechanical clutch engages when the foot is on the ground and disengages when the foot is in the air, to avoid interfering with toe clearance. This clutch takes over the effort of the calf, producing force without using consuming any energy and thereby reducing the overall metabolic rate.
In developing the device, the research team faced a challenge. When you place heavy objects on the legs, there's an initial penalty that increases your energy costs. Previous efforts had not been able to overcome that initial penalty. For that reason, it was critical to the researchers to keep the device light.
Over several years and many iterative designs, the team developed a carbon-fiber design that is ultra-light, yet rugged and functional. The entire device weighs approximately one pound per leg, or less than a work boot.
According to experts, the device is a triumph of elegance, simplicity and bio-specific interventions over complex, over-engineered designs.
"This unexpected and unprecedented result, with the potential to improve such a familiar human activity as walking, was discovered |
had "always been treated as an outsider" and the party was "distant, cold and unfriendly".
Mrs Kamble claimed that while the party "gives the impression of being welcoming for ethnic minorities", it has been a cold house for her.
She accused the party of "snobbery" and claimed that Alliance was "a tight clique of elitist individuals" who have "no time for people who aren't from a certain professional, educational and financial background".
Both women said that they would remain on Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council as independents.
Their resignation reduces the Alliance council group from seven to five members.
Speaking from her Carryduff home last night, a highly emotional Mrs Rice said she believed that she was viewed as "old school Alliance".
The 70-year-old politician said she had been unhappy in the party for some time, but that the decision by the local Alliance council group to nominate councillor Tim Morrow as the next mayor was "the straw that broke the camel's back".
The veteran councillor accused Alliance of reneging on a promise that she would secure the mayoralty when the position fell, for the first time in history, to her party.
"For years in Castlereagh council, the DUP hogged the mayor and deputy mayor positions and the committee chairmanships.
"But that all changed in the new amalgamated council with positions filled in line with the d'Hondt principles.
"The next mayor will be from Alliance and I had been previously told it would be me."
However, Mrs Rice's council colleague, Mr Morrow, was picked instead.
"I didn't plan to leave Alliance just weeks away from the Assembly election but they've left me with no choice," she said. "My heart is broken but, as my son said to me, 'Mum you can't stay in a party which doesn't respect you'."
Accusing the party of "discrimination and ageism", Mrs Rice claimed that she had been marginalised.
She said: "Nine years ago, I took ill with a perforated bowel but I recovered. I also have type 2 diabetes but I'm still in fine health. I've never missed a meeting.
"I'm totally able to do my job and I wouldn't consider being mayor if I didn't think my health was up to it. Yet my party told me that they didn't think I was fit enough for the job.
"They patronised me, telling me to speak to the current mayor, Ulster Unionist Brian Bloomfield, to appreciate how demanding the role was. But I wouldn't budge and that's when things turned nasty."
She claimed she was told she "wasn't an acceptable face for Alliance today".
Mrs Rice said that she hadn't contacted new Alliance leader, Naomi Long, to discuss her current situation even though she had always had a "good relationship" with Mrs Long and her husband Michael, a former Castlereagh council colleague.
Councillor Vasundhara Kamble, who came to Northern Ireland from Mumbai in India, in 1995, has been an Alliance councillor for six years.
"I was co-opted onto the council and then elected in my own right," she said.
"Despite that, I've never felt welcome in the party.
"I know that I'm an outsider so I bend over backwards to be friendly to people but in Alliance, it was never reciprocated.
"The party tried to undermine my confidence and self-worth.
"They were condescending and tried to make me feel like I was stupid."
Mrs Kamble said that she believed that she was looked down upon because she had held low status jobs as a shop assistant and laundry woman.
She said: "Alliance is a tight clique of elitist people. They are snobby.
"They are only friendly to professional people with a certain educational and financial background, people with the right social connections.
"I am pleased now to be free of them."
An Alliance spokesman said allegations of racism or ageism against the party "are without any foundation".
He claimed that internal disciplinary proceedings had been initiated against Councillors Rice and Kamble for voting against their party and with the DUP on a financial issue on Tuesday night.
And he said that the decision on who the party's nominee for mayor would be was wholly democratic.
He said: "The party rejects completely any suggestion that it would allow any form of discrimination by, or towards, any of its members or elected representatives, a fact which is evidenced by the diversity of both within it.
He added: "We are disappointed that another issue which clearly upset two of our elected representatives have resulted in their decision to make such allegations."
Belfast TelegraphA former West New York commissioner has admitted to collecting nearly $150,000 in rental income while being in default of a federal mortgage loan, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Ruben Vargas, 45, obtained a $417,449 mortgage from the Federal Housing Administration in September 2007 to purchase a home at 5512 Grant Place. Vargas then rented out both floors of the two-family home and used the income for personal use, rather than paying off the mortgage, officials said.
Vargas defaulted on the loan less than five months after receiving the mortgage because he was not making his payments on time. He did, however, continue to collect nearly $3,000 monthly from the building's tenants, according to the plea.
Vargas served as a commissioner with the town from May 2011 until January 2015, when he stepped down, citing personal and family matters. A few weeks later, he was hired to head security for the West New York Housing Authority.
Natalia Nova, a spokeswoman for the town, said the Housing Authority is a separate entity. A call to the Housing Authority seeking Vargas' employment status was not immediately returned.
Between March 2008 and December 2013, Vargas admitted to collecting $149,000 in rent and using the money for personal use. By law, if a person is in default of a HUD loan, rental income can only be used for necessary expenses to the property.
This is not the first time Vargas' Grant Place property has come under investigation.
In April 2011, Vargas was issued $10,000 worth of fines and violations for an illegal apartment on the first floor of the building, not having smoke detectors installed, and for having a clogged sewer pipe in the basement.
Fishman's office said HUD paid Vargas' loan, which ultimately totaled about $491,000 after interest.
Vargas will face up to five years in prison and $500,000 in fines when he is sentenced on Aug. 18.
Caitlin Mota may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.Restrict expressibility when iterating
Author: Kasper B. Graversen
[Introduction] [All categories] [All articles] [Edit article ]
Code Readability Coding Guideline Looping Iteration goto foreach while for LINQ
The more restrictive the language mechanisms in use, the more readable the code tends to become. To solidify this claim, we show a number of approaches all implementing "iterate-and-collect logic" over a collection. We discuss each approach and its affects on readability. We then show how to express more complicated requirements when looping.
Please show your support by sharing and voting:
Table of Content
1. Introduction
What makes code readable? That is a very hard question to which many answers are correct. There are many facets to code readability, and that's what makes it interesting to discuss, study and so forth. One perspective is enforcing a coding style of the least expressibility.
Iteration is a very general subject, but it's something we happen to do a lot in code. And quite interestingly, iterations can be performed in a lot of ways. This means you are bound to be exposed to virtually all approaches in a larger code base.
When writing a program, you want to write it in such a fashion that future readers mentally are taken in a certain direction when they read the code. Preferably, readers are taken by their hands, and shown bit by bit, a complex task broken down in smaller steps. Using construct with limited expressibility naturally leads the reader down a narrower garden path. With less expressive constructs or language mechanisms, the ability to introduce complexity is reduced. Less complex code involves less possibilities/choices, and hence is easier to overview.
I happen to like narrow garden paths. It takes away my worries. Just like the picture above. In order to get from A to B, simply follow the stair case (to heaven?). When I need to fix a bug and I see the code is inside a loop-construct that is so extensive that it can not fit a screen, I get a little nervous divulging into the beast. And depending on which looping mechanism is used, the more things I tend to worry about. I cannot help but get a little paranoid. The looping, how is it done? Are all elements of an array being visited? Are some visited twice (by design - or by accident?) etc.
We investigate 8 different ways to iterate over, and perform, some business logic to a collection. The examples gradually decrease in expressibility, while at the same time increase in readability.
Then, we turn to more complex business rules where simple iteration does not suffice and show one way I've found to combat complexity.
2. Simple iteration over all elements of a collection
Our first section deals with iterating over a collection and performing an action on each element. Bear in mind, that the code examples have been distilled to their absolute minimum. Hence to understand that there really is a difference between the examples, you have to envision a code body of roughly a few pages resting inside each loop body.
2.1 The goto approach
To make my point clearer, we start in the extreme. While I have never met code like this - thank god - it illustrates nicely the very point of this article. So now, what does this code do?
public string Gotos(int[] numbers) { string res = ""; int i = 0; agn: res += numbers[i]; i++; if (i == numbers.Length) goto stp; goto agn; stp: return res; }
With goto we have the ultimate freedom. We can jump out of scopes in a completely different way than with return and break. We can skip multiple nested loops, and jump half up a method body. With goto we can simulate all looping constructs, and even continue, break and return. Thankfully, goto's have gotten a bad reputation and are not as common as they once were. I rarely use them, but there was a time (in the mid 1970s) where the war raged between "structured programming" (Dijkstra) and "go to programming" (where amongst others, D. E. Knuth showed situations where the use of gotos would be more advantageous). The use of `goto´'s was ingrained in developers back then. I wasn't really around in that sphere at the time, so I can only speculate. But I'll bet it having to do with performance (due to much slower hardware), and having to do with explicit memory allocation of the languages.
Glancing down the code (while imagining it being several pages long), the structure does not easily reveal that we are dealing with a loop. There is no indented scope ( {} -block). Purposely I named the labels badly to make it harder to read the small code snippet, to really make you feel the pain. You can substitute agn with again and stp with stop to make it a bit more readable.
Before I reveal what the method does, lets look at a more readable version.
2.2 The unbounded while approach
Replacing the labels and goto with an endless loop is a step in the right direction. Certainly now the keyword while outright reveals that something is happening more than once. But how many times are we doing something? Well, that will depend on the number of break, continue and nested branching structures within the while-body.
public string While(int[] numbers) { string res = ""; int i = 0; while (true) { res += numbers[i]; i++; if (i == numbers.Length) break; } return res; }
The structure of the code does not reveal whether we have started an endless process, for example a background worker thread, or we are performing some repetition a limited amount of times. Since we are just iterating a finite collection we are misusing, or the very least misleading the reader. The while is far more expressive a construct than what we need.
There is nothing wrong with using an endless loop - if you have logic requiring a such. In the scope of code that iterates, this is rarely the case.
2.3 The bounded while approach
This next example is also expressing our logic using a while statement. Contrary to the unbounded version we now clearly state we iterate a number of times equal to the length of the numbers array.
public string WhileWithBounds(int[] numbers) { string res = ""; int i = -1; while (i < numbers.Length - 1) { // move iteration reference(s) i++; // body res += numbers[i]; } return res; }
Notice how the index reference i starts from -1 rather than 0. This is a technique to remedy the problem that arises, when a while body contains several continue instructions: Each time you issue a continue, you must remember to first increment/decrement the iteration reference. By incrementing i at the top of the while-body, we ensure progress in each iteration, and thus preventing the code spiralling down into an endless loop.
Another disadvantage of the while loop is that we have to define our "iteration reference" outside the scope of the while - and hence it can be re-used further down the method. You should be careful with reusing variables if they serve different purpose. If for nothing else, then because it makes me uncomfortable.
2.4 The bounded for approach
The for construct is the next example to dissect. The looping construct has a number of advantages over the while construct. Most importantly: for better describe our current situation. The intent of for is to express a limited iteration, whereas while's intention is to express an unbound or dynamic bound iteration. Further more there are some more or less technical advantages:
It allows us to define an iteration reference that is only visible within the scope of the loop-body
It allows us to define the increment/decrement logic outside the body - no more weird indexes starting from -1 as we saw above.
public string For(int[] numbers) { string res = ""; for (int i = 0; i < numbers.Length; i++) { res += numbers[i]; } return res; }
There are still problems with the code. There is nothing preventing the code from changing the value of i inside the for-body. For this short example this is not a problem, but recall our imaginary 2-page loop-body full of code! Ans what happens when we spot a change of i within the body? Then we have to figure out if this is intended or a bug. The structure of the code does not reveal this intent. A natural solution is to separate the looping logic from the looping body. We shall see that next.
2.4.1 The separated loop-body
By extracting the loop body into a separate method, it becomes vividly clear to anyone, that we are in fact processing the elements of numbers on element at a time, from the first to the last element.
public string ForWithExtractMethod(int[] numbers) { string res = ""; for (int i = 0; i < numbers.Length; i++) { res = Concat(numbers[i], res); } return res; } string Concat(int number, string res) { return res + number; }
This same technique is just as useful when more complex business logic require us to e.g. skip elements. In section 3. we deal with this situation.
2.5 The enumerator approach
Most collections in C# (and perhaps in your favourite language) has the ability to return an enumerator with which you can enumerate over the collection. Perhaps I have been sloppy with my use of words. And perhaps you have only notices just now, that I have interchanged iteration and enumeration. Just for the sake of completeness, let us explain the difference of meaning. Iteration is referred to the process of repeating a block of code, while enumeration means to go through all values in a collection of values. Enumerating, therefore, usually entail some form of iteration.
In C# this looks like
public string Enumerator(int[] numbers) { string res = ""; var enumerator = numbers.GetEnumerator(); while (enumerator.MoveNext()) { var elem = enumerator.Current res += elem; } return res; }
This approach is advantageous in that there is no longer an iteration reference (such as i in the above examples). Hence when we read this code, we know that we are going through the elements one at a time. The inner logic dictates this, so the code cannot digress. So why are enumerators so rarely used then if they are so cool. Perhaps because they are verbose compared to other language mechanisms. It takes a line of code to define the while and a line of code to read the currently enumerated element.
Going slightly off topic, implementing an enumerator can be surprisingly difficult. This stems from several situations that has to be catered for
.Current may be access before MoveNext()
may be access before.Current may be access anywhere from 0 to many times in a given enumeration step.
Anyhow, let's move on to the more delicious coding styles.
2.6 The foreach approach
The foreach is perhaps my favourite language construct when it comes to iteration. It is very succinct, it conveys its meaning, and like the enumeration approach it deals with elements of a collection without involving an index or iteration reference.
public string Foreach(int[] numbers) { string res = ""; foreach (var number in numbers) res += number; return res; }
On the other hand, the foreach is severely limited in what you can express with it. We cannot directly specify to only visit every other element, where with the for construct we can simply substitute the i++ with i+=2. I take this as an advantage, rather than a disadvantage:
Future readers need not spend mental energy in discovering what kind of looping that is to take place
Future maintenance, or bug fixing cannot introduce mistakes in the iteration part of the logic
When I see the use of a for I can only think that there is a reason why the foreach was not used. And this makes me search the code for that very reason. If I don't see a reason why, I'll immediately refactor it to using the less expressive, but more readable foreach.
2.7 The LINQ approach
Now this final example is cheating a bit. Repeatedly, I've stated we need to imagine a lengthy loop-body in order for this discussion to carry much relevance. Of readability of really short loop bodies may be important too, since they easily see future growth.
If we for a second just imagine that the is no large looping body. There is only what we have shown so far. A simple "stringification" of an int-array. And assume for a moment we can live with the performance overhead of this kind of string concatenation rather than using say StringBuilder. Then, we can use an even less expressive construct found in LINQ. The Aggregate function operates over a set of values and accumulate them. Well, this is what we have been doing all along. So we can refactor our previous code into just
public string Linq(int[] numbers) { return numbers.Aggregate("", (res, number) => res + number); }
Is this more readable? I would tend to think so. Of course it is more abstract to the person never having seen LINQ or Aggregate in action. But to those who have, we have ultimately locked ourselves down in terms of expressibility. We can only aggregate now. No detours allowed. Of course, LINQ does not always guarantee maximum readability! You can still create some horror story LINQ expression that make your eyes bleed. Code with conscience
This actually brings forth an ever existing paradox. How do we define code readability? In terms of how easy the master programmer reads code, or how easy the less experienced programmer does? It's a many-faceted discussion, one that deserves more room than would be appropriate to allocate here. I have also touched upon this paradox in http://firstclassthoughts.co.uk/TheChangingNotionOfReadability.html
3. Complicated iteration over some elements
Now its time to look at iteration with a bit more complicated logic. Let us assume the following business rules.
For a list of numbers return a string constructed from
Of the pair-wise sum of numbers (a, b)
Except for a-numbers divisible by 5, then skip this pair
Except for b-numbers divisible by 2, then skip this and the next pair
probably this formalisation makes it all the more complicated. All I want here is some business logic requiring more than one element at a time while also require that under certain conditions, not all elements of the list are partaking in the answer.
The input: 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 5, 1, 5
Yields: 2266
Sure those business rules are weird, but having to do more complex iteration is not uncommon. I do it all the time in the StatePrinter project where we turn a stream of tokens into an output format (e.g. JSon, Xml or C#-like). I call these output formatters.
3.1 Complex iteration
The first approach is a direct translation of the business requirements into code
public string IterationSkippingSome(int[] numbers) { string res = ""; for (int i = 0; i < numbers.Length - 1; i++) { var current = numbers[i]; if (current % 5 == 0) continue; var next = numbers[i + 1]; if (next % 2 == 0) { i++; } else { res += current + next; } } return res; }
We see that there are three different things happening. A continue that effectively short circuits an iteration. A i++ that skips this and the following iteration. And finally a modification to res.
Effectively we now have multiple places i changes value, and the structure of the code does little to reveal the skipping inside the body of the loop.
3.2 Separation of loop body and loop logic
As we have shown before, there are benefits to separating methods into several methods if we find that they do too much. Especially, when the method is susceptible to splitting. In the following example we split the logic of iteration with that of the business logic.
public string IterationSkippingSomeExtracted(int[] numbers) { string res = ""; for (uint i = 0; i < numbers.Length - 1; i++) { uint delta = RestrictedPairwiseSum(numbers[i], numbers[i+1], ref res); i += delta; } return res; } uint RestrictedPairwiseSum(int current, int next, ref string res) { if (current % 5 == 0) return 0; if (next % 2 == 0) return 1; res += current + next; return 0; }
Here we have to either turn to out parameters or ref or returning a Tuple<string, int>. I chose to use ref - effectively making the string reference the same in both methods. If we were collecting values in a mutable object such as a StringBuilder we could do without the use of ref.
Rather than inserting a dynamic check that delta is non-negative, I instead used a type that cannot express negative numbers. Meet the uint.
I see a couple of benefits here
The looping logic is very transparent. You immediately understand why a for has been used rather than a foreach. You see that you are extracting pair-wise and that as a result of an application you may skip forward in the list.
has been used rather than a. You see that you are extracting pair-wise and that as a result of an application you may skip forward in the list. The RestrictedPairwiseSum() is expressed in terms close to the requirements. It doesn't care about the input format. Be it an array, a List<> or whatever.
is expressed in terms close to the requirements. It doesn't care about the input format. Be it an array, a or whatever. The RestrictedPairwiseSum() can easily be tested in isolation.
3.2.1 Delta or absolute position
There is a design choice to be made when returning a value from the extracted method. We can choose between
Returning a delta value
Returning an absolute position
Returning a skip instruction
There are advantages to returning delta's in that the business logic then is independent of knowing too much about the structure of the input data. On the other hand, returning an absolute position may be required e.g. to signal a full-stop or skipping towards a new section of the data. A disadvantage of having to return an absolute position is that you need to pass into the business logic the current position, and possibly the last position.
A skip instruction is perhaps preferable when the skipping itself requires some logic. Imagine the input data being some structured data, e.g. a book containing chapters, which contains sections, etc. Perhaps from a section you want to skip until the next chapter. Expressing that as a delta value or an absolute position requires some extra scaffolding. Instead we can express our skipping behaviour as an enum and then react to the enum in the code that handles the looping rather than in looping body.
Here is how we could express the above example
enum SkippingBehaviour { NoSkip, SkipNext } public string IterationSkippingSomeExtractedAndSkipLogic(int[] numbers) { string res = ""; for (int i = 0; i < numbers.Length - 1; i++) { var skipping = RestrictedPairwiseSum2(numbers[i], numbers[i + 1], ref res); i += GetDelta(skipping); } return res; } int GetDelta(SkippingBehaviour skipping) { switch (skipping) { case SkippingBehaviour.NoSkip: return 0; case SkippingBehaviour.SkipNext: return 1; } return 0; } SkippingBehaviour RestrictedPairwiseSum2(int current, int next, ref string res) { if (current % 5 == 0) return SkippingBehaviour.NoSkip; if (next % 2 == 0) return SkippingBehaviour.SkipNext; res += current + next; return SkippingBehaviour.NoSkip; }
It is a bit more verbose, but the intent of the code is very clear. It also supports complicated skipping behaviour that can now be tested in isolation. And by making the skipping behaviour a translation from an enum value to a delta, you can even imagine this translation to be pluggable.
4. Conclusions
It is easy to dismiss this article with the argument that if you are used to code using goto all over the place, they are not at all unreadable. In fact, not using goto would break the common style of the code base. Habit truly is a significant factor when discussing code. But I think that we have established, that despite being used to goto's (or not), being able to replace a construct like a while or goto with a foreach, and often even better, a LINQ expression, reduces the possible things that can be expressed in code, thus leading the reader down the correct path - Automatically making the code easier to understand. Just by looking at the first line he can determine eg. "that we are just looping linearly over all elements". Simply due to the fact that with the lesser expressive constructs, there is no room to wiggle in the wrong direction. By design you cut yourself off a whole range of potential bugs.
We have argued for using LINQ over foreach where possible. We have argued for using foreach over for where possible. And we have argued for using for over while where possible and finally, only use goto when none of the others are suitable.
To paraphrase a bit, we can boil it down to the following scale
Typically more readable Typically less readable LINQ foreach enumeration for while goto
Of course, this does not hold water when in each iteration we need several elements of the array. Then it's more like
Typically more readable Typically less readable for while goto
And when we are implementing an forever running background worker, we may have even further limits of choice with regards to implementation
Typically more readable Typically less readable while goto
Finally, we have argued for using an intent-revealing structure when you are performing non-trivial iteration over a collection by separating the looping logic from the looping body.
Please show your support by sharing and voting:
Congratulations! You've come all the way to the bottom of the article! Please help me make this site better for everyone by commenting below. Or how about making editorial changes? Feel free to fix spelling mistakes, weird sentences, or correct what is plain wrong. All the material is on GitHub so don't be shy. Just go to Github, press the edit button and fire away.
Subscribe now to the free newsletter service.
Low frequency mailing list. Get notified when new articles arrive!
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
Read the Introduction or browse the rest of the site(Reuters) - An Egyptian forensics official has told the public prosecutor’s office the autopsy he conducted on an Italian student showed he was interrogated for up to seven days before he was killed, two prosecution sources said.
Activists hold placards that read, among others, "Giulio, one of us and killed like us", during a memorial for Giulio Regeni outside of the Italian embassy in Cairo, Egypt, February 6, 2016. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
The findings are the strongest indication yet that Giulio Regeni was killed by Egyptian security services because they point to interrogation methods such as burning with cigarettes in intervals over several days, which human rights groups say are the hallmark of the security services.
In the past, the Interior Ministry has rejected accusations about human rights abuses.
The prosecution sources said Hisham Abdel Hamid, Director of the Department of Forensic Medicine, gave his findings during questioning as an expert by officials in the public prosecutor’s office last week.
“We asked Hisham Abdel Hamid to appear before the prosecutor’s office for questioning, to ask him questions about the autopsy,” an investigator in the prosecutor’s office told Reuters, adding that Abdel Hamid was accompanied by two associates who also took part in the autopsy.
“Abdel Hamid said during the questioning that the wounds on the body occurred over different intervals of between 10-14 hours. That means that whoever is accused of killing him was interrogating him for information.”
The state news agency said Shaaban al-Shami, assistant to the justice minister on forensic medical affairs, had denied Abdel Hamid was questioned by the public prosecutor’s office.
The main Interior Ministry spokesman was not available for comment. Another Interior Ministry spokesman, asked by Reuters to comment on the findings, said: “I know nothing about this matter.”
A source in the Department of Forensic Medicine confirmed Abdel Hamid had been questioned. Reuters reached Abdel Hamid by telephone but he declined to comment.
Regeni, 28, disappeared on Jan. 25, the anniversary of the 2011 uprising that ended former President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.
Regeni had written articles critical of the Egyptian government, the Italian newspaper that published them said.
The broken corpse of the Cambridge University student, who was researching the rise of independent labor unions following the 2011 revolt, was found in a ditch on the side of a motorway on Feb. 3.
Egyptian forensics and prosecution officials have said his body showed signs of torture and that he was killed by a blow with a sharp object to the back of the head.
“The autopsy report shows a number of injuries at one time; and there are a number of other injuries later and other injuries a third time,” said another investigator in the public prosecutor’s office, summarizing Abdel Hamid’s statements.
“The wounds and fractures occurred at different times in intervals during a period of about five to seven days.”
TENSIONS WITH ITALY
The case has put a spotlight on alleged police brutality in Egypt, a strategic ally of the United State and other Western powers.
Shopkeepers in Regeni’s neighborhood of Cairo said there were no signs that police in the area had been questioning people since his disappearance or death.
Rights groups accuse the police of widespread abuses against Egyptians since the army toppled Egypt’s first freely elected president in 2013.
Such actions against foreigners are not common.
Italy has said Egyptian investigators should hand over the evidence they have uncovered on Regeni’s death. Egypt invited Italian investigators to take part in the investigation, but judicial sources in Rome say the collaboration has been limited because not enough information was shared.
A second autopsy in Italy “confronted us with something inhuman, something animal”, Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfa has said without elaborating further.
The case has created tensions between Egypt and Italy.
Egypt’s interior ministry has said possible motives for the killers included criminal activity or the desire for revenge “due to personal reasons”.
Italian judicial sources say an Italian team in Cairo has not received any information of value from their Egyptian counterparts.
“They have given us nothing,” a judicial source told Reuters. Full details of the Italian autopsy on Regeni are due to be handed over to the investigators later on Monday.Editor's Choice
Isn’t it ironic that President Obama, having acquired the highest office in the land by agitating — all his political life — against privilege and discrimination, is now systematically wielding his executive power lawlessly to favor his friends and punish his enemies?
We are witnessing an unmistakable pattern from Obama and those under his command of establishing different rules for different groups of Americans. I’m not just referring to his opportunistic championing of the “poor” and his vendetta against the “wealthy” or his relentless vilification of “fat cat banks,” big corporations, private jet owners and the insurance, oil, coal, natural gas and nuclear power industries. It goes well beyond that.
As Obama blames certain groups of people for America’s problems, it follows that he would try to diminish their power and, in some cases, punish them for their past actions and present status.
If you dispute that, you must explain away his 20-year membership in a church driven by race-based get-even-ism; his reflexive condemnation of the Cambridge Police Department for arresting a friend of his, professor Henry Gates, and his leaping to the grossly premature conclusion that the arrest was race-based; his penchant for projection — prejudging people based on his distorted perception that they, as opposed to him, are uncomfortable with “people who don’t look like them”; and his observation to supporters at a campaign rally inside a public high school during the 2012 presidential campaign that “voting is the best revenge.” And that is just a sampling.
You’ll also have to defend Obama’s discriminatory actions and policies.
Consider his tenacious alignment with unions, forever overlooking their misconduct and granting them special privileges and protection.
He gave preferential treatment to unsecured union creditors in the Chrysler and General Motors restructuring debacles, to the detriment of secured creditors. His administration baselessly blocked Boeing from opening up a new plant with 1,000 new jobs in Charleston, S.C., when South Carolina was suffering from a 9.8 percent unemployment rate. He disproportionately allocated Obamacare waivers to labor union concerns.
How about the administration’s lopsided allocation of stimulus funds to its political supporters? Its discriminatory retention of GM dealerships for minorities and women? The Justice Department’s dismissal of an already-won lawsuit against New Black Panther Party members for voter intimidation — not because it lacked evidence, as it preposterously claimed, but because it adhered to an unwritten policy against pursuing voter intimidation actions when the alleged perpetrators were minorities and the victims were white?
Consider the Homeland Security Department’s, under Obama’s watch, designating “right-wing extremist groups” as potential domestic threats.
Ponder the administration’s practice of punishing, after having promised to reward, whistle-blowers, from Gerald Walpin to Fast and Furious to the most recent flurry of scandals.
America, under Obama, is rapidly abandoning its commitment to ensure equal protection of the laws to all citizens, as opposed to only those who support Obama and his agenda.
How else do we explain the administration’s orchestration of the jailing of a man for producing an anti-Islam video because it helped serve the president’s dishonest narrative that the Benghazi, Libya, consulate attacks were spontaneous and not the coldblooded, premeditated actions of Islamic terrorists?
Or the more recent revelation that the Internal Revenue Service deliberately targeted conservative groups in their applications for tax-exempt status based on directives from Washington?
Or the shocking story hot off the presses of a soldier’s facing retribution and punishment from the military for having anti-Obama bumper stickers on his car, reading books written by conservative authors Mark Levin, Sean Hannity and yours truly, and serving Chick-fil-A sandwiches at his promotion party? Only in Obama’s America.
Despite all we know about Obama’s personal attitudes, policies and actions and his capricious wielding of executive power to reward supporters and punish opponents, some die-hards maintain Obama is not to blame for the latest rash of scandals.
Well, if Obama was truly unaware of the IRS abuse, AWOL during the Benghazi attacks and the subsequent administration-orchestrated cover-up, and oblivious to the Fast and Furious gun-walking operation, the targeting of the media in the Associated Press scandal, the raiding of Gibson Guitar Corp., the witch hunt against Fox News reporter James Rosen, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ alleged pressuring of companies within the regulatory ambit of HHS to donate, and the multitudinous scandals concerning Solyndra, exactly what does he spend his time doing?
If Obama wasn’t behind those egregious episodes or was ignorant of them as he claims, then we have a right to know who has been acting as our president. If he didn’t order them, then he undeniably fostered a climate that strongly encouraged his subordinates to implement them on his behalf.
It simply cannot be coincidental that Obama’s underlings have pursued discriminatory practices that precisely conform to Obama’s agenda and to his friends and enemies lists.
This is Obama’s America.
David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His latest book, “The Great Destroyer,” reached No. 2 on the New York Times best-seller list for nonfiction. Follow him on Twitter @davidlimbaugh and his website at www.davidlimbaugh.com.It's been more than a year since last release but it's finally here: Lutris 0.3.7 is available for all. We sure have been taking our time but we wanted to make sure to bring the best experience possible for our users. We have listened to the feedback we got after releasing Lutris 0.3.6 and brought a much better overall experience. It may be a minor version upgrade but this release has received nearly 700 commits out of a total of 2000, almost a third of the total!
Make it better, win games!
Our next milestone is the 0.4 branch. The initial version in this branch will see be the first release using Python 3 and will have very little new features except bugfixes. Big features such as Humble Bundle and GOG support or TOSEC integration will come in later |
leave out several that are (also) in the prime of their career. And we need to strike and strike soon with those guys.
"(Coach) Jason Garrett feels exactly the same way about it and understands how urgent it is. Candidly, you're looking through rose-colored glasses if we all don't realize that now is the time to compete on the field."
Jones' competitive fire was fueled by what the 2011 New York Giants accomplished in winning the Super Bowl. Once 7-7, the Giants rallied to claim an NFC wild-card berth. Two of the Giants' final three regular-season victories came against Dallas.
"When we see a team like the Giants come back with nine (regular) season wins and be world champion, then we know it's there for most clubs," Jones said. "That's not taking anything away from the Giants. That's just inspiring the Cowboys a little bit."
The Cowboys have missed the playoffs the past two years.
"We have experienced at least a couple of the most disappointing seasons that I've ever had because we had great play from Tony and we still didn't get it done," Jones said. "What we've got to do is, while we've still got him on the job, we've got to come with the rest of it and position us to better compete for a Super Bowl. I have a lot of confidence in Tony."
Earlier in the afternoon, the Cowboys and Redskins issued a joint statement after both teams lost their appeals of salary-cap penalties from the NFL.
"We pursued our salary-cap claim pursuant to the CBA and we respect and will abide by the arbitrator's decision to dismiss," the statement read. "We will continue to focus on our football teams and the 2012 season."
The Cowboys' cap hit for each of the next two seasons is $5 million. Jones indicated his team had budgeted with the expectation of having to manage the financial sanction. Asked if he wished to elaborate on the statement, Jones said: "We're going to continue to do everything we can to win."Over the past two years The Conversation has published my analyses on a range of topics related to climate change and politics, including climate denial in the Liberal Party, 25-year-old cabinet papers (not once but twice), coal industry PR campaigns and much else besides. Finally comes a topic I can cheerfully say I know nothing about (at first hand, at least): raising children.
Apologies for oversharing, but I had a vasectomy in 2004. The columnist Andrew Bolt spotted this, via an article in Britain’s Daily Mail which clearly stated that I was the one who had been under the knife. Bolt claimed that my wife had “sterilised herself”. (She does a lot of yoga, but she’s not that flexible. We have pointed this out but Bolt has kept at it, repeating the claim almost six years later).
Despite what the Daily Mail article says (and what is within the quotes was never said), our decision not to have kids wasn’t based on concern for what our hypothetical children would do to the planet, but rather what the planet would do to them. My wife copped some online abuse, and I was once disinvited to appear on the BBC after explaining my actual position.
I first switched on to climate change in about 1989, and have become convinced that the second half of the 21st century will probably make the first half of the 20th look like a golden age of peace and love. There have been 30 years of promises and pledges, protocols and agreements, while atmospheric greenhouse gas levels have climbed remorselessly due to humanity’s emissions. I suspect that the reported recent flatlining in emissions growth could well turn out to be as illusory as the so-called global warming “hiatus”.
Writing recently in the Sydney Morning Herald, climate scientist Sophie Lewis eloquently asked:
Should we have children? And if we do, how do we raise them in a world of change and inequity? Can I reconcile my care and concern for the future with such an active and deliberate pursuit of a child? Put simply, I can’t.
While I would never presume to tell anyone what to do with their genitals, I must confess my personal amazement that climate activists who do have children - and who I know have read the same scientific research as me and drawn the same conclusions – aren’t freaking out more. (Perhaps they are just very tired.)
As the Manic Street Preachers sagely warned, our children will have to tolerate whatever we do, and more besides.
Be prepared?
So how do we prepare tomorrow’s adults for the world bequeathed to them by the adults of yesterday and today? Even the mainstream media is beginning to ask this question.
Some studies say young people don’t care enough about climate change; others claim they do. The Australian picture seems to be mixed.
As the environmental writer Michael McCarthy has lamented:
A new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary was published in 2007 with a substantial group of words relating to nature – more than 50 – excised: they included acorn, adder, ash, beech, bluebell, buttercup, catkin, conker, cowslip and dandelion. Their replacements included terms from the digital world such as analogue, blog, broadband, bullet-point, celebrity, chatroom, cut-and-paste, MP3 player and voicemail.
Might we be more adaptive than we think? The social demographers Wolfgang Lutz and Raya Muttarak, in their snappily titled paper Forecasting societies’ adaptive capacities through a demographic metabolism model, think so, describing how “the changing educational composition of future populations” might help societies adapt to climate change.
But not everyone thinks our brains will get us out of the mess that they and our opposable thumbs have got us into. As an editor at the Daily Climate pointed out:
A substantial portion of the human population lives on coasts. Much of their protein comes from fish. What happens when ocean acidification turns all of that to slime?
So what should we tell kids about climate?
It always helps to be open to advice from different settings. For instance, I stumbled on this good advice on a blog aimed at military spouses, but it strikes me that it holds just as true for the climate-concerned:
It is okay to show sadness around your kids; in fact, it is probably healthy. However, it is not okay to dump your emotions on them. Save rants and deep conversations for trusted adults. If you are feeling overwhelmed (and you will), don’t turn to your kids. Children are usually helpless to offer advice and it can cause them to experience anxiety. Seek help from an adult friend … extended family, a neighbor, your church, or a counselor.
Sophie Lewis sensibly hopes that the next generation(s) “can be more empathetic, more creative and more responsive than we have been”. It’s a noble hope, but it will only happen if we behave differently.
So as previously in this column, it’s over to you, the readers. I have a couple of questions for you:
First, how do those of you who are parents (and grandparents, aunts and uncles) talk to your children about the climate change impacts that will happen in their lifetimes? Avoidance? Sugar-coating? The “straight dope”? Do you slip books from the burgeoning fields of dystopian fiction and “cli-fi” into their Christmas stockings? Besides The Hunger Games, there is Tomorrow, When the War Began, the excellent Carbon Diaries and, more recently, James Bradley’s The Silent Invasion. Do you worry about scaring the kids? What do the youngsters themselves say?
Second, what steps are you taking to help young people develop the (practical and interpersonal) skills required to survive as times get tougher? What are those skills? How do we make sure that it isn’t just the few (children of the rich and/or the “switched on”) who gain these skills?At long last, the feds have said the needs of pedestrians and cyclists must be placed alongside, not behind, those of motorists.
In what amounts to a sea change for the Department of Transportation, the automobile will no longer be the prime consideration in federal transportation planning. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the needs of pedestrians and cyclists will be considered along with those of motorists, and he makes it clear that walking and riding are "an important component for livable communities."
"People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning," LaHood wrote on his blog. "This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.”
He goes on:
We are integrating the needs of bicyclists in federally-funded road projects. We are discouraging transportation investments that negatively affect cyclists and pedestrians. And we are encouraging investments that go beyond the minimum requirements and provide facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.
LaHood's announcement came on the heels of his appearance at the National Bike Summit, where he was greeted like a rock star and told the crowd, "Our mission is the same as your mission," and "I think we're beginning to put our money where our mouth is on these issues."
And how.
The new policy falls in line with changes the Obama Administration has enacted in the past year. In June, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency announced the Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities. The partnership will coordinate polices to "help improve access to affordable housing, more transportation options, and lower transportation costs while protecting the environment in communities nationwide." LaHood's announcement is a step toward that goal.
What his policy statement effectively says is multimodal transportation (meaning pedestrians and cyclists) will be an "equal" part of all new infrastructure projects getting funding from Washington.
"Walking and bicycling foster safer, more livable, family-friendly communities; promote physical activity and health; and reduce vehicle emissions and fuel use," reads the introduction to the policy statement. "Legislation and regulations exist that require inclusion of bicycle and pedestrian policies and projects into transportation plans and project development. Accordingly, transportation agencies should plan, fund, and implement improvements to their walking and bicycling networks, including linkages to transit."
Does this mean every new project will have to consider bicycles and pedestrians as equals to automobiles? Not exactly. States and local governments can, of course, create infrastructure outside the policy if they aren't using federal funds. That said, when it comes to doling out federal transportation funds, projects that adhere to the new policy statement will be given a higher priority, so it is within the best interests of cities and states to adhere to it. With a new transportation bill looming that could reach a half trillion dollars, anyone wanting a piece of the pie will have to take pedestrians and cyclists into account. Call it a carrot-and-stick approach.
This doesn't mean you''ll see bike lanes on that new expressway through town. The feds are still going to bankroll conventional roads and highways and so forth. But you'll see bicycle connection points to these roads, such as trails and shared use pathways to create multimodal transportation.
Beyond making it easier for cyclists and pedestrians to get around, the move is intended to make it safer for them to get around. A report released late last year by Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership found more than 43,000 pedestrians nationwide have died since 2000 on roads the authors complain don’t provide adequate crosswalks and other safety features. The authors say states aren't spending enough to make roads safer for people who are on foot, on a bike or in a wheelchair.
"This is an issue that has been ignored far too long, even as thousands have died or been injured unnecessarily just by doing something as simple as trying to cross the street," James Corless, director of Transportation for America, said in the T4A blog. "We thank Secretary Lahood for his leadership at DOT and for elevating this urgent issue to the level of prominence that it deserves."
To that end, the Department of Transportation establishes general recommended actions local governments and transportation agencies should follow to create transportation parity for pedestrians and cyclists. What's more, the projects must be accessible to all, and they must plan for future growth and demand. "It is more effective to plan for increased usage than to retrofit an older facility," the policy states.
Some of LaHood's specific recommendations include integrating bicycle and pedestrian accommodation on new, rehabilitated and limited-access bridges. Secretary LaHood also wants more tracking of non-motorized transportation, long-term maintenance and snow removal on existing infrastructure and improved transportation arrangements for bicycles and pedestrians during the construction and rehabilitation of projects.
Given that building highways costs 10 times more (.pdf) more than shared-use pathways, cities could see significant savings. LaHood summed up the outcome of the new policy best when he said it will promote "cleaner, healthier air; less congested roadways; and more livable, safe, cost-efficient communities."
Photo of a cyclist on New York's Upper West Side: Ed Yourdon / Flickr
Photo of a pedestrian in a crosswalk: Mad African!: (Broken Sword) / Flickr
See Also:Like most of you, I was pretty detailed in the cookbook exchange questionnaire, listing out all the kinds of foods I like to cook. But then I get this LOVELY package, and realized my Cookbook Santa knows me way better than I thought.
Are you psychic, Santa?
Here are just some of the ways that my Santa got things totally right:
She got me a Homemade Pantry cookbook that shows you how to make your own staple foods. This is so me! It even has a ketchup recipe, which is something I've been wanting to make for years. I'm going to get so much out of this book.
cookbook that shows you how to make your own staple foods. This is so me! It even has a ketchup recipe, which is something I've been wanting to make for years. I'm going to get so much out of this book. She threw in Good and Cheap, a cookbook for people with a limited budget. Guess what? I have a WAY limited budget, since I ended up choosing a career that doesn't pay too well. And flipping through, it makes me realize I can still eat pretty dang well on $4 or less.
, a cookbook for people with a limited budget. Guess what? I have a WAY limited budget, since I ended up choosing a career that doesn't pay too well. And flipping through, it makes me realize I can still eat pretty dang well on $4 or less. Maybe it was an after-thought on her part, but her inclusion of post-it arrows was so spot-on. I've had this idea for a while now about how I wanted to mark every recipe I cook from all my cookbooks, along with the date I first cooked it. Now I can do that.
And, of course, the Sift Magazine and How to Eat books were great, too!
Honestly, thank you so much, Psychic Cookbook Santa. Now if you could just tell me my fortune in regards to love...If you’re a fan of the Dishonored series by Arkane Studios then you might keep tabs on the upcoming The Art of Dishonored 2, an art book filled with exclusive concept pieces. Announced through a press release that was sent out earlier today, The Art of Dishonored 2 is in the works between publisher Bethesda Softworks and Dark Horse which is based around the development of the highly anticipated Dishonored 2 video game.
As mentioned, The Art of Dishonored 2 is an art book that would showcase hundreds of pieces of exclusive, never-before-seen concept art that went into the development of Dishonored 2. However, that’s not all, according to the press release, fans and artists of the video game franchise may get the opportunity to have their fan art illustrations published within the book.
Fans can submit their illustrations through Twitter by using #drawDishonored though the full rules on how to enter can be read through at the official Bethesda website. As for when you can get the art book itself, The Art of Dishonored 2 will be available at retail on November 22, 2016, and those interested in picking it up can preorder a copy at their local comic book shops or through online retails such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, along with IndieBound.
Dishonored 2 is an upcoming action-adventure stealth role-playing video game that is being developed by Arkane Studios. This time around, the video game and is set fifteen years after the Dunwall Plague. Empress Emily Kaldwin has been dethroned by an otherworldly usuper, but she marks her revenge by becoming an assassin in preparation for taking back the throne. Gamers can pick Dishonored 2 up for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, on November 11, 2016.Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith from the OfTwoMinds blog,
Memo to the Fed: you are the enemy of the middle class, capitalism and the nation.
The Federal Reserve is appalled that we're not spending enough to further inflate the value of its corporate and banking cronies. In the Fed's eyes, your reason for being is to channel whatever income you have to the Fed's private-sector cronies--banks and corporations.
If you're being "stingy" and actually conserving some of your income for savings and investment, you are Public Enemy #1 to the Fed. Your financial security is nothing compared to the need of banks and corporations to earn even more obscene profits. According to the Fed, all our problems stem from not funneling enough money to the Fed's private-sector cronies.
Fed media tool Jon Hilsenrath recently gave voice to the Fed's obsessive concern for its cronies' profits, and received a rebuke from the middle class he chastised as "stingy." Hilsenrath Confused Midde-Class "Responded Strongly" To "Offensive" Question Why It Isn't Spending.
Memo to the Fed and its media tool Hilsenrath: we're not here to further enrich your already obscenely rich banker and corporate cronies by buying overpriced goods and services we don't need. Our job is not to spend every cent we earn on interest to banks and mostly-garbage corporate goods and services. Our job is to limit the amount we squander on interest and needless spending. Our job is to build the financial security of our families by saving capital and prudently investing it in assets we control (as opposed to letting Wall Street control our assets parked in equity and bond funds).
Your zero-interest rate policy (ZIRP) has gutted our ability to build capital safely. For that alone, you are an enemy of the middle class. Let's say we wanted to buy a real asset that we control, for example, a rental house, rather than gamble our retirement funds on Wall Street's Scam du Jour (stock buybacks funded by debt, to name the latest and greatest scam).
Thanks to your policies of ZIRP and unlimited liquidity for financiers, we've been outbid by the Wall Street/private-equity crowd--your cronies and pals. They pay almost nothing for their money and they don't need a down payment, while we're paying 4.5% on mortgages and need 30% down payment for a non-owner occupied home. Who wins that bidding process? Those with 100% financing at near-zero rates.
Here's a short list of stuff we don't need to buy:
1. New house: overpriced. Debt-serfdom for a wafer-board/sawdust-and-glue mansion? Pay your banker buddies $250,000 in interest to buy a $300,000 house? Hope the bursting of the real estate bubble doesn't wipe out whatever equity we might have? No thanks.
2. New vehicle: overpriced. We can buy a good used car and a can of "new car smell" for half the price, or abandon car ownership entirely if we live in a city with peer-to-peer transport services. We can bicycle or ride a motorscooter.
3. Anything paid with credit cards.
4. Any processed food.
5. A subscription to the Wall Street Journal and other financial-media cheerleaders for you, your banker buddies and Corporate America.
How Wall Street Devoured Corporate America : Thirty years ago, the financial sector claimed around a tenth of U.S. corporate profits. Today, it's almost 30 percent
Here's how your cronies have fared since you started your low-interest rate/free money for financiers policies circa 2001: corporate profits have soared:
Now look at median household income adjusted for inflation: down 4%--inflation which we know is skewed to under-weight the big ticket items such as healthcare and college education that are skyrocketing in cost:
And here's how the middle class has fared since the Federal Reserve made boosting Wall Street and the too big to fail banks its primary goal, circa 1982: the bottom 90% have treaded water for decades, the top 9% did well and the top 1% reaped fabulous gains as a result of your policies.
If you're wondering why we're not spending, look at our incomes (going nowhere), earnings on savings (essentially zero) and the future you've created: ever-widening income disparity, ever-greater financial insecurity, ever-higher risks for those forced to gamble in your rigged casino, and a political/financial system firmly in the hands of your ever-wealthier cronies.
Capital--which includes savings--is the foundation of capitalism. If you attack savings as the scourge limiting corporate profits, you are attacking capitalism and upward mobility. The Fed is not supporting capitalism; rather, the Fed's raison d'etre is crony-capitalism, in which insiders and financiers get essentially free money from the Fed in unlimited quantities that they then use to buy up all the productive assets.
Everyone else--the bottom 99.5%--is relegated to consumer: you are not supposed to accumulate productive capital, you are supposed to spend every penny you earn on interest paid to banks and buying goods and services that further boost corporate profits.
This inversion of capitalism is not just destructive to the nation--it is evil. Funneling trillions of dollars in free money for financiers while chiding Americans for not going deeper into debt is evil.
Memo to the Fed: you are the enemy of capitalism, the middle class and the nation.
* * *
And, best of all, all of this was known and described over 100 years ago when the motives behind the Aldrich Plan were revealed to the American people, and while rejected by Congress in 1912, it served as the foundation of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 which ultimately led to the current economic devastation.The long, strange tale of former Dallas Cowboys running back Joseph Randle continues. Randle, who was last heard from after being arrested for the sixth time in 17 months, will face a new felony charge of criminal threat, according to the Wichita Eagle.
Per the Sedgwick County court records, Randle allegedly threatened a Sedgwick County Jail deputy while incarcerated on two other pending felony charges.
The deputy was in one of the jail's detention pods shortly after 8 p.m. on May 14 "enforcing the rules" when Randle allegedly "threatened the deputy for doing so," sheriff's spokesman Lt. Lin Dehning said in an e-mail. Specific details of the threat have not been released. The agency turned the investigation over to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's Office for possible prosecution. The district attorney decided to charge Randle with one count of criminal threat, which carries a presumptive sentence of five to 17 months in prison.
Randle had previously been arrested for failure to appear in court, and was charged with violations ranging from marijuana possession to aggravated battery to shoplifting.
This time last year, Randle was preparing to become the starting running back for the Cowboys in 2015. He lasted just six games in that role before ceding the spot to Darren McFadden amidst injuries and ineffectiveness. He was released shortly after losing the spot, then arrested and charged with assaulting an officer shortly after that. He was then arrested three more times in early 2016.Opinion
Bernie Sanders has no strategy for his war on big banks
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (2nd-L) walks with his wife Jane Sanders (L) in San Francisco, California on May 18, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / JOSH EDELSONJOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (2nd-L) walks with his wife Jane Sanders (L) in San Francisco, California on May 18, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / JOSH EDELSONJOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images Photo: JOSH EDELSON, AFP/Getty Images Photo: JOSH EDELSON, AFP/Getty Images Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Bernie Sanders has no strategy for his war on big banks 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Wednesday, Bernie Sanders had lunch at the Chieftain, a cozy pub near The Chronicle that in days gone by served as a lunch spot for parched journalists. Earlier, Sanders had addressed a rally in San Jose; he had another scheduled in Vallejo that night. When he exited the Chieftain by a back door onto Howard Street, passersby shouted out his name.
A man who hailed Sanders as “my hero” asked the Democratic presidential hopeful to pose for a photo. There were more selfies with more fans who could not believe their luck at stumbling upon a potential president. No jacket, no tie, two pens in his shirt pocket, Sanders took his time heading toward the motorcade.
I had raced down Fifth Street to catch the scene. After all, how often do San Franciscans have a chance to see one of the three top remaining candidates in a presidential race mingling with strangers? Supporters didn’t have to pay $250 to $27,000 for a ticket that would put them in a banquet hall with front-running Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Clinton also has held some rallies open to the public and free, but her modus operandi is hardly strictly grassroots.
In those few moments, it was easy to see why Sanders has caught on with young voters. As Sanders told Chronicle staff writer Joe Garofoli on Wednesday, “If you want a candidate who is out working and speaking with people rather than hanging out raising money from millionaires, I think the choice is pretty clear.”
The choice between Sanders and Clinton is stark: rumpled versus professionally styled. Poll-defying versus poll-tested, “One of the poorer members of the U.S. Senate” versus one half of a $111 million net-worth couple. Insurgency versus establishment. Enthusiasts versus operatives.
At The Chronicle editorial board this month, Sanders was personable, but disappointing on substance. And it has happened before.
On April 1, Sanders met with the New York Daily News editorial board. He stumbled over questions about how he would break up the big banks. “How you go about doing it is having legislation passed, or giving the authority to the secretary of treasury to determine, under Dodd-Frank, that these banks are a danger to the economy over the problem of too-big-to-fail,” he answered. Probed further, Sanders said he didn’t know if the Federal Reserve had the authority to break up the banks, but he thought the administration “can have” that power. In other words, he had given little thought to the mechanics and had no plan to execute his big dream. He failed to demonstrate even the slightest understanding as to which agencies have the authority to do what he wants done, or how a bank breakup might affect the economy of (say just for the sake of argument) New York.
The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza described the meeting as “a disaster,” with the paper’s editorial board “pressing Sanders for specifics and asking him to evaluate the consequences of his proposals, and Sanders, largely, dodging as he sought to scramble back to his talking points.”
By the time Sanders made it to San Francisco, he was on notice that editorial boards expect more thoughtful answers. He had a more than a month to bone up on his signature issue. But when Chronicle Business Editor Owen Thomas asked Sanders if he would break up Wells Fargo, Sanders said he could not answer definitively. He moved to his talking points — “3 out of 4 of the largest banks today are bigger than they were when we bailed them out because they were too big to fail” — railing against the revolving door. He asserted that Section 121 of Dodd-Frank gives his treasury secretary the power to “determine which banks, if they failed, could cause systemic damage to our economy, and I would break them up.” But according to Fortune magazine, that provision gives that authority to a large board on which the treasury secretary sits.
Is it just me? Or shouldn’t a man who has been railing against the big banks from sea to shining sea know which banks are so big that he has to sic the government on them to pare them down to size? Sanders boasted that he would not name a treasury secretary who had worked at Goldman Sachs. The question is: Would he appoint someone who understands how Goldman Sachs works?
Likewise, Sanders had no real plan to work with Congress to push through the legislation to advance his revolutionary goals. He said he has learned it is impossible to work with Republicans. No worries. If voters send him to the White House, then there will be a “political revolution” that pressures Congress to work with him.
That tells me that if elected, Sanders is destined to fail.
He hits Clinton for being too close to Goldman Sachs — and he’s right. So how does he work with Democrats in Congress?
I’ve talked to people who watched the video of Sanders meeting with The Chronicle editorial board. They have asked me why campaign staffers didn’t do a better job of prepping the candidate. Actually, that should not be necessary. Sanders has been a member of Congress since 1991. Income inequality is his pet issue. He should not need staff to explain to him what banks are doing wrong and what the government can do to correct the imbalance.
Electing Sanders to fix what ails Wall Street would be like hiring me to fix your car.
Debra J. Saunders is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: [email protected] Twitter: DebraJSaundersTAMPA — The lawyers had lawyers, and with Bubba the Love Sponge Clem and Todd "MJ" Schnitt's defamation trial taking the back seat Friday afternoon, the real drama could begin.
This one had it all.
A dark-haired paralegal, seducing a trial attorney on the opposing side.
A lawyer tipping off police to a DUI that might happen later in the night.
A briefcase filled with secrets, left for hours in the enemy's hands.
A lawyer and a witness took the stand and repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid incrimination.
Local attorneys stopped by the courtroom to watch the action. Others tuned in to live streams on television and followed hashtags on Twitter.
The first cry of foul play came about 9 a.m. Friday, when a lawyer on Schnitt's side accused Clem's attorneys of setting up Charles Philip Campbell Jr.'s DUI arrest Wednesday. Campbell also represents Schnitt, and his arrest caused the trial to be postponed Thursday.
Schnitt's attorney moved for a mistrial because, after Campbell's arrest, employees at the opposing legal firm had possession of Campbell's trial bag — filled with confidential information — for about 20 hours.
Clem's attorneys at the firm Adams & Diaco said they were offended at the insinuation. They denied ever opening the briefcase.
But during testimony Friday afternoon, an attorney and a paralegal at Adams & Diaco pleaded the Fifth about a dozen times. And both happened to forget to bring their cell phones, which might have been useful evidence.
Tampa attorney Lyann Goudie called it a John Grisham novel come to life. Lawyer Rick Terrana said he has never heard anything like this in his 24 years of trial work.
"The case itself was cause for head-shaking to begin with," he said. "And it just keeps getting worse."
At the heart of Friday's proceedings were some serious allegations — if not criminal, then maybe enough to disbar a lawyer or two. And it remained unresolved Friday night. Circuit Judge James Arnold said he needed time to research before ruling on the motion for mistrial.
The trouble started Wednesday, about 7 p.m. at Malio's Prime Steakhouse in downtown Tampa.
Schnitt's attorneys, Campbell and Jonathan Ellis, stopped by for a drink after a full day in court. They chatted with other attorneys and a pretty paralegal.
Her name was Melissa, and she said she worked at the law firm of Trenam Kemker, Ellis said.
Campbell talked about his big case, as did another attorney who had stopped by their table, Michael Trentalange.
He remembered Melissa ordering drinks for the table. Something with Southern Comfort, he testified Friday.
She never told the men her last name or where she really worked:
The law firm of Adams & Diaco — the firm representing Clem.
Meanwhile, about 7:30 p.m., a lawyer at Adams & Diaco picked up the phone and dialed his son's godfather, a man he had known for a long time, Tampa police DUI Sgt. Ray Fernandez.
There is a man at Malio's who gets drunk and then drives, attorney Adam Filthaut told Fernandez.
Two officers drove to a spot near Malio's and waited.
About 9:50 p.m., they pulled Campbell over as he was driving Melissa's car. He refused a breath test. They booked him into jail on a DUI charge.
Melissa — full name, Melissa Personius — was free to go. And in the back seat of her car lay Campbell's bulging briefcase, filled with depositions, transcripts, notes and exhibits about the case he was trying against Clem.
When asked in court Friday about that night, Personius, 30, invoked her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.
Did her boss at Adams & Diaco tell her to get Campbell drunk?
Fifth Amendment.
Did her boss tell her to ask Campbell to drive her car that night?
Fifth Amendment.
On Thursday, Campbell was bailed out of jail, and shortly before 3 p.m., according to Personius, the paralegal discovered she had Campbell's briefcase in her back seat.
She called her boss, Robert Adams, and told him. He told her not to do anything with it.
Soon, another attorney with the firm was at her house. He drove the briefcase back to the law firm in downtown Tampa, where yet another attorney decided it should go back to Personius so she could return it, the lawyers said Friday.
Like a burning coal, no one wanted to hold it long.
Florida Bar rule 4-4.4 (b): A lawyer who receives a document relating to the representation of the lawyer's client and knows or reasonably should know that the document was inadvertently sent shall promptly notify the sender.
About an hour later, the briefcase was back in Personius' hands.
She took a cab to Campbell's office — the law firm of Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick — and had the cab driver take the briefcase up to the office.
Why take a cab? an attorney asked in court Friday.
Fifth Amendment.
Records show Personius' driver's license is suspended. She was arrested on a DUI charge once in 2009 and has multiple driving infractions, according to state records.
But that was not brought up in court Friday.
Instead, an attorney at Campbell's firm told Judge Arnold that he thinks the cab driver was used to hide the fact that Personius had the bag.
"Their idea was to have the bag anonymously dropped off," said that attorney, Jaime Austrich.
But it was too late. For reasons not explained in court, someone at Campbell's firm had pulled up Personius' mugshot from her previous arrest and made the connection. Campbell's firm then called the office of Adams & Diaco as Personius was en route.
Now it is up to the judge to decide whether the MJ-Bubba trial can proceed.
Times news researcher John Martin and staff writer Will Hobson contributed to this report. Jessica Vander Velde can be reached at [email protected] or (813) 226-3433.Review: 'Oh My God' is hardly divine
A local in Vrindaban, Uttar Pradesh, India from Oh, My God? A film by Peter Rodger. A local in Vrindaban, Uttar Pradesh, India from Oh, My God? A film by Peter Rodger. Photo: ZEE Motion Pictures Photo: ZEE Motion Pictures Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Review: 'Oh My God' is hardly divine 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Oh My God
Documentary. Written and directed by Peter Rodger. (Not rated. 98 minutes. At the Lumiere in San Francisco and Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley.)
The globe-trotting documentary "Oh My God" offers a chance to dozens of people - religious figures, celebrities and ordinary folks - to sound off about the nature of the divine being. Their opinions are, predictably, all over the place, and lead up to some tame observations by the director that hardly seem worth the three years he devoted to making the film.
First-time filmmaker Peter Rodger, an Australian photographer and maker of commercials, says he made the film in response to what he calls the "schoolyard mentality" of those who believe that their God is the only God. This led him to ask "What is God?" to Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and others in many nations.
A handful of celebs appear on camera, including Hugh Jackman, David Copperfield, Seal, Princess Michael of Kent and a genial Ringo Starr, although why these particular people were chosen is unclear. One exception is Bob Geldof, an unapologetic atheist, who offers some tart remarks and clearly represents the opposition.
Rodger, who appears on-camera frequently (and can be quite annoying), plays favorites among the interviewees, all but openly jeering at some: a born-again Texas gun-store owner, and a Muslim whom Rodger challenges to find a passage in the Quran stating that infidels are condemned to hell. Much more to his liking are those who offer some variation of the idea that there is one God but many ways of seeing him, so we should all live together in peace.
This tepid idea is Rodger's conclusion. On a more positive note: Some of the talking heads say entertaining or thoughtful things and some of the locations are quite exotic. But does this justify 98 minutes of screen time?As far as signs go, this may not be a good one. The Raiders reportedly hosted four defensive backs for visits on Thursday — three cornerbacks and one safety.
OAK: CBs Brian Dixon, Demetrius McCray, Deji Olatoye; S Mykkele Thompson. — Howard Balzer (@HBalzer721) October 5, 2017
Dixon played the past 3 seasons in New Orleans with no starts |
maximized their strengths. They gave them personalities, power, and individual stories. They didn’t have to show up their male teammates. They could stand on their own and thrive as women.
In terms of feminism, “X-men: The Animated Series” was at omega-level standards long before it became a priority. At a time when we’re still struggling to make solid female characters, it’s remarkable and refreshing to see how well it was done.
“The show didn’t shy away from harsh, dramatic moments.”
People used to make a big deal about cartoon violence. The big worry was that kids would see a cartoon duck fighting with a cartoon rabbit and think that playing with double-barreled shotguns were toys. It was a very different, very strange time, to say the least.
“X-men: The Animated Series” basically gave a big, adamantium finger to this debate, at least to the extent that they could get around the network censors. This show did not shy away from the harsh, dramatic moments that had played out in the comics. In fact, in the second episode of the series, one of the characters dies.
Keep in mind, this is a kids show where characters are not allowed to curse or show blood. The fact that this show killed a character in an early episode, and referenced death on more than one occasions, showed a remarkable willingness to portray real struggles with real stakes. Sure, it probably upset a few parents, but it sent a powerful message about the real world.
“X-men: The Animated Series” dealt with real issues of bigotry, hatred, and intolerance. As such, it couldn’t water down the harshness and the pain it incurred. These are issues that people are still reluctant to talk about today and this show brought it up during the Clinton Administration. That shows both guts and foresight.
“The villains, heroes, and themes had layers of complexity.”
Watch any cartoon made before 1992 and chances are the characters you see will be pretty basic. You have your evil, mustache-twirling villains. You have your generic good guy/hero types. You have exaggerated violence and shameless toy promotions. There’s not a whole lot of depth there.
“X-men: The Animated Series” once again dared to do more. It dared to let its characters grow and evolve over the course of five seasons. It’s an approach that worked so well that others, like the “Spider-Man” cartoon that debuted two years later, went onto adopt it. These characters had all sorts of layers and depth in the comics. The show chose not to simplify it for a young audience and embrace that complexity.
Sure, characters like Magneto, Sinister, and Apocalypse came off as generic bad guys at first, but they developed more and more depth as the series went on. There were even times when Magneto came off as genuinely sympathetic. For a kids show, these moments were pretty heavy and something you just wouldn’t get with the Ninja Turtles.
Today, everyone is trying to give their characters that Walter White style of complexity. Everyone is trying to create a series with a sense of progression. Well, “X-men: The Animated Series” were already doing that in the days of dial-up internet.
The fact this show succeeded to the extent that it did, while being as progressive as it was, even by modern standards, is nothing short of uncanny. After 25 years, the show still has a special place in the hearts of X-men fans. Sure, the animation and dialogue may be dated, but those progressive themes have never been more relevant.ETAWAH: Uttar Pradesh now has Asia’s first cycle highway. A first-of-its-kind project, the 207-km-long cycle highway runs between Etawah and Agra and was declared open on Saturday. A rally of 90 cyclists from five countries and across India followed the inauguration ceremony at the Lion Safari in Etawah.Constructed by the UP public works department, the cycle highway runs parallel to the main highway and is about 7-feet-wide. A divider in between ensures the safety of cyclists. Along the way from Etawah to Agra, it dots 92 villages.“The track begins from the lion safari in Etawah. On its way to Agra are tourist destinations like Naugava ka Quila, Raja Bhoj ki Haveli, and Bateshwarnath Temple. It ends at the eastern gate of the Taj Mahal in Agra,” said lion safari director Sanjay Srivastava.While the cyclists rode about 50 km on Saturday, from Etawah to Jarar, UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav—who conceived the project following his experiences in cities like Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris, where cycles are used extensively in city commute—will welcome the cyclists in Agra on Sunday.The track criss-crosses the natural beauty of the Chambal and Yamuna rivers. Views of ravines along the way will give tourists an opportunity to enjoy the serenity of the region. “Local people can use it for daily commute as the tracks covers a distance of 207 km, dotting 92 villages across the two districts,” said Srivastava.Inaugurating the highway, state minister Abhishek Mishra said, “It is a historical moment as a world-class cycling infrastructure is being made operational not only for locals but to the people of the state and the nation.”The cycle tracks will not only give a boost to tourism, but also help in sustaining the environment, he added.“Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav wanted to transform the region as an ecologically conscious tourist destination, and the dedicated cycle tracks are a significant step towards promoting green and environment friendly commuting,” said Mishra.For the past 15 years, Swedish nationals Sanna (30) and Stephen (45) have been using the cycle as their mode of transportation.“I am excited to be here. Going by the infrastructure, the cycle track is of international standard. I am a tad nervous as the cycle track in our country is on the right side of the road and here it is on the left side,” said Sanna, who was among the cyclists who rode from Etawah on Saturday.Raqeebul Islam from Bangladesh, another participant, said, “I would like to appeal to the people, particularly the elderly, to take up cycling again for a healthy and fit tomorrow.” Raqeebul further said that peddaling would enhance road sense among the youth and increase their tolerance level as drivers. He also offered local cyclists a few tips on the cause of the environment.Camelot Unchained, the upcoming spiritual successor to Dark Age of Camelot, finished its Kickstarter campaign back in May 2013. City State Entertainment raised more than 2.2 million dollars from almost 15,000 backers. In the years since, how are people who backed Camelot Unchained feeling about their investment now? Does the game still show promise? Any regrets?
To find out the answers to these questions, I looked to the Internet to find writers, bloggers, and super fans who had helped kickstart Camelot Unchained back in 2013.
Who did I interview?
Rich, a Dark Age of Camelot super fan and former Mythic Entertainment employee.
Chris Hughes, writer at MMOGames and blogger at Through Wolfy’s Eyes.
. Eri, a long-time blogger and MMO PvP enthusiast over at Healing the Masses.
Rich, the DAOC Super Fan
Why Camelot Unchained?
There were two main things that I took into consideration when i was backing something. First is the person that’s in charge of the studio. Mark Jacobs has made many a MMO and made by far my favorite MMO in Dark Age of Camelot. Second were the pillars he established before hand. I think this is something that is going to be left out of many other kickstarters and the main reason why so many have ballooning issues with design DESPITE being so over funded.
Adding to those facts was this game was not going to be for everyone. Not like how Wildstar wasn’t for everyone with hardcore raiding and attunements, but there is a single focus to the game, and that is tri-faction PvP. Three distinct factions with races and classes that are different and play as such. With this we leave behind the theme-park and theme-sandbox era of AAA MMOs that need to appeal to everyone. Frankly they are over their head right at the start of the game to enter the time of the niche MMOs that are put out by smaller studios that let them grown into a full fledged product. Much like WoW was and how FFXIV turned around to become.
How much did you spend on the Kickstarter?
I backed Camelot Unchained at about $3,500.
$3,500? That sounds like a lot.
There were some interesting parts of the world to be a part of, and mostly i really wanted this game to be made. It might have been my most closely followed Kickstarter that i have done. Most others I can be hit or miss on, but this is the game I really wanted to see made.
How do you feel about being a backer now? Is it still money well spent? Would you like a do-over?
I would like to throw more money at it to be honest, but PayPal isn’t my cup of tea. I’m still happy I’m a backer. This is probably the only time you will ever really see an MMO being made from the programming and art all the way though. It is rare for a studio to stream concept art and almost unheard of to stream code. Yet they do, and when they do they explain what the are doing with the code and how it is going to work in the system. The art speaks for itself as you see each concept piece come to life or grow further. It is something I wish more studios would do.
Have you kept up with the game’s development? How is it looking to you?
The design and art of the game looks amazing and I would expect it to get better as more systems are put in place. I personally never really think it’s fair to say how something looks before you get the final copy but based on what I see, personally I like it.
What is the one thing you hope Camelot Unchained gets right?
The pace of combat is the biggest thing. There should be times when the combat is quick and the first strike is the decisive and victorious one. However, it’s always interesting to watch those fights that get drawn out as each side is pushed back and forth. With combat comes the need for zergs and anti-zerg. All the PvP games that came out have a zerg but it’s the most fun when that small group organized group and go in and cause havoc to a larger force.
Chris “Wolfy” Hughes, MMOGames Writer
Why did you back Camelot Unchained?
The website of the game itself was the thing that put me over the edge in buying in. Specifically, the design documents regarding crafting. These design ideas and concepts are ideals that speak the most to me in an open sandbox game, since I tend to lean towards more non-combat activities in that style of MMO.
I’ve elaborated on that in a blog post, but in synopsis, the idea that crafting in Camelot Unchained is how people can get the best possible gear is something I’ve wanted out of MMO crafting in a long time. More often than not, crafting in an MMO means you make slightly more useful stuff but are short of the raid tier. In Camelot Unchained, the only way you’re going to become the most badass in the game is to approach a skilled crafter.
Have you followed the game closely at all since the Kickstarter ended?
I snap up every newsletter the game devs issue on a regular basis, as well as look forward to the comments section of Massively Overpowered when they post a story about the game, as Mark Jacobs himself very often engages with those registered to the site. It’s refreshing to be part of that outreach.
Do you think other MMOs would benefit from a more direct outreach to players?
Without question. Especially if they act like Mark Jacobs. There’s a lot made of PR, spin, and the noise out of other open-development MMO heads like Derek Smart, Chris Roberts and John Smedley, so it’s an immensely refreshing thing to see someone engage to the level and professionalism of Mr. Jacobs. And the thing about his engagement is it never really feels forced. He gives you the sense that he’s there of his own volition.
In order to be a big hit, what do you think Camelot Unchained needs to get right the most?
Own up to the design documents they have lined out, first of all. They have done everything else right with regards to PR–even being almost needlessly apologetic when they fell short of a proposed deadline. Now it’s up to them to make good on their designs and create the game they’ve outlined on their website.
Do you think their design documents are realistic? Any in particular that you worry may be a long shot?
The game’s stat system sounds amazing on paper, but I still don’t feel like people won’t find ways to come up with flavor-of-the-month builds or create a meta that will ostracize people who make more personal choices. I’ve also not heard an awful lot of concrete solutions to the problem. Considering, too, that re-specializing your stats is stated as being a difficult proposition, then I’m almost positive players will seek out build guides and demand things of newcomers.
Are you still happy you backed the game? Would you do anything differently?
I am very happy I backed the game. Camelot Unchained is a style of game I have never personally experienced in my MMO life, and the fact that the game’s non-combat activities not only make me feel needed but wanted has me very excited to the point I am even considering raising my tier of pledge. Ultimately, though, that depends on how the game feels when I am allowed in to test. As far as doing something differently? I don’t know…I suppose I could engage in the official channels a lot more. I’m not sure it’s of value since I haven’t been in-game and though wouldn’t really post anything of much worth to the development.
Considering your lack of experience with similar MMOs, do you worry at all that the game may ultimately not be for you?
Considering how most people felt about other RvR games, this may be a non-issue. A lot of people tend to cite other RvR games and it made me curious. Ultimately, though, there is that worry that I’ve bought into a style of game that isn’t for me. I’d found that The Repopulation–my first-ever Kickstarted title–didn’t tick the boxes I was hoping it would, and while that made me feel a bit silly, I took solace in the fact that I helped to fund a game that someone else could like. Ultimately, it’s my money to lose, and I’m looking forward to finding out if I made the right choice. Part of the fun of this for me is the discovery of new things!
Eri, the MMORPG PvP Fanatic
How did Camelot Unchained end up with your money? How much did you spend?
I spent $200, my largest Kickstarter amount by at least double. Straight away once the campaign started I kind of new I wanted to donate. There is just a distinct lack of PvP games, especially PvP games that try to create a proper economic system. It’s funny but I don’t think the developers name meant that much to me, in fact from most it seemed a detriment to the campaign.
What do you mean it was a ‘detriment to the campaign’?
Many people remember the hype from Warhammer Online as well and with Mark Jacobs being the spokesperson for it. Many feel like they were lied to by him about the game and the features and were let down on these.
What is your opinion of the game thus far? Are you still excited?
I haven’t actually jumped in to play at all as I made the decision a while ago not to worry about games in alpha and beta, especially MMOs as you tend to burn out a bit of that interest on a lesser experience. It does seem to be progressing well with the systems being developed and talked about near exactly what I expected and wanted. Glad that communication has been so great throughout development too.
What feature in the final product do you think you will love the most?
I’ve written about this before on Healing the Masses, but to sum that post up:
I think the major appeal is that it is a game designed for and around PvP. This way PvE design isn’t interfering in PvP mechanics and gameplay. The ability to affect the world around by digging in and building upon terrain. And a fully fleshed out crafting and economic system.
Do you think there will still be a place in the genre for a game like Camelot Unchained when it finally does release? Do you think others will be there to join you in playing it?
I think there is definitely a place for MMOs that focus on Realm vs Realm (RvR). I’ve seen a huge community around these styles of play in Guild Wars 2, The Elder Scrolls Online and elsewhere, and while these games do seem to sustain them for some time – it often doesn’t feel like a long term investment of them. They mostly seem to be waiting for “the” MMO. I know many had already talked about Camelot, have put money into the campaign and are eagerly awaiting it.
The problem I think though is that while there is a place for it, I’m not sure if there is enough of a place to support two RvR MMOs. Both Camelot and Crowfall seem to be on a similar development trajectory and will obviously pull players from the same community.
Thanks to all three of my interviewees. You can find more coverage of Camelot Unchained here on MMOGames.com. Visit our Camelot Unchained profile page for more information.
Related: Backer SurveyAdvertisement
The Big 12 Baseball Tournament returns to Oklahoma City’s Bricktown Ballpark this weekend, which means some semblance of home-field advantage for the Sooners and Cowboys.
It also means baseball fans from across the region have a great reason to call in sick at work, eat/drink $20 worth of stadium consumables at 9:30 a.m. and HATE on every shit-heel group of baseball boneheads from Morgantown, W. Va., to, uh, Manhattan … Kan.
That’s right, the Big 12 baseball tourney offers an unmatched opportunity to heckle a mess of goobery 20-year-olds wearing “frozen” rope necklaces that look like they were hand-woven by your cousin Roscoe’s step-daughter at a Lake Eufaula swap meet.
So, without further ado, here’s a guide to hating on and heckling the eight Big 12 teams competing at this week’s tournament. And, what the hell, let’s throw in some derision for poor Kansas. The fact that Big 12 baseball features only nine teams is a rich embarrassment of chidable sadness all to itself.
Hateable Mention: Kansas Jayhawks (20-35-1)
Back when I was a child, Big 8 Conference baseball was already hamstrung into a clunky seven-team format because the University of Colorado Buffalos were TOO AFRAID OF THE COLD to field a program for America’s pastime. This was the 1990s, of course, so no one had predicted the sports-related benefits of global warming that made it 73-damned-degrees in Boulder, Colo., this past Feb. 18. But whatever.
When the Iowa State Cyclones stopped fielding a team owing to budget (and Title IX) issues in 2001, that equalized the then-Big 12 baseball bracket. But when Colorado and Nebraska bolted the conference, it left an odd number again.
As a result, one team is now omitted from Big 12 baseball postseason, and this year, that team was the Kansas Jayhawks, who finished 6-17 in conference play. So if you’re sitting around between games this week, feel free to boo those Jayhawks so they don’t feel left out.
No. 1 seed: Texas Tech (40-14)
The Texas Tech Red Raiders racked up the most victories in conference (19-5) this year, and if you need additional reason to loathe them in their first-round game, you must be extra hateful. Good on you.
Head coach Tim Tadlock is a former OU baseball assistant who was integral in Sooner success from 2006 to 2011. Sure, you could be happy for him succeeding at his alma mater, or you could try to fluster him by noting how his career will inevitably be ruined by TV-blowhard and failed-Senate-candidate Craig James, a la Mike Leach.
No. 2 seed: Oklahoma State University (35-18)
Two words: Jim Traber. No, I’m not turning into The Lost Ogle over here (but do check back for Moderately Attractive Guy Thursday). Traber is an OSU baseball legend and a local sports-radio mainstay. I guess he’s legendary there, too, since I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather hear spit into a radio mic while arguing with a fellow sportscaster.
Traber came from Maryland and played for coaching icon Gary Ward from 1980 to 1982. Ward is the smartest baseball mind I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to in person, so he’s not a reason to hate the Cowboys. But Traber surely is, and Gary Ward circa Ronald Reagan’s first campaign probably would have agreed.
So would this poor pitcher whom Big Jim famously chased around before falling and getting kicked in the head:
No. 3 seed: TCU (38-14)
As a private school, TCU isn’t covered under open records laws, so as a journalist, they and another team on this list are hateable in that regard. I highly suggest challenging head coach Jim Schlossnagle to release documents related to his mileage reimbursement while he’s exchanging lineups at home plate.
Beyond that, don’t forget the stupid horned-frog claw their fans do, or maybe you can make hay with this quote from a 2013 student newspaper article about how TCU teaches alcohol and drug prevention. From a “peer educator” in the article who recalled her own boozy behavior:
“I turned into a cat once,” Adams said. “I was just prowling around, snuggling up to people and doing weird things like that.”
A cat, you say? As you’ll soon see, it’s fortuitous that TCU matches up against No. 6-seed Baylor at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
No. 4 seed: West Virginia (33-21)
Hating on West Virginia for anything sports-related need not go further than about eight bars of Country Roads by John Denver, a thoroughly enjoyable song unless you’re having to hear it after a bunch of Mountaineers have trapped and skinned your favorite sports team.
I highly suggest that any punk rockers wanting to heckle West Virginia learn a few songs by hellbilly one-man-band Hasil Adkins. I don’t know how their pitcher can be expected to throw strikes when you’re hollering “Hunch that thing!” at him like a true Boone County rebel.
No. 5 seed: University of Oklahoma (28-25-1)
If you need a reason to hate on the OU Sooners this week, I’ve got two of them for you. First, they played to a tie this season, which is an abomination of all things baseball, though not exactly OU’s fault in particular. But it’s worth a few heckles as they take on the Mountaineers at 9 a.m. Wednesday, no doubt.
More juicy, however, is OU’s new synthetic rubber baseball field at L. Dale Mitchell Park in Norman. NonDoc’s Jeremy Cowen bemoaned it at season’s start, and I didn’t attend a single OU game this season as a result. My decision wasn’t out of protest but rather out of emotions. They’ve ruined my childhood with that neon-green and fake-dirt monstrosity, and it’s bad enough seeing it on TV.
So if you head to Bricktown this week to heckle the Sooners, here’s my best suggestion: Take a big bag of grass seed with you and present it to head coach Pete Hughes before a third-straight season of missing the NCCAA Tournament gets him canned like cheap beans.
No. 6 seed: Baylor University (24-27)
Baylor is quite possibly the most hateable school in the Big 12, with a litany of athletic-program problems related to their handling of reported sexual assaults. In at least one instance, the university didn’t investigate for two years.
But let’s not make light of something so dire and disturbing as sexual assault on college campuses.
Instead, we can focus on something from 2001 that was disturbing in a different sense — the time two Baylor baseball players shot a cat on a Taco Cabana patio, beat it with a golf club and cut its head off. The players were never convicted of animal cruelty charges because Texas law required them either to have tortured the cat or to have knowingly killed someone else’s animal without his or her consent.
Regardless, Baylor baseball fans still get REALLY pissy when you meow at their batters or hiss at their coach. But that’s what makes baseball heckling great. You haven’t lived until a Baptist from Waco has given you double-barrel middle fingers in front of hundreds of people.
No. 7 seed: University of Texas: (22-30)
If you need something other than just the color burnt orange to make you vomit like a dog that ate a week’s worth of rats, I guess we’ll have to turn to longtime Texas coach Augie Garrido.
If you don’t know anything about Garrido, that’s fine. He’s probably sick of your shit anyway, even if he’s never met you. Here’s a profanity-laced compilation video of Augie’s, um, finer moments of interpersonal communications (NSFW):
Be those four-letter words as they may, the man knows how to get results on a baseball field. Except for this year, when his squad finished 10-14 in conference play and left him “practically begging” to finish out his coaching contract, according to some sportswriter who probably couldn’t get a bunt down if his job was to get Sophia Vergara into scoring position.
But Garrido remains the all-time winningest coach in NCAA history, no matter what anyone says. That means he deserves your respect and your best ballpark insults. He’s heard them all before.
No. 8 seed: Kansas State University (26-29)
You’re probably running out of steam in reading all the reasons you should #Hate all the teams at this week’s tournament, and that’s fine. In fact, I’m running out of mediocre jokes and acceptable cuss words. As a result, this frightening Kansas State (football) hype video from 2007 can stand on its own two lame feet:
So there you have it: Enough potential ways to heckle the living crap out of any baseball team you could possibly encounter Wednesday through Sunday at the Bricktown Ballpark. When in doubt, just act like you’re Donald Trump and you’ll be fine.
Tickets can be bought pre-sale for as low as $5 each, and all-session passes are as low as $69, which is a good deal for all the baseball/heckling you’ll get for your dime.
I highly encourage you to skip work all week and enjoy some college baseball before this year’s bats are shipped to China for scrap metal.
If your boss protests, you can just give him the ol’ Augie Garrido treatment and threaten to shoot his cat.Share 0 SHARES
REPORTS are emerging from Hollywood that the 2018 edition of the Academy Awards ceremony will feature a section dedicated to the actors, producers, directors and industry chiefs whose careers were ended by allegations of historical sex abuse in 2017.
Taking place right after the ‘In Memoriam’ segment dedicated to dead members of the film industry, the new ‘dead to us’ section will feature Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and Bill Cosby for certain, with many more powerful Hollywood names sure to be added to the list between now and the 90th Academy Awards in late February.
The move comes following news that Kevin Spacey’s role in a forthcoming Ridley Scott movie is to be re-cast and re-shot in the wake of toxic revelations about Spacey’s alleged predatorial abuse of underage actors, with Academy officials estimating that the ‘dead to us’ segment may push the already-bloated ceremony past the 6-hour mark.
“Does Singer spell his name Bryan or Brian?” asked an art director for the ‘dead to us’ segment, which is being updated daily.
“Two ‘p’s in Depp? This could be the longest segment in the Oscars since Jim Cameron’s acceptance speech for Titanic. Of course, we could have had a ‘dead to us’ segment every year all the way back to the Kirk Douglas and Natalie Wood allegations 60 years ago, but the industry had a better handle on covering these things up back then”.
“Since Weinstein, we have to be seen to be doing something about a problem that we successfully ignored for decades. With a bit of luck, we’ll weed out the bad guys and everything will be absolutely fine in the land where beautiful young people have to make sure not to upset powerful, wealthy men if they want to follow their dreams”.
The Academy has also reported that it will be holding the ceremony in the smaller upstairs 40-seater section of the Kodak theater in Los Angeles, which should comfortably fit the few dozen industry people who haven’t been arrested by then.Netherlands-based Hoogte Twee Architecten shared with us their project B(h)uis, a small pavilion built with PVC tubes. More images and architect’s description after the break.
“Through the centuries architects have used small construction works to experiment with spaces of limited form, scale and extent, but also to experiment with material and details.
As there’s a lack of well-equipped research laboratories, the research of material by architects focuses on potentials of existing (construction-) products in which mainly is sought for possibilities of improper use of materials. Our temporary residence is such an experiment. PVC tubes have inspired us to a design of a special object in which this material is no longer seen as a tube but as a hollow building stone.
The material is researched by its spatial characteristics and escapes its standard application. The transparency in the along-direction and the fixed wall in the cross-direction determine the spatiality.
By parallel stacking of the tubes as building stones a mass has been created which represents itself closed from four sides, but which is transparent, seen from the head sides. By hollowing out this mass a special residence will be created which will be provided by light seen from the head sides.”
Architects: Hoogte Twee Architecten – Arnhem Location: Lent, The Netherlands Project team: Martin-Paul Neys, Peter Groot, Cor Tiemens, Rudi Koster, Bart van den Hoven Design year: 2005 Construction year: 2009 Photographs: Hoogte Twee Architecten Material sponsor: Dyka Nederland b.v.Update. One remark in this post about compile-time messages was untrue. As K-ballo has pointed out, declaration =default does not mean that we have a declared and usable member function. Ville Voutilainen also suggested how to fix the situation with a static_assert. This section is now corrected.
Update. I no longer consider the advice given in this post a good one. I left it for reference, but I encourage you to also read this post.
You have probably already heard about the Rule of Zero formulated by R. Martinho Fernandes:
Classes that have custom destructors, copy/move constructors or copy/move assignment operators should deal exclusively with ownership. Other classes should not have custom destructors, copy/move constructors or copy/move assignment operators.
I have run into a certain problem when trying to apply it, and today I wanted to share my observations with you. I noted that Scott Meyers also expressed his concerns about some interpretations of the rule (see here); I came to a similar conclusion, however my problem is somewhat different.
I have decided to follow the rule in my project. I have defined a class that looks more-less like this:
class Tool { private: ResourceA resA_; ResourceB resB_; public: // interface // (no special member functions) };
My colleague is reviewing the code. He asks me a question, ‘does this type have a copy constructor, or a move constructor?’ My response is, ‘since ResourceA has a copy- and a move constructor, and ResourceB has a move constructor but no copy constructor, as a result Tool has a move constructor but no copy constructor.’ I was happy with this response, and with the short class definition. My colleague, in contrast, was a bit confused. This was not as obvious to him. My first thought was ‘apparently he didn’t learn about the Rule of Zero yet’, but upon later reflection I started to share his reservations.
I share the view that a class should explicitly state its interface and separate it from the implementation details. I tend to think (although I know it is a bit of a simplification) that section public indicates the type’s interface, and section private indicates internal implementation details. Of course, in C++ private declarations are not really private: the size of private members affects the size of the class (which is ‘public’); the users of our class see the private members along the public ones; they have to include the headers required by the private members. But still, it is useful to see what is the intended interface of the class and what is an ‘accidental’ interface. It is not uncommon in C++ to provide an interface we never intended. This is because of special member functions that are generated implicitly (possibly with unintended semantics); implicit conversions between scalar types can affect our type’s interface in a surprising way (for examples, see here and here); sometimes by forgetting to put the keyword explicit we make our types implicitly convertible from other unrelated types.
Without an explicit declaration of intent from the author, it is sometimes difficult to say if some portions of the interface are there on purpose, or if they are just an omission. In my example, it is not clear if I intended my type to be movable or not. Can the users rely on it? Since using ResourceA is my implementation detail, at some point I may change this type to ResourceX which is non-movable, and my class Tool will suddenly cease to be movable, with no change in the declared interface.
It is this coupling between the implementation and the public interface that bothers me. I would be more comfortable with an explicit declaration, especially that it has become easier in C++11 to declare the special member functions:
class Tool { private: ResourceA resA_; ResourceB resB_; public: // interface Tool(Tool &&) = default; // noexcept is deduced Tool& operator=(Tool&&) = default; // noexcept is deduced Tool(Tool const&) = delete; Tool& operator=(Tool const&) = delete; };
This is more typing, but this way we are separating the interface from the implementation. If during some future development both resources become (temporarily) copyable, class Tool does not suddenly acquire copy operations.
On the other hand, if one of my resources is changed to something non-movable, the =default declaration will still compile and may give false impression to the clients that they can use a move constructor. But even if we end up with the same problem, it is at least clear what the intention was, and on which side the problem lays. If this is not satisfactory, and you require a compiler error upon inadvertent missing move constructor, you can achieve the effect with yet another declaration:
static_assert(std::is_move_constructible<Tool>::value, "Move constructor could not be generated");
As the result of this exercise, the interface of the class becomes more stable.
For the same reason I would not advise anyone to annotate their functions with noexcept only because their current implementation happens not to throw any exception. The interface is something we commit to for a longer time; longer than till the next change of implementation.
So, am I questioning how the rules for the implicit generation of special members work? Not really: they seem fine for POD-like types, where all the member data are public. In such case the types of data members (and their copyability/movability) contribute to the type’s public interface.
Am I questioning the Rule of Zero? One interpretation thereof. If you read it as “you have to declare no special member functions,” then yes, I can see the advantage in typing the four declarations. But if you read it as “you do not have to provide custom definitions for special member functions,” then the rule is still preserved.
For the end, let me leave you with a question. I have been suggested to use boost::noncopyable instead, in order to declare more briefly that I do not intend my type to be copyable:
class Tool : boost::noncopyable { private: ResourceA resA_; ResourceB resB_; public: // interface // (no special member functions) };
What do you think? Is thus defined class Tool movable?
AdvertisementsResearchers compare the processing of biological fluid samples with searching for a needle in a haystack — only in this case, the haystack could be diagnostic samples, and the needle might be tumor cells present in just parts-per-million concentrations. Now, a new way of processing these samples could make such detections possible in real time, according to a team from MIT, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and Harvard Medical School.
The team’s surprising discovery is described in a paper in the journal Nature Communications. The technique could allow cells to be sorted while hurtling through the channels of a microfluidic device at speeds faster than those of race cars, the authors say — at least 100 times faster than any existing system
Normally, fluid flowing through a narrow channel at such high velocity would break up into a chaotic, turbulent flow, making any sorting or identification of cells impossible. But the research team found ways of eliminating this turbulence and even focusing the flow, driving the particles into single file within the channel.
“If you’re trying to find a needle in a haystack, it’s a lot easier if the needle is right in the middle of the haystack,” says co-author Gareth McKinley, the School of Engineering Professor of Teaching Innovation in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. With this method, that’s essentially what you get: In a process the team calls “inertio-elastic flow focusing,” McKinley says, the flow itself helps concentrate the particles that are of interest. “The bigger particles go to the center first,” he says.
In searching for tumor cells in a large volume of fluid — for example, in a fluid sample drained from a patient’s lungs, or in peritoneal fluid — there may be millions of cells, including those from the tumor, in a volume of up to a few liters; these cells’ shapes, numbers, and biophysical characteristics could make them indicators of cancer.
The researchers showed that by adjusting the flow properties of the fluid sample, they could |
virtual private networks (VPNs) to mask the fact that they were posting from Russia, according to Maksim.
They would be evaluated, he says, on how many 'likes' their comments received.
Discussing how trolls would comment on stories about homosexuality, he said: 'You had to write that sodomy is a sin. That could always get you a couple of dozen "likes."'
Maksim said that one topic that was off-limits for the trolls was Russia itself, along with President Vladimir Putin.
'[Americans], in fact, do not care about Russia and Putin,' he said.
The Internet Research Agency has used various methods of trying to influence the 2016 US Presidential Election via different online platforms. Pictured is Rhussian President Vladimir Putin
Hillary Clinton lost the election but won the popular vote against Donald Trump
The interview comes as technology giants come under heightened scrutiny for their firms' unwitting proliferation of Kremlin-linked propaganda. These cases involved in Internet Research Agency and other 'troll factories'.
Google discovered this past week that Russian-linked operatives used its site to promote incendiary messages, in an effort to dupe Americans into reading them and then passing the information on to their friends and colleagues.
Another Silicon Valley giant, Facebook, has uncovered postings linked to Russian agents that one expert concluded were likely shared hundreds of millions of times.
The Washington Post had reported that the Google ads are linked to a different Russian troll farm than the one linked to Facebook – an indication that the breadth of the Russia campaign is greater than previously known.
Investigators still must sort through the conflicting streams of information about the ads – some of which appear designed to inflame tensions along racial lines. Others fell on opposite sides of the political spectrum.
One even explicitly went after Donald Trump, who U.S. intelligence has concluded that Russia favored.
Both Twitter and Facebook recently detected and disclosed that suspected Russian operatives, working for the Internet Research Agency, used their platforms to purchase ads and post content that was politically divisive in a bid to influence Americans before and after the election.
Facebook found that ads from the Internet Research Agency were seen by an estimated 10million people before and after the election
The Internet Research Agency employs hundreds of so-called 'trolls' who post pro-Kremlin content, much of it fake or discredited, under the guise of phony social media accounts that posed as American or European, according to lawmakers and researchers.
Facebook announced last month it had unearthed $100,000 in spending by the Internet Research Agency and, under pressure from lawmakers, has pledged to be more transparent about how its ads are purchased and targeted.
The tech giant has further stated that the Internet Research Agency ads run on its platform were seen by an estimated 10million people before and after the 2016 election.
The company turned 3,000 ads over to three congressional committees earlier this month as part of their investigations into Russian influence in the 2016 election.
The ads would target voters who marketers believed were impressionable, the Washington Post had reported.
Similar to tactics used by American companies, the Russian influencers would use a Facebook tool called Custom Audiences to send more content about social and political issues to users who had clicked on the ads.
Eventually, targeted users would be directed to non-social media websites. Tracking data on the users was mined by the Russian operatives.
Also earlier this month, Twitter announced it had shut down 201 accounts associated with the Internet Research Agency.Once again in a matter of weeks the French Assembly has ended looking more like a farmyard than a parliament.
Weeks after hundreds of chickens were let loose, several tonnes of steaming dung were dumped from a lorry in front of the parliament building on the Quai d'Orsay on Thursday morning during what French police termed "un attentat à la crotte" or "poop attack".
The lorry carried a simple message to President François Hollande and his buddies in parliament: "Hollande and the political class should get out, make way for the Fifth Republic". The driver was arrested soon after dropping the steaming cargo.
According to BFMTV there was a similar attack reported in front of the offices of conservative French political party UMP in the north central town of Troyes.
[Pic] Ce matin du fumier a été déversé devant l'AN / Banderole 'Hollande et toute la classe politique dehors" pic.twitter.com/QyPlGHyEcU — LCP (@LCPan) January 16, 2014
It was unclear what was behind the protest, but it comes as President François Hollande faces a scandal over revelations he had affair with an actress 18 years his junior.
This is of course not the first time in recent weeks the National Assembly has appeared more like a farmyard than a parliament.
In December anti-gay marriage protesters released hundreds of chickens outside the gates of the Assembly, several of which perished.
This latest protest has of course been enjoyed on the Twittersphere. See the image tweeted below for an example. "Come and discover the Paris Farm in front of the National Assembly.PATRIOTS WIN PROFILING FIGHT Missouri Report Smearing Patriots Withdrawn Due to Citizen Pressure By Mark Anderson MISSOURI PUBLIC SAFETY DIRECTOR John Britt on March 23 issued an apology letter to Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), former Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.), and Florida minister and former Constitution Party presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin.
Why? For having included their names in the Missouri Information Analysis Center’s report that linked Americans concerned about NAFTA, the Federal Reserve, the IRS, the proposed North American Union, firearms confiscation and other real issues with “the militia movement.”
Indeed, the embattled MIAC report, first reported in AFP a week ago, implies that any significant distrust of government schemes could be linked with militia activities or untrustworthy “right-wing” belief systems. The MIAC report available online essentially says that while “the militia movement” peaked in 1996, it’s making a return due to the moribund economy.
But the report apparently has been totally withdrawn, not just altered to address the concerns of Paul, Barr and Baldwin, said the head of the Missouri Highway Patrol.
“For instance, the militia report was created by a MIAC employee, reviewed by the MIAC director, and sent immediately to law enforcement agencies across Missouri. The militia report was never reviewed by me or by the Director of Public Safety [DPS], John Britt, at any point prior to its issuance. Had that report been reviewed by either my office or by leaders of the Department of Public Safety, it would never have been released to law enforcement agencies,” wrote Col. James Keathley in an official letter that AFP obtained from Missouri officials on March 31.
He added: “The Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Department of Public Safety believe that law enforcement officers require intelligence of the highest quality and that the report in question does not meet that standard. For that reason, I have ordered the MIAC to permanently cease distribution of the militia report. Further, I am creating a new process for oversight of reports drafted by the MIAC that will require leaders of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Department of Public Safety to review the content of these reports before they are shared with law enforcement. My office will also undertake a review of the origin of the report by MIAC.”
The evidently defunct report, for example, had noted that the peaceful “End the Fed” rallies held nationwide at 39 Federal Reserve Banks (12 main branches, plus smaller outlets) last November are part of a movement that ultimately could be “dangerous” to law enforcement.
In fact, many at these rallies came from both liberal and conservative backgrounds. Their concern is simply that the Fed, as the nation’s central bank, is too secretive and is doing a poor job, and thus should be dissolved via legislation.
Britt’s letter of apology to Paul, Barr and Baldwin—all
Britt wrote to them: “Unfortunately, in the course of preparing this report, some regrettable information was included in the report on militia groups in Missouri. While the intent of the report was only to identify certain traits that are sometimes shared by members of militia organizations, the report is too easily misinterpreted as suggesting that militia members may be identified by no other indicator than support for a particular candidate or political organization. That is an undesired and unwarranted outcome.”
Britt added: “Upon review and reflection, it is the judgment of the Department of Public Safety [DPS] that the report should have made no reference to supporters of Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin or any other third-party political organization or candidate. In recognition of the mistaken inclusion of this information by the MIAC in its Feb. 20, 2009 report on the militia movement, I have ordered that the offending report be edited so as to excise all reference to Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin and to any third-party political organizations. Additionally you may rest assured that the report is not posted on any website maintained by the state of Missouri.”
Paul, Barr and Baldwin did not merely ask that their names be deleted and that state online postings of the report be dropped, They also challenged the report itself, adding in their letter:
“The ‘report’ draws links between white supremacists, anti-immigration persons, people opposed to gun control and those who do not favor the Federal Reserve banks and much more. Were the ‘report’ nothing more than a nonsensical diatribe penned by some uninformed person, we would certainly not take our time writing this letter.”
Missouri citizens had been preparing to meet with area law enforcement to give them commonsense input on this matter, to try and prevent police from abridging freedom of speech and other constitutional protections afforded all Americans, regardless of their beliefs.
More over, Missouri State Rep. Shane Schoeller, District 139, has sponsored a bill to forbid political profiling. The MIAC report came from an actual place that is part of Missouri’s “fusion center” where information is pooled to tackle crime and terrorist threats. New Department of Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano visited the center on March 11.
“Napolitano and Gov. Nixon then traveled to Kansas City to address the National Fusion Center Conference. Fusion centers are collaborative efforts by law enforcement and other agencies to pool information, resources and analysis to better address and detect crime and potential terrorist threats. Napolitano called fusion centers, which often receive federal funding and work with federal agencies, ‘the future of law enforcement,’’ stated a DPS news release online.
MIAC went into operation in December 2005 and started 24-hour operations on Oct. 1, 2006, the DPS noted in a brochure. Mark Anderson is a longtime newsman now working as a corresponding editor for American Free Press. Together he and his wife Angie provide many photographs of the events they cover for AFP. Mark welcomes your comments and inputs as well as story leads. Email him at at [email protected]. (Issue # 15, April 13, 2009)Rapture provides very little guidance to push you along, yet I can only remember one instance where I found myself lost for more than a few minutes. There are ghostly wisps that will show you points of interest if you're paying attention, and you’ll regularly hear noises — beeping phones, alarms — that make you want to investigate a location. Instead of telling you what to do or where to go, Rapture guides you with light and sound. And, for me at least, it worked perfectly.
What makes Rapture work is just how powerful that mystery is. I found myself completely absorbed by the story; I kept a pen nearby to keep track of people’s names and their relationships, and as I explored I not only learned about where all these people went (at least, I’m pretty sure I’ve figured it out) but I also got an incredibly intimate look into their lives. There are marriages in trouble, and problems with the church. These minor quibbles sometimes felt just as important as the big question at the heart of the game.
Playing the game is incredibly basic. You use the left stick to move, the right to control the camera, and the X button lets you interact with a small number of objects; you can open a few doors and listen to phone messages, but for the most part you are just an observer. And that’s all there is to it. If you’ve played games like Gone Home orDear Esther(which, likeRapture, was developed by English studio The Chinese Room), you’ll know what to expect. These games are often disparagingly referred to as "walking simulators," but it’s a designation that misses the point; it’s not the walking that’s fun, it’s finding yourself in the middle of a mystery, watching it unfold all around you.
At the outset of the game you have no information; you don’t know who you are or where you are, and you certainly don’t know why you’re there. You’re on a quiet street, in what you’ll soon discover is a small, charmingly quaint English village in the mid-1980s. There isn’t much to guide you other than curiosity. But as you start exploring, poking around the town pub and the homes with unlocked doors, it becomes clear that everyone in the town has vanished. There are still signs of life — an ashtray that’s still smoking, an abandoned car with its turn signal on — and you’ll regularly come across audio recordings and ghostly flashback sequences, where you can get a glimpse into the lives of the people who have disappeared. You never actually see them, but you can’t escape them, and it took about five minutes before I realized I absolutely had to know what happened.
Rapture can feel limited at times. You’ll come across a frustratingly large number of locked doors, and unlike in many similar games, where you can pick up objects and examine them, the world of Rapture feels bolted down in comparison. There were many times when I wanted to be nosy, but the game wouldn’t let me. But after an hour or so this bothered me less and less. Instead of an investigation, which I initially expected, Rapture feels more like one of those guided museum tours, only you’re learning about an apocalyptic event instead of ancient history. It’s a radio drama crossed with a video game.
It may be the end of the world, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be beautiful
It also doesn’t hurt that the world you’ll be exploring is absolutely wonderful. Rapture nails that cozy English village vibe perfectly; every moment feels like a postcard, and I couldn’t help but take a lot of screenshots. The main reason why I’m disappointed that I can’t interact with the world more is that everything looks so real that it feels like I should interact with it. The homes feel warm and lived in, and nothing ever really feels like it was designed as part of a video game (with the exception of the city maps you’ll find in just about every building). In fact, often when you see something that doesn’t make sense at first — a huge splash of blood, say, or a turned over can of white paint — you’ll find you understand it later when you see the associated flashback.
The music, meanwhile, seamlessly jumps from soothing to heart-thumping to suit the what’s happening in the story, and even the ambient noise — chirping birds, buzzing insects — helps pull you further into the world. Video game apocalypses tend to alternate between the gritty realism of Fallout and the Red Bull-fueled action of Sunset Overdrive, but Rapture is something completely different. It may be the end of the world, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be beautiful and relaxing.
Rapture and its ilk aren’t for everybody. There are plenty of people who will find themselves bored by simply walking around a quiet, empty village waiting to hear what happened next. But if you’re like me, you’ll find yourself hooked. Some of my favorite video game moments are when nothing is really happening at all — when I can sit on a swing and listen to music in Life is Strange, or when I’m walking down a deserted highway, watching a Las Vegas sunrise in Fallout. They’re not just peaceful moments, but ones that are unique to games; they make you feel like you’re in a real place, one where even small moments can have real meaning. Rapture is a game that’s made entirely of those moments, and it’s amazing.A new bill that child advocacy groups are hoping will curb arrests of foster youth in group homes will likely be introduced today in the State Senate.
The new legislation in its current form will trigger an investigation into group homes that call the police frequently on the criminal conduct of foster youth, limit out-of-pocket restitution demanded of foster youth and reduce time spent in juvenile detention centers.
“The purpose of this bill is to prevent foster youth from being arrested and charged for misbehavior that wouldn’t happen to anyone other than a foster youth,” said Martha Matthews, an attorney for the advocacy group Public Counsel, who is helping author the bill. “We don’t want foster care to be a pipeline to prison.”
Matthews said that normal teenage misbehaviors become serious, life-altering events for foster youth living in group homes. Instead of handling youth in-house, the homes frequently call the police for the slightest impropriety, exposing youths to the criminal justice system.
Several years ago, Matthews represented a foster youth who had been charged with a felony assault with a deadly weapon. The deadly weapon: an avocado.
The foster youth, who lived in a group home, had gotten angry and thrown the gnarled dark green fruit, known for its high fat and creamy texture, at someone. The group home called the police.
Under the bill, an investigation by the state agency Community Care Licensing is initiated if a group home calls the police on its foster youth for criminal misconduct more than once a month on average over six months. The state requires group homes to have behavior management plans for the youth.
“You don’t want the cops to be your behavioral management plan,” said Matthews. “The bill creates a threshold by separating the normal, well-managed group homes from the more chaotic ones that call the police all the time.”
The bill can only trigger an investigation; it lacks teeth when it comes to corrective action. The result and consequence, if any, are left completely up to the investigators.
The County Welfare Directors Association, a nonprofit group of welfare workers, has tracked the bill and offered amendments. The association hasn’t had a chance to read over the latest draft and therefore takes no position on the bill, according to their communication coordinator Sarah Jimenez.
Sometimes a foster youth will get mad and smash something, often resulting in restitution. Matthews said most of the damage is covered by the group home’s insurances, but the courts still makes the youth pay the full amount. The new bill will limit the restitution to only what isn’t covered by insurance.
If a foster youth is arrested, they can be held for long periods in detention, because, unlike kids with parents, they don’t have anyone to pick them up and can spend weeks in jail, according to child advocates. AB 388 aims to reduce the time foster youth spend in detention by requiring immediate notification of the child welfare services and attorney to find alternative placement.
There is a paucity of data to support the bill’s assertion that foster youth in group homes are disproportionately thrust into the criminal justice system without good cause. AB 388, in part, is meant to collect this data.
A 2011 study in Los Angeles does demonstrate that youth involved in both foster care and the juvenile justice systems fare much worse than those in just one of the systems.
Los Angeles youths who exit both foster care and juvenile justice earn less as young adults and cost the public more than youths who only exit foster care, and are more than twice as likely to have been treated for a serious mental illness
“We didn’t realize crossover youth would have such striking distance,” said Dennis Culhane, one of the study’s six authors, speaking with The Chronicle’s John Kelly in 2011. “We knew it would find they’d be troubled, but didn’t expect this difference of degree to show up.”
Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro (D) introduced the bill, which will be endorsed by Public Counsel, California Youth Connection, Youth Law Center and East Bay Children’s Law Offices.
Brian Rinker is a Journalism for Social Change Fellow and a recent graduate from San Francisco State University’s journalism program.It’s a sad fact that gender policing of women athletes is as much a part of Olympic tradition as the torch-lighting ceremony. “Sex tests” have a long and ignoble history in Olympic sport; sports governing bodies have used everything from physical examinations to chromosomal testing to determine women’s eligibility. Testosterone levels are their screen du jour. At the 2016 Rio Games, two women runners—Dutee Chand of India and Caster Semenya of South Africa—are experiencing baseless scrutiny because they have hyperandrogenism, which means they have higher than typical testosterone levels for women. While the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) argue that this gives the athletes an unfair advantage, there’s no evidence showing that women with higher natural testosterone levels have a significant competitive advantage over women with lower levels. Instead, the specious questioning of the athletes has more to do with old-school conceptions of gender and the rigid orthodoxy of Olympic sport.
To untangle the political thicket of so-called sex testing, who better to turn to than Katrina Karkazis? Karkazis is a senior research scholar at the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford University. Her research on “sex testing” policies, which has been funded by the National Science Foundation, has appeared in Science and The BMJ, and she’s written essays for outlets like the New York Times and the Guardian. She also served as an expert witness in Chand’s case. A 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, she is at work on a new book with Rebecca Jordan-Young, T: The Unauthorized Biography (Harvard University Press), that explores the many scientific and social identities of testosterone in high stakes domains like sport.
Hyperandrogenism is a medical term describing women who have higher than typical testosterone levels. These women are not doping or cheating; this has never been a point of contention. Nevertheless, in 2011 and 2012, the IAAF and the IOC introduced regulations under the false assumption that women with naturally high testosterone have an “unfair advantage” over women with lower levels. Policymakers set a ceiling for women’s natural testosterone —or “T”—requiring them to lower their testosterone via drugs or surgery or else quit sport. These interventions carry side effects that can be debilitating to an athlete, so complying also means giving up one’s career. It’s a choice of no choice.
IAAF medical experts revealed—unethically—that they performed medically unnecessary surgery on four young women from “rural or mountainous regions of developing countries” to lower their T so that they could remain eligible. Alarmingly, they also performed clitoral reduction surgery. Others quit rather than undergo these invasive interventions.
read moreA 15-year-old boy is being tried as an adult at Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatoon for allegedly trying to kill a man by slashing his throat and hitting him in the head with a frying pan.
The teen is charged with attempted murder and unlawful confinement. His identity is banned from publication unless a sentencing hearing takes place.
In his opening statement, prosecutor Evan Thompson said police arrived just before 7 a.m. on April 4, 2016 to an apartment on Main Street East, where Daryl Weber had been stabbed and hit in the head multiple times. The victim told police his attacker lived in the same apartment.
Thompson said a knife found in the youth’s apartment is believed to have been one of the weapons.
Crime scene photos showed blood on the floor near Weber’s door and on his bed, walls and chair. An officer with the forensic identification unit testified she was told to look for frying pans and knives as possible weapons.
Both items were seized from the victim’s kitchen sink — which also contained blood — although neither the pan nor the knife tested positive for blood. Two more frying pans were tested and also came back negative.
Multiple knives were taken for testing from the teen’s apartment. The identification officer testified that a positive blood test came back for one knife that another officer found in the bathroom.
During cross-examination, defence lawyer Patrick McDougall asked the officer if she was aware of an assault that had taken place in that apartment a few weeks before Weber’s assault. The officer said no.
Weber was expected to testify Monday afternoon, but the trial was adjourned based on new information from the witness. The judge-alone trial will resume Tuesday morning.
[email protected]
twitter.com/breezybremcIn an about-face, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre announced he's cancelled an investigation into the police surveillance of journalists that was to be headed by the city's inspector general.
Only two days ago, Coderre said that Denis Gallant, the city's anti-corruption watchdog, would be tasked with conducting an administrative inquiry into the matter.
Coderre said he made the decision to cancel the investigation after meeting this morning with Quebec Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux, who assured him the province was launching its own inquiry which would include the Montreal police service.
"It may be counterproductive to have several investigations conducted simultaneously on the same matter, especially given that Quebec's inquiry will be public and will have all the powers to allow it to discover the truth," Coderre said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon.
This comes on the heels of new revelations Monday that La Presse journalist Patrick Lagacé was spied on by Montreal police in 2014 after he contacted the mayor's office, looking into rumours that Coderre may not have paid a ticket he got for an expired licence plate in 2012, before he was mayor.
It turned out the rumour was untrue and Lagacé never ran with the story, but Coderre had already put in a call to then-police chief Marc Parent. After that phone call, Montreal police obtained search warrants to look at Lagacé's cell phone logs.
'Pattern of improvisation,' opposition says
At City Hall, the Opposition said Coderre's flip-flopping is another example that the mayor has no concrete action plan.
"We've seen with Mayor Coderre a clear pattern of improvisation. He makes big announcements, with a big splash in the media saying, 'I'm taking action.' He did it with pit bulls. He did it with calèches. He did it with bylaw P-6," said Projet Montréal Coun. Alex Norris.
When Coderre first announced an inquiry over the weekend, Projet Montréal maintained that it would be inappropriate for Gallant to oversee the file.
Today, the province's justice and public security ministers announced they've given new directives to Crown prosecutors and to police.
Before requesting any warrant from a judge aimed at a journalist, police officers will have to consult with a prosecutor and get permission from their police chief.
The bar for getting a search warrant aimed at a journalist will also be set higher – on par with obtaining a warrant aimed at judges and lawyers.IF DONALD Trump winning the White House was a shock tantamount to an unforeseen political tsunami, the fact that he was awarded Time magazine’s Person of the Year award was more akin to a small ripple in a puddle.
But for those still coming to terms with the unlikely President-elect, seeing the bombastic billionaire touted as the most influential person in world affairs was a bitter pill to swallow.
Fortunately, there is always the internet to make wise cracks and post memes about the current situation to make everyone feel better. And in the wake of the announcement, social media reliably chimed in.
Many people applauded the creative director of the shoot for giving Mr Trump a chair to sit in that looked remarkably similar to the one that Adolf Hitler was pictured in for his cover for the same accolade in 1938.
Plenty of people pointed out that the placement of the ‘M’ gave Trump the appearance of devil horns.
Others applauded the presumably difficult makeup job done to turn Trump’s face from orange to white while others congratulated Alec Baldwin on the win, the actor who regularly impersonates Trump on Saturday Night Live.
According to the magazine’s editorial director Radhika Jones, the winner is someone “who best represents the news of the year”.
“The pick also needs to have archival value. You need the sense that it will stand the test of time. So ideally, we want our Person of the Year to be both a snapshot of where the world is and a picture of where it’s going,” she said in 2014.
Last year Mr Trump posted a bitter tweet after German Chancellor Angela Merkel took out the honour, despite him claiming he was “the big favourite” in 2015. But this year, he got his wish.
It doesn’t exactly put him in the finest company given that — as everyone has been so quick to point out — Hitler, Mussolini and Joseph Stalin have also been named as the person of the year by Time magazine in the past.
Nonetheless, the Donald said he was honoured to be given the nod.
“I consider this a very, very great honour,” he a told breakfast television show in the US.
Social media, on the other hand, had a mostly different take.
More proof that some very unpleasant types have won Time's Person Of The Year.
(ta @kleingypsyeyes) pic.twitter.com/wJwdE71Cqw — David Schneider (@davidschneider) December 7, 2016
Donald J. Trump, Time Magazine's Pervert of the Year.
"Person of the Year" pic.twitter.com/iWbsYr8Gh2 — Pin Head (@PiercedSkull) December 7, 2016
TIME Magazine Person of the Year: 1938 and 2016.
Spot the difference. pic.twitter.com/NYglF4Aiq7 — Cal (@Panayisalad) December 7, 2016
Donald Trump wins TIME Person of the Year 2016. Trump tweets that he would have won by more had all his ex-wives voted. — kristian carter (@krstncrtr) December 7, 2016
At this point, the Person of the Year should just be Satan — Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) December 7, 2016
If you're mad about Trump being named Time's Person of the Year, wait until you hear who was elected president. — Scotland Green (@ScotlandGreen) December 7, 2016
Congratulations Alec Baldwin for making TIME's Person of the Year. — Lizard Lou Who (@AmnesiaRose) December 7, 2016
thoughts and prayers for the @time "person of the year" cover photoshop person, that had one hell of a night making trump's face white — alex english (@alex3nglish) December 7, 2016
Here's the real Person of The Year. pic.twitter.com/pJy9zquIg9 — Samuel Bohorquez (@pizsam) December 7, 2016
Surprised to be named TIME's Person of the Year! They usually give it to the winner of the popular vote. pic.twitter.com/nvqaHzznqD — Donald J. Drumpf (@RealDonalDrumpf) December 7, 2016
Trump as person of the year isn't actually a shock when you look at past winners pic.twitter.com/GqjSn3cXyn — Fred Delicious (@Fred_Delicious) December 7, 2016Constantly looking for a new striker, it seems, Arsenal are prepared to go all out this summer if various reports are to be believed.
First came big talk of Gonzalo Higuain possibly being the subject of either a €94m bid (his release clause) or an offer + player deal of €60m + Olivier Giroud.
The Frenchman’s agent did little to quash those rumours on Tuesday as he told Radio CRC that if his client had to go to Napoli, he’d do so without arguing, but it’s another target who’s the focus of much talk in France.
Le Progrès, Lyon’s local newspaper, claim in their Wednesday edition that Alexandre Lacazette is still in Arsène Wenger’s transfer plans, with the London club ready to pay up to €50m for the 25-year-old.
Down Lyon’s end, however, all is calm.
Jean-Michel Aulas has made it clear the player is not for sale, and the player himself is content with his status at his current club, meaning the big leap to a bigger league might be for next season.
Guess it all depends on how much Arsenal want him, at the end of the day.Obama questioned about his Noble Peace Prize and war on Syria
International
oi-Sandra
Stockholmn, Sept 5: As Syria prepares itself for a possible attack from the United States, President Obama was thrown a volley of questions, out of which some put him in a spot.
Obama, who is in Sweden to be a part of a bilateral meeting, held a press conference on Wednesday along with Sweden Prime Minister Frederik Reinfedlt. During the press meet, a reporter brought up the question with regards to the possible Syria attack and Obama's 2009 Noble Peace Prize, said a report [read more]
The reporter confronted Obama and asked him, "I was wondering, could you describe the dilemma to being a Noble Peace Prize winner and getting ready to attack Syria?"
To this Obama responded saying that in his speech, whicle accpeting the award, he said that he was underserving as compared to the past recipients. But at times it is necessary to use military force.
"What I also described is the challenge all of us face, when we believe in peace but we confront a world that is full of violence," he said. "The question is what are our responsibilities? I've made every effort to end the war in Iraq, to wind down the war in Afghanistan, to strenghten our commitment to nultilateral action. To promote diplomacy as a solution to our problems. The question though, that all of us face as political leaders is: At what point we need to confront actions that are violating our common humanity?"
Obama quizzed about his Noble Peace Prize and Syrian attack
He went on to add that he would any day argue when he would see 400 children subjected to gas over 1,400 civilians dying senselessly in an environment where you already have thousands killed. "We have the opportunity to take some action that is meaningful even if it doesn't solve the entire problem, it may at least mitigate this particular problem, then the moral thing to do is not to stand by and do nothing," he said.
He went on to say that even though the world is critical of the US, every time something, some issue comes up, the entire world looks upto the nation to step up in times of crisis. "When bad stuff happens, first thing is people ask is what is United States going to do about it?"
Obama was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 2009 shortly after took over his office. The announcement drew flak across the world. Obama in his speech said that he was 'underserving' of the prize, but he would still accept it as'a call to action.'
The recent crisis in Syria has raised questions about US intentions where Obama is pressing for military attacks, thereby many asking 'did he forget that he is a Noble Peace Prize recipient."
OneIndia News3 February, 2016. 11:23
ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Late last year, prolific internet troll Jack McInnes called out former rugby great Quade Cooper in an Instagram post – poking fun at the former private schoolboy’s fashion choices.
Cooper immediately fired back, calling out the 22-year-old Mackay-local.
“Yeah, howsa bout me n u sort this out like men? [sic]” wrote Quade. “I’ll sort u out, brus.”
However, much to the shock of the returning Red, McInnes took him up on the offer.
“I though, ‘Fuck me dead, I’m gonna have to fight this cunt, aren’t I?” said Cooper.
“I called him out and he said yeah, so here we are. He doesn’t look like much of a fighter, but he agreed to come up a few weight classes to fight me so I reckon he just ate some schooners. The undercard for Mundine-Green. What a fucking turnout, hey?”
As it turns out, the man that Mr Cooper called out can handle himself a bit – leaving him feeling a bit nervous about tonight’s bout.
Speaking to The Advocate this afternoon, McInnes said he was ready to teach this private schoolboy a thing or two about blueing.
“People have been hanging shit on me about my rig all fucken week, mate,” said Jack.
“I can dish it out just as good in real life as I can on Facebook. I’ll fucken rip the cunt’s head off. Send him back to Ascot with his little fucking boater hat in his hands, the prick. Then if anybody else wants a go, I’ll flog ’em so hard they’ll wake up with epilespy.”
“Should be a good one, but. Get around us boys.”
The undercard starts at 4:30pm Queensland time. Main card is 6:30pm.
More to come.In April of 2005, Game Informer announced Oddworld Inhabitants’ newest game: The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot. However, just as the issue left for the printers, Oddworld Inhabitants abruptly shut down production and closed its doors. The development studio had long pleased fans with creative and humorous titles such as Abe’s Oddysee and Stranger’s Wrath, often weaving smart social commentary throughout its storylines. Fangus Klot looked to be its most ambitious venture; it featured a darker tone, a more intense combat system, and was poised to take on real-world issues still relevant today. So why did its developer suddenly put the game on the shelf? Oddworld mastermind Lorne Lanning answered our questions about the lost Oddworld title, the trouble with publishers, and the future of gaming.
[Story originally appeared in Game Informer Issue 194]
What was the original idea behind Fangus Klot?
We wanted to explore some other territories of Oddworld. We had always created this idea of a planet that multiple things can take place on, multiple possibilities. On Earth we can have Eskimos on one continent, on another we have tribes in Africa, and in others there are New York City and Tokyo. All these different worlds exist on one world. So we wanted to head somewhere radically different from the Oddworld characters we knew, move away from the quirky edge, and take things somewhere more hardcore.
What we were inspired by at the time – I was watching these documentaries of these Russian cities that were basically prison cities, which were discovered after the Cold War. These cities were built in this Siberian climate or a mining area, and there would be 10 million living in the city. Everyone was a prisoner. They would build these prison cities to become sort of their own economy. They had their systems of justice, but if you |
erroneous (“Being is not”: 2,5; “Being and Non-Being are regarded as the same thing and not the same thing”: 6, 8-9; “There are things that are not”: 7,1).
Some notable Authors, very valid translators, interpreters and commentators of the Greek philosophers and talented philosophers themselves have suggested a “third speech” in Parmenides’ poem, that of “plausible appearances”. They have been misled by:
- a not completely accurate translation and/or interpretation of the verses 1,31-32 and 8,38-41;
- the apparent contradiction between 8,50-52 and 8,60-61;
- the fact that Parmenides spends many verses (fragments 9-19 and missing verses between them) to the description of the apparent world, whereas – in their opinion – if it is “deceptive” rather than “plausible”, it does not deserve them.
In truth, the verses 1,31-32 are clear. The Goddess tells Parmenides that he must learn all the things, namely:
a) the solid heart of the well-round Truth, that is Being (speech on truth: fragment from 2 to 8,50);
b) the opinions of mortals, that is appearances, in which there is no real certainty (speech on the opinions of mortals: fragments from 8,50 to 19);
c) “how” the appearances, which pass continuously, should be really, that is, “how” the appearances referred in the speech b) should be interpreted.
POINT c) ANTICIPATES THE EXPLANATION OF THE SPEECH b), then contained in 8,38-41 (“ To this One so many names will be assigned/as many are the things that mortals proposed, believing that they were true,/ that they were born and perish, that they exist and do not exist,/ that they changed the place and their bright color”). IT IS NOT A THIRD SPEECH!
Everything the Goddess tells Parmenides after 8,50-52 “NOW I INTERRUPT the trustworthy speech and reflection about truth: HENCEFORTH learn the opinions of mortals listening to the deceptive construction of my words” is false, is appearance.
The fact that in 8,60-61 the Goddess says “To you I completely expose the likely cosmic order, so some opinion of mortals will never surpass you” does not means that the verses 8,53-59 tell lies and those of fragments from 9 to 19 present “plausible” descriptions: both the ones and the others have been correctly placed by Diels after the watershed of 8,50-52 and are all human opinions, whether they belong to other mortals whether they belong to Parmenides, suggested to him by the Goddess with an only dialectical purpose, as we will see later. In fact, the dualism (“in this they were wrong”: 8,54) of the verses 8,53-59 continues in fragment 9: “since, if neither the one nor the other is present, there is nothing”, but always according to the erroneous belief of mortals! WE ARE ALWAYS AFTER 8,50-52, THE WATERSHED!
In the speech on Truth there is no place for dualism, nor – of course – for pluralism. In Parmenides’ doctrine there is the apotheosis of monism, his monism is absolute: one is Being, which is improperly divided by mortals in many things (8,38-41); one is the mind, which assists all men (fragment 16) and thinks Being (4,2-4; 8,34-36); one is the way (“with many voices” [1,2], with many hypotheses, only one of which is that of Truth, of Being: “that Being is” [2,3; 6,1; 8,2]); and these entities, the mind, the Goddess, the way, converge and are contained in the only correct speech (that of divine Truth, known only by the Goddess and revealed only to Parmenides); they, like all the others that we perceive or imagine, are manifestations of Being, are imbued with the unitary substance of Being.
So – supporters of the “third speech” are asking – why Parmenides devotes many verses, the entire third part of the poem (after the proem and the speech on truth), to the description of appearances?
The Goddess herself explains partly it: “so some opinion of mortals will never surpass you” (8,61). She wants his protégé, in a likely dialectical contest with other thinkers, after he presented his theory on Being, is not exceeded by the other men even in “deceptive” (8,52) description of the wonderful and varied appearances. Parmenides (“the man who knows”: 1,3) will tell to other men (“who know nothing”: 6,4): I, chosen by the Goddess, know how is the real world, the world of Being, known only by the Gods and revealed only to me, but if you want I compete with you in describing the world as we mortals see it, I can do it in a more detailed and more poetic manner than all of you.
We must also consider that Parmenides has decided to present his philosophical theory in poetry and not in prose. After the proem, evocative and poetic, he was however obliged to express in verses (not poetic: Parmenides is a great philosopher, but has not the poetic genius of Lucretius who was able to transpose philosophical theories of Epicurus admirably in poetry, so that Foscolo called “De rerum natura” with the words “the superhuman poem of Lucretius”) from fragment 2 to fragment 8 heavy and not very poetic philosophical statements on Being. He now absolutely needs to continue the poem writing widely about something poetic, that is, the world of Opinions, because, even if it is only apparent, it is very beautiful, full of stars, constellations, human beings, sun’s rays, reflected light of the moon that shines in the night, etc.
Another reason is probably as follows. Parmenides had carried for many years, like his predecessors, the activity of naturalist philosopher. During that activity he had achieved important knowledge and discoveries; probably he was collecting his observations and reflections on natural phenomena in an unpublished manuscript, destined then to be made public with the usual title “Perì fùseos”, when, during his meditation on the “entities” that “passed continuously” before his eyes, conceived the extraordinary intuition of the doctrine of Being. Although the results of his previous studies had been overtaken by the theory of Being and therefore downgraded by Parmenides himself to the rank of “opinions”, he wished to avoid that they, and with them all his intellectual work of many years, get lost. He therefore, having written a single work (being clearly impossible to write two works containing opposing theories), has incorporated in it, in the section “on opinions”, the conclusions he had reached in the study of natural events, although he believed now that they were not valid. So he – as he promises in the fragment 10 and 11 – in the lost fragments has presumably described how he had previously and erroneously interpreted the nature of the sky, of the constellations and of the moon, the “works” of the sun and moon, the origin of the earth, the sun and moon, of ether, stars, the Milk Way, Olympus, as the sky supports the extremities of the stars, in fragment 12 as the celestial spheres were born and the origin of sexual attraction, in fragment 14-15 as the moon shines by night but not its light but reflected from the sun, and in fragments 16-17-18 as the major part of the substance of the organs of the human body, that governs and directs them, is the thought, as the human embryo is formed and as it is placed in the uterus and what happens if the seeds of the female and the male ones do not mix properly. But then in fragment 19 he concludes by reiterating that all these things happen “according to the opinion” and not according to the truth, and …
...if you want to know more, you can read the book (but it is written in Italian)writer/director and Phase 2 helmer Joss Whedon is currently revising his script for. This is known fact because he already told the media he was done with his first draft a couple of weeks ago.Now it appears a tiny bit of information from said first draft of the script may be available. According to a person within the script writing community, as of right now it is being whispered through the rumor mill that Whedon is not calling the new additions to the Avengers team by their “mutant names” of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. They are being called Wanda and Pietro Maximoff.It cannot be stressed enough that this is aright now and could change during any of the multiple revisions that Whedon will make to the script in the coming months and before filming begins sometime in the first half of 2014. Films usually get anywhere from 3–6 revisions before principle photography begins and sometimes revisions occur during the filming process as well.Based on this rumor, The Daily SuperHero reached out to an Intellectual Property lawyer and asked if this was possibly being done by Marvel Studios and Whedon because Fox also has the movie rights to the brother/sister combo. The lawyer gave a resounding yes as his answer. Stating that due to the dual ownership of rights and the fact that Marvel Studios cannot use the word mutant, they could be taking a different approach to the duo to differentiate them in case Fox decides to use them down the road.It sounds like this could be a means to use a Marvel Studios version of the brother and sister, while Fox can still use the “mutant names” and if they chose to use the siblings in the future. (That's all speculation by the way.) However, it would be a very long time until seeing Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver in Fox's Marvel movies seeing as how actor Michael Fassbender's Magneto character is quite young and probably not going to have his mutant children anytime soon.That's possibly another reason why Marvel Studios is jumping at the chance to use them first but how their origin will be told remains to be seen. Or if this rumor holds true and they are not called by their “mutant names.”Global survey of Generation Y finds young Australians among the least optimistic in the world and no longer see their home as ‘the lucky country’
Millennial Australians are among the most pessimistic in the world about their future prospects, with anxieties exacerbated by housing affordability and the perceived threat of terrorism.
A survey of members of Generation Y by the accounting firm Deloitte has found 8% of those in Australia believed they would be better off financially than their parents, and only 4% thought they would be happier.
Gen Y is those born between 1982 and 1999, making them aged between 18 and 35. Deloitte interviewed 7,900 people from 30 countries – including 300 from Australia – in September last year.
How millennial are you? The Generation Y quiz Read more
By contrast, 26% of millennials globally believed they would be wealthier than their parents and 23% said they would be happier.
Almost 60% of Australian millennials also stated they planned to quit their job within the next two years, up from 46% the previous year. Twenty-eight percent also expected Australia’s economy to improve in the next 12 months, compared with a global average of 45%.
Fewer than one in 10 Australian millennials were optimistic about the future – far behind global counterparts. Nearly a third (30%) were worried by the threat of terrorism, while 27% had more general concerns about crime and personal safety.
Climate change and the environment concerned 26% of Australian millennials, just ahead of income inequality (25%) and health (20%).
David Hill, the chief operating officer of Deloitte Australia, pointed to rising house prices in Sydney and Melbourne as partly to blame for the pessimism.
House prices in Sydney – where the dwelling price to income ratio is approaching 8.5 times – rose 1% in January to a median price of $970,000 for houses and $725,0000 for apartments, while Melbourne followed closely behind.
Hill said Australian respondents may have been especially influenced by the question of relativity to their parents, many of whom would have bought their own home while in their 20s or 30s.
“The question didn’t ask ‘are you happy’, or ‘do you feel financially or materially well off’.... When you consider the deposits a young millennial would have to find to put down on a home in Sydney or Melbourne, some would see the great Australian dream of owning your own home is but a dream.”
But he said pessimism over Australia’s economy was misplaced given it was about to record its 26th year without a recession, and was ideally placed to benefit from growth in Asian markets.
“There’s this sense that millennials have that it can’t continue to be this good, and maybe the rhetoric coming out from the political sphere and the media more generally is affecting their sentiment.... I’d have thought they have more reason to be optimistic.”
Nor did fears expressed about terrorism reflect the fact that Australia was “incredibly safe”. The rise of concern about violence had displaced the environment as a top concern for millennials and had effectively made tackling climate change less of a priority than in previous studies.
Not buying lattes won't help me buy a house | Bridie Jabour Read more
But a bigger gulf than between Australia and the rest of the world was that between the 16 emerging markets surveyed – including India, the Philippines, China and Brazil – and the 14 mature ones, including Australia.
Hill said this was “very, very stark”.
Millennials in emerging markets generally expected to be financially and emotionally better off than their parents, while those in mature markets felt theirs was “the generation where things very much stopped getting better”.
Pessimism was “rampant” among millennials in the developed world, with the US the only mature market where a majority expected to be better off than their parents.
Barely one in three (34%) expected economic conditions to improve in the next year, while confidence levels in emerging markets had increased since the preceding survey and were the highest Deloitte had recorded.
Millennials, especially those in mature European economies, had serious concerns about the directions in which their countries were headed and were particularly concerned about uncertainty arising from conflict.
In 19 of the 30 countries covered by the survey, terrorism was a bigger concern than unemployment. Of the remaining 11, only one – Spain – was a mature western market.Table 1 shows that adding estimates from the literature suggests that economists have already explained 177% of the rise in average BMI.
That is from this new NBER paper, by Courtemanche, Pinkston, Ruhm, and Wehby, which seems to be one of the most careful studies to date. They do it right and then offer some more commonsensical conclusions:
A growing literature examines the effects of economic variables on obesity, typically focusing on only one or a few factors at a time. We build a more comprehensive economic model of body weight, combining the 1990-2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System with 27 state-level variables related to general economic conditions, labor supply, and the monetary or time costs of calorie intake, physical activity, and cigarette smoking. Controlling for demographic characteristics and state and year fixed effects, changes in these economic variables collectively explain 37% of the rise in BMI, 43% of the rise in obesity, and 59% of the rise in class II/III obesity. Quantile regressions also point to large effects among the heaviest individuals, with half the rise in the 90th percentile of BMI explained by economic factors. Variables related to calorie intake – particularly restaurant and supercenter/warehouse club densities – are the primary drivers of the results.
Here is a much earlier ungated version of the paper, with differing numerical estimates, use with caution. A few related studies you will find here.New Delhi: India has hired a group of monkey impersonators to scare the real marauding animals away from parliament and other key buildings in the nation’s capital, officials said Thursday.
The “very talented” group of men has taken to wearing monkey masks, imitating their whoops and barks and hiding behind trees to ward off the aggressive animals, the head of the Delhi municipality told AFP.
Groups of monkeys, which are revered, roam freely around Delhi’s streets where they trash gardens, offices and even attack people in their search for food.
Concerns about the monkey population were raised in parliament where India’s government was asked what it was doing to combat the problem.
An Indian minister said 40 trained men had in fact been hired to protect the raucous house, itself accused of monkey-like behaviour, from the animal intruders.
“Various efforts are being made to tackle the monkey and dog menace inside and around the parliament house,” Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said in a written reply to a lawmaker’s question.
“The measures include scaring the monkeys away by trained persons who disguise themselves as langurs [long tailed monkeys].”
“The New Delhi Municipal Corporation has hired 40 young persons for this purpose,” Naidu added.
The NDMC, the body tasked with providing civic services, said the men were “very talented” and had been trained to “closely copy” the noises and actions of the more aggressive langurs to scare away the smaller rhesus macaques.
“They often wear a mask on their faces, hide behind the trees and make these noises to scare away the simians,” NDMC chairman Jalaj Srivastava told AFP.
Monkey catchers and their trained langurs used to be hired by wealthy home owners, politicians and business people to patrol the streets to keep wild monkeys at bay.
But the government cracked down on the business last year after a court ruled that keeping monkeys in captivity was cruel.
With its lush lawns and gardens, monkeys are drawn to the streets around parliament, which is also home to top bureaucrats, business leaders and foreign embassies.When Peter Pan opened in 1904, it was an instant hit, "from beginning to end a thing of pure delight," wrote The Times of London that December. Part of that delight was Neverland—a place where all the imaginings of the Darling children came to life.
Peter Pan's creator, J.M. Barrie, described Neverland as an island of "coral reefs and rakish-looking craft in the offing, and savages and lonely lairs, and gnomes who are mostly tailors, and caves through which a river runs, and princes with six elder brothers...and one very small old lady with a hooked nose." This was the cast of characters that populated turn-of-the-century playtime in Britain, and in the play, as one New York Times reviewer wrote in 1905, "Mr. Barrie presents not the pirate or Indian of grown-up fiction but the creations seen by childish eyes."
In practice, that meant portraying the fierce tribe that lives on Neverland in a way that even in the early 20th-century looked like a caricature. As The Times of London wrote:
"...the Never-Never-Land is peopled by Red Indians and Pirates, who lose no time in showing us that they know how to 'behave as sich.' [sic] The Red Indians always lay their ear to the ground, then give vent to unearthly yells, and prepare for scalping somebody—a Pirate, for choice."
At the time, this portrayal wasn't controversial. But while much of Barrie's original work is just as delightful today as 110 years ago, Tiger Lily and her tribe have become a problem for contemporary productions. There's no real reason for a tribe of Native Americans —"not to be confused with the softer-hearted Delawares or the Hurons," Barrie wrote—to live on Neverland, where they are impossible to excise from the story. But it's almost as impossible to depict them in a way that's not offensive.
In the play, Peter refers to the tribe as "piccaninny warriors," and in Peter & Wendy (Barrie's book-long adaptation of the story, published in 1911), they are introduced as the "Piccaninny tribe"—a blanket stand-in for "others" of all stripes, from Aboriginal populations in Australia to descendants of slaves in the United States. Barrie's tribespeople communicate in pidgin; the braves have lines like "Ugh, ugh, wah!" Tiger Lily is slightly more loquacious; she'll say things like "Peter Pan save me, me his velly nice friend. Me no let pirates hurt him." They call Peter "the great white father"—the name that Barrie had originally chosen for the entire play. A tom-tom pounded in victory is a key plot point.
"It was a popular fantasy trope," says Anne Hiebert Alton, a professor of English at Central Michigan University and the editor of a scholarly edition of Peter Pan. "Barrie was telling the story in the very early 1900s, and so part of it, I think, was: this was a good story, this'll stage well. He was very Victorian—and that's the age when British people were still proud to brag that the sun never set on the British empire."
Peter Pan grew from Barrie's relationship with a family of boys, the Llewelyn Davies brothers, and the games they used to play. In the biography J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys, the writer and filmmaker Andrew Birkin suggests that theirs was "a world of pirates, Indians and 'wrecked islands'"—a sort of mish-mash of Victorian adventure stories. Barrie likely would have been influenced by James Fenimore Cooper's stories, Alton says; he also loved "penny dreadfuls"—trashy adventure novels. Birkin writes that one book in particular, The Coral Island, provided the outline for the adventures that Barrie created for the Llewelyn Davies boys. The book does have "natives" in it: shipwrecked on an island, the white heroes come upon two groups of native people, one in pursuit of another. When they see the pursuers threaten to kill a woman and her children, the heroes come to the rescue; they befriend the tribe they've saved and, in particular, the chief's beautiful daughter. It's not so unlike how Peter and Tiger Lily become friends—when he saves her from doom at the hands of Captain Hook's pirates.
However the tribe ended up in Peter Pan, Barrie's work has not been scrutinized as closely as the portrayals of native people in children's books written a generation later—Mary Poppins, for instance, or A Little House on the Prairie—which were subject to more serious criticism, both popular and academic.
First written in 1934 (more than 20 years after Barrie published Peter & Wendy), Mary Poppins included a chapter in which the famous nanny takes her charges to visit the four points of the compass, where they meet, in author P.L. Travers' words, "a mandarin in the East, an Indian in the West, an Eskimo in the North, and blacks in the South who speak in a pickaninny language." By the 1980s, this chapter was considered so objectionable that the San Francisco public library took the book off the shelves; Travers rewrote the chapter to feature "a panda, dolphin, polar bear, and macaw."
Some books were so obviously offensive that they were altered almost immediately: Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None was first published in Britain in 1935 as Ten Little Niggers. The title was changed in 1940, for the first American edition. And while Laura Ingalls Wilder’s A Little House on the Prairie, first published in 1935, has never been revised, there's an extensive body of scholarly criticism examining the portrayal of the Osage people the Ingalls family encounters as a frightening "other."
By contrast, Peter Pan has gotten off rather lightly. Occasionally the play's content derails a performance—in 1994, one Long Island school canceled a planned production— but there's little critical academic work focused on the tribe that Barrie created. And the original text still stands unrevised.
"Peter Pan is really weird in this sense, because it's protected," Alton says. Barrie gifted the copyright to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, in London, and when the copyright expired in 1987, the British Parliament passed a special extension that gave the hospital the rights to receive royalties from stage productions, radio broadcasts, e-books and other adaptations, in perpetuity.
For years, the hospital kept tight control over who used Peter Pan and how. "Nobody could touch it," Alton says. In the United Kingdom, anyone adapting the story or anyone performing it—even schools—still has to apply to the hospital for a license.
The earlier adaptations that were approved, though, did not do much to update Barrie's portrayal of native people. If anything, the 1953 Disney movie doubled-down on racial stereotypes; one of the film's songs is "What Made the Red Man Red."
The heralded 1954 musical (with a completely different song list from the Disney movie) still had the tribe running around the stage saying "Ugga-wugga-wigwam." "Sondra Lee, as Tiger Lily, the Indian maid, is uproarious," Brooks Atkinson, then nearing the end of his long term as the New York Times' theater critic, wrote. "She dances and acts a sort of gutter Indian with a city accent that is mocking and comical." The 1960 televised version of the musical became a stalwart of NBC's programming for decades to come.
More recently, though, directors who take on Peter Pan have tried to update these ideas, a tiny bit. Hook, the 1991 Robert Zemeckis movie, leaves the tribe out altogether. When the British director Tim Carroll staged Peter Pan for the Stratford Festival in 2010, he turned the tribe into Amazons.
"The role of the Indians in the play is to be both exotic and a bit savage," he wrote in an email. "But the use of the term (and the stereotyped language) could only cause offense to a North American audience. It seemed to me that 'Amazons' was a neat way of killing two birds with one stone: as mythic warriors they satisfied the 'exotic and savage' criterion; but it also allowed me to cast a group of women."
2015's Pan, a film that imagines Peter's first years in Neverland as an orphan kidnapped by pirates and forced to work in a mine, made a similar choice. The film features Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily but dresses her tribe in a sort of outlandishly bright array of pinks, purples, browns and bright blues that manages to be fantastic enough that no one would ever confuse this tribe with an American Indian tribe.
NBC's 2014 version of the 1954 musical is going in the opposite direction, in search of something like authenticity. Unknown actress Alanna Saunders, whose paternal heritage has distant ties to the Cherokee nation, will play Tiger Lily, and the song "Ugg-a-Wugg" was updated to include actual Native American phrases. Perhaps these changes will keep today's directors from looking, in another hundred years, like purveyors of crude racial stereotypes; perhaps they'll seem just as clumsy as Barrie's original conception of the tribe's relationship to Peter—"We redskins — you the great white father."
Editor's note: This story initially misspelled the name of the hospital in London. It is the Great Ormond Street Hospital.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
A Senate inquiry into equal marriage has moved the issue a step closer as it unanimously rejected several measures to discriminate LGBT people.
The report by the committee that was released on Wednesday examined the Government’s bill and rejected a number of proposals, including the ability for civil celebrants to reject marrying a same-sex couple.
In the report, it recommends creating a new category of independent religious celebrants who, because of their religious beliefs, would be allowed to refuse to marry a couple.
However, it did state this should be reviewed and more clearly defined in order to get a better balance between freedom of religion and equality.
Civil celebrants would have no form of objection and would be required to marry any couple legally allowed to do so.
The inquiry also recommended removing the ability for anyone to reject a same-sex wedding on the basis of “conscientious objection”, stating it was “unprecedented” to allow one group of people to justify discrimination against another.
Most marriage equality advocates welcomed the news and hoped it raised the chance of cross-party cooperation in this session of Parliament.
Marriage advocate, Rodney Croome, said the report rejected, “proposed discrimination against same-sex couples [and] shows progress on marriage equality is possible when our elected members work across party lines”.
Anna Brown the chair of Australians for Equality told the Guardian the report offered “sensible solutions to address concerns about religious freedom”.
The committee was chaired by marriage equality opponent David Fawcett and included the pro-marriage equality Liberals Dean Smith and James Paterson, Labor, the Greens and the Nick Xenophon Team.
Recently, an Australian politician claimed that LGBT people were using Nazi mind control to increase support for same-sex marriage.Johannesburg – Teaching at an estimated 38 “coloured” schools in Gauteng was disrupted on Monday when teachers embarked on a go-slow in solidarity with a Klipspruit school, a spokesperson said.
“The department will have a clear picture about the number of affected schools by tomorrow [Tuesday] morning, but we estimate up to 38 schools are affected,” Gauteng Education Department spokesperson Steve Mabona told News24 on Monday afternoon.
He said the department condemns the go-slow and all the concerned parties are working tirelessly to resolve the deadlock.
Protest action started at the Klipspruit-West Secondary School in Soweto last week Monday when parents called for the removal of a newly appointed black principal.
At the time, Patriotic Association of South Africa (Pasa) spokesperson Charis Pretorius said parents were frustrated over a black principal which was irregularly appointed by the department.
She denied that the protest was racially motivated.
"We are a majority coloured community. Then they appoint people to a selection committee who are illegitimate and create a shortlist where only one of the six candidates is coloured – when 11 coloured candidates applied,” Pretorius said.
"Why wasn’t the current caretaker even considered?"
According to its website, Pasa is a political party formed for marginalised people such as coloureds, the Khoi San, and Indians.So you have applied to be an officer. Are you feeling overwhelmed yet? There is so much information out there…and worse, misinformation. With all this talk about martial arts, defensive tactics, guns, batons, what to say, what not to say…it can be overwhelming! Fear not, I am about to reveal never before heard secrets of the most powerful tools in policing! Okay maybe not never before heard, but at least underappreciated.
Let me tell you a story young Padawan…
When I was first hired in Corrections, I had a nightmare. Unlike most bad law enforcement dreams, this one didn’t have to do with a shooting or having someone shove a pointy object into my favorite chest cavity. In this dream, I WAS THE INMATE. In my dream I had some routine question to ask of the C/O. It was something simple, though I don’t remember what it was. Instead of listening to me the C/O was a complete asshole and treated me like a subhuman piece of shit. It sounds dumb, but I woke up feeling angry and frustrated. I came to a sudden and startling revelation…
Secret #1…
It sounds simple…and really it is, but it is something I have tried to live by every day since. Of course I have my days like everyone else, but overall…I try NOT TO BE A DICK. This mantra is something that has served me well throughout my career. It isn’t your job as a cop to be a dick to people. If I am a dick, it is only as a tactical tool when being nice isn’t working. See my What did that Cop say to me? Post for examples. I frequently have suspects thank me for not being a dick and tell me, “You can arrest me any day.” Of course part of this is a tactic to gain compliance…but mostly I find it is just all around easier if I treat people with RESPECT. Crazy right!?
The other part of this applies to citizens as well. It is easy to become jaded about people’s problems. Especially when they are getting worked up over something that doesn’t seem like a very big deal. Remember, as a cop, you will see REAL problems and anything less starts to seem kind of trivial. Just remember though…just because they aren’t important to YOU doesn’t mean it isn’t important to whomever you are talking to. Take a moment to put yourself in their shoes. Sometimes you really CAN’T help people or solve their problem. But you can at least make them feel HEARD.
Secret #2…
Okay this sounds weird you say…Smile?? Seriously? Yup. This bit of advice was told to me by a wise old Sheriff one night. He told me it was the secret of his success. “Smile and wave at people” he said. The Sheriff advised he would smile and wave at everyone. He explained the citizens love it because they feel like you notice them and are looking out for them. The criminals hate it, because they think you know something about them. They will sometimes do crazy things right after you smile and wave at them, thus leading to a reason to stop and have a nice little social contact.
I decided to try this crazy bit of advice out…and what do you know? He was right! It ties into the not being a dick thing. But sometimes a well timed heartfelt smile can make someone’s day. Lets face it…people aren’t usually having a good day when they are contacted by law enforcement. At least present them a human face!
So…Now you know the secret! Don’t be a dick and go forth and smile!
Also published on Medium.
Like this: Like Loading...
RelatedTHERE are many heroes in post 3/11 Japan. The mayor of Rikuzentakata, who ensured the safety of city residents only for his wife to perish, is one, as are the Tokyo firefighters who streamed up to Fukushima to spray water on the out-of-control reactors. But among those who deserve honour is also a humble bureaucrat at the trade ministry. In a system that prizes remaining nameless, faceless and not rocking the boat, Shigeaki Koga chose to step forward and reveal some of Japan's ugliest secrets.
After 3/11, Mr Koga decided speak out about the awful practices he had experienced while working on Japan's energy policy. The disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant, run by TEPCO, is symptomatic of a wider malaise. The utility companies buy the academy by sponsoring research, buy the media through mountains of public-service advertisements and junkets, buy big business by paying top-dollar for everything, buy the bureaucrats and regulators by handing them cushy post-retirement jobs.
Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks.
Talking to him one gets a chill down the spine. Often, bureaucrats are regarded as lemming-like self-interested do-nothings or devious micro-managers. But Mr Koga's brave words and deep understanding of how energy companies pad their costs, block competition, keep energy prices high and ultimately strangle Japan is an antidote to that image. Instead, the figure that emerges is a deeply intelligent, hard-working civil servant who wants the best for his country.
In the spring he devised his own restructuring plan for TEPCO that was utterly ignored by the ministry (which has long been in the pocket of the energy companies), though it won him plaudits from a handful of reformist politicians. He advocates opening the energy monopoly to competition and separating the power generation and transmission operations of today's ten regional monopolies.
If only his country would listen. His private views to colleagues landed him in the wilderness. Superiors told him to resign. Yet since going public with his revelations and criticisms, he has been placed into an even darker solitary confinement. His current assignment is, well, nothing. When he asked the previous trade minister, Banri Kaieda, for a meaningful post, Mr Kaieda was noncommittal. (When The Economist asked Mr Kaieda about Mr Koga's views, the then-trade minister dismissed it as something for "the long term". Translation: "Never".)
"I believe this is the final chance for Japan to change," Mr Koga said in May, when I asked him during a wide-ranging interview why he was speaking out. "If I shut my mouth and obtain a good post in the ministry—even if I did that, in a few years Japan's economy would plunge," he said. "That is why I am taking on risks, and I don't care if I have to resign. Because if I don't speak out, Japan will not change. It is meaningless for me to be in the government if I cannot advocate reform."
On September 14th, Mr Koga was poised to send an e-mail to his latest boss, the trade minister Yoshihiko Edano, asking for a real post. If he fails to get one, he says he will retire later this month. It will be a true pity if Japan loses one of the few men who could actually improve the country considerably. It will be a shame; a self-inflicted wound.
If Mr Edano has any sense—and courage—he will promote Mr Koga to vice-minister (the highest civil-servant position in the ministry) with a remit to see through his wise reforms. Japan needs its leaders just as it needs its heroes. The country's haplessness is precisely because people like Mr Koga, who strive for what is right despite the personal consequences, are banished rather than elevated.Square Enix's recent announcement that it plans to divest ownership of Hitman developer IO Interactive came as a surprise, and it raised a number of questions. Chief among those: What does this mean for the future of Hitman?
When Square Enix first revealed its plans to explore a sale of IO, it did not indicate whether the Hitman IP would be sold off with it; it wasn't out of the question that Square Enix could hold onto the rights and allow the franchise to become dormant. But that doesn't appear to be the plan, based on a newly released English transcript of Square Enix's post-earnings results briefing.
"Our decision to withdraw from the IO Interactive business was the result |
7.03.03} (¥6.980) – 35.565 / 738.026 (+83%)
07./07. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 33.024 / 771.050 (-7%)
07./07. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 31.761 / 802.811 (-4%)
07./07. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 12.415 / 815.227 (-61%)
10./07. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 9.502 / 824.728 (-23%)
07./10. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 10.240 / 834.968 (+8%)
08./07. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 12.709 / 847.677 (+24%)
10./08. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 12.087 / 859.764 (-5%)
12./10. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 11.764 / 871.528 (-3%)
07./12. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 12.252 / 883.780 (+4%)
05./07. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 12.675 / 896.455 (+3%)
05./05. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 11.611 / 908.067 (-8%)
09./05. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 10.434 / 918.501 (-10%)
10./09. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 11.116 / 929.617 (+7%)
11./10. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 9.373 / 938.990 (-16%)
06./11. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 8.551 / 947.541 (-9%)
08./06. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 6.990 / 954.532 (-18%)
10./08. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 6.895 / 961.427 (-1%)
13./10. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 7.850 / 969.276 (+14%)
11./13. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 11.151 / 980.427 (+42%)
08./11. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 5.754 / 986.181 (-48%)
08./08. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 5.687 / 991.867 (-1%)
13./08. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 6.099 / 997.967 (+7%)
09./13. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 6.722 / 1.004.689 (+10%)
11./09. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 6.516 / 1.011.205 (-3%)
08./11. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 6.939 / 1.018.144 (+6%)
08./08. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 6.486 / 1.024.630 (-7%)
09./08. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 6.143 / 1.030.773 (-5%)
09./09. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 6.322 / 1.037.095 (+3%)
10./09. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 6.622 / 1.043.717 (+5%)
10./10. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 7.173 / 1.050.891 (+8%)
12./10. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 7.508 / 1.058.399 (+5%)
14./12. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 7.940 / 1.066.339 (+6%)
16./14. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 8.300 / 1.074.639 (+5%)
09./16. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 9.682 / 1.084.321 (+17%)
10./09. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 7.472 / 1.091.794 (-23%)
11./10. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 7.416 / 1.099.210 (-1%)
10./11. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 6.515 / 1.105.725 (-12%)
12./10. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 5.809 / 1.111.535 (-11%)
09./12. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 5.910 / 1.117.445 (+2%)
13./09. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild # (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥6.980) – 5.756 / 1.123.201 (-3%) (Week 39, 2018)
1-2-Switch
03./00. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 79.536 / NEW
05./03. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 20.746 / 100.282 (-74%)
09./05. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 15.456 / 115.737 (-25%)
03./09. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 21.647 / 137.384 (+40%)
07./03. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 16.517 / 153.901 (-24%)
04./07. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 12.418 / 166.319 (-25%)
04./04. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 10.048 / 176.368 (-19%)
07./04. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 9.790 / 186.158 (-3%)
07./07. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 9.800 / 195.958 (+0%)
08./07. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 9.488 / 205.446 (-3%)
11./08. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 3.410 / 208.856 (-64%)
13./11. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 2.937 / 211.793 (-14%)
16./13. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 2.825 / 214.618 (-4%)
21./16. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 2.716[1] / 217.334[1]
14./21. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 2.716 / 220.050 (+0%)
14./14. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 2.618 / 222.668 (-4%)
22./14. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
22./22. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
21./22. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
25./21. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
20./25. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 2.636 / 233.737
24./20. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
21./24. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
19./21. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 3.570 / 242.742
22./19. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
27./22. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
31./27. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
27./31. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
23./27. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
26./23. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
26./26. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
23./26. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
24./23. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
25./24. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
23./25. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
21./23. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
31./21. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
24./31. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
18./24. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 3.921 / 283.108
20./18. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 4.758 / 287.866 (+21%)
19./20. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 7.604 / 295.470 (+60%)
21./19. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 10.068[1] / 305.538[1]
11./21. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 23.156 / 328.694 (+130%)
08./11. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 21.235 / 349.929 (-8%)
09./08. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 21.104 / 371.033 (-1%)
12./09. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 6.886 / 377.919 (-67%)
16./12. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 4.401 / 382.320 (-36%)
15./16. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 4.375 / 386.695 (-1%)
13./15. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 4.391 / 391.086 (+0%)
16./13. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 4.477 / 395.563 (+2%)
20./16. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 4.194 / 399.757 (-6%)
18./20. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 4.215 / 403.972 (+1%)
15./18. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 4.473 / 408.445 (+6%)
14./15. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 3.878 / 412.323 (-13%)
21./14. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 3.422[1] / 415.745[1]
19./21. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 4.202 / 419.947
20./19. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 3.979 / 423.926 (-5%)
17./20. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 3.795 / 427.721 (-5%)
21./17. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
21./21. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
29./21. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
14./29. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 5.551 / 441.682
18./14. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 1.866 / 443.548 (-66%)
17./18. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) – 1.680 / 445.228 (-10%)
31./17. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
28./31. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
24./28. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
24./24. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
22./24. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
28./22. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
22./28. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
23./22. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
25./23. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
31./25. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
27./31. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
31./27. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
24./31. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
24./24. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
30./24. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
35./30. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
40./35. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
47./40. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980)
43./47. [NSW] 1-2-Switch (Nintendo) {2017.03.03} (¥4.980) (Week 39, 2018)
Pokken Tournament DX
01./00. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 53.395 / NEW <41,39%>
05./01. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 23.543 / 76.938 (-56%)
06./05. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 11.831 / 88.768 (-50%)
05./06. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 8.367 / 97.135 (-29%)
11./05. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 5.224 / 102.359 (-38%)
16./11. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 4.588 / 106.947 (-12%)
14./16. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 4.882 / 111.829 (+6%)
18./14. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 3.862 / 115.691 (-21%)
12./18. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 6.642 / 122.333 (+72%)
17./12. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 4.197 / 126.530 (-37%)
21./17. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 4.745[1] / 131.275[1]
17./21. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 8.362 / 139.637 (+76%)
18./17. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 11.144 / 150.782 (+33%)
08./18. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 27.053 / 177.835 (+143%)
11./08. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 13.650 / 191.485 (-50%)
14./11. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 12.553 / 204.038 (-8%)
43./14. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 1.616[1] / 205.654[1]
17./43. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 4.311 / 209.965 (+167%)
13./17. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 4.765 / 214.730 (+11%)
15./13. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 3.731 / 218.461 (-22%)
19./15. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 4.320 / 222.781 (+16%)
21./19. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
23./21. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
22./23. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
21./22. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
24./21. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
26./24. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
21./26. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
21./21. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
25./21. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
27./25. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
34./27. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
17./34. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 4.264 / 259.693
21./17. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 1.616[1] / 261.309[1]
19./21. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) – 1.562 / 262.871
26./19. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
27./26. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
23./27. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
21./23. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
24./21. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
22./24. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
26./22. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
24./26. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
26./24. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
34./26. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
31./34. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
36./31. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
23./36. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
27./23. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
34./27. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
37./34. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
36./37. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
25./36. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980)
36./25. [NSW] Pokken Tournament DX (Pokemon Co.) {2017.09.22} (¥5.980) (Week 39, 2018)
Fire Emblem Warriors
03./00. [NSW] Fire Emblem Warriors # (Koei Tecmo) {2017.09.28} (¥7.800) – 41.491 / NEW
09./03. [NSW] Fire Emblem Warriors # (Koei Tecmo) {2017.09.28} (¥7.800) – 8.024 / 49.514 (-81%)
14./09. [NSW] Fire Emblem Warriors # (Koei Tecmo) {2017.09.28} (¥7.800) – 4.016 / 53.531 (-50%)
30./14. [NSW] Fire Emblem Warriors # (Koei Tecmo) {2017.09.28} (¥7.800)
35./30. [NSW] Fire Emblem Warriors # (Koei Tecmo) {2017.09.28} (¥7.800)
43./35. [NSW] Fire Emblem Warriors # (Koei Tecmo) {2017.09.28} (¥7.800)
(3 weeks absent)
00./00. [NSW] Fire Emblem Warriors # (Koei Tecmo) {2017.09.28} (¥7.800) –? / 62.105[3]
(3 weeks absent)
00./00. [NSW] Fire Emblem Warriors # (Koei Tecmo) {2017.09.28} (¥7.800) –? / 68.263[7] (Week 52, 2017)
Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition
06./00. [NSW] Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Koei Tecmo) {2018.03.22} (¥6.800) – 24.908 / NEW
14./06. [NSW] Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Koei Tecmo) {2018.03.22} (¥6.800) – 7.642 / 32.549 (-69%)
13./14. [NSW] Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Koei Tecmo) {2018.03.22} (¥6.800) – 4.789 / 37.338 (-37%)
19./13. [NSW] Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Koei Tecmo) {2018.03.22} (¥6.800) – 3.070 / 40.408 (-36%)
26./19. [NSW] Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Koei Tecmo) {2018.03.22} (¥6.800)
40./26. [NSW] Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Koei Tecmo) {2018.03.22} (¥6.800)
31./40. [NSW] Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Koei Tecmo) {2018.03.22} (¥6.800)
34./31. [NSW] Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Koei Tecmo) {2018.03.22} (¥6.800)
34./34. [NSW] Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Koei Tecmo) {2018.03.22} (¥6.800)
46./34. [NSW] Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Koei Tecmo) {2018.03.22} (¥6.800) (Week 21, 2018)
Snipperclips Plus: Cut it Out, Together!
21./00. [NSW] Snipperclips Plus: Cut it Out, Together! (Nintendo) {2017.11.10} (¥3.280)
29./21. [NSW] Snipperclips Plus: Cut it Out, Together! (Nintendo) {2017.11.10} (¥3.280)
27./29. [NSW] Snipperclips Plus: Cut it Out, Together! (Nintendo) {2017.11.10} (¥3.280)
35./27. [NSW] Snipperclips Plus: Cut it Out, Together! (Nintendo) {2017.11.10} (¥3.280)
37./35. [NSW] Snipperclips Plus: Cut it Out, Together! (Nintendo) {2017.11.10} (¥3.280)
33./37. [NSW] Snipperclips Plus: Cut it Out, Together! (Nintendo) {2017.11.10} (¥3.280)
32./33. [NSW] Snipperclips Plus: Cut it Out, Together! (Nintendo) {2017.11.10} (¥3.280)
18./32. [NSW] Snipperclips Plus: Cut it Out, Together! (Nintendo) {2017.11.10} (¥3.280) – 7.388 / 34.619
18./18. [NSW] Snipperclips Plus: Cut it Out, Together! (Nintendo) {2017.11. |
experiment to determine if the underlying theory has merit, or if I am simply full of hot air. (Hot air is not good for either loudspeakers or authors.)
Before continuing on, be sure to check out our recent YouTube video discussion on matching amplifier power to loudspeakers.
YouTube Discussion: The Truth about Matching Amplifier Power to Loudspeakers
Today we will examine test results of three (3) samples of the same 6.5” midbass speaker provided with the courtesy and generosity of Axiom Audio. All three samples are tested to make sure they are normal in regards to their DCR (to be sure there are no shorted turns or large Impedance variations). All three drivers are subject to a sweep from 20 Hz to 5000 Hz to be certain that none of them are buzzing or rubbing so that we can ensure the samples are not defective prior to power testing them. Having decided I had 3 good samples, I hooked these small (but valiant) drivers to a QSC PLX3002 power amplifier, capable of delivering 550 watts per channel (stereo mode) into an 8 ohm load. I start at the modest level of 28.3 volts, or 100 watts into a nominal 8 ohm load, with one channel using white and the other pink noise. The signal is generated by Sound Tech Spectra RTA software (Version 1.32.16a) running under Windows 2000 on a Digital Audio Labs Cardelux Sound card. The balanced analog outputs of the Sound card are connected directly to the input of the QSC PLX3002 amplifier.
The speakers were wired with short lengths of 16 gauge stranded copper wire, and the voltage was measured at the amplifier terminals with a FLUKE model 45 five digit multimeter. This meter is one of the few that can actually give us true RMS readings without the caveat that the signal must be a 1000 Hz sine wave (Like most “True RMS” meters sold do).
6.5 Inch Woofer with 1 inch Diameter Voice Coil
When the speakers were subjected to the signal, I could tell immediately from the tonal characteristics, which was driven with pink versus white noise. Even deaf, if one looks at the drivers under test, the motion of the Pink noise driven speaker is considerably larger than the white noise driver under test. What is also obvious from this is the cooling of the VC (Voice Coil) caused by air passing across its surface while it pumps back and forth was far better on the speaker with pink noise than it was on the speaker with white noise.
WHITE NOISE OSCILLOGRAM
PINK NOISE OSCILLOGRAM
Both of these drivers were powered simultaneously and placed without an enclosure into the bottom of an empty speaker box with the front of the box facing up so the sound (and heat) emanate out of the box. The drivers are 6 inches apart so they are in a similar ambient temperature, in an air conditioned lab set to 72 degrees F. Although the voltage across both speakers was the same, if my proposed theory is correct, based on the impedance variations of a normal loudspeaker, and this one in particular (see below), the actual power delivered to the load by the pink noise should be much higher.
IMPEDANCE VARIATION VERSUS FREQUENCY OF SPEAKER UNDER TEST
If that is in fact the case, the pink noise speaker should perish first. As review, we can look again at the spectrum of white noise (equal energy per unit hertz) versus pink noise (equal energy per unit octave) below.
POWER SPECTRUM OF WHITE VERSUS PINK NOISE
Since white noise is weighted heavily towards high frequencies where the Impedance (AC resistance to flow of current) is very high in a typical woofer owing to voice coil inductance, then the actual power delivered will be much less than what is delivered with a signal having more low frequencies. Therefore with the same voltage, the Pink Noise speaker is actually receiving MORE power, and will therefore burn out sooner than the white noise speaker. (If my theory is correct).
After about ½ hour, the tonal characteristics of the speakers began to change. There was no smell of burnt VC, so I assumed this was a result of a large change in the DCR of the voice coils with its subsequent changes to the speakers frequency response. What was also clear from watching the speakers is how much more the white noise speaker was moving just a ½ hour after the beginning of the test compared to the beginning of the test. (Compliance increase due to break-in I theorize.)
After 45 minutes of cooking (I mean testing) the speakers at 28.3 volts without any evidence they were going to fail, I raised the signal input by 1db to 125 Watts to further stress them. I continued this 1db incremental rise in drive until one or both of the speakers failed. After 10 minutes at the 125 Watt RMS level, I notice the smell of VC was getting strong so I began checking in every 5 minutes to see the health of the patients. About 15 minutes into the 125 watt portion of the test, I started to hear a slight clicking noise. Free air testing with Pink Noise is a particularly brutal way to destroy a loudspeaker. In most instances (especially in the high-fidelity end of the speaker business) most speaker/box combinations are far more stiff than are the speakers alone in free air. The result is signals that will destroy the speakers in free air do not do so when the same exact speaker is fitted to a properly designed box. The box, especially in a sealed or closed box design, adds a great deal of stiffness to the suspension that is not available from the spider and surround alone. That stiffness results in far less excursion of the woofer at low frequencies and therefore less chance of self destruction from application of very low frequency energy.
After ½ hour at 125 watts, and no destruction, I raised the level of the signal by another 1 db to 160 watts. At this level, I was smelling burnt VC within the first 30 seconds and my belief was that we have reached the end of the line for at least one of the test participants. 15 minutes later, to my surprise, the burnt VC smell was still powerful, but more amazing is that both speakers were still going strong, and neither has of yet bit the dust. (Nor ignited the box stuffing!) (An examination of the failures after the fact reveals why this small loudspeaker would endure so much thermal energy, so please gentle reader, read on).Patrick Dempsey will miss the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring due to a last-minute filming commitment, Sportscar365 has confirmed.
Dempsey was due to share the No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America with Jan Heylen and Madison Snow.
Emilio Valverde, another Bronze-rated driver, will fill in for the actor/driver this week. Valverde has one past TUDOR Championship start, having shared the No. 556 Level 5 Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 in the 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Heylen, Snow, Dempsey and Phillip Eng finished third at this year’s Rolex 24.
“It is very disappointing that I will miss Sebring, but at the end of the day, Grey’s Anatomy is my first priority,” Dempsey said. “Grey’s has done an incredible job freeing up my schedule for as many races as possible. I am very grateful for all of the support that they have given me.
“The podium at Daytona was a fantastic start for the Dempsey Wright team. We did great testing in the Beautyrest Black Porsche, so I felt confident of a good result in the Sebring 12 Hour.
“I am happy that Emilio Valverde has agreed to be my ‘stand in’ for the weekend. Madison and Jan will do their usual stellar job, and will keep the No. 58 car up front. Thanks again to Beautyrest Black, Brumos, and Porsche for their strong support and understanding.”A new Azure Marketplace feature has come to life called “Test Drives”. This will give you the opportunity to deploy and play with some applications on Azure for a limited amount of time (2hr) without the need to open an Azure subscription or give your credit card details. In order to start playing with this thing, go to https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/test-drives/.
As you can see, there is still a limited amount of ISVs to join the party, but I am sure this will change in the near future.
The deployment process is very straight forward. You select which product you want to take for a test drive, Azure will deploy it and will provide you with all the details you need in order to start via email.
Now you already know that nothing is free in this world so you will have to agree to terms stating that in order to use the application Microsoft will share your email with a sales person – just saying… 🙂
The deployment will start and after few minutes, you will get all the details trough your email and via the portal.
So there you have it. A quick and dirty PoC like environment to test some stuff. I hope that the 2hr window will get bigger soon and for other ISVs will join the program.#1: Rubber Band Dyed Eggs
This simple way to decorate your Easter eggs from Inkspired Musings is fantastic. The process starts by placing the egg in the lightest dye, followed by wrapping the egg in several layers of rubber bands and then dyeing the egg again in a darker color. You can repeat the process again, placing the rubber bands in different spaces on the egg’s surface.
+ Rubber Band Dyed Eggs via Inkspired Musings
#2: Book Print on Eggs
Vicki Chrisman ingeniously upcycles old plastic Easter eggs into something new and beautiful using book print — thereby cracking the code on transforming something commonplace into an absolute treasure.
+ Book Print on Eggs via Vicki Chrisman
#3: Leaf Imprint Eggs
Who knew that a pair of pantyhose and a few fallen leaves could team up to produce such an egg-cellent masterpiece? See the full tutorial on how to make leaf imprint eggs using all natural dyes.
+ Leaf Imprint Eggs
#4: Thread Wrapped Eggs
We love these thread wrapped eggs from Martha Stewart. To give them an eco-friendly twist, we recommend using all natural dyes to color the eggs and instead of Mod Podge to attach the thread to the eggs, use a homemade toxic-free glue. Using thread is a great way to add a pop of color that doesn’t contain toxic ingredients.
+ Thread Wrapped Eggs via Martha Stewart
#5: Silk Tie Dyed Eggs
If your husband is like mine, he has a closet full of silk ties that he no longer wears. Instead of tossing them, use them to dye your Easter eggs. Simply cut the silk tie into pieces large enough to wrap around the eggs, wrap the eggs tightly in the ties, and then place inside a white pillowcase and boil in an enamel pot of water with 1/2 cup of organic white vinegar. Remove the eggs from the water, allow to cool, unwrap and admire your beautiful Easter eggs.
+ Silk Tie Dyed Eggs via Dabbled
#6: Vegetable Dyed Eggs
If you are looking for a simple, traditional way to decorate your Easter eggs without artificial colors – look no further than vegetable dyes. Click here to view the exact recipes that you need to achieve beautiful bright yellow, brilliant purple, elegant gray, and lovely green eggs. Your children will love these jewel toned eggs just as much as their neon counterparts.
+ Vegetable Dyed Eggs
#7: Baker’s Twine Wrapped Eggs
These baker’s twine wrapped eggs via Lime Riot are similar to the thread wrapped eggs — however in this case the entire egg is wrapped in twine. This would be a fun project for children of all ages and a great way to hone hand-eye coordination for your toddlers (although you may want to let them use a wooden or other unbreakable egg). These eggs boast a playful burst of color that looks amazing in an Easter basket.
+ Baker’s Twine Wrapped Eggs
Lead image via ShutterstockBlack Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster is an elegy to the young gap-year student who was attacked in Stubbeylee Park, Bacup, Lancashire. She later died on August 24th 2007. This is an elegy to mark the anniversary of her death, four years later. Aged twenty, Sophie suffered fatal injuries while cradling her boyfriend Rob's head in an attempt to protect him from a ferocious attack by a group of youths. Rob survived but Sophie went into a coma and never recovered.
Sophie was an intelligent bookish child who showed signs of wanting to be different from an early age. Political, vegetarian, a pacifist, Sophie had left school with A levels and was thinking about what to do with her future when it was taken so brutally from her.
Sophie and Rob dressed in a unique way, expressing their individuality as creative artistic people through goth-style clothes, piercings and make-up, which provoked the fatal attack in the early hours of that Saturday morning. Sophie had been dating Rob Maltby, a 21-year-old art student for three years.
I didn't do sport.
I didn't do meat.
Don't ask me to wear that dress:
I shan't.
Why ask me to toe the line,
I can't.
I was slight or small
but never petite,
and nobody's fool;
no Barbie doll;
no girlie girl.
I was lean and sharp,
not an ounce of fat
on my thoughts or my limbs.
In my difficult teens
I was strange, I was odd,
- aren't we all -
there was something different down at the core.
Boy bands and pop tarts left me cold,
let's say
that I marched to the beat
of a different drum,
sang another tune,
wandered at will
through the market stalls
humming protest songs.
I wore studded dog leads
around my wrist,
and was pleased as punch
in the pit, at the gig,
to be singled out
by a shooting star
of saliva from Marilyn Manson's lips.
But for all that stuff
in many ways an old fashioned soul,
quite at home
in my own front room,
on my own settee.
I read, I wrote,
I painted, I drew.
Where it came from
no one knows
but it flowed. It flowed.
Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster is a drama documentary in which Sophie tells her own story through a series of poignant poems written by the award-winning poet Simon Armitage alongside her mother, Sylvia Lancaster remembering her daughter's shortened life.
Black Roses : The Killing of Sophie Lancaster written by Simon Armitage with an interview with Sylvia Lancaster
Cast :
SOPHIE...........Rachel Austin
Produced in Manchester by Susan Roberts.Missouri Democrat Gov. Jay Nixon turned aside a legislative attempt to arm select teachers in schools, vetoing a bill that would have put guns in schools and saying he couldn’t support such a notion.
“[I can’t] condone putting firearms in the hands of educators who should be focused on teaching our kids,” Mr. Nixon said, explaining his veto of a bill to designate certain teachers and staffers as armed protection officials, Reuters reported.
The bill, which passed both House and Senate by margins of 111-28 and 21-7, respectively, would have mandated specific teachers and administrators to either possess a concealed carry permit or take specialized weapons training before carrying a gun into school, Reuters said.
His veto brought immediate backlash from the Republican-dominated legislature.
“This governor continues to prove he is disengaged with the legislature, is unwilling to offer any fresh ideas and vetoes good public policy,” said Republican state Sen. Tom Dempsey, Reuters reported.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment announced the resignation of chief operating officer Tom Anselmi on Friday.
Anselmi first joined the organization in December of 1996 and was responsible for the overall development of the Air Canada Centre. He was appointed chief operating officer in 2004.
"I am from this community, and I'm a huge fan of our teams, so being part of the growth of this organization into one that is admired in the industry has been a real privilege," Anselmi said in a release. "I'm very proud of our people and all that we've been able to accomplish. I'm also excited about the next chapter of my career and wish the organization and our fans all the best for the coming season."
Story continues below advertisement
Anselmi's last day at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment will be Friday, Sept. 13.
"The entire organization, including our ownership group, is grateful to Tom for his many contributions to the success of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment over the years," said Tim Leiweke, president and CEO of MLSE.With the increased UFO sightings, it has become evidently clear that we are not alone. Somewhere, at some place, there is another race, striving. May be a colony may be a civilization, we don’t know yet. But thirst for the search of extraterrestrial life has increased. We want answers to the mystery of their existence, something our scientists and researchers haven’t provided us yet. Debates go on but no sound proof has ever escaped to the common masses.
Experts frequently express that certain planets are excessively hot, chilly or poisonous to help life. The catch, nonetheless, is that those individuals are truly simply discussing life as we know it here on Earth. By that same token, when wanderers investigating different planets search out synthetic marks connected with life structures, they’re just ready to recognize chemicals that we know to search for. That is the reason Swiss researchers from the EPFL examination focus have made a gadget that distinguishes tiny life, taking into account nanoscale developments rather than science.
Created via specialists Giovanni Dietler, Sandor Kasas and Giovanni Longo, the ultra-delicate movement sensor uses innovation that is as of now utilized as a part of the nuclear energy magnifying instrument. On account of the magnifying lens, a minor sharp-tipped test is moved over the surface being imaged. That test takes the manifestation of a cantilever – one end is secured to the magnifying instrument, while the other (the pointy end) is allowed to climb up and down as it’s influenced by the shapes and different properties of the surface. The magnifying lens utilizes a laser to gauge those minute developments, and returns to make a picture of the surface based upon them.
On the EPFL movement sensor, a little cantilever stretches out evenly from the gadget. At the point when minuscule living things, for example, individual cells or bacterium are put on its free end, even their general metabolic capacities will result in the cantilever to vibrate. Similarly as with the magnifying lens, those developments are recognized by means of a laser.
At the point of testing the framework, the researchers had the capacity locate development in things, for example, microorganisms, yeast, mouse and human cells. They were additionally ready to identify and disconnect living beings from soil and water tests, which quit delivering readings once medications were utilized to slaughter them.
In the prompt future, proposed applications for the engineering incorporate things like medication improvement. For that specific situation, live microscopic organisms or malignancy cells could be set on a cantilever and afterward subjected to a prescription planned to kill them – the sensor would tell analysts how altogether the solution did its occupation.
Not far off, nonetheless, the EPFL group might for sure want to see shows of the movement sensors introduced on vehicles like the Curiosity Rover, serving to look for extraterrestrial life. That is accepting that life structures on different planets do move, regardless of the possibility or degree of movement. It will help us recognize the forms extraterrestrial life might be taking unseen to the human eye.MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - A 20-year-old Rochester Hills man faces a misdemeanor charge after he allegedly smeared peanut butter on the face of his fellow Central Michigan University student who is allergic to peanuts.
Dale Merza is charged with hazing resulting in physical injury, which is a 93-year-old misdemeanor. Police said the victim, a 19-year-old Marysville man, suffered swelling and had to seek medical treatment.
Merza turned himself in last week, police said.
What happened
Teresa Seely posted a Facebook message March 1 saying her son, who has a deadly peanut allergy, was passed out when members of a fraternity rubbed peanut butter on his face.
"He could have been killed," Seely wrote. "He was sent to the campus health clinic by a professor and treated. Luckily he is still alive."
CMU officials said the fraternity was closed in 2011 because of hazing incidents.
"This is not a recognized fraternity, and we got rid of them because they were doing things we did not agree with as a university," officials said.
When Local 4 stopped by the Alpha Chi Rho house and spoke to the student who spread the peanut butter on the man's face, he and other students said it wasn't hazing. They said it was a harmless prank.
"It was just a joke trying to be funny and put it on his face," the student said. "We didn't know he was allergic. It was just college students being kids."
The students at the house said they offered to pay for the man's medical bills.
"We're sorry to his family that just trying to be funny made it look like we were violent," he said. "We were not trying to be violent in any sense."
The victim left CMU after just one semester. The students at the fraternity house said he didn't leave because of the peanut butter incident, but because he got a tennis scholarship to another school.
CMU officials said the students could face legal consequences, suspension or expulsion, depending on the investigation.
A national spokesman for Alpha Chi Rho in New Jersey said the group is petitioning to become a fraternity again, but the petition was immediately suspended when the peanut butter incident came to light.
Sign up for ClickOnDetroit breaking news alerts and email newsletters
Copyright 2017 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved.IT IS being billed as a ''football extravaganza'': a way to entertain tourists and Sydneysiders alike, as well as a golden opportunity to market the city to the world's soccer fans.
But NSW taxpayers are underwriting the cost of operating giant screens, which will show World Cup matches as well as sponsors' advertisements, to the tune of $7 million.
On the ball... an artist's impression of Darling Harbour's Fan Fest.
During the month-long tournament, 1 million people are expected to attend the ''Fan Fests'' - cordoned-off areas of Darling Harbour and nearby Tumbalong Park, which the state government and soccer's governing body, FIFA, are operating jointly.
FIFA's share of the cost of running the free events extended to providing ''basic infrastructure'' such as the three screens that would float on the harbour and one in the park, a FIFA spokeswoman, who declined to go into more details, said.She had been "difficult to manage", with the result that the trial had taken longer than it needed to, but it had been on track to finish last Thursday. Teresa van Lieshout's tilt at Canning was launched with a colourful YouTube appearance. Credit:YouTube He said Ms van Lieshout had attended the morning session on Thursday but had not returned after an adjournment for the afternoon session, despite a court officer phoning her on a mobile number she had provided. "I asked for the call to be made on the off chance there might have been a misunderstanding," he said, though he added that he considered that unlikely. "I was advised she was refusing to return to court, unhappy with the way proceedings were conducted, presumably on the same grounds as she had expressed during the trial, which was that all those involved in the prosecution were Nazis and fascists," he said.
"So it was clear to me that she was making an informed and conscious decision not to return to court as a form of protest."
The arrest warrant was to lie until today in the hope of resolving the matter quickly but he said it was impossible to imagine any explanation for her non-appearance other than "a deliberate refusal to attend, no doubt in her mind as a conscientious objection to submitting to the laws everyone else is bound by." Ms van Lieshout, a Mundijong resident, is running as an independent for the federal seat of Canning in Perth's south-east after MHR Don Randall's death in June, with other candidates including the Liberals' Andrew Hastie, Labor's Matt Keogh and the Greens' Vanessa Rauland. She told Fairfax Media on Monday she was not a thief and the charges were the result of a "big group of men" meeting to have her jailed because she "refused to give money to the government." Ms van Lieshout's previously voiced objections to government fines may have been what she was referring to. She said on the phone after her non-appearance that she would not be handing herself in to police, as she had done nothing wrong.
"Don't be ridiculous," she told the Mandurah Mail. "I'm going to fight publicly for the next 30 years for all the political and government men to be jailed, including the magistrate Young." Ms van Lieshout refused to reveal her whereabouts, or even if she was still in Western Australia. "I could be in China," she said. "I don't care, I want them all jailed - all the magistrates, all the judges."
The Australian Electoral Commission cannot disqualify Ms van Lieshout from running for a seat in Federal Parliament unless she is convicted of and sentenced for a crime attracting a penalty of a year or more in prison. As the September 19 byelection approaches, the Mandurah Mail has reported that despite Ms van Lieshout listing her occupation as teacher on AEC nomination forms, her registration was cancelled in April. Ms van Lieshout then took to Facebook to accuse the Mandurah Mail of being "male dogs", "idiots", "malicious", "nutcases", and "dickheads". "You trash me, I'll trash you, you evil cowardly lying slanderous violent pro liberal/labor govt fascist Nazi stealing, torturing, murdering dogs [sic]," she wrote. Ms van Lieshout told Fairfax Media on Monday afternoon that the WA government had cancelled her teacher registration to "destroy" her political pursuits.
"It's got nothing to do with teaching, nothing to do with children, what the government and I have been fighting about," she said. "I've got a master of education, I have a teaching business called Expert Educational Services WA, registered with [the Australian Securities and Investments Commission] and I do private teaching because of my political interest. "My master of education is specialised in leadership and management at Notre Dame University and I have also written and published four books of non-fiction. "I am a highly educated and intelligent person... on social media I get abused a lot and I defend myself. Sure I should be more disciplined but it's difficult when it's so violent and personal." Mandurah Mail staff arrived at the office on Monday morning to find 13 abusive voicemails from Ms van Lieshout awaiting them, including the statement "this means war".
They informed local police. Late last month Ms van Lieshout released a bizarre YouTube clip of herself dancing in her living room to announce her candidacy. It was not the first time Ms van Lieshout had taken to YouTube to announce her political campaign. Before the Vasse byelection in 2014, she released a clip of herself in a black bikini fishing on a beach. The Palmer United Party endorsed her candidacy for the seat of Fremantle in the 2013 federal election but dumped her 12 days later for not toeing the party line.
She went on to represent the Australian Protectionist Party in the election and polled just 0.24 per cent of the vote (205 votes). Ms van Lieshout has previously run unsuccessfully in several elections including the 2013 state election in the seat of Willagee, where she polled 1.8 per cent of the vote (361 votes) as an independent. With Kate Hedley, Mandurah Mail Follow WAtoday on TwitterThe price saving website Priceline.com is acquiring travel company Kayak for $500M in cash and $1.3 billion in equity and assumed stock options. This puts the value of Kayak at $1.8B, and prices its stock at $40 per share.
The transaction is expected to clear by Q1 2013, pending regulatory approval.
Kayak is a much-lauded travel service that lets people compare flights, hotels, and rental cars across a bunch of other travel sites. Kayak says that it processes over 100 million user queries each month through its mobile apps and website.
“We believe we can be helpful with Kayak plans to build a global online travel brand, ”said Priceline Group President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffery H. Boyd, adding that kayak has “built a strong brand in online travel research and their track record of profitable growth is demonstrative of their popularity with consumers and value to advertisers.”
“Paul English and I started Kayak eight years ago to create the best place to plan and book travel,” said Steve Hafner, Kayak’s Chief Executive Officer and Cofounder. “We’re excited to join the world’s premier online travel company. The Priceline Group’s global reach and expertise will accelerate our growth and help us further develop as a company.”
In its publicly traded earnings debut back in July, Kayak jumped 14% to 30.10, giving it a market cap of over $1B. The company is currently trading at $31.04. The IPO was originally announced back in 2010, but put it on hold after Facebook’s iffy launch on the markets. Kayak was launched in 2004 by Steve Hafner of Orbitz, Terrell Jones of Travelocity and Greg Slyngstad of Expedia. Kayak has raised $233M in funding from Sequoia, Accel Partners, General Catalyst, AOL and others.
Kayak was sued just before its IPO by a company called MacroSolve over a data collection patent. The first quarter of earnings was all that Kayak had the time to post before it was snapped up. It was set to debut its second quarter numbers today. It’s notable that Priceline already owns Booking.com.
Image Credit: LEON NEAL/AFP Getty Images
Read next: Disney on par with Q4 revenues of $10.7 billion, EPS of $0.68 on back of weak gaming performanceTrump assumes control of the US Enterprise. Beam me off the ship of hate.
65% of GOP primary voters would support a ban. This result remained the same even after the question was clearly explained to them. Banning Muslims, bear in mind that Muslims are just the beginning of their hit list. I feel bad for the Mexicans, they have fallen to #2. But how could we forget about the Atheists, the Chinese, the Blacks, the Poor, the 47% Moochers, the Libtards, the Educated, the Teachers, the “anyone who criticizes the Great Don.” Who is safe? just the stooges, until they are roped into some form of below minimum wage/slave labor.
Wow—this is something that I thought that I would never have to explain. But then this poll came out. Now, I have proven time and time again that two thirds of Stupidparty Disciples have lost their ability to think critically. I wrote a book explaining why, where and how this has happened.
Donald Trump had already banned to provide an H1B visa to the persons. He has also banned the persons to enter into us to avoid spreading the Ebola virus. This created a bad impact on the people on him. The demand to ban Trump has grown so much and the people are doing protest on it to ban him. You can check here the details about the Ebola virus.
But I never would have believed that a candidate would take center stage and prove not simply how stupid the Stupidparty has become—but proved something much worse, how this stupidity, this ignorance, this reliance on myth and false narratives—how this has lead to an explosion of clearly visible cowardly bigotry and hate. We no longer simply have to ask the question—has the GOP become a hate GrOuP?
I though Trump was bad enough when he tweeted the following when Stupidparty were panicking about Ebola:
My goddaughter went to Guinea to help battle Ebola, which was resolved by promoting education and facts, when Trump was saying any one going to far away places should suffer the consequences—but the fact was, it was those very people who controlled Ebola, preventing a catastrophe and ultimately made America safe from itself and safe from the consequences resulting from the ideas from truly awful people.
If anyone allows themselves to be terrorized by terrorists then the terrorists win. London was bombed by the IRA for a decade or so (with the tacit approval of certain American politicians, like Peter King, before terrorism went out of vogue, after the first World Trade Center bomb)—and the IRA achieved nothing because Londoners just went about their business. Carry on, stay calm. Not one person was Stupidparty enough to suggest we should be armed against this threat. Not one person suggested banning Catholics or Irish people. The overreaction from San Bernardino must be really exciting, motivating for America’s enemies. Trump and his pitch fork mob securing power would make an enemy out of me—and really I would not give a dam about the consequences.
There is already a growing demand to ban Trump from Britain—but at the moment, the government is resisting, as it does not want to be seen as interfering with American politics and we are not yet in need of an international intervention. Netanyahu has made it plain that Trump is not welcome to visit Israel.
Now you might believe that some of the below mentioned observations are unlikely. America banned from this and that. Well of course that is what logically has to happen. You can not have one country refusing to host people for purely bigoted reasons and then expect Americans to be welcome guests. South Africa found this, they were isolated and then they found their Nelson Mandela. America has their Nelson Mandela already in the White House: if his legacy is destroyed in 2016 elections, then Kristallnacht will have arrived, hate will have won—a racist emperor taking the crown and America will be at War with itself, because everyone else will be washing their hands of America. ISIS—so close from isolating their enemy. Wow again.
These observations just came to me quite rapidly. If I have missed anything I will happily make changes.
So to conclude, what does all this really mean? What does bigotry lead to in everyday America. It leads to scuffles, violence and hate at Trump rallies as his bigots push and spit on immigrant activists. A man walked into the Fatima Food Mart on 21st Avenue in Astoria on Saturday and yelled that he wanted to “kill Muslims,” then repeatedly punched the owner, according to police and the owner. A group of Muslims praying in a public park in California were interrupted, chastised and attacked by a woman calling them murderers. “A pigs head at a mosque in Philadelphia, a girl harassed at a school in New York, hate mail sent to a New Jersey mosque … I can’t event count the amount of hate mail and threats we have received,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. So what does it all really mean, it means Kristallnacht,
We no longer simply have to ask the question—have the GOP become a hate GrOuP? That question has now been answered.Walls needing remedial work at a Bovis home
One of Britain's biggest builders has admitted offering housebuyers thousands of pounds to persuade them to move into unfinished homes in a desperate bid to hit sales targets.
Bovis Homes, whose chief executive left abruptly on Monday, was willing to pay its customers as much as £3,000 to complete deals by December 23 – even if the property was not finished.
That outraged buyers, who complained about everything from wrong kitchen units being installed to unfinished driveways.
It is not the first time Bovis has angered its customers, and nearly 750 people have now joined a Facebook page – called the 'Bovis Homes Victims Group' – with complaints dating back to 2013.
They include leaking pipes, holes in walls and dodgy wiring. MPs last night said they could raise the issue in Parliament.
Bovis offered the cash to buyers in order to rush through deals as it desperately tried to hit its ambitious sales targets for the year.
But on December 28 it had to reveal that the completion of 180 homes would be 'deferred' into early 2017 – meaning annual profits for 2016 would be lower than previously expected.
Less than two weeks later, on January 9, chief executive David Ritchie bowed to pressure and abruptly resigned.
One Bovis customer, 32-year-old Rob Elmes, said he was offered £3,000 to complete on a three-bedroom £320,000 home in Worcestershire on December 23 'on a house that was not complete'.
Writing on the Bovis Homes Victims' page, he complained of dented doors, uneven kitchen units, chipped door frames, an unfinished drive and no chimney.
Boarded up: A condemned home on a Bovis estate in Shrewsbury in 2015
Time consuming: Remedial work being carried out on a Bovis home bathroom
Customer Helen Batt said her home had no carpet, unpainted walls and no turf in the garden. Bovis bosses could now be quizzed by MPs on the Communities and Local Government committee, which deals with housing.
Labour MP Melanie Onn, a member, said: 'These are really worrying allegations. I will be raising this case with the committee chair and looking at whether an inquiry is needed.'
Tory MP Mark Prisk, a former housing minister and a fellow member of the committee, said: 'This isn't acceptable. We need more homes, but the public is also entitled to expect that key standards are met, which is clearly not the case in this instance.'
Marc Holden, a spokesman for the victims' group, said customers were planning a protest near the Bovis headquarters in Kent.
He said his £490,000 home in Milton Keynes had about 100 flaws when he moved in last March.
'We have had a nightmare,' he said. 'This is happening across the country, and as a group we're not going to stand for it.'
Bovis said: 'We take these issues very seriously. We recognise that in some of these cases we have not provided our best standard of customer service and have taken too long to rectify customer issues, for which we apologise.'
Its spokesman added: 'A limited number of customers were offered an incentive to complete before the year end and all homes were habitable with the requisite industry certification and a timetable |
treat Morgan’s case fairly because of the markings, prompting a district judge to require them to be covered.
Morgan showed up in court on Monday covered in concealer – and when his attorney said the make-up had started wearing off, the judge agreed to delay jury selection, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Morgan is to remove the make-up after each day in court before he returns to the Clark County Detention Center.Potential jurors didn’t appear to see Morgan’s tattoos underneath the concealer on Monday, but one of his attorneys, Dan Bunin, said in the early afternoon that two of them had started showing up.
One was the ‘Baby Nazi’ inscription on Morgan’s neck and the other was a teardrop tattoo below his right eye.
Teardrop tattoos can have several meanings. Some signal that the wearer has killed someone, has been in prison, or was part of a gang.
District Judge Richard Scotti allowed a cosmetologist to touch up Morgan’s makeup, delaying jury selection by 30 minutes Monday.
The make-up artist recommended he wear a brown shirt instead of a white or black white for future court dates.
One potential juror said on Monday that she had read about Morgan’s tattoos and the judge’s order to cover them in the press. She was dismissed.
Morgan will face another trial next month, this time for capital murder. He is accused of killing 75-year-old Jean Main and faces the death penalty.
Another judge will have to decide whether his tattoos should be concealed for that trial too.
By: Clemence Michallon
White Genocide: The Video the Media Doesn’t Want You To See! –THEBLACKCHANNEL.NETHuman Nature: Justice versus Power
Noam Chomsky debates with Michel Foucault
1971
ELDERS:
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the third debate of the International Philosophers’ Project. Tonight’s debaters are Mr. Michel Foucault, of the College de France, and Mr. Noam Chomsky, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Both philosophers have points in common and points of difference. Perhaps the best way to compare both philosophers would be to see them as tunnellers through a mountain working at opposite sides of the same mountain with different tools, without even knowing if they are working in each other’s direction.
But both are doing their jobs with quite new ideas, digging as profoundly as possible with an equal commitment in philosophy as in politics: enough reasons, it seems to me for us to expect a fascinating debate about philosophy and about politics.
I intend, therefore, not to lose any time and to start off with a central, perennial question: the question of human nature.
All studies of man, from history to linguistics and psychology, are faced with the question of whether, in the last instance, we are the product of all kinds of external factors, or if, in spite of our differences, we have something we could call a common human nature, by which we can recognise each other as human beings.
So my first question is to you Mr. Chomsky, because you often employ the concept of human nature, in which connection you even use terms like “innate ideas” and “innate structures”. Which arguments can you derive from linguistics to give such a central position to this concept of human nature?
CHOMSKY:
Well, let me begin in a slightly technical way.
A person who is interested in studying languages is faced with a very definite empirical problem. He’s faced with an organism, a mature, let’s say adult, speaker, who has somehow acquired an amazing range of abilities, which enable him in particular to say what he means, to understand what people say to him, to do this in a fashion that I think is proper to call highly creative … that is, much of what a person says in his normal intercourse with others is novel, much of what you hear is new, it doesn’t bear any close resemblance to anything in your experience; it’s not random novel behaviour, clearly, it’s behaviour which is in some sense which is very hard to characterise, appropriate to situations. And in fact it has many of the characteristics of what I think might very well be called creativity.
Now, the person who has acquired this intricate and highly articulated and organised collection of abilities-the collection of abilities that we call knowing a language-has been exposed to a certain experience; he has been presented in the course of his lifetime with a certain amount of data, of direct experience with a language.
We can investigate the data that’s available to this person; having done so, in principle, we’re faced with a reasonably clear and well-delineated scientific problem, namely that of accounting for the gap between the really quite small quantity of data, small and rather degenerate in quality, that’s presented to the child, and the very highly articulated, highly systematic, profoundly organised resulting knowledge that he somehow derives from these data.
Furthermore we notice that varying individuals with very varied experience in a particular language nevertheless arrive at systems which are very much congruent to one another. The systems that two speakers of English arrive at on the basis of their very different experiences are congruent in the sense that, over an overwhelming range, what one of them says, the other can understand.
Furthermore, even more remarkable, we notice that in a wide range of languages, in fact all that have been studied seriously, there are remarkable limitations on the kind of systems that emerge from the very different kinds of experiences to which people are exposed.
There is only one possible explanation, which I have to give in a rather schematic fashion, for this remarkable phenomenon, namely the assumption that the individual himself contributes a good deal, an overwhelming part in fact, of the general schematic structure and perhaps even of the specific content of the knowledge that he ultimately derives from this very scattered and limited experience.
A person who knows a language has acquired that knowledge because he approached the learning experience with a very explicit and detailed schematism that tells him what kind of language it is that he is being exposed to. That is, to put it rather loosely: the child must begin with the knowledge, certainly not with the knowledge that he’s hearing English or Dutch or French or something else, but he does start with the knowledge that he’s hearing a human language of a very narrow and explicit type, that permits a very small range of variation. And it is because he begins with that highly organised and very restrictive schematism, that he is able to make the huge leap from scattered and degenerate data to highly organised knowledge. And furthermore I should add that we can go a certain distance, I think a rather long distance, towards presenting the properties of this system of knowledge, that I would call innate language or instinctive knowledge, that the child brings to language learning; and also we can go a long way towards describing the system that is mentally represented when he has acquired this knowledge.
I would claim then that this instinctive knowledge, if you like, this schematism that makes it possible to derive complex and intricate knowledge on the basis of very partial data, is one fundamental constituent of human nature. In this case I think a fundamental constituent because of the role that language plays, not merely in communication, but also in expression of thought and interaction between persons; and I assume that in other domains of human intelligence, in other domains of human cognition and behaviour, something of the same sort must be true.
Well, this collection, this mass of schematisms, innate organising principles, which guides our social and intellectual and individual behaviour, that’s what I mean to refer to by the concept of human nature.
ELDERS:
Well, Mr. Foucault, when I think of your books like The History of Madness and Words and Objects, I get the impression that you are working on a completely different level and with a totally opposite aim and goal; when I think of the word schematism in relation to human nature, I suppose you are trying to elaborate several periods with several schematisms. What do you say to this?
FOUCAULT:
Well, if you don’t mind I will answer in French, because my English is so poor that I would be ashamed of answering in English.
It is true that I mistrust the notion of human nature a little, and for the following reason: I believe that of the concepts or notions which a science can use, not all have the same degree of elaboration, and that in general they have neither the same function nor the same type of possible use in scientific discourse. Let’s take the example of biology. You will find concepts with a classifying function, concepts with a differentiating function, and concepts with an analytical function: some of them enable us to characterise objects, for example that of “tissue”; others to isolate elements, like that of “hereditary feature”; others to fix relations, such as that of “reflex”. There are at the same time elements which play a role in the discourse and in the internal rules of the reasoning practice. But there also exist “peripheral” notions, those by which scientific practice designates itself, differentiates itself in relation to other practices, delimits its domain of objects, and designates what it considers to be the totality of its future tasks. The notion of life played this role to some extent in biology during a certain period.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the notion of life was hardly used in studying nature: one classified natural beings, whether living or non-living, in a vast hierarchical tableau which went from minerals to man; the break between the minerals and the plants or animals was relatively undecided; epistemologically it was only important to fix their positions once and for all in an indisputable way.
At the end of the eighteenth century, the description and analysis of these natural beings showed, through the use of more highly perfected instruments and the latest techniques, an entire domain of objects, an entire field of relations and processes which have enabled us to define the specificity of biology in the knowledge of nature. Can one say that research into life has finally constituted itself in biological science? Has the concept of life been responsible for the organisation of biological knowledge? I don’t think so. It seems to me more likely that the transformations of biological knowledge at the end of the eighteenth century, were demonstrated on one hand by a whole series of new concepts for use in scientific discourse and on the other hand gave rise to a notion like that of life which has enabled us to designate, to delimit and to situate a certain type of scientific discourse, among other things. I would say that the notion of life is not a scientific concept; it has been an epistemological indicator of which the classifying, delimiting and other functions had an effect on scientific discussions, and not on what they were talking about:
Well, it seems to me that the notion of human nature is of the same type. It was not by studying human nature that linguists discovered the laws of consonant mutation, or Freud the principles of the analysis of dreams, or cultural anthropologists the structure of myths. In the history of knowledge, the notion of human nature seems to me mainly to have played the role of an epistemological indicator to designate certain types of discourse in relation to or in opposition to theology or biology or history. I would find it difficult to see in this a scientific concept.
CHOMSKY:
Well, in the first place, if we were able to specify in terms of, let’s say, neural networks the properties of human cognitive structure that make it possible for the child to acquire these complicated systems, then I at least would have no hesitation in describing those properties as being a constituent element of human nature. That is, there is something biologically given, unchangeable, a foundation for whatever it is that we do with our mental capacities in this case.
But I would like to pursue a little further the line of development that you outlined, with which in fact I entirely agree, about the concept of life as an organising concept in the biological sciences.
It seems to me that one might speculate a bit further speculate in this case, since we’re talking about the future, not the past-and ask whether the concept of human nature or of innate organising mechanisms or of intrinsic mental schematism or whatever we want to call it, I don’t see much difference between them, but let’s call it human nature for shorthand, might not provide for biology the next peak to try to scale, after having-at least in the minds of the biologists, though one might perhaps question this-already answered to the satisfaction of some the question of what is life.
In other words, to be precise, is it possible to give a biological explanation or a physical explanation…is it possible to characterise, in terms of the physical concepts presently available to us, the ability of the child to acquire complex systems of knowledge; and furthermore, critically, having acquired such systems of knowledge, to make use of this knowledge in the free and creative and remarkably varied ways in which he does?
Can we explain in biological terms, ultimately in physical terms, these properties of both acquiring knowledge in the first place and making use of it in the second? I really see no reason to believe that we can; that is, it’s an article of faith on the part of scientists that since science has explained many other things it will also explain this.
In a sense one might say that this is a variant of the body/mind problem. But if we look back at the way in which science has scaled various peaks, and at the way in which the concept of life was finally acquired by science after having been beyond its vision for a long period, then I think we notice at many points in history-and in fact the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are particularly clear examples-that scientific advances were possible precisely because the domain of physical science was itself enlarged. Classic cases are Newton’s gravitational forces. To the Cartesians, action at a distance was a mystical concept, and in fact to Newton himself it was an occult quality, a mystical entity, which didn’t belong within science. To the common sense of a later generation, action at a distance has been incorporated within science.
What happened was that the notion of body, the notion of the physical had changed. To a Cartesian, a strict Cartesian, if such a person appeared today, it would appear that there is no explanation for the behaviour of the heavenly bodies. Certainly there is no explanation for the phenomena that are explained in terms of electro-magnetic force, let’s say. But by the extension of physical science to incorporate hitherto unavailable concepts, entirely new ideas, it became possible to successively build more and more complicated structures that incorporated a larger range of phenomena.
For example, it’s certainly not true that the physics of the Cartesians is able to explain, let’s say, the behaviour of elementary particles in physics, just as it’s unable to explain the concepts of life.
Similarly, I think, one might ask the question whether physical science as known today, including biology, incorporates within itself the principles and the concepts that will enable it to give an account of innate human intellectual capacities and, even more profoundly, of the ability to make use of those capacities under conditions of freedom in the way which humans do. I see no particular reason to believe that biology or physics now contain those concepts, and it may be that to scale the next peak, to make the next step, they will have to focus on this organising concept, and may very well have to broaden their scope in order to come to grips with it.
FOUCAULT:
Yes.
ELDERS:
Perhaps I may try to ask one more specific question leading out of both your answers, because I’m afraid otherwise the debate will become too technical. I have the impression that one of the main differences between you both has its origin in a difference in approach. You, Mr. Foucault, are especially interested in the way science or scientists function in a certain period, whereas Mr. Chomsky is more interested in the so-called “what-questions”: why we possess language; not just how language functions, but what’s the reason for our having language. We can try to elucidate this in a more general way: you, Mr. Foucault, are delimiting eighteenth century rationalism, whereas you, Mr. Chomsky, are combining eighteenth-century rationalism with notions like freedom and creativity.
Perhaps we could illustrate this in a more general way with examples from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
CHOMSKY:
Well, first I should say that I approach classical rationalism not really as a historian of science or a historian of philosophy, but from the rather different point of view of someone who has a certain range of scientific notions and is interested in seeing how at an earlier stage people may have been groping towards these notions, possibly without even realising what they were groping towards.
So one might say that I’m looking at history not as an antiquarian, who is interested in finding out and giving a precisely accurate account of what the thinking of the seventeenth century was-I don’t mean to demean that activity, it’s just not mine-but rather from the point of view of, let’s say, an art lover, who wants to look at the seventeenth century to find in it things that are of particular value, and that obtain part of their value in part because of the perspective with which he approaches them.
And I think that, without objecting to the other approach, my approach is legitimate; that is, I think it is perfectly possible to go back to earlier stages of scientific thinking on the basis of our present understanding, and to perceive how great thinkers were, within the limitations of their time, groping towards concepts and ideas and insights that they themselves could not be clearly aware of.
For example, I think that anyone can do this about his own thought. Without trying to compare oneself to the great thinkers of the past, anyone can..
ELDERS:
Why not?
CHOMSKY:
…look at…
ELDERS:
Why not?
CHOMSKY:
All right [laughs], anyone can consider what he now knows and can ask what he knew twenty years ago, and can see that in some unclear fashion he was striving towards something which he can only now understand … if he is fortunate.
Similarly I think it’s possible to look at the past, without distorting your view, and it is in these terms that I want to look at the seventeenth century. Now, when I look back at the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, what strikes me particularly is the way in which, for example, Descartes and his followers were led to postulate mind as a thinking substance independent of the body. If you look at their reasons for postulating this second substance, mind, thinking entity, they were that Descartes was able to convince himself, rightly or wrongly, it doesn’t matter at the moment, that events in the physical world and even much of the behavioural and psychological world, for example a good deal of sensation, were explicable in terms of what he considered to be physics-wrongly, as we now believe-that is, in terms of things bumping into each other and turning and moving and so on.
He thought that in those terms, in terms of the mechanical principle, he could explain a certain domain of phenomena; and then he observed that there was a range of phenomena that he argued could not be explained in those terms. And he therefore postulated a creative principle to account for that domain of phenomena, the principle of mind with its own properties. And then later followers, many who didn’t regard themselves as Cartesians, for example many who regarded themselves as strongly anti-rationalistic, developed the concept of creation within a system of rule.
I won’t bother with the details, but my own research into the subject led me ultimately to Wilhelm von Humboldt, who certainly didn’t consider himself a Cartesian, but nevertheless in a rather different framework and within a different historical period and with different insight, in a remarkable and ingenious way, which, I think, is of lasting importance, also developed the concept of internalised form-fundamentally the concept of free creation within a system of rule in an effort to come to grips with some of the same difficulties and problems that the Cartesians faced in their terms.
Now I believe, and here I would differ from a lot of my colleagues, that the move of Descartes to the postulation of a second substance was a very scientific move; it was not a metaphysical or an anti-scientific move. In fact, in many ways it was very much like Newton’s intellectual move when he postulated action at a distance; he was moving into the domain of the occult, if you like. He was moving into the domain of something that went beyond well-established science, and was trying to integrate it with well-established science by developing a theory in which these notions could be properly clarified and explained.
Now Descartes, I think, made a similar intellectual move in postulating a second substance. Of course he failed where Newton succeeded; that is, he was unable to lay the groundwork for a mathematical theory of mind, as achieved by Newton and his followers, which laid the groundwork for a mathematical theory of physical entities that incorporated such occult notions as action at a distance and later electromagnetic forces and so on.
But then that poses for us, I think, the task of carrying on and developing this, if you like, mathematical theory of mind; by that I simply mean a precisely articulated, clearly formulated, abstract theory which will have empirical consequences, which will let us know whether the theory is right or wrong, or on the wrong track or the right track, and at the same time will have the properties of mathematical science, that is, the properties of rigour and precision and a structure that makes it possible for us to deduce conclusions from assumptions and so on.
Now it’s from that point of view that I try to look back at the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and to pick out points, which I think are really there, even though I certainly recognise, and in fact would want to insist, that the individuals in question may not have seen it this way.
ELDERS:
Mr. Foucault, I suppose you will have a severe criticism of this?
FOUCAULT:
No … there are just one or two little historical points. I cannot object to the account which you have given in your historical analysis of their reasons and of their modality. But there is one thing one could nevertheless add: when you speak of creativity as conceived by Descartes, I wonder if you don’t transpose to Descartes an idea which is to be found among his successors or even certain of his contemporaries. According to Descartes, the mind was not so very creative. It saw, it perceived, it was illuminated by the evidence.
Moreover, the problem which Descartes never resolved nor entirely mastered, was that of understanding how one could pass from one of these clear and distinct ideas, one of these intuitions, to another, and what status should be given to the evidence of the passage between them. I can’t see exactly either the creation in the moment where the mind grasped the truth for Descartes, or even the real creation in the passage from one truth to another.
On the contrary, you can find, I think, at the same time in Pascal and Leibniz, something which is much closer to what you are looking for: in other words in Pascal and in the whole Augustinian stream of Christian thought, you find this idea of a mind in profundity; of a mind folded back in the intimacy of itself which is touched by a sort of unconsciousness, and which can develop its potentialities by the deepening of the self. And that is why the grammar of Port Royal, to which you refer, is, I think, much more Augustinian than Cartesian.
And furthermore you will find in Leibniz something which you will certainly like: the idea that in the profundity of the mind is incorporated a whole web of logical relations which constitutes, in a certain sense, the rational unconscious of the consciousness, the not yet clarified and visible form of the reason itself, which the monad or the individual develops little by little, and with which he understands the whole world.
That’s where I would make a very small criticism.
ELDERS:
Mr. Chomsky, one moment please.
I don’t think it’s a question of making a historical criticism, but of formulating your own opinions on these quite fundamental concepts…
FOUCAULT:
But one’s fundamental opinions can be demonstrated in precise analyses such as these.
ELDERS:
Yes, all right. But I remember some passages in your History of Madness, which give a description of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in terms of repression, suppression and exclusion, while for Mr. Chomsky this period is full of creativity and individuality.
Why do we have at that period, for the first time, closed psychiatric or insane asylums? I think this is a very fundamental question…
FOUCAULT:
…on creativity, yes!
But I don’t know, perhaps Mr. Chomsky would like to speak about it…
ELDERS:
No, no, no, please go on. Continue.
FOUCAULT:
No, I would like to say this: in the historical studies that I have been able to make, or have tried to make, I have without any doubt given very little room to what you might call the creativity of individuals, to their capacity for creation, to their aptitude for inventing by themselves, for originating concepts, theories or scientific truths by themselves.
But I believe that my problem is different to that of Mr. Chomsky. Mr. Chomsky has been fighting against linguistic behaviourism, which attributed almost nothing to the creativity of the speaking subject; the speaking subject was a kind of surface on which information came together little by little, which he afterwards combined.
In the field of the history of science or, more generally, the history of thought, the problem was completely different.
The history of knowledge has tried for a long time to obey two claims. One is the claim of attribution: each discovery should not only be situated and dated, but should also be attributed to someone; it should have an inventor and someone responsible for it. General or collective phenomena on the other hand, those which by definition can’t be “attributed”, are normally devalued: they are still traditionally described through words like “tradition’, “mentality”, “modes”; and one lets them play the negative role of a brake in relation to the “originality” of the inventor. In brief, this has to do with the principle of the sovereignty of the subject applied to the history of knowledge. The other claim is that which no longer allows us to save the subject, but the truth: so that it won’t be compromised by history, it is necessary not that the truth constitutes itself in history, but only that it reveals itself in it; hidden to men’s eyes, provisionally inaccessible, sitting in the shadows, it will wait to be unveiled. The history of truth would be essentially its delay, its fall or the disappearance of the obstacles which have impeded it until now from coming to light. The historical dimension of knowledge is always negative in relation to the truth. It isn’t difficult to see how these two claims were adjusted, one to the other: the phenomena of collective order, the “common thought”, the “prejudices” of the “myths” of a period, constituted the obstacles which the subject of knowledge had to surmount or to outlive in order to have access finally to the truth; he had to be in an “eccentric” position in order to “discover”. At one level this seems to be invoking a certain “romanticism” about the history of science: the solitude of the man of truth, the originality which reopened itself onto the original through history and despite it. I think that, more fundamentally, it’s a matter of superimposing the theory of knowledge and the subject of knowledge on the history of knowledge.
And what if understanding the relation of the subject to the truth, were just an effect of knowledge? What if understanding were a complex, multiple, non-individual formation, not “subjected to the subject”, which produced effects of truth? One should then put forward positively this entire dimension which the history of science has negativised; analyse the productive capacity of knowledge as a collective practice; and consequently replace individuals and their “knowledge” in the development of a knowledge which at a given moment functions according to certain rules which one can register and describe.
You will say to me that all the Marxist historians of science have been doing this for a long time. But when one sees how they work with these facts and especially what use they make of the notions of consciousness, of ideology as opposed to science, one realises that they are for the main part more or less detached from the theory of knowledge.
In any case, what I am anxious about is substituting transformations of the understanding for the history of the discoveries of knowledge. Therefore I have, in appearance at least, a completely different attitude to Mr. Chomsky apropos creativity, because for me it is a matter of effacing the dilemma of the knowing subject, while for him it is a matter of allowing the dilemma of the speaking subject to reappear.
But if he has made it reappear, if he has described it, it is because he can do so. The linguists have for a long time now analysed language as a system with a collective value. The understanding as a collective totality of rules allowing such and such a knowledge to be produced in a certain period, has hardly been studied until now. Nevertheless, it presents some fairly positive characteristics to the observer. Take for example medicine at the end of the eighteenth century: read twenty medical works, it doesn’t matter which, of the years 1770 to 1780, then twenty others from the years 1820 to 1830, and I would say, quite at random, that in forty or fifty years everything had changed; what one talked about, the way one talked about it, not just the remedies, of course, not just the maladies and their classifications, but the outlook itself. Who was responsible for that? Who was the author of it? It is artificial, I think, to say Bichat, or even to expand a little and to say the first anatomical clinicians. It’s a matter of a collective and complex transformation of medical understanding in its practice and its rules. And this transformation is far from a negative phenomenon: it is the suppression of a negativity, the effacement of an obstacle, the disappearance of prejudices, the abandonment of old myths, the retreat of irrational beliefs, and access finally freed to experience and to reason; it represents the application of an entirely new 8rille, with its choices and exclusions; a new play with its own rules, decisions and limitations, with its own inner logic, its parameters and its blind alleys, all of which lead to the modification of the point of origin. And it is in this functioning that the understanding itself exists. So, if one studies the history of knowledge, one sees that there are two broad directions of analysis: according to one, one has to show how, under what conditions and for what reasons, the understanding modifies itself in its formative rules, without passing through an original “inventor” discovering the “truth”; and according to the other, one has to show how the working of the rules of an understanding can produce in an individual new and unpublished knowledge. Here my aim rejoins, with imperfect methods and in a quite inferior mode, Mr. Chomsky’s project: accounting for the fact that with a few rules or definite elements, unknown totalities, never even produced, can be brought to light by individuals. To resolve this problem, Mr. Chomsky has to reintroduce the dilemma of the subject in the field of grammatical analysis. To resolve an analogous problem in the field of history with which I am involved, one has to do the opposite, in a way: to introduce the point of view of understanding, of its rules, of its systems, of its transformations of totalities in the game of individual knowledge. Here and there the problem of creativity cannot be resolved in the same way, or rather, it can’t be formulated in the same terms, given the state of disciplines inside which it is put.
CHOMSKY:
I think in part we’re slightly talking at cross-purposes, because of a different use of the term creativity. In fact, I should say that my use of the term creativity is a little bit idiosyncratic and therefore the onus falls on me in this case, not on you. But when I speak of creativity, I’m not attributing to the concept the notion of value that is normal when we speak of creativity. That is, when you speak of scientific creativity, you’re speaking, properly, of the achievements of a Newton. But in the context in which I have been speaking about creativity, it’s a normal human act.
I’m speaking of the kind of creativity that any child demonstrates when he’s able to come to grips with a new situation: to describe it properly, react to it properly, tell one something about it, think about it in a new fashion for him and so on. I think it’s appropriate to call those acts creative, but of course without thinking of those acts as being the acts of a Newton.
In fact it may very well be true that creativity in the arts or the sciences, that which goes beyond the normal, may really involve properties of, well, I would also say of human nature, which may not exist fully developed in the mass of mankind, and may not constitute part of the normal creativity of everyday life.
Now my belief is that science can look forward to the problem of normal creativity as a topic that it can perhaps incorporate within itself. But I don’t believe, and I suspect you will agree, that science can look forward, at least in the reasonable future, to coming to grips with true creativity, the achievements of the great artist and the great scientist. It has no hope of accommodating these unique phenomena within its grasp. It’s the lower levels of creativity that I’ve been speaking of.
Now, as far as what you say about the history of science is concerned, I think that’s correct and illuminating and particularly relevant in fact to the kinds of enterprise that I see lying before us in psychology and linguistics and the philosophy of the mind.
That is, I think there are certain topics that have been repressed or put aside during the scientific advances of the past few centuries.
For example, this concern with low-level creativity that I’m referring to was really present in Descartes also. For example, when he speaks of the difference between a parrot, who can mimic what is said, and a human, who can say new things that are appropriate to the situation, and when he specifies that as being the distinctive property that designates the limits of physics and carries us into the science of the mind, to use modern terms, I think he really is referring to the kind of creativity that I have in mind; and I quite agree with your comments about the other sources of such notions.
Well, these concepts, even in fact the whole notion of the organisation of sentence structure, were put aside during the period of great advances that followed from Sir William Jones and others and the development of comparative philology as a whole.
But now, I think, we can go beyond that period when it was necessary to forget and to pretend that these phenomena did not exist and to turn to something else. In this period of comparative philology and also, in my view, structural linguistics, and much of behavioural psychology, and in fact much of what grows out of the empiricist tradition in the study of mind and behaviour, it is possible to put aside those limitations and bring into our consideration just those topics that animated a good deal of the thinking and speculation of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and to incorporate them within a much broader and I think deeper science of man that will give a fuller role-though it is certainly not expected to give a complete understanding to such notions as innovation and creativity and freedom and the production of new entities, new elements of thought and behaviour within some system of rule and schematism. Those are concepts that I think we can come to grips with.
ELDERS:
Well, may I first of all ask you not to make your answers so lengthy? [Foucault laughs.]
When you discuss creativity and freedom, I think that one of the misunderstandings, if any misunderstandings have arisen, has to do with the fact that Mr. Chomsky is starting from a limited number of rules with infinite possibilities of application, whereas you, Mr. Foucault, are stressing the inevitability of the “grille” of our historical and psychological determinisms, which also applies to the way in which we discover new ideas.
Perhaps we can sort this out, not by analysing the scientific process, but just by analysing our own thought process.
When you discover a new fundamental idea, Mr. Foucault, do you believe, that as far as your own personal creativity is concerned something is happening that makes you feel that you are being liberated; that something new has been developed? Perhaps afterwards you discover that it was not so new. But do you yourself believe that, within your own personality, creativity and freedom are working together, or not?
FOUCAULT:
Oh, you know, I don’t believe that the problem of personal experience is so very important…
ELDERS:
Why not?
FOUCAULT:
…in a question like this. No, I believe that there is in reality quite a strong similarity between what Mr. Chomsky said and what I tried to show: in other words there exist in fact only possible creations, possible innovations. One can only, in terms of language or of knowledge, produce something new by putting into play a certain number of rules which will define the acceptability or the grammaticality of these statements, or which will define, in the case of knowledge, the scientific character of the statements.
Thus, we can roughly say that linguists before Mr. Chomsky mainly insisted on the rules of construction of statements and less on the innovation represented by every new statement, or the hearing of a new statement. And in the history of science or in the history of thought, we placed more emphasis on individual creation, and we had kept aside and left in the shadows these communal, general rules, which obscurely manifest themselves through every scientific discovery, every scientific invention, and even every philosophical innovation.
And to that degree, when I no doubt wrongly believe that I am saying something new, I am nevertheless conscious of the fact that in my statement there are rules at work, not only linguistic rules, but also epistemological rules, and those rules characterise contemporary knowledge.
CHOMSKY:
Well, perhaps I can try to react to those comments within my own framework in a way which will maybe shed some light on this.
Let’s think again of a human child, who has in his mind some schematism that determines the kind of language he can learn. Okay. And then, given experience, he very quickly knows the language, of which this experience is a part, or in which it is included.
Now this is a normal act; that is, it’s an act of normal intelligence, but it’s a highly creative act.
If a Martian were to look at this process of acquiring this vast and complicated and intricate system of knowledge on the basis of this ridiculously small quantity of data, he would think of it as an immense act of |
realism" to describe scholars who sought to enrich neorealism with insights from traditional or classical realism.[23] John H. Herz sought to synthesize realism and liberalism into what he called "realist liberalism."[24] Bear F. Braumoeller derived and tested a theory that combines realism and liberalism and showed that neither was sufficient to explain Great Power behavior without the other.[25]
See also [ edit ]NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - A 19-year-old man, who recently graduated from high school and had a scholarship to play college football in California, was shot and killed this week.
Police said the shooting was reported just after 3 p.m. Wednesday in the area of Northeast 177th Street and Ninth Avenue.
Relatives said Brian Brown, who graduated last week from North Miami Beach Senior High School, was shot three times in the back.
They believe he was shot during a Craigslist transaction.
According to relatives, Brown advertised video games and a play station on Craigslist to sell.
They said he went to meet the person who was going to buy the games and console from him when the shooting happened.
Brown's father said his son was a good person, who would never hurt anybody.
"Happy, always smiling, a friend to everyone. Everyone who knew him -- I can say at least 200 to 300 people have come here to hug me and told me what a great kid he was. and how much love he just had for everyone," Craig Brown said. "(He) wouldn't hurt a fly, wouldn't hurt anyone. (He) loved animals. He had this dog, you'd think this dog was one of his kids, man."
Brian Brown's girlfriend drove him to Jackson North Medical Center. He was then transferred to Aventura Hospital and Medical Center, where he died.
Craig Brown said his son was excited for college after receiving a full scholarship to Merced College and had recently gone shopping for furniture for his new dorm room.
"Mr. Brown had a bright future as a student-athlete and we were very excited for him to be apart of our program," said Bob Casey, Merced College's head coach.
He was supposed to leave for northern California on July 1.
"His passing has left us all stunned and we can do nothing, but pray for his family," Casey said.
Craig Brown said his son was also working out to stay in shape for the upcoming football season.
"He was getting ready for it, staying in shape, and everyone, his team mates, friends, everyone was talking about it. He was ready to go," Craig Brown said.
North Miami Beach Senior High School football coach Jeff Bertani said Brian Brown played on the team for four years.
"He was phenomenal on the field for us," Bertani said. "He loved every minute he was on that field. His personality was large on the field, his personality was large off the field."
Brian Brown was the youngest of four siblings in his family.
"I don't know how I'm going to live without Brian. I don't know how," the teen's mother, Landcy Brown said.
Miami-Dade police are investigating the shooting.
Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at 305-471-2400 or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. A reward of up to $3,000 is offered for information that leads to an arrest.
Copyright 2017 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified before the House Intelligence Committee that former FBI Director James Comey James Brien ComeyExpect little closure on collusion 'Dear Attorney General Barr': Advice from insiders Rosenstein: My time at DOJ is 'coming to an end' MORE told him about conversations he had with President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE, including Trump’s request for loyalty, according to a new report.
CNN reports that McCabe told lawmakers during his testimony this week that Comey told him about conversations he had with Trump after they occurred.
McCabe told the committee that Comey also told him about Trump’s request for loyalty, according to CNN’s Manu Raju.
ADVERTISEMENT
During his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June, Comey said that Trump asked him for his loyalty during a January dinner at the White House.
"I need loyalty. I expect loyalty," Trump said, according to Comey.
Comey said he didn't respond to Trump's request, but the president returned to the subject later in the dinner, again repeating that he needed loyalty. Ultimately, Comey allowed that Trump would get "honesty loyalty" from him.
Trump has disputed Comey’s account of the conversation, saying he never asked Comey for his loyalty.
The revelation could mean McCabe can corroborate Comey's account of the conversation.
McCabe faced a nearly eight-hour grilling from the House Intelligence Committee this week as Republicans ramp up their charges that the FBI, Justice Department and special counsel Robert Mueller are biased against Trump. Mueller's team is probing Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election, including any connections between Trump's campaign team and Moscow.Image caption Hammersmith and Fulham council is charging personal trainers £350 per year to use its parks
A west London council has introduced a charge of £350 a year to fitness trainers who wish to use its parks.
The fee was introduced by Hammersmith and Fulham council in April, costing personal trainers £29 per month to use its 48 parks and open spaces.
The Tory council said this "would be recouped immediately, as most trainers charge about £50 per hour".
But Chrissie Gallagher-Mundy, director of London Academy of Personal Fitness, said: "It don't think it's fair."
"Shouldn't parks be free to the public? It will put the cost of training up for the people who use trainers.
"It's a step away from charging people to use roads to run on."
'Free ride'
The council said parks police would regularly be on patrol to check fitness instructors had the required licence.
Conservative councillor Greg Smith, cabinet member for residents' services, defended the fee, saying: "Taxpayers do not expect businesses who are trying to make money out of our parks to get a free ride on the back of their taxes and these businesses do need to pay for the necessary licence.
Meanwhile, Christine Melsom from the 'Is it fair' campaign to reform council tax, said the charges were "a bit mean".
"If people are running around, I really can't see how the council can install a tax like that.
"How many people will say they are friends rather than personal trainers?" she asked.
But a council spokeswoman said: "This is about ensuring residents using the park are safe, as there are issues surrounding insurance and liability should anyone be injured, and also the parks have to be maintained.
"If trainers were to hire space elsewhere in a club, for example, they would spend much more than if they bought a licence."
Meanwhile, the council has introduced a charge of £1,200 per year to large commercial sports organisations wishing to use its parks.On Sunday morning, the Chinese government launched the 23rd satellite in its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System—the Chinese equivalent of GPS—into orbit aboard a Long March-3C rocket. BeiDou has worked for a while on a regional level, but China has been racking up the launches recently. Each one is another step toward BeiDou having fully operational global coverage, something that only the United States and (kinda, sometimes, maybe) Russia have today. If it works, it could mean a new golden age of navigation. Unless it leads to global war.
BeiDou is already a a Regional Navigational Satellite System; India and Japan are working on their own regional systems, too. Completing the Chinese constellation would turn it into a Global Navigational Satellite System, joining the US (the familiar GPS), Russia (GLONASS), and the European Union (Galileo). Though each places satellites in slightly different orbits and at different altitudes, they all work on the same idea, providing global coverage with enough signal to allow devices on Earth to triangulate a precise location. GPS is accurate to within a meter.
The more satellites you have, the more precise and accurate the system. And you need a reliable satellite constellation because so much modern technology is location-enabled and dependent. GPS and its siblings are how airplanes and freighters navigate, how maps stay accurate on the move, how cell phones work. The modern global economy only works if it knows where it is in all three spatial dimensions.
A more philosophical dimension matters even more. "If you want acceptance, a system has to have more than precision and accuracy, it has to have integrity," says Brad Parkinson, a Stanford engineer and one of the inventors of GPS. "It has to operate within spec, and have some system of monitoring and publishing when it isn't." If a GPS satellite goes berserk, the FAA's Wide Area Augmentation System sends out an alarm within six seconds. WAAS, or something like it, could just as easily monitor Galileo, GLONASS, and even BeiDou, and then, technically, anyone could use any and all of the various networks. “If it’s there, and it’s working, why not use it?” says Parkinson. “Almost all modern smartphone receivers support GPS and GLONASS already.”
Actually, the US and China have been working towards GPS-BeiDou interoperability for years in fields like aviation. “If you can land a plane in pea soup fog conditions, that’s a pretty great thing,” says Tom Langenstein, Executive Director of the Stanford Center for Position, Navigation and Time. “China would like to be able to do that too. It’s kind of a nice area of cooperation between our countries.”
Granted, BeiDou hasn’t been totally cooperative and transparent. China launched several satellites before telling the engineering community what their signal structure was—somewhat pointlessly, considering Stanford researchers were able to figure it out in about day. But as Langenstein points out, if they fail to provide evidence of their accuracy and integrity, then their satellites simply won’t be used. GLONASS has had a lot of trouble keeping their satellites in working order, and is notably cagey about system failures, which to Parkinson’s mind keeps them in a vicious cycle of limited viability. So it’s likely that, if BeiDou is to succeed, it’s by being welcomed into the international GNSS club.
Ultimately, international use of BeiDou satellites is in China’s own interest. “GPS has been a major boon for the US economy for the last twenty years,” Langenstein says. “China wants some of that. If you want to fear that, you can. But China is the second largest economy in the world and getting larger. It would be far better to cooperate and work with them than try to find some way to fight them.”
It's that fighting part that could make BeiDou more scary than useful. "For the last several decades, satellites have been one of the signature elements of the US projecting as the sole remaining superpower. We can blow up anyone who looks at us cross-eyed," says John Pike, a prominent military analyst and director of GlobalSecurity.org. "This suggests that China has global ambitions. They've got superpower-style space systems, but they don't have the military to go with it." The US and China are already frenemies at best; a significant military advantage for the Chinese could jeopardize the relationship further.
On the other hand, an optimist might point out the opportunities here. "BeiDou would change the asymmetry of military power,” Parkinson says. “But I've been saying for years that our ground soldiers should have sets that pick up US, Russian, Chinese, and European signals, and a very rapid technique of letting that ground soldier know when not to use it—a military analogue of WAAS. You wouldn't be relying on foreign systems, but they'd enhance your mission when you know that they're working properly." BeiDou's ultimate direction might not be clear yet, but it's definitely headed there—fast.Kaushik Kannan By
Express News Service
MADURAI: Remember the Class XII boards scam in Bihar last year wherein the toppers hardly had any clue about their subjects? Something similar happened at the India Post recruitment examination for TN Postal Circle, if the version of some local aspirants is anything to go by.
They smelt a rat as several students from Haryana got high scores in the exams, shockingly, also in the Tamil language paper. Express managed to obtain the marksheets of two students, Dinesh and Rahul Kumar, both from Haryana who scored a jaw-dropping 24 and 22 in the Tamil paper respectively out of 25.
When Express tried reaching both of them, their phones were switched off. Suspecting forgery, more than 40 candidates submitted a petition to the district administration officials at the Madurai Collectorate on Thursday.
“The results for the exam for recruitment of Postman and Mail Guard were published on Tuesday. I saw my result and started to check the marks of candidates next to my number. I saw that several students from Haryana had scored high marks in Tamil paper, mostly above 20 out of 25. I was shocked and alerted my friends,” said one of the candidates on condition of anonymity.
“The Tamil paper was tough even for us whose mother tongue is Tamil and who studied it in school. I wonder how candidates from Haryana managed to get such high scores.”
Another student claimed he tried calling one of the toppers from Haryana, on the mobile number given in the mark sheet.
“I went to the website, typed his registration ID and got his phone number. I tried talking in English, but he couldn’t converse. Then I asked him if he knows Tamil, he responded in Hindi, saying mujhe Tamil malloom hai (I know Tamil).”
Senior officials in the postal department said they were unaware of the matter. ‘Yenna rascalaa?’ as SRK would say.The best Uber drivers are friendly, arrive on time, and know their way around the city. This one also knew how to belt out an opera classic.
A lucky passenger was treated to an inspiring rendition of "O Sole Mio" after calling an Uber on April 22, according to Newsflare Studio. The filmer, whose identity is unknown, was on his way to Toronto's Distillery District when the driver named Jaewoo asked if he could sing.
The filmer was pleasantly surprised — to say the least — by Jaewoo's powerful voice.
He posted a video of the awesome incident online, and described it as the "best ride ever."
Hopefully, he reciprocated with a 5-star rating.
Watch the video above for the incredible performance.
Follow The Huffington Post Canada on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Also on HuffPostOLYMPIA – Marijuana activists say 2012 is the year they have been waiting for.
Citing growing national support for marijuana legalization, activists appear confident that young voters, their key demographic, will turn out to support a reform measure -- or measures.
The potential problem: activists continue to dispute how laws for recreational and medical use should be changed. So far, several competing initiative campaigns have emerged.
One measure is already headed for the November ballot. Initiative 502 has gathered enough signatures.
The initiative would make Washington the first state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana for adults 21 and older. The caveat: any use of the drug would still be considered illegal under federal law.
Under the initiative, adults 21 and older could possess no more than an ounce of dried marijuana, 72 ounces of liquids containing marijuana, or 1 pound of a solid product infused with marijuana, such as brownies or cookies.
The measure would not change Washington's medical marijuana law, which allows doctors to recommend but not prescribe the drug to treat intense chronic pain and complications related to cancer and a number of other diseases. But proponents say the initiative would create new arrest protections for patients seeking medical marijuana.
A private chain of supply regulated by the state would be set up under the initiative. It would create a license system for growers, processors and retailers who would pay a 25 percent excise tax on their sales to raise revenue for substance-abuse prevention, research, health care and education. The Liquor Control Board would be in charge of regulation and licensing.
"I-502 would be a more comprehensive response to our state's marijuana laws," said Campaign Director Alison Holcomb, comparing the initiative to other marijuana measures.
Holcomb's initiative rivals disagree. An alternative measure called the "Cannabis Child Protection Act" was recently filed with the Secretary of State's Office. Proponents call the measure a more reasonable alternative to I-502.
"It doesn't harm the public in the way that I-502 would," said campaign spokesman Don Skakie.
Skakie sees a number of shortcomings for marijuana users under the I-502 plan.
Perhaps the most glaring problem, Skakie said, is the limit I-502 would impose on the concentration of THC -- the drug's active chemical substance -- in a driver's bloodstream. That limit would be 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood.
Heavier users have a higher tolerance and can drive just fine under levels beyond the limit established in I-502, he said. In contrast, Skakie said the initiative he backs would not establish a limit for THC levels in a driver's bloodstream.
"There's no per-se limit because there's no science to back it," he said.
The "Cannabis Child Protection Act" would allow adults 21 or older to grow or possess marijuana at home for medical or recreational use. Anyone younger than that would be barred from access to the drug except for medical or spiritual use with the approval of the person's parent or guardian.
"There's no age limit on health," Skakie said.
Modeling marijuana policy after laws regarding alcohol possession, the initiative imposes no limitations on how much marijuana a person 21 or older could possess.
It also creates a series of graduated misdemeanor penalties for minors in unlawful possession of marijuana. Holcomb said she suspects this would find hard opposition from voters.
"Philosophically, I don't think anyone should be treated as a criminal for using marijuana," she said. But she added that voters would be concerned that the graduated system would open the door for greater risk of marijuana use among youth.
Going in a different direction, Mimi Meiwes, a former registered nurse, also recently filed a counter-initiative to I-502 called the "Safe Cannabis Act."
Meiwes's initiative focuses only on medical marijuana by decriminalizing the drug for patients, providing them and health care providers with arrest protections related to the use of medical marijuana.
"People's health should come first," she said.
Meiwes suffers from chronic nausea and vomiting as a complication of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), a disease that causes kidney failure. Medical marijuana settles her system enough to let her eat. However, being on the drug prevents her from getting the critical kidney transplant she needs to survive, she said.
"Basically, I'm going to die because I'm a cannabis patient," Meiwes said.
But the initiative could be a life saver for people like her, Meiwes said. In addition, it would also create a legal separation between marijuana and hemp to redefine hemp as an agricultural product.
Another initiative called the "Medical Cannabis Reform and Control Act" was recently filed by former Seattle Weekly contributor Philip Dawdy, a co-author of the initiative.
His measure would create a state-licensed system of private medical marijuana growers and cooperatives to sell medical cannabis. Dawdy said the initiative is not meant to compete with I-502.
State laws on medical marijuana access and arrest protection for medical marijuana patients are unclear, Dawdy said. The initiative will clarify the laws to ensure that the federal government will see that medical cannabis users in the state are following state law, he said. However, the ultimate solution is for the federal government to reclassify marijuana as a drug with accepted medical use.
These last three initiatives are still early in the process, but signature gathering should begin soon.
Dawdy said he is unsure whether his will pick up enough support to go on the ballot. If it does, he has some concerns about how successful it would be if juxtaposed with one or more other marijuana initiatives.
"Traditionally, when you have two loosely related initiatives on the ballot at once, they tend to pull each other down," Dawdy said.
If more than one of the initiatives goes on the ballot and passes in November, the final decision on which one would become law would be settled in court or in the Legislature by a two-thirds vote of support for one of the measures, said David Ammons, the communications director for the Secretary of State's office.
To get their initiatives on the ballot, sponsors need to submit at least 241,153 signatures from registered voters by July 6.
-- Justin RunquistTop counter terror officers of Bangladesh managed to foil an assassination attempt on their Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the nick of time last month with the help of her loyalists bodyguard, according to a CNN-News18 report by Subir Bhaumik and Manoj Gupta.
Six to seven personnel from Hasina’s security detail were supposed to gun her down on the evening of 24 August as soon as she came out of her meeting for an evening walk. The attack was being coordinated with Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militants “who were supposed to trigger a series of blasts around Hasina’s office to divert the attention of the other security guards, and to provide an escape route to the assassins.”
However, the sinister plan was nipped in the bud thanks to efforts of a joint team of Indian and Bangladeshi intelligence officers. They intercepted the communication between JMB militants and the bodyguards of Hasina who were entrusted with the job of killing her. This was designed exactly how Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination was carried out by her own bodyguards.
Advertisement
The CNN-News18 reports quotes top Bangladeshi intelligence officials who suspect Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to be the main mastermind of the attack. “It all began when ISI’s Brigadier Ashfaq, in-charge of eastern operations, met a top opposition leader from Bangladesh in London two months ago,” the report quotes one of the officials in Dhaka as saying. Two major general-level officers of Special Security Force (SSF) - agency which is entrusted with security of the prime minister - are also said to have met the same opposition leader in London.
The calls intercepted by Bangladeshi agencies have unearthed ISI’s plan of creating widespread disturbances along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border and in areas where Rohingya refugees are being kept.
“Indian and Bangladeshi intelligence agencies had earlier intercepted communications between ISI’s Brigadier Ashfaq and Hafiz Tohar, chief of the military wing of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a group that is said to be carrying out attacks in the interests of the Rohingya refugees,” the CNN-News18 reported. “In these tapes, Ashfaq is heard asking Tohar to mount multiple attacks on Burmese security forces right after former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan had presented the Rakhine Commission report to Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar president Htin Kyaw on August 24,” the report added.I will be posting a series of poems on melancholy, a state of being that I know all too well.
I’m clinically depressed
Maniacally distressed
Under immense duress
Refusing to impress
Anyone that I hate
Displeased with my fate
I’m always late
With coming to sedate
I’m all alone
Living on my own
With a life that hasn’t shown
Anything worthy of being known
There’s no special someone
Just a little bit of some fun
Mixed with vodka in the sun
I’m just a useless son
It’s not my job to please,
But to roam like a disease
Get by with ease
Till my lungs cease
I’m trying my best
To not give up on this test
The life I have at my behest
Is a journey I must quest
Not sure about my skill
In the art of creating a thrill
But I be sure to kill
All those who stand still
Against me
Until they stop to see
That all I seek to be
Is fulfilled and free
Written by Mensur Gjonbalaj
February 28, 2013
AdvertisementsDestiny Player Gets Touching Gift From Bungie Following Brain Surgery By Pete Haas Random Article Blend
The player in question, Eric, has undergone seven brain surgeries in the past 11 months, according to a
"We knew in advance his memory would be heavily effected, and it has been," she said. "For a while he didn't know me, and he only sometimes knew who he was. Right as he was starting to have things back together, he developed an infection. I spent the first week of Queens Wrath playing on a Vita in his hospital room, while he had two more surgeries to remove infected matter and give him a titanium plate-- a goodly sized piece of his skull was too infected to try and save. No worries there, he thinks having a titanium plate is awesome."
Eric mentioned to his neurologist that he was looking forward to playing Destiny once the surgeries were done. His doctor, surprisingly enough, recommended the game as a way to help him recover from the surgeries.
"It's been a little over a week, and the games effect on him has been so strong. Weak for months, he is flourishing in more than just the game world. He has been going out more, doing chores, making jokes. The effect of playing the game on his mood has been almost staggering."
She mentioned that Eric's been having difficulties with the game's first raid, Vault of Glass. In response, many players on /r/destinythegame offered to join him on a Vault run. The couple was also contacted by Bungie community manager David Dague, who informed them that a care package was waiting for him in Destiny.
The gift was
"Vision of Confluence had been my husbands dream weapon, as scout is his favorite and he wanted that solar damage," Eric's wife said in her follow-up Only one Destiny player in the world has the rifle Fate of All Fools. The gun was given to him by the development team this morning.The player in question, Eric, has undergone seven brain surgeries in the past 11 months, according to a Reddit post by his wife yesterday."We knew in advance his memory would be heavily effected, and it has been," she said. "For a while he didn't know me, and he only sometimes knew who he was. Right as he was starting to have things back together, he developed an infection. I spent the first week of Queens Wrath playing on a Vita in his hospital room, while he had two more surgeries to remove infected matter and give him a titanium plate-- a goodly sized piece of his skull was too infected to try and save. No worries there, he thinks having a titanium plate is awesome."Eric mentioned to his neurologist that he was looking forward to playingonce the surgeries were done. His doctor, surprisingly enough, recommended the game as a way to help him recover from the surgeries."It's been a little over a week, and the games effect on him has been so strong. Weak for months, he is flourishing in more than just the game world. He has been going out more, doing chores, making jokes. The effect of playing the game on his mood has been almost staggering."She mentioned that Eric's been having difficulties with the game's first raid, Vault of Glass. In response, many players on /r/destinythegame offered to join him on a Vault run. The couple was also contacted by Bungie community manager David Dague, who informed them that a care package was waiting for him inThe gift was Fate of All Fools, a gun that isn't otherwise available in the game yet. It's an Exotic scout rifle that causes Solar damage. Successful body shots with the weapon increase the damage of headshots. Its stability increases as you deal damage as well. The gun will presumably be released to other players in the near future, either through a public event or the first expansion pack "Vision of Confluence had been my husbands dream weapon, as scout is his favorite and he wanted that solar damage," Eric's wife said in her follow-up Reddit post today. "A more perfect weapon could not have been chosen. I'm so jealous, but mostly so damn happy for him. As for him-- well, you can imagine." Blended From Around The Web Facebook
Back to topSuper Bowl commercials are no longer merely filler between the plays. Oreo, Doritos and the rest of the Super advertisers all may have felt like they had as much on the line as the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers when Super Bowl XLVII kicked off.
The trend of early releases and teases continued this year, with Kate Upton RSVPing to your Super Bowl party days before the Harbaugh brothers arrived at the Superdome on Sunday. Despite getting a sneak peek at several ads, Super Bowl viewers eagerly turned their attention -- and Twitter commentary -- toward the television at each stoppage in play yet again this year.
Speaking of stoppages, Super Bowl XLVII contained one far stranger than anything the ad mavens could have conjured: a power outage at the Superdome. Despite a spirited post-blackout surge from the 49ers, the Ravens held on for a thrilling 34-31 win. But aside from John Harbaugh and the Ravens, who were the other big winners of the night?
Budweiser's baby Clydesdale drew plenty of ahhhhhs, Deion Sanders got a few laughs and GoDaddy did what GoDaddy does. As usual, the reactions were decidedly mixed. At the other end of the spectrum, Chrysler's ad for Ram pickups trucks doubled as an homage to the American farmer.
What was the most memorable ad of 2013? How does it stack up against the all-time greats? Anything grab your attention for the wrong reasons?At the appropriate range of relative humidity and temperature, perchlorates (ClO 4 −) deliquesce into the aqueous phase creating brines (that is, solutions of salt in water) that are stable in the liquid state. Deliquescence6,7 occurs when, simultaneously, the ambient relative humidity (RH) is above the deliquescent relative humidity (DRH) of the deliquescent salt and the ambient temperature (T) is above the eutectic temperature (T e ) of the resulting solution. The stability of transient aqueous salt solutions on Mars was first postulated in the 1960s10, and has been inferred from indirect observations at polar and near-polar regions7,11. The present-day activity of equatorial recurring slope lineae has been attributed to seasonal flow of brines2 (Supplementary Fig. 1). Nevertheless, on the basis of the large-scale predictions of global circulation models (GCMs) and the remote-sensing large-scale observation of RH and T, it is believed that deliquescence conditions could be theoretically reached on the surface of Mars only poleward of ±60° and only during the northern spring11,12 (when the water vapour content of the martian atmosphere peaks13). Transiently stable liquid water in the form of brines was unexpected at an equatorial region11 such as Gale (4.6° S, 137.4° E, at 4.5 km below the datum), where the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) landed and has been operating since 6 August 2012.
However, here we show that the RH, air temperature (T a ) and ground temperature (T g ) observations at Gale by the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station14 (REMS) on the Curiosity rover at the MSL mission15 are compatible with the presence of liquid brines during night time due to the increased RH associated with night-time lower ambient temperatures. Figure 1a shows the diurnal variation of the ground relative humidity and temperature (RH g and T g ) for the sols (Martian days) corresponding to the beginning of each season: Ls = 90 (winter), 180 (spring), 270 (summer) and 360 (autumn). When one full martian year is analysed and compared with the phase diagram of Ca-perchlorate, the diurnal variation crosses at night time the boundary of liquid stability (REMS corresponding measurement data set shown in cyan) allowing for transient liquid stability at the ground surface (see Fig. 1b, and the diurnal cycle in Supplementary Figs 2 and 3). As shown in Supplementary Fig. 4, the local diurnal cycle also allows for transient liquid water stability in the uppermost 5 cm of the subsurface at night time during the full winter season. These conditions allowing for transient liquid water are not compatible with the known requirements for replication and metabolism of terrestrial microorganisms8; see Fig. 1b, where the phase diagram of Ca-perchlorate6 is compared with the evolution of the (night time) minimum T g and maximum RH g (expressed as water activity (a.w.), which in equilibrium with the atmosphere is equal to the RH divided by 100). The diurnal maximum and minimum ground surface temperatures (T g max and T g min) measured by REMS throughout the mission and the diurnal range of modelled subsurface temperatures at a depth of 15 cm (T −15 cm ) are shown in Fig. 2a. A fully coupled heat and mass transfer model assuming a constant thermal inertia has been used to estimate the diurnal subsurface temperature profile and water activity16, based on REMS data. In parallel, a simplified subsurface model has been used to derive the mean diurnal T −15 cm (as extrapolation of the measured diurnal ground surface temperatures) accounting for the site-to-site variation of thermal inertia. At a depth of 15 cm and throughout all of the year and at all of the sites visited by Curiosity, the subsurface temperature (T −15 cm ) is below the known temperature requirements for replication and metabolism of terrestrial microbial life forms (Fig. 2a).
Figure 1: Ground relative humidity, water activity and temperature at Gale crater and aqueous Ca(ClO 4 ) 2 stability conditions. a, Measured diurnal variation of RH g and T g at Ls = 90 (inset, LMST is indicated in colour scale), compared with a GCM simulation at 5 m (cyan curves in inset), and Ls = 180, 270 and 360 measurements. Error bars indicate either instrument error or derived magnitude error (see Supplementary Information). b, Phase diagram of Ca-perchlorate indicating the conditions where liquid brines, ⋅8H 2 O, ⋅4H 2 O and dehydrated (close to a.w. = 0 axis) states are formed. Annual measured variation of daily a.w. g max (and T g min; Ls is indicated in colour coding) and measured environmental conditions that match stability liquid conditions (dots in cyan) are shown. The dotted red line indicates the transition between different hydration states. Full size image
Figure 2: Surface and subsurface temperatures, night-time H 2 O VMR and air temperature. a, During a few hours every day, the surface is above the thermal threshold for microbial replication; however, at these hours the RH g (and a.w. g ) is 0. T −15 cm is so low that it goes below the threshold of replication and even of metabolism of known terrestrial microorganisms8. TI, thermal inertia. b, The sudden increase in H 2 O VMR as the rover leaves the sand areas, shaded in grey, is consistent with the existence of a local exchange of H 2 O between the soil and atmosphere. Dashed lines indicate the transition between seasons. Full size image
Although the Phoenix lander provided data for late spring and early to mid summer17,18, REMS measured for the first time the RH near the surface (1.6 m above the surface) for a full martian year, providing for the first time in situ characterization of the full diurnal (Supplementary Fig. 2 and Fig. 1a) and seasonal (Figs 1b and 2b and Supplementary Fig. 5) cycles of water on the martian surface19. The Curiosity rover of the MSL mission landed at 15:03 local mean solar time (LMST) on Mars (6 August 2012, 05:18 UTC spacecraft event time), at the end of the local winter (Ls = 150.7), and after 2 Earth years of operation a new winter season has started at Gale. Figure 1a shows a repetitive diurnal cadence in RH and T, and Supplementary Fig. 5 shows its evolution through seasons. It is in agreement with past mission models11 and with the profile expected by GCM simulations for the lowest boundary-layer height of the models (at 5 m; ref. 20; see Fig. 1a inset). On a seasonal scale, these curves vary according to the planetary circulation of atmospheric water vapour with minimum RH in summer and maxima in winter (Supplementary Fig. 5). The sudden local water volume mixing ratio (VMR) decrement when the rover crosses a sand-covered area indicates a variation in the amount of water in the near surface that depends on the properties of the soil (see Fig. 2b).
Below 15 cm, the subsurface conditions are compatible with the existence of permanently hydrated perchlorates (Fig. 3a), which, owing to the low mean temperatures and the small diurnal and seasonal variations, are stable throughout the day and during all of the seasons at Gale crater. An analysis of the time stamp (in LMST and Ls) of the coexisting (T, RH) conditions that match the liquid state of Ca-perchlorate, at the surface (0 cm) and at 5 cm below the surface (−5 cm) respectively, indicates that liquid Ca-perchlorate brines are stable in the uppermost 5 cm during winter from sunset to sunrise and during the rest of the year for shorter windows of time, showing the expected Ls-time dependences (Fig. 3b). The upper layers of the regolith show such a large diurnal and seasonal thermal variation (and correspondingly a large RH variation) that the a.w. and T conditions cross several boundaries of Ca-perchlorate hydration states allowing for an active soil–atmosphere water exchange process on diurnal and seasonal timescales. Supplementary Fig. 6 shows that the daytime conditions are so dry at the uppermost centimetre of the subsurface that perchlorates and other salts or hydrated phases within these depths shall lose the water absorbed at night time. We therefore expect the upper layer of the ground to be drier in the daytime than the perennially hydrated lower layer.
Figure 3: Perennial hydration of subsurface Ca-perchlorate as ⋅ 4H 2 O (and ⋅ |
the Late Devonian “Mass Extinction”
Alycia L. Stigall1* 1 Dept. of Geological Sciences and Ohio Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA
Abstract The Late Devonian (Frasnian-Famennian) interval includes one of the most dramatic intervals of biotic turnover in the Phanerozoic. Statistical evaluation of diversity change reveals that the primary cause of biodiversity decline was reduced speciation during the crisis interval, not elevated extinction rates. Although various hypotheses have been proposed to explain extinction increase during the Late Devonian, potential causes for reduced speciation have previously been largely unaddressed. Recent analyses focusing on biogeographic and phylogenetic patterns of species in shallow marine ecosystems of Laurentia indicate that a dramatic increase in interbasinal species invasions, facilitated by transgressive pulses, fundamentally affected biodiversity by enabling range expansion of ecological generalists and eliminating vicariance, the primary pathway by which new species typically form. Modern species invasions may result in similar speciation loss, exacerbating the current biodiversity crisis. *E-mails: Manuscript received 18 May 2011; accepted 3 Nov. 2011. DOI: 10.1130/G128A.1
Introduction
A dramatic interval of biodiversity loss and ecosystem reorganization occurred at the boundary between the Frasnian and Famennian stages of the Late Devonian Period (ca. 375 Ma). This event was originally considered to rank among the “Big Five” mass extinction events in the Phanerozoic (Raup and Sepkoski, 1982), and it is still listed as the “Frasnian-Famennian Mass Extinction” in most introductory and historical geology textbooks. The designation of “mass extinction,” however, is misleading because the Frasnian extinction rate was neither elevated relative to the Middle Devonian nor statistically higher than the background rate of extinction throughout the Phanerozoic (Bambach et al., 2004; Alroy, 2008). Rather, an anomalously low rate of speciation, the origination of new species, was the primary cause of this decline in biodiversity (Bambach et al., 2004).
Global standing biodiversity is controlled equally by the number of new species forming and the number of species becoming extinct during an interval. All episodes of biodiversity loss require that extinction rate exceeds speciation rate. For an event to be classified as bona fide mass extinction, however, the extinction rate of the crisis interval must statistically exceed both the background extinction rate of the Phanerozoic and be elevated above that of the adjacent stages. Biodiversity crises occur when speciation rates have a statistically significant decline compared to the background rate while extinction rates remain within the limits of statistical normal. Reduced speciation rate combined with slightly elevated extinction levels can result in a dramatic biodiversity crisis, and this is what transpired during the Late Devonian. The Frasnian-Famennian event is, therefore, better termed a “biodiversity crisis” than a “mass extinction.”
The shift in status of the Frasnian-Famennian event from a “mass extinction” to a “biodiversity crisis” does not imply a reduction in the severity of the effects on global ecosystems. In fact, the level of marine ecosystem reorganization that occurred during the Late Devonian, including a fundamental collapse of the reef ecosystem, is second only to the Permo-Triassic mass extinction (McGhee et al., 2004). The Middle Devonian included the most geographically widespread metazoan reef ecosystem in Earth’s history, but its extent was reduced by a factor of 5000 following the crisis interval (Copper, 1994). Other biotic changes included the spread of cosmopolitan species facilitated by rampant species invasions documented across many clades (reviewed in McGhee, 1996).
A series of local and global environmental changes occurred coincident with biotic overturn. These included changes related to the development of complex forest ecosystems on land, such as eutrophication and alteration of terrestrial weathering patterns (Algeo and Scheckler, 1998), high frequency sea-level changes (ver Straeten et al., 2011), widespread anoxia events (Buggisch and Joachimski, 2006), overall warming of the global oceans (van Geldern et al., 2006), and pulses of enhanced carbon burial that resulted in rapid cooling events at the Frasnian-Famennian boundary (van Geldern et al., 2006; also see reviews in McGhee, 1996, 2005; Racki, 2005). Most of these environmental factors (and various combinations of them) have been proposed as drivers for the “mass extinction.” Theoretically, abrupt or even gradual changes in environmental conditions could result in increased extinction of species because extinction occurs when members of a species can no longer cope with changing environmental conditions (abiotic or biotic) and population size decreases to zero. These environmental factors are undoubtedly involved with ecosystem degradation and certainly contributed to the observed elevation of extinction levels.
None of these abiotic changes, however, supply a satisfactory explanation for speciation collapse because they do not directly impact the speciation process. In order to better understand the ecological crisis during the Late Devonian, the mechanisms of speciation decline must be examined. A speciation event is a unique episode in geologic time that transpired at a discrete geographic location within a specific lineage of organisms. Identifying causal factors for speciation decline requires both a detailed temporal and geographic framework and robust hypotheses of ancestor-descendant relationships (Benton and Pearson, 2001). This type of detail is only available in clades for which species-level phylogenetic hypotheses have been generated. Therefore, speciation analysis requires a fundamentally different and more detailed dataset than analyses of potential extinction mechanisms. Although the significance of speciation reduction during this interval has been known for more than 25 years (McGhee, 1984), sufficiently resolved phylogenetic data have only recently become available to assess changes in speciation mode across the Middle to Late Devonian interval. Significantly, recent analyses discussed herein indicate that the widespread extra-basinal migrations of species (analogous to modern invasive species) during the Late Devonian facilitated speciation decline by preventing geographic isolation, the primary process by which new species arise.
Origination and Speciation Rate Analyses
The importance of reduced origination in driving Frasnian diversity decline was first recognized by McGhee (1984) from analyses of genera of articulate brachiopods from Catskill delta complex of eastern North America and from the Ural Mountains. Subsequent analyses (e.g., Foote, 1994; Bambach et al., 2004; Alroy, 2008) using stratigraphic range data for marine invertebrate families and genera culled from global compendia confirmed that reduced origination was the primary driver of biodiversity collapse (Fig. 1A). Certainly, patterns of biodiversity change were not congruent across all clades. Some previously prolific clades, such as the atrypid brachiopods, experienced high extinction rates, while other clades, including the crinoids, radiated to effect a pronounced change in post-crisis shallow marine ecosystems (see discussion in Racki, 2005). However, the general pattern of depressed origination—but only moderately elevated extinction rates—documented in cross-faunal database analyses is robust to variations in sampling procedures, rate metric used, taxonomic level (family vs. genus) analyzed, or database employed (Foote, 1994; Bambach et al., 2004; Alroy, 2008). This supports depressed origination as a primary driver of Late Devonian biodiversity loss.
From a biological standpoint, the most appropriate taxonomic level to assess reduced origination is the species level. Species are biological entities that are defined by attributes related to reproductive cohesion in both time and space (deQueiroz, 2007). Therefore, analysis of origination at the species level equates to examination of actual biological processes, whereas generic and familial analyses are increasingly distant proxies. Species-level phylogenetic hypotheses, which include an evolutionary framework to constrain timing of speciation events, are necessary to calculate the most accurate speciation rates (Smith, 1994). Unfortunately, very few species-level phylogenies have been published with substage temporal resolution for Late Devonian clades (e.g., Rode, 2004; Stigall Rode, 2005).
Stigall (2010a) utilized recently published species-level phylogenetic hypotheses of Rode (2004) and Stigall Rode (2005) for three Late Devonian clades (two articulated brachiopod genera and one bivalve subgenus), primarily from North America, to examine whether reduced origination was also significant at the species level. These clades serve as a reasonable proxy for shallow marine biota of Laurentia because these monophyletic lineages had excellent preservation potential, include common members of the shallow marine benthos, and their combined fifty species inhabited the full suite of nearshore to offshore marine environments. Results are consistent with the earlier analyses based on higher taxa (Fig. 1B). Overall biodiversity plummeted during the Frasnian crisis interval, and this change was driven primarily by speciation loss (Stigall, 2010a). Late Frasnian extinction rates, while moderately elevated, do not exceed pre-crisis levels for any clade and are not statistically higher during the crisis interval than the average value for each rate over the duration of the clade (Stigall, 2010a).
The combination of species, generic, and family-level analyses firmly establishes the loss of speciation as a fundamental driver for biodiversity loss during the Late Devonian, at least among shallow marine taxa where the crisis was most pronounced. Examining the process of speciation and the factors that promote or hinder that process is, therefore, required to identify causal factors for the crisis.
Speciation Mode Analysis
Investigating the cause of speciation collapse during the Late Devonian first requires determining which speciation mechanisms were compromised during the crisis interval. Speciation requires a group of organisms to become reproductively isolated from its ancestral population in order to establish a new biological entity. This isolation typically occurs via either geographic separation of the incipient species from the ancestral population (allopatric speciation) or via shifts in reproductive timing or chromosomal count within the same geographic space as the ancestor (sympatric speciation) (Mayr, 1963). Sympatric speciation is commonly undetectable in the fossil record, but allopatric speciation is perceptible because it typically results in morphological shifts as incipient species adapt to environmental conditions that differ from those of the ancestral range. Allopatric speciation occurs via two primary mechanisms: vicariance and dispersal, which are characterized by discrete biogeographic patterns related to the geographic range of daughter species relative to the ancestral population (Fig. 2) (Wiley and Mayden, 1985). Thus, it is possible to identify speciation events of each type in fossil taxa where evolutionary relationships are known and ancestral ranges can be inferred (Lieberman, 2000) (Fig. 3).
To assess speciation mode during the Late Devonian, Stigall (2010a) conducted a biogeographic analysis on species-level phylogenetic hypotheses of four common groups of Devonian marine organisms: an order of predatory crustaceans, one bivalve genus, and two brachiopod genera, published in Rode and Lieberman (2002), Rode (2004), and Stigall Rode (2005), respectively. This cross-phyla analysis included common taxa within both the sessile benthos and pelagic predator guilds and, thus, is a reasonable proxy for faunal dynamics in shallow marine environments of Laurentia. Speciation by vicariance was limited relative to speciation by dispersal in each of these clades, ranging from only 12% to 50% of quantifiable speciation events, for a combined rate of 28% speciation by vicariance versus 72% speciation by dispersal. Similar analyses of the modern biota have demonstrated vicariance to be the dominant form of speciation by a factor of almost 3 to 1 (Brooks and McLennan, 2002), and analyses of speciation mode conducted for other Paleozoic intervals (reviewed in Stigall, 2010a) have always recovered higher frequencies of speciation by vicariance versus dispersal (Table 1).
Speciation mode during the Late Devonian is evidently different from the typical pattern in Earth history. This incongruity provides the framework for a mechanistic explanation for speciation decline during the crisis interval. During the Late Devonian, vicariance, normally the most prevalent style of speciation, was essentially extinguished. In fact, each of the few vicariance events present in the clades analyzed precede the late Frasnian crisis interval (Stigall, 2010a). Speciation by dispersal, although still operational during the crisis interval, typically occurred at a lower rate and accordingly resulted in few Late Devonian speciation events. Therefore, elimination of the dominant mode of speciation led to the dramatic reduction in speciation rate, and consequently biodiversity, at the end of the Frasnian.
The differential loss of speciation type provides a foundation against which to analyze causes of biodiversity decline. Satisfactory causes for biodiversity collapse must be able to explain both the lack of vicariant speciation and the slight elevation in extinction rates. Abiotic explanations alone, such as global cooling or basin anoxia, do not provide adequate explanations for the differential reduction in vicariance compared to speciation by dispersal; however, biotic factors, such as the spread of invasive species, potentially could.
Invasive Species During the Late Devonian
Extensive interbasinal species migrations have been documented in many clades during the Frasnian (reviewed in McGhee, 1996). These migrations are characterized by the dispersal of a species native to one tectonic basin into a second tectonic basin outside its original geographic range (Fig. 4). Because these species establish secondary populations in ecosystems in which they did not evolve, they are analogous to modern invasive species (Vermeij, 2005; Stigall, 2010b). Species migrations have occurred throughout geologic time; however, most episodes of biotic exchange are limited to a localized dispersal pathway (e.g., Great American Biotic Interchange; see review in Vermeij, 2005). During the Late Devonian, species introductions were rampant on a global scale.
The impact of these Late Devonian invasions was quantified by Rode and Lieberman (2004) using Geographic Information Systems–based analyses to calculate geographic ranges and map invasion events in more than 300 Middle and Late Devonian articulate brachiopod and bivalve species of Laurentia. Species ranges were mapped at conodont zone resolution to produce a high-precision temporal framework for identifying invasion events (Fig. 5). A substantial increase in invasion intensity occurred coincident with the decline in speciation during the Frasnian; 68% of all identified invasion events occurred in the Frasnian. Rapid transgressions provided pathways for species dispersal; 65% of Frasnian invasion events correlate with transgressive events. Additionally, the mean size of both native and invasive species’ geographic ranges increased during the Frasnian (Rode and Lieberman, 2004). Moreover, species with larger geographic ranges, an episode of interbasinal invasion in their history, and/or expansion of their geographic ranges during the late Frasnian survived into the Famennian at statistically higher rates than non-invasive species with narrow geographic ranges (Rode and Lieberman, 2004; Stigall Rode and Lieberman, 2005).
These species invasions, facilitated by sea-level changes, could have caused the observed reduction in speciation coupled with moderately elevated extinction. The combination of overall range expansion and frequent invasive events would have prohibited sustained geographic isolation, thereby impeding the primary requirement for vicariant speciation, as well as hindered the successful development of migrant populations into new species, thus restricting speciation by dispersal. The preferential extinction of species with small geographic ranges could have produced the observed elevation of extinction levels.
Synthesizing Invasive Species Effects, Ecology, and Speciation
The results of speciation and biogeographic analyses provide a framework in which to examine the mechanisms that reduced speciation and slightly elevated extinction rates during the Late Devonian Biodiversity Crisis. In particular, three features—differential extinction of narrowly ranging species, impact of invaders on native species, and macroevolutionary differences between ecological generalist and specialist species—are critical for explaining biodiversity decline.
A striking feature of the Late Devonian biogeographic pattern is the differential survival of species with large geographic ranges. Species with larger geographic ranges tend, on average, to have broader ecological tolerances than those with small ranges (Jackson, 1974; Fernández and Vrba, 2005). Ecological specialists are confined in terms of both their habitat preferences and the geographic region where those conditions occur (Stanley, 1979). Conversely, ecological generalists can successfully utilize a wider set of environmental conditions, which typically allows them to occupy larger geographic areas. Thus, although Middle Devonian biotas included both ecological specialists and generalists, most native species that survived the crisis had large geographic ranges (Rode and Lieberman, 2004) and were presumably ecological generalists.
Furthermore, Devonian invaders were dominantly, if not exclusively, ecological generalists. Modern invasive species are characterized by broad environmental tolerances, which contribute to their ability to survive during both the transport and establishment phases of invasion (Lockwood et al., 2007). Devonian invaders were likely similar, because ecological niches of Devonian invaders must have been sufficiently broad to allow colonization of both the invasion pathway and the new tectonic basin. Consequently, the arrival of the Devonian invaders into new tectonic basins effectively resulted in an influx of new ecological generalists into the ecosystem. Studies of modern and Cenozoic invasive species have demonstrated that invader species regularly displace native species through higher resource efficiency (Johansson, 2007) or competitive ability (Vermeij, 2005). Similar processes operating during the Late Devonian would have caused differential extinction of narrowly ranging ecological specialist species. This resulted in elevated extinction rates and a proportional increase of broad ranging ecological generalists versus geographically restricted specialists in the biota.
Clades of ecological generalists tend to have lower speciation rates and contain fewer species relative to specialist lineages (Vrba, 1987; Eldredge, 1989). This discrepancy relates to the mechanics of the allopatric speciation process. If a group of specialists undergoes vicariance, it will likely be exposed to environmental conditions that differ in some way from their ancestral range, and the population must either adapt to those conditions or become extinct. On the other hand, generalists are more likely to be pre-adapted via their broad ecological niche to the new set of conditions encountered so that no adaptive change is required. Consequently, specialist lineages experience both higher speciation and extinction rates than ecological generalists.
The differential extinction of native specialist species during the Late Devonian reduced the potential ancestral species pool from which new specialist species could evolve, which resulted in speciation depression. Furthermore, native and invasive generalist lineages would have had few opportunities to speciate as expansion of geographic ranges facilitated by sea-level rise prevented effective long-term vicariance from ancestral populations. Rather, incipient generalist species were more likely to be subsumed as a geographic extension of the expanding ancestral species than to develop into new species. This combination of preferential extinction of specialist species and expansion of the geographic ranges of generalist species (native and invasive) facilitated the dramatic speciation reduction of the Late Devonian.
This pattern of differential survival, range expansion, and speciation occurred within the most common components of the Late Devonian shallow marine ecosystem but may not be transferable to all marine clades or other environments. Central to this argument is the frequency of range expansion among native generalist species and the introduction of invaders resulting in competitive interactions on the seafloor. Continental ecosystems, including both terrestrial and freshwater habitats, and marine taxa potentially less amenable to these processes did not experience the same level of biodiversity loss during the Late Devonian (reviewed in McGhee, 1996).
Conclusions
The Late Devonian Biodiversity Crisis was one of the most significant intervals of biodiversity loss and faunal overturn during the Phanerozoic. Unlike “true” mass-extinction events, such as the Late Permian and End Cretaceous events, the primary driver of biodiversity loss was a severe reduction in speciation rate, not substantially elevated levels of extinction. Purely abiotic explanations for biodiversity loss during the Late Devonian fail to provide a complete explanation for the biodiversity crisis. Shifts in Late Devonian biogeographic patterns were driven by range expansion of generalist taxa within basins and rampant species invasions between basins associated with transgressive events. These shifts provide a mechanistic explanation for the reduction in speciation during the crisis interval, particularly speciation by vicariance.
The central role of invasive species in mediating biodiversity decline during that Late Devonian Biodiversity Crisis parallels aspects of modern biodiversity crisis affecting our planet. The primary drivers of the current biodiversity crisis are habitat destruction, climate change, and the spread of invasive species (Thuiller, 2007). The current rate of biodiversity loss is as high as or higher than during any interval in the Phanerozoic (Barnosky et al., 2011). The impacts of habitat degradation and climatic change have long been analyzed within the context of geologic time and are known to cause substantial elevation of extinction rates. Comparison with the Late Devonian interval suggests that the modern influx of invasive species will result in substantially reduced speciation rates. The modern combination of habitat destruction coupled with species introductions is, therefore, likely to result in total biodiversity loss that may be even greater than that experienced during the Late Permian coupled with an extensive recovery interval due to speciation depression. These implications highlight the need for conservation efforts to target specialist taxa for protection in addition to preventing species introductions and preserving habitat.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Peter Harries, Bernard Housen, and three anonymous reviewers for constructive reviews and to Damian Nance for the invitation to submit this paper to GSA Today. This research was supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant EAR-0922067 and a grant from donors to the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund.
REFERENCES CITED
Algeo, T.J., and Scheckler, S.E., 1998, Terrestrial-marine teleconnections in the Devonian: Links between the evolution of land plants, weathering processes and anoxic events: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, v. 353, p. 113–130. Alroy, J., 2008, Dynamics of origination and extinction in the marine fossil record: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, v. 105, p. 11,536–11,542. Bambach, R.K., Knoll, A.J., and Wang, S.C., 2004, Origination, extinction, and mass depletions of marine diversity: Paleobiology, v. 30, p. 522–542. Barnosky, A.D., Matzke, N., Tomiya, S., Wogan, G.O.U., Swartz, B., Quental, T., Marshall, C., McGuire, J.L., Lindsey, E.L., Maguire, K.C., Mersey, B., and Ferrer, E.A., 2011, Has the Earths sixth mass extinction already arrived?: Nature, v. 471, p. 51–57. Benton, M.J., and Pearson, P.N., 2001, Speciation in the fossil record: Trends in Ecology and Evolution, v. 16, p. 405–411. Brooks, D.R., and McLennan, D.A., 2002, The Nature of Diversity: Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 668 p. Buggisch, W., and Joachimski, M.M., 2006, Carbon isotope stratigraphy of the Devonian of Central and Southern Europe: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 240, p. 68–88. Copper, P., 1994, Ancient reef ecosystem expansion and collapse: Coral Reefs, v. 13, p. 3–11. deQueiroz, K., 2007, Species concepts and species delimitation: Systematic Biology, v. 56, p. 879–886. Eldredge, N., 1989, Macroevolutionary Dynamics: Species, Niches, and Adaptive Peaks: New York, McGraw-Hill Publishers, 226 p. Fernández, M.H., and Vrba, E.S., 2005, Body size, biomic specialization and range size of large African mammals: Journal of Biogeography, v. 32, p. 1243–1256. Foote, M., 1994, Temporal variation in extinction risk and temporal scaling of extinction metrics: Paleobiology, v. 20, p. 424–444. Jackson, J.B.C., 1974, Biogeographic consequences of eurytopy and stenotyopy among marine bivalves and their evolutionary significance: The American Naturalist, v. 108, p. 541–560. Johansson, J., 2007, Evolutionary responses to environmental changes: How does competition affect adaptation? Evolution, v. 62, p. 421–435. Lieberman, B.S., 2000, Paleobiogeography: Using Fossils to Study Global Change, Plate Tectonics, and Evolution: New York, Kluwer Academy/Plenum Publishing, 208 p. Lockwood, J., Hoopes, M., and Marchetti, M., 2007, Invasion Ecology: Singapore, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 312 p. Mayr, E., 1963, Animal Species and Evolution: Cambridge, Belknap, 811 p. McGhee, G.R., Jr., 1984, Tempo and mode of the Frasnian-Famennian biotic crisis: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 16, no. 6, p. 49. McGhee, G.R., Jr., 1996, The Late Devonian Mass Extinction; The Frasnian/Famennian Crisis: New York, Columbia University Press, 303 p. McGhee, G.R., Jr., 2005, Modelling Late Devonian extinction hypotheses, in Over, D.J., Morrow, J.R., and Wignall, P.B., eds., Understanding Late Devonian and Permian-Triassic Biotic and Climatic Events: Towards an Integrated Approach: Amsterdam, Elsevier, p. 37–50. McGhee, G.R., Jr., Sheehan, P.M., Bottjer, D.J., and Droser, M.L., 2004, Ecological ranking of Phanerozoic biodiversity crises, ecological and taxonomic severities are decoupled: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 211, p. 289–297. Racki, G., 2005, Toward understanding Late Devonian extinction hypotheses: Few answers, many questions, in Over, D.J., Morrow, J.R., and Wignall, P.B., eds., Understanding Late Devonian and Permian-Triassic Biotic and Climatic Events: Towards an Integrated Approach: Amsterdam, Elsevier, p. 5–36. Raup, D.M., and Sepkoski, J.J., Jr., 1982, Mass extinctions in the marine fossil record: Science, v. 215, p. 1501–1503. Rode, A.L., 2004, Phylogenetic revision of the Devonian bivalve, Leptodesma (Leiopteria): Yale University Postilla, v. 229, p. 1–26. Rode, A.L., and Lieberman, B.S., 2002, Phylogenetic and biogeographic analysis of Devonian phyllocarid crustaceans: Journal of Paleontology, v. 76, p. 269–284. Rode, A.L., and Lieberman, B.S., 2004, Using GIS to unlock the interactions between biogeography, environment, and evolution in Middle and Late Devonian brachiopods and bivalves: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 211, p. 345–359. Smith, A.B., 1994, Systematics and the Fossil Record: Documenting Evolutionary Patterns: Oxford, Blackwell Scientific, 223 p. Stanley, S.M., 1979, Macroevolution: Pattern and Process: San Francisco, W.H. Freeman and Co., 332 p. Stigall, A.L., 2010a, Invasive species and biodiversity decline: Testing the link in the Late Devonian: PLoS ONE, v. 5, no. 12, e15584, http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0015584 (last accessed 7 Nov. 2011). Stigall, A.L., 2010b, Using GIS to assess the biogeographic impact of species invasions on native brachiopods during the Richmondian Invasion in the Type-Cincinnatian (Late Ordovician, Cincinnati region): Palaeontologia Electronica 13, 5A, http://palaeo-electronica.org/2010_1/207/index.html (last accessed 4 Nov. 2011). Stigall Rode, A.L., 2005, Systematic revision of the Devonian brachiopods Schizophoria (Schizophoria) and Schuchertella from North America: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, v. 3, p. 133–167. Stigall Rode, A.L., and Lieberman, B.S., 2005, Using environmental niche modelling to study the Late Devonian biodiversity crisis, in Over, D.J., Morrow, J.R., and Wignall, P.B., eds., Understanding Late Devonian and Permian-Triassic Biotic and Climatic Events: Towards an Integrated Approach: Amsterdam, Elsevier, p. 93–180. Thuiller, W., 2007, Biodiversity—Climate change and the ecologist: Nature, v. 448, p. 550–552. van Geldern, R., Joachimski, M.M., Day, J., Jansen, U., Alvarez, F., Yolkin, E.A., and Ma, X.P., 2006, Carbon, oxygen and strontium isotope records of Devonian brachiopod shell calcite: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 240, p. 47–67. Vermeij, G.J., 2005, Invasion as expectation: A historical fact of life, in Sax, D.F., Stachowicz, J.J., and Gaines, S.D., eds., Species Invasions: Insights into Ecology, Evolution and Biogeography: Sunderland, Massachusetts, Sinauer, p. 315–339. ver Straeten, C.A., Brett, C.E., and Sageman, B.B., 2011, Mudrock sequence stratigraphy: A multi-proxy (sedimentological, paleobiological, geochemical) approach, Devonian Appalachian Basin: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 304, p. 54–73. Vrba, E.S., 1987, Ecology in relation to speciation rates: Some case histories of Miocene-Recent mammal clades: Evolutionary Ecology, v. 1, p. 283–300. Wiley, E.O., and Mayden, R.L., 1985, Species and speciation in phylogenetic systematics, with examples from North American fish fauna: Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, v. 72, p. 596–635.
topFinnish epic metallers WINTERSUN have completed work on their third studio album, due later in the year via Nuclear Blast. According to a press release, the as-yet-untitled follow-up to 2012's "Time I" features main songwriter Jari Mäenpää once again breaking the boundaries of metal and adding a new and majestic twist to the history of music.
Says WINTERSUN: "It's 2017, folks, and it's going to be a great year! Time for some big WINTERSUN news? Yes, it is!
"When we said that 'it is done,' we did not mean 'Time II', but we meant a new album for sure! 'Time II' won't be the next WINTERSUN album, because of reasons you already know from past updates and interviews.
"So what is 'it'? 'It' is a new album and it is 100% done! And no, that's not the name of the album. This album will be something new and different, but equally great or perhaps even better in some ways. Over 53 minutes of solid WINTERSUN material (with no intro tracks) and with a killer concept!
"This album will be the third full-length WINTERSUN album. We will release the name of it soon and other details such as the track list etc. We're gonna start putting the pieces of the puzzle together for you guys, how it's going to be released and what will happen... It will be a whole new experience! It will all make sense to you very soon!
"And this album is not the only thing we've done, not by a long shot! In fact, your minds will be blown soon! That is a guarantee."
WINTERSUN's "Time I" was nominated in the "Metal Album Of The Year" category at the 2013 Emma Gaala (Finnish Grammy equivalent), which was held at Barona Areena in Espoo, Finland.
"Time I" sold nearly 4,000 copies in its first week of release in the United States to land at position No. 109 on The Billboard 200 chart.
WINTERSUN's debut CD was released in September 2004 through Nuclear Blast Records.Americans are good at remembering what they want to remember. The hall where Patrick Henry spoke, the Old North Church in which Paul Revere saw the lantern, the hall in which the Declaration of Independence was signed, the houses of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and Franklin—all survive or have been painstakingly reconstructed. Their counterparts from the French Revolution have almost entirely vanished. The educational effort at Civil War battlefields overwhelms anything at any European field I’ve ever seen. (Although the soon-to-open visitor center at Waterloo looks almost Gettysburg-like in scale.)
But Americans are also good at forgetting. Antebellum sites that survived or were reconstructed after the Civil War are typically purged of their slave quarters. A project to mark the sites of every lynching across the American South exists only in cyberspace. Demolition and removal are every bit as essential as construction and preservation to the creation of a usable past. Nobody would vacation in Colonial Williamsburg as it really was. Civil War re-enactors omit the amputations.
Yet forgetting has costs.
In 1917-18, Americans fought as something less than the overwhelmingly dominant partner in a coalition effort—something they would not do again for the next century and counting. The next era of world politics, however, seems likely to resemble the world of 1900 more than that of 1950 or 1990: a world of multiple, mutually suspicious great powers grouped in uneasy coalitions defined much more by interest than ideology. As the United States joins with India, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam to balance China, the First World War era may offer more positive and negative guidance for the future than the era when the United States was more lopsidedly supreme.
President Truman looks like a more successful coalition manager than President Wilson because of his superior skills—but also because he had an easier job. When you’re paying everybody’s bills, it’s easier to get your way. The presidents of the 21st century, however, will likely feel that their challenges resemble Wilson’s more than Truman’s or Eisenhower’s or Reagan’s. Their allies will be less ideologically and culturally comfortable than Churchill’s Britain or the democracies of NATO. Their economic and strategic superiority will be less overwhelming.
And perhaps in the 21st century, the proposition that the United States stands as an exception to the norms prevailing everywhere else in the developed world will also look more doubtful. “American exceptionalism,” as Americans began talking about it in the 1950s, rested on a series of claims about American history. It was claimed that because America had never known a feudal aristocracy, the United States had evolved as a uniquely classless society, at least for its white citizens. Because America was classless, the United States was uniquely immune to socialism and communism. This achievement came at a price however: a society uniquely indifferent to high culture, uniquely characterized by mass production and mass marketing.Rescue workers look for bodies after a plane crash in the municipality of La Union, Department of Antioquia, Colombia on November 29, 2016. According to reports, 75 people died when an aircraft crashed late November 28 with 81 people on board, which investigators now blame on human error credited to a flawed flight plan and the plane running out of fuel because of the poor planning of crew and the airline. File photo by Luis Eduardo Noriega A./European Pressphoto Agency
BOGOTA, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Having already established the flight from Bolivia to Colombia carrying a Brazilian soccer that crashed last month did not experience technical failures, investigators are blaming "unacceptable" human error for dooming the flight.
Colombian officials say the LaMia flight carrying Brazil's Chapecoense soccer team to Colombia for a tournament crashed after pilots failed to refuel on the way and waited to report engines on the craft were failing because of a lack of fuel.
Investigators had already determined human error was at fault for the crash last week, but had not publicly discussed that the plane was running out of fuel, a mistake they say could have been avoided had pilots and |
).[5]
Stacey went off the road on the inside of fast, sweeping right hand Burnenville curve (the same corner where Moss crashed the previous day),[3] climbed a waist-high embankment, penetrated ten feet of thick hedges, and fell into a field.[6] He died within a few minutes of Chris Bristow, and within a few hundred feet of that wreck. In a mid-1980s edition of Road and Track Magazine, Stacey's friend and teammate Innes Ireland wrote an article about Stacey's death, in which he stated some spectators claimed a bird had flown into Stacey's face while he was approaching the curve, possibly knocking him unconscious, or even possibly killing him by breaking his neck or inflicting a fatal head injury, before the car crashed.[7]
Personality [ edit ]
Stacey's driving was "conservative" according to one observer.[who?][3]
More recently [ edit ]
Stacey's original Lotus VI was purchased from its owner by the Stacey Family and underwent complete, but sympathetic restoration in the hands of Stacey's schoolfriend, VSCC, Bentley Drivers Club and Historic Grand Prix Drivers Association racer, Ian Bentall who had originally helped construct the car. The Lotus is still in the hands of the Stacey Family where it makes occasional appearances on the track.
Complete Formula One World Championship results [ edit ]
(key)
Non-Championship results [ edit ]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
References [ edit ]A month before the Yale Halloween meltdown, I had a bizarre and illuminating experience at an elite private high school on the West Coast. I’ll call it Centerville High. I gave a version of a talk that you can see here, on Coddle U. vs. Strengthen U. (In an amazing coincidence, I first gave that talk at Yale a few weeks earlier). The entire student body — around 450 students, from grades 9-12 — were in the auditorium. There was plenty of laughter at all the right spots, and a lot of applause at the end, so I thought the talk was well received.
But then the discussion began, and it was the most unremittingly hostile questioning I’ve ever had. I don’t mind when people ask hard or critical questions, but I was surprised that I had misread the audience so thoroughly. My talk had little to do with gender, but the second question was “So you think rape is OK?” Like most of the questions, it was backed up by a sea of finger snaps — the sort you can hear in the infamous Yale video, where a student screams at Prof. Christakis to “be quiet” and tells him that he is “disgusting.” I had never heard the snapping before. When it happens in a large auditorium it is disconcerting. It makes you feel that you are facing an angry and unified mob — a feeling I have never had in 25 years of teaching and public speaking.
After the first dozen questions I noticed that not a single questioner was male. I began to search the sea of hands asking to be called on and I did find one boy, who asked a question that indicated that he too was critical of my talk. But other than him, the 200 or so boys in the audience sat silently.
After the Q&A, I got a half-standing ovation: almost all of the boys in the room stood up to cheer. And after the crowd broke up, a line of boys came up to me to thank me and shake my hand. Not a single girl came up to me afterward.
After my main lecture, the next session involved 60 students who had signed up for further discussion with me. We moved to a large classroom. The last thing I wanted to do was to continue the same fruitless arguing for another 75 minutes, so I decided to take control of the session and reframe the discussion. Here is what happened next:
Me: What kind of intellectual climate do you want here at Centerville? Would you rather have option A: a school where people with views you find offensive keep their mouths shut, or B: a school where everyone feels that they can speak up in class discussions? Audience: All hands go up for B. Me: OK, let’s see if you have that. When there is a class discussion about gender issues, do you feel free to speak up and say what you are thinking? Or do you feel that you are walking on eggshells and you must heavily censor yourself? Just the girls in the class, raise your hand if you feel you can speak up? [about 70% said they feel free, vs about 10% who said eggshells ]. Now just the boys? [about 80% said eggshells, nobody said they feel free]. Me: Now let’s try it for race. When a topic related to race comes up in class, do you feel free to speak up and say what you are thinking, or do you feel that you are walking on eggshells and you must heavily censor yourself? Just the non-white students? [the group was around 30% non-white, mostly South and East Asians, and some African Americans. A majority said they felt free to speak, although a large minority said eggshells] Now just the white students? [A large majority said eggshells] Me: Now lets try it for politics. How many of you would say you are on the right politically, or that you are conservative or Republican? [6 hands went up, out of 60 students]. Just you folks, when politically charged topics come up, can you speak freely? [Only one hand went up, but that student clarified that everyone gets mad at him when he speaks up, but he does it anyway. The other 5 said eggshells.] How many of you are on the left, liberal, or democrat? [Most hands go up] Can you speak freely, or is it eggshells? [Almost all said they can speak freely.] Me: So let me get this straight. You were unanimous in saying that you want your school to be a place where people feel free to speak up, even if you strongly dislike their views. But you don’t have such a school. In fact, you have exactly the sort of “tolerance” that Herbert Marcuse advocated [which I had discussed in my lecture, and which you can read about here]. You have a school in which only people in the preferred groups get to speak, and everyone else is afraid. What are you going to do about this? Let’s talk.
After that, the conversation was extremely civil and constructive. The boys took part just as much as the girls. We talked about what Centerville could do to improve its climate, and I said that the most important single step would be to make viewpoint diversity a priority. On the entire faculty, there was not a single teacher that was known to be conservative or Republican. So if these teenagers are coming into political consciousness inside of a “moral matrix” that is uniformly leftist, there will always be anger directed at those who disrupt that consensus.
That night, after I gave a different talk to an adult audience, there was a reception at which I spoke with some of the parents. Several came up to me to tell me that their sons had told them about the day’s events. The boys finally had a way to express and explain their feelings of discouragement. Their parents were angry to learn about how their sons were being treated and… there’s no other word for it, bullied into submission by the girls.*
And Centerville High is not alone. Last summer I had a conversation with some boys who attend one of the nation’s top prep schools, in New England. They reported the same thing: as white males, they are constantly on eggshells, afraid to speak up on any remotely controversial topic lest they be sent to the “equality police” (that was their term for the multicultural center). I probed to see if their fear extended beyond the classroom. I asked them what they would do if there was a new student at their school, from, say Yemen. Would they feel free to ask the student questions about his or her country? No, they said, it’s too risky, a question could be perceived as offensive.
You might think that this is some sort of justice — white males have enjoyed positions of privilege for centuries, and now they are getting a taste of their own medicine. But these are children. And remember that most students who are in a victim group for one topic are in the “oppressor” group for another. So everyone is on eggshells sometimes; all students at Centerville High learn to engage with books, ideas, and people using the twin habits of defensive self-censorship and vindictive protectiveness.
And then… they go off to college and learn new ways to gain status by expressing collective anger at those who disagree. They curse professors and spit on visiting speakers at Yale. They shut down newspapers at Wesleyan. They torment a dean who was trying to help them at Claremont McKenna. They threaten and torment fellow students at Dartmouth. And in all cases, they demand that adults in power DO SOMETHING to punish those whose words and views offend them. Their high schools have thoroughly socialized them into what sociologists call victimhood culture, which weakens students by turning them into “moral dependents” who cannot deal with problems on their own. They must get adult authorities to validate their victim status.
So they issue ultimatums to college presidents, and, as we saw at Yale, the college presidents meet their deadlines, give them much of what they demanded, commit their schools to an ever tighter embrace of victimhood culture, and say nothing to criticize the bullying, threats, and intimidation tactics that have created a culture of intense fear for anyone who might even consider questioning the prevailing moral matrix. What do you suppose a conversation about race or gender will look like in any Yale classroom ten years from now? Who will dare to challenge the orthodox narrative imposed by victimhood culture? The “Next Yale” that activists are demanding will make today’s Centerville High look like Plato’s Academy by comparison.
The only hope for Centerville High — and for Yale — is to disrupt their repressively uniform moral matrices to make room for dissenting views. High schools and colleges that lack viewpoint diversity should make it their top priority. Race and gender diversity matter too, but if those goals are pursued in the ways that student activists are currently demanding, then political orthodoxy is likely to intensify. Schools that value freedom of thought should therefore actively seek out non-leftist faculty, and they should explicitly include viewpoint diversity and political diversity in all statements about diversity and discrimination.** Parents and students who value freedom of thought should take viewpoint diversity into account when applying to colleges. Alumni should take it into account before writing any more checks.
The Yale problem refers to an unfortunate feedback loop: Once you allow victimhood culture to spread on your campus, you can expect ever more anger from students representing victim groups, coupled with demands for a deeper institutional commitment to victimhood culture, which leads inexorably to more anger, more demands, and more commitment. But the Yale problem didn’t start at Yale. It started in high school. As long as many of our elite prep schools are turning out students who have only known eggshells and anger, whose social cognition is limited to a single dimension of victims and victimizers, and who demand safe spaces and trigger warnings, it’s hard to imagine how any university can open students’ minds and prepare them to converse respectfully with people who don’t share their values. Especially when there are no adults around who don’t share their values.
* * * * *
Post Scripts:
*My original draft of this post included the phrase “with the blessing of the teachers” at this point. But this was unfair and I regret it. The Centerville teachers I met were all very friendly to me, even after my talk. I think they could do more to counter the intimidation felt by students with minority viewpoints, but I have no reason to think that the teachers at Centerville are anything other than caring professionals who try to curate class discussions without inserting their own views. Indeed, the comments from “Centerville” students below, in the comment threads, indicate that the intimidation comes primarily from other students, not from the teachers. This is a pattern I have seen at universities as well.
**To help high schools and colleges measure the scale of their problem, we at Heterodox Academy will develop an “Eggshellometer” – a simple anonymous survey that can be distributed to all students, or to all faculty for that matter – that can be used to quantify the degree to which members of an academic community live in fear. In the meantime, if you are a teacher, you can use the simple “show of hands” method that I described above, or you can easily turn it into an anonymous paper and pencil survey.
*** To read a new post extracting the 13 comments below from “Centerville High” students, with commentary, click here.
There is no video of my talk at Centerville, but here is a video of an earlier version of the talk that I gave a few weeks earlier, at Yale (coincidentally). My talk at Centerville was very similar (although I cut the “stare rape” slide for the high school audience)
Here is a link to a condensed transcript of that talk, including most of the slides.After losing two back-to-back national elections, there is nearly complete disarray in the party. Rejected twice after running national campaigns focused on the issue which voters said they cared most about – an issue which, in the abstract, should have been in their wheelhouse – political and opinion leaders are recommending sweeping reforms to ensure past mistakes will never be made again. This is the Republican Party in 2013, but it was also the Democratic Party of 40 years ago. In the early 1970s, after losing two straight presidential elections, Democrats pursued a series of reforms dedicated to reducing the likelihood that the party would nominate unelectable candidates. Today, the lessons Democrats learned from those elections are being forgotten and New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is funding the effort.
RELATED: NBC’s David Gregory Chides Bloomberg: ‘How Far Will You Go?’ With Banning Things In New York City
In late February, a special primary election in Illinois became a national proxy fight between the Democratic Party’s establishment forces and an ascendant, issue-based coalition of progressives lavishly funded by Bloomberg. The activist mayor of Gotham’s Super PAC invested heavily in that race with the intention of blocking former Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D-IL) from reclaiming a seat in Congress.
With an American Conservative Union rating of just 8 percent in her last year in office (and 14 percent for a lifetime) Halvorson was just liberal enough for the affluent Chicago suburbs she represented before her ouster in 2010. The American Civil Liberties Union gave Halvorson 81 percent on issues relating to civil liberties. NARAL Pro-Choice America gave Halvorson a 100 percent rating on abortion rights issues. On budget and spending, Citizens Against Government Waste and the National Taxpayers Union awarded Halvorson 13 and 11 percent respectively for her fiscal liberalism.
On paper, Halvorson appears a perfect fit for the modern Democratic Party – ejected from office only due to the historical anomaly that was the 2010 midterm election. But her sin, a transgression which motivated Bloomberg to successfully support Halvorson’s primary opponent, was her A rating with the National Rifle Association. Halvorson’s heretical support for gun ownership prompted Bloomberg’s PAC to drop $2.2 million into a primary election fight. He was successful in keeping Halvorson out of Congress and was cheered by both rank-and-file Democratic activists and the party’s elite, stung but broadly supportive of the newfound energy on the left.
Today, after the Democratic Party’s leadership in the Senate passed on the chance to put sweeping gun control measures before legislators in favor of a far less ambitious but passable bill, Bloomberg is again leveling his PAC’s guns over the bow of the Democratic Party. On Saturday, Bloomberg’s group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, announced it will launch a $12 million ad campaign in 13 states: Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Five of those states are home to competitive senate seats in 2014. Three of those states were won by Mitt Romney in 2012, but are represented by Democratic senators spared the career-endangering vote for or against controversial gun control measures by Democratic leadership.
Bloomberg’s activism is the best thing to happen to Republicans since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United for three reasons. First, and most obviously, Bloomberg’s unashamed efforts to ban or curtail those pleasures his unelected bureaucrats deem harmful is unvarnished progressivism’s oldest and most distasteful impulse.
Second, Bloomberg is the physical embodiment of the hypocrisy the Democratic Party and the media display on campaign finance reform issues. Combined with the news that the liberal Tides Foundation had contributed five times more progressive causes than the oft-maligned libertarian Koch Brothers contributed to Republicans, Bloomberg’s financial contributions to liberal candidates demonstrates that progressives and the media establishment are only concerned about campaign finance issues when Democratic candidates are in danger of losing elections.
Finally, from a Republican’s perspective, Bloomberg is also having a much more beneficial effect on the political landscape than any reform the GOP could institute on its own. Bloomberg is singlehandedly helping the Democratic Party unlearn the lessons which led to the 1974 campaign reforms.
Empowered by the public desire for major reforms in the wake of the Watergate Scandal, the 1974 amendments to the 1971 Federal Election Campaign Act were embraced by Democratic lawmakers because, in concert with the primary election reforms recommended by the McGovern-Fraser Commission, the disclosure requirements now mandated by law would make it far more difficult for a handful of donors to bankroll candidates unrepresentative of the broader electorate.
Today, Bloomberg is actively fomenting a liberal, issue-oriented insurgency from within the Democratic Party. Undeterred by Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) efforts to shield his vulnerable members from a damaging vote, Bloomberg leads a coalition of progressive voters forcing the party’s officials to the left of the electorate.
An earlier version of this article asserted that the Tides Foundation donated primarily to liberal candidates. In fact, Tides has contributed to candidates as well as liberal charities and political causes.
> >Follow Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) on Twitter
Have a tip we should know? [email protected] Party leader Hone Harawira has dismissed the concept of "reverse racism" and says the idea of freedom of choice is just "white people bullshit".
The comments came up during a Facebook Live with Newshub's Ryan Bridge, where they discussed the smokefree by 2025 commitment brought in by Mr Harawira.
"I did it to try and help Māori achieve better health," he said.
Mr Harawira denied smoking was an issue of free choice, instead pointing out, as an ex-smoker, that it was an addiction.
"Addiction isn't about choice, addiction is about death... That freedom of choice you're talking about? That's white people bullshit mate," he said.
"Cigarettes has nothing to do with freedom of choice... I used to be a smoker, I tried 10 times to try and stop, but I couldn't do it.
"You fellas always going on about freedom of choice stuff but really, tobacco is an addiction. It's an addiction to make somebody a lot of money while half of my folks are gonna f*cking die from it."
As a Māori Party MP in 2010, Mr Harawira chaired a committee which recommended the Government should aim to eliminate smoking rates by 2025.
But despite Mr Harawira's points, Bridge was unshaken.
"Well I'm full of white people bullshit, so what do I know," Bridge said dryly.
In the interview Mr Harawira also gave a thumbs up to "white people" before appearing perplexed at Bridges' description of "reverse racism" as Māori people receiving "special privileges" over white people.
"Special privileges like a greater level of poverty than anybody else, greater level of unemployment, more incarceration than anybody else, lower level of education, and eviction from state houses. Those kind of privileges you're talking about?" Mr Harawira fired back.
"Without me even talking about it, you've just got to look at the statistics to know that we are in deep shit as a people.
"The fact remains that we are in a bad way in our homeland and we have to do something about that. I want to focus on, I want to do good stuff for our people."
He also gave a thumbs up to both Labour leader Jacinda Ardern and deputy leader Kelvin Davis, despite Bridge pointing out they were competitors in Parliament.
"After all this is over, [Mr Davis]'s still going to be my cousin. That doesn't change," he said.
Watch the full Facebook Live interview below - app and mobile users, click here.Anti-Swine Flu Vaccination Linked to Increased Risk of Narcolepsy in Young Adults
Pandemrix is an influenza vaccination, created in 2009 to combat H1N1, known as Swine Flu. Now, a team of Swedish clinicians testing the vaccine for links to immune-related or neurological diseases have linked Pandemrix to an increased risk of narcolepsy in young adults.
Using a population-based prospective cohort study, the team analyzed data from regional vaccination registries and national health registries, covering seven healthcare regions and 61% of the Swedish population.
While the team did not identify any link to a large number of immune-related or neurological diseases, they did confirm an increased risk in diagnosis of narcolepsy in individuals younger than 20 years of age, and observed a trend towards an increased risk amongst young adults between 21 and 30.
“The follow-up of Pandemrix vaccinations in a large registry based study in Sweden confirms an increased risk of narcolepsy in children and adolescents, while also providing reassuring results for a large number of other neurological and immune related diseases,” said Dr. I. Persson from the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm.WILMINGTON, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and Advanced Reactor Concepts LLC (ARC Nuclear) have agreed to collaborate in the development and licensing of an advanced small modular reactor (aSMR) based on mature Generation IV sodium-cooled reactor technology.
In a Memorandum of Understanding, the two companies have agreed to enter into a procompetitive collaboration to progress a joint aSMR design for global power generation with initial deployment in Canada. The companies will pursue a preliminary regulatory review by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission through its Vendor Design Review process, building on earlier technology licensing success in the United States. This collaborative commercialization program also includes the near-term goals of confirming projected construction and operating costs, as well as the identification of a lead-plant owner/operator for the joint aSMR.
GEH and ARC Nuclear have each developed advanced reactor designs based on the EBR-II, an integral sodium-cooled fast reactor prototype which was developed by Argonne National Laboratory and operated successfully for more than 30 years at Idaho Falls, Idaho. No U.S. fast spectrum reactor technology has more test data, design maturity, programmatic information, or operational experience.
These two reactor designs — GEH’s PRISM and ARC Nuclear’s ARC-100 — have been focused on different objectives. The ARC-100 is a 100 MWe aSMR designed for efficient and flexible electricity generation, while operating for up to 20 years without the need for refueling. In comparison, PRISM, which is designed to refuel every 12 to 24 months, has primarily been focused on closing the fuel cycle by, among other things, consuming transuranics. Both these aSMR designs nevertheless share fundamental features, such as high energy neutrons, liquid sodium cooling and metallic fuel, which together deliver inherent safety performance and more economically competitive plant architecture compared to traditional water-cooled reactors. The operational flexibility of this advanced reactor technology enables true load following to complement the intermittent generation of renewable energy technologies now being deployed.
“ GEH has broad engineering experience, deep technical capability and significant investment in its sodium fast reactor technology program that builds on a 60-year history as an original equipment manufacturer of more than 60 boiling water reactors worldwide,” said Jay Wileman, President and CEO, GEH. “ The ARC Nuclear team brings decades of sodium fast reactor experience to this collaboration and, by working together, we can accelerate commercialization of this technology.”
“ ARC Nuclear has a heritage of sodium fast reactor experience that includes key senior scientists and engineers from the EBR-II prototype program – technical leaders involved in developing and demonstrating the fast reactor foundational technology within the U.S. Department of Energy,” said Don Wolf, Chairman and CEO, ARC Nuclear. “ We are confident that this collaboration with GEH will more rapidly bring affordable carbon free, utility-scale nuclear power to the evolving energy market landscape.”
While there are more than 90 advanced nuclear technology and small modular reactor designs under various stages of development, GEH and ARC Nuclear view sodium fast reactors as being the most mature advanced reactor technology with decades of real operating experience from more than 20 previous reactors.
About GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy
Based in Wilmington, N.C., GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) is a world-leading provider of advanced reactors and nuclear services. Established in 2007, GEH is a global nuclear alliance created by GE and Hitachi to serve the global nuclear industry. The nuclear alliance executes a single, strategic vision to create a broader portfolio of solutions, expanding its capabilities for new reactor and service opportunities. The alliance offers customers around the world the technological leadership required to effectively enhance reactor performance, power output and safety. Follow GEH on LinkedIn and Twitter @gehnuclear.
About Advanced Reactor Concepts LLC (ARC)
Founded in 2006, Advanced Reactor Concepts, LLC. (ARC Nuclear) is a privately held Delaware company formed with many of the pioneers who played key roles in the EBR-II program and are today regarded as leading authorities in small fast reactor technology. ARC Nuclear’s mission is to commercialize the ARC-100 and produce safe, economically competitive, carbon-free energy for the global energy market, with a design that can also offer a viable solution to the problem of nuclear waste.MTA “bailout” plan:
New York transit imposes fare hikes with deeper cuts still to come
By Sandy English
12 May 2009
New York’s state Legislature voted Wednesday to provide $2.25 billion in state funding for the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). The measure staves off—if only temporarily—a “doomsday” scenario in which the transit authority was preparing to cut bus and subway service, lay off more than 2,000 employees and impose an immediate fare increase of up to 29 percent, with the threat of a further hike that would raise it by as much as 50 percent.
The mass transit system is the largest in the United States, including buses and subways in New York City, as well as commuter lines to the northern and eastern suburbs.
Fare increases and taxes under the new MTA plan will still place a major strain on workers and middle-class people already pummeled by an upsurge in job losses, home foreclosures, and depleted savings. Just as significantly, the plan is heavily funded by payroll and property taxes, which are in turn dependent on a rapid economic recovery.
The bill marks the end of months of paralysis within the state’s political establishment. Fearing an eruption of social protest, local politicians could not agree where or how much of the burden to put on working people, seeking to mitigate or hide the effects on commuters in one region, and to pass the brunt of fare or toll increases onto those in other parts of the state.
The bill, variously described in the media as “hastily drafted” and “chaotic,” will include an increase in the base fare on the city bus and subway of 12.5 percent bringing the cost of a single ride to $2.25. A monthly pass will rise from $81 to $89. Further fare increases of 7.5 percent will take effect in 2011 and 2013.
The plan also calls for a surcharge on taxi rides of 50 cents, a variety of smaller fees including a $25 tax on vehicle registration fees, an increase of at least 25 percent on drivers’ license fees, and a 5 percent rise in car-rental fees
Much of the budget, though, will rely on increased property and payroll taxes for the next year.
The state will impose a new tax of 34 cents on every $100 of payroll in the most populous counties in and closest to New York City, and a lesser amount for counties further away.
Public institutions will be affected by this tax, including schools. Like many American public school systems, those in suburban New York depend heavily on local tax contributions. The bill’s sponsors have promised to exempt school districts by reimbursing them next year, but should the regional economy continue to deteriorate, as seems likely, these promises may well evaporate.
The imposition of smaller taxes and fees, which cumulate in a higher cost of living for millions who are living though the worst economic slump since the great Depression, has been one of the methods by which the New York City administration of billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg has dealt with the city’s budget shortfalls.
A 50 cent surcharge on yellow taxi rides will cut into the incomes of the “sharecroppers” of the transportation industry, New York City taxi drivers, who have already been battered by increased fees, state harassment, and, in the last year, high gas prices. In April, hundreds of taxi drivers protested a forecasted $1.00 surcharge that would be used to finance the MTA.
The transit authority has blamed the economic downturn for its $1.2 billion deficit. According to the Associated Press New York capitol editor Michael Gormley, “In January 2008 the MTA benefited from $122.2 million in real estate tax revenue. As the economy started to sour, MTA board budgeted for just $73.4 million in January 2009 then took in less than half that—just $35 million.” He remarks, “No one ever saw the good times ending.”
Nicole Gelinas of the right-wing Manhattan Institute, writing in the New York Post, observed, “But taxes could just as easily keep declining by more than the MTA expects. So it's possible that the MTA will end up with a deficit even after all the hikes and be tempted to borrow from next year—something it sought to do last week before the bailout agreement.”
Now, it appears that the political establishment in New York is relying on a return to these economic “good times” to fund the MTA. Some bourgeois political and economic advisors are not persuaded by the recent media and political hype that a turning point has been reached in the economic slump. Voices have been raised demanding that the transit problem be solved through a frontal assault on both transit workers and predominantly working class riders.
Long Island’s Newsday summarized Gelinas’s view on the matter: “the bailout fails to address the high cost of labor, including $24 an hour for sales clerks, the inflexibility of labor contracts, and overly generous and unaffordable pensions that workers can collect as early as age 55.”
Crain’s New York Business cited Kathryn Wylde of the business group Partnership for New York City as suggesting that the legislature ought to have added tolls to bridges across the East River that connect Brooklyn and Queens to Manhattan, and through which commuters from those boroughs and from Long Island pass every day.
The MTA faces huge operating expenses and has borrowed a total of $25.5 billion through bond issues to finance repairs to its decaying infrastructure, much of which is nearly a century old. The bill will raise only $400 million this year for the MTA’s capital plan, most of which will go to pay interest on bonds.
There is little provision for the rest of the funds for the capital plan. Democratic New York Governor David Paterson remarked: "If we knew how we would pay for it, we would be standing here telling you that right now.” Sheldon Silver, the Democratic speaker of the New York State Assembly, suggested that funds could be found to repair and develop the MTA’s infrastructure from taxes after the economy improves.
“The capital plan is still largely unfunded,” Paul Steely White, the executive director of the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, noted. “We’re going to be back at this juncture again, maybe even before the year is out.”
The plan also calls for a shake-up of the MTA’s top executives. Elliot Sander, its CEO, has resigned, and Dale Hemmerdinger, its president, is expected to step down when his term expires later this month. Some leaders in the MTA have spoken of a “mass exodus” of officials.
In the final analysis, the MTA budget is captive to the capitalist market, with all its instability and open criminality. Under the new plan, not only will the MTA be heavily dependent on property taxes for its operating expenses—an unreliable proposition—but the maintenance and expansion of the MTA—for which the current proposal makes no provision—will remain linked to the issuance of bonds to rich investors.
As the WSWS noted earlier this year:
“MTA financing has been closely tied to the capital markets and is mired in the rampant criminality that has characterized the operations of some of its biggest players. It raised $470 million in auction-rate bonds in November 2007 through Citigroup. Shortly after, interest rates for these types of bonds, which are set by weekly auctions and are variable, began to climb from 3 to 4 to 8 percent as shifts in the financial markets began to make themselves felt in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis.
“The MTA had to pay interest to bondholders to the tune of $560,000 a week. According to the New York Times, the agency was forced to redeem its bonds at an additional cost of nearly $6 million to bankers and advisors.
“The Times notes that Citigroup officials by August 2007 were well aware of trouble brewing in the auction-rate securities market, two months before it helped the MTA invest in them, and quotes one banker’s e-mail as saying that ‘failed auction frequency is at an all-time high.’
“Citigroup earned a hefty profit from the two sales of bonds. Another beneficiary of this gambling of public funds was Goldman Sachs. As the Times noted, ‘All told Citigroup earned more than half a million dollars on the two sales; Goldman Sachs, the authority’s financial advisor, which counseled in favor of the auction-rate sale, made $929,500 on both.’ ”
The MTA “bailout”—a punitive and half-baked plan—not only places a burden on the working class in the form of taxes and higher fares, but it exposes the inability of the capitalist profit system to organize mass society and transport millions of people to their jobs in an affordable, safe, expedient, and environmentally responsible manner.
The author also recommends:
Unemployment takes growing toll in New York City
[1 May 2009]
New York City: threat of transit fare hikes and service cuts spark outrage
[13 February 2009]If you missed the first part of this series, where you can read about what is a shellcode and how it works, you can find it here: Part I. In this part, I will cover required information in order to be able to properly write a shellcode for Windows platform: the Process Environment Block, the format of Portable Executable files and a short introduction to x86 Assembly. This article will not cover all the aspects of these concepts, but it should be enough in order to properly understand shellcodes.
Process Environment Block
Within Windows operating system, PEB is a structure available for every process at a fixed address in memory. This structure contains useful information about the process such as: the address where the executable is loaded into memory, the list of modules (DLL), a flag specifying if the process is being debugged and many others.
It is important to understand that the structure is intended to be used by the operating system. It is not consistent across different Windows system versions, so it may change with each new Windows release, but some common information has been kept.
As we discussed in the first article, the DLLs (due to ASLR) will be loaded at different memory addresses so we cannot use fixed memory addresses in our shellcode. But we can use this structure, found at a fixed memory address, in order to find the location of DLLs into memory.
If you are familiar with C/C++, it is pretty easy to understand what information does this structure contains and where. The official Microsoft documentation shows the following fields:
As you can see, some fields called “Reserved” are not described but some other fields are documented.
For those unfamiliar with C/C++, you have to understand this: a BYTE means… a byte, a PVOID is a pointer (a memory address) – so it is 4 bytes on a x86 system (32 bit system) and PPEB_LDR_DATA is a pointer to a custom structure called PEB_LDR_DATA. There are two bytes reserved for the first field (because Reserved1[2] is an array of two BYTEs), the BeingDebugged flag is 1 byte followed by another byte (Reserved2). Reserved3[2] is an array with 2 pointers (so 2 * 4 bytes = 8 bytes) and Ldr is a pointer – 4 bytes.
From this structure, we will use the Ldr pointer, witch we can find at offset 12 (or 0xC) within the structure (2 bytes Reserved1 + 1 byte BeingDebugged + 1 byte Reserved2 + 8 bytes Reserved3).
The PEB_LDR_DATA contains the following information:
We will act as before. We can access the InMemoryOrderModuleList field at offset 20 (0x14 in hex: 8 bytes Reserved1 + 3 * 4 bytes Reserved2). This field will give use information about loaded DLLs.
Here things are a bit more complicated. We can get loaded DLLs information using a structure called LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY. The official Microsoft documentation does not publish the whole structure contents but we can find more information here:
The LIST_ENTRY structure is a simple double linked list, containing a pointer to next element (Flink) and a pointer to previous element (Blink), each one having 4 bytes:
The InMemoryOrderModuleList field is a pointer to a LIST_ENTRY field of a LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY structure. It is NOT a pointer to the beginning of the LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY structure, it is a pointer to the InMemoryOrderLinks field of the structure! As you can see, Flink and Blink are pointers to a LIST_ENTRY structure.
Let’s take it step by step:
Read the PEB structure Go to offset 0xC to Ldr pointer Go to offset 0x14 to InMemoryOrderModuleList field
At this moment we are placed |
that could really work together on this. I really think it’s the only way we’re going to solve this.”
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Hercules police at 510-724-1111.You have to stick some tint over the mirror on the windshield because during the day the sun will reflect off the black plastic drowning out the HUD. You can see the HUD with the tint at night so you don't have to take off the tint. I just cut and slapped some tint on. No water. Lasted 6 months before I had to redo the tint with a new piece.
As for the unit. It still works great. I keep it below my vision. I don't look through it.
I like this unit cause I look above it and the RPM 5000 to 7000 range comes up into my vision at the top of the HUD giving me a good cue to shift when driving hard.
The Auto dimmer went out this month so I have to manually change the dim at night. Just Hold in then tap to number 8 then cycle 1 or 2 setting. Easy. Great bang for buck. I like the setup of the display. 4 stars for the Auto setting for Dim going bad in 6 months.Former U.S. national team captain and ESPN analyst Julie Foudy decried goalkeeper Hope Solo’s controversial comments on Friday following Team USA’s Olympic elimination against Sweden.
After the game, Solo called the Swedish team “a bunch of cowards,” citing their defensive-minded tactics. Her comments instantly caused controversy, and sparked a response from Sweden coach Pia Sundhage, who coached the U.S. from 2008–2012.
Foudy spoke out about Solo’s stance, as well, when asked on TV for her reaction.
“I shook my head,” Foudy said. “I thought, why is that necessary? There’s a long history and tradition with our national team of respecting others when you lose, so I don’t agree with it at all. I think it’s pretty obvious that Sweden took a tactic that most outmatched teams take in soccer, it’s been happening for centuries in fact.
“They played a lower defensive line, I wouldn’t even call it a bunker because they did come out, it wasn’t like they bunkered the entire game. To call them cowards for playing a tactically smart game is ridiculous and classless, and it really doesn’t represent the house that we built with the U.S. team.”
Foudy played for the U.S. women’s national team from 1987 to 2004, serving as a co-captain and captain for the majority of her career. She won two Women’s World Cups and two Olympic golds, retiring after winning the 2004 Games in Athens.
Solo followed her comments with a statement to SI’s Grant Wahl.
Just heard from Hope Solo. Here's what she had to say. pic.twitter.com/qnWgRirUjE — Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) August 12, 2016
Solo, 35, helped lead the United States to the 2015 World Cup title and also started in goal for the 2012 Olympic team that won gold.
Sweden will play the winner of Brazil and Australia on Tuesday in a semifinal match.Improv Encyclopedia
Improv Encyclopedia is the largest collection or resources for improvization theater on the web. Here you will find tons of stuff related to improvization theatre, also known as 'improv' or 'impro'.
For those not particularly looking for improv-related material we feature:
Icebreakers: games or activities that help "break the ice" at events where there are lots of people who don't know each other
Warm-ups: games to get people in a playful mood
games and exercises to promote group Group Trust
exercises and games to encourage Spontaneity
lots of drama and theater Games
This site is organized in 3 large sections:
Our encyclopedia of Improv Games, listing over 500 improv, drama and theater games & exercises, organized in 30-odd Categories
A list of Improv References
A comprehensive Improv Glossary
If you want access to the material when you're off line, you can download the whole site as a PDF Booklet. And best of all, it's free!
Last Update: January 7, 2018
More items in the Improv Glossary, and several more Long form formats.
Please let us know if you see any problems. Enjoy!
Details? Feedback? Find us on Facebook!Just five days after splitting WWE in two, Battleground gave fans little in the way of storyline movement despite some above-average action during the three-hour pay-per-view.
Here's a Battleground wrap-up in the space of a tweet: There were no title changes or twists and nothing to write home about save for one promo and one match. Actually, I still have 39 characters left.
The lack of newsworthiness on Sunday may ultimately be a good thing for WWE considering they are basically resetting their entire company from a storyline standpoint as of Monday. With less than a month to go until SummerSlam, WWE's second-biggest event each year, there is a lot of work to do in building a card that is worthy of the normal hype associated with the event.
Sure, WWE could have kicked off those changes with some special moments Sunday night but there's plenty else for them to do once Monday Night Raw kicks into gear in less than 24 hours.
Check out our match-by-match breakdown of Battleground below.
Results
World Heavyweight Championship -- Dean Ambrose (c) def. Roman Reigns (via pinfall) and Seth Rollins. There was no time wasted getting the action going as Ambrose, Rollins and Reigns were all high-energy from the onset. Midway through the match, the crowd was particularly pleased with Ambrose and Rollins teaming up in an attempt to eliminate Reigns. After Rollins threw himself out of the ring to knock Reigns out, Ambrose helped him powerbomb Reigns through the announce table. That teamwork did not last long, of course, and Rollins soon took the upper hand including a near-fall after a Pedigree on Reigns. Ambrose eventually pulled out the win by hitting Dirty Deeds on Reigns moments after he Superman Punch'd and speared Rollins.
Reigns had some heel heat from the moment he was introduced -- not that he was well-liked by fans previously -- and it would certainly behoove WWE to capitalize on it, particularly since he is coming off a legitimate 30-day suspension. Ambrose brings the title back to SmackDown, which is good for the reintroduction of the brand. Rollins loses nothing by avoiding the pinning situation and can probably make a title match claim against Ambrose at SummerSlam next month.
Randy Orton appears on 'The Highlight Reel' hosted by Chris Jericho. After nine months away from the ring while recovering from a serious shoulder injury, Orton returned in an interview segment to discuss his upcoming match against Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam. It was clear from his appearance that Orton is back as a face, though rarely is a heel-booked Lesnar not cheered anyway by the crowd. Orton, in a good effort on the mic, even got in a performance-enhancing drug shot at Lesnar, saying he would be able to beat him with "no enhancements needed." (Orton, of course, has two WWE wellness policy violations during his time with the company.) He of course hit an RKO on Jericho to end the interview.
John Cena, Enzo Amore & Big Cass def. The Club via pinfall. I would be remiss to begin discussing this match without praising Amore for a world-class promo before it even began. It's an absolute must-see. Action was fast-paced and exciting as one would expect from these six. Cena and A.J. Styles each hit their finishers before teammates saved the respective pinfalls, but Cena was able to execute a second Attitude Adjustment -- this time from the top rope -- before scoring the pin on Styles. Those two will likely continue their rivalry over on SmackDown, while Amore & Cass could start a program with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows over on Raw.
Intercontinental Championship -- The Miz (c) vs. Darren Young: Young, a lower-card wrestler for most of his career, getting a title shot so soon after returning seemed strange from on the onset, but WWE found a way to make this match interesting with some actual character development at its conclusion. Bob Backlund, Young's "life coach," stopped Miz from bailing on the match, leading him to get slapped by Maryse (Miz's real-life wife and valet). Maryse then feigned that she had been hit by Backlund, leading Miz back out of the ring to push Backlund. Seeing this, Young snapped (like Backlund used to back in the day) and locked in the crossface chickenwing (Backlund's patented submission hold) on Miz outside the ring. No match result was announced, and the competitors were not outside the ring long enough for it to have been a double countout. It just ended.
Natalya def. Becky Lynch via submission. A solid profile-building win for Natalya who got over clean with the Sharpshooter. These two will be counted on to lead the charge for the women on SmackDown, so you'll see this match plenty going forward.
Sami Zayn def. Kevin Owens via pinfall. Does "match of the night" even need to be expressed anymore when Owens (or Zayn, for that matter) is wrestling, or can it just be assumed from this point forward? The chemistry between these two makes for tremendous matches and great spots, the best of which Sunday came as Zayn delivered a back body drop to Owens on the ring apron. The crowd was fully involved, chanting loudly for both even with Owens billed as the ultimate heel. There were tornado DDTs (and countered tornado DDTs), super kicks, single-arm hook suplexes and even a big-man frog splash to the delight of the crowd, which gave the two a mid-match standing ovation. Zayn saved himself from a pinfall following a pop-up powerbomb by placing his foot on the rope and countered by nailing two suplexes and a Helluva Kick -- make that two -- for the clean 1-2-3 victory. Is this really the end of the rivalry? Not sure how the heel Owens can allow it to be, but it was a hell of an ending if so.
United States Championship -- Rusev (c) def. Zack Ryder via submission. Rusev was dominant, as one would expect, throughout the match. Ryder got in some offense with his standard finisher and looked poised for an upset until Rusev countered Ryder's elbow drop and locked in the Accolade. Ryder surprisingly began breaking it, forcing Rusev to lock it in and bend Ryder back for the tap out. Rusev continued to attack Ryder after the match, leading NXT call-up Mojo Rawley to hit the ring and basically scream in Rusev face until he left the squared circle. It certainly looks like WWE will be pairing up Ryder and Rawley with the Hype Bros tag team on SmackDown.
The Wyatt Family def. The New Day via pinfall. After some solid action, Xavier Woods appeared hypnotized by Bray Wyatt only to overcome his fear and clear the ring of the Wyatts. After a short celebration by Woods, Bray Wyatt caught him with Sister Abagail and earned the pin. The right outcome here, even if WWE is splitting up the Wyatts among its brands. The loss doesn't hurt New Day as it still holds the tag titles, while Wyatt gets a rare major-show victory as he transitions into what should hopefully be a more featured role on SmackDown.
Sasha Banks & Bayley def. Charlotte & Dana Brooke via submission. It was nice to see WWE bring Bayley in for the match, even if it's not a full-time call-up (she was not wearing a brand shirt and appears to be involved in the NXT women's title picture at this time). The crowd provided a great reaction upon her introduction, probably the best I can remember for a female wrestler. Definitely a great way to start the show. Bayley's main-roster debut may have taken a bit of steam away from Banks if they didn't book her to win clean over Charlotte, which she did with the Bank Statement right in the middle of the ring. It would appear the Banks vs. Charlotte title match is all but official for SummerSlam.
Breezango def. The Usos via pinfall (Kickoff Match). A big win for the newly formed tag team. As one would expect, The Usos were responsible for most of the highlights in the match, but Tyler Breeze throwing up his knees to counter a splash and converting the move into a small package resulted in a 1-2-3 victory. Considering these teams were drafted to the SmackDown brand on Tuesday, it would make sense for this feud to continue.Gentleman, this one may seem like a bit of a no brainer.
Growing a beard is simple right? Stop Shaving?
Well by all means down the razor and be done with it, but be warned this could be you
Joaquain Phoenix, I’m sure you are a nice guy, but I don’t think i’ll be taking any beard grooming or styling tips from you.
For those of you that have crafted your beard already, congratulations on joining the ranks of man. For the rest of you, the first six weeks is the most important part in the crafting of the beard. Unfortunately, genetics usually plays the biggest role in what sort of beard you can grow and you can never really be sure what sort of beard you can sport until at least six weeks. This is the beauty of the beard, every man is unique and no two beards are the same. In the first six weeks your facial hair will grow at different lengths and it is possible you may look like the guy above. But don’t stress! It is short lived as opposed to the years of glorious bearding ahead. The trick is to not touch it for six weeks. I repeat, really important not to touch for six weeks. So many men make the mistake of trying to shape and trim the beard before it is mature. If you start shaping now you will never know how glorious your beard may be. If you are worried about looking like a deranged lunatic who may start talking about UFO abductions if approached then read on. You may want to start your beard in a holiday period, that way it will be less likely to receive negative comments. It is only while the beard is patchy and uneven that it will look like this. Around six weeks you will see the beard begin to level out and fill in.
One of the biggest problems that will turn men away from growing out there mane is the infamous beard itch. We’ve all been there, it’s part of the process. You see, the skin beneath is not used to these strange coarse hairs growing from it and stealing the oils that usually help keep it nourished and moisturised.
Gentleman, the dreaded itch is no longer a valid excuse.
With the recent explosion of beard oils you can bid farewell to your itch. Designed for anyone with ten days growth and onwards, they replace the oils in your skin and also leave your beard feeling luscious. You will also notice a massive reduction in the itch. If you were worried about the look as it grows, beard oils will help aid in patchiness and produce a more even beard. The trick with beard oils is not to use them sporadically and for best results they need to be a part of a daily routine. Remember a little goes a long way, I’m talking about a few drops daily to make your beard soft, remove the itch, control the loose beard ends and make your statement of man smell outright enticing.
Can beard oil help my beard grow faster?
No, unfortunately as mentioned before your genetics play the biggest role in how fast your hairy friend will grow out. A lot of fellow beard enthusiasts suggest a diet high in protein but really, you will never know until you give it a go.
Gentleman set yourself a date six weeks in the future and make a commitment not to shave it off or shape it until that date is reached. The itchiness and spikiness (that I’m sure your beloved will complain about) can all be controlled with the introduction of beard oil into your daily routine. Washing your beard with shampoo is also important and the same shampoo you use on your hair is fine but not too often because you don’t want to strip the natural oils, twice a week is enough. Don’t play with your beard too much, this one is really difficult. I always find whenever I’m talking to somebody I’m always stroking my beard like a creep. The more you leave it alone the less chance it has of being patchy. Once you’ve reached your goal date, make the decision: Are you going to have a full beard? Style it down? Or just rock an awesome moustache with a twirl? The best option is to take yourself to a good barber, they will be able to style it and tidy it up to a point where you should be able to maintain it on a weekly basis. Keep using your beard oil for a healthy, shiny and soft beard. I guarantee you will be getting looks of jealousy and amazement at your beard crafting ability. And take pride in the fact your face is now that much more awesome!
Happy Bearding Gents,
The Bearded StagVince Patton/OPB
The U.S. Senate passed energy legislation Wednesday with a host of provisions important for the Pacific Northwest. This is the first time in nearly a decade an energy bill of this scale has passed from one house of Congress to the other.
Provisions in the Energy Policy Modernization Act would:
- Speed up a long-awaited land swap near Mount Hood.
- Provide subsidies for Klamath basin farmers. This is connected to a larger non-legislative deal to remove four hydroelectric dams along the Klamath River in Oregon and California.
- Provide water certainty and fish restoration in Washington’s Yakima Basin.
- Boost geothermal, biomass and ocean energy development – all of which could have significant futures in the Pacific Northwest.
- Expedite federal permitting for liquefied natural gas export facilities.
- Permanently reauthorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which uses offshore oil and gas royalties to fund local, state and federal conservation projects.
The bill has already been garnering criticism for not doing more to address climate change.
The Senate version still has to be reconciled with a House bill before heading to the president for his signature.As I write this, it is the eve of the most important presidential election of my life. I've been asked multiple times where I'm going to be on election night. Viewing parties, large and small, are the choice of many, but I know I'll be at home to experience the event. I won't be flipping between radio stations or prowling online – I'll be following it on TV. I know I'm not the only one. The media climate may be changing, but TV is still the go-to source for witnessing big events like this. According to The IFC Media Project press materials (more on that in a bit), 70% of our waking hours are spent consuming media. Of that time, 33% is spent with TV, followed by radio (29%), the Internet (20%), newspapers (10%), and finally, magazines (8%). I imagine the percentages for TV bump up considerably during moments such as this year's election night. Viewers are looking for information, of course, but watching large, world-changing events unfold on the TV in your living room makes the experience comfortingly intimate, as well.
I've overheard and participated in some interesting conversations on the bus about this year's election; the bus serves, for me, as a local town square. Listening to people talk, especially those I am diametrically opposed to, makes me wonder how these people arrived at their conclusions, which inevitably brings me back to thinking about how media influences the way we think. Now that the dark days of the Bush administration are coming to an end, I'm sensing spin fatigue on all sides of the political spectrum. The changing media climate – as well as surviving the last eight years – has made viewers realize that consuming news and information on autopilot is not an option.
On the eve of this historic election, I am wondering if, in addition to a change in leadership, we're in for a change in how we receive news and how we digest it. Political propaganda was not invented by the Bush administration and will not end with it. But playing the media was definitely turned into a high art by his administration. Sadly, most of the major news sources gave in to being played, with only fleeting glimmers of recognition that this cannot and must not continue to be the way news and information are presented in the future. (A relatively new addition to the CNN lineup, Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull promises to stay away from sensationalism, extreme bias, and shoddy reporting that has overrun the current state of 24-hour news. Let's hope.)
So I was intrigued – no, make that thrilled – when I got an early review copy of The IFC Media Project. Like the earlier The Merchants of Cool special, which aired on Frontline (PBS) in 2001 and examined how advertisers exploit pop culture, The IFC Media Project has a similar mission, with its discerning look at how news and information are created and why it is more important than ever to be critical and conscious media consumers.
The IFC Media Project is a six-part documentary series hosted by Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning news correspondent Gideon Yago (CBS News, MTV, This American Life). An amazing amount of information is covered in each half-hour episode. Ever wonder why the missing white girl story gets so much play on TV news? Meet Larry Garrison, the "broker" behind many of those stories. Curious how experts on a news story are chosen? The loose vetting process may make you nauseous. Breakaway segments such as the "Media Encyclopedia" and an animated segment called "News Junkie" maintain the overall seriousness of the subject matter while taking a fresh (and often funny) approach to a specific topic (as in how the word "allegedly" plays double duty as caveat and weapon or a playful examination of how the word "gate" is attached to certain events).
My one and only complaint about The IFC Media Project is that it's only available to a pay-TV audience. Excerpts of upcoming episodes are available for viewing online now at www.ifc.com/mediaproject, and yes, this is one of those rare times when I would suggest you subscribe to pay-TV in order to see this splendid, eye-opening series.
The IFC Media Project premieres Tuesday, Nov. 18, at 7pm on the IFC.Between 1892 and 1954, Ellis Island served as an immigration inspection station for millions of immigrants arriving into the United States. The first immigrant to pass though the station was 17-year-old Annie Moore from Cork, Ireland, one of the 700 immigrants arriving on the opening day on January 1, 1892. The first and second class passengers were considered wealthy enough not to become a burden to the state and were examined onboard the ships while the poorer passengers were sent to the island where they underwent medical examinations and legal inspections. These images of people wearing their folk costumes were taken by amateur photographer Augustus Sherman who worked as the Chief Registry Clerk on Ellis Island from 1892 until 1925. The people in the photographs were most likely detainees who were waiting for money, travel tickets or someone to come and collect them from the island. In 1907, the photographs were published in National Geographic, and they were also hung on the walls of the lower Manhattan headquarters of the federal Immigration Service. In 2005, Aperture brought out a book of the photographs, containing 97 full-page portraits.
1907 was the busiest year for Ellis Island, with an all-time high of 11,747 immigrants arriving in April. Approved immigrants spent between three to five hours on the island where they underwent medical examinations and were asked questions regarding their occupation and the money they owned, it being preferable for them to have a starting sum when they arrived in the country. Two percent of the immigrants were denied admission on the grounds of suffering from contagious diseases or insanity, or alternatively by virtue of having a criminal background. In the 1920s, restrictions were placed on the percentage of immigrants arriving from various countries or ethnic backgrounds, as immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe were seen as inferior to the earlier immigrants from Northern and Western Europe. The facilities later served as a detention and deportation processing station, and during the Second World War, German, Italian, and Japanese resident aliens were detained on the island.The U.S. Navy has moved two carrier battle groups into the Philippine Sea to conduct exercises, the first two-carrier exercise in the region in two years. The move comes just before a UN court ruling expected to be against China and its claims in the South China Sea.
The two carrier strike groups (CSGs) field a total of two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, two guided-missile cruisers, and six guided-missile destroyers. Two nuclear attack submarines would normally be part of the combined CSG makeup but their presence was not confirmed by the Navy.
Together, the two carrier carrier battle groups have a powerful strike force of approximately 140 aircraft, including eighty F/A-18 Hornets. That, plus approximately 700 missile silos.
The Bremerton, Washington-based USS John C. Stennis is the centerpiece of Carrier Strike Group Three, which also includes the Aegis cruiser USS Mobile Bay and guided missile destroyers USS William P. Lawrence, USS Chung-Hoon and USS Stockdale. CSG 3 has been nicknamed the " Great Green Fleet " due to its use of energy-saving measures and alternative biofuels.
Carrier Groups 3 and 5 operating in the Philippine Sea.
The USS Ronald Reagan is based in Yokosuka, Japan and is part of Carrier Strike Group 5. Other ships include the Aegis cruiser USS Chancellorsville and guided-missile destroyers USS Curtis Wilbur, USS McCampbell, and USS Benfold.
This is the first two-carrier exercise in the Western Pacific in two years in part because effects of the budget sequestration have drained Navy readiness levels. Meanwhile, two other carriers, the Truman and Eisenhower, are operating in the Mediterranean against Islamic State targets.
The timing of the two-carrier exercise is not a coincidence; the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is expected to rule imminently on China's claims in the South China Sea versus the Philippines. Some experts believe that China may be tempted to lash out militarily if it loses the ruling. While the two carrier battle groups are operating on the other side of the Philippines, a major American ally, their presence could deter China from undertaking any military action.Had been arrested in Owasso, OK, for public intoxication and shoplifting
He lived at home and was treated for drug abuse, family members say
Officers ran inside house with breathing gear but g unman shot at them
Gunman: Alex Buckner, 26, shot four of his family members before setting their Phoenix, Arizona home on fire before being killed by police
This is the 26-year-old man who shot four of his family members and set their Phoenix, Arizona house on fire before he was killed by the police.
Gunman Alex Arthur Buckner, pictured in an unrelated mugshot from Owasso police department in Oklahoma, then shot at authorities when they arrived at the blazing house and ran inside with breathing gear and fire hoses.
Father Vic Buckner, 50, mother Kimberly Buckner, 49, died at the scene.
The couple's two daughters, 18-year-old Kaitlin Buckner, and six-year-old Emma, were both rescued but later died in the hospital from gunshot wounds, police said.
A tactical team stormed in after the gunfire died down and fatally shot Alex Arthur, police said.
Kaitlin Buckner called 911 shortly before 5am, pleading for help and saying that her brother had shot her, Crump said, according to KTVK.
The first officers on scene ran into the burning house because they felt they had to act quickly.
'You have people that need you to come and rescue them, and you now have not only a fire, but somebody who's also firing a gun in there,' the police sergeant said.
Officers searched for the rest of the victims, but they had to leave because the fire reignited in the attic, sending flames through a ceiling.
Family members told investigators that Alex Buckner, who lived in the home, had been in rehab for drug abuse, but the shooting was out of character for him.
Scroll down for video
Officers searched for the rest of the victims, but they had to leave because the fire reignited in the attic, sending flames through a ceiling
Happy family: Kaitlin Buckner (front), 18, poses for a selfie alongside his six-year-old sister Emma, just behind her, her mother Kimberly and her dad Vic. Police believe Alex Buckner used their father's gun
Quick-thinking: Kaitlin Buckner, 18, pictured, called 911 shortly before 5am on Tuesday, saying her brother had shot her; the first officers on the scene ran into the house because they felt they had to act quickly
Gunman Alex Arthur Buckner shot at at authorities, who arrived at the blazing house and ran inside with breathing gear and fire hoses (pictured Kimberly and Kaitlin Buckner)
Police believe Alex used a gun belonging to his father, who ran a car lubrication business out of their home. Vic Buckner, 50, (pictured) died at the scene with Kimberly Buckner, 49, along with their three children
Police believe Alex used a gun belonging to his father, who ran a car lubrication business out of their home.
Authorities found the other victims after the fire was extinguished. They all suffered gunshot wounds, but a medical examiner will determine their causes of death, authorities said.
Investigators will continue gathering evidence at the house, Crump said.
The police have no record of ever having been called to the house before.
Next-door neighbor James Graham said the family had lived in the home for about two years, and previously lived in Oklahoma. He said he chatted with them occasionally but they never mentioned any problems.
Sammie Evans, who lives across the street, said Emma Buckner was learning how to write and would show Evans notes she had written. They would chat a bit before the girl went back to her house.
'I used to call her Miss America. She was so sweet,' Evans said.
Alex Arthur Buckner, 26, shot four of his family members before he set their Phoenix, Arizona, house on fire
A tactical team stormed the house 45 minutes later after the gunfire died down, and fatally shot the gunman
Family members told investigators that Alex Buckner, who lived in the home, had received treatment in Oklahoma for drug abuse, but the shooting was out of character for him
Relatives told ABC15 that Alex Buckner had a history of mental health problems, believing that he may have been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Police in Owasso, Oklahoma, where the family had ties, told Newson6 that Buckner had been arrested for public intoxication and shoplifting in the city.
'How does a family talk about a grandson who had mental problems, yet not be angry for the grief that he caused?', asked Diana Buckner, Alex's grandmother.
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton was at the scene after crews tamped down the fire and praised the police and firefighters for their courage.
He said: 'This is what heroes look like. Their professionalism and their heroism under the worst possible conditions has truly blown me away.'
The chaos woke up residents in surrounding houses, forcing some to evacuate just before dawn.
Yolanda Strayhand, who lives behind the burned home, said her elderly mother woke her up after hearing gunfire.
Strayhand went outside and said her front yard looked like a movie scene, with lights and noise from several fire engines, SWAT officers and a helicopter.
She said: 'We were approached by a lady firefighter who said: "There's a live shooter."'
She got a glimpse of the back of the home engulfed in flames.
'Every room on the top floor was lit, and they were pointing guns toward the basement,' she said.
An officer came by and told her to leave. Strayhand gathered clothes, medications and her mother's walker, and they both evacuated the scene.
Three officers were treated for smoke inhalation.
Sammie Evans, who lives across the street, said Emma Buckner was learning how to write and would show Evans notes she had written. Pictured, a police officer at the scene
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton (pictured, center) called it an 'unspeakable violence' but praised police (right) and firefighters for their courage. He said: 'This is what heroes look like'Prime Minister Tony Abbott is putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to his mantra to be ''methodical, measured and calm'', a voice expert has found.
In fact, Mr Abbott speaks 100 words a minute slower in media interviews than he did in opposition, and also speaks in a more monotone voice, according to Cate Madill, the director of the voice research laboratory at the University of Sydney's faculty of health sciences.
She reviewed interviews and news conferences from Mr Abbott's time as opposition leader, his election victory speech, and his interaction with the media and Parliament since then.
Dr Madill said changes in his delivery were ''absolutely significant'' and the result of coaching.
''Since he's become Prime Minister, his speech rate has dropped considerably,'' she said.If you’re a paddling enthusiast, you undoubtedly have faced the problems of having to transport your kayak to and from your favorite paddling launch site. There are quite a few ways to do this, and most of them depend on what kind of kayak you have. For example, if you have an inflatable, you can deflate it and place it in the trunk of your car, it takes up very little space. But, if you have a hard-shell kayak, and most of the more advanced paddlers choose this as their primary kayak, you will need a way to transport it.
Enter Malone Auto Racks.
They are a rack accessory company, based in North America, and have over ten years of experience in the industry. You can find their products in more than 1,500 outdoor shops, both online and locally, and they’re all over the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia.
They operate from the Coast of Maine, and what they strive to do is stay true to their values and primary mission. All of their products have three primary goals – they must be simple to sell, simple to install, and most important, simple to use. The products are made to help people enjoy the rivers, lakes, and oceans, and make sure they get there with ease, all the while minimizing the customers’ carbon footprint. Their primary goal is to give the consumers the best possible value and provide reliable and innovative products that meet the customers’ demands.For more on Marvel’s The Defenders, including exclusive photographs and interviews, pick up Entertainment Weekly on stands, or buy it here now. And don’t forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW.
They may seem like old friends now, but the four stars of Marvel’s The Defenders — Charlie Cox (Daredevil), Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones), Mike Colter (Luke Cage), and Finn Jones (Iron Fist) — had a memorably raucous first meeting.
Last October, the leads met at New York Comic Con to the cheers of hundreds of fans. Cox, Ritter, and Colter had hung out before — Ritter and Colter worked together on Jessica Jones as well — but it was their first opportunity to meet Jones, who had been cast a few months earlier. “We clicked in this magical way right away. When I met Finn, the first time, we were just like, ‘Blah blah blah blah blah!'” Ritter tells EW as she forms puppets with her hands, miming their first conversation. “It was like, obviously we’re going to be best friends.”
On stage, the experience of being together felt just as exciting, even for Cox, who says he tries to avoid crowds as much as possible. “It was nuts,” Cox says. “I don’t like that kind of attention, as Charlie. It’s not my idea of fun, but I’m very proud of the show, and those guys are so enthusiastic, you do get to feel momentarily like you’re Bono. You feel like a proper rock star.”
Just don’t say it’s like the Beatles. “Everybody keeps going, ‘It was like the Beatles!’ I’m like, ‘It’s not like the Beatles, come on,'” Colter says. Even so, he says it was hard to argue against the riotous reaction Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb received when he announced Sigourney Weaver’s casting and brought her out to meet the fans:
Jones had the most surreal experience, after shooting a 16-hour day shortly before the meeting. “To put it in context, I’d just been filming for six months, I’d just finished shooting Iron Fist and wrapped it the morning of Comic Con,” he remembers. “I wrapped at, like, 10 a.m. in the morning, I went home and slept for two-and-a-half hours, and then I had to go to Comic Con.”
“And then suddenly thrown in to an audience of thousands of people, showing them the work for the first time, meeting the Defenders, meeting loads of screaming fans, it was just insane,” he continues. “I was numb for the whole thing, because it was overwhelming. Suddenly, I’m on a stage in front of everyone, Sigourney Weaver comes out, which I didn’t know about, and then the rest of the Defenders, meeting them for the first time, in front of thousands of people. I was just like, ‘What the f— is going on?!’… It was honestly one of the most intense days of my life.”
At least that intensity led to a first cast photo:
Marvel’s The Defenders hits Netflix this summer.A FOURTH free-to-air match, on Saturday nights, is one of the key battleground issues in NRL television rights talks which have accelerated fast.
Three free-to-air NRL games a week are now screened by the Nine Network, with commercial networks to lobby hard for a live Saturday night game.
This could be the timeslot for a second free-to-air network for rugby league which misses out on the Friday night properties and rights to the all-important State of Origin series.
Fox Sports, which presently broadcast all Saturday NRL content in most weeks, would have to pay a premium price to keep all matches on that day exclusively.
Despite strong Monday night ratings for Fox Sports’ NRL games this year, a |
I am failures. Taking the red pill is about feeling something and then letting that feeling go.
It is about letting pleasure wash over you, and it is about letting pain wash over you. But never remaining attached to either.
Emptiness
Zen is the middle ground of stability, of not needing anything.
Red Pill Zen is knowing that experiencing pain and pleasure are equally the meaning of life and therefore life is all one truly needs.
Red Pill Zen is understanding that all purposeful action leads to growth while inaction leads to decay.
Red Pill Zen is taking the path of growth for no real reason other than an intellectual curiosity to align with the laws of the universe through trial and error. To learn the laws of action and reaction. Because lifting the veil over your eyes to see the truth, to see beyond the matrix of appearances which guide everyone else is power. That power of experience is the essence of masculinity, and if it does not resonate with you, try resonating with femininity instead.
Read More: Does Building Muscle Get You WomenOne of the men who said he helped run the Texas church gunman off the road Sunday is being hailed as a hero for potentially preventing more bloodshed after the deadly shooting.
Johnnie Langendorff told Fox San Antonio he decided to track down the killer after seeing the gunman, Devin Kelley, exchanging fire with another member of the community. That person, who hasn't been identified, reportedly shot Kelley during the encounter.
The mass shooting unfolded around 11:30 a.m. at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, which is about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio. At least 26 people were killed and 20 wounded.
Langendorff said he arrived at an intersection near the church. He said he witnessed Kelley and the other man engaged in a gun battle and recognized one of the men from the community.
"I pulled up on the intersection and I saw the shooter coming from the cars, actually right outside the church his vehicle was parked, doors open, engines open and him and the neighbor across the street and exchanging fire," he said.
TEXAS CHURCH SHOOTING: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE VICTIMS
Langendorff said he never got a look at the gunman, but just "saw the gunfire."
As the shooter got in his truck, Langendorff told Fox San Antonio the other man briefed him on what happened.
"He just hurt so many people. And he just affected so many people's lives, why wouldn't you want to take him down?" — Johnnie Langendorff on encounter with suspected killer
"The shooter got in his truck, the gentlemen with the rifle came to my truck as the shooter took off, and he briefed me quickly on what had just happened and said we had to get him, so that's what I did," he said.
Following a brief chase, the two caught up with the gunman.
"We just take pursuit, we speed over 87 through traffic and hit about 95 going down 539 trying to catch this guy until he eventually lost control on his own and went off in the ditch," Langendorff said.
TEXAS CHURCH MASSACRE AMONG THE DEADLIEST US MASS SHOOTINGS
Police arrived within five to seven minutes to the location where the shooter was stopped. “We led police to him,” Lagendorff told Ksat.com.
Langendorff said he was not aware at the time of the chase the shooter had additional weapons in his vehicle and that he might have prevented more deaths.
"He just hurt so many people," he said. "And he just affected so many people's lives, why wouldn't you want to take him down?"A Chinese submarine stalked a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific last month and surfaced within firing range of its torpedoes and missiles before being detected, The Washington Times has learned.
The surprise encounter highlights China’s continuing efforts to prepare for a future conflict with the U.S., despite Pentagon efforts to try to boost relations with Beijing’s communist-ruled military.
The submarine encounter with the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying warships also is an embarrassment to the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Adm. William J. Fallon, who is engaged in an ambitious military exchange program with China aimed at improving relations between the two nations’ militaries.
Disclosure of the incident comes as Adm. Gary Roughead, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet, is making his first visit to China. The four-star admiral was scheduled to meet senior Chinese military leaders during the weeklong visit, which began over the weekend.
According to the defense officials, the Chinese Song-class diesel-powered attack submarine shadowed the Kitty Hawk undetected and surfaced within five miles of the carrier Oct. 26.
The surfaced submarine was spotted by a routine surveillance flight by one of the carrier group’s planes.
The Kitty Hawk battle group includes an attack submarine and anti-submarine helicopters that are charged with protecting the warships from submarine attack.
According to the officials, the submarine is equipped with Russian-made wake-homing torpedoes and anti-ship cruise missiles.
The Kitty Hawk and several other warships were deployed in ocean waters near Okinawa at the time, as part of a routine fall deployment program. The officials said Chinese submarines rarely have operated in deep water far from Chinese shores or shadowed U.S. vessels.
A Pacific Command spokesman declined to comment on the incident, saying details were classified. Pentagon spokesmen also declined to comment.
The incident is a setback for the aggressive U.S.-China military exchange program being promoted by Adm. Fallon, who has made several visits to China in recent months in an attempt to develop closer ties.
However, critics of the program in the Pentagon say China has not reciprocated and continues to deny U.S. military visitors access to key facilities, including a Beijing command center.
In contrast, Chinese military visitors have been invited to military exercises and sensitive U.S. facilities. Additionally, military intelligence officials said Adm. Fallon has restricted U.S. intelligence-gathering activities against China, fearing that disclosure of the activities would upset relations with Beijing.
The restrictions are hindering efforts to know more about China’s military buildup, the officials said. “This is a harbinger of a stronger Chinese reaction to America’s military presence in East Asia,” said Richard Fisher, a Chinese military specialist with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, who called the submarine incident alarming.
“Given the long range of new Chinese sub-launched anti-ship missiles and those purchased from Russia, this incident is very serious,” he said. “It will likely happen again, only because Chinese submarine captains of 40 to 50 new modern submarines entering their navy will want to test their mettle against the 7th Fleet.”
Pentagon intelligence officials say China’s military buildup in recent years has produced large numbers of submarines and surface ships, seeking to control larger portions of international waters in Asia, a move U.S. officials fear could restrict the flow of oil from the Middle East to Asia in the future.
Between 2002 and last year, China built 14 new submarines, including new Song-class vessels and several other types, both diesel- and nuclear-powered.
Since 1996, when the United States dispatched two aircraft carrier battle groups to waters near Taiwan in a show of force, Beijing also has bought and built weapons designed specifically to attack U.S. aircraft carriers and other warships. “The Chinese have made it clear that they understand the importance of the submarine in any kind of offensive or defensive strategy to deal with a military conflict,” an intelligence official said recently.
In late 2004, China dispatched a Han-class submarine to waters near Guam, Taiwan and Japan. Japan’s military went on emergency alert after the submarine surfaced in Japanese waters.
Beijing apologized for the incursion. The Pentagon’s latest annual report on Chinese military power stated that China is investing heavily in weapons designed “to interdict, at long ranges, aircraft carrier and expeditionary strike groups that might deploy to the western Pacific.”
It could not be learned whether the U.S. government lodged a protest with China’s government over the incident or otherwise raised the matter in official channels.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Early History of the U.S. Postal Service
The United States Postal Service first began moving the mail on July 26, 1775, when the Second Continental Congress named Benjamin Franklin as the nation's first Postmaster General. In accepting the position, Franklin dedicated his efforts to fulfilling George Washington's vision. Washington, who championed a free flow of information between citizens and their government as a cornerstone of freedom, often spoke of a nation bound together by a system of postal roads and post offices.
Publisher William Goddard (1740-1817) first suggested the idea of an organized U.S. postal service in 1774, as a way to pass the latest news past the prying eyes of colonial British postal inspectors.
Goddard formally proposed a postal service to Congress nearly two years before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Congress took no action on Goddard's plan until after the battles of Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775. On July 16, 1775, with revolution brewing, Congress enacted the "Constitutional Post" as a way to ensure communication between the general populace and the patriots preparing to fight for America's independence. Goddard was reported to have been deeply disappointed when Congress chose Franklin as Postmaster General.
The Postal Act of 1792 further defined the role of the Postal Service. Under the act, newspapers were allowed in the mail at low rates to promote the spread of information across the states. To ensure the sanctity and privacy of the mails, postal officials were forbidden to open any letters in their charge unless they were determined to be undeliverable.
The Post Office Department issued its first postage stamps on July 1, 1847. Previously, letters were taken to a Post Office, where the postmaster would note the postage in the upper right corner. The postage rate was based on the number of sheets in the letter and the distance it would travel. Postage could be paid in advance by the writer, collected from the addressee on delivery, or paid partially in advance and partially upon delivery.
For a complete history of the early Postal Service, visit the USPS Postal History website.
The Modern Postal Service: Agency or Business?
Until the adoption of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, the U.S. Postal Service functioned as a regular, tax-supported, agency of the federal government.
According to the laws under which it now operates, the U.S. Postal Service is a semi-independent federal agency, mandated to be revenue-neutral. That is, it is supposed to break even, not make a profit.
In 1982, U.S. postage stamps became "postal products," rather than a form of taxation. Since then, the bulk of the cost of operating the postal system has been paid for by customers through the sale of "postal products" and services rather than taxes.
Each class of mail is also expected to cover its share of the costs, a requirement that causes the percentage rate adjustments to vary in different classes of mail, according to the costs associated with the processing and delivery characteristics of each class.
According to the costs of operations, U.S. Postal Service rates are set by the Postal Regulatory Commission according to the recommendations of the Postal Board of Governors.
Look, the USPS is an Agency!
The USPS is created as a government agency under Title 39, Section 101.1 of the United States Code which states, in part:
(a) The United States Postal Service shall be operated as a basic and fundamental service provided to the people by the Government of the United States, authorized by the Constitution, created by Act of Congress, and supported by the people. The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities. The costs of establishing and maintaining the Postal Service shall not be apportioned to impair the overall value of such service to the people.
Under paragraph (d) of Title 39, Section 101.1, "Postal rates shall be established to apportion the costs of all postal operations to all users of the mail on a fair and equitable basis."
No, the USPS is a Business!
the Postal Service takes on some several very non-governmental attributes via the powers granted to it under Title 39, Section 401, which include:
power to sue (and be sued) under its own name;
power to adopt, amend and repeal its own regulations;
power to "enter into and perform contracts, execute instruments, and determine the character of, and the necessity for, its expenditures";
power to buy, sell and lease private property; and,
power to build, operate, lease and maintain buildings and facilities.
All of which are typical functions and powers of a private business. However, unlike other private businesses, the Postal Service is exempt from paying federal taxes. USPS can borrow money at discounted rates and can condemn and acquire private property under governmental rights of eminent domain.
The USPS does get some taxpayer support. Around $96 million is budgeted annually by Congress for the "Postal Service Fund." These funds are used to compensate USPS for postage-free mailing for all legally blind persons and for mail-in election ballots sent from US citizens living overseas. A portion of the funds also pays USPS for providing address information to state and local child support enforcement agencies.
Under federal law, only the Postal Service can handle or charge postage for handling letters. Despite this virtual monopoly worth some $45 billion a year, the law merely requires the Postal Service to remain "revenue neutral," neither making a profit or suffering a loss.
How is the Postal Service ‘Business’ Doing Financially?
Unfortunately, the Postal Service continued its long string of financial losses in 2016. According to the USPS’ 2016 Annual Fiscal Report, after accounting for a $5.8 billion retiree health benefit prefunding obligation, the Postal Service posted a net loss of approximately $5.6 billion as compared to a $5.1 billion net loss for the year ended September 30, 2015. Had the Postal Service not been required meet its congressionally mandated obligation to prefund its retiree health benefits program, the Postal Service would have recorded net income of approximately $200 million in 2016.The nation is abuzz following allegations that Donald Trump has reportedly sexually assaulted multiple women—and he vehemently denied any allegations on Thursday. Now, reports have surfaced revealing even more reported inappropriate comments from the presidential candidate. The Daily Beast reports that Trump called actress and former Celebrity Apprentice contestant Marlee Matlin, who is deaf, "retarded."
Marlee is the only deaf performer to win an Oscar for Best Actress to date.
Three former Apprentice staffers told The Daily Beast that Trump would equate Marlee's deafness with a mental disability. One recalled a time when Trump, who often took notes during scenes taking place in the show's boardroom, wrote on a piece of paper "Marlee, is she retarded??"
Another said Trump had made fun of the way Marlee's voice sounds during a break from filming.
"It actually sounded a lot like what he did [to] the New York Times guy," the source said, referring to a time when Trump mocked a disabled New York Times reporter at a rally last year. "Like, to make it seem like she was mentally not there? [It] sounded like he got a real kick out of it. It was really upsetting."
A third source said Trump had made insensitive comments to Marlee's face, and that his comments about her deafness relating to a mental disability were a regular occurrence throughout the filming of the season.
"In the boardroom, he would talk to her like she was'special,'" the source said. "He took her deafness as a some kind of [mental] handicap."
According to the staffer, people would "just laugh this [stuff] off—it was just the culture of [the show]."
Earlier this week, former Celebrity Apprentice contestant Richard Hatch told People that he witnessed Trump make inappropriate sexual comments to women on the show, including Marlee.
"He went back and forth with Marlee," Hatch said. "No matter how she responded, no matter how politely, he would push it a step further with comments about her looks, and how she was making him feel, and about what he thought of her, and how happy he would be to do something with her."
Related: Why We Need to Stop Using the R-Word(Image: Dwight Eschliman/Getty)
Midnight fridge raids are part and parcel of a late-night marijuana smoking session. A study in mice has provided the most complete explanation yet for why a spliff triggers intense hunger pangs. The findings, which elucidate the role of smell, also suggest that we might eventually be able to treat common disorders such as obesity and loss of appetite with a simple nasal spray.
We know that the active ingredient in cannabis, THC, binds to cannabinoid receptors in the brain called CB1s. This binding inhibits chemical signals that tell us not to eat, and so make us feel hungry.
But this isn’t the end of the story. Since smell plays such a central role in making us feel hungry, it must be part of the explanation – but no one knew exactly how it fit.
Advertisement
To find out, Giovanni Marsicano of the French research agency INSERM in Bordeaux and his colleagues genetically modified mice to make it possible to turn on and off the CB1 receptor in particular nerve cells within the smell, or olfactory, system.
The key proved to be a group of nerve cells that carry signals from the cerebral cortex down to the olfactory bulb, the primary smell centre of the brain. When the team switched off CB1 on these cells, they found that hungry mice no longer ate more than their well-fed counterparts.
Conversely, activating CB1 in the same cells by injecting THC caused hungry mice to eat even more. THC-treated mice also responded to less-concentrated food smells than untreated mice, a sign that the chemical had enhanced their sense of smell.
This suggests the natural cannabinoids released during hunger do the same thing that THC does for pot smokers, effectively cranking up the volume on the olfactory system, which stimulates feeding.
Olfactory overdrive
Marsicano’s study is “a technical tour de force”, says Jaideep Bains, a neuroscientist at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary, Canada. The brain is teeming with cannabinoid receptors, he notes, and only precisely targeted experiments like Marsicano’s could have pinpointed the crucial cells.
If the findings hold true for humans, they may open the door to ways of treating appetite disorders by modifying the link between smell and appetite, says Bains. “If you are eating a lot, perhaps that olfactory system is in overdrive,” he says. If so, drugs that interfere with cannabinoid signalling might reduce hunger. Conversely, loss of appetite – often seen, for example, in people who have cancer – could be treated by enhancing that signalling. Many people with cancer already do this by “self-medicating” with marijuana.
In 2006, the drug company Sanofi-Aventis introduced a CB1 blocker drug, rimonabant, as an appetite suppressant for obese people. However, the drug – which blocked CB1 throughout the body – was withdrawn a few years later because it sometimes also produced severe anxiety and depression.
Marsicano’s discovery means that pharmaceutical companies may someday be able to avoid these side effects by developing a nasal spray that delivers the therapy direct to the olfactory bulb without affecting cannabinoid receptors elsewhere, Bains says.
Journal reference: Nature Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1038/nn.3647New legislation introduced in Ukraine would bring the local cryptocurrency ecosystem under the oversight of the country’s central bank.
The bill, first filed on October 6 according to public records, outlines the rules for exchange services, including taxation and data redemption requirements. Notably, the bill calls for cryptocurrencies to be taxed as a kind of property, mirroring the approach taken by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, which released a similar determination in 2014.
It also includes a section on cryptocurrency mining – the energy-intensive process by which transactions are added to a blockchain, creating new coins as a reward – stating that the proceeds are also subject to taxes.
The legislation’s introduction is notable development, given that in August, the country’s central bank hinted that it may move to regulate cryptocurrency activities in Ukraine.
If the bill is passed and signed into law, the National Bank of Ukraine would have two months from that date to create guidelines for exchanges. Further, it mandates that the Ukrainian government “ensure that the ministries and other central executive bodies bring their normative legal acts into compliance with this law,” according to a translation.
It remains to be seen what changes will be made as the bill moves through the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s national legislature. Several committees in the unicameral parliament are set to weigh in on the measure, according to public records, with the Financial Policy and Banking Committee taking a leading role.
Another possible factor in the process is that, as previously reported, several members of the legislature have disclosed significant holdings in bitcoin.
Editor’s Note: Some statements in this article have been translated from Ukrainian.
Verkhovna Rada image via Sharomka/ShutterstockThe web is an increasingly critical tool for news organizations, allowing them to communicate faster, research more easily, and disseminate their work to a global audience. Often it's the primary distribution channel for critical, investigative work that shines a light into the darkest corners of society and the economy—the kind of reporting that exposes wrongdoing, causes upset and brings about change.
Unfortunately there are some out there who want to prevent this kind of reporting—to silence journalism when it’s needed most. A simple, inexpensive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack can be carried out by almost anyone with access to a computer—and take a site completely offline before its owners even know they’ve been attacked.
These attacks threaten free expression and access to information—two of Google’s core values. So a few years ago we created Project Shield, an effort that uses Google’s security infrastructure to detect and filter attacks on news and human rights websites. Now we’re expanding Project Shield beyond our trusted testers, and opening it up to all the world’s news sites to protect them from DDoS attacks and eliminate DDoS as a form of censorship.
We learned a lot from our early group of Project Shield testers. Not only have we kept websites online during attacks that otherwise would have taken them offline, we learned crucial information about how these types of attacks happen, and how we can improve our services to defend against them.
With this expansion, tens of thousands of news sites will have access to Project Shield. And because Project Shield is free, even the smallest independent news organizations will be able to continue their important work without the fear of being shut down.
Finally, Project Shield is not just about protecting journalism. It’s about improving the health of the Internet by mitigating against a significant threat for publishers and people who want to publish content that some might find inconvenient. A free and open Internet depends on protecting the free flow of information—starting with the news.
Visit our website to learn how Project Shield works and, if you work in journalism, discover how you can join the fight to protect the world’s news.SJWs Are the Unpopular Kids You Went To High School With
The Curled Bugle Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 28, 2017
In high school (granted I went to a Christian private school in Florida; graduated 2011), you had the band/choir kids (a decided minority)—and then you had everyone else [sports kids (jocks)/cheerleaders/“preppy” girls]. I was a member of the former.
It almost goes without saying that the sports/not-band kids were the “cool”, popular ones. The band kids weren’t really bullied much, but we just weren’t in the same social circles as everyone else. You could tell we didn’t really fit in with them and vice versa—not that they would have ever wanted to fit in with us.
Well, come 2017, and the only people from my high school back then who are now what one would call “SJWs” — who frequently post Social Justice PC statuses and articles online; who have countless tattoos, weird-colored hair, all sorts of piercings, etc. — are from the band/choir gang.
On the other hand, almost all of the pro-Trump/anti-Hillary/pro-common-sense posts I have seen from people I knew back then, are from the jocks, cheerleaders and preppy girls. And though many of them frat-partied, skipped class and slept their way through college, they nevertheless didn’t go the SJW route.
This is not a coincidence. In fact, I am starting to believe that the majority of SJWs are exactly those unpopular kids from high school, who have now turned to radical identity politics as a means to stand out. After feeling unpopular/weird/being bullied all throughout high school, they now choose (and make no mistake, it is a choice) to adopt these “identities” and multitudinous genders to help make up for it. To make them feel special and unique. And now, funnily enough, they have become the bullies.
That is not to say that all unpopular kids in high school go the way of the SJW; after all, I made it out alright, and I do know a few people from my high school circle of friends who are closet Trump supporters. But the level of insanity that many of the others have devolved to since then is nothing short of unbelievable. “Identifying” all sorts of different ways, shaming and cursing at people just for posting common sense or facts, getting 666 tattoos, etc. And I just never see any of that sort of thing from the other main social clique.
I suspect that many of these kids simply never came to terms with who they were in high school, and didn’t accept the fact that it was OK to not be in the popular clique. Now, they have to manufacture their own culture to feel special. Little do they know that the Cultural Marxists are manufacturing it for them.
That said, it’s pretty strange to be looking at my Facebook feed and finding more common ground with these people I was never friends with in high school, than with those who I used to spend hours hanging out with… Welcome to 2017, I guess.Chevron Produces Phony Online News Coverage to Spread Misinformation about Ecuador Disaster
Oil Giant Fails to Disclose That It Paid for "News" Video Narrated by Former CNN Correspondent Gene Randall
Amazon Defense Coalition
3 May 2009 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Karen Hinton at +1.703.798.3109
To obtain additional background about Chevron's oil contamination in Ecuador, click here to download a press kit
Washington, D.C. (May 3, 2009) –To promote a misinformation campaign about its role in the oil contamination of a pristine area of the rainforest in Ecuador, Chevron recently produced a video that copies the format and style of television news shows and portrays Texaco, now owned by Chevron, as completely blameless in the dumping of billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon jungle.
Chevron has bought online advertising on Google to promote the 13-minute video ahead of the airing tonight of a 60 Minutes segment, reported by Scott Pelley, that is expected to expose the company's complicity in what is considered the world's worst oil-related contamination. Chevron never reveals it paid for the video, which is designed to look like an "objective" CNN news report and is narrated by former CNN correspondent and current corporate consultant Gene Randall.
Two environmental groups are blasting Chevron and Randall for engaging in the deceptive practice of producing a corporate news video that looks like a news broadcast. They called on Chevron to stop airing the video until the company makes a full disclosure.
"Chevron is using false information in this deceptive video to mislead the public, its own shareholders, and Chevron employees about its responsibility for an environmental disaster of epic proportions," Mitch Anderson, Corporate Accountability Campaigner at Amazon Watch, an environmental advocacy group in San Francisco.
"Randall should be ashamed to lend his credibility built up over years as a legitimate journalist to an oil company trying evade accountability for a disaster that is literally killing off indigenous groups and destroying the rainforest," added Anderson.
"If I were CNN, I would be furious because Randall essentially is getting paid by Chevron to use and dilute CNN's brand without permission."
Click here to view the video.
Chevron faces a potential civil liability of up to $27 billion for the Ecuador contamination in an epic 15-year trial in Ecuador's courts brought by dozens of indigenous groups and farmer communities. The damages assessment was produced by a team of 15 experts and is contained in a 4,000 page court report that analyzed the evidence in the case and places blame squarely on Chevron for the problems.
A final decision on the case is expected later this year.
The trial is taking place in Ecuador at Chevron's request after it was transferred from U.S. federal court in 2002. At the time, Chevron submitted numerous sworn affidavits praising the fairness of Ecuador's courts, although with a decision in the case imminent the company now claims those same courts are treating it unfairly.
The Chevron corporate video uses paid Chevron consultants and employees who cite discredited information consistent with the company's talking points on the case, said Karen Hinton, a U.S.-based spokesperson for the rainforest communities. Randall advertises himself as a producer and narrator of corporate videos with a "news flavor". (For more information about Randall, click here)
The Ecuadorian man who has led the communities in the battle against Chevron said the company should either pull the ad or inform viewers it produced it.
"Telling the truth isn't easy for Chevron because the company has put out much misinformation about the harm Texaco did to my country and its people," said Luis Yanza, President of the Amazon Defense Coalition, an Ecuadorian group that represents the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The hiring of Randall is not the first time Chevron has tried to use the veneer of the news media to promote its misinformation campaign. Chevron paid a little-known San Francisco-based online newspaper publisher, Pat Murphy, to write positive news article about Chevron in Ecuador without revealing Murphy was paid. Collaborating with Murphy has been the online blogger Zennie Abraham, known as Zennie 62, who parrots Chevron's talking points in his blogs. (For more information regarding Chevron's use of Pat Murphy and Zennie Abraham as proxies to dissiminate the company's propaganda, click here and here
Chevron has not denied charges that it funnels money to seemingly independent journalists, including Murphy and Abraham, to post what appears to be editorial content that is actually paid advertising.
The Chevron video misleads viewers on several important elements of the lawsuit, as demonstrated by evidence in the 4,000-page report prepared by a team of court experts, said Anderson. Some of the misleading facts are as follows:
The video quotes Pedro Alvarez, a Chevron consultant, as saying the contamination in Ecuador poses no risk to public health. In fact, several parties – including Chevron – have found dangerous contaminants and carcinogens such as Chromium VI at levels thousands of times higher than allowed by law in Ecuador.
The video falsely claims Texaco earned $490 million in profits from Ecuador. In reality, Texaco earned between $25 billion and $30 billion; Texaco's fourth-tier subsidiary, Texpet, earned $490 million.
The video falsely claims the case was brought under law passed in 1999, after Texaco left Ecuador. In fact, it was brought under a provision of Ecuador's civil code dating to 1861 – a fact Chevron has admitted in court.
The video claims Ecuador's courts are "unfair" but fails to reveal that the charge was made only after the evidence at trial started to point to Chevron's culpability. It also fails to disclose that Chevron argued as recently as 2007 in another case that Ecuador's courts are an adequate forum.
The video claims that Ecuadorian lawyer Pablo Fajardo, who has won a CNN "Hero" Award for his work on the case, tried to stop Ecuador's state-owned oil company from cleaning Texaco's contaminated sites. In fact, Fajardo tried to get that company to clean the sites properly rather than just cover them with dirt.
Chevron tries to claim the health impacts such as cancers are caused by fecal matter in the water. There is no scientific evidence to support the claim that fecal matter causes cancer.
The video lies when it claims that the billions of gallons of water of formation dumped by Texaco were "treated" before discharge. In fact, Chevron's own environmental audits, in evidence in the case, show the water contained carcinogens and was not treated.
Click here for more information:
###Advertisement
She invited her squad to her $18 million mansion for an Independence Day party on Monday.
And Taylor Swift, 26, looked to have had a blast as she showed off her holiday spirit in red, white, and blue while zipping down a massive, inflated water slide with pal Karlie Kloss in an Instagram post shared the following day.
Taylor looked to be screaming in excitement as she slid hand-in-hand down the slide with Karlie, 23, at the bash which was also attended by famous friends such as Gigi Hadid, Cara Delevingne, and Blake Lively.
Scroll down for video
Jumping for joy! Taylor Swift zipped hand-in-hand down a giant, inflatable water slide with pal Karlie Kloss at star-studded Fourth of July bash
The two looked to be having a blast as they flew into the air while sliding down the enormous inflatable attraction, which had been set up at Taylor's lavish Rhode Island mansion.
They were also spotted showing off wide grins in front of an ocean backdrop as they sat side-by-side at the bottom of the slide following their dramatic plunge.
She also hit the slide with pal Kennedy Raye, who was seen sitting in the middle as the pop star rode down with her and Fight Song singer Rachel Platten.
They made it! Taylor and Karlie continued to hold hands as another picture showed them flashing wide grins following the dramatic plunge down the slide
What a ride! The blonde beauty also took on the massive water slide with pal Kennedy Raye
Ruby Rose was another one of Taylor's famous guests who took on the massive water slide, sharing a comical collage of snaps of her riding down the attraction on a unicorn float with girlfriend Harley Gusman and Taylor's brother Austin.
'Let's get a unicorn @austinkingsleyswift said.. It'll be great he said haha @harleygusman,' the Orange is the New Black actress captioned the collage, in which the trio could be seen toppling off of the float.
Ruby's fellow Orange is the New Black star Uzo Aduba shared a photo of herself hitting the day's popular water slide attraction with Taylor and her sister Chioma.
Here we go! Taylor had her hands in the air as she flew down the slide alongside Kennedy and Rachel Platten
Whoops! Ruby Rose also tackled the slide with girlfriend Harley Gusman and Taylor's brother Austin, jokingly captioning this photo collage: 'Let's get a unicorn @austinkingsleyswift said.. It'll be great he said haha @harleygusman'
She also shared a funny photo of the squad dancing along to NSYNC's Bye Bye Bye, commenting: 'When NSYNC's 'Bye Bye Bye' comes on and you all still know the choreography. #happy4th.'
The day after the patriotic celebrations, Taylor continued to share festive photos on Instagram, posting a snap of herself striking a dramatic pose alongside model pals Gigi and Cara.
In the picture, she can be seen looking up at the sky as she holds up an American flag, while her body is turned to the side.
She showed off her toned figure in a red, white, and blue Solid & Striped bathing suit, matching friend Gigi who stood to her far left in the photo, also donning white, cat eye sunglasses by Perverse.
'My grand idea' Ruby later uploaded a photo of her hitting the slide with Taylor - and an American flag - joking that the plan had been 'to hold the American flag and slide gracefully down with it'
So patriotic! The duo tried to go down the slide together while gripping onto the flag
'Making a splash!' Orange is the New Black star Uzo Aduba shared this striking photo of herself and sister Chioma enjoying the water slide alongside Taylor
In the middle Cara flaunted her sculpted abs in a red, white, and blue bikini, while also holding an American flag.
The British model wore her blonde tresses pulled back into a ponytail, and hid her eyes behind black, reflective sunglasses.
Cara was also seen covered up in a white T-shirt, with her long locks cascading down her back as she walked away from the camera in another snap shared by Taylor.
The Blank Space hitmaker and the model had their arms around each other, as they walked along the grass in coordinating white sneakers.
Earning their stripes: Gigi Hadid, Cara Delevingne, and Taylor coordinated their swimsuits on July 4and each added some unique shades with Tay opting for Perverse sunglasses and Gigi and Cara rocking reflective ones
A second look: Gigi shared a black and white version of her, Cara, and Taylor posting, which had the whole trio looking at the camera
A view of Taylor's stunning Rhode Island mansion could be seen in the back as the two shared what looked to be a bonding moment.
In another photo, shared by Taylor's longtime BFF Abigail Anderson, the two can be seen showing off temporary tattoos that they had painted on for the festivities.
Abigail showed off an American flag, while Taylor sported a red heart with a white outline that featured her initial in the center. The pair sported matching, black sunglasses.
What a view: The singer and her gang spent the holiday at her luxury Rhode Island home
Throwback: Uzo showed off the fun party scene as she shared a photo of the squad dancing along to an old favorite, writing: 'When NSYNC's 'Bye Bye Bye' comes on and you all still know the choreography. #happy4th'
On Monday Taylor had looked relaxed as she chatted away with a male pal on her Rhode Island home's terrace; her eyes covered with a pair of funky shades.
Her messy shoulder-length locks looked damp, suggesting the pop star had enjoyed time in her pool, beside which was a giant inflatable slide in the colours of the Stars and Stripes.
Meanwhile, Gigi was all smiles in her swimsuit as she looked to be enjoying herself in the warm sunshine.
Girl time: Taylor shared a snap with her team of BFFs, who took a dip on the ocean over the weekend
It's her party! Taylor and longtime BFF Abigail Anderson showed off body art for the festivities, with the hitmaker sporting a red heart with white outlining and her initial in the center
The form-fitting garment had a plunging back which showcased her svelte frame further, and her bottom looked pert in |
(365 votes, or 67.84 percent), Pitney said, and “everybody was saying what a big margin Obama won by.”
Trump’s margin of victory in the Electoral College is greater than George W. Bush’s in 2000 or 2004, but both of those were among the tightest electoral victories in American history.
“Trump won. He won by a clear margin,” Pitney said. “But it was no landslide by any accepted definition of that term.”
Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight also looked at Trump’s victory in historical context and concluded it was “a bit Orwellian to call it a ‘landslide’ or a ‘blowout.'”
Silver found that the percentage of electoral vote won by Trump — 56.9 percent — was well below the historical average, 70.9 percent. Silver found that Trump’s share of electoral votes ranked 44th out of 54 elections going back to 1804. Before that, he noted, “presidential electors cast two votes each, making it hard to compare them to present-day elections.”
To this, we will add the disclaimer that these calculations assume Electoral College electors on Dec. 19 will vote according to who won a plurality of votes in their state, and that recounts will not overturn any of the state results.
Here’s Pitney’s list:
https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/0e7f65c8-8066-4eb9-ba8c-de764437aa41KITTANNING (KDKA) — A local boxer already in trouble for allegedly throwing a woman to the ground, is now accused of causing more mayhem on the same day.
According to a criminal complaint, Paul Spadafora pulled a knife on a Sheetz employee in Kittanning.
It allegedly happened on Apr. 4 around 8 p.m. at a store on State Route 422.
The manager of the Sheetz, Kristin Marie Brink, told officers that Spadafora had been “in and out” of the store and that she believed his car was broken down.
She continued to explain that the man became belligerent with her and that she could not understand what he was saying.
That is when Spadafora allegedly approached the counter with a blueberry muffin in one hand and a tactical knife in the other, and began screaming at Brink.
“Every time I’ve ever purchased a muffin, I would get butter or perhaps some kind of cream cheese, and naturally there’s a knife. I don’t find that part unusual,” said Spadafora’s lawyer Phil DiLucente.
When police arrived, she reportedly provided surveillance footage of the incident.
When authorities tried to speak with Spadafora, he was belligerent and “kept advising officers ‘I am not gay,'” according to the criminal complaint.
The man was described as having bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and a strong odor of alcohol coming from his breath.
Spadafora was released to his mother and advised that charges would be filed.
This is a developing story, stay with KDKA and KDKA.com for more details.
Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page
Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On TwitterAncient Poseidon mosaic found in Turkey’s Adana
ADANA – Anadolu Agency
Archaeological excavations in the southern Turkish province of Adana’s Yumurtalık district have unearthed a rare mosaic depicting the ancient Greek god of the sea, Poseidon. It is believed to date back to the 3rd or 4th century B.C.The Poseidon mosaic was found in the frigidarium (large cold pool of a Roman bath) part of the ancient bath at the ancient city of Aegae, which is a 1st degree archaeological field. The bottom part of the mosaic contains partly ruined writing in Greek: “Greetings to all of you bathing.”Adana Provincial Culture and Tourism Director Sabri Tari said the coastal Yumurtalık district was called Aegae in the ancient era.Tari said the city served as a naval base in the era of the Roman Empire and it was also a famous place for Asclepius, the god of medicine in ancient Greek religion and mythology.“One of three big Asclepius temples of the ancient world is in this city,” he added.Tari said the region is rich in historical tissue, and they had previously found a mosaic depicting the god of love, Eros.“We found a new mosaic during recent excavations. The Poseidon mosaic, which is a rare one in terms of its beauty, was unearthed in the grounds of the frigidarium,” he said.Adana Museum Deputy Director Nedim Dervişoğlu said they continued to place a big importance on excavations in order to further boost the province’s tourism potential, with such works carried out in a number of different parts of the city.“During excavations, we found a mosaic on a field over a space of 11.39 square meters. It is separated into two main panels. The depiction in the southeastern part of the mosaic has been completely destroyed while the depiction in the north shows Poseidon carrying a trident. There are dolphins in the right and left of Poseidon. When the excavations are completed around the mosaic, the depiction will be meaningful. We believe it dates back to the 3rd or 4th century B.C.,” Dervişoğlu said.1. Its origins date back to the Middle Ages.
The name “guillotine” dates to the 1790s and the French Revolution, but similar execution machines had already been in existence for centuries. A beheading device called the “planke” was used in Germany and Flanders during the Middle Ages, and the English had a sliding axe known as the Halifax Gibbet, which may have been lopping off heads all the way back to antiquity. The French guillotine was likely inspired by two earlier machines: the Renaissance-era “mannaia” from Italy, and the notorious “Scottish Maiden,” which claimed the lives of some 120 people between the 16th and 18th centuries. Evidence also shows that primitive guillotines may have been in use in France long before the days of the French Revolution.
2. It was originally developed as a more humane method of execution.
The origins of the French guillotine date back to late-1789, when Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposed that the French government adopt a gentler method of execution. Although he was personally opposed to capital punishment, Guillotin argued that decapitation by a lightning-quick machine would be more humane and egalitarian than sword and axe beheadings, which were often botched. He later helped oversee the development of the first prototype, an imposing machine designed by French doctor Antoine Louis and built by a German harpsichord maker named Tobias Schmidt. The device claimed its first official victim in April 1792, and quickly became known as the “guillotine”—much to the horror of its supposed inventor. Guillotin tried to distance himself from the machine during the guillotine hysteria of the 1790s, and his family later unsuccessfully petitioned the French government to change its name in the early 19th century.
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website
3. Guillotine executions were major spectator events.
During the Reign of Terror of the mid-1790s, thousands of “enemies of the French revolution” met their end by the guillotine’s blade. Some members of the public initially complained that the machine was too quick and clinical, but before long the process had evolved into high entertainment. People came to the place de la Revolution in droves to watch the guillotine do its grisly work, and the machine was honored in countless songs, jokes and poems. Spectators could buy souvenirs, read a program listing the names of the victims, or even grab a quick bite to eat at a nearby restaurant called “Cabaret de la Guillotine.” Some people attended on a daily basis, most famously the “Tricoteuses,” a group of morbid women who supposedly sat beside the scaffold and knitted in between beheadings. The theater even extended to the condemned. Many people offered sarcastic quips or defiant last words before being executed, and others danced their way up the steps of the scaffold. Fascination with the guillotine waned at the end of the 18th century, but public beheadings continued in France until 1939.
4. It was a popular children’s toy.
Children often attended guillotine executions, and some may have even played with their own miniature guillotines at home. During the 1790s, a two-foot-tall, replica blade-and-timbers was a popular toy in France. Kids used the fully operational guillotines to decapitate dolls or even small rodents, and some towns eventually banned them out of fear that they were a vicious influence. Novelty guillotines also found their way onto some upper class dinner tables, where they were used as bread and vegetable slicers.
5. Guillotine operators were national celebrities.
As the fame of the guillotine grew, so too did the reputations of its operators. Executioners won a great deal of notoriety during the French Revolution, when they were closely judged on how quickly and precisely they could orchestrate multiple beheadings. The job was often a family business. Multiple generations of the famed Sanson family served as state executioner from 1792 to 1847, and were responsible for dropping the blade on King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, among thousands of others. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the role of chief headsman fell to Louis and Anatole Deibler, a father and son pair whose combined tenure extended from 1879 to 1939. People often chanted the Sansons’ and Deiblers’ names in the streets, and their choice of clothing on the scaffold was known to inspire fashion trends. Executioners were also a subject of morbid fascination in the criminal underworld. According to some accounts, gangsters and other hoods would get tattoos with grim slogans such as, “My Head Goes To Deibler.”
6. Scientists conducted gruesome studies on the heads of the condemned.
From the very beginning of its use, speculation abounded over whether the heads of the guillotined remained conscious after being cut off. The debate reached new heights in 1793, when an assistant executioner slapped the face of one of his victims’ heads and spectators claimed to see its cheeks flush in anger. Doctors later asked the condemned to try to blink or leave one eye open after their execution to prove they could still move, and others yelled the deceased’s name or exposed their heads to candle flames and ammonia to see if they would react. In 1880, a doctor named Dassy de Lignieres even had blood pumped into the head of a guillotined child murderer to find out if it would come back to life and speak. The ghastly experiments were put to a stop in the 20th century, but studies on rats have since found that brain activity may continue for around four seconds after decapitation.
7. It was used for executions in Nazi Germany.
The guillotine is most famously associated with revolutionary France, but it may have claimed just as many lives in Germany during the Third Reich. Adolf Hitler made the guillotine a state method of execution in the 1930s, and ordered that 20 of the machines be placed in cities across Germany. According to Nazi records, the guillotine was eventually used to execute some 16,500 people between 1933 and 1945, many of them resistance fighters and political dissidents.
8. It was last used in the 1970s.
The guillotine remained France’s state method of capital punishment well into the late 20th century. Convicted murderer Hamida Djandoubi became the last person to meet his end by the “National Razor” after he was executed by the guillotine in 1977. Still, the machine’s 189-year reign only officially came to an end in September 1981, when France abolished capital punishment for good.Troy Matthew Deeney (born 29 June 1988) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for and captains Premier League club Watford.
Deeney started his professional career at Walsall. He spent a brief spell on loan with Southern League Premier Division club Halesowen Town during the 2006–07 season. He transferred to Championship club Watford in 2010 and captained the team to promotion to the Premier League in the 2014–15 season.
Early and personal life [ edit ]
Deeney was born in Birmingham, West Midlands,[2] and grew up in Chelmsley Wood. He was one of three children born to his parents, who split up when he was 11. He was expelled from school when he was 14, before returning at the age of 15. He left at 16 without any GCSEs and began training as a bricklayer, earning £120 a week.[4]
On 25 June 2012, Deeney was sentenced to ten months' imprisonment for kicking a man in the head during a brawl.[5][6] He was released after serving almost three months of the sentence, after showing his remorse, and the fact that he was a first-time offender. Since his release from prison in 2012, he has earned GCSEs in English, Science and Maths.[4]
Deeney is married and has a son, Myles, and a daughter, Amelia.[7] His brother, Ellis, is a semi-professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder. Ellis started his career at Aston Villa, where he was captain of their academy team before being released. He has played for Kettering Town, Hinckley United and Worcester City and now plays for Tamworth. Ellis is a personal trainer, and Deeney helped fund his training in the profession.[4]
Club career [ edit ]
Walsall [ edit ]
Deeney was invited by the Aston Villa academy to take part in a four-day summer trial at the age of 15 with a view to earning a youth contract; however, he missed the first three days as he "knew there was a game on the last day" and was not offered terms by Villa.[8] Having joined Chelmsley Town, he was scouted by Walsall's Head of Youth Mick Halsall, who only attended the match Deeney was playing in because his son was also playing and due to the match he was scheduled to attend being postponed.[citation needed] Deeney was playing while drunk,[citation needed] but scored seven goals in an 11–4 win.[citation needed] He was offered a trial by the then League Two club, but only attended after his Chelmsley manager got him out of bed and paid for his taxi.[4] After signing for Walsall on 18 December 2006, Deeney was instantly sent out to Halesowen Town on loan for the rest of the 2006–07 season.[9]
He scored his first professional competitive goal for Walsall against Millwall in a 2–1 win in September 2007.[10] This turned out to be his only goal of the 2007–08 season, and the 2008–09 season started similarly, with him managing only two goals in the first half of the season. However, the introduction of Chris Hutchings as manager coincided with Deeney finding a goalscoring touch. Helped by the fact that his new manager started playing him in his favoured striking position, instead of on the right wing as the previous manager Jimmy Mullen had, Deeney scored nine goals in Hutchings' first 12 matches in charge.[9][11] On 9 September 2009, it was announced that Deeney had signed a new two-year deal until 2011.[12] In the 2009–10 season, Deeney scored 14 goals to finish as Walsall's top scorer and was awarded the club's Player of the Year award.[13]
Watford [ edit ]
2010–2012: Making the breakthrough [ edit ]
On 4 August 2010, Deeney handed in a written transfer request amid interest from several Championship clubs. He had been told he was to leave Walsall earlier in the summer, and had slackened his pre-season training in protest at the club's hardline stance when trying to sell him.[4] He signed for Watford two days later for an initial fee of £250,000 rising up to £500,000 on a two-year contract that lifted his salary from £1,200 to £6,000 a week.[4] On the same day Deeney signed for Watford, he played a part in their 3–2 win against Norwich City on the opening day of the season, coming on for Marvin Sordell in the second half.[14] Deeney found his poor pre-season meant he struggled for fitness in comparison to his new teammates.[4] He scored his first Watford goal against Notts County in the first round of the League Cup on 24 August.[15] Deeney went on to make 40 appearances for Watford in his first season, scoring three goals from 20 starts, although he was mainly deployed on the wing by Malky Mackay.[16]
At the beginning of the 2011–12 campaign, Deeney initially found it hard to acquire a starting spot in the team as many of his early season matches saw him consigned to a bench role.[4] He soon found his way into the starting eleven and amassed a total of 46 appearances under the management of Sean Dyche in his preferred position as striker.[17][18] Deeney finished the season as Watford's top goalscorer with 12 goals in all competitions and also won the Goal of the Season Award for his goal against Ipswich Town in March 2012.[19]
2012–2015: Prolific scoring form [ edit ]
Deeney (left) playing for Watford in 2012
Deeney made his first appearance for Watford, after his release from prison, against Bristol City at Vicarage Road on 22 September 2012. The match finished 2–2, with Deeney coming on in the second half and hitting the post.[20] He started the next match against Huddersfield Town on 29 September, and scored the winner from a spot kick in the 3–2 away win.[21] He scored a memorable double against his boyhood club, Birmingham City, as Watford ran out 4–0 winners on 16 February 2013.[22]
In March 2013, Deeney signed a new contract with Watford, keeping him at the club until 2016.[23] Deeney netted another brace in a 4–0 win over Blackburn Rovers on 20 April 2013, taking his tally to 18 for the season.[24] Six days later, he scored his 19th goal of the season in the next match against Leicester, scoring the first goal in an important 2–1 away win for Watford.[25]
On 12 May 2013, Watford faced Leicester City in the play-off semi-final second leg at Vicarage Road. In one of the most dramatic ends to a play-off match in history, Deeney scored a goal deep into injury time to qualify for the Championship Play-off final at Wembley. After Manuel Almunia saved a penalty taken by Anthony Knockaert and a rebound, Watford charged down to the other end, and Deeney lashed in the winning goal in the seventh minute of added time – an ecstatic Deeney celebrated the goal by jumping into the crowd.[26]
After scoring 20 goals in the 2012–13 season, Deeney scored the only goal as Watford beat Birmingham City 1–0 in the opening match of the 2013–14 season.[27] A week later on 10 August, Deeney scored a hat-trick as Watford thrashed Bournemouth 6–1 at Vicarage Road. In doing so, he became the first Hornets player to score a hat-trick in a match since Michael Chopra in 2003, and the first one to do so at Vicarage Road since David Connolly on 7 December 1996. It was also Deeney's first career hat-trick.[28]
Netting a brace in a 4–1 win away against Sheffield Wednesday on 29 March 2014, Deeney took his 2013–14 season tally to 20 goals. In the process, he became the first Watford player to score 20 or more goals in consecutive seasons in all competitions since Luther Blissett managed the feat in 1983.[29]
Deeney scored again, this time against Burnley in a 1–1 draw on 5 April 2014, to become the first Watford player to score 20 league goals in consecutive seasons since Cliff Holton managed the feat in 1961.[30] The striker won both the Watford Player of the Season award for 2013–14 and also won the Players' Player of the Year at the end of season awards on 2 May 2014.[31]
Following the departure of Manuel Almunia, Deeney was named the Watford captain by manager Giuseppe Sannino prior to the 2014–15 campaign.[32] During the course of the 2014–15 Championship season, Deeney helped Watford earn promotion to the Premier League.[33] In the process he became the first player in Watford history to score 20 or more goals in three consecutive seasons (2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15).[34]
2015–present: Premier League years [ edit ]
Deeney (third from left) playing for Watford in 2015
On 8 August 2015, Deeney made his Premier League debut, captaining the Hornets in their 2015–16 season opener, a 2–2 draw with Everton at Goodison Park.[35] On 24 October, he scored his first Premier League goal as Watford defeated Stoke City 2–0 at the Britannia Stadium.[36] On 21 November, Deeney scored a penalty against Manchester United in the 87th minute to equalise; just after that, he scored an own goal in the 90th minute to help Manchester United secure a 2–1 victory over Watford in a dramatic change of events at Vicarage Road.[37] Deeney would extend his goal streak to five in six matches with the opener in a 2–0 win against Norwich City on 5 December 2015.[38] On 13 February 2016, he scored twice in a 2–1 away win over Crystal Palace and in the process extended the Eagles' winless run in the league to nine matches.[39]
On 1 July 2016, Deeney signed a new five-year deal with Watford.[40] He opened his 2016–17 goalscoring account on 10 September at West Ham United's new home venue, the London Stadium, equalising in a 4–2 comeback victory.[41] Deeney scored his 100th Watford goal in all competitions on 26 December 2016 with a penalty in a 1–1 home draw against Crystal Palace, ending a ten-match goalless run. He became the fifth player to reach a century of goals for Watford.[42]
International career [ edit ]
In October 2015, Deeney revealed that he had twice rejected invitations to play for Jamaica internationally and that he harboured an ambition of playing for England.[43] Deeney originally believed he was eligible to play for Northern Ireland but that possibility was quickly ruled out as neither his parents nor grandparents are from Northern Ireland.[44]
Career statistics [ edit ]
As of match played 22 February 2019
Honours [ edit ]
Watford
Individual
References [ edit ]The Edmonton Police Service is looking for public feedback as it makes cuts to its service.
"We have the philosophy no call is too small — not anymore," said Chief Rod Knecht in a year-end interview with CBC News.
"We're a big city now, and we have our challenges and we have finite resources. So we're going to have to decide what calls can we go to and what calls can we not go to."
To help with that decision, Knecht said in the first few months of 2016 police will seek public feedback through town hall meetings and online surveys.
"I think that's important that the community inform us on which calls they want to see us go on, where they want to see the investment of finite resources," he said.
Earlier in December city council rejected a proposed $48.6-million increase to the police budget over three years, agreeing to hike the budget by only $9 million.
At the time Knecht warned the money would not go far and cuts were likely on the horizon.
He said police have committed to a seven-minute response time for priority calls, but right now that's only being met 65 per cent of the time.
Despite the budget crunch, two additional investigators will join the domestic violence unit, for a total of 10.
"We just have to," said Knecht. "Volume is up."
Const. Daniel Woodall died after being shot in a standoff in June, a tragedy Chief Rod Knecht calls the low point of 2015. (CBC)
Domestic violence shot up this year by more than 17 per cent compared to 2014, said the chief, although EPS did not provide more specific numbers requested by CBC.
Initially it was thought the increase in domestic violence was the result of better messaging, leading to more victims coming forward. But Knecht said it became clear that was not the case as they watched the numbers climb over three years.
He said that has left frontline officers investigating "complex calls" that are "historically quite dangerous."
Knecht said domestic violence calls require a multilevel response that includes separating those involved, ensuring children are in a safe environment, dealing with extended families and addressing the needs of the victim and, in many cases, the perpetrator.
"If we just forget about him he goes on to another relationship, and another relationship and another relationship, and so there's this victimization that just continues on," said Knecht.
Knecht described 2015 as a tough year, with the low point coming in June when Const. Daniel Woodall, an eight-year veteran, was shot in west Edmonton during a standoff.
But in the wake of the tragedy, "we had extraordinary public support there," Knecht said.
"The community rallied behind us, supported us. It was actually extremely humbling; just that parade route that day and Edmontonians lining the streets and supporting their police service."
Knecht said the public response has had a lasting effect.
"Every time I go for a cup of coffee I'm approached by two, three, four people in that coffee shop who will come up to me and say, 'Thanks for doing the job you're doing' and 'You guys are doing a great job.' I get that consistently and, I can say, daily."The news that President Obama will nominate Janet Yellen as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System should remind us of the disaster that the Federal Reserve is and has been.
It was not quite 100 years ago that the Federal Reserve Act was signed into law by President Wilson. This was on December 23, shortly after the Senate voted for it. There was no serious opposition in either the House or the Senate.
I have created a short link to the inflation calculator of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We can see what it would take today to buy $100 worth of consumer goods in 1913. The number is $2,362. The link is here: www.bit.ly/BLScalc.
Back in 1964, Murray Rothbard’s little book appeared: What Has Government Done to Our Money? I read it that year. I regarded it then as the best short introduction to money theory I had ever read. My opinion has not changed. It even has a Wikipedia entry, which is well deserved. You can download a free copy here: http://mises.org/money.asp.
The inflation calculator tells us that it would have taken $313 in 1964 to buy $100 worth of goods in 1913.
Rothbard blamed the Federal Reserve System and the abolition of the gold coin standard for the depreciation of the dollar. The FED is the guarantor of the fractional reserve banking system. Central banking guarantees the survival of fractional reserve banking. Once the nations went off the gold standard, he wrote, the age of inflation was assured.
In the twentieth century, governments, rather than deflate or limit their own inflation, have simply “gone off the gold standard” when confronted with heavy demands for gold. This, of course, insures that the Central Bank cannot fail, since its notes now become the standard money. In short, government has finally refused to pay its debts, and has virtually absolved the banking system from that onerous duty.
The debate today over the raising of the federal government’s debt ceiling is all sound and fury, signifying nothing. When Franklin Roosevelt unilaterally took this nation off the gold coin standard in 1933, that was the end of the debt ceiling limitation. In 1933, it cost $131 to buy $100 worth of goods in 1913. It would take $1,799 today to buy what $100 bought in 1933.
Rothbard saw clearly the great evil of central banking. It increases the public’s confidence in the banking system. This confidence has made inflation inevitable. Faith in central banking has undermined the public’s confidence in the gold coin standard, where the public holds the hammer on monetary policy, because bank depositors can launch a run on the banks to demand cold coins. That threat restrains commercial banks from inflating.
One of the reasons the public could be lured from gold to bank notes was the great confidence everyone had in the Central Bank. Surely, the Central Bank, possessed of almost all the gold in the realm, backed by the might and prestige of government, could not fail and go bankrupt! And it is certainly true that no Central Bank in recorded history has ever failed. But why not? Because of the sometimes unwritten but very clear rule that it could not be permitted to fail! If governments sometimes allowed private banks to suspend payment, how much more readily would it permit the Central Bank—its own organ—to suspend when in trouble! The precedent was set in Central Banking history when England permitted the Bank of England to suspend in the late eighteenth century, and allowed this suspension for over twenty years. The Central Bank thus became armed with the almost unlimited confidence of the public. By this time, the public could not see that the Central Bank was being allowed to counterfeit at will, and yet remain immune from any liability if its bona fides should be questioned. It came to see the Central Bank as simply a great national bank, performing a public service, and protected from failure by being a virtual arm of the government.
The public still trusts the Federal Reserve. It still rejects the gold coin standard. So, we see the Federal Reserve creating $1 trillion a year in counterfeit money, and almost no one protests. The investing world fears a return to the pre-2008 levels of monetary expansion. Say the word “taper,” and the stock market tumbles.
Rothbard sounded the warning 49 years ago. Congress still ignores it. Academia still ignores it. Wall Street still ignores it.
Janet Yellen will be confirmed. But before her term ends, she will face the horrendous consequences of what she has voted for as Vice Chairman. So will you. So will I.For six days a week, Michigan cornerback Jourdan Lewis keeps his emotions hidden beneath a soft-spoken surface. He’s quiet and calm and hard to excite, except on Tuesdays.
Wait, Tuesday?
“Yeah, he always gets fired up on Tuesday for some reason,” linebacker Desmond Morgan said. “I don’t know why. He’s always out there yelling on Tuesday. [Otherwise], he’s always had that laid-back mentality.”
Lewis agreed with his teammates, and said it was no accident that they notice him chirping a little louder on that particular day of the week. The junior has taken it upon himself to provide the energy for Michigan’s defense on Tuesdays this year because, he says, he thought that was the day it was hardest for them to get excited on their own.
“Tuesdays are the low energy days [for the team],” he said, monotonously on a Monday afternoon. “If people don’t bring it, guys are turning it down like, ‘It’s just a Tuesday.’ I try to bring that energy.”
There’s probably a yarn to be spun here about tireless practice habits early in the week leading to good things on Saturday for a player emerging as one of the country’s top cornerbacks this fall. But, the truth is that Lewis’ recent success is probably more about him learning to embrace the natural personality that persists from Wednesday through Monday.
A year ago, Lewis was developing as a technician in the Wolverines' secondary -- an unexpected bright spot during a dark season. He led the team in interceptions (2) and pass break-ups (6). He still struggled, though, with letting the bad plays go. Busted coverages and complete passes nibbled at his focus and corroded his confidence.
More on Michigan For full coverage of the Wolverines, check out the Michigan blog, part of ESPN's College Football Nation. Blog More:
• Michigan's clubhouse page
• ESPN.com's Big Ten blog
He says as an upperclassmen, he’s added a tool that’s essential for all cornerbacks -- a short memory. So yes, he can list off each reception an opponent has had against him this season (it’s a short list), but they don’t bug him like they used to. He recalls the confusion that led to Oregon State’s passing touchdown on his half of the field, but shrugs off the suggestion that’s it been motivation for him since then.
“[I can] calm down and let the game come to me,” he said. “People are going to catch balls on you, but you can’t think of it too much. You’ve got to go on and play again.”
That mentality means that mistakes don’t multiply this fall. No. 13 Northwestern tested him last weekend by throwing his way 11 times last Saturday. And while the Wildcats did complete four passes in his general vicinity (more than he allowed in the first five games combined), Lewis spent most of the afternoon clinging to receiver Mike McHugh’s hip like a pair of yoga pants.
His coverage kept those completions to gains of minus-2 yards, nine yards, two yards and 12 yards -- the last on an out route against prevent coverage during the final drive of the game. If you count the distance Lewis sprinted for his first career touchdown after raking a ball free from McHugh’s arms late in the first half, that’s a net loss of 16 yards and six points that Northwestern suffered when throwing in his direction.
His teammates, embracing their inner-Jourdan, were unfazed by his performance.
“Best corner in the country,” said safety Jabrill Peppers. “But it’s expected from him. It’s not like, ‘Oh, good job Jourdan.’ We expect that from Jourdan.”
This week will bring the year’s stiffest test to date for Lewis and a secondary that has chewed up and spit out quarterbacks. During its five-game winning streak, Michigan’s defense has faced 11 different quarterbacks. Eight of them finished with a QBR (measure on a 100-point scale) of 12.2 or lower.
Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook ranks ninth nationally in QBR (82.4) so far this season. Lewis said Cook and a talented group of Spartan receivers will be the best passing offense he’s faced all season. As often seems to be the case in these in-state rivalry games, Lewis has a history with some of the Spartans that dates back to high school. He first crossed paths with star receiver Aaron Burbridge as a junior playing defensive back for Detroit’s Cass Tech.
“He blew us out,” Lewis said.
So maybe the short memory is still a work in progress, but Lewis’ new unflappable attitude makes it a pretty safe bet that this weekend won’t be a repeat of that matchup.The Ultiworld Men’s Player Of The Year And College Awards, Presented By The National Ultimate Training Camp
Here are Ultiworld's 2015 College Awards.
Disclosure: This post is brought to you by National Ultimate Training Camp. All opinions are those of Ultiworld. Thanks for supporting the brands that make Ultiworld possible!
Ultiworld is pleased to announced the second annual Ultiworld Player of the Year and other individual college awards. The award criteria can be found here — we considered both regular season and postseason performance in our selection of awards. Though the input of Ultiworld reporters is weighed heavily, final decisions for awards were made by the editors.
All winners will be sent a custom-designed VC Ultimate jersey as a prize for their outstanding seasons.
Player of the Year
Chris LaRocque (Florida State)
Chris LaRocque may not the best thrower in college. He may not be the most fearsome defender. He may not be the most effective deep threat. But he is the most complete player in the College Division.
LaRocque sustained a level of excellence this season that few players could match and provided nearly everything the team needed on its march to the semifinals. For a team that wasn’t even a Sunday Regionals threat five years ago, FSU has grown together with LaRocque.
After a superlative regular season, he came into Nationals and showed why he absolutely, no-question-about-it should have been a Callahan award finalist. He finished the weekend with 40 assists (second only to Jon Nethercutt) and 12 goals. His combined 52 points were the most at the tournament, even surpassing Nethercutt (who played an additional game).
LaRocque didn’t just pile up counting stats. He’s one of the most lethal break throwers in college and has long been a skilled hucker. He can create separation going deep and sky the opposition’s best deep defender.
More importantly, his defense was just as potent. He went toe-to-toe with UMass’ Jeff Babbitt in the quarterfinals and won the matchup. What’s more, he helped create the team’s ‘hit the ground’ mentality on defense with his jaw-dropping layout blocks.
“He’s on and off the field one of |
a cancer in the locker room, one which I feel would be a losing proposition to any club. Marbury’s final comments from the interview speak volumes about his state of mind,”A year from now, you don’t know what I’m going to be like. I’m from the gutter. I can go anywhere.”………………………..Don’t count on it Steph!
Check out some youtube footage of Marbury in his prime:
Click Here!
AdvertisementsThis article is about the Bengali novel. For other uses, see Devdas (disambiguation)
Devdas (Bengali: দেবদাস, transliterated as Debdās) is a Bengali romance novel written by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. Despite being finished in September 1900,[1] the novel was not published till June 1917 due to Chatterjee's hesitance probably over some autobiographical elements.[2] According to Chatterjee's own words, he wrote it under the influence of drink and was ashamed of the work.[2]
The story pivots a tragic triangle linking Devdas, an archetypal lover in viraha (separation); Paro, his forbidden childhood love; and Chandramukhi, a reformed courtesan.[3] Devdas was adapted on screen 19 times.
Plot summary [ edit ]
Devdas is a young man from a wealthy Bengali Brahmin family in India in the early 1900s. Parvati (Paro) is a young woman from a middle class Bengali Brahmin family. The two families live in a village called Taalshonapur in Bengal, and Devdas and Parvati are childhood friends.
Devdas goes away for a couple of years to live and study in the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata). During vacations, he returns to his village. Suddenly both realise that their easy comfort in each other's innocent comradeship has changed to something deeper. Devdas sees that Parvati is no longer the small girl he knew. Parvati looks forward to their childhood love blossoming into a happy lifelong journey in marriage. According to prevailing social custom, Parvati's parents would have to approach Devdas's parents and propose marriage of Parvati to Devdas as Parvati longs for.
Parvati's mother approaches Devdas's mother, Harimati, with a marriage proposal. Although Devdas's mother loves Parvati very much she isn't so keen on forming an alliance with the family next door. Besides, Parvati's family has a long-standing tradition of accepting dowry from the groom's family for marriage rather than sending dowry with the bride. The alternative family tradition of Parvati's family influences Devdas's mother's decision not to consider Parvati as Devdas' bride, especially as Parvati belongs to a trading (becha -kena chottoghor) lower family. The "trading" label is applied in context of the marriage custom followed by Parvati's family. Devdas's father, Narayan Mukherjee, who also loves Parvati, does not want Devdas to get married so early in life and isn't keen on the alliance. Parvati's father, Nilkantha Chakravarti, feeling insulted at the rejection, finds an even richer husband for Parvati.
When Parvati learns of her planned marriage, she stealthily meets Devdas at night, desperately believing that he will accept her hand in marriage. Devdas has never previously considered Parvati as his would-be wife. Surprised by Parvati's boldly visiting him alone at night, he also feels pained for her. Making up his mind, decides he tells his father he wants to marry Parvati. Devdas's father disagrees.
In a confused state, Devdas flees to Calcutta. From there, he writes a letter to Parvati, saying that they should simply continue only as friends. Within days, however, he realizes that he should have been bolder. He goes back to his village and tells Parvati that he is ready to do anything needed to save their love.
By now, Parvati's marriage plans are in an advanced stage. She refuses to go back to Devdas and chides him for his cowardice and vacillation. She, however requests Devdas to come and see her before she dies. He vows to do so.
Devdas goes back to Calcutta and Parvati is married off to the widower, Bhuvan Choudhuri, who has three children. An elderly gentleman and zamindar of Hatipota he had found his house and home so empty and lustreless after his wife's death, that he decided to marry again. After marrying Parvati, he spent most of his day in Pujas and looking after the zamindari.
In Calcutta, Devdas's carousing friend, Chunni Lal, introduces him to a courtesan named Chandramukhi. Devdas takes to heavy drinking at the courtesan's place; she falls in love with him, and looks after him. His health deteriorates through excessive drinking and despair - a drawn-out form of suicide. In his mind, he frequently compares Parvati and Chandramukhi. Strangely he feels betrayed by Parvati,though it was she who had loved him first, and confessed her love for him. Chandramukhi knows and tells him how things had really happened. This makes Devdas, when sober, hate and loathe her very presence. He drinks more and more to forget his plight. Chandramukhi sees it all happen, suffering silently. She senses the real man behind the fallen, aimless Devdas he has become and can't help but love him.
Knowing death approaches him fast, Devdas goes to Hatipota to meet Parvati to fulfill his vow. He dies at her doorstep on a dark, cold night. On hearing of his death, Parvati runs towards the door, but her family members prevent her from stepping out of the house.
The novella powerfully depicts the customs of society that prevailed in Bengal in the early 1900s, which largely prevented a happy ending to a true and tender love story.
Film, TV, and theatrical adaptations [ edit ]
Devdas, Barua's 1936 Hindi version Kundal Lal Saigal and Jamuna in, Barua's 1936 Hindi version
The novel has been made into films in many Indian languages, including Bengali, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu, Assamese and Malayalam.[4][5][6] It is the most filmed non-epic story in India.
Notable film versions of the novella include:
See also [ edit ]The Bermuda Triangle has been said to have claimed numerous ships and aircraft over the years, and everything from aliens to remnants from the lost island of Atlantis have been fingered as the culprits.
But now Norwegian scientists think they might know the secret that lies beneath the area, which is located between Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico in the Atlantic Ocean.
Researchers at the Arctic University of Norway believe that underwater bubble explosions could be behind the mystery that has confounded scientists for years.
The researchers told the Sunday Times that large craters on the ocean floor off the coast of Norway may have been created by underwater methane explosions, one of the many theories that has been presented for the disappearance of ships within the Bermuda Triangle.
"Multiple giant craters exist on the sea floor in an area in the west-central Barents sea... and are probably a cause of enormous blowouts of gas," the researchers told the Sunday Times. "The crater area is likely to represent one of the largest hotspots for shallow marine methane release in the Arctic."
These craters are nearly a kilometre wide and some 50 metres deep and researchers think they may have been created by the accumulation of oil and gas leaks under the sea floor that eventually burst. Details of their theory will be presented next month at the annual gathering of the European Geosciences Union, where scientists will discuss whether these underwater explosions could be strong enough to sink ships.
If they are, that could go a long way in proving that Bermuda Triangle disappearances are the result of methane explosions rather than some of the more far-flung explanations that have been floated over the years.
Although there are reports that over 8,000 people have been lost in the Bermuda Triangle, the US Coast Guard does not formally recognize its existence.
“In a review of many aircraft and vessel losses in the area over the years, there has been nothing discovered that would indicate that casualties were the result of anything other than physical causes. No extraordinary factors have ever been identified,” the Coast Guard states on its website.Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and mighty oaks from little acorns grow. What do these two phrases have in common? Not much, really, but we'd say Logitech's new line of gamepads have rather a lot in common with not only Sony's line of dual-analog controllers but also gamepads from Microsoft. Logitech itself says these have a "familiar, comfortable" design, and that's obviously in reference to the DualShock -aping style. Meanwhile, those buttons are a dead ringer to the Xbox 360's candy-like inputs, and the shape of the grips looks to have been lifted from there, too. But, hey, nothing wrong with a little inspired design, and the Gamepad F310 is the lowest end, selling for around $25. The Rumble Gamepad F510 offers dual vibration for about $35, and the Wireless Gamepad F710 moves up to 2.4GHz wireless and an MSRP of $50. You can pre-order yours at Logitech's site -- or just connect one of your existing Xbox 360 controllers to your PC and get the real deal.The man in the panda suit is holding an R8 key - Click above to watch the video after the jump
a few
When we saw Henry Rollins speakten years ago, he told a story about a fan who wrote to him with a peculiar problem. Seems the guy is a paramedic and one night they come upon a car crash where a beautiful naked woman is lying on the ground unconscious. They spring into action, get her in the back of the ambulance and begin emergency resuscitation. Now, the guy is alone in the back of the ambulance with the woman, and he can't get over how hauntingly beautiful she is.And she's not responding. All her vitals were failing and he knows she's not going to make it. As she expires, the paramedic, who had suddenly and quickly developed feelings for her, kisses her on the lips. By the time they reach the hospital, the woman is dead. Trouble is, the paramedic is now completely in love with her. So much so he can't sleep, he can't eat and he's having trouble working.Rollins said his first reaction was to write back, "YOU SICK $@#!!! GO KILL YOURSELF!" But no, the paramedic's obviously in pain and obviously needs his help. So he thinks about it for awhile and attempts to seek out helpful advice. That night at some awards ceremony he runs into none other than Tom Waits and figures if anyone has some words of wisdom for the poor, lovestruck -- but slightly demented -- paramedic it would be Waits.Rollins tells him the story and Tom's eyes light up. "You tell him she's haunting him from the grave," Waits says in his gravely trademark baritone. "Tell him she did the same thing to me!" Now a couple of you might be wondering what on earth this story has to do with anything, let alone cars. It doesn't. But it's a fitting accompaniment to the three minutes of randomness in the video after the jump. So if you're into Furries, Ferraris Audis, fat guys and sexy ladies, have we got a clip for you. Tip of the Panda head piece to Jesse Y![Source: Midway Car RentalYou've heard it before at least 100 times: "If Daryl dies we riot." Well, Daryl has heard it too and he's in full support.
Norman Reedus, to no surprise, is completely against The Walking Dead killing off his beloved Daryl Dixon character. "I will be passing out matches if that happens — I will be starting the riot," Reedus tells Variety, adding, "You know what, I’m very appreciative. I put a lot of work into this character for a long time, and I really like my job, and I like all the people I work with an awful lot, and I like all those fans that have my back, and I have their back, and I’m trying to do a good job for them as well. So it’s one big family that I’m proud to be part of."
Reedus' new motorcycle series Ride with Norman Reedus aired its first episode this past Sunday but he is already looking forward to The Walking Dead's return in October. "But everyone’s excited for 7 to reveal the answers to 6," Reedus says. "So I will say it’s well worth the wait. You know what I mean? I know what happens, and we shot it, and it’s well worth the wait. Trust me." Looking at Reedus' comments and wondering who it was that Negan killed seems to indicate that we can take Daryl off of the chopping block. No, there's no absolute certainty here, but considering Reedus has shot the second half of Negan's introductory scene and hasn't started a riot over Daryl's death - it feels safe to assume he is safe (for now).Cindy Gallop SXSW As the founder and CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn (MLNP), Cindy Gallop is ushering in a new type of intimacy for couples who want to share their private moments and those who want to watch.
MLNP is a crowd-sourced porn site where anyone can submit an intimate video and share it with the world.
The site evolved into a global phenomenon without Gallop actually doing anything at all. Initially, the site, which started out as MakeLoveNotPorn.com received high traffic from all over the world including China, India, Pakistan, and Indonesia.
MLNP launched as a business in 2009 as MakeLoveNotPorn.com after a TED talk Gallop conducted. After extraordinary response from the.com world, MakeLoveNotPorn.tv was born.
MLNP places emphasis on real life intimacy, the funny, messy, and awkward parts that the average porn studio would never show.
Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks focus on connecting people and furthering social interactions but Gallop wants to enable people to talk about sex in the same way. "Why not take every dynamic that exists out there with social media currently, and apply them to the one area that no other social media platform has ever gone, or is ever going to go, which is sex," she said.
The MLNP Team (from L to R): Madame Curator, Sarah Beall, Co-Founder/User Experience, Oonie Chase, CEO & Founder, Cindy Gallop, and Co-Founder/CTO Corey Innis at Gallop's Apartment/Office. Daniel Goodman/Business Insider
MLNP participants and viewers must be 18+, users submit videos to the site and they are reviewed by "the Madam Curator," Sarah Beall, to ensure that they live up to the standards of the site. Once they've received approval, videos are posted to the site and viewers pay $5 to watch one for up to three weeks. MLNP splits the profits with viewers (aside from a few fees) and Gallop says that she pays on a 90-day cycle. Some participates have made sales in the four figures.
Videos aren't limited to couples — solo, and multiple-participant films are also accepted.
"Porn by default has become the sex education of today and in not a good way," Gallop explains.
"Porn by default has become the sex education of today and in not a good way," Gallop explains.
"I found myself encountering a number of sexual behavioral memes, if you will. I went 'whoa, I know where that behavior's coming from!' And I thought if I'm encountering this other people must be as well. And I want to do something about it."
Gallop's ultimate goal is to change how we as a society view sex. She wants to live in a world where a naked picture leak is an afterthought and no one cares because we're more comfortable with our sexuality.
Gallop's believes her site is the type of disruption that the multi-billion-dollar porn industry needs. But there are some who think that while her project is creative it may not necessarily work.
Not everyone thinks it's going to work
Dr. Ogi Ogas, a neuroscientist, recently published a book called "A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What The Internet Tells Us About Sexual Relationships" with another neuroscientist, Sai Gaddam. Ogas had never heard of MakeLoveNotPorn until we brought it to his attention but his experience in the digital porn space helped us see Gallop's site from a different perspective.
Dr. Ogas is skeptical of Gallop's view:
Men and women develop sexual interests in very different ways, are predisposed towards very different sexual interests, and respond differently towards the same sexual material. In particular, women have a more emotional and psychological response to erotic content, while men have a more visual and physical response. It's true that porn can serve as a sexual education, but a very useful education for exploring one's sexual interests and learning about one's sexual identity -- am I gay? Do I prefer to be dominant or submissive? Though women frequently voice fears that men are learning "negative messages" from watching pornography, men's sexual brains don't tend to process pornography in the same psychological way as women. Getting aroused from looking at a woman's breasts (or a man's chest), for example, is a natural and deep-rooted male response that is independent from any cultural "message."
In terms of the MLNP project itself, Ogas says:
It's highly doubtful her project will disrupt the porn industry; indeed, amateur pornography is already one of the most popular genres of pornography around the world, and "candid" pornography in particular (featuring amateur content that is surreptitiously photographed and/or uploaded) is widespread, highly diverse, and easily obtained for free. In addition, erotica that features the "funny, messy, awkward moments of sex" generally appeals to women more than men and is already found on female-targeted erotic sites, particularly lesbian sites. Even more challenging for her project, women are highly reluctant to pay for visual pornography. Having said that, I'm always in favor of creativity and innovation in erotica and certainly hope that she might find a unique niche for her material that satisfies the desires of a under-served sexual audience.
Despite Ogas not necessarily believing in the project, MLNP is already a movement. At seven months old the site has over 75,000 members and have taken in tens of thousands of dollars in revenue.
MakeLoveNotPorn.tv is scalable. Together, we can build our community and our reach to the point where, one day, your #realworldsex video could hit that YouTube holy grail of one million rentals - hey, no reason why not, this is #realworldsex we're talking - and at $5 per rental, where you get half of what your video makes….well, you do the math.
Gallop says, "in a world where the received wisdom is 'nobody pays for porn', she counters that her users are paying for'real world sex' and have made two revenue-sharing payouts to date. Gallop would also like to help the porn industry with what her company is doing. "What I mean by that is I would like to show the industry it is possible to create a new innovative, disruptive business model, and to leverage human sexualized entertainment in a whole different way."
The home page of the MLNP site. Everything with the exception of the videos are Safe For Work, Gallop says. Make Love Not Porn
Gallop shares the story of one particular young man who wrote to her about the effects of pornography on him from a very young age:
One young guy left a comment on MLNP.com that said i'm 23, and anyone that tells you that watching porn doesn't influence people, I'm living proof that it does, he said I began watching porn at 10 or 11, and for years, I thought that sex was just this degrading thing that people did. I had no idea that it was something that had to do with affection let alone love. It's really scary.
But can Gallop's future of porn actually become a business?
Gallop believes so. "When I say that [MLNP is the future of porn], what I mean is, I bring a very particular perspective to the porn industry in general. I bring a business perspective, and that's relatively rare. The only reason it's rare is that the people with brilliant brains [particularly venture capitalists and angel investors] have no interest whatsoever in turning any of that brilliance on the adult industry and they should," she explains.
It took Gallop over two years to secure funding and set up MLNP. Normally a venture at this stage in its lifecycle would be gearing up for a Series A round of funding. Gallop and MLNP cannot do that now because she doesn't want to "bang her head against a closed door."
Instead, the company is looking for brand partners who are interested in investing in a partnership with the site. Gallop explains that she is looking for brands "whose own business growth is forever inhibited unless the societal barriers we're out to break down are broken down for them, and that's brands potentially in any area of sexual health and well-being, whatever."
We really want to find partners who believe in our mission who want to work with us to make this happen, particularly on the payments front. Which has been an enormous headache for us. Anybody who believes in what we're doing and offers a service that we could use, we would just love to hear from them.School bans girls wearing skirts in 'gender neutral' agenda
WhatsApp 0 shares
A secondary school is East Sussex has taken the barmy step of banning girls from wearing skirts in the latest example of creepy control in the name of the ‘gender neutral’ agenda.
The Priory School in Lewes has moved to make school uniforms the same for boys and girls in response to an increase in the number of transgender students.
Headteacher Tony Smith told the local press that: “Specifically, it addresses the current issues of inequality and decency.
“Another issue was that we have a small but increasing number of transgender students and therefore having the same uniform is important for them.”
The fairly sinister agenda to eliminate the concept of gender amongst children goes on.A young man enters a public place—a school, a shopping mall, an airport—carrying a small arsenal. He begins killing people at random. He has no demands, and no one is spared. Eventually, the police arrive, and after an excruciating delay as they marshal their forces, the young man is brought down.
This has happened many times, and it will happen again. After each of these crimes, we lose our innocence—but then innocence magically returns. In the aftermath of horror, we seem to learn nothing of value. Indeed, many of us remain committed to denying the one thing of value that is there to be learned.
After the Boston Marathon bombing, a journalist asked me, “Why is it always angry young men who do these terrible things?” She then sought to connect the behavior of the Tsarnaev brothers with that of Jared Loughner, James Holmes, and Adam Lanza. Like many people, she believed that similar actions must have similar causes.
But there are many sources of human evil. And if we want to protect ourselves and our societies, we must understand this. To that end we should differentiate at least four types of violent actor.
1. Those who are suffering from some form of mental illness that causes them to think and act irrationally. Given access to guns or explosives, these people may harm others for reasons that wouldn’t make a bit of sense even if they could be articulated. We may never hear Jared Loughner and James Holmes give accounts of their crimes, and we do not know what drove Adam Lanza to shoot his mother in the face and then slaughter dozens of children. But these mass murderers appear to be perfect examples of this first type. Aaron Alexis, the Navy Yard shooter, is yet another. What provoked him? He repeatedly complained that he was being bombarded with “ultra low frequency” electromagnetic waves. Apparently, he thought that killing people at random would offer some relief. It seems there is little to understand about the experiences of these men or about their beliefs, except as symptoms of underlying mental illness.
2. Prototypically evil psychopaths. These people are not delusional. They are malignantly selfish, ruthless, and prone to violence. Our maximum-security prisons are full of such men. Given half a chance and half a reason, psychopaths will harm others—because that is what psychopaths do.
It is worth observing that these first two types trouble us for reasons that have nothing to do with culture, ideology, or any other social variable. Of course, it matters if a psychotic or a psychopath happens to be the head of a nation, or otherwise has power and influence. That is what is so abhorrent about North Korea: The child king is mad, or simply evil, and he’s building a nuclear arsenal while millions starve. But even here, very little is to be learned about what we—the billions of relatively normal human beings struggling to maintain open societies—are doing wrong. We didn’t create Jared Loughner (apart from making it too easy for him to get a gun), and we didn’t create Kim Jong-il (apart from making it too easy for him to get nuclear bombs). Given access to powerful weapons, such people will pose a threat no matter how rational, tolerant, or circumspect we become.
3. Normal men and women who harm others while believing that they are doing the right thing—or while neglecting to notice the consequences of their actions. These people are not insane, and they’re not necessarily bad; they are just part of a system in which the negative consequences of ordinary selfishness and fear can become horribly magnified. Think of a soldier fighting in a war that may be ill conceived, or even unjust, but who has no rational alternative but to defend himself and his friends. Think of a boy growing up in the inner city who joins a gang for protection, only to perpetuate the very cycle of violence that makes gang membership a necessity. Or think of a CEO whose short-term interests motivate him to put innocent lives, the environment, or the economy itself in peril. Most of these people aren’t monsters. However, they can easily create suffering for others that only a monster would bring about by design. This is the true “banality of evil”—whatever Hannah Arendt actually meant by that phrase—but it is worth remembering that not all evil is banal.
4. Normal men and women who are moved by ideology to waste their lives, and the lives of others, in extraordinary ways. Some of these belief systems are merely political, or otherwise secular, in that their aim is to bring about specific changes in this world. But the worst of these doctrines are religious—whether or not they are attached to a mainstream religion—in that they are informed by ideas about otherworldly rewards and punishments, prophecies, magic, and so forth, which are especially conducive to fanaticism and self-sacrifice.
Of course, a person can inhabit more than one of the above categories at once—and thus have his antisocial behavior overdetermined. There must be someone somewhere who is simultaneously psychotic and psychopathic, part of a corrupt system, and devoted to a dangerous, transcendent cause. But many examples of each of these types exist in their pure forms.
For instance, in recent weeks, a spate of especially appalling jihadist attacks occurred—one on a shopping mall in Nairobi, where non-Muslims appear to have been systematically tortured before being murdered; one on a church in Peshawar; and one on a school playground in Baghdad, targeting children. Whenever I point out the role that religious ideology plays in atrocities of this kind—specifically the Islamic doctrines related to jihad, martyrdom, apostasy, and so forth—I am met with some version of the following: “Bad people will always do these things. Religion is nothing more than a pretext.” This is an increasingly dangerous misconception to have about human violence.
Here is my pick for the most terrifying and depressing phenomenon on earth: A smart, capable, compassionate, and honorable person grows infected with ludicrous ideas about a holy book and a waiting paradise, and then becomes capable of murdering innocent people—even children—while in a state of religious ecstasy. Needless to say, this problem is rendered all the more terrifying and depressing because so many of us deny that it even exists.
To imagine that one is a holy warrior bound for Paradise might seem delusional, but we live in a world where perfectly sane people are led to believe such floridly crazy things in the name of religion. This is primarily a social and cultural issue, not a psychological one. There is no clear line between what members of the Taliban, al Qaeda, and al Shabab believe about Islam and the “true” Islam. In fact, these groups have as good a claim as any to being impeccable Muslims. This presents an enormous threat to civil society, which apologists for Islam and secular liberals can now be counted upon to obfuscate. A tsunami of stupidity and violence is breaking simultaneously on a hundred shores, and people like Karen Armstrong, Reza Aslan, Juan Cole, John Esposito, and Glenn Greenwald insist that it’s a beautiful day at the beach. Their determination that “moderate” Islam not be blamed for the acts of “extremists” causes them to deny that genuine (and theologically justifiable) religious beliefs can inspire psychologically normal people to commit horrific acts of violence.
For weeks after the Boston Marathon bombing, we seemed determined to remain confused about the motives of the perpetrators. Had they been “radicalized” by some nefarious person, or did they manage it themselves? Did Tamerlan, the older brother, have brain damage from boxing? Were his dreams dashed by our immigration laws? Experts on terrorism took to the airwaves and gave their analysis: These young men behaved as they did, not on account of Islam, but because they were “jerks” and “losers.”
Or was it just politics, with religion as a pretext? The New York Times reported that the Tsarnaev brothers were “motivated to strike against the United States partly because of its military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Many people seized on this as proof that U.S. foreign policy was to blame. And yet the only plausible way that Chechens coming of age in America could want to murder innocent people in protest over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be for them to accept the Islamic doctrine of jihad. Islam is under attack and it must be defended; infidels have invaded Muslim lands—these grievances are not political. They are religious.
The same obscurantism arose in response to the Woolwich murder—when two jihadists butchered a man on a London sidewalk while shouting “Allahu akbar!” Their actions were repeatedly described as “political”—and the role of Islam in their thinking was reflexively discounted. Why political? Because one of the murderers spoke of British troops in Afghanistan and Iraq invading “our lands” and abusing “our women.” Few seemed to wonder how a Londoner of Nigerian descent could feel possessive about Afghan and Iraqi lands and women. There is only one path through the wilderness of bad ideas that reaches such “political” concerns: Islam.
Take a moment to consider the actions of the Taliban gunman who shot Malala Yousafzai in the head. How is it that this man came to board a school bus with the intention of murdering a 15-year-old girl? Absent ideology, this could have only been the work of a psychotic or a psychopath. Given the requisite beliefs, however, an entire culture will support such evil. Malala is the best thing to come out of the Muslim world in a thousand years. She is an extraordinarily brave and eloquent girl who is doing what millions of Muslim men and women are too terrified to do—stand up to the misogyny of traditional Islam. No doubt the assassin who tried to kill her believed that he was doing God’s work. He was probably a perfectly normal man—perhaps even a father himself—and that is what is so disturbing. In response to Malala’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, a Taliban spokesman had this to say:
Malala Yousafzai targeted and criticized Islam. She was against Islam and we tried to kill her, and if we get a chance again we will definitely try to kill her, and we will feel proud killing her.
The fact that otherwise normal people can be infected by destructive religious beliefs is crucial to understand—because beliefs spread. Until moderate Muslims and secular liberals stop misplacing the blame for this evil, they will remain part of the problem. Yes, our drone strikes in Pakistan kill innocent people—and this undoubtedly creates new enemies for the West. But we wouldn’t need to drop a single bomb on Pakistan, or anywhere else, if a death cult of devout Muslims weren’t making life miserable for millions of innocent people and posing an unacceptable threat of violence to open societies.
Malala did not win a Nobel prize this week, and it is probably good for her that she didn’t. She absolutely deserved it—far more than several recent recipients have—but this recognition would have made her security concerns even more excruciating than they probably are already. Her nomination is said to have noticeably increased anti-Western sentiment in Pakistan—a fact that deserves some honest reflection on the part of Islam’s apologists. If for nothing else, we can be grateful to the Taliban for reminding us of what so many civilized people seem eager to forget: This is both a war of ideas and a very bloody war—and we must win it.Mike Greenberg, Mike Golic Jr. and Robin Lundberg applaud the White Sox for thinking of the idea to hire Chance the Rapper to be the team's club ambassador. (2:04)
Welcome to 2016, where a baseball team is on the cusp of signing a rapper who has eluded all the big music labels.
Sources tell ESPN that the Chicago White Sox are close to signing Chance The Rapper to a club ambassador deal that will pay him to be part of club activities aimed at helping to market the team to a younger audience.
Brooks Boyer, the team's senior vice president of sales and marketing, would not confirm any details of the pitch that was made to Chance, a 22-year-old Chicago native who was born Chancelor Bennett, but Boyer did spend much of the day talking about him.
On Wednesday afternoon, the team revealed that Chance The Rapper designed three new White Sox hats that are limited to 2,000 and will be available at the team's home opener Friday.
These hats got us doing front flips.
See what we did there, @chancetherapper? pic.twitter.com/ea6M0sNrxn — Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) April 6, 2016
Chance, who is often seen on and off stage wearing his White Sox hat, will be on hand to throw out the first pitch. He also has recorded the team's ballpark introduction video for this season.
"For anyone over 28 years old, they're thrilled that Frank Thomas is back with us [as a special consultant]," Boyer said. "But we want to talk to those who are even younger, to develop interest from the Hispanic and the African-American markets. Chance resonates with them."
Over the past couple of years, Chance has risen up the hip-hop ranks with his group, The Social Experiment, while bringing his Chicago roots along for the ride. He performed on "Saturday Night Live" in December and got more publicity after being featured on Kanye West's new album, "Life of Pablo."
Despite overtures from every major record label, Chance has stayed independent, which makes it easier for him to make decisions and collaborate without any contractual ties.
Despite his meteoric rise, Chance is still very much in love with Chicago. He grew up on the South Side, and his father, Ken Bennett, is the deputy chief of staff to Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
"Sports and pop culture are mixing together all the time," Boyer said. "It doesn't have to be by accident."
The White Sox's involvement with Chance comes after five straight seasons of being in the bottom third of Major League Baseball attendance, whereas the crosstown rival Cubs are among the hottest teams in baseball.
Teams have rarely paid to give celebrities club ambassador status. The only other team that financially compensates a celebrity to be a team cheerleader of sorts is the Toronto Raptors, who have had a formal relationship with Drake for two and a half years.NEW YORK — A judge cited national security concerns in ruling Wednesday that the CIA does not have to release hundreds of documents related to the destruction of videotapes of Sept. 11 detainee interrogations that used harsh methods.
U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said he believed he had an obligation to let the CIA director decide what should be released when it pertains to methods used to make uncooperative detainees divulge information.
“The need to keep confidential just how the CIA and other government agencies obtained their information is manifest, and that has to do with the identities of the people who gave information and who were questioned to obtain information,” the judge said from the bench.
He ruled after reviewing in private 65 of roughly 580 documents sought by the American Civil Liberties Union, including 53 field reports to CIA headquarters about interrogations.
An ACLU lawsuit already has forced the release of legal memos authorizing harsh methods, including waterboarding, a type of simulated drowning, and slamming suspects into walls, techniques described by critics as torture.
The judge said he expects to order the release of six pages of written notes from a CIA field officer who spoke about the interrogation videotapes with a CIA lawyer, but he gave the government two weeks to submit new arguments opposing the release.
He said it was only important that he decide whether the issue before him was a fit subject for intelligence gathering, not whether it was legal.
“If so, my job is to defer to the extent appropriate — and that is substantial — to the decision of the director of the CIA,” he said.
CIA Director Leon Panetta had told the judge in court papers that releasing documents about the agency’s terror interrogations would gravely damage national security.Mickey Gall was in fact the man behind John Makdessi’s injury ahead of UFC 214 in July.
Gall admitted in a statement to BloodyElbow.com Sunday that he injured Makdessi ahead of the Canadian lightweight’s planned bout against Sage Northcutt, confirming Makdessi’s claim.
Makdessi told FanSided earlier this week that he sparred with Gall while the welterweight was visiting TriStar in Montreal |
in just this style! A server may be handling 20 simultaneous clients, and in our metaphor that means a line of 20 people, sitting idle for 99% of the time, each waiting for his bucket to fill!
The obvious solution to this is to have a single person walk up and down the aisle of bucket pairs. When he comes to a bucket that's full, he dumps it into the other side, and then moves on. By walking up and down the aisle of buckets, one busy person does the job of 20 idle people.
The only time when this technique doesn't work well is when something other than just dumping one bucket into the next needs to be done - say, turning the water into gold first. If turning a bucket of water into a bucket of gold takes a long time, then the other buckets may not get processed in a timely fashion. For example, if your server program needs to crunch on the data it receives before responding.
Writing a single-process multiplexing socket program
Now how do we apply our bucket wisdom to network programming?
Depending on the operating system, there are several different ways to achieve our 'bucket-trickling' affect. By far the most common, and simplest mechanism uses the select() system call. The select() function takes (in effect) four arguments: three 'lists' of sockets, and a timeout. The three socket lists indicate interest in read, write, and exception events for each socket listed. The function will return whenever the indicated socket fires one of these events. If nothing happens within the timeout period, the function simply returns.
The result of the select() function is three lists telling you which sockets fired which events.
Your application will have a handler for each expected event type. This handler will perform different tasks depending on your application. If a connection has a need to keep state information, you'll probably end up writing a state machine to handle transitions between different behaviors. Diving back into the bucket [paradigm], these events might be the equivalent of adding little "I'm full now" mailbox-like flags to the buckets.
Animating the server using select() is easy: A simple event loop will suffice. I usually use a loop with a 30-second timeout. That way, I can do any necessary housekeeping tasks at least every 30 seconds.
Sounds like a lot of work.
[Note: for those of you coming to this page through an Internet search engine, the following description is of a library written in Python.]
Well, lucky for you, there's a set of common code that makes writing these programs a snap. In fact, all you need to do is pick from two connection styles, and plug in your own event handlers. As an extra added bonus, the differences between Windows and Unix socket multiplexing have been abstracted - using the async base classes ( asyncore.dispatcher and asynchat.async_chat ) - you can write asynchronous programs that will work on Unix, Windows, or the Macintosh (in fact, it should work on any platform that correctly implements the socket and select modules).
The first class is the simpler one, 'asyncore.dispatcher'. This class manages the association between a socket descriptor (which is how the operating system refers to the socket) and your socket object. dispatcher is really a container for a system-level socket, but it's been wrapped to look as much like a socket as possible. The main difference is that creating the underlying socket operation is done by calling the create_socket method.
Aside from the default 'low-level' event handlers, (for read, write, and expt ), there are a few extra implied events that are captured by the asyncore.dispatcher class for you.
handle_read: called whenever the socket has more data to be read, meaning that recv() can be called with an expectation of success.
called whenever the socket has more data to be read, meaning that can be called with an expectation of success. handle_write: called whenever a socket is ready to be written to - a call to send() can be expected to succeed.
called whenever a socket is ready to be written to - a call to can be expected to succeed. handle_oob: called when out-of-band data is present.
called when out-of-band data is present. handle_accept: called when a new connection has been accepted on a listening socket.
called when a new connection has been accepted on a listening socket. handle_connect: called when an outgoing connect() has succeeded.
called when an outgoing has succeeded. handle_close: called when the socket has closed.
asynchat.async_chat
It lets you divide the stream of incoming data into blocks delimited by a 'terminator' of your own choosing. Almost all the internet protocols use a combination of '\r
' and '\r
.\r
' as terminators, the latter being a common end-of-message delimiter. You can change the current terminator by calling the set_terminator method. Input is accumulated by calling your own collect_incoming_data method. When the terminator is located, the found_terminator method is called.
and as terminators, the latter being a common end-of-message delimiter. You can change the current terminator by calling the method. Input is accumulated by calling your own method. When the terminator is located, the method is called. It provides a mechanism for queueing output, using a simple fifo and the concept of a producer. A producer is an object that knows how to incrementally produce output for delivery to the socket. All output to the socket is in the form of a producer. When you call send(), async_chat first wraps the data in a simple producer, called (strangely enough)'simple_producer' :
class simple_producer: def __init__ (self, data): self.data = data def more (self): if len (self.data) > 512: result = self.data[:512] self.data = self.data[512:] return result else: result = self.data self.data = '' return result
Each producer must have a more() method, which is called whenever more output is needed. Note how the data is deliberately sent in fixed-size chunks: If you create a simple_producer with a 15-Megabyte long string (ghastly!), this will keep that one socket from monopolizing the whole program. When the producer is exhausted, it returns an empty string, like a file object signifying an end-of-file condition.
A producer can compute its output 'on-the-fly', if so desired. It can keep state information, too, like a file pointer, a database index, or a partial computation.
Each producer is filed into a queue (fifo), which is progressively emptied. The more method of the front-most element of the queue is called until it is exhausted, and then the producer is popped off the queue.
The combination of delimiting the input and scheduling the output with a fifo allows you to design a server that will correctly handle an impatient client. For example, some NNTP clients send a barrage of commands to the server, and then count out the responses as they are made (rather than sending a command, waiting for a response, etc...). If a call to recv() reveals a buffer full of these impatient commands, async_chat will handle the situation correctly, calling collect_incoming_data and found_terminator in sequence for each command.
An Example
The following discussion assumes a basic familiarity with socket programming
We'll start with a simple async finger client. Finger is a trivial tcp protocol that's completely stateless. You just connect to the finger port, send a request line, and read until the connection closes. [This is very similar to HTTP, by the way]
import socket import asyncore import string # simple demo of the asyncore dispatcher class. class finger_client (asyncore.dispatcher): def __init__ (self, account, done_fun, long=1): self.name, self.host = tuple(string.split (account, '@')) self.done_fun = done_fun self.data = '' self.long = long self.create_socket (socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) asyncore.dispatcher.__init__ (self) self.connect ((host, 79))
done_fun
create_socket
# once connected, send the account name def handle_connect (self): self.log ('connected') if self.long: # this requests 'long' output. self.send ('/w %s\r
' % self.name) else: self.send ('%s\r
' % self.name)
# collect some more finger server output. def handle_read (self): more = self.recv(512) if not more: self.handle_close() self.data = self.data + more
self.data
# the other side closed, we're done. def handle_close (self): print'' self.done_fun (self.data) self.close()
done_fun
def demo_done_fun (stuff): print stuff def demo (who='[email protected]'): f = finger_client (who, demo_done_fun, long=0) asyncore.loop()
asyncore.loop()
Discussion of other examples
pop3.py An implementation of the Post Office Protocol (version 3), as described in RFC 1725. Uses the facilities of consumer.py. ftp.py An implementation of the File Transfer Protocol, as described in RFC 959. ftpgrab.py A client of ftp.py ; shows how to use an async client class to build a useful program. This one allows you to simultaneously grab many files from different servers from the command line. asynhttp.py is very similar to the finger client described above. It's an asyncore.dispatcher -based http client. It's not much of an http client, though: it neither sends or processes HTTP headers - it merely sends a 'GET' command and collects the output. servhttp.py A more complete example. It's a bare-bones asynchronous http server, [the only one I've ever heard of], supporting only the 'GET' command and capable only of delivering files. Just like the HTTP server that is now part of the python distribution, though, it is easily extensible. What makes this server interesting is its performance: In a bit of informal testing against apache 0.6.2, it seems to be able to handle a substantially higher number of hits, with a much lower load on the machine. See the file 'abuse.py' for more information and timings. Historical Note: Medusa grew, starting in March 1996, from experimentation with this sample program. Medusa is a full-fledged TCP/IP server platform built upon the principles (and library) described here.
async_chat
A Platform Note
On Unix, the arguments to select() are not limited to tcp sockets, they can in fact be any file descriptor - including such objects as unix domain sockets, pipes and fifos. This means that the library can be used to communicate with these objects efficiently. To do this, it is necessary to make sure that these descriptors are placed in non-blocking mode. There are also a few API differences - the non-socket objects will need to use read() and write(), rather than recv() and send(). Simple support for this is provided in the class asyncore.py:file_dispatcher
First-Class Continuations, Coroutines...
Work with this library has taken me down an interesting path. One strange and exciting fork has been some experimentation in other languages with a feature called 'first-class continuations'. A first-class continuation is an object that captures the current state of a program in such a way that it can be stored away and invoked later, even invoked multiple times. This feature is an extremely powerful tool for changing the control flow of a program. Usually delivered to the user as a function, call-with-current-continuation (a.k.a.'call/cc ') in languages like Scheme and ML, it can be used to write asynchronous programs that look synchronous; in effect, call/cc allows one to write programs in a multi-threaded style, but without using an operating-system-supplied thread capability (the technical term is 'coroutines'). call/cc can also be used to synthesize all other known higher-level control structures, such as Python and C++-style exception handling.
There is some chance that Python will gain this wonderful feature, and I await the day anxiously. In the meanwhile, something along these lines has been written using the Gambit Scheme compiler. Here is some code that implements a portable socket interface to Gambit, and a coroutine-based socket-event'scheduler'.
For more information on call/cc, see the Revised^4 Report on Scheme
A C++ Implementation
asyncore
asynchat
Getting the Library
Sam Rushing / [email protected]'s hard out there for a thief -- and it's getting harder.
Once upon a time, all the bad guys needed to do was find an unlocked vehicle. Now, they've got to fight their way past kill switches, LoJack devices, and OnStar -- not to mention the impending arrival of digital license plates, voice-identification, and fingerprint-recognition.
But all those gadgets pale in comparison to the latest theft-prevention tool. According to Mashable, Isao Nakanishi and his colleagues in the graduate school of engineering at Japan's Tottori University have developed a prototype for a safety system that uses brain waves to identity drivers.
The system takes samples of brain waves from a driver and stores them in a database. If a vehicle begins moving and the driver's brain waves don't match those on file, the vehicle is disabled. The system can also tell if a driver is drunk or falling a sleep, since brain waves in those circumstances vary significantly from samples taken when a motorist is fully awake and sober.
Though it's still in the very early stages, the system is ultimately intended for use on mass transit vehicles or on those that carry large sums of money or valuables. However, we could easily envision a day when this technology might roll out to mainstream cars.
OUR TAKE
Nakanishi's system has a few potential shortcomings. For starters, if the goal is to protect buses and armored cars, it doesn't do much to prevent those vehicles from being hijacked, provided the bad guys keep the approved driver behind the wheel. And in emergency situations, there would need to be some kind of override to allow unauthorized persons to drive a vehicle.
But ignoring those flaws, what's most interesting about this technology is the future it points to, the same future that includes Apple's new fingerprint-recognition software. It's a future in which all the accessories we know and loathe -- keys, wallets, credit cards -- become useless. Or more accurately, they become us, as our own bodies are transformed into passcodes.
Tinfoil-hatters, we're sorry, but the future isn't looking so bright.
___________________________________________
Follow The Car Connection on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.Paris residents furious that hundreds of migrants are sleeping on the streets of their neighbourhood are threatening to launch a hunger strike unless the authorities remove the squalid pavement camps.
They are demanding the relocation of a centre that processes asylum requests, which they argue is a magnet for migrants. Local groups accuse the migrants of harassing women and starting fights as they jostle for admittance to the office, managed by a charity with state aid.
Several high-profile police operations to clear migrants sleeping in the streets of the 10th arrondissement in northern Paris over the past two years have failed to solve the problem. Migrants reappeared within days or weeks.
Pierre Vuarin, a spokesman for a neighbourhood association, said: “The pavement is sometimes soaked in urine and the streets aren’t cleaned every day. Some people have sold their flats at knockdown prices and others have suffered mental breakdowns.”Back in early 2015 it looked as though America might be on the verge of a rare moment for recent times, when leaders of both parties might come together to pass an important bipartisan reform. Over several years both the right and the left had reached a consensus that the draconian mandatory minimum sentencing laws passed in the 1980s and 1990s had been overzealous and counterproductive. Politicians on both sides of the aisle were actually working together on the federal level to eliminate many such sentences, especially after data gathered in states like Texas and Georgia made clear that doing so could save governments money and reduce crime rates.
Even Texas Sen. Ted Cruz memorably spoke to the issue on the Senate floor:
Advertisement:
Today, far too many young men — and in particular African-American young men... find themselves subject to sentences of many decades for relatively minor, nonviolent drug infractions. We should not live in a world of "Les Misérables," where a young man finds his entire future taken away by excessive mandatory minimums.
[salon_video id="14774074"]
Mandatory minimum laws were mostly aimed at drug-related crimes and came about in a burst of emotional reactions to tabloid-style stories in the 1980s. Early in that decade the crack cocaine epidemic had everyone spooked, largely because opportunistic politicians stoked the story for political gain. The case that many people still remember is that of 22-year-old college basketball star Len Bias, who died of a cocaine-induced heart attack just two days after being drafted by the Boston Celtics. Facing a big midterm election, the Democrat-dominated Congress saw the public outcry as an opportunity to quickly push through the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986.
On the 20-year anniversary of Bias' death in 2006, Eric E. Sterling and Julie Stewart wrote in The Washington Post about the effects of this ill-considered act of political opportunism:
One result was the innocuous-sounding Narcotics Penalties and Enforcement Act, which became the first element of the enormous Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, hurried to the floor a little over two months after Bias's death. But the effect of the penalties and enforcement legislation was to put back into federal law the kind of clumsy mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses that had been done away with 16 years before. And there they remain, 20 years and several hundred thousand defendants later.
The federal prison population exploded from 36,000 in 1986 to nearly 200,000 in 2016, costing the government billions of dollars and finally leading members of both parties to realize that reform was long overdue.
And then immigration panic hit. An unknown college professor named Dave Brat unseated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a 2014 Republican primary, and that was the canary in the coal mine. Fueled largely by talk radio and the emerging "alt-right" white nationalism of Breitbart News, Brat ran on a hard-core anti-immigration platform — in a suburban Virginia district with relatively few immigrants — and the GOP realized that issue was potent.
By 2015 the Republican majority had embarked on a new crusade: promoting the Establishing Mandatory Minimums for Illegal Reentry Act of 2015, also known as “Kate’s Law.” It would impose a mandatory five-year minimum sentence on immigrants who illegally re-enter the country after having been deported. The legislation was named after Kate Steinle, a 32-year-old woman who was shot and killed by an undocumented Mexican immigrant, Francisco Sánchez, in July 2015 in San Francisco. (The shooting itself was likely a tragic accident.) Sánchez had been deported five times before and was wanted for yet another deportation. "Kate's Law" is often mentioned in the same breath as efforts to ban sanctuary cities like San Francisco.
Advertisement:
The idea was proposed by Steinle's parents and taken up by Fox News' Bill O'Reilly who made it his personal crusade. Naturally, the man who so eloquently spoke out against mandatory minimums just the year before, Ted Cruz, jumped at the opportunity to co-sponsor the bill. The House passed the bill but Republicans couldn't break the filibuster in 2015 or 2016. The right-wing press was fit to be tied about that, as well as about the GOP's apparent unwillingness or inability to do away with sanctuary cities.
Here's how Breitbart described the problem:
Sanctuary cities pose a great threat to American communities already overrun by Third Worlders and their descendants and a vast network of lawlessness sprawls across the country. As many as 11 to 30 million illegal aliens, largely but not exclusively originating from the most violent and backwards nations on Earth, are currently squatting on U.S. territory.
Then the 2016 presidential campaign went in high gear, with immigration at the top of the front-runner's agenda. Donald Trump endorsed Kate's Law immediately, evoking "beautiful Kate" at all his rallies and promising to end sanctuary cities on his first day in office.
He didn't do that. But Trump and his allies haven't given up. The administration is working every angle to pressure cities to give up their sanctuary status. And the following tweet from May 6 shows Steve Bannon's "white board" indicates that "pass Kate's Law" is prominently listed under "immigration."
Advertisement:
According to the Washington Times, while introducing the law in the new Congress in January, Rep. Steve King of Iowa said, “Parents should never experience the heartbreak of burying their child, but the Obama administration’s commitment to lawless immigration policy has made that tragedy the new normal."
This is nonsense, of course. It's a tragic fact of American life that too many parents have to bury their children due to violent crime — but immigrants are far less likely to commit violent crimes than native-born individuals.
Kate's Law has been hung up in the Senate but, according to the Hill, just as the mandatory minimum sentences were tucked into the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, the provisions of Kate's Law are now attached to a border security bill that includes new money for prisons, detention centers and border agents. Whether Republicans can this time overcome a Democratic-led filibuster, with Trump in the White House eager to sign it, is perhaps even less likely than it was before.
Advertisement:
But regardless of what happens with Kate's Law or sanctuary cities, all this immigration hysteria has completely blown up all that hard-won bipartisan effort to reform the criminal justice system. Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to embark on a new "crime war" that will make the crusades of the 1980s look tame by comparison, and it appears that we may end up making this already terrible situation even worse.Instructions:
1. Install and launch the free Gmail app from the App Store.
2. Sign in to your Gmail account(s).
3. Enter the Gmail app's settings screen by first swiping in from the left, then tapping the 'Gear' icon at the top.
See screenshot
4. Ensure that Notifications are set to 'All New Mail' or 'Primary Only'.
See screenshot
5. Launch the Settings app and tap 'Mail, Contacts, Calendars'. Configure the same Gmail account(s) if not already configured.
6. Under 'Fetch New Data', set your Gmail account(s) to 'Manual'.
See screenshot
7. In the Settings app, tap 'Notification Center' and then 'Mail'. Make sure notifications for your Gmail account(s) are enabled.
See screenshot
IMPORTANT - You may need to reboot your device after configuring your account(s) in order to receive push messages.
IMPORTANT - Do not uninstall the Gmail app. Doing so will cause push messages to no longer be delivered.Share. Free gift of 200 Points for a limited time. Free gift of 200 Points for a limited time.
Activision has announced that it is bringing Call of Duty Points to Call of Duty: Black Ops III.
This new optional virtual currency is purchased with real money, and allows players to secure additional Supply Drops in multiplayer or Vials of Liquid Divinium in Zombies Mode. The currency will only be available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Exit Theatre Mode
Black Ops III's Black Market has been updated with three new melee weapons, the Butterfly Knife, Wrench, and Brass Knuckles. There are also new taunts, body and head variants for each Specialist, Epic rarity camo, and calling cards.
Activision says that "the entire range of new items can be obtained by simply playing the game and trading the Cryptokeys you earn for Supply Drops in the Black Market."
For a limited time, while supplies last, simply playing the game on PS4, Xbox One, or PC will grant you a one-time gift of 200 Call of Duty Points.
Exit Theatre Mode
Purchasing Points costs $2 for 200, $10 for 1,000 (+100 bonus), $20 for 2,000 (+400 bonus), and $40 for 4,000 (+1,000 bonus).
In IGN's review of Call of Duty: Black Ops III, we said that "it's the biggest and most feature-packed game we've seen out of the series yet." Earlier today, we caught wind of paid character level boosts for Destiny, another Activision game.
Matt Porter is a freelance writer based in London. Make sure to visit what he thinks is the best website in the world, but is actually just his Twitter page.Photo Credit: John Lott
BUFFALO – With his usual candour, Devon Travis admits there were periods over the past 10 months when the classic macho temperament of the professional athlete did not serve him well.
He had won the second-base job with the Toronto Blue Jays as a rookie and tore up the league for a while. Then he tore up his shoulder. Eventually, he landed on the disabled list, just as the Jays were taking off. And quickly, it became evident they could do quite well without him.
Then came two shoulder surgeries, the second a strange and scary one. In all, he did not play in a game for 10 months.
“I’d say I was pretty close to being depressed for a while … There were days where I didn’t want to do therapy. I just wanted to sit in my room and sulk like a little baby,” Travis said Thursday.
Then came the day, early in spring training, when he discovered he could lift his right arm above his head for the first time since the end of October, when a surgical team fused two bones in his shoulder to correct a rare condition that normally corrects itself.
“Something so small was like the biggest victory to me,” he recalled of that day when he could reach high again.
He did not record the date, but he clearly remembers the moment.
“I’d say early March,” he said. “Probably about the time I started smiling again in spring training.”
Now he can taste the big-time again. Following four rehab games in Dunedin, where he spent the winter undergoing strenuous, tedious therapy, he is in Triple-A Buffalo. It is the final step on the way back. He is excited.
Actually, the excitement started last week, when they finally let him play a game in Dunedin.
“The biggest thing has been calming down,” he said with a smile before submitting to a media scrum in the Bisons’ dugout. “The anthem’s going and my heart’s going like it’s the World Series.”
And up the road in Toronto, a restive fan base is eager to welcome him back. The 25-year-old with all of 62 big-league games on his resume will return to great expectations, because his team has staggered through its first 42 games and desperately needs an offensive sparkplug.
The expectations are unfair. But Devon Travis was a remarkable hitter as a rookie. And he represents hope, which has been scarce so far for Blue Jays fans.
Their hope began to surge when they heard what he did in Buffalo on Thursday night.
***
It is one of baseball’s paradoxes: intense rivalry and deep friendship often go hand in hand.
During an injured player’s long rehab, one of his best friends on the team keeps calling and texting with encouraging words. All the while, both players know they are gunning for the same job. Each wishes no ill upon the other, but deep down each wants the other to lose the competition. In the end, one will be disappointed – perhaps even relegated to the minor leagues.
So it is with Devon Travis and Ryan Goins. Travis says he talked to Goins “more than anybody else on the team throughout this entire year. Probably one of my closest buddies on the team.”
Goins kept telling him to keep his chin up, that he’ll come back as good as new. And in April, when Goins failed to resurrect the groove that made him an offensive cog down the stretch last year, Travis returned the favour. Hang in there, he said. You’ll snap out of it.
To hear Travis tell it, they did not speak of the subtext. Travis did not say, even in fun, I’m coming for your job, Ryan.
Asked about that, Travis would only say: “I want to be the starting second baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays, no doubt. That’s without question. Goins and (Darwin) Barney are there now. My job is to be the best teammate I can be until I can get back there, and if I’m the guy that’s in the starting lineup that day, I’m going to be ready to go.”
He was also asked this: Does he have a date in his mind when he aims to rejoin the Jays?
“Man, I don’t,” he said, looking down, half-smiling.
Then: “I maybe kind of do. I can’t wait. It’s been long road, man. It’s been tough. Watching the guys in the postseason and watching now, I want nothing more than to be out there. Whenever they call me and tell me my time has come to go back, I’ll be ready.”
Before the scrum, Travis talked with awe about his first big-league opening day last year in New York. He hit a home run and fairly flew around the bases. It was probably the most exciting day of his life.
The Blue Jays return to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday.
***
Photo Credit: John Lott
Before the scrum, as Travis sat in the sun on the dugout steps chatting with a couple of Toronto reporters, teammate Darrell Ceciliani approached with a bat, and, using the small end as a mock-microphone, conducted a faux interview. He asked Travis if it’s true that he had a golden-topped coiffure before Marcus Stroman. It’s true, Travis said, dead-pan.
He was relaxed and constantly smiling, which was his standard demeanour during his good times with the Jays last year.
“I just come to the field every day and try to bring energy and try to make the guys around me better, try to loosen up the atmosphere,” he said. “Coming to the baseball field every day sometimes can be a little blah and you’ve got to find it inside you to pick yourself up and understand that this is your job and winning is the name of the game. As long as I do everything I can to help the team win, I hope that my numbers at the end of the year are somewhere where I can smile about.”
Without the shoulder problems, he likely would have been smiling at the end of last season. He batted.304 with eight homers and an.859 OPS. He is no Goins defensively, but he was solid, and occasionally sparkled. And as word spread of his performance his first Triple-A rehab game, the word “saviour” started to pop up in various Twitter feeds.
In his first at-bat, he slashed a single to right field. In his second, he pulled a rocket to the left-field wall for a double. In his third, he shot another single to left-centre.
The Jays, it would appear, are unlikely to leave him in Buffalo for long.
“I just miss the clubhouse,” he said before the game. “I miss being around the guys. I miss showing up in front of all those fans. I’ve never played in front of that many fans every single day … You can’t beat walking into that clubhouse and seeing your name on that locker and knowing that you’re playing at the highest level in the world. It’s something.”
By next week this time, it will be something again.How do you make sure a plane is ready for anything? Send it to the McKinley Climate Lab. U.S. Navy/Photo by Michael D. Jackson
ON AUGUST DAYS IN THE FLORIDA PANHANDLE, the tropical heat steam-cooks everything. UPS drivers slap wet bandannas to their foreheads. Pirate-themed mini-golf parks, shimmering like mirages, lay deserted. But a few miles from the Gulf motels and sandy beach malls, engineers like Kirk Parrish face the worst snowstorms of their lives. Sheathed in parkas, they cold-start their pickups and drive straight into stinging, minus-40-degree whiteout blizzards. Indoors. “It’s absolutely crazy seeing an indoor snowstorm,” says Parrish, a diesel engineer at Ford Motor Company whose job is to make sure your F-150 can start and run in Prudhoe Bay extremes. To prove it can, and tweak things if it can’t, he treks each summer to the McKinley Climatic Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base. Sprawled over several buildings, the lab is the largest indoor-weather testing facility in the world and can conjure nearly any meteorological hazard: ice storms, corrosive fog, driving rains (up to 27 inches per hour), 165-degree heat, jungle humidity, and 40-mile-per-hour sandstorms. The lab has been operating since 1947, when the U.S. Army Air Corps (now the Air Force) began assessing warbirds there. A few years later, it opened its doors to the rest of the military and, in the late 1980s, to private companies. It has since served as a proving ground for all sorts of consumer goods, from Ford trucks to Goodyear snow tires to Google’s Internet-beaming Project Loon balloons. It’s the last stop for most commercial jets seeking FAA certification. And the lab has tested just about every warplane in the U.S. arsenal, including Northrop Grumman’s B-29 bomber, Lockheed Martin’s C5 Galaxy transport (which barely cleared the ceiling), and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. “I cannot tell you of a military aircraft that hasn’t been through here,” says lab chief Dwayne Bell, who has seen hundreds of jets roll through in his 26-year tenure. On a mid-April day, Bell was juggling logistics for at least a dozen products of every make and size. They were coming, going, or begging for a slot in his schedule. Later this year he expects to see the Bombardier Global 7000, a new ultra-long-range business jet. “The fact is, we get requests for all manner of things,” he says. “We’re talking to a company that makes offshore-drilling equipment. I got a call yesterday from one that wants to bring in a snow blower.”
Blow-Out Like a massive hair dryer, nine ducted fans inside this cone blast powerful winds over the spray bar in front-creating ice clouds and whiteout blizzards for this F-35B fighter. U.S. Navy/Photo by Michael D. Jackson
A LOT OF BUSINESSES WHOSE PRODUCTS NEED TO HOLD UP IN NASTY WEATHER subject their boots, tents, gloves, planes, boats, and trucks to Mother Nature’s direct assault. But waiting for her to rain down her worst—and apply it evenly to your prototype in remote places like the Arctic or the Amazon—is a huge time chew. And it clips the R&D budget. Plus, it’s really hard to accurately measure results and track problems in harsh conditions, and then hit repeat. And isn’t that, after all, the essence of the scientific method: to replicate an experiment, to offer skeptics rock-solid proof that your stuff works? That, in fact, was the shrewd insight of a little-known World War II-era U.S. Army Air Corps commander: Lt. Col. Ashley McKinley. Stationed at Ladd Field, Alaska, the former pilot—who had photographed American explorer Richard Byrd’s Antarctic expeditions in 1928 and 1929—ran the Army’s Cold Weather Test Detachment. With a global war on, the military had to operate in many extremes, from Arctic tundra to Far East rainforests. McKinley found hauling material to Alaska expensive. And testing in the variable outdoors yielded spotty results. He figured it would be more effective and efficient to create weather on demand and test under controlled conditions at one-tenth the cost. In September 1943, the cold-test program moved to the easily accessible Eglin Field air base, on northwestern Florida’s Gulf Coast. Four years later, the newly built Main Chamber began punishing its first planes. And over the next 50 years, the lab tested some 300 aircraft and 2,000 other pieces of equipment, including missiles, bombs, Howitzers, and Humvees.
An airplane's torture chamber The steel-clad doors to the Main Chamber of the McKinley Climate Laboratory weigh 100 tons each. Courtesy Ford Motor Company
In the early 1990s, the lab’s engineers, welders, and electricians embarked on a $100 million, ground-up rebuild to accommodate larger aircraft and to install updated refrigeration and heating machinery, as well as electrical and steam equipment. When the retooling finished in 1997, the center expanded its commercial-client roster. As military equipment became more sophisticated, it took longer to get to the testing phase. So commercial clients, Bell says, “help pay the bills.” Today, the lab has six chambers. Two of the most extreme rooms were added in the early 1970s to meet the military’s global portfolio. In the Salt Test Chamber (50 feet by 16 feet wide, and 16 feet tall), technicians can spray metal-eating sodium chloride to test for corrosion resistance. The Sun, Wind, Rain and Dust Chamber (50 feet by 50 feet, and 30 feet tall) has fans that can blow 40-mile-per-hour sandstorms, the kind you see U.S. Army grunts in Afghanistan posting on YouTube. And to better simulate doing time in a Middle East gulf state, techs can switch on heat lamps set as high as 165 degrees to bake tanks, radar systems, missile launchers, aircraft tugs, and Army transports. The crew at McKinley recently vetted a new Army generator that will sit outside “little tent cities,” says Bell, to power air, filtration, and electrical systems. The main attraction at McKinley, however, is its Main Chamber. At 252 feet wide, 260 feet deep, and 70 feet tall at its highest point, its size allows the lab to test extremely large planes. The most notable ones to roll through its 200-ton steel-sheathed doors include Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, which earned its foul-weather wings there in 2010, and Lockheed’s C-5M Galaxy transport, the largest plane ever to enter the U.S. fleet. The Main Chamber’s primary modes are hot and cold. During heat testing, crews can use lamps to bake an aircraft or switch on steam vents to also bathe it in humidity. The lamps can mimic a 24-hour solar cycle, coming on at dawn, peaking in a 140-degree sizzling heat, and then gradually sunsetting. Engineers will also check to make sure the plane’s aviation and communications electronics hold |
appear.Benedictus - Could very likely be a possibility for priests, especially surrounding the theme of Old Gods and the Twilight Hammers Clan.Garona - Not a warrior. She's a rogue. Since she's deeply related with "Because I am BossToss" -MC ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ raise your dongers ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ I'm sure that all of my fellow class mates viewed me as the Adonis of the Class of 2015 already. -Xenocider, EG, ieF 2013 Champion.
Immersion_ Profile Joined May 2010 United Kingdom 13 Posts #6 On March 11 2016 03:37 Advantageous wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 11 2016 03:24 itchiko wrote:
For the legendaries I would predict:
Cho
Ch'tun
Azshara
Benedictus (Maybe for shadow priest theme?)
Garona (for the warrior)
and at least one Easter egg about Lovecraft either in a name of a card or in the sound being played in game. For the legendaries I would predict:'Gall Potentially for the WarlockCh'tunAzsharaBenedictus (Maybe for shadow priest theme?)Garona (for the warrior)and at least one Easter egg about Lovecraft either in a name of a card or in the sound being played in game.
Cho
C'thun* - could be a boss? In WoW he was defeated in AQ40, but definitely not going to be a card, I hope.
Azshara - Will definitely not be a card. She hasn't even appeared in WoW yet. However, Lady Vashj and other Nagas might appear.
Benedictus - Could very likely be a possibility for priests, especially surrounding the theme of Old Gods and the Twilight Hammers Clan.
Garona - Not a warrior. She's a rogue. Since she's deeply related with Cho Cho Cho'gall 'Gall - is more likely for Mages, if he was to become a card, because Ogres are known to be Arcane magesC'thun* - could be a boss? In WoW he was defeated in AQ40, but definitely not going to be a card, I hope.Azshara - Will definitely not be a card. She hasn't even appeared in WoW yet. However, Lady Vashj and other Nagas might appear.Benedictus - Could very likely be a possibility for priests, especially surrounding the theme of Old Gods and the Twilight Hammers Clan.Garona - Not a warrior. She's a rogue. Since she's deeply related with'Gall, she just might be a Legendary reward for defeating'Gall (ifis a boss) or a new Rogue portrait.
Not sure there will be "bosses"? Isn't this a TGT style explansion with 2 of them per year and 1x adventure? Or did I get that the wrong way round. Not sure there will be "bosses"? Isn't this a TGT style explansion with 2 of them per year and 1x adventure? Or did I get that the wrong way round. http://www.twitch.tv/sybar1te Sybarite#2581 - add me for Heroes games..Play Hots and Overwatch currently. Feel free to add.
Drazerk Profile Joined September 2010 United Kingdom 4372 Posts Last Edited: 2016-03-10 18:48:41 #7 On March 11 2016 03:44 Immersion_ wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 11 2016 03:37 Advantageous wrote:
On March 11 2016 03:24 itchiko wrote:
For the legendaries I would predict:
Cho
Ch'tun
Azshara
Benedictus (Maybe for shadow priest theme?)
Garona (for the warrior)
and at least one Easter egg about Lovecraft either in a name of a card or in the sound being played in game. For the legendaries I would predict:'Gall Potentially for the WarlockCh'tunAzsharaBenedictus (Maybe for shadow priest theme?)Garona (for the warrior)and at least one Easter egg about Lovecraft either in a name of a card or in the sound being played in game.
Cho
C'thun* - could be a boss? In WoW he was defeated in AQ40, but definitely not going to be a card, I hope.
Azshara - Will definitely not be a card. She hasn't even appeared in WoW yet. However, Lady Vashj and other Nagas might appear.
Benedictus - Could very likely be a possibility for priests, especially surrounding the theme of Old Gods and the Twilight Hammers Clan.
Garona - Not a warrior. She's a rogue. Since she's deeply related with Cho Cho Cho'gall 'Gall - is more likely for Mages, if he was to become a card, because Ogres are known to be Arcane magesC'thun* - could be a boss? In WoW he was defeated in AQ40, but definitely not going to be a card, I hope.Azshara - Will definitely not be a card. She hasn't even appeared in WoW yet. However, Lady Vashj and other Nagas might appear.Benedictus - Could very likely be a possibility for priests, especially surrounding the theme of Old Gods and the Twilight Hammers Clan.Garona - Not a warrior. She's a rogue. Since she's deeply related with'Gall, she just might be a Legendary reward for defeating'Gall (ifis a boss) or a new Rogue portrait.
Not sure there will be "bosses"? Isn't this a TGT style explansion with 2 of them per year and 1x adventure? Or did I get that the wrong way round. Not sure there will be "bosses"? Isn't this a TGT style explansion with 2 of them per year and 1x adventure? Or did I get that the wrong way round.
Blizzard confirmed 2 expansions - 1 adventure per year. If you look at the mural you can clearly see a new pack type Blizzard confirmed 2 expansions - 1 adventure per year. If you look at the mural you can clearly see a new pack type
Cricketer12 Profile Joined May 2012 United States 586 Posts #8 On March 11 2016 03:37 Advantageous wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 11 2016 03:24 itchiko wrote:
For the legendaries I would predict:
Cho
Ch'tun
Azshara
Benedictus (Maybe for shadow priest theme?)
Garona (for the warrior)
and at least one Easter egg about Lovecraft either in a name of a card or in the sound being played in game. For the legendaries I would predict:'Gall Potentially for the WarlockCh'tunAzsharaBenedictus (Maybe for shadow priest theme?)Garona (for the warrior)and at least one Easter egg about Lovecraft either in a name of a card or in the sound being played in game.
Cho
C'thun* - could be a boss? In WoW he was defeated in AQ40, but definitely not going to be a card, I hope.
Azshara - Will definitely not be a card. She hasn't even appeared in WoW yet. However, Lady Vashj and other Nagas might appear.
Benedictus - Could very likely be a possibility for priests, especially surrounding the theme of Old Gods and the Twilight Hammers Clan.
Garona - Not a warrior. She's a rogue. Since she's deeply related with Cho Cho Cho'gall 'Gall - is more likely for Mages, if he was to become a card, because Ogres are known to be Arcane magesC'thun* - could be a boss? In WoW he was defeated in AQ40, but definitely not going to be a card, I hope.Azshara - Will definitely not be a card. She hasn't even appeared in WoW yet. However, Lady Vashj and other Nagas might appear.Benedictus - Could very likely be a possibility for priests, especially surrounding the theme of Old Gods and the Twilight Hammers Clan.Garona - Not a warrior. She's a rogue. Since she's deeply related with'Gall, she just might be a Legendary reward for defeating'Gall (ifis a boss) or a new Rogue portrait.
Azshara hasnt appeared in WoW yet? Huh. She was one of the characters that piqued my interest in WC3 aka the last good Warcraft game.
Azshara hasnt appeared in WoW yet? Huh. She was one of the characters that piqued my interest in WC3 aka the last good Warcraft game. "What do the cars run on here, racism?" l SC2 Liquibet Season 17 Winner
Drazerk Profile Joined September 2010 United Kingdom 4372 Posts Last Edited: 2016-03-10 19:12:18 #9 + Show Spoiler +
New pictures of the mural New pictures of the mural
Shikyo Profile Joined June 2008 Finland 368 Posts #10 Common misconception, but Hearthstone isn't based on WoW, it's based on Warcraft.
Warcraft 3 campaigns are some of the best story experiences I've ever had. League of Legends EU West, Platinum III | Yousei Teikoku is the best thing that has ever happened to music.
Schelim Profile Joined January 2011 Scotland 1625 Posts #11 sorry that this is not completely on-topic, but does anyone know at what time exactly this Blizzard announcement will be happening tomorrow? don't follow sc2 too closely anymore, don't take my posts too seriously.
Drazerk Profile Joined September 2010 United Kingdom 4372 Posts #12 http://www.tycsports.com/player-one/hearthstone-whispers-old-gods-la-nueva-expansion
new leak -
134 new cards
4 old Gods, one of them is C'thun
Standard mode next week
Release date on late April/early May
C'thun
16 minions who buff God's attack and health
+ Show Spoiler +
Called Whispers of the Old Gods, this new expansion brings new things to the popular game company. There will be 134 new cards and sixteen of them interact with the Gods. But what Gods? There will be four that will appear in Whispers of the Old Gods, with C'Thun
While Hearthstone will next week introduce a patch Standard mode (designed for new players), Whispers of the Old Gods come to light in late April or early May. To seduce everyone, Blizzard decided to give players all new cards and C'Thun
The biggest change is that these Gods will force attack and defense can be increased with the course of the game. Initially they come with 6 attack and 6 defense, but those sixteen minions are added accompanying him power of attack and defense, beyond what they themselves can do.
This means that, when playing the card of C'Thun C'Thun
In this regard, Player One spoke with Hamilton Chu, Executive Producer of Hearthstone. "This new expansion has a great feel, where these ancient evil from the bowels of the Earth, which can come and surprise are have many followers and henchmen that will make the I work for them. " He added that "we work in this expansion for a long time and we are very happy to finally show it to people. We love this game, everyone here play Hearthstone and we like to play in our spare time and we are very pleased to bring this new expansion to the world ".
Meanwhile, Dean -Designer Balance Ayala told Harthstone- Player One: "I am very happy to explore this new side of the game because Whispers of the Old Gods has perhaps scarier side, which we did not have before. so have that evil side brought Warcraft with the Old Gods makes that we can count on that side of the story. people will be able to see what crazy things do Gods Old and think they'll love it, new forms game, new decks and I think it will be successful. "
Finally, we spoke to the Senior Interface Designer Hearthstone, Derek Sakamoto, who told us that "for me the important thing is to see how new features behave, recipes for mallets, the new cards and rotation. All that is what I've been working the last few months, so I want to see how players interact with it to see if we did our job. that works for both new players and those who are already playing. "
Hearthstone has high expectations for Whispers of the Old Gods and lack increasingly less so that everyone can know the underworld of the Gods.
Blizzard headquarters in Irvine, California, was the setting for the press to know details of the new Hearthstone expansion. And Player One was there.Called Whispers of the Old Gods, this new expansion brings new things to the popular game company. There will be 134 new cards and sixteen of them interact with the Gods. But what Gods? There will be four that will appear in Whispers of the Old Gods, withto the head. The whispers of the Gods also contaminated to various minions, which now have different characteristics to those of before.While Hearthstone will next week introduce a patch Standard mode (designed for new players), Whispers of the Old Gods come to light in late April or early May. To seduce everyone, Blizzard decided to give players all new cards and. Player One had the opportunity to test the new expansion, which happens to The Grand Tournament, the previous one.The biggest change is that these Gods will force attack and defense can be increased with the course of the game. Initially they come with 6 attack and 6 defense, but those sixteen minions are added accompanying him power of attack and defense, beyond what they themselves can do.This means that, when playing the card of-Cuesta ten do so mana, the power of God to do a different damage from batch to batch. And the damage it does when you play it. Hence the importance of putting together well mallets to accompany God and also be prepared with many cards on the table when being attacked withIn this regard, Player One spoke with Hamilton Chu, Executive Producer of Hearthstone. "This new expansion has a great feel, where these ancient evil from the bowels of the Earth, which can come and surprise are have many followers and henchmen that will make the I work for them. " He added that "we work in this expansion for a long time and we are very happy to finally show it to people. We love this game, everyone here play Hearthstone and we like to play in our spare time and we are very pleased to bring this new expansion to the world ".Meanwhile, Dean -Designer Balance Ayala told Harthstone- Player One: "I am very happy to explore this new side of the game because Whispers of the Old Gods has perhaps scarier side, which we did not have before. so have that evil side brought Warcraft with the Old Gods makes that we can count on that side of the story. people will be able to see what crazy things do Gods Old and think they'll love it, new forms game, new decks and I think it will be successful. "Finally, we spoke to the Senior Interface Designer Hearthstone, Derek Sakamoto, who told us that "for me the important thing is to see how new features behave, recipes for mallets, the new cards and rotation. All that is what I've been working the last few months, so I want to see how players interact with it to see if we did our job. that works for both new players and those who are already playing. "Hearthstone has high expectations for Whispers of the Old Gods and lack increasingly less so that everyone can know the underworld of the Gods. new leak -134 new cards4 old Gods, one of them isStandard mode next weekRelease date on late April/early May16 minions who buff God's attack and health
Drazerk Profile Joined September 2010 United Kingdom 4372 Posts Last Edited: 2016-03-10 20:36:29 #13 On March 11 2016 04:07 Schelim wrote:
sorry that this is not completely on-topic, but does anyone know at what time exactly this Blizzard announcement will be happening tomorrow?
Friday, Mar 11 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Friday, Mar 11 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Melliflue Profile Joined October 2012 United Kingdom 268 Posts #14 On March 11 2016 04:21 Drazerk wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 11 2016 04:07 Schelim wrote:
sorry that this is not completely on-topic, but does anyone know at what time exactly this Blizzard announcement will be happening tomorrow?
Friday, Mar 11 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
New cards / mechanics - Friday, Mar 11 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)New cards / mechanics - http://www.blizzcorp.fr/wp/hearthstone/whispers-of-the-old-gods/ (possibly fake)
I'm guessing fake. The fabled explorer would be Undertaker Undertaker I'm guessing fake. The fabled explorer would be
Drazerk Profile Joined September 2010 United Kingdom 4372 Posts #15 On March 11 2016 05:30 Melliflue wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 11 2016 04:21 Drazerk wrote:
On March 11 2016 04:07 Schelim wrote:
sorry that this is not completely on-topic, but does anyone know at what time exactly this Blizzard announcement will be happening tomorrow?
Friday, Mar 11 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
New cards / mechanics - Friday, Mar 11 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)New cards / mechanics - http://www.blizzcorp.fr/wp/hearthstone/whispers-of-the-old-gods/ (possibly fake)
I'm guessing fake. The fabled explorer would be Undertaker Undertaker I'm guessing fake. The fabled explorer would befor whispers, but even stronger, and I doubt Blizzard want to risk another. Also there are a couple of typos in the descriptions, such as "tempo lose".
Yeah its an old expansion someone made ignore it Yeah its an old expansion someone made ignore it
Freezard Profile Joined April 2007 Sweden 327 Posts #16 So you spend 6 mana to enable both players to draw a beast each turn for the rest of the game. Sounds like great value... not. The Priest card looks more interesting though, can win the game by not even having any minions, just controlling the board.
Also what a coincidence that I was just reading about The Old Gods in The Sundering, so I suppose it will be based on the Demon Soul and the turning of Neltharion. Hopefully they add Krasus/Korialstrasz and the others from that era (Azshara, Varo'then, Xavius, Ravencrest, Jarod Shadowsong etc).
Drazerk Profile Joined September 2010 United Kingdom 4372 Posts Last Edited: 2016-03-10 21:21:17 #17 PSA: I just received word from Blizzard clarifying that the Standard and Wild formats ARE NOT going live with next week's patch. The formats will only be added along with the release of the expansion, which, according to the post (which may or may not be accurate), is late April/early May.
Edit: To clarify, I do not know the release date for the expansion. Blizzard has yet to announce anything about it. If the link in the OP is accurate, then the expansion is indeed April/May. It could very well be earlier or later than that; we just have to wait until we get word from Blizzard. All that I know is that the Standard and Wild formats are releasing along with the expansion, not with the upcoming patch.
Source - Source - https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/49uuql/whispers_of_the_old_gods_134_new_cards_cthun_and/d0v5bjh
Schelim Profile Joined January 2011 Scotland 1625 Posts #18 On March 11 2016 04:21 Drazerk wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 11 2016 04:07 Schelim wrote:
sorry that this is not completely on-topic, but does anyone know at what time exactly this Blizzard announcement will be happening tomorrow?
Friday, Mar 11 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Friday, Mar 11 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
thanks! that should be perfect timing for me to watch between classes and the party i'm going to
On March 11 2016 06:21 Drazerk wrote:
Show nested quote +
PSA: I just received word from Blizzard clarifying that the Standard and Wild formats ARE NOT going live with next week's patch. The formats will only be added along with the release of the expansion, which, according to the post (which may or may not be accurate), is late April/early May.
Edit: To clarify, I do not know the release date for the expansion. Blizzard has yet to announce anything about it. If the link in the OP is accurate, then the expansion is indeed April/May. It could very well be earlier or later than that; we just have to wait until we get word from Blizzard. All that I know is that the Standard and Wild formats are releasing along with the expansion, not with the upcoming patch.
Source - Source - https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/49uuql/whispers_of_the_old_gods_134_new_cards_cthun_and/d0v5bjh
i don't get it. so what does the patch do then? thanks! that should be perfect timing for me to watch between classes and the party i'm going toi don't get it. so what does the patch do then? don't follow sc2 too closely anymore, don't take my posts too seriously.
synccc Profile Joined May 2014 Germany 21 Posts #19 On March 11 2016 08:18 Schelim wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 11 2016 04:21 Drazerk wrote:
On March 11 2016 04:07 Schelim wrote:
sorry that this is not completely on-topic, but does anyone know at what time exactly this Blizzard announcement will be happening tomorrow?
Friday, Mar 11 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Friday, Mar 11 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
thanks! that should be perfect timing for me to watch between classes and the party i'm going to
Show nested quote +
On March 11 2016 06:21 Drazerk wrote:
PSA: I just received word from Blizzard clarifying that the Standard and Wild formats ARE NOT going live with next week's patch. The formats will only be added along with the release of the expansion, which, according to the post (which may or may not be accurate), is late April/early May.
Edit: To clarify, I do not know the release date for the expansion. Blizzard has yet to announce anything about it. If the link in the OP is accurate, then the expansion is indeed April/May. It could very well be earlier or later than that; we just have to wait until we get word from Blizzard. All that I know is that the Standard and Wild formats are releasing along with the expansion, not with the upcoming patch.
Source - Source - https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/49uuql/whispers_of_the_old_gods_134_new_cards_cthun_and/d0v5bjh
i don't get it. so what does the patch do then? thanks! that should be perfect timing for me to watch between classes and the party i'm going toi don't get it. so what does the patch do then?
Idk, maybe the classic balance changes?
Idk, maybe the classic balance changes?
kingjames01 Profile Joined April 2009 Canada 353 Posts #20 It may also be when they release the extra deck slots. We were told that the additional slots would be released before the expansion. Who would sup with the mighty, must walk the path of daggers.
1 2 3 4 5 124 125 126 NextDragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime
Developer: TOSE
Publisher: Square Enix
Released: October (US), TBA (Euro)
No one grows up thinking how great it would be to become a small blob of blue slime, even one called Rocket. But from that seemingly limited starting point, the designers behind Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime have come up with a really engaging experience. Perhaps the most impressive thing is the humour that runs throughout the game. As well as the satisfying ability for Rocket to be stretched and fired like an elastic band, there are wacky tank battles, which include some role-playing levelling up of your trusty gunners. So go blue – there's plenty of odd enjoyment to be discovered.
Metroid Prime: Hunters
Developer: Nintendo Software Tech.
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: May
"A 3D first-person shooter on the DS? It'll never work". How wrong our conceptions proved, as Nintendo's Software Technology group managed the miraculous. Also thrown into the mix were solid touchscreen / stylus controls and an option for four way online multiplayer via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Technically, you couldn't ask for more. In terms of the gameplay, shooting things dominated over the rollerball puzzles, as Samus attempted to beat a selection of bounty hunters to a selection of powerful artifacts. Sure it wasn't War and Peace, but with this amount of firepower, who needs...and Peace?
Dr Kawashima's Brain Training
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: June
Much of the DS' success in 2006 has been due to games that aren't really games. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training was one of the first, and in terms of how it's supposed to be played, the best example. Sure, it wasn't perfect. The speech recognition system had problems with the word 'Blue', for starters. But overall the selection of games on offer was fun enough for anyone to play for the required ten minutes per day, every day, so the good Dr could work out how old your brain was. The inclusion of touchscreen sudoku into a game costing a mere £20 was a special bonus.
Children of Mana
Developer: Next Entertainment
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: November (US), 12th Jan (Euro)
OK, so we'll admit we're fans of role-playing games but even discounting that bias, Children of Mana is wonderful. Actually, we'd argue it's exactly the sort of RPG that would appeal to people who aren't keen on the genre. Based around non-stop action – you spend your time fighting your way through dungeons rather than endlessly travelling across mysterious worlds – it enables you to get creative with an array of weapons, magical spirits and gemstones. There's even a neat co-op mode, plus the 2D sprite graphics, audio sounds effects and bouncy attack physics are brilliant.
Tetris DS
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: April
We've all played Tetris and gone to bed counting falling blocks before, haven't we? Nevertheless, Nintendo managed to gracefully overhaul the most played game ever in Tetris DS by cunningly mixing a traditional version of the game with retrospective atmospherics from Nintendo's back catalogue, as well as sneaking in some radical reinterpretations. Of the new modes introduced, our favourite was the shoot 'em up-style Catch mode, while the head-to-head Push mode satisfied those competitive folks who always want to win. And, thanks to support for Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection, you could take on the world.
Elite Beat Agents
Developer: iNiS
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: November (US), TBA (Euro)
Rhythm action games are great, especially if like us you're tone deaf and have two left feet. All you need to do is wield your stylus in time to the music and you too can be winner. In fact with Elite Beat Agents (the Western version of Japanese cult classic Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!), not only will you be a winner, but you'll also being saving members of the public from embarrassing social situations, just by tapping along to Material Girl or Sk8er Boi. Frankly it's about the most fun we'll ever have, on or off the dancefloor.
New Super Mario Bros
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: June
The title sounds like something Tony Blair might have thought up ten years ago, but thankfully Nintendo bringing 3D graphics and new moves to Super Mario Bros proved more exciting than New Labour dropping Clause IV. What's most impressive is the beautiful level of control you have over Mario, with spring jumps and ground-pound moves bringing extra zip to the character. Even sleights of hand such as the giant mushroom pick-up that sees Mario filling the screen are totally enjoyable. It really is like going back to the future of platform games.
42 All-Time Classics
Developer: Agenda
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: September
When you can purchase a quality touchscreen version of a card, board or pub game for 48p, you know you're onto a winner. If that were the only rationale for 42 All-Time Classics it would still be one of our top 10 games of 2006, but such is the sheer tactile joy of playing the majority of these games with your stylus, it would still be worth it as a full price title. Even more impressive is the ability to duke it out via Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection, which brings an extra frisson to games such as darts.
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
Developer: AlphaDream
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: February
So you're asking how the only DS game that got 10/10 on Pocket Gamer wasn't our game of the year? What a rigid crowd you are. But in some ways you're right. We loved Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. It is the epitome of what Nintendo does best: Mario, Luigi and their baby versions powering up to rhythm action shell attacks and power jumps to take out baby Bowser and his henchmen in a 30 hour adventure. It's funny, clever and engrossing, but also singularly designed for one player to play through in a linear fashion. Which brings us to...Complete your sign up! (optional)
Tip: users with a profile photo get more messages.
We've given you 3 clicks to see what our search can do. Now sign up for FREE and get unlimited access!
Selecting individual sites is a VIP Feature. Get a free 5 day trial by signing up below!
(No credit card required)
Selecting Wanted to Buy is a VIP Feature. Get a free 5 day trial by signing up below!
(No credit card required)
Creating Search Alerts is a VIP Feature. Get a free 5 day trial by signing up below!
(No credit card required)
Sign up below to favorite this shop!
Security is very important to us. Please sign up below to view this shop.
Join the throtl community for the latest content, deals and videos!
Already a member? Log In {{ errorMessage }} E-mail {{ signUpErrors.email | joinToString }} Vehicle Preference Vehicle Preference None Specified Acura Alfa Romeo Aston Martin Audi Austin Healey BMW Buick Cadillac Chevrolet Chrysler Datsun Dodge Ferrari Fiat Fisker Ford GM Honda Hummer Hyundai Infiniti Jaguar Jeep Kia Lamborghini Land Rover Lexus Lincoln Lotus Maserati Mazda McLaren Mercedes-Benz Mercury MG Mini Mitsubishi Nissan Opel Peugeot Plymouth Pontiac Porsche Renault Rolls Royce Saab Saturn Scion Shelby Smart Subaru Suzuki Tesla Toyota Volkswagen Volvo Password {{ signUpErrors.password | joinToString }} Name By signing up you agree to our
Terms of Use and Privacy PolicyMany NFL teams script their first 15 (or more) plays before a game starts to focus on getting a few fundamental concepts right. Whether they want to attack a particular defensive player or scheme, exploit a perceived weakness or simply drill down on the offensive elements they think are most critical to winning, they pay particularly close attention to the plays they'll start with on Sunday as they wrap up the week.
Likewise, organizations need to pay attention to the first few critical things they do during the 2017 offseason, as those might end up defining the year to come. Some teams have a lot to do before the new league year begins March 9, while others won't have to make critical calls until the first day of the NFL draft on April 27.
In this series for ESPN over the next two weeks, I'll be running through the first five things that should be running through each team's mind as it prepares for the 2017 offseason. Let's head to the AFC West today, where one franchise has already moved, and another may be on its way.
Broncos | Chiefs | Chargers | Raiders
1. Don't panic and trade away a high draft pick to get QB Tony Romo. The Romo situation is a fascinatingly weird standoff in which each party -- Romo, the Cowboys and the potential acquiring team -- can really only foil the hopes of the others right now. The Broncos certainly seem like they would be the favorites to grab the oft-injured Cowboys starter if he hits free agency, given how close they are to contention, but they would miss out on Romo if the Cowboys traded him to another organization. A team like the Bills or Bears might panic and offer something as high as a second-rounder to cut the line and acquire Romo, but the flip side is that Romo might just respond to that by choosing to retire. Threatening to do so may be enough to facilitate his release.
The most plausible outcome is that the Cowboys choose to cut Romo, given the cap savings of stretching Romo's dead money over two seasons and the modest draft-pick return that would likely come via trade. If that happens, the Broncos could sign the best quarterback on the market without giving a pick away. John Elway didn't panic last offseason, and he's rightly unlikely to do so here, either.
If the Broncos do acquire Romo, they will also have an interesting trade chip available in Trevor Siemian. Siemian probably isn't a long-term starter in the NFL, but his usefulness in Denver last year suggests he would be an above-average backup, and that's valuable: An acquiring team would owe Siemian a total of only $1.3 million over the next two seasons. Siemian-for-Romo might be a logical trade in its own right. The Broncos could also likely recoup a draft pick by sending Siemian elsewhere. Paxton Lynch would then remain as the long-term backup and replacement for Romo.
If the Broncos go after Tony Romo, Trevor Siemian will have some trade value. Chuck Cook/USA TODAY Sports
2. Renegotiate OT Russell Okung's contract or release him as part of an offensive line overhaul. The former Seahawks starter made the ill-advised decision of heading into the market without representation last year and ended up as the best advertisement for hiring an agent. He signed what amounted to a one-year, $5.2 million trial with the Broncos that gives way to a four-year, $47.8 million deal if Denver chooses to pick up his option by March 8. Okung's deal would have $21 million guaranteed, all over the next two seasons.
Okung stayed on the field for all 16 games for the first time in his career during the 2016 campaign, but he (and the Broncos' offensive line as a whole) did not have the best season. It's tough to imagine that the Broncos want to go forward with his deal as signed, and even if they want to retain Okung, they have all the leverage in terms of deciding whether they want to keep the former sixth overall pick. They can choose to offer Okung a new, smaller deal, or allow him to hit the market again.
Regardless of whether it's Romo, Siemian or anybody else playing quarterback in Denver next year, though, the Broncos have to invest in improving their offensive line this offseason. They were too frequently the unit at fault in a frustrating offense, and in a division with Joey Bosa, Justin Houston and Khalil Mack, there's no getting by with half-measures up front.
If the Broncos don't keep Okung, they could target 35-year-old Bengals star Andrew Whitworth as a short-term option at left tackle in free agency before making further moves during the draft. Denver is down a fifth-round pick after trading it to the Patriots for tight end A.J. Derby, but it's projected to pick up four compensatory selections, including two third-rounders, a fourth-rounder and a seventh-rounder. Chase Stuart's draft value chart projects those picks to be worth 13.5 points of draft capital, roughly equivalent to the 28th pick of a typical draft.
The Broncos can leverage those selections to add depth along the line, trade up to grab a starter or acquire a veteran who might be on the market, such as Eagles left tackle Jason Peters. They should also be in range to draft a tackle with the 20th selection. Indeed, in his latest mock draft, Todd McShay has the Broncos drafting Wisconsin tackle Ryan Ramczyk with their first selection.
3. Get help along the defensive front. The Broncos were probably right to let Malik Jackson walk after the 2015 season given how much he got from the Jaguars ($31.5 million over the first two seasons), but their run defense was a mess. While they finished the season with the league's best defensive DVOA, their No. 1-ranked pass defense carried the load, as they ranked just 21st against the run. It didn't help matters that projected starter Vance Walker sat out the entire season after tearing his ACL, and Derek Wolfe also missed time.
Walker and nose tackle Sylvester Williams are both free agents, and it's logical that the Broncos will address their defensive line this offseason. They could go after a bigger name like Cardinals defensive end Calais Campbell or Chiefs tackle Dontari Poe, but with the 2017 draft deep along the defensive front, it's more plausible that they'll target the position in late April with their mountain of draft picks.
4. Find a secondary pass-rusher to play behind Shane Ray and Von Miller. DeMarcus Ware is a free agent and seems likely to head elsewhere, which isn't too much of a problem given that Ray is on the roster. With Ray becoming a full-time starter, though, the |
iMessage will try to use your main Apple ID, and sharing that ID across multiple iMessagers will only lead to trouble. To change your iMessage address to a unique email address that only you use, go into Settings and choose Messages. Next, tap Receive At, and then tap on the Apple ID at the top of the screen. In the pop-up dialog that appears, choose Sign Out, and then sign into your unique account instead.
[Lex Friedman is a staff writer for Macworld.]Federal tax policies related to energy industries are a de facto component of federal climate policy. They can boost or hamper carbon-emitting fossil fuels, cleaner renewable sources, or both. TCN’s Washington correspondent, Joseph A. Davis, reports that the mammoth overhaul of the federal tax code is basically a wash when it comes to Texas producers of both fossil and renewable energy.
+++
By Joseph A. Davis
Texas Climate News
WASHINGTON – The Republican tax bill – the deal forged in House-Senate negotiations – preserves most renewable-energy incentives, as well as more traditional fossil-energy tax breaks.
The Senate, followed by the House, gave their final approval to the measure today, sending it to President Trump’s desk. The votes were 51-48 in the Senate (a strictly party-line result) and 224-201 in the House (where a handful of Republicans joined all voting Democrats in opposition).
Whatever else you may say about the tax-code overhaul, Texas energy producers and the climate won’t be much worse off because of its passage. Wind, solar, gas, and oil all matter in Texas. These vying fuels and sources have for years competed on the battleground of subsidies and tax breaks. None of the big energy sources really comes out of this tax debate with a new advantage. All currently have substantial tax breaks.
Wind Energy
Texas produces more wind energy than any other state by a huge margin. In recent years, the tax break that the wind industry relies on most has been the “production tax credit,” or PTC. The conferees left it in place. This had hardly been a sure thing, since the original House tax bill revoked the PTC, to the consternation of the wind industry. The American Wind Energy Association, wind’s chief lobbying group, is quite happy with the final tax bill now.
Solar Energy
Solar, which has lagged well behind wind in Texas but has recently been making strides, benefits from the same production tax credit that wind does, and benefits likewise from its survival. The solar industry was especially happy about the solar Investment Tax Credit, as well. It applies to both solar and wind. But it gives benefits to both utility-scale and household-scale investors. The Solar Energy Industry Association praised the GOP conferees’ bill.
Oil and Gas: Arctic Refuge
The tax bill includes congressional authorization to lease and drill certain petroleum tracts within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Congress had originally put the “1002 Area” off-limits under the 1980 law that divided up and categorized Alaskan lands. The oil companies have yearned for it for decades, and have tried dozens of times to unlock it via Congress, but have failed until now. One key to this success is that the tax bill does not entail a standalone vote on ANWR, and its formulation as a “budget” measure allows passage by a simple majority.
Oil and Gas: Existing Subsidies
The oil and gas industries have benefited from a collection of tax breaks and other federal subsidies that have been well documented. The GOP tax bill does not disturb these.
Electric Vehicles
The tax bill also preserves existing tax credits for zero-emission vehicles — up to $7,500 for plug-in electric cars. The House version of the tax bill had eliminated those credits, which have encouraged consumer adoption of electric vehicles. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers applauded. Hybrid vehicles don’t qualify for the credit.
Coal
The coal industry has enjoyed substantial federal subsidies for decades. Among the choicest involves the leasing of coal from federal lands. In this listing by the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense, this “Section 29” credit is one of the biggest tax breaks for coal. In one New York University analysis, coal paid the lowest effective tax rate of any industry examined. The 2017 GOP tax bill did little to disturb these subsidies.
The incentives in the tax bill will only supplement the many other federal efforts to boost particular energy sectors, such as President Trump’s pro-coal push at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy (headed by Rick Perry, a supporter of the coal industry when he was Texas governor).
For the oil industry, low crude prices on world and domestic markets have been a chronic bar to profitability for years. Today’s prices may be too low to support exotic technologies like deepwater or Arctic offshore drilling. The GOP-Trump efforts to encourage more drilling may have the paradoxical effect of flooding an already depressed market, keeping the oil price low.
+++++
Joseph A. Davis is the Washington correspondent of Texas Climate News.
Image credit: Martin Falbisoner / Wikimedia Commons.Do you know the origin of the Santa Ana winds, or what happened to the grizzly bears that once roamed the city, or that Venice Beach used to have more canals? The new series Lost L.A., a co-production between KCET and USC Libraries, promises to answer those questions, and many more, over the course of weekly, 30-minute episodes, the first of which (“Wild L.A.”) premieres tonight on KCET at 8:30 p.m. Only three episodes have been produced so far, but more are planned, and each will explore the vast intricacies of L.A. history, including communities, neighborhoods, and topography that have changed or, in some cases, disappeared over time. Different directors helm each of the various installments—below, check out an exclusive clip about the aforementioned canals from “Reshaping L.A.,” which will air on Wednesday, February 10.This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website
University of Victoria (Canada)
British Columbia
Last modified: 2012-08-11 by rob raeside
Keywords: university of victoria | marlets |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors
by Antonio Martins
Coat of Arms
University of Victoria
See also:
University of Victoria flag is about 2:3 and is also a simplified banner of arms, as seen at: http://web.uvic.ca/webcoor/graphicstandards/vid/arms.html
The flag is divided horizontally upper third gold, and lower 2/3 blue. The book is omitted from the flag, and the three martlet birds are in red, and placed on the gold stripe next to the hoist.
David Fowler, 12 July 2004
The flag is inspired in the shield partition (upper third golden over blue) but uses mainly the manteling colors, as expected. The three marlets shifted to the hoist are a further hint that this was a very well thought flag design.
Antonio Martins, 13 July 2004
The flag consists of a gold field above a blue field - gold and blue are the official colours of the University. In the top left hand corner are 3 red Martlets, recalling Victoria College's early affiliation with McGill (Victoria College is the predecessor of UVic). The size of the flag is 3:5.
William D. (Bill) West was commissioned to design a new flag for the University of Victoria in 1978 - 1978 was UVic's fifteenth anniversary year. West was a theatrical designer, and was appointed full-time as a professor in the University of Victoria Department of Theatre in 1973. He retired in 1985.
Rogier Gruys, Univerisy of Victoria, 14 July 2004
The coat of arms includes a war cry (upper scroll) that reads "והי אוך", which is Hebrew. Source: http://web.uvic.ca/webcoor/graphicstandards/vid/arms.html
António Martins-Tuválkin, 11 July 2005
The Hebrew text simply reads, 'Let there be light,' which is of course taken from the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis.
Ron Lahav, 26 April 2007
Antonio's ource calls it a "secondary motto".
While the Scottish tradition is for a "slogan" (which can be translated "war cry") to appear above the crest, Victoria is known to be "more English than England", so Scottish Heraldry is unlikely to prevail.
Dean McGee, 28 April 2007MI5 operative Milner is telling conspiracy theorist-turned double agent Wilson about the requirements of his new job. Wilson sighs. "Am I capable?" he asks, despairingly. Exchanges like this are inevitable when the paranoid but creative vigour of the '70s meets the impotent languor of the current decade; a decade so indistinct and underpowered that it doesn't even have its own nominal abbreviation. And the thing is, Wilson's doubts are entirely well-founded. He probably won't be capable of anything much beyond acting as a bewildered patsy. But that's okay. Because nothing much beyond that will be expected of him. Both Milner and Wilson himself know that he's at the mercy of forces way beyond his control.
In early 2013, the first season of writer Dennis Kelly's conspiracy thriller Utopia made a splash on C4 thanks to its expertly calibrated mixture of tangled plotting, jarringly atmospheric direction and stylised ultra-violence. The first episode of this second run takes us right back to the beginning. What were the roots of the Janus population control conspiracy? How did the protein containing the Janus DNA end up in the bloodstream of tormented Tank Girl Jessica Hyde? And how did Milner become so jaw-droppingly cold-blooded?
This season two opener is a bravura exercise in the detournement of real-world history in order to milk its story-telling, myth-making potential. Utopia reimagines the present and future by reinventing the past. As such it's both an astute critique of conspiracy theories and a willing participant in their possible creation. Were the assassination of Airey Neave, the 1979 vote of no-confidence in the Labour government and the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster linked? Of course not. But even so, Kelly plays audaciously fast and loose with dates, means and motives in order to construct his disturbing, mischievous thesis. And, as he juggles with the lingua franca and events of the '70s, his series has plenty to tell us about today's TV landscape too.
Is there a common thread running through current British TV? Consider the '70s, where we join Milner, Jessica et al as they stumble around in the power blackouts and wallow in the filth of the winter of discontent. Think of a contemporaneous show which is now established as a key component of the British TV canon. Porridge maybe, or The Good Life or The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin. What oddly subversive pieces of mainstream, prime-time entertainment they now seem. A querulous and dissenting career criminal with whom we're supposed to identify and sympathise? A pair of suburbanites who reject conformity and materialism and mock their aspirational and conservative neighbours mercilessly? A man driven to suicidal despair by the world of work and the intangible nausea generated by a settled but bloodless family life? And all of these played for laughs? The 70s were weird. Looking back, the asylum really does appear to have been left in the hands of the lunatics.
But what of the '80s? Consider the unashamedly polemical fury of Boys From The Blackstuff. Or the visionary strangeness of The Singing Detective. Even ITV's hardscrabble recession fable Auf Wiedersehen Pet looks surprisingly pointed and gritty in retrospect. These were shows with real energy and vitality; with ideas that unnerved and polarised and characters who clearly articulated their creators' visions. By the '90s, the Soviet Union had collapsed and it was decreed in some quarters that history had ended. Accordingly, the decade's keynote TV began to gaze inwards towards family, friends and workplaces - think Cold Feet and This Life. The best of it, exemplified by the work of Chris Morris, self-reflexively critiqued the medium itself. The post millennium TV 'golden age', meanwhile, saw British drama dwarfed by US imports like The Wire and The Sopranos which offered universality by probing the dark heart of unchallenged, unrestrained capitalism.
Drawing a line between Porridge and The Wire might seem like a tenuous exercise. But what all of these shows had in common was characters with clear, firm, fearlessly expressed points of view. And that's remarkably rare in today's TV landscape. For now at least, the idea of television as comfort blanket has won. In fictional terms, its victory manifests itself in everything from the 'dark' but predictable, tabloid agenda-driven horror-schlock of Broadchurch to the simultaneously earthy and fantastical communal warmth of shows like Stella and The Cafe. And it's in this context that Utopia is so interesting - because it feels like a genuine attempt at truth-telling and a very honest recognition of powerlessness.
What Utopia seems to be suggesting is that there are no more heroes anymore - or if there are, they're rendered impotent by the scope of their mission. It might seem like a paradox in the light of our current societal fetishisation of the notion of choice but recent British TV heroes (or indeed anti-heroes) with real agency are comparatively rare. Instead, things happen to them. And so it is in Utopia. None of the characters here are taking back power or even, like Reggie Perrin or Norman Stanley Fletcher, vainly but heroically challenging it. Instead, they're cowering in the face of it; they've found themselves - pretty much by accident and misfortune - in the middle of a vast, incomprehensible, impossibly wide-reaching conspiracy that they can't hope to understand. It's telling that Ian's reason for re-engaging with the Janus project in season two is simply that he wants his girl back. Why would he go anywhere near it otherwise?
So, if powerlessness is the key to much of this decade's TV, how did we get here? We hear so much about the crisis of disengagement - how politics and civic life has never seemed more poisonous or more irrelevant to those who have to live with the decisions made on their behalf. We've all come to the conclusion that power is not maintained by politicians - and Utopia's central plot is fuel for those who point to lobbyists, hidden hands and corporate interests as the unaccountable wielders of real power. Government ministers in Utopia are ideologically neutral. They're also cynical and more to the point, helpless - doomed to drift listlessly without the steering of drug companies and omnipotent secret service operatives.
But eventually, even this feels like a smokescreen. And this is the source of both the true horror and the true brilliance of Utopia. Most dramas play with fairly well-worn signifiers of 'darkness' - paedophile rings, people trafficking, state secrets, espionage and corruption. But usually, it's possible to dismiss these as either ugly singularities or wild speculations. But at the heart of Utopia is the crisis of over-population. And ultimately, over-population is the elephant lumbering around in the real world's living room. The realpolitik facts surrounding it are impossible to ignore and this knowledge adds both a layer of possible plausibility and a grim moral dimension to Utopia - faced with these fast-encroaching realities, who can really say which potential solutions are defensible and which are grotesquely fascistic? The viewers of 1982 knew what they were supposed to be thinking about Boys From The Blackstuff. But which side are we supposed to be on here? The dilemmas bedevilling the characters are reflected right back at the viewer. Now that really is powerlessness.
Dennis Kelly is, of course, well aware of this. Indeed he's stated that he chose this issue to animate the black heart of Utopia precisely because it's the problem that defies the good intentions of the most rational, liberal and progressive among us. For all the fond humour at the expense of conspiracy theorists and graphic novel nuts, the drama can't help but point out that a crisis is being wilfully ignored by the rest of us because it's simply too vast and terrifying to be truly reckoned with.
And it's here that Utopia stops being simply a drama and becomes a satire too. Firstly, there's the show's immaculate branding - somewhere between a drugs company and a mid-market fashion label and something that no pre-millennial TV drama would have felt remotely necessary. But what is a brand if not someone else's imposed and idealised version of reality? And so - Utopia seems to be saying - how do you like this reality? Then there's the horrific, stylised violence - most often perpetrated by Arby and Lee who come across as the terrifyingly yet amusingly blank result of a focus group study of the banality of evil. It's simultaneously guiltily titillating and utterly chilling. Because for all of the violence's artful invention, in this just-about plausible version of reality, this is how things get done. Most pointedly of all, the climax and trigger of this series looks set to be 'V-Day' - a delicious parody of one of those pointlessly feel-good Sport Relief-style communal backslaps - this time involving the supply of medicine to the developing world. And underpinning all of this, there's the distinct absence of any solution that wouldn't cause utter outrage if suggested in public and therefore, a big problem that isn't going anywhere.
So, with its unique and heady mixture of black humour and existential impotence could Utopia be the emblematic TV drama of the decade? Quite possibly. We live in the age of algorithm-driven consumerism, of capitalist realism, of state surveillance that's no longer hidden but seems almost entirely accepted anyway. We live in a world which has just reacted to an unprecedented crisis of capitalism by destroying essential public services in order to restore almost exactly the same system that caused the collapse. We live at a time when our knowledge of the extent to which our institutions are dysfunctional and corrupt is matched only by our disinclination to challenge them. And, as this series seems to be saying, the scariest thing is, that's by no means the worst of it. Utopia indeed.It’s been sometime since Alpha clone states were introduced into the game. Upon initial conception of the Alpha concept, many in the community had mixed feelings regarding the Alphas.
Critiques like “so cyno alts will be rampant now” were at the forefront of the skeptic’s mind among other arguments. After more details came out, the uproar calmed, and now in implemented practice, Alphas have turned into a positive change for EVE. With the recent news of the “redesigning” of PLEX, the potential for Alphas to evolve can grow immensely.
In its current state PLEX exists as whole objects, where one PLEX is equivalent to 30 days of game time (or about 1.2 billion ISK). But the changes recently announced would remove Aurum but also fractionalize PLEX. In the proposed changes, PLEX wouldn’t be a whole object like we know it now, but it would be more in line of a currency system, so 30 days of game time would now be equivalent to 500 PLEX under the renewed system. In addition to this, products in the current Aurum store would now be purchasable by amounts of PLEX.
Player retention has always been an issue for EVE Online: a steep learning cliff, a lackluster new player experience that persisted for years and the amount of time one has to try and play the game. The ability to pay for your subscription with an in-game item enticed many, but was teased as if they were a rabbit chasing a carrot that will forever be in front of them. The argument has always been had as to whether or not PLEX price was too steep for the short amount of time one was able to swing for a 14 or 21 day trial character, and overall, the answer is a resounding yes.
When factoring in with the ever increasing in-game cost of PLEX, it was exceedingly difficult for a trial character to gain enough ISK to continue their playtime. Alpha clones successfully alleviated this issue, allowing players to play the game for as long as they want, but severely limited what skills they can use. This allows them enough time to get the basic “feel” for the game, something that can take beyond 21 days, and allows themselves to plan and set up a system to make enough money to consistently PLEX their account. With the proposed PLEX changes (deemed nuPLEX), PLEX is taking a step in the granular direction.
Luckily, CCP has stated that one would never be able to pay for partial game time. 30 days remains the minimum one could ever renew their subscription, and that’s a very good thing, preventing the dreaded “cyno alts”. In this sense, nuPLEX will not allow game time to be ‘broken up’, but in it lies the opportunity to expand upon the Alpha clone program. It’s been established that 500 nuPLEX will equal an Omega clone, but what about all the other increments of nuPLEX one may receive, especially considering if they’re not interested in the cosmetic items in the nuPLEX store?
Imagine a Beta clone. Very similar to an Alpha, but has the benefit of being able to train into a second race’s skillset. They would still have all of the other limitations of an Alpha clone, but can now fly another set of ships for the low price of just 100 nuPLEX for 30 days of access to this clone level. Next, a Gamma clone. Exact same concept as a Beta clone, but with a third race’s ships opened up to them, for 200 nuPLEX. Then, taking the concept even further, a Delta clone, same rules as above, for 300 nuPLEX.
The jump between 300 to 500 nuPLEX is more significant, but as is the jump between a Delta clone to Omega clone. An Omega clone still has significantly more benefits than a Delta clone. Things like increased skill que, the plethora of skills that open up to them even with being able to fly all four racial trees, CSM voting rights, Tech II, the list goes on. This concept of incremental clones can be taken a lot farther than just listed here. This has significant benefits from a gameplay perspective as well.
One of the turnoffs for new players of EVE has always been the sheer amount of information needing to be digested to have just a decent grasp of the game. With the idea of increments for a character, this digestion happens more over time. As they play the game more and more to get enough money for nuPLEX to get to the next increment, they are ready to digest the next batch of skills available to them, as opposed to instantly being faced with 27 years worth of skills needing to be parsed through.
When skill injectors first came to the front, the concept of “player growth over time” was presented as a vital but often overlooked gameplay aspect of EVE. The notion was that of seeing your character skill up over time being a very crucial part of the player’s experience, and it was feared that skill injectors would screw up this system. While that turned out to not be the case, skill injectors overall having been a positive change, this often overlooked aspect of a new player’s experience can be re-strengthened with the introduction of incremental clones.
Another positive point is that it will allow a new player to experience more variety and capability then just an alpha clone would. Being able to fly another racial shipline will allow the player to decide which race they may wish to focus on training into as soon as they pull the trigger and become an Omega. This can also allow an Alpha to better fit into their corp. Granted, a lot of corps have doctrines that are lenient towards whatever races Alphas are, but this concept of incremental clones can help the new player fit in better, and statistics have been shown that if a new player gets more and more engaged in a player corp or alliance, they are almost guaranteed to stay with the game. There also stands to be a massive business gain for CCP with this program. CCP could introduce various clone level subscription costs for real money leading up to the Omega status. Maybe even offer a discount for the first month or so of Omega status if one had been on a lower clone level recurring plan.
It can be argued that one would be more inclined to pay a monthly subscription cost of say 5 USD to try out the game at just a slightly more advanced level to see if it’s really worth paying the additional cost of becoming an Omega.
There is the fine line over how much is too much with this system, however. One could argue that a player would have less incentive to become an Omega if they had more and more features unlocked to them. This is not an invalid argument. The system would still have to feel limited enough to make the upgrade to Omega worth it for them.
While, granted, being able to pilot pirate frigates and cruisers would be a great new feature for an upgraded clone, things like skills beyond cruisers, Tech 2 modules, and the relatively sped up skill queue is still very enticing. If a player is content with where their clone is at now, then that’s fine. As long as they still enjoy the game and feel they are happy in the place they are in, that is a good thing. The issue this aims to remedy is primarily new player retention. If the player is still playing EVE, then this program has succeeded, no matter what clone state they may be in.
EVE has often struggled with new players. Although the NPE has been redone a few times over the years, none of them have ever quite hit the mark quite like the current one has. Hopefully the improved NPE detailed at Fanfest will further add to the solution CCP has been looking for. EVE needs to be as friendly to new players as possible, and allowing them to get more and more involved with the game over time could work wonders for a new player experience. Alphas were a great starting point to aid the NPE, but that idea can be expanded upon to have even more benefits.
CCP will have the perfect system to do this with their overhaul of PLEX.If you were a little confused about Red Hat's open-source, software-defined storage options in the past, no one could blame you. On one side there was Inktank Ceph Enterprise, a distributed object store and file system. On the other was Red Hat Storage Server which deployed the Gluster, a multi-protocol, scale-out file-system that can deal with petabytes of data. So, how do you decide which one is for you? Red Hat's trying to make its storage portfolio a little clearer.
First, the company is renaming Inktank Ceph Enterprise to Red Hat Ceph Storage and Red Hat Storage Server to Red Hat Gluster Storage. This isn't just a rebranding. In the case of Red Hat Ceph Storage, Red Hat claims that the program has now gone through Red Hat's quality engineering processes and is now a fully-supported Red Hat solution.
Both programs are open-source, scale-out software-defined storage solutions that run on commodity hardware and have durable, programmable architectures. Each is optimized for different enterprise workloads. Red Hat Gluster Storage is well suited for enterprise virtualization, analytics and enterprise sync and share workloads. Red Hat Ceph Storage is better suited for cloud infrastructure workloads, such as OpenStack and Amazon Web Services. You can use either for archival and rich media workloads.
Both are also still works-in-progress. While Gluster is more mature, its developers are getting ready to release Gluster 3.7 with better small-file performance, SELinux integration, and a much needed common framework for managing Gluster's many daemons.
As for Ceph, while its block and object store system works well, its POSIX file-system interface, CephFS, needs a lot more polishing before it's really deployment-ready. Mind you, as John Spray, a Red Hat senior software engineer recently said at Vault, the Linux Foundation storage summit, "Some people are already using it in production; we're terrified of this. It's really not ready yet." Still, Spray continued, this "is a mixed blessing because while it's a bit scary, we get really useful feedback and testing from those users."
In particular, as the development site states, "CephFS currently lacks a robust 'fsck' check and repair function. Please use caution when storing important data as the disaster recovery tools are still under development."
So, will Red Hat eventually merge the two? That doesn't seem to be in the works.
As Henry Baltazar, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, told Carol Sliwa of SearchStorage last fall, Red Hat's "going to have two platforms in the foreseeable future. Those aren't going to merge. Gluster is definitely the file storage type. There are ways they could use it that can complement Ceph. It still remains to be seen where it will wind up 10 years from now."
Growing pains and all, with our data storage demands doubling every two years, software-defined storage programs are going to be a corporate necessity. If you don't want to get buried by big data, Red Hat, with its twin data-storage options should be on your technology evaluation list.
Related Stories:Sri Lanka, expertly shepherded by Kumar Sangakkara in his last T20 international, carried off the World T20 trophy with staggering ease. They triumphed against India by six wickets with 13 balls to spare, outplaying and out-thinking the favourites. Somehow Sri Lankan managed to win at a canter, despite taking only four wickets.
Sangakkara, right, had scored only 19 runs in the tournament but when it really mattered, he was unbeaten on 52 from 35 balls when the entire Sri Lankan squad sprinted on to the field to embrace him. At the end Thisera Perera, with several muscular blows, had offered timely assistance. Earlier Mahela Jayawardene, also in his final T20 appearance, caressed 24 from 24 balls and set his team on course.
Both these jewels of Sri Lankan cricket were carried on the shoulders of grateful team-mates as Sri Lanka's first outright victory in an ICC tournament since 1996 began to sink in. Meanwhile, a numb Indian team, who had played so flawlessly en route to the final, could only look on at ecstatic celebrations and regret their remarkably tepid performance.
The Indian innings was a very curious affair. It was almost entirely dependent upon Virat Kohli, who hit 77 from 58 deliveries, before he was run out off the last ball. Even Kohli was a tad circumspect at the start and he was cleverly denied the strike at the end. India have been unaccustomed to setting targets in this tournament and despite another polished innings from the man of the tournament they made a complete hash of it.
At the start Ajinkya Rahane struggled but his torments were nothing compared to those of Yuvraj Singh. He came to the crease in the 11th over after Rohit Sharma's dismissal and proceeded to eke out 11 from 21 balls. It was painful to watch. Even when he managed to get bat on ball the outcome was only a single. In the end the Indian bus shelter must have been willing Yuvraj to get out. They might have seriously considered retiring him.
The last four overs were a calamity for India. Kohli faced eight deliveries and India scored only 19 runs. Their coach, Duncan Fletcher, did not smile at the quirkiness of this display.
Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara bowled superbly during those closing overs at the end of a tigerish performance in the field by the Sri Lankans. But it was not flawless. Kohli was badly missed on 11 and 65. It seemed to matter at the time but thanks to the ineptness of his fellow batsmen – and the resolution of Sangakkara – it did not. Vic MarksCeremonies in Italy have been marking 20 years since the murder of anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone.
Prime Minister Mario Monti joined thousands gathered in Palermo, Falcone’s birthplace, capital of the autonomous region of Sicily, and the centre of his fight against organised crime.
The anniversary comes less than a week after a bomb attack on a vocational school in Brindisi, on the southern Italian mainland, in which a 16-year-old girl was killed and several others were wounded.
The school was named after Falcone’s wife, Francesca Morvillo. Although authorities have said the Brindisi attacker was probably an individual with no links to the mafia, mourners for the victims demanded gang members be arrested.
Falcone was killed by the Mafia on the 23 May 1992. A 500-kilogramme bomb under the Palermo Airport motorway detonated as his motorcade drove over it. His wife and three bodyguards were also killed.
Falcone’s work had led to a huge trial in 1986 and 1987. This revolutionised the fight against the Sicilian Mafia clans, and 360 mafiosi were convicted.
Fellow anti-Mafia magistrate Paolo Borsellino presided. He was killed by a car bomb just two months after Falcone. The head of the Corleonesi faction of the Sicilian Mafia, Toto Riina, was arrested in 1993 and is now serving a life sentence in prison for those and many other murders.
But suspicions remain over possible roles that others may have played in silencing Falcone. He and Borsellino destabilised political power. For years journalists and prosecutors have been investigating whether there was any state involvement in their assassinations.
Twenty years on, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said that fighting all criminal associations must be a priority for the whole country.How's that: Giant Lachie Whitfield celebrates a goal during GWS' victory over the Swans. Credit:Getty Images But most significantly, it means the Giants will not have a colossal red and white millstone weighing them down in September should they encounter the Swans again. This could prove a costly night for the Swans, for whom this Sydney derby turned into a demolition derby instead. The flag favourite entering the round lost star trio Kurt Tippett, Gary Rohan and Callum Mills to injury and were limited to just one rotation for much of the second half. The Giants set up their win with six unanswered goals either side of half-time then showed their maturity by withstanding a spirited revival by the undermanned Swans before running away late. Toby Greene starred with four goals, while Callan Ward and Josh Kelly were influential in a midfield which surprisingly batted deeper than the Swans.
Caught: Kieren Jack of the Swans is tackled by Dylan Shiel. Credit:Getty Images Tellingly, the Giants had 11 players with 20 possessions or more compared to the Swans' six. Well beaten in the contest last week, the Giants needed to make an early statement – if not on the scoreboard then in the clinches where the Swans like it hard and heavy. Scramble: It was tough in the clinches at Spotless Stadium on Sunday night. Credit:Getty Images Within 10 minutes they had five shots on the board for only a goal. The Swans erased the deficit with two goals in the blink of an eye but, tellingly, some of their stars were finding the going hard.
Josh Kennedy was having trouble finding the ball, Lance Franklin was being forced to the wing to get near it. The pair would later find themselves closer than normal in the middle. Bullied so often in these games in the past, the Giants were more than matching it with the flag favourite, for long periods they were outplaying them. It's no secret how to beat the Swans – deny them the ball by beating them in close, spread fast and wide from the contest and isolate their defenders deep. Most teams can't do this but the Giants were putting theory into practice. Their run from defence was troubling Sydney, who are the masters at locking the ball inside their 50. Not many have the audacity to take on Franklin, even fewer get around him and sprint away like Nathan Wilson did. The Giants were wearing the Swans down in the midfield through weight of numbers. Dan Hannebery and Tom Mitchell were honouring their ends of the bargain but Kennedy, Kieren Jack and Luke Parker were off the boil.The midfielder cannot wait for Monday’s FA Cup tie and facing the club that left him feeling depressed after they let him go after just 10 appearances
Craig Eastmond is standing in the cramped away dressing room at Sutton United’s Gander Green Lane stadium – the one that will accommodate Arsène Wenger and his Arsenal squad for Monday night’s FA Cup tie – and he knows what they will think. After all, Eastmond was once an Arsenal player.
Towards the back, there is an old‑fashioned communal bath but it has been largely out of commission this season because the boiler is broken. “Teams can use it as an ice bath, if they want,” Clive Baxter, the Sutton kit man, volunteers. “Tranmere Rovers did that.” Happily for Arsenal, there are four showers that do have hot water.
When Sutton United last went on a stunning FA Cup run … and then lost 8-0 Read more
In a corner by the bath is an exposed piece of pipework that has a tap on the end and a bucket underneath. “Drinking water,” reads the notice. But what really makes this such a strong interior-design look are the walls in the changing area; the deep, chocolate brown walls. They are the brainchild of the manager, Paul Doswell, who commissioned the paint job after he took charge in 2008. He hopes the migraine‑inducing aura can unsettle visiting teams.
“The Arsenal players are probably going to think: ‘What is this, really?’” Eastmond says. “But this is non-league. This is the real world, the real stuff. There’s always stuff wrong with non-league pitches and non-league dressing rooms but you can’t make them feel at home. It’s going to have to be one where they’re thinking: ‘Ah, I don’t really want to come to Sutton and play this on a Monday night.’ No one fancies going to a non‑league team, really.”
Eastmond heard Doswell say the same thing to him in September 2015. “He said: ‘I know you probably don’t want this move to Sutton but you need to start somewhere to get back up the ladder,’” he says.
The 26-year-old was on the scrap heap |
campaign to raise it, to end the stigma against talking about it." A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of 28 states found that heroin deaths doubled from 2010 to 2012. U.S. heroin-related overdose deaths increased 39 percent in 2013 from the year before, hitting 8,257. Vermont’s governor devoted his entire 2014 state of the state speech to heroin. In New York City, there are more heroin deaths than homicides. “This is tearing families apart, but it is below the surface," Clinton said. "We aren’t talking about it because it is something that is hard to deal with." The heroin or opioid epidemic has exposed the U.S. drug treatment system as inadequate, both in its capacity to treat those addicted and to do so using evidence-based care. Although medically assisted treatments, such as medications methadone and buprenorphine, are viewed by the medical community as essential components of an opioid addict’s recovery, they are inaccessible to the vast majority in need. Some treatment centers and drug courts continue to insist that addicts refuse these medically assisted treatments. Following a HuffPost investigation into "abstinence-based" opiate treatment, the federal government barred state drug programs from getting federal money if they force addicts to wean off of medications. Clinton has been holding a series of events to discuss substance abuse and mental health. She laid the groundwork for these events at a roundtable in New Hampshire last month, one of her first campaign events as an announced presidential candidate. When a voter mentioned that substance abuse was a major problem in the community, Clinton called it a "quiet epidemic" and said it's "not just something we can brush under the rug." She commended the Affordable Care Act for placing more emphasis on requiring health insurers to cover treatments for mental health and substance abuse, but said there needs to be more policy reform, from local to national. "There is a hidden epidemic. We know the drug use problem, whether it’s pills or meth or heroin, is not as visible as 30 years ago when there were all kinds of gangs and violence," Clinton said. "This is a quiet epidemic and it is striking in small towns and rural areas as much as any big city. I think a lot of people are thinking, well, that’s somebody else’s problem, that’s not my problem. And indeed, it is all of our problem and we don’t have enough resources, so that if somebody decides that they wanted to get help, where do you send them to? What kind of opportunities do they have for treatment? And I am convinced that the mental health issues -- because I consider substance abuse part of mental health issues -- is going to be a big part of my campaign, because increasingly it’s a big issue that people raise with me." Clinton also mentioned substance abuse and mental health in a major speech on criminal justice reform that she made last month in the wake of the riots in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of police. She emphasized the links between problems in the criminal justice system and problems in treating mental health and drug abuse. “The promise of deinstitutionalizing those in mental health facilities was supposed to be followed by the creation of community-based treatment centers,” she said. “Our prisons and our jails are now our mental health institutions.” Clinton Returns to Iowa to Help Rally Caucus Volunteers <http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/clinton-returns-iowa-rally-caucus-volunteers-31123588> // ABC News // Julie Pace - May 18, 2015 Hillary Rodham Clinton returns to Iowa on Monday to help ramp up her campaign's volunteer network in a state where she struggled to build an effective ground game during her first run White House run in 2008. Clinton will meet with volunteers and campaign organizers in the northern Iowa town of Mason City. The event is being hosted by Dean Genth and Gary Swenson, who were active supporters of President Barack Obama when he defeated Clinton in the 2008 Iowa caucuses. While Clinton's path to victory in Iowa so far seems easier this time around, her campaign is eager to show she's not taking the state for granted. The campaign has hired 21 caucus organizers and six regional field directors who are seeking commitments from voters to caucus for Clinton early next year. The early organizing could also yield longer-term benefits for Clinton's campaign, should she win her party's nomination. Iowa will be among the competitive battleground states in the general election and her campaign can draw on the voter contacts it makes now next year. Clinton's two-day swing through Iowa marks her second trip to the state since she formally launched her campaign last month. On Tuesday, she'll head to Cedar Falls, where she'll begin outlining proposals for boosting small businesses. Clinton arrives in Iowa under pressure from Republicans who want her to clarify her position on a massive Asia-Pacific trade deal being debated on Capitol Hill. While Clinton was supportive of the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact while serving as Obama's secretary of state, she has been largely silent on the matter since announcing her campaign. Obama's push for the trade deal has angered some liberal Democrats who fear the agreement with Japan and several other nations would hurt U.S. companies and workers. Hillary Clinton's second wave of Iowa courtship arrives in Mason City <http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/18/politics/hillary-clinton-2016-elections-iowa-trip/> // CNN // Dan Merica - May 18, 2015 Mason City, Iowa (CNN)More than 70% of Iowa's Democratic caucus-goers chose an alternative to Hillary Clinton in 2008, a fact her aides in the state are actively looking to address early in her 2016 run. Clinton will make her second visit to the state Monday when she headlines a small "house party" in Mason City that campaign aides hope will showcase their focus on moving Democrats who supported other candidates -- particularly then-Sens. Barack Obama and John Edwards - to Clinton's 2016 campaign. Clinton's Iowa operation has a total of 27 field organizers on the ground in Iowa, six regional organizing directors and 21 organizers who live in cities and towns across the state. So far, according to campaign aides, their focus has been on reconnecting with Clinton supporters from 2008, winning over those who rejected her first presidential bid and connecting with those young people and students who are new to the state. Monday's event in Mason City, which will be hosted by Dean Genth and Gary Swenson, is an example of Clinton's campaign looking to target former Obama supporters. Genth and Swenson were the first gay couple to receive a marriage license at the Cerro Gordo County Courthouse when same-sex marriage was legalized in the state in April 2009. During the 2008 caucus, both were outspoken and early Obama supporters. They housed Obama campaign staff and volunteers in their Mason City home and told Obama's campaign office in Chicago that they would be willing to do whatever they could to get the senator elected. "We were supportive of Clinton but we actually caucused for Obama," Genth said Monday. "As the caucus campaigning went on we got really involved with the Obama campaign. It was more a function that we were so early on with Obama, we had already pitched out tent at that point." A former business executive, Genth moved from Ohio to Iowa in 2003 after meeting Swenson, a radiologist and breast cancer specialist, in 2002. Genth said it was love at first sight. The two have long been activists for same-sex marriage and Genth is a member of One Iowa, the state's leading LGBT rights organization, that spearheaded efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in the state. Genth said that while Obama's position on same-sex marriage was "not a determining factor" for their support in 2008, it did play a role. "We definitely got signals from Obama where he stood on some of the basic principles and basic rights," he said. As a candidate in 2008, Clinton opposed same-sex marriage, supporting the idea of civil unions instead. She did not proclaim her personal support for same-sex marriage until 2013, after she left her diplomatic position as secretary of state. Shortly after her announcing her presidential bid, her campaign said that Clinton now believes same-sex marriage is a "constitutional right," a departure from her past statements. The steady change in her position hasn't bothered Genth. "Some people seem to never evolve," he said. "So somebody that does evolve is a great thing." Genth is the vice chairman of the Cerro Gordo County Democratic Party and has said he has "reached out to every Clinton campaign person that walks into the area or has a phone number" about getting the candidate to North Iowa as much as possible. Clinton's campaign aides have regularly said the candidate will focus on Iowa and come back regularly, but no future trips have been announced. Clinton will overnight in Iowa on Monday and headline an event on small business at a bike shop in Cedar Falls, Iowa on Tuesday. The state of play in Iowa is also vastly different than it was in 2007 and 2008. Clinton leads every poll on the Democratic side and many activists in the state, despite hungering for a competitive primary, acknowledge that there isn't a Barack Obama-like candidate that could come from behind to topple Clinton. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent, is the only other declared candidate for the Democratic nomination, although former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is expected to announce his run later this month. In an effort to showcase their grassroots organizing efforts, Sarah Marino, the campaign's Mason City grassroots organizer, will introduce Clinton at the event on Monday. 10 questions for Hillary Clinton <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/10-questions-for-hillary-clinton/> // CBS News // Rebecca Kaplan – May 19, 2015 In the 36 days since Hillary Clinton announced she was running for president, she has answered just 13 questions from reporters. The last time she took a question was a month ago, Apr. 21, 2015, about the book, "Clinton Cash," which took a critical look at her family's finances. (Clinton's response was, "Those issues are in my view distractions from what this campaign should be about, what I'm going to make this campaign about.") In the intervening month, there have been news developments that have elicited reactions from other presidential candidates and potential candidates. Clinton, however, has said little. As she returns to the campaign trail in Iowa and New Hampshire this week, here are 10 questions CBS News might ask: 1. Do you support the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)? The Democratic Party is divided on trade. Mr. Obama, Republicans and some Democrats want legislation that would put the Asia-Pacific free trade agreement on an expedited path through Congress. Other Democrats think the agreement would hurt American workers and the environment. Which Democrats would Clinton side with now? She argued for TPP as secretary of state and in her 2014 memoir, "Hard Choices" but has been noncommittal since. She has said on this issue only that "any trade deal has to produce jobs and raise wages and increase prosperity and protect our security, and we have to do our part in making sure we have the capabilities and the skills to be competitive." And as CBS News Correspondent Julianna Goldman reported Monday, Clinton earned more than $2.5 million giving speeches to organizations that have lobbied in favor of the trade deal. 2. Should Congress have a say in whether the U.S. signs a nuclear agreement with Iran? Both the House and Senate have now passed bills that would allow Congress to review the framework deal that rolls back Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The legislation would allow lawmakers to block the president from exiting at least some sanctions if enough members don't like the deal. White House caves on Iran nuclear bill after veto threat The White House had resisted congressional efforts to weigh in, arguing this negotiation is the purview of the president, but given the substantial Democratic support, the president is expected to sign the deal. 3. Does the president need a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)? In mid February, the White House sent Congress legislation that would formally authorize war against ISIS - six months after the air campaign against the Islamic group actually began. The administration believes that the 2001 authorization that gave the president the authority to deploy U.S. troops to fight the instigators of the 9/11 attacks also enables him to fight ISIS, so a new AUMF hasn't topped his agenda. Still, the fight against ISIS will almost certainly bleed into 2016 and the campaign. 4. Why are Republican candidates struggling to give a straight answer on whether they would have authorized the 2003 Iraq invasion? Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush Bush was the first to stumble, saying he would have authorized the war in Iraq. He then claimed he misinterpreted the question posed by Fox News' Megyn Kelly, who initially asked whether he would have authorized the invasion, "knowing what we know now." Eventually, he said, "Knowing what we now know, I would not have engaged." How the Iraq War question could shape 2016 campaign And Florida Sen. Marco Rubio struggled to articulate his position after "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace played two video clips in which he appeared to take different stances on the 2003 invasion. This is an area where Clinton has been unequivocal. "I thought I had acted in good faith and made the best decision I could with the information I had. And I wasn't alone in getting it wrong. But I still got it wrong. Plain and simple," she wrote in "Hard Choices." What do independent voters think about foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation? 5. What can you say to ensure voters that contributions to the Clinton Foundation will not affect your decisions as president? Clinton has been asked about foreign government donations to the Clinton Foundation, related to her tenure as secretary of state, and especially on whether foreign entities received special treatment in exchange for contributions to the foundation. She said, "We're back into the political season and therefore we will be subjected to all kinds of distraction and attacks. And I'm ready for that. I know that that comes, unfortunately, with the territory." After she last interacted with the press, the Clinton Foundation admitted it had erred in its public disclosure of donors. 6. What steps would you take to help same-sex couples get married if the Supreme Court does rule it is a constitutional right? Since former President Bill Clinton, signed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, Clinton has held just about every view on the spectrum of same-sex marriage. In 2000, she said she believed marriage was for a man and a woman. For awhile, she said it fell under the authority of states. In 2015, the video she released to announce her presidential bidfeatured a gay couple. Now, her campaign staff says she supports same-sex marriage and wants the Supreme Court to rule that it is a constitutional right. Supreme Court divided in historic gay marriage case But what if they don't? After hearing arguments on the issue in late April, the justices appeared sharply divided over whether gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to marry. If the court rules in June that states have a right to declare only men and women can enter into marriage, will Clinton take action? 7. How would you go "even further" than President Obama on immigration and stay within the limits of the law? Clinton gave an immigration speech in Nevada earlier this month, and pledged to go "even further" than President Obama did by allowing a larger pool of people, such as the parents of children brought to the U.S. illegally, to apply for a reprieve from deportation. Clinton takes on Nevada as controversial book debuts President Obama spent months publicly saying he didn't have the authority to expand relief for undocumented immigrants before he used his executive authority to protect millions from deportation. And he had his legal team spend months making sure the case for that action was airtight and would hold up against a potential court battle. Congress, meanwhile, is far from acting on immigration and is even looking for ways to roll back programs the president has put into place. 8. You left the White House "dead broke," in your words. You now command upwards of $200,000 a speech. How much money do you think you and your husband need to be comfortable? Clinton later apologized for the "dead broke" comment, saying she could have been more "artful." She and husband Bill Clinton earned just over $25 million from a total of about 100 paid speeches since January 2014 and $5 million from the proceeds of "Hard Choices." 9. Is it hypocritical for you to accept super PAC support -- and to push the boundaries of the law by coordinating with a super PAC -- while calling for new rules to limit third-party campaign spending? Like President Obama before her, Clinton is accepting campaign support from super PACs -- independent groups that can accept unlimited campaign donations from individuals or corporations -- while at the same time condemning their influence on the political process. "We need to fix our dysfunctional political system and get unaccountable money out of it once and for all, even if that takes a constitutional amendment," Clinton said last month in Iowa, calling campaign finance reform one of the four key pillars of her campaign. Even so, her campaign insists that as long as others in the race for the White House are exploiting super PACs, her campaign will as well. The Clinton campaign, however, is actually empowering super PACs even more by coordinating with one specific group. Super PACs are barred from coordinating with candidates, but this group says it has found a loophole allowing it to work with the Clinton team. 10. Are you willing to tell Saudi Arabia that they must encourage equal rights for women? Women's rights was one of Clinton's chief causes as secretary of state - and it's likely to become a point of contention during the 2016 campaign as well given the lingering questions about the Clinton Foundation's acceptance of donations from foreign governments. On the day she announced her presidential bid, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky - himself a contender for the White House - honed in on Clinton's relationship with the Saudis. Rand Paul: Hard for Hillary Clinton to say she's for women's rights "In Saudi Arabia, a woman was raped by seven men. The woman was then publically whipped. And then she was arrested for being in a car with an unmarried man. I think we should be boycotting that activity, not encouraging it. And it looks really bad for the case of defending women's rights, if you're accepting money," Paul said in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" in April. After Clinton announced, the foundation announced a new donor policy. Now, the foundation will accept large donations from six foreign governments - Australia, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. Hillary Clinton Backs Obama Plan To Reverse Police Militarization <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/18/hillary-clinton-police-militarization_n_7309296.html?1431988769> // Huffington Post // Ryan Grim and Ryan J. Reilly - May 18, 2015 WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's executive order banning the federal government from transferring certain types of military-style equipment to police forces would remain in place if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency in 2016. Clinton is "supportive of the recommendations and of the need for reform," a spokesperson for the Democratic candidate said Monday after Obama announced in Camden, New Jersey, that the transfer of certain military gear to police would be sharply curtailed. Clinton last month slammed police militarization in a major speech on criminal justice issues. "We can start by making sure that federal funds for state and local law enforcement are used to bolster best practices, rather than to buy weapons of war that have no place on our streets," she said in the speech, which followed the death of Baltimore's Freddie Gray at the hands of police. "President Obama's task force on policing gives us a good place to start. Its recommendations offer a roadmap for reform, from training to technology, guided by more and better data." Obama's announcement flowed from the task force recommendations that Clinton cited. Under the president's plan, bayonets, camouflaged uniforms, grenade launchers, certain types of armored vehicles, firearms of.50-caliber or larger and weaponized vehicles would no longer be transferred to law enforcement agencies. Other military equipment would be on a controlled list that would require law enforcement organizations to demonstrate need. Clinton, in her speech, called for every police department to have body cameras for officers, and highlighted the need for community policing. "We should listen to law enforcement leaders who are calling for a renewed focus on working with communities to prevent crime, rather than measuring success just by the number of arrests or convictions," she said. "As your senator from New York, I supported a greater emphasis on community policing, along with putting more officers on the street to get to know those communities." Obama on Monday said militarized gear “can sometimes give people the feeling like there's an occupying force as opposed to a force that's part of the community." The Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services is preparing after-action report looking at mistakes by the St. Louis County Police Department in handling protests in Ferguson, Missouri, related to the police killing of teenager Michael Brown in August. Photos of the police department's heavily armed officers and military-style gear made world news. Hillary Clinton: "Grateful" For Obama's Work on Economy, But "Deck Is Still Stacked In Favor Of Those At The Top" <http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/05/18/hillary_clinton_grateful_for_obamas_work_on_economy_but_deck_is_still_stacked_in_favor_of_those_at_the_top.html> // Real Clear Politics // Ian Schwartz - May 18, 2015 On Monday, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke to a small group of Iowans at a "house party" event in Mason City. In this part of her speech Clinton talked about domestic issues such as the economy and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The video is from a livestream captured by Bloomberg's Jennifer Epstein on Periscope. Clinton praised Obama for the "hard work" he's done on the economy, but lamented the "deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top." "We're not running yet but we are on our feet," Clinton said about the economy. "The deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top, we know that, and so we have to be especially focused on how we're going to bring about the changes that will ignite opportunity for everybody willing to work hard for it," Clinton also said. HILLARY CLINTON: I'm so relieved that as I travel around the country and talk with people, there is a sense that we are on our feet. We're not running yet but we are on our feet. We can see the changes that are happening in people's life and can put them in a context as to where we go from here now as a country. I am very grateful to President Obama for the hard work [he's done on the economy]... I know that although we have begun to move forward again, it is still hard to imagine exactly how we're going to get to the point where people are not just getting by but getting ahead again and staying ahead. Because, look, the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top, we know that, and so we have to be especially focused on how we're going to bring about the changes that will ignite opportunity for everybody willing to work hard for it. US Reps. Jim McGovern, Joe Kennedy campaign for Hillary Clinton <http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/05/us_reps_jim_mcgovern_joe_kenne.html> // Mass Live // Shira Schoeberg - May 18, 2015 U.S. Reps. Joe Kennedy and Jim McGovern, both Massachusetts Democrats, spent parts of their weekends campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. McGovern attended a Worcester event on Saturday and Kennedy attended an event Sunday in Newton. Both events were grassroots organizing meetings. Early organizing meetings are a way for a campaign to energize the so-called "grasstops," committed activists who are likely to volunteer for campaigns, recruit other volunteers and donate money. The public support for Clinton by liberal congressmen in Massachusetts comes as liberal organizations nationally have organized a movement to draft U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, to run for president. Warren has gained clout as a charismatic liberal leader in the Senate focused on economic policy, but she has said repeatedly that she will not run for president. The Clinton campaign is likely hoping that having Kennedy and McGovern throw their support behind Clinton now could galvanize other Massachusetts liberals to do the same and not to hold out hope for a Warren candidacy. In addition to Clinton, who is a former secretary of state, U.S. Senator and first lady, Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is running for the Democratic nomination for president and former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley is seriously considering it. More than a dozen Republicans are running or seriously considering it. Clinton Sets Citizens United as Supreme Court Litmus Test <http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/clinton-returns-iowa-rally-caucus-volunteers-31123588> // ABC News // Julie Pace, Associated Press - May 18, 2015 Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that if elected president, she would make opposition to a Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for unlimited political donations a litmus test for nominees to the high court. "I will do everything I can do to appoint Supreme Court justices who will protect the right to vote and not the right of billionaires to buy elections," Clinton told about 50 supporters at a house party in Iowa. While Clinton has previously said she would support a constitutional amendment overturning the 2010 decision known as Citizens United, she has not previously said publicly that she would use the ruling as a benchmark for nominating justices. She added Monday she is consulting with legal experts about other ways the court's ruling in the case could be trumped. Despite her staunch opposition to Citizens United, which helped usher into politics groups known as super PACs that can raise unlimited amounts of campaign cash, Clinton is directly courting donors for a super PAC backing her candidacy. Democrats were initially reluctant in the elections after the court ruled in Citizens United to fully embrace such outside groups, while Republicans did so with fewer reservations and are aggressively raising money for them in the early days of the 2016 campaign. Clinton's stop in the northern Iowa town of Mason City marked her second trip to the state since she formally launched her campaign last month. She spent more than an hour talking with local officials, campaign organizers and volunteers — the type of small-scale campaigning some Iowa Democrats say she didn't do enough of during her first bid for the Democratic nomination in 2008. Clinton placed third in the Iowa caucus that year, behind President Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. The hosts of Monday's event, Dean Genth and Gary Swenson, campaigned actively for Obama in 2008. Genth said he didn't choose Obama over Clinton for any ideological reasons, but more because he "captured everyone's imaginations with his charismatic campaign and his ability to connect to the grassroots." While Clinton so far doesn't face as tough of a primary challenge as she did in 2008, her campaign is eager to show she's learned lessons from her past missteps. The campaign has hired 21 caucus organizers and six regional field directors who are seeking commitments from voters to caucus for Clinton early next year. The early organizing could also yield longer-term benefits for Clinton's campaign, should she win her party's nomination. Iowa will be among the competitive battleground states in the general election and her campaign can draw on the voter contacts it makes now next year. Clinton arrived in Iowa under pressure from Republicans who want her to clarify her position on a massive Asia-Pacific trade deal being debated on Capitol Hill. While Clinton was supportive of the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact while serving as Obama's secretary of state, she has been largely silent on the matter since announcing her campaign. Obama's push for the trade deal has angered some liberal Democrats who fear the agreement with Japan and several other nations would hurt U.S. companies and workers. As she opened her remarks Monday, Clinton subtly defended her decision to avoid wading into the trade debate or taking questions from reporters on a range of other issues. Though she never mentioned the Republican criticism directly, she said small events that put her in direct contact with voters are providing her with the foundation for her campaign, as well as "the kind of information I need to be an even better president." Gowdy: Benghazi report may leave questions unresolved <http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/18/benghazi-report-congress-trey-gowdy/27490061/> // Greenville Online // Mary Troyan - May 18, 2015 WASHINGTON — The final congressional report on the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attacks may present conflicting information on issues without concluding which version is true, according to Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the special House committee investigating the attacks. Democrats on Gowdy’s committee, who have already declared the investigation a waste of taxpayer money, were further irritated by the possibility that the much-touted House investigation will leave some facts open to interpretation. Gowdy, R-S.C., said in a recent interview the investigation is a fact-finding mission, but every factual dispute may not be settled. “If you do a good enough job laying out the facts, the conclusions will either speak for themselves or you’ll have competing factual narratives and you can draw your own conclusions,” Gowdy said. The House Select Committee on Benghazi was created a year ago to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the events surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack on the U.S. facilities in Libya that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Seven Republicans and five Democrats serve on the panel. At the time the committee was created, Republican leaders said previous congressional investigations, which were limited to specific jurisdictions such as the military or intelligence agencies, had left questions unanswered, and a special committee with wider latitude was needed address new revelations. “I intend for this select committee to have robust authority, and I will expect it to work quickly to get answers for the American people and the families of the victims,” House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said last year when he asked the House to create the panel. Gowdy said the final report could be finished by the end of the year if the Obama administration cooperates more quickly in producing documents. But he also warned that issues may be left unresolved, especially if witnesses or documents contradict each other. “It’s not my job to tell people what to conclude,” Gowdy said. “If you have two witnesses, (and) one says the light was red and one green, I don’t view myself as being the arbiter of who is more credible.” The committee is investigating security lapses related to the attack, the military’s response to the incident, and whether the Obama administration, for political reasons, intentionally downplayed the event as something other than a coordinated terrorist attack. Committee Democrats have grown increasingly critical of how Republicans are proceeding. Asked to comment on the possibility the committee won’t draw conclusions about disputed facts, the panel’s top Democrat said the investigation is an attempt to discredit Hillary Rodham Clinton, a presidential candidate who was secretary of state at the time of the attacks in Benghazi. “For the Committee’s report to be credible... we should draw bipartisan conclusions based on the facts, state publicly when conspiracy theories are debunked, and set forth concrete recommendations to implement reforms that protect our diplomatic corps around the world,” Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said in a statement. During the committee’s most recent public hearing in January, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said the report needs bipartisan support to be considered credible. “Let’s make it bipartisan so that the country and the families will have the confidence of knowing that this was an objective work product,” Schiff said. Gowdy said the panel has uncovered new evidence and has talked to witnesses never before interviewed. But most of those interviews have been conducted in private. Publicly, committee members have focused mostly on improving security at diplomatic outposts and on disputes with the State Department and Clinton over access to emails, documents and witnesses. Gowdy said he knows not everyone will be satisfied with the panel’s final report, especially extreme partisans on either side. “If you do a good enough job getting every bit of information the fact-finder needs, they’ll be able to draw their own conclusions,” Gowdy said. “People are going to draw different conclusions. That’s fine.” GOP committee member Martha Roby of Alabama said she’s tried to manage her constituents’ expectations about the results of the investigation. “This is a fact-finding, truth-finding mission, and whatever that reveals is what it reveals,” Roby said. “Truth is a stubborn thing.” Clinton Friend’s Libya Role Blurs Lines of Politics and Business <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/us/politics/clinton-friends-libya-role-blurs-lines-of-politics-and-business.html> // NYT // Nicholas Confessor and Michael S. Schmidt – May 18, 2015 When the Clintons last occupied the White House, Sidney Blumenthal cast himself in varied roles: speechwriter, in-house intellectual and press corps whisperer. Republicans added another, accusing Mr. Blumenthal of spreading gossip to discredit Republican investigators and forced him to testify during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial. Now, as Hillary Rodham Clinton embarks on her second presidential bid, Mr. Blumenthal’s service to the Clintons is once again under the spotlight. Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a Republican who is leading the congressional committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, plans to subpoena Mr. Blumenthal, 66, for a private transcribed interview. Mr. Gowdy’s chief interest, according to people briefed on the inquiry, is a series of memos that Mr. Blumenthal — who was not an employee of the State Department — wrote to Mrs. Clinton about events unfolding in Libya before and after the death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. According to emails obtained by The New York Times, Mrs. Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, took Mr. Blumenthal’s advice seriously, forwarding his memos to senior diplomatic officials in Libya and Washington and at times asking them to respond. Mrs. Clinton continued to pass around his memos even after other senior diplomats concluded that Mr. Blumenthal’s assessments were often unreliable. But an examination by The New York Times suggests that Mr. Blumenthal’s involvement was more wide-ranging and more complicated than previously known, embodying the blurry lines between business, politics and philanthropy that have enriched and vexed the Clintons and their inner circle for years. While advising Mrs. Clinton on Libya, Mr. Blumenthal, who had been barred from a State Department job by aides to President Obama, was also employed by her family’s philanthropy, the Clinton Foundation, to help with research, “message guidance” and planning of commemorative events, according to foundation officials. During the same period, he also worked on and off as a paid consultant to Media Matters and American Bridge, organizations that helped lay the groundwork for Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Much of the Libya intelligence that Mr. Blumenthal passed on to Mrs. Clinton appears to have come from a group of business associates he was advising as they sought to win contracts from the Libyan transitional government. The venture, which was ultimately unsuccessful, involved other Clinton friends, a private military contractor and one former C.I.A. spy seeking to get in on the ground floor of the new Libyan economy. The projects — creating floating hospitals to treat Libya’s war wounded and temporary housing for displaced people, and building schools — would have required State Department permits, but floundered before the business partners could seek official approval. It is not clear whether Mrs. Clinton or the State Department knew of Mr. Blumenthal’s interest in pursuing business in Libya; a State Department spokesman declined to say. Many aspects of Mr. Blumenthal’s involvement in the planned Libyan venture remain unclear. He declined repeated requests to discuss it. But interviews with his associates and a review of previously unreported correspondence suggest that — once again — it may be difficult to determine where one of Mr. Blumenthal’s jobs ended and another began. Mr. Gowdy’s committee on the attacks in Benghazi hopes to ask Mr. Blumenthal who, if anyone, was paying him to prepare the memos for Mrs. Clinton and whether they were among his responsibilities at the Clinton Foundation. The committee’s investigators are also interested in whether the planned business venture in Libya posed any potential conflicts for Mr. Blumenthal or Mrs. Clinton, whose aides the business partners sought meetings with in early 2012. The Libya venture came together in 2011, when David L. Grange, a retired Army major general, joined with a newly formed New York firm, Constellations Group, to pursue business leads in Libya. Constellations Group, led by a professional fund-raiser and philanthropist named Bill White, was to provide the leads. Mr. Grange’s company, Osprey Global Solutions, based in North Carolina, would put “boots on the ground to see if there was an opportunity to do business,” Mr. Grange said in an interview. The men had little experience in Libya. Exactly how Mr. White was to procure leads in Libya is unclear. He spent much of his career as an executive at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, and had raised money for politicians, businesses and charities. His biography also describes Mr. White as a consultant for Aquahydrate, a bottled-water company whose backers include Ron Burkle, the billionaire investor who had been a close friend of the Clintons. “We were thinking, ‘O.K., Qaddafi is dead, or about to be, and there’s opportunities,’ ” Mr. White said in a brief telephone interview, adding, “We thought, ‘Let’s try to see who we know there.’ ” Mr. White declined to answer follow-up questions about what role Mr. Blumenthal was playing in the business venture. But Mr. Grange described Mr. Blumenthal as an adviser to Mr. White’s company, along with two other associates: Tyler Drumheller, a colorful former Central Intelligence Agency official, and Cody Shearer, a longtime Clinton friend whose sister once worked for Mrs. Clinton. “I just know that he was working with the team to work on business development,” Mr. Grange said of Mr. Blumenthal. In the spring of 2011, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Drumheller and Mr. Shearer were helping plan what was to be Mr. Grange’s first trip to Libya, according to emails stolen by a Romanian hacker and published by Gawker and ProPublica in March. Mr. Blumenthal said he had been advised not to comment on the correspondence because the theft remained under investigation by the F.B.I. In August, Mr. Grange signed a memorandum of understanding with two senior officials in the Libyan transitional government to provide “humanitarian assistance, medical services |
resigned shortly afterwards, but testified that the Thin Thread system was later discontinued by the NSA.
Last year, former NSA staffer and Thin Thread team member Thomas Drake told the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco that the system was dropped in favor of a commercially developed system called Trailblazer, which ended up costing over a billion dollars and apparently did not work as advertised.
Former NSA analyst J. Kirk Wiebe has also testified that Thin Thread would have spotted the September 11 terrorists "in a relatively short period of time," had it been used. To the best of his knowledge, he said, the NSA still relies on searching for specific people from a static database and isn't able to totally link all online activity on a large scale.
Wiebe also testified to the existence of a British government version of the NSA's network – uncovered by The Register and The Sunday Times – dubbed "Mastering the Internet." This multi-billion pound system is thought to link voice and data tracking to commercial databases and to the UK government's signals intelligence offices at GCHQ, despite the agency giving El Reg a non-denial denial.
The law is the law
All this can be used in evidence, as well as a host of other publicly-available and unclassified sources, but the real issue is that the government is breaking the law by enabling large-scale wiretapping in defiance of FISA, Cohn told The Register.
"There's nothing in the revisions to FISA that says it's ok to wiretap the entire country," she said. "Nowhere does it say that this kind of dragnet wiretapping is legal."
She explained that the idea that the government's case should not even be heard by a court, despite FISA laws and the sheer volume of evidence, means it is acting above the law. At the moment the Obama administration is stalling for time, she said, but Congress has already ruled on the issue.
The San Francisco Federal Court was due to hear the EFF's case on November 2, but it was put off until December 14, with another delay not out of the question.
"When the government says this thing is secret, but we've got seven binders of testimony showing it's not, they can’t just argue the case should be shut down without a hearing," Cohn said. "It's getting further and further from the rule of law." ®To prepare for her first debate against Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton is taking an unpleasant walk down memory lane that includes stops at scandalous moments in her husband's presidency.
Trump has signaled that there will be no sacred cows in the presidential race, and the former first lady's campaign is bracing itself for the possibility that the billionaire will try to toss Clinton off her balance by bringing up Bill Clinton's affairs, Politico reports.
Monica Lewinsky and the infamous blue dress, actress Gennifer Flowers and Vince Foster, the longtime friend of Hillary who took his own life in 1993 while working at the White House, could come up during the Sept. 26 match at Hofstra University.
Then there's the drama of Hillary Clinton's own making - her decision to route her State Department emails through a private server she kept in her basement unbeknownst to other top officials in the Obama administration, including the president.
Donald Trump has signaled that there will be no sacred cows in the presidential race, and the former first lady's campaign is bracing itself for the possibility that the billionaire will try to toss Hillary Clinton off her balance by bringing up Bill Clinton's affairs
The Clintons have lived much of their lives in the public spotlight, generating a heap full of dirty laundry for Trump to re-air if he chooses. He's pictured above at a GOP debate in March
Monica Lewinsky and the infamous blue dress, left, and actress Gennifer Flowers, right, could come up during the Sept. 26 match at Hofstra University.
'You can't put it beyond Trump that Monica Lewinsky will play a role in this debate,' former White House counsel to Barack Obama Greg Craig told Politico.
Craig was tapped to play George W. Bush opposite John Kerry during the Democratic senator's 2004 bid. He also took on the role of John McCain for Obama in 2008.
He said of Clinton. 'She's got to be prepared to deal with the Foundation and Wall Street and super PACs and all of that. They need to be less focused on dealing with his policy proposals and more on dealing with the unexpected. He’s going to be in attack mode, probably the whole time.'
The Clintons have lived much of their lives in the public spotlight, generating a heap full of dirty laundry for Trump to re-air if he chooses.
He has already made reference to all three incidents at one point or another during the year and two months of his campaign.
Foster's death was ruled a suicide, but rumors persist he was murdered, most likely by the Clintons, as he was reportedly bullied by Hillary in the weeks preceding his suicide about the Whitewater land deal.
Trump in May said Foster's death was'very fishy' and noted that he had an 'intimate' knowledge of the Whitewater investment.
'I don’t know enough to really discuss it,' Trump said of Foster's death. 'I will say there are people who continue to bring it up because they think it was absolutely a murder. I don’t do that because I don’t think it’s fair.'
President Bill Clinton faces off against Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole on October 16 at Shiley Theater at the University of San Diego in California. Hillary Clinton could be forced to answer for his behavior in office
A few weeks before that, as he girded himself for a wave of attacks from Clinton's campaign and her SuperPAC, Trump fired a warning flare and said that Hillary is 'an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler' of Bill's sexual affairs.
'She's been the total enabler. She would go after these women and destroy their lives,' Trump said at a rally. 'She was an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler, and what she did to a lot of those women is disgraceful.'
Bill Clinton admitted to affairs with Lewinsky, while he was president, and Flowers, once, in 1977, though she says it went on for years.
Hillary Clinton said in 2003 that she contemplated a divorce. The couple stayed together, though, and in October of 2015 they celebrated their 40th anniversary.
Clinton has succeeded in previous debates by staying on message, regardless of what else is happening around her. When Republican Rick Lazio left his podium during their 2000 Senate debate to shove a campaign finance pledge in her face, strategists point out that she did not become rattled
Clinton has succeeded in previous debates by staying on message, regardless of what else is happening around her.
When Republican Rick Lazio left his podium during their 2000 Senate debate to shove a campaign finance pledge in her face, strategists point out that she did not become rattled.
'She ignored him and didn’t take his bait,' retired Sen. Judd Gregg said. 'She got back on message.'
Gregg stood in for Al Gore on behalf of Bush's presidential campaign that year.
Neera Tanden, president of liberal think-tank Center for American Progressive, was part of Clinton's debate prep team in 2008, when Democratic contenders had 25 organized arguments.
'She gets nervous. But she gets mentally in the zone,'Tanden told Glamour last year as Clinton was getting ready to do battle in the 2016 primary. 'I never saw her right before a debate like super nervous.'
Tanden recalled the one time she believes Clinton gave a bad answer in those matches - when she was asked in October 2007 if she was in favor of driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.
Clinton said she did at the time, then said she didn't afterward. Now she does again.
'She doesn't get all freaked out, lose her crap, and everything. She doesn't sit there and go like, "Oh I'm never going to be able to do this again." '
Tanden said, 'She came back to the next debate and was good and on it.
'This is a woman who has kind of had to face stressful situations many times in her life, you know, this won't be the first stressful one she'll face and it won't be the last.'
Names that have been put forward as suggestions have ranged from former Saturday Night Live actors like Al Franken, now a U.S. senator representing Minnesota
Franken is seen here playing Henry Kissinger in a 1986 episode of SNL before he became a senator
Her campaign asked Howard Wolfson to play Obama in 2008.
According to Politico, Clinton's team is still searching for someone to imitate Trump.
Names that have been put forward as suggestions have ranged from former Saturday Night Live actors like Al Franken, now a U.S. senator representing Minnesota, to non-politicians such as billionaire investor Mark Cuban.
Cuban told the New York Daily News that he thinks 'it would be hard to truly play Trump because he is so removed from reality these days.' To Politico, he said he'd be 'happy' to do it if someone from the campaign asked him to, though.
Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who has put his foot in his mouth while talking about women on occasion, said to Politico, in jest, he's 'probably one of the only ones who says things bordering on the outrageous like Trump does.'
Another suggestion is that Clinton employ more than one Trump impersonator - one for each approach he could take. A politician of substance who's interested in talking about news of the day and the pressing national issues, or the attack dog he unleashes at his rallies whose goal would be to leave Clinton bleeding.
Mark Cuban says he'd be willing to imitate Trump is Clinton's debate prep. The billionaire investor is seen above at a rally where he endorsed her last month
Trump could ignore Clinton altogether and try to win sympathy from the audience by assailing the debate's not-yet-named moderator as part of the dishonest media trying to undercut his campaign.
'The Clinton challenge is to prepare for the crazy Trump who will probably show up, some kind of toned down Trump, and the somewhere-in-between Trump,' Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, a member of Gore's debate team, told Politico.
Assessing Trump, Rendell said, 'He’ll say anything.'
'It’s almost impossible to be totally prepared.'
Trump has not formally committed to any of the three general debates, the first of which is scheduled for Sept. 26 just outside New York City.
He said last week that he 'absolutely' wants to spar with Clinton, though, and is looking forward to doing all three, once he sees and approves the conditions that have been set by the bi-partisan committee that handles the televised quarrels.Now is the winter of our discontent, exiled from the glorious football of our summer and fall, mired in gloom and snowdrifts both real and metaphorical... that is to say, it's time for your professional ranking experts to take stock of the offseason and arrive at a precisely calibrated ranking of SEC teams.
As in previous iterations of these rankings, it's important to remember that these rankings are painstakingly compiled by professionals using the finest statistical methods, rosters and depth chart information, classified football materials passed on to us by program insiders (aka an orange and white Magic 8ball named Neylandstrodamus), hearsay, internet rumors, and unreleased Taylor Swift recordings.
Note: Kid Bourbon submitted his ballot, but he was unavailable for comment as of press time, so I imagine he'll weigh in in the comments and tell me how I took his rankings out of context. Also, for this very special edition of the rankings, longtime RTT author and everyone's favorite Lady Vols expert Chris Pendley joins the balloting as our resident Grumpy Cat/Debbie Downer.
On to the rankings!
Official SEC Offseason Football Rankings
1. Alabama
2014 Offensive S&P+ 2 2014 Defensive S&P+ 3 Phil Steele's Returning Starters 11 (#100) Coaching Changes Position coaches: lost Lance Thompson to Auburn (linebackers); lost Kevin Steele (defensive assistant) to LSU (defensive coordinator). 2015 247 Recruiting Class Rank (SEC Rank)
1 (1)
Votes (Hunter-Chris-KidB) 1 (unanimous)
The Crimson Tide under Nick Saban has been so predictably good and yet so boring that the team has transmogrified from a normal top tier college football team into something more: the perfect expression of bland but dominant American-style corporate capitalism.
Like fellow titans of industry Wal-Mart, Exxon-Mobil, and McDonalds, AlabamaTM is a ruthlessly managed and fiercely competitive entity with an entirely separate legal existence that focuses on tight control of its own logistics. So what if the Crimson Tide only returns 11 starters from last year's team? Alabama is a football recruiting juggernaut with a supply line filled to the brim with high quality athletes ready to be molded into an insipid yet overwhelming football product. Omnipresent on media networks yet as tasteless as unsalted grits, the latest iteration of Nick Saban's brilliant corporatized system will perform at roughly the same level as previous editions: a staff of well-regarded middle managers will train newly hired employees in a predictable, conservative approach to conducting business which minimizes risk and ensures consistency in the final product.
Voting notes: Alabama received all three first place votes from our panel, and was one of two unanimous selections along with Vanderbilt.
Bottom line: Alabama might not win the SEC this year, but like Berkshire-Hathaway, the Crimson Tide are always a solid buy, even if there's no publicly available succession plan for the aging CEO.
2(T). Auburn
2014 Offensive S&P+ 5 2014 Defensive S&P+ 29 Phil Steele's Returning Starters 12 (#79) Coaching Changes Defensive coordinator (DC): fired Ellis Johnson; hired Will Muschamp from Florida (head coach).
2015 247 Recruiting Class Rank 9 (5) Votes (Hunter-Chris-KidB) 4-2-4
Former Florida head coach Will Muschamp is the newest Dark Arts of Defense professor at headmaster Gus Malzahn's Hogwarts-on-the-Plain. While Malzahn spends the spring and summer trying to find and destroy the horcruxes of ageless offensive wizard Bill Snyder, Muschamp will be in the heat of College and Magnolia, teaching his hapless charges the heretofore unknown concept of "team defense". With defensive end Carl Lawson returning from injury and half-giant Montravious Adams stronger after a year in the weight program, expect Gainesville's least favorite Muggle to take the eight returning defensive starters and vastly improve on last year's 29th ranked unit.
"But wait, you still haven't said anything about how Auburn's offense can weather losing seven starters!" And that, my dear readers, is why Malzahn is the most impressive illusionist in the business.
Gratuitous Emma Watson Question: "Emma, are we excited to see what kinds of crazy plays Malzahn calls this year?"
Voting notes: Auburn lands at number two overall thanks to a strong returning roster and faith in Malzahn's coaching staff. While KidB and I both voted other teams into this spot, we couldn't agree on which team, so the other Tigers earn the spot based on the average.
Ministry of Magic threat assessment: High. Malzahn continues to recruit at an elite pace, and Muschamp has proven himself as an elite defensive coordinator at every coaching stop. While an unsettled quarterback situation may force the defense to carry the offense early in the season, Auburn finally has enough talent and coaching on the defensive side of the ball to make that a tenable proposition.
2(T). Georgia
2014 Offensive S&P+ 8 2014 Defensive S&P+ 17 Phil Steele's Returning Starters 12 (#79) Coaching Changes OC: lost Mike Bobo to Colorado State (head coach); hired Brian Schottenheimer from St. Louis Rams. 2015 247 Recruiting Class Rank 6 (4) Votes (Hunter-Chris-KidB) 2-3-5
Mark Richt continues his decade-long impersonation of late-era Phil Fulmer, serving up talented teams that manage to lose at the least opportune time every single year. Although Georgia fans finally managed to drive whipping boy offensive coordinator Mike Bobo out of Athens, his replacement is equally vanilla former NFL offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. A shining example of nepotism to children everywhere, Schottenheimer was gainfully employed as an offensive coordinator in professional football for nine straight seasons (2006-2011 New York Jets; 2012-2014 St. Louis Rams) while only managing to break into the top half of league offenses a grand total of twice: 12th in offensive DVOA in 2006, and 16th in offensive DVOA in 2010. Schottenheimer will also serve as the Bulldogs' quarterbacks coach-- a role to which he brings extensive experience, having developed former Southern Cal quarterback Mark Sanchez into a butt fumbling sensation. With four returning starters on the offensive line, Georgia fans can look forward to Schottenheimer running star sophomore running backs Nick Chubb and Sony Michel into loaded defensive fronts on first and second down, while calling checkdowns to the tight end and underneath wide receivers on third-and-long.
Defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt faces the challenge of replacing every starter on the defensive line, but Georgia should be more disciplined and physical in the linebacking and secondary units. If Pruitt can build a serviceable defensive line rotation from a very talented group of players, the Bulldogs' defense could be quite salty next year.
Voting notes: Chris and I voted Georgia in the top three, while KidB placed the Bulldogs fifth behind a host of SEC West teams.
Final verdict: Georgia is almost certainly the most talented team in the division, and despite all of the jokes at Schottenheimer's expense, it's entirely possible that the Bulldogs can win 9-10 games this coming year with a conservative, run-first offense and a talented, opportunistic defense. It remains to be seen what Georgia has at the quarterback position, but there's enough talent not to count them out. As always, expect at least one Georgia starter to be kicked off the team for off-season shenanigans prior to fall camp.
4. Tennessee
2014 Offensive S&P+ 47 2014 Defensive S&P+ 24 Phil Steele's Returning Starters (National Rank)
18 (#6) Coaching Changes OC: lost Mike Bajakian to Tampa Bay Buccaneers (quarterbacks coach); hired Mike DeBord from Michigan (Olympic Sports Coordinator). 2015 247 Recruiting Class Rank 4 (2) Votes (Hunter-Chris-KidB) 3-7-3
Laugh, cry, or call us homers, Tennessee is finally poised to return to the top of the SEC. On offense, the Vols return 10 starters, losing only Iron Man offensive tackle Jacob Gilliam. When looking at CFB Matrix's individual game starters, the situation looks even better: Tennessee returns 46 of 65 offensive line starters (13*5), 36 of 39 wide receiver starters, 13 of 13 tight end starters, 9 of 13 running back starters, 6 of 13 quarterback starters, and 13 of 13 kicker starters (123/156 total offensive player individual game starters-- tops in the SEC). With another good recruiting class, a year's worth of experience, and improved strength and conditioning, 2014's talented but young offense should be vastly improved in 2015. It's a subject for another article, but Tennessee's terrible offensive line play was due to a high negative play rate dragging down an otherwise decent statistical performance. In order to take the next step from terrible to adequate, the offensive line must make fewer mental mistakes and give up fewer false starts, tackles for loss, and sacks.
On defense, Tennessee returns 8 starters and enough talented depth to hold open competitions to replace defensive tackle Jordan Williams, middle linebacker A.J. Johnson, and nickelback Justin Coleman. Junior college cornerback Justin Martin and early enrollee safety Stephen Griffin are expected to push for early playing time, and high school defensive tackles Shy Tuttle and Kahlil McKenzie look ready to contribute to the defensive line rotation in the fall.
Voting notes: Chris remains our resident Negative Nancy with a seventh place vote for the Vols. Meanwhile, KidB and I are rationally exuberant.
Final verdict: Tennessee posts a winning record in the SEC for the first time in years, beats at least two of the Georgia-Florida-Alabama triumvirate, and goes to a New Year's Day bowl game again. KidB wakes up the day after the bowl game with a tattoo of Joshua Dobbs on his forehead, MemphisPete fears that he's suffering a heart attack that turns out to be a heart murmur of pure joy, and Chris pessimistically posts that the Vols have "peaked too soon".
5.Texas A&M
2014 Offensive S&P+ 21 2014 Defensive S&P+ 73 Phil Steele's Returning Starters 15 (#29) Coaching Changes DC: fired Mark Snyder; hired John Chavis from LSU. 2015 247 Recruiting Class Rank 11 (6) Votes (Hunter-Chris-KidB) 4-6-7
The Aggies are the anti-Missouri, ending each of the last three seasons with disappointing finishes after extensive preseason hype. Defensive coordinator John Chavis is a fantastic hire, especially because it handicaps a division rival, but the Texas A&M defense requires more extensive repair than can be accomplished in a single offseason. Like their burnt orange rivals in Austin, defensive coaches in College Station may soon find that cultural change requires kicking unmotivated, spoiled players to the curb.
Voting Notes: I'm more bullish on Texas A&M than my fellow voters, but that's more a function of regression among SEC West teams than it is a vote of confidence.
Bottom line: The Aggies remain incredibly talented, but head coach Kevin Sumlin's team has regressed in each of the last three seasons.
6. Missouri
2014 Offensive S&P+ 48 2014 Defensive S&P+ 23 Phil Steele's Returning Starters 13 (#58) Coaching Changes DC: lost Dave Steckel to Missouri State (head coach); hired Barry Odom from Memphis. 2015 247 Recruiting Class Rank 25 (12) Votes (Hunter-Chris-KidB) 7-5-6
Oh, Missouri. If the denizens of Rock M Nation are correct, head coach Gary Pinkel and his coaching staff are very successfully exploiting a flaw in recruiting rankings to find and develop under-recruited but talented high school athletes who lack defined positions. If that's true, then it stands to reason that shaking up Pinkel's longtime coaching staff could be a problem, especially when one considers the number of other coaches that have suffered a drop-off without key lieutenants. Former Memphis defensive coordinator Barry Odom is a very good hire, but the other other Tigers may still miss new Missouri State head coach Dave Steckel.
Voting notes: Chris continues his run of ignoring standard securities warnings: "past performance does not guarantee future results".
Another prediction of regression to the mean: Missouri's inexplicably great performance over the last few years has delighted fans in the better Columbia while confounding and angering virtually everyone else. If Pinkel has divined a decisive programmatic advantage, it would be foolish not to expect other teams to take notice and eventually catch up. Expect the SEC's very own Kirk Ferentz to regress to the mean.
7. Arkansas
2014 Offensive S&P+ 20 2014 Defensive S&P+ 18 Phil Steele's Returning Starters 15 (#29) Coaching Changes OC: lost Jim Cheney to Purdue; hired Dan Enos from Central Michigan (head coach). 2015 247 Recruiting Class Rank 23 (11) Votes (Hunter-Chris-KidB) 5-6-8
Full-time head football coach and part-time shirtless party Zeppelin Bret BERT Bielema wants to pound his opponents into submission with a heavy-handed, ground-and-pound strategy, whether the game is Hungry Hungry Hippos or the grill line at Golden Corral. Mark Mangino's skinnier, more-successful cousin finally has a roster built in his own image, and that means four talented offensive linemen return along with two thousand yard rushers. Pass happy offensive coordinator Jim Cheney was shuffled off to the Big 10, to be replaced by former Michigan State assistant and Central Michigan head coach Dan Enos. In a division where several of last year's contenders are replacing key starters, Arkansas may improve by virtue of standing still.
WHEN IT'S TIME TO PARTY WE WILL PARTY HARD
Voting notes: Arkansas received votes that place it in a relatively tight cluster of good, but not great teams.
Bottom line: The Razorbacks probably won't win the division, but they'll be a tough, well-coached outfit that will give less disciplined teams fits, including, yes, Tennessee in Knoxville. Don't sleep on the hogs.
8. LSU
2014 Offensive S&P+ 31 2014 Defensive S&P+ 12 Phil Steele's Returning Starters 15 (#29) Coaching Changes DC: lost John Chavis to Texas A&M; hired Kevin Steele from Alabama (defensive assistant). 2015 247 Recruiting Class Rank 5 (3) Votes (Hunter-Chris-KidB) 9-10-2
What's to like: LSU has a talented roster, returns the fourth-most starters in the SEC, and Les Miles has been a model of coaching stability in the SEC.
What's not to like: LSU's offense was a complete mess all of last year, failing to develop a starting quarterback and wasting good seasons from running back Leonard Fournette and wide receivers Malachi Dupre and Travin Dural. Highly paid offensive coordinator Cam Cameron played musical quarterbacks with Anthony Jennings and Brandon Harris, destroying the confidence of both players. Defensive coordinator John Chavis, feeling unappreciated, decamped for division rival Texas A&M, and Miles hired aging defensive assistant Kevin Steele from Alabama to replace him. Steele was responsible for a series of disastrous performances as Clemson's defensive coordinator from 2009-2012, and was fired following a horrific bowl loss to West Virginia. LSU also hired the physical manifestation of those Red Bull cartoons in defensive line coach and former USC interim head coach Ed Orgeron, setting up potential staff conflict between Steele and his top lieutenant (and potential replacement, should Steele falter).
Voting notes: Holy outlier, Batman! KidB ranked the Bayou Bengals second overall, while Chris and I ranked LSU in the bottom half of the conference.
Bottom line: It's foolish to bet against Les Miles, but last season's offensive shortcomings have yet to be addressed, and the revamped defensive coaching staff creates a new area of concern.
9. Ole Miss
2014 Offensive S&P+ 12 2014 Defensive S&P+ 7 Phil Steele's Returning Starters 16 (#17) Coaching Changes None 2015 247 Recruiting Class Rank 17 (7) Votes (Hunter-Chris-KidB) 8-9-10
Let's get this out of the way first: Ole Miss is likely to be nasty on defense once again, with seven starters returning from last year's 7th ranked unit. Robert Nkemdiche (DT), C.J. Johnson (DE), and Marquis Haynes (DE) should be at full strength to start the season, Denzel Nkemdiche returns from injury to anchor a rebuilt but talented linebacking unit, and the defensive backfield will benefit from experience in the front seven. The Landsharks are once again swimming with talent.
The problems all come on the other side of the ball, and really by "problems" we mean "problems caused by presumed starting quarterback Chad $wag Kelly". Ole Miss returns nine starters on offense, including all five starting offensive linemen and wide receiver Laquon Treadwell, but all of that potential is likely to go to waste with a petulant, unreliable hothead at the controls. Chad Kelly, the nephew of former Buffalo Bills' quarterback Jim Kelly, transferred to Oxford from East Mississippi Community College, where he spent the fall after being thrown off the Clemson football team by notoriously lax disciplinarian Dabo Swinney. Kelly earned his one-way ticket to junior college by throwing an expletive-laden tantrum at the Clemson Orange and White game that later necessitated his escort away from the football facilities by police. Staying true to form, he managed to get arrested in the early morning hours in his hometown of Buffalo, four days after signing to play for Ole Miss, for his role in a bar brawl. Kelly was charged with seven misdemeanors for fighting, resisting arrest, and threatening "to go to my car and get my AK-47 and spray this place."
Don't make the mistake of comparing Kelly to former Ole Miss shooting guard and bête noire Marshall Henderson-- that's unfair to Henderson, who earned his notoriety first and foremost with sterling play on the court, and only secondarily by taunting rival fans and engaging in extracurricular shenanigans. Maybe head coach Hugh Freeze can whisper soothing words in Kelly's ear, or install a different quarterback as a caretaker, but Kelly hasn't shown anything on the major college level to indicate that he's mentally equipped to stay out of trouble for an entire semester, let alone run a talented offense in the SEC West.
Voting notes: Everyone agrees that Ole Miss is likely to struggle, which either means we're correct, or we'll end up with equal amounts of egg on our faces.
Bottom line: An excellent defense paired with an offense led by a terrible quarterback? If Ole Miss has a successful season, it's likely to be in the same vein as 2012 Florida. It could happen, but it's not likely.
10. Mississippi State
2014 Offensive S&P+ 6 2014 Defensive S&P+ 16 Phil Steele's Returning Starters 9 (#121) Coaching Changes DC: lost Geoff Collins to Florida; hired Manny Diaz from Louisiana Tech. 2015 247 Recruiting Class Rank 18 (8) Votes (Hunter-Chris-KidB) 11-8-9
Mississippi State is dead last in the SEC in the number of returning starters, and in the bottom five nationally. On the other hand, CLANGA can take pride in a substantial offseason upset: keeping head coach Dan Mullen in Starkville. Mullen signed a rich new contract extension and then inked a jumbo-sized recruiting class including four junior college players, but it's tough to replace six starters on offense (including three offensive linemen) and seven starters on defense (including three defensive linemen and two linebackers).
Voting notes: The other Bulldogs narrowly lost out to Ole Miss for 9th place based on the strength of my 11th place vote, which seems about right.
Bottom line: Mississippi State was underrated entering last season, but most of the starters from 2014's sterling performance are no longer in Starkville. CLANGA is likely to be a solid, well-coached team that struggles to stay over.500 in the tough SEC West.
11. South Carolina
2014 Offensive S&P+ 23 2014 Defensive S&P+ 89 Phil Steele's Returning Starters 12 (#79) Coaching Changes DC: hired Jon Hoke from Chicago Bears to co-DC with incumbent Lorenzo "Whammy" Ward. 2015 247 Recruiting Class Rank 19 (9) Votes (Hunter/Chris/KidB) 12-12-11
The head ball coach doesn't worry about football until it starts to get too hot to play golf, so just go ahead and take a nap for another few months. That is, unless you need him to drink a few cold ones and land a few zingers on opposing coaches.
Voting notes: Better than the worst, worse than the best.
Bottom line: South Carolina's defense was really awful last year and should improve just because it can't really get any worse. On the other hand, All Name Team quarterback Dylan Thompson finally graduates, and wide receiver Pharoh Cooper needs someone, anyone, to get him the ball.
12(T). Florida
2014 Offensive S&P+ 81 2014 Defensive S&P+ 21 Phil Steele's Returning Starters 10 (#114) Coaching Changes HC: fired Will Muschamp; hired Jim McElwain from Colorado State (head coach). 2015 247 Recruiting Class Rank 21 (10) Votes (Hunter/Chris/KidB) 13-11-12
With coaching turnover and roster attrition, this team should be pretty bad. On the other hand, new head coach Jim McElwain is a complete unknown, and Florida still has some significant talent on the roster. McElwain has his work cut out for him transforming run-first quarterback Treon Harris into a serviceable thrower with an almost completely new look offense. Defensive coordinator Geoff Collins churned out some good units at Mississippi State, but the Gators may have hired the wrong coach from Starkville. If McElwain doesn't succeed to the level expected and Mullins continues to win with limited resources, athletics director Jim Foley is going to find his own head on the chopping block.
Voting notes: Everyone thinks the Gators will be bad.
Bottom line: Maybe this is wishful thinking, but on paper, Florida looks to be on track for a terrible season.
12(T). Kentucky
2014 Offensive S&P+ 63 2014 Defensive S&P+ 72 Phil Steele's Returning Starters 14 (#42) Coaching Changes OC: lost Neal Brown to the head coaching position at Troy; hired Shannon Dawson from West Virginia (co-OC). 2015 247 Recruiting Class Rank 39 (13) Votes (Hunter-Chris-KidB) 10-13-13
Mark Stoops is an interesting test case for the patience of the Wildcat football faithful: he's improved recruiting, hired a respectable coaching staff, and put an entertaining, tough-minded team onto the field. Kentucky improved from 2-10 in Joker Phillips' last year to 5-7 in Mark Stoops' second year, but the Wildcats played poorly in the second half of the season as injuries mounted. It's not fair to put Stoops on the hot seat, but that's probably where he'll be after Kentucky missed a bowl for a fourth straight season and watched a highly touted recruiting class fall apart the week before signing day.
On offense, former coordinator Neal Brown was a more than respectable offensive mind who made the most of his somewhat limited resources, so newly hired coordinator Shannon Dawson will need to be at his best. Dawson comes from West Virginia with the right pedigree, but he hasn't been the sole play-caller for an offense. On defense, Kentucky loses defensive end Bud Dupree, but Stoops has enough returning talent to put a solid defense on the field.
Voting notes: I'm more bullish on the Wildcats than my two fellow voters, but I have to admit that Kentucky could be significantly improved on the field but not see it reflected in the record.
Bottom line: Kentucky isn't a pushover under Stoops-- teams that fail to take the Wildcats seriously will lose, barring Florida 2014 level antics (side note: come on, SEC officials-- you have to call that delay of game).
14. Vanderbilt
2014 Offensive S&P+ 115 2014 Defensive S&P+ 100 Phil Steele's Returning Starters 18 (#6) Coaching Changes OC: fired Karl Dorrell; hired Andy Ludwig from Wisconsin. DC: head coach Derek Mason will serve as his own defensive coordinator. 2015 247 Recruiting Class Rank 47 (14) Votes (Hunter-Chris-KidB) 14 (unanimous)
The Commodores were terrible last year, and if not for a pair of narrow wins over UMass (34-31) and Charleston Southern (21-20), it would have been worse. Head coach Derek Mason hemmed and hawed for days before reluctantly signing former offensive coordinator and best friend Karl Dorrell's walking papers, which may make him a better man than coach. The search for an offensive coordinator dragged, but newly hired offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig is certain to be an improvement over Dorrell. Ludwig will need to settle on a starting quarterback as soon as possible, but he'll have plenty of experience to work with as nine starters return to West End.
Mason also fired defensive coordinator David Kotulski and tabbed himself as the replacement, although he doesn't seem to have paid himself for the privilege (a la Barry Alvarez). While Mason is a well-respected defensive mind with an admirable track record, it should concern the faithful in Nashville that the head coach doesn't trust his assistants or his hiring ability enough to delegate responsibility. Mason struggled with in-game coaching decisions last season, so adding additional responsibilities to his plate doesn't seem like a great idea, although it may be making the best of a bad situation.
Voting: Unanimous.
Bottom line: Vanderbilt was a team in complete disarray for most of last season-- rudderless on offense and worn out on defense. Mason has continued to recruit at a decent level, so the raw material is there, but at this point, it's hard to have any faith that he's going to turn it around.911 Prediction Revealed at Lindauer Hearing in NYC
Where's the Case?
(Left to right) Brian Shaughnessy, attorney; Susan Lindauer, defendant; and Parke Godfrey, Ph.D., a key defense witness. (Michael Collins, copyleft) 911 Prediction Revealed at Lindauer Competency Hearing in New York City Michael Collins
"Scoop" Independent News
Washington, D.C.
(June 17, NYC). A surprise development occurred at today's hearing in the case of Susan Lindauer versus the United States. A long time associate of the accused, associate professor of computer science at Toronto's York University, Parke Godfrey, Ph.D., testified that Susan Lindauer predicted an attack on the United States in the southern part of Manhattan. According to his testimony, she said that the attack would be very similar to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Godfrey said that Lindauer made the prediction on several occasions, one as late as August 2001.
The testimony occurred in a hearing on Lindauer's competence to stand trial held before U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Preska, Southern District of New York, in lower Manhattan. On March 11, 2004, Lindauer was arrested for acting as an "unregistered agent" for the nation of Iraq prior to the U.S. invasion. Prosecutors have delayed the trial for over four years claiming Lindauer was delusional for asserting that she was a U.S. intelligence asset over a period of nine years, including the period covered by the indictment.
This was Lindauer's first real opportunity to argue her competence to stand trial and deny the delusions claimed by court psychiatrists. Lindauer asserts that she had |
media propaganda we will give him some advice: please stick to what you are good at - providing objective advice. Else, CNBC's ratings are a brilliant case in point of what happens when one loses all credibility and become nothing but a mouthpiece for the establishment. Then again, there are certainly third vacation home, second yacht, Netjets timeshare, and last but not least, Ponzi perpetuation, considerations at hand, so who are we to give Jan any advice...
For those who wish to have a few laughs at Jan's expense, below is Goldman's full roadmap to losing all credibility, or, as the firm calls it, Above-Trend growth.Flying Lotus Discusses His Changing Approach, the Road and What's Next
Published Sep 26, 2012
L.A. beatsmith Flying Lotus has a new album, Until the Quiet Comes, heading our way fast, and he's gearing up for a much-anticipated tour to boot. FlyLo, sometimes known as Steven Ellison, isn't exactly a road warrior, but with this new album following his 2010 breakout, touring is a must and he's mentally prepared.In a recent interview, Exclaim!'s October cover star explained, "This tour is more extensive than it's ever been for me. This time around, I'm gonna do a few weeks in Europe and three weeks in America on a bus. On a bus, at least I can smoke a lot of fucking weed."So that's motivation. But FlyLo is looking forward to the grind with a fresh outlook."I make music the same way I always have been. The one thing that's different is the approach changes from how I get from point A to point B," he explains. "I learned a lot more about mixing and that had a lot to do with it. It helps in the studio. It translates even better in the live setting. I just know more about sub-frequencies and it's a lot easier."The live show has "evolved and changed a little bit. It's more dynamic. But still a party! Not like my albums, [which] are more like personal exchange; [live] it's nice to have that social experience."After this round of live work is done he hints at a different direction."At the moment, I've been writing a lot of orchestral pieces, film cues and stuff. I don't know what's going to happen with them but it's fun. I brushed up on my classical chops. I'm combining classical with a little electronic as opposed to electronic with a little classical. But it's really fun. It's opening up something new in me."For now, get set forto arrive on Tuesday (October 2) through Warp and see all Flying Lotus's upcoming tour dates below. Also, read Exclaim!'s newly published cover story here Tour dates:10/7 New York, NY - Terminal 510/12 Montreal, QC - SAT10/13 Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall10/16 Chicago, IL - Metro10/18 Denver, CO - Ogden10/19 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge10/22 Vancouver, BC - Fortune10/23 Seattle, WA - Neptune10/25 Oakland, CA - Fox Theatre11/3 London, England - Brixton Academy (2 Flying Lotus sets)11/4 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso11/5 Leipzig, Germany - Conne Island11/6 Paris, France - La Machine du Moulin Rouge11/7 Fribourg, Switzerland - Fri-Son11/8 Berlin, Germany - Gretchen11/9 Manchester, England - Warehouse Project11/23 Tokyo, Japan - Makuhari MesseAmerican Crime Story: The People v. OJ Simpson isn’t just one of the biggest hits of this year’s TV season. With its nuanced and detailed examination of one of the most infamous court cases of all time, and across-the-board phenomenal performances from its ensemble cast, it’s distinguished itself as one of the most fascinating series in years. It’s reinvigorated interest in not only the trial but the media spectacle surrounding it, and given us an intimate and often empathetic glimpse into the lives of those that were in the middle of it.
Much of the success in the series is its slow burn narrative. It’s given viewers time to get to know all the players — from the defendant himself, O.J. Simpson (Cuba Gooding Jr.), to the members of the long-suffering sequestered jury. And it’s all built to the final episode, “The Verdict,” which aired April 5 on FX. Even though there were no spoiler alerts necessary for the finale’s titular ruling, fans and critics still eagerly awaited the series’ last moments. And if that’s not the mark of an excellent series, it’s hard to say what is.
They’re also already looking to the future, and the prospect of a second season for American Crime Story. Like other American Crime, American Horror Story and True Detective — all anthology dramas that came before it — the FX hit will have to turn its attention to another notorious event. Instead of allowing speculation to build over what crime they would cover, the series’ executive producers Ryan Murphy, Nina Jacobson, and Brad Simpson announced earlier this year that they already have a plan in place.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the second season of American Crime Story will focus on Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 storm that decimated the Gulf Coast. Given that the series’ first season was based on a singular murder case and its subsequent trial, a natural disaster is not the most obvious choice for a follow-up. But Murphy argues that, like the Simpson case, the devastating hurricane and the political and socioeconomic issues that were revealed in its aftermath created a cultural watershed moment worth exploring. Ryan Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter that in his eyes, Hurricane Katrina was “a crime against a lot of people who didn’t have a strong voice and we’re going to treat it as a crime.”
The details are sketchy regarding exactly how American Crime Story will handle the disaster. The series will likely follow roughly half a dozen people as they navigate the hurricane and its tragic aftermath. It’s likely to showcase many of the locations that became notorious during and after Hurricane Katrina — the Ernest R. Morial Convention Center and Superdome where thousands of stranded citizens went looking for shelter after the levees broke in New Orleans.
American Crime Story will also likely have to broach the challenge of representing modern day media and political figures in season two. The subsequent media coverage of Hurricane Katrina made celebrities out of everyone from CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who surged in popularity after his diligent reporting to FEMA Director Michael D. Brown, who was criticized heavily for his agency’s lack of preparedness. It also made figures like President George W. Bush and rapper Kanye West notorious, due to their response to the disaster. It remains to be seen whether will American Crime Story weave archival footage of these public figures into its narrative, or attempt to cast actors to integrate them more directly into the story. And further, we don’t know yet whether ACS will follow in AHS‘s footsteps and recast its actors in new roles. Though it’s safe to say few would be disappointed to see Courtney B. Vance, Sarah Paulson, Sterling K. Brown or any of the first seasons’ ensemble in action again.
Ultimately, it’s too early to anticipate exactly how American Crime Story‘s Hurricane Katrina-themed second season will pan out. But with a layered, politically-charged story and plenty of material to draw from, it could be just as captivating the second time around.
Follow Katherine Webb on Twitter @katiedoubleyew.
Check out Entertainment Cheat Sheet on Facebook!Cosmic Stallion: Built from A.C.E. Tubing!
Photo courtesy of John Watson
Cosmic Stallion A.C.E from All-City Cycles on Vimeo.
A - Air-hardened C - Custom E - Extruded
A.C.E. Tubing
A.C.E. is seamless, custom extruded tubing that is heat treated and air hardened. This allows us to use the thinnest walls practical while maintaining strength and weight targets. Rather than accept the offerings from a tubing supplier, as is the case with our Reynolds, Columbus, and 612 Select varieties, A.C.E. allows our engineer to go completely custom with the butting profiles, diameters, shape and wall thickness'. We do this not only on the main tubes, but on the stays as well. Full frame heat treating and customization that yields a tubeset holistically designed and engineered for ride characteristics, strength, and weight savings.
This level of customization opens up a whole new world of possibilities to tune the ride and feel of our line and makes our A.C.E. tubing bikes completely unique.
While we will be expanding the line of A.C.E. tubing bicycles over the years, it is not something that we plan on moving every model to. In many cases the off-the-shelf tubing options meet our needs swimmingly, but for when we really need to go deep on a project, you can expect to see the A.C.E. tubing badge.
For the Cosmic Staillion the tubeset was engineered with several goals in mind:
A significant weight savings over our existing 853 frames
Enhanced bump absorption
Increased stiffness
Increased fatigue life
So how did we do?
Well, we managed to shave 5oz off our Reynolds 853 built Macho King in the 55cm size, and in testing, the Cosmic Stallion exceeded our requirements by a significant factor. In fact, after it doubled the amount of required test cycles we simply turned the machines off. (Hey machine time, is expensive and we knew what we had to know!) This thing is plenty strong, and significantly lighter than any disc model we've ever produced.
It also sports a number of frame features that are firsts for All-City:
Integrated headset
Tapered headtube
New Signature thru-axle dropout
Shaped Stays
Di2 Compatibility
When we say that this is without a doubt our finest work to date, this what we're talking about. Never before seen features, a fully custom tubeset specifically designed for the application, weight savings, and increased strength. The numbers tell part of the story, but you'll have to ride one for yourself to get the rest.
Full info on 8/2Photo: Amanda Bowen
The Caps lost a few really important penalty killers this offseason, meaning Barry Trotz will have to entrust different players with those minutes in 2015-16. Last season, the Caps allowed 79.1 shot attempts per 60 when shorthanded, fifth worst in the league. The Caps three best shot-suppressing forwards when shorthanded were Joel Ward, Troy Brouwer, and Eric Fehr, but all three of these players have moved on to new teams.
This could mean an increase in PK minutes for returning players such as Jay Beagle, Brooks Laich, and Jason Chimera, but Trotz also has newcomers he can plug into the PK vacancies. And, so far, he has. TJ Oshie and Justin Williams have both spent time on the PK during the preseason.
Let’s take a look at what Oshie and Williams have done in the past as penalty killers to see if they’d be viable options for Trotz this season.
The sample below is shorthanded minutes from the start of the 2012-13 season through the present. Oshie has spent 263 minutes killing penalties during this time while Williams’ sample is 75 minutes. The blue bar is how many unblocked shot attempts per sixty minutes each player’s respective team allowed while that player was on the ice shorthanded. The red bar is how many unblocked shot attempts per 60 the team allowed overall while shorthanded.
The Blues suppressed shots a bit better with Oshie off the ice than with him on, but the Blues were the best shot-suppressing team in the NHL over the past three seasons, so Oshie’s numbers are decent. Meanwhile, the Kings suppressed shots noticeably better with Williams on the ice killing penalties and probably should have used him more.
Trotz will have to find a way to fill a void left by his three best shot-suppressing forward last season. Oshie and Williams are two options he has taken a look at this preseason who would likely be good options to stick with once the regular season begins.
Advertisements
Share this story: Facebook
Twitter
Reddit
Tumblr
PinterestEarly last week, a friend who is generally supportive of President Trump offered his view that the president had only one move remaining — firing special counsel Robert Mueller.
By week’s end, my friend had a different view: The president is in a box without a clear escape hatch. “I’m not sure how he gets out of this,” he said wearily.
Those conversations bookend the worst week of the Trump presidency, which ended with another shake-up. By removing Reince Priebus as chief of staff and replacing him with Gen. John Kelly from Homeland Security, Trump aims to bring a semblance of military order and discipline to the White House.
Given Trump’s respect for Kelly, the move could mark an important turning point in focusing the president’s time and efforts. Too many days have been squandered by leaks and conflicting and even contradictory messages.
But to understand the complexity of Trump’s challenge and the limits of what Kelly can fix, it is useful to divide the president’s problems into two baskets.
The first basket includes the low moments of last week — the collapse of the ObamaCare repeal effort, Anthony Scaramucci’s profane attack on Priebus and Steve Bannon and the fact that Trump’s declaration of a ban on transgenders serving in the military caught the Pentagon off guard.
Kelly, if Trump lets him, could fix or prevent all that.
Yet as significant as those events were, the problems in the second basket are potentially more serious. They center on the rupture between Trump and leading Republicans over Mueller and the president’s battering of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Trump repeatedly calls the probe a “witch hunt” and has discussed firing Mueller, while most Republicans trust Mueller and are willing to let his investigation run its course.
Similarly, GOP leaders like and respect Sessions and believe Trump’s attacks on him are unfair. They don’t believe Sessions deserves to be fired.
One sign of the rupture came from Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary committee, who said in a Wednesday tweet that the panel’s schedule is set for the year and there is no time to confirm a new Attorney General.
The point was clear: Trump shouldn’t even think about firing Sessions.
The next day, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina upped the ante, saying, “any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency unless Mueller did something wrong.”
He added that he will introduce legislation to block any attempts to fire the special counsel without judicial review — and said he was certain all Democrats and many Republicans would support him.
The sense that Trump is being curbed and isolated was bolstered when bipartisan, veto-proof majorities in both houses agreed on legislation that requires congressional approval to lift the latest round of sanctions imposed on Russia. Until now, the president could unilaterally remove them.
Trump’s predicament recalls a scene in Ernest Hemingway’s novel, “The Sun Also Rises.”
“How did you go bankrupt,” one character asks another, who responds: “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
So it is with Trump. Problems, some of them self-inflicted, that looked temporary and manageable have been compounded over time and are reaching a crisis point. Most important, he is losing flexibility to act just as Mueller expands his probe into Trump’s business empire as well as his 2016 campaign.
Various reports say the special counsel, who is amassing a small army of prosecutors, is going through Trump’s career, including his taxes and property sales, to find any connections with Russians that might indicate collusion in the election.
I believe Trump is rattled by those reports and by the fact that one of his sons, Donald Trump Jr., and son-in-law Jared Kushner have been dragged before congress; both also are likely to be summoned by Mueller.
I also believe Mueller’s aggressiveness helps explain Trump’s stepped-up attacks on Sessions, whose recusal led to Mueller’s appointment.
When Sessions, citing Justice Department regulations, stepped aside from any matter involving the 2016 campaign, he put the power in the hands of his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller after Trump fired FBI director James Comey.
More than a month ago, I urged Trump to replace Sessions so he could have someone to oversee Mueller and keep him from going beyond the initial assignment. But the revolt by the former Alabama’s Senator’s colleagues has blocked that path, and Sessions has rejected invitations to resign.
Hence, the conclusion that the president is trapped with no protection or escape from Mueller.
Trump, of course, has been counted out many times in the last two years, but always managed to bounce back. He could do it again because he retains enthusiastic support among most of those who voted for him, and less White House chaos and a big victory on tax reform could fuel another comeback.
As a bonus, strong public support would keep congressional Republicans in his corner.
But the uncertainty about where Mueller is going and what, if anything, he is finding adds a unique dimension to Trump’s troubles. That’s what makes this situation so perilous.
Chicago killing itself
The bloody stat of the week, from the Chicago Tribune:
“Chicago had 50 more homicides than New York and Los Angeles combined through mid-June, even though it is far less populous than both.”
‘Aisle’ be damned
Dueling headlines from America the confused:
“Americans aren’t getting married…”
“Support for polygamy at all time high”
Truth about DeB’s lies
This time, and this time only, you can trust him. Mayor de Blasio is telling the truth when he says: “Read my lips: I don’t care.”
That was his reaction when reporters caught him in yet another lie. After the Post reported that police had been ordered to sweep the homeless from subway stations before the mayor took a brief ride, he and his team denied it.
When The Post produced the NYPD memo to prove it, his press secretary said the memo was probably fake, and the mayor offered his “I don’t care” response.
Perhaps it was a Freudian slip that he began with “read my lips,” which was the phrase President George H.W. Bush used when he pledged “no new taxes.”
Of course, tax hikes soon followed.
De Blasio’s habit of dishonesty is becoming legendary. Reporters are still waiting for the list of donors who didn’t get what they wanted from his City Hall — a list he first promised in May of 2016 and several times since.
My guess is there is no list because there are no donors who didn’t get favors.
The mayor’s chronic deception presents the New York Times with a problem. The Gray Lady routinely calls President Trump a liar, but never uses the L-word for Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Andrew Cuomo.
Now that de Blasio clearly qualifies, will the Times play it straight and call him what he is?
Sure — when hell freezes over.Summary: User interfaces in film are more exciting than they are realistic, and heroes have far too easy a time using foreign systems.
The way Hollywood depicts usability could fill many a blooper reel. Here are 10 of the most egregious mistakes made by moviemakers.
1. The Hero Can Immediately Use Any UI
Break into a company — possibly in a foreign country or on an alien planet — and step up to the computer. How long does it take you to figure out the UI and use the new applications for the first time? Less than a minute if you're a movie star.
The fact that all user interfaces are walk-up-and-use is probably the single most unrealistic aspect of how movies depict computers. In reality, we know all too well that even the smartest users have plenty of problems using even the best designs, let alone the degraded usability typically found in in-house MIS systems, industrial control rooms, or military systems.
2. Time Travelers Can Use Current Designs
An even worse flaw is the assumption that time travelers from the past could use today's computer systems. In fact, they'd have no conception of any of modern technology's basic concepts, and so would be dramatically more stumped than the novice users we observe in user testing. Even someone who's never used Excel at least understands the general idea of computers and screens.
You might think that people coming from the future would have an easier time using our current systems, given their supposedly superior knowledge. Not true. Like our travelers from the past, they'd lack the conceptual model needed to make sense of the display options. For example, someone who's never seen a command line or typed a command would have a much harder time using DOS than someone who grew up in the DOS era.
If you were transported back in time to the Napoleonic wars and made captain of a British frigate, you'd have no clue how to sail the ship: You couldn't use a sextant and you wouldn't know the names of the different sails, so you couldn't order the sailors to rig the masts appropriately. However, even our sailing case would be easier than someone from the year 2207 having to operate a current computer: sailing ships are still around, and you likely know some of the basic concepts from watching pirate movies. In contrast, it's highly unlikely that anyone from 2207 would have ever seen Windows Vista screens.
3. The 3D UI
In Minority Report, the characters operate a complex information space by gesturing wildly in the space in front of their screens. As Tog found when filming Starfire, it's very tiring to keep your arms in the air while using a computer. Gestures do have their place, but not as the primary user interface for office systems.
Many user interfaces designed for the movies feature gestural input and 3D data visualizations. Immersive environments and fly-through navigation look good, and allow for more dramatic interaction than clicking on a linear list of 10 items. But, despite being a staple of computer conference demos for decades, 3D almost never makes it into shipping products. The reason? 2D works better than 3D for the vast majority of practical things that users want to do.
3D is for demos. 2D is for work.
4. Integration is Easy, Data Interoperates
In movieland, users have no trouble connecting different computer systems. Macintosh users live in a world of PCs without ever noticing it (and there were disproportionally more Macs than PCs in films a decade ago, when Apple had the bigger product-placement budget).
In the show 24, Jack Bauer calls his office to get plans and schematics for various buildings. Once these files have been transferred from outside sources to the agency's mainframe, Jack asks to have them downloaded to his PDA. And — miracle of miracles — the files are readable without any workarounds. (And download is far faster than is currently possible on the U.S.'s miserable mobile networks.)
(See also sidebar about excessive interoperability in Independence Day.)
5. Access Denied / Access Granted
Countless scenes involve unauthorized access to some system. Invariably, several passwords are tried, resulting in a giant "Access Denied" dialog box. Finally, a few seconds before disaster strikes, the hero enters the correct password and is greeted by an equally huge "Access Granted" dialog box.
A better user interface would proceed directly to the application's home screen as soon as the user has correctly logged in. After all, you design for authorized users. There's no reason to delay them with a special confirmation that yes, they did indeed enter their own passwords correctly.
6. Big Fonts
In addition to the immense font used for "Access Denied" messages, most computer screens in the movies feature big, easily readable text. In real life, users often suffer under tiny text and websites that add insult to injury by not letting users resize the words.
Large text is an obvious concession to the viewing experience: moviegoers must be able to see what's on the screen. Still, enlarging the information that much makes for an unrealistic UI.
7. Star Trek's Talking Computer
The voice-operated computer in Star Trek is an even more egregious example of designing an audience interface rather than a user interface. Spoken commands and spoken responses make it easy for the audience to follow the action, but it's a very inefficient way of controlling a complex system.
In predictions about computing's future, voice interaction is a perennial favorite — it probably even beats 3D, which is the other top contender for most over-hyped UI technology. While voice has its place, it's even less suitable than 3D for most everyday interactions because it's a less data-rich channel and it's harder to specify something in words than to choose it on a graphical display.
8. Remote Manipulators (Waldo Controls)
In Tomorrow Never Dies, James Bond drives his BMW from the back seat with an Ericsson mobile phone that works as the car's remote control. And 007 drives fast, while also evading bad guys.
In practice, there's a reason we use steering wheels to drive cars instead of joysticks, touchpads, or push-buttons. The steering wheel is an excellent input device for fast and accurate specification of directionality.
Many other films feature other types of remote control, which always work with high speed and accuracy despite input devices that are suboptimal for the task. Designing good input devices is a tricky human factors problem, and you can't substitute devices willy-nilly and retain the same performance. A foot pedal, for example, is not as good as a mouse for text editing, because you can't move your legs as accurately as your hands and fingers.
9. You've Got Mail is Always Good News
In the movies, checking your mail is a matter of picking out the one or two messages that are important to the plot. No information pollution or swamp of spam. No ever-changing client requests in the face of impending deadlines. And you never overlook information because a message's subject line violated the email usability guidelines.
10. "This is Unix, It's Easy"
In the film Jurassic Park, a 12-year-old girl has to use the park's security system to keep everyone from being eaten by dinosaurs. She walks up to the control terminal and utters the immortal words, "This is a Unix system. I know this." And proceeds to (temporarily) save the day.
Leaving aside the plausibility of a 12-year-old knowing Unix, simply knowing Unix is not enough to immediately use any application running on the system. Yes, she could probably have used vi on the security terminal. But the specialized security system would have required some learning time — significant learning time if it were built on Unix, which has notoriously inconsistent user interface design and thus makes it harder to transfer skills from one application to the next.
Do the Usability Bloopers Matter?
Does it matter that most films offer such an unrealistic depiction of usability? Mainly, no. A movie's purpose is entertainment, not task performance. So, go ahead and employ user interfaces and interaction techniques that are entertaining and would never work in the real world.
Films are littered with so many other unrealistic plot details: you'd imagine, for example, that the ability to shoot straight might actually be a primary job requirement of Imperial Stormtroopers.
In the movie context, unrealistic usability is only to be expected. Still, I see two real problems with it:
Research funding and management expectations are subtly biased by the incessant emphasis on unrealistic UI design such as voice, 3D, avatars, and AI. When you see something work as part of a coherent and exciting story, you start wanting it. You even start believing in it. After all, we've seen 3D and voice so often that we've developed an implicit belief in their usefulness.
are subtly biased by the incessant emphasis on unrealistic UI design such as voice, 3D, avatars, and AI. When you see something work as part of a coherent and exciting story, you start wanting it. You even start believing in it. After all, we've seen 3D and voice so often that we've developed an implicit belief in their usefulness. Users blame themselves when they can't use technology. This phenomenon is bad enough already; it's made worse by the prevalence of scenes in which people walk up to random computers and start using them immediately. We need people to start demanding easier design and blaming the technology when it's too hard to use. Movies make this change in attitudes more difficult.
Other Top-10 Lists
The UX Conference has a full-day seminar on Emerging Patterns for Web Design.Oct, 14, 2012 at B&N at Union Square, NYC, Terry Pratchett and Rob Wilkins had a discussion about Terry’s new book Dodger. The conversation was wonderfully derailed several times, and they got to share other Pratchett news about The Watch TV series and Nation and so on (I’ll be sharing those on this blog in forthcoming posts), as well as tangents about things like Doctor Who. Below is the transcript and video of Sir Terry’s opinion on the casting of the Doctor.
Rob: David Tennant could play anyone. He could play Moist von Lipwig.
Terry: I was there for the first episode of Doctor Who. The thing about Doctor Who, if you are a real Doctor Who fan, you might know that when the BBC put it out, not many people watched the first episode, but those that did were telling people about it. So, on the next Saturday, they repeated the first one so that people could see what it was all about. Just a piece of trivia, but there it is, because I was there, hiding behind the settee.
Rob: William Hartnell was no David Tennant, though, I’m sorry.
Terry: No, but David Tennant is a definite David Tennant. He is the best Doctor Who of ever because he is an actor. The best of them are…funny, the modern ones are just bloody clowns. A bit like you [Rob], but nevermind.
Rob: That’s okay. I’ll audition for the part.
Terry: Ha!
JAIME POND IS THE EDITOR OF ANGLONERD.COM. SHE LIVES AND WORKS IN NYC. FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER.
AdvertisementsShare this post
@hypnotoaded Jolla Launcher's production & launch schedules have moved a bit, as we have some other cool stuff cooking up - more news soon!
— Jolla (@JollaHQ) September 16, 2014
[Video] Jolla Launcher running on Moto X (Android 4.2.2 KitKat)
Original Jolla-launcher by Jolla (Android 4.3 or later)
13 000 Android users registered to test group hoping to get Jolla's Sailfish OS experience on their Android phones. Jolla closed the registration early and delivered Jolla Launcher alpha to 600 of them. The launcher app was told to work on Nexus 4, Nexus 5 and some other Android phones running Android 4.3 or later.
It's assumed that all 13 000 people and even more gets their Google Play link for downloading the launcher when the project is ready for beta testing phase, probably in the autumn.
Alpha version test group are reporting their issues and user experience at together.jolla.com, tagging their posts with "jolla-launcher". See the search result
You might also be interested in...
The official Jolla Launcher was expected to reach beta stage during August to be released to 13 000 test users, but Jolla has been "cooking up something else". We're still on hold for the beta:XDA developers, a famous hacking forum,of Jolla Launcher alpha, which should run on even more Android phone models. If you're using any version, please report your experience with this tool Note that this is an unofficial alpha version for test use, it includes bugs and can affect on your phone's usability. Also, there are much less features than on Sailfish OS running on Jolla phone - This is a launcher, not an operating system. Launcher runs on Dalvik and it doesn't support ART. Visit this XDA Developers forum post for comments.Jolla doesn't actually need more alpha testers, so please don't fill the TJC portal with new bug reports when using launcher downloaded from other sites than Google Play. Instead, please use this DIT tool for reporting.You're welcome to try it, Jolla has nothing against hacked versions, but install and use it in your own responsibility. There's no support from Jolla for these versions, but you're welcome to read reported issues on TJC. Here are Jolla's release notes for the official version available to registered alpha testers. Note that any unofficial versions might contain more or less features and bugs. We hope you enjoy the Sailfish OS alpha launcher experience, but once more: It's far from ready! For the best experience visit jolla.com Great video, thanks for sharing! Ali V.G via YouTubeSource: The National Wax Museum
THE NATIONAL WAX Museum have sent their wax figure of Pope John Paul II off for repairs, following an incident that occurred over the August Bank Holiday.
The figure, which is looking a bit worse for wear, was found by a staff member who entered the Father Ted Room (which is impressively realistic but sadly looks like the majority of the Dublin rental market’s offerings at the moment).
In a statement, The National Wax Museum explained the situation:
One of our floor staff was doing the rounds when he entered the Father Ted Room and found the body strewn on the chair and his head lying on the floor. Initially we suspected it was a targeted attack on this particular waxwork. I personally have found chewing gum stuck on his head and removed it earlier this year. We don’t know if it was foul play or not.
The Museum was forced to share a press release after a number of issues arose from the destruction and removal of the Pope.
We actually had a very irate review on Facebook giving us one star from that weekend because the visitor had seen the broken sculpture and assumed we had severely lowered our standards.
When they removed it, they received another complaint for a strangely amusing reason.
We also had a rather in depth Tripadvisor review asking why we had removed the Pope’s waxwork as they had traveled in to take a photo with it but were sorely disappointed with his omission.
There’s no winning. But who’d have thought people headed to the Wax Museum just to see Pope John Paul II?
The National Wax Museum Source: The National Wax Museum
Repairing the damage is not going to be cheap.
There’s a scratch on one side of his face, which would be a relatively straightforward fix for our sculptor. However, the opposite side of his face is suffering some worse damage. The eye has come out of the socket and that side is a little squashed out of shape.
The museum estimates that the repairss will take up to four months and could cost €5,000. The sculptor may have to start from scratch on a new head.
However, the museum are taking it in their stride.
Their marketing manager Laoise Keaveney expressed that “There’s no use crying over a split pope.”
We’ll get over it, and he’s on the mend. The resounding message we’d like to convey to the public is that we’d like them to be careful with the waxworks and still have a fun time with us.
As well as that, they are urging visitors to report any broken sculptures or props in future to assure they can be suitably fixed or replaced, rather than leaving bad reviews.
There are so many questions to be asked here, but the most important is… Am I the only person who thought the wax figures were made of solid wax?
DailyEdge is on Instagram!Whoever carries the Republican establishment’s flag into the 2016 presidential elections—whether Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, or anyone else—must propose a foreign policy different from the essentially bipartisan approach of the past hundred years. This approach has diminished America by disconnecting ends from means while combining “the unbridled tongue with the unready hand.” The American people demand something else. There is no sign the Republican establishment understands what legacy it would have to overcome.
Republican words have been bigger, and the means they have deployed have been even more impotent.
The standard Republican campaign on foreign policy—vows to stand strong against our enemies and to assert America’s leadership in the world—will not restore to Republicans the presumption of superior national security stewardship. That is what Ronald Reagan had earned with his approach to the Cold War: “We win, they lose.” But Reagan was a rebel whom the Republican establishment tried to crush before he came into office, stymied while in office, and whose legacy it erased when he left. Rather, ruling-class Republicans will have to explain why we should expect from them other than what Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and the Bush dynasty gave America before and after Reagan.
Speaking loudly while whittling down the capacity to back up words has been the hallmark of our bipartisan foreign policy. Since circa 1900, the Republican mainstream, confused with the rest of this country’s ruling class, has led America increasingly into commitments bigger than the capacity and will to fulfill them—that is, into insolvency. If one were to distinguish a peculiarly Republican component out of this bipartisan compote, that component would be even heavier in words and lighter in the means to effectuate them than its Democratic counterpart. Republican words have been bigger, and the means they have deployed have been even more impotent.
Such as Jeb Bush and Christie are sure to talk “tougher than thou” on foreign policy. Their challenge will be to show how they would actually return U.S. foreign policy to a solvent balance it has not enjoyed for a century.
How the Elites Eroded U.S. Power
Theodore Roosevelt’s “speak softly and carry a big stick” had summed up the solvent foreign policy that America had practiced since the days of John Quincy Adams: keeping America’s peace and winning America’s wars. But Elihu Root, TR’s own secretary of State, won the 1912 Nobel Peace Prize for having convinced America’s bipartisan elites to focus foreign policy on bettering mankind. His chosen tool was a set of impotent arbitration treaties. By 1916, when Republican Charles Evans Hughes nearly beat Woodrow Wilson for the presidency, TR’s view of foreign policy had become a minority view among well-bred Republicans. In 1921, Secretary of State Hughes conceived a set of treaties that have typified American foreign policy into our time: an arms-control deal that reduced U.S. naval forces in the Pacific below those of Japan and committed the United States to not fortify our bases there, while at the same time promising to uphold the independence and territorial integrity of China. Republican and Democratic elites were sure that Hughes had ensured peace. In fact, he had paved the way for World War II.
When China, frightened by Soviet military superiority, begged for America’s help, Nixon did not demand a price.
Post-war “containment” was the Democratic and Republican establishments’ compromise. But neither managed to prevent the Communist world from breaking out of it, first in China, then in Korea, southeast Asia, Cuba, Afghanistan, Angola, Nicaragua, etc. Establishment Republican Secretary of State John Foster Dulles cut |
25 votes today is illogical and lazy.Over $50,000 Raised for ‘Based Stick Man’ Who Defended Trump Supporters at Berkeley Riots
TERRIFIC! $28,000 $50,000 RAISED FOR STICK MAN DEFENSE FUND…
On Saturday a Trump supporter dressed in black with a USA shield, a gas mask and a stick attended the pro-Trump rally in Berkeley, California to defend the Trump supporters.
“Based Stick Man” marched with the Trump supporters and when the violent Democrats began to riot Stick Man was there to defend the pro-Trump crowd.
When the violent far left mob attacked the Trump supporters “Stick Man” defended the protesters and beat the Communists with a stick.
Communists/Anarchists start a fight they cant finish @ UC Berkeley #March4Trump pic.twitter.com/OoZJrzkxXG — Andrew Quackson (@AndrewQuackson) March 5, 2017
“Stick Man” was then arrested for defending protesters from the Democrat mob.
Hat Tip Mike Cernovich—
Based Stick Man was arrested by the Berkeley police for defending Trump supporters.
He goes to court on Tuesday.
WeSearchr launched a legal defense fund today for Based Stick Man.
The site has already raised $28,000.
** Donate Here **
UPDATE— ‘Based Stick Man’ thanks his supporters.Almost every major terrorist attack on Western soil in the past fifteen years has been committed by people who were already known to law enforcement. One of the gunmen in the attack on Charlie Hebdo, in Paris, had been sent to prison for recruiting jihadist fighters. The other had reportedly studied in Yemen with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the underwear bomber, who was arrested and interrogated by the F.B.I. in 2009. The leader of the 7/7 London suicide bombings, in 2005, had been observed by British intelligence meeting with a suspected terrorist, though MI5 later said that the bombers were “not on our radar.” The men who planned the Mumbai attacks, in 2008, were under electronic surveillance by the United States, the United Kingdom, and India, and one had been an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration. One of the brothers accused of bombing the Boston Marathon was the subject of an F.B.I. threat assessment and a warning from Russian intelligence. In each of these cases, the authorities were not wanting for data. What they failed to do was appreciate the significance of the data they already had. Nevertheless, since 9/11, the National Security Agency has sought to acquire every possible scrap of digital information—what General Keith Alexander, the agency’s former head, has called “the whole haystack.” The size of the haystack was revealed in June, 2013, by Edward Snowden. The N.S.A. vacuums up Internet searches, social-media content, and, most controversially, the records (known as metadata) of United States phone calls—who called whom, for how long, and from where. The agency stores the metadata for five years, possibly longer. The metadata program remains the point of greatest apparent friction between the N.S.A. and the Constitution. It is carried out under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the government to collect “books, records, papers, documents, and other items” that are “relevant” to “an authorized investigation.” While debating the Patriot Act in 2001, Senator Russ Feingold worried about the government’s powers to collect “the personal records of anyone—perhaps someone who worked with, or lived next door to... the target of the investigation.” Snowden revealed that the N.S.A. goes much further. Metadata for every domestic phone call from Verizon and other carriers, hundreds of billions of records in all, are considered “relevant” under Section 215. The N.S.A. collects them on an “ongoing, daily basis.” The N.S.A. asserts that it uses the metadata to learn whether anyone inside the U.S. is in contact with high-priority terrorism suspects, colloquially referred to as “known bad guys.” Michael Hayden, the former C.I.A. and N.S.A. director, has said, “We kill people based on metadata.” He then added, “But that’s not what we do with this metadata,” referring to Section 215. Soon after Snowden’s revelations, Alexander said that the N.S.A.’s surveillance programs have stopped “fifty-four different terrorist-related activities.” Most of these were “terrorist plots.” Thirteen involved the United States. Credit for foiling these plots, he continued, was partly due to the metadata program, intended to “find the terrorist that walks among us.” President Obama also quantified the benefits of the metadata program. That June, in a press conference with Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, Obama said, “We know of at least fifty threats that have been averted because of this information.” He continued, “Lives have been saved.” Section 215 is just one of many legal authorities that govern U.S. spy programs. These authorities are jumbled together in a way that makes it difficult to separate their individual efficacy. Early in the metadata debate, the fifty-four cases were sometimes attributed to Section 215, and sometimes to other sections of other laws. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in October, 2013, Senator Patrick Leahy, of Vermont, called the fifty-four-plots statistic “plainly wrong... these weren’t all plots, and they weren’t all thwarted.” He cited a statement by Alexander’s deputy that “there’s only really one example of a case where, but for the use of Section 215 bulk phone-records collection, terrorist activity was stopped.” “He’s right,” Alexander said. “You’ve got one of my dresses on again.” The case was that of Basaaly Moalin, a Somali-born U.S. citizen living in San Diego. In July, 2013, Sean Joyce, the F.B.I.’s deputy director at the time, said in Senate-committee testimony that Moalin’s phone number had been in contact with an “Al Qaeda East Africa member” in Somalia. The N.S.A., Joyce said, was able to make this connection and notify the F.B.I. thanks to Section 215. That February, Moalin was found guilty of sending eighty-five hundred dollars to the Shabaab, an extremist Somali militia with ties to Al Qaeda. “Moalin and three other individuals have been convicted,” Joyce continued. “I go back to what we need to remember, what happened in 9/11.” At the same hearing, Senator Dianne Feinstein, of California, talked about “how little information we had” before 9/11. “I support this program,” she said, referring to Section 215. “They will come after us, and I think we need to prevent an attack wherever we can.” In the thirteen years that have passed since 9/11, the N.S.A. has used Section 215 of the Patriot Act to take in records from hundreds of billions of domestic phone calls. Congress was explicit about why it passed the Patriot Act—despite concerns about potential effects on civil liberties, it believed that the law was necessary to prevent another attack on the scale of 9/11. The government has not shown any instance besides Moalin’s in which the law’s metadata provision has directly led to a conviction in a terrorism case. Is it worth it?
Before 9/11, the intelligence community was already struggling to evolve. The technology of surveillance was changing, from satellites to fibre-optic cable. The targets were also changing, from the embassies and nuclear arsenals of the Cold War era to scattered networks of violent extremists. The law still drew lines between foreign and domestic surveillance, but the increasingly global nature of communications was complicating this distinction. In Washington, many people blamed 9/11 on a “wall” between intelligence gathering and criminal investigations. In a report on pre-9/11 failures, the Department of Justice criticized the F.B.I.’s San Diego field office for not making counterterrorism a higher priority. Two of the hijackers—Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar—took flying lessons in San Diego and attended a mosque where the imam, Anwar al-Awlaki, had been the target of an F.B.I. investigation. They lived for a time in an apartment that they rented from an F.B.I. informant, and Mihdhar made phone calls to a known Al Qaeda safe house in Yemen. But the F.B.I. wasn’t solely at fault. The C.I.A. knew that Mihdhar had a visa to travel to the U.S., and that Hazmi had arrived in Los Angeles in January, 2000. The agency failed to forward this information to the F.B.I. Three years after 9/11, the size of San Diego’s Joint Terrorism Task Force had tripled. In California, hundreds of local police became “terrorism liaison officers,” trained to observe anomalous activity that could presage an attack. The San Diego “fusion center” spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on computers and monitors, including fifty-five flat-screen televisions, which officials said were for “watching the news.” This was one of seventy-seven such centers nationwide, at a cost of several hundred million dollars. The F.B.I. office established a “field-intelligence group,” a special unit that gathered information about domestic terrorism threats. Of particular interest was San Diego’s growing Somali population. The first Somalis came to San Diego in the late nineteen-eighties and settled in City Heights, a crime-ridden neighborhood of bungalows and strip malls half an hour east of downtown. Cheap housing and nearby social services had attracted immigrants fleeing Vietnam, Cambodia, Honduras, Guatemala, Serbia, Iraq, and Sudan. Most of the Somalis lived with members of their extended families and spoke little English. Many settled in an apartment complex at 3810 Winona Avenue: five gray two-story buildings, at the bottom of a hill beside a dusty ravine, known to the residents as the godka, the Somali word for cave. So many Somalis settled there that the owners changed the name of the complex from Winona Gardens to the Bandar Salaam Apartments. After the Somali government collapsed, in 1991, the community, which now numbered more than a thousand, spread up Winona toward University Avenue. In 2000, a group of Somalis borrowed half a million dollars to buy an old church at Winona and University and converted it into a mosque, the Masjid Al Ansar. They hired an imam, Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud, also known as Mohamed Khadar, who had spent years studying the Koran in Islamabad, Pakistan. Khadar was a charismatic speaker and one of the leaders of a national council of Somali-American imams. Within two years, he had raised enough money to pay off the mosque’s mortgage. According to one of Khadar’s attorneys, the F.B.I. approached him multiple times. “I think they came to his house and to the mosque,” the attorney told me. “He exercised his right not to talk.” A law-enforcement official familiar with the Masjid Al Ansar told me that a paid informant had said that some of the mosque’s worshippers were recruiting jihadist fighters. This lead “correlated with other information, especially historically, when you look at Anwar al-Awlaki,” the official said. (“I’ve never heard this and it’s not true,” Bashir Hassan, the president of the mosque’s board, said.) “Sometimes I think, Why kingfishing? Who says I can’t sandpipe or woodpeck or warble?” The Somalis were slow to trust people from other clans, let alone F.B.I. agents. Nonetheless, San Diego law enforcement did what it could to keep an eye on the Somalis and on the broader Muslim community. A recent document obtained by the A.C.L.U. shows that the Joint Terrorism Task Force kept a list of forty-two “Somali community leaders.” An F.B.I. document shows that the agency sent an informant to report back on “private conversations” and “areas of concern” at a banquet held at a Holiday Inn by San Diego’s chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The Joint Terrorism Task Force made twenty-one arrests in San Diego County in the three years after 9/11, which led to several deportations and seven prosecutions for offenses related to terrorism. One of these defendants was Somali; all came from predominantly Muslim countries. Among the regular worshippers at the Masjid Al Ansar was Basaaly Moalin. Like Mihdhar and Hazmi, he was a recent immigrant whose social life revolved around the mosque. Unlike them, he had put down roots in San Diego. He had arrived in 1996 with his brother, Warsame. His mother soon followed. In 2000, Moalin made one of his periodic trips back to Somalia and married a woman named Maryan, a friend of his family; he had known her since elementary school. He visited Maryan and their five children once or twice a year. Sometimes she needled him about their different circumstances. “I am not like you, who ran away from here,” she once told him. Moalin was born Muse Shekhnor Roble, the sixth of seven children, in 1977, near Guriceel, a country town in central Somalia. His father herded livestock for a living, but had enough money to support three wives. When Moalin was a teen-ager, his family moved to Mogadishu. In 1991, the longtime dictator Siad Barre lost control of the capital, setting off Somalia’s ongoing civil war. During the fighting, a mortar shell struck Moalin’s home. A soldier found him lying on the ground and shot him several times, disfiguring his arm. A neighbor carried him, unconscious, to a hospital. It took three months for the news to reach his family that he was still alive. He spent four years in refugee camps in Somalia and Kenya before the U.S. granted him asylum and, eventually, citizenship. Upon arriving in the U.S., he changed his last name to Moalin, a Somali honorific meaning “teacher” or “scholar.” Though he had no college degree and was not especially learned about Islam, he liked to talk. He considered himself an authority on matters ranging from politics to health to the best way to cook spaghetti. One San Diego acquaintance called him a “very smart guy,” and recalled Moalin’s desire to become an electrician. He took vocational classes and found work as a technician at a telecommunications company, but his frequent trips to Somalia made it difficult for him to advance. By 2005, he was driving a taxi, trading shifts with Warsame. Among the drivers, Moalin was “an unofficial leader,” another acquaintance said, “a trustworthy individual. He’d come and collect money for a cause.” As the civil war in Somalia got worse, warlords, some backed by the C.I.A., fought with Islamists for control of Mogadishu. Moalin’s home town, Guriceel, mustered a local militia, which was funded largely by donations from abroad. Moalin became one of the main conduits of money flowing from the U.S. to his home region. He paid for food, housing, and tuition for two orphanages, according to documents obtained by his defense. The region was going through a major drought, and some of the money that Moalin collected went to a committee that trucked water to dry areas. Another part of his earnings went to the construction of a house in Guriceel. He planned to live there with his family one day, a respected and influential man who had stood by his country during its most troubled years. In San Diego, he carried himself as though already living in this future. He dressed like a businessman and worked out regularly at 24 Hour Fitness. In 2013, foreign remittances to Somalia reached $1.3 billion, which accounts for roughly half of the country’s G.D.P. Most of this money moves through hawalas, informal networks of Islamic money-transfer agents. Some U.S. hawalas are underground; some are affiliated with licensed banks. It’s difficult for authorities to track which hawala transfers buy food and other necessities in Somalia and which might be support for militant groups. But most agree that the current system is preferable to Somali émigrés’ making periodic trips with bundles of cash. “Somehow the money’s going to move,” Carol Beaumier, a former federal bank examiner, said in a recent interview with American Banker. “Time’s up. Crayons down.” Moalin was a regular customer at the Shidaal Express, a licensed hawala in City Heights, where he knew one of the employees, Issa Doreh, a college-educated man in his late fifties with a lanky build and a graying beard. Well known in the community, Doreh helped found a charity that gave indigent Somalis a traditional Muslim burial. He ministered to Muslim prisoners and was an informal mentor to young men at the mosque. “He’d say, ‘You should be careful and take advantage of your time,’ ” a young Somali man told me. Most first-generation Somali families steer women toward domestic roles, but Doreh’s eldest daughter was studying for a graduate degree in psychology. He had been planning to open a barbershop, he told me, when the owner of the Shidaal Express, impressed by his strong community ties, recruited him to work as a clerk. Like Moalin, Doreh worshipped at the Al Ansar mosque. They both lived at 3810 Winona, Doreh with his wife and children and Moalin with a roommate, another working-class Somali. When Moalin sent a money transfer to Somalia, he often phoned Doreh to check on its status. Moalin called Doreh “Sheikh Issa” and sometimes bragged about their relationship. The F.B.I.’s earliest known contact with Moalin was in 2003. Sean Joyce, the bureau’s former deputy director, has said that it was “based on a tip. We investigated that tip. We found no nexus to terrorism and closed the case.”
Beginning in 2006, many Somali-Americans found their loyalties divided between their old homeland and their new one. A group called the Islamic Courts Union had captured the southern half of Somalia, and pushed the U.S.-backed Transitional Federal Government out of Mogadishu. They imposed a sometimes harsh form of Sharia, and reopened the Mogadishu seaport and airport, which had mostly been closed for fifteen years. Within the Courts coalition was a militant wing, known as the Shabaab, or “youth.” Among the Shabaab were hardened jihadists who had fought in Afghanistan and conspired with Al Qaeda to commit the 1998 Embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. Yet some Western diplomats, including voices within the State Department, argued in favor of negotiating with the Courts. To the Pentagon, however, the stability that came with the Courts regime seems to have been outweighed by the likelihood that radical jihadists in their ranks could give Al Qaeda a foothold in East Africa. In late December, 2006, thousands of Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia, with the U.S. providing intelligence support. The Ethiopians sought to defeat the Courts, reclaim territory lost to Somalia during the Cold War, and restore the Transitional Federal Government to power. The invasion made Guriceel, Basaaly Moalin’s home town, into a battleground. The Ethiopians “threw the fire everywhere,” one witness said. “Innocent people were dying—women and children, elderly people.” She continued, “Everyone took their gun and they fought.” According to Mohamud Uluso, a leader from Moalin’s clan, there were reports of the Ethiopians torturing and killing five of Moalin’s family members. From Guriceel, the Ethiopians moved east to capture Mogadishu. Most of the Courts’ leadership fled to Eritrea. The Shabaab stayed behind to mount an insurgency. In the U.S., Somali immigrants gathered in front of the White House to protest the Ethiopian invasion. “The perception was that Ethiopia was colonizing the country,” Ahmed Sahid, who runs Somali Family Service, a nonprofit in San Diego, told me. “All kinds of groups were popping up.” “It was hard to call them bad guys,” Abdi Mohamoud, the director of the San Diego nonprofit Horn of Africa, said, speaking of the Courts at the time of the 2006 invasion. At that time, “all they were doing was fighting the Ethiopians. People didn’t see any danger in that.” Among the Shabaab’s top commanders was Aden Hashi Ayro. He often changed his phone number and used code names. He was believed to be in his thirties, and was one of the youngest Somali guerrillas to have trained with the Taliban in Afghanistan, where some sources allege that he met Osama bin Laden prior to the 9/11 attacks. Ayro’s skill as a fighter made him a hero among Islamist hard-liners and a major target of the United States. David Shinn, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia under President Clinton, has written that the Shabaab, under Ayro’s leadership, “provided protection for three Al Qaeda operatives sought by the U.S.” Like Moalin, Ayro grew up near Guriceel, which by late 2007 was under the control of a local clan militia. Though Ayro’s Shabaab forces had fought alongside Guriceel’s militia against the Ethiopians, the locals did not accept the Shabaab as their leaders and forced them to make their camp outside the town. Ayro was running out of money for food and ammunition. His profile made it difficult for him to receive patronage from overseas. “We were already in high gear cracking down on terrorist financing,” a senior U.S. diplomat working in the region at that time said. “We certainly were making efforts to restrict the flow of funds.” It appears that these efforts were successful, and that, in response, Ayro got in touch with Basaaly Moalin. “And that’s why you go on safari.” The U.S. had been tracking Ayro for some time, even launching an air strike against him in early 2007. Using Section 215, the N.S.A. told the F.B.I. that a phone number associated with Al Qaeda (apparently Ayro’s) was in what Joyce, the F.B.I.’s former deputy director, has called “indirect” contact with a San Diego phone number. (In 2012, the N.S.A. “tipped” fewer than five hundred numbers to the F.B.I., according to testimony from John Inglis, the agency’s former deputy director.) The F.B.I. determined that the phone belonged to Moalin. It then obtained warrants to tap his phone calls and intercept his e-mail. By December, 2007, the F.B.I. wiretaps showed that Moalin was in regular contact with a man they believed to be Ayro. The government’s transcripts give the caller’s name as Shikhalow, or “slim limbs.” Early in 2008, an F.B.I. linguist wrote an e-mail saying that he’d heard “Shiqalow might be an aka for Eyrow. Please advise if that’s true.” “That is correct,” the F.B.I.’s lead agent replied. “It is a slurred together version of Sheikh Ayrow.” SHIKHALOW: We need the sum of two thousand. No, three thousand one hundred and sixty; and it’s needed for Bay and Bakool, as their rations for these ten days. Basaaly: Okay. SHIKHALOW: And as of today, we don’t have a penny for them. Basaaly: Okay. SHIKHALOW: By any means, get me an immediate answer about that... today. Basaaly: Leave that matter to me, if God wills. The U.S. continued to watch Ayro closely. “We just heard from another agency that Ayrow tried to make a call to Basaaly,” an internal e-mail from the F.B.I. sent during the Moalin investigation reads. “If you see anything today, can you give us a shout? We’re extremely interested in getting real-time info (location/new #s) on Ayrow.” On the phone, Moalin is eager to hear news from the front. He calls the Ethiopians “filthy ones” and “lice-infested.” Talking with another taxi-driver, he says that he was “pleased” to hear a bomb explode in Mogadishu while he was on the phone with his wife. He laughs about “the damage inflicted to those men,” apparently Burundian soldiers working with the U.N., which was conducting relief missions in Somalia. Shortly after eleven o’clock on the night of December 20, 2007, Doreh’s phone rang. It was Moalin, looking for help with his fund-raising. He wanted to schedule a phone call with the imam, Mohamed Khadar, but Khadar “doesn’t have a phone number.” Doreh seemed tired. Reading the transcript, it’s unclear whether he intended to comply with Moalin’s instructions or if he merely wanted to get off the phone and back into bed: “Yes... okay... yes... uh-huh... we will do our best... okay, God willing.” Moalin did not send any money through the Shidaal Express for a week. Then he called Doreh again to prod him. “He doesn’t have a telephone,” Moalin complained, of Khadar. “I did not reach him by phone and I didn’t go to the mosque at noon today.” Moalin wanted Doreh to find Khadar “this afternoon at the mosque” and ask for money “for the men.” “God willing I’ll tell him if I see him,” Doreh said. It was shortly after four o’clock. By that evening, Moalin had found Khadar’s phone number and was calling him directly. Moalin and Khadar engage in some small talk, but do not mention Doreh. “I will complete the task, which pertains to the men, tomorrow, God willing,” Khadar says. To the F.B.I. agents listening in at the time, these calls likely had echoes of the Mihdhar case from 9/11: an apparent link between a wanted terrorist and an obscure apartment, talk of bombings and suicide attacks conducted in a foreign language, connections to a money-transfer agency and a mosque. Two of Moalin’s cousins told me that not all of Moalin’s talk should be taken literally, as he often engaged in fadhi ku dirir, literally “sitting and fighting,” the no-holds-barred bull sessions common among Somali men. But the F.B.I. took Moalin’s words seriously. At one point, an agency linguist fluent in Somali wrote an official assessment of Moalin’s motives. “He tends to exaggerate,” the linguist wrote. “He tries to outshine others in supporting home region.” The F.B.I.’s Field Intelligence Group later wrote that although Moalin was “the most significant al-Shabaab fundraiser in the San Diego area,” he was “not ideologically driven to support al-Shabaab.” Rather, his support for Ayro was a function of “tribal affiliation.” At one point, Moalin appeared to offer Shikhalow the use of his house in Mogadishu as a base of operations. The Shabaab’s methods angered many Somalis. On January 15th, Moalin received a call from a friend named Abdulkadir, who warned him to be careful about whom he was sending money to: ABDULKADIR: If today these men’s actions are what I have seen, they became terrorist actions. Basaaly: Yes.... “Before we start, have you folks considered upgrading to Platinum Élite membership?” ABDULKADIR: The capital which you are supporting them with will take you to heaven, or are you asking to go to hell? Basaaly: Well, that has its problems, but Abdulkadir, let’s look at it from another angle. They are the ones who are firing the most bullets at the enemy. Less than a month later, Moalin went to the Shidaal Express and sent two thousand dollars to a contact in Dhusa Mareb, the provincial capital and one of Ayro’s main outposts. The money was sent under the name Dhunkaal Warfaa. “Did you receive Dhunkaal’s stuff?” Moalin asked Shikhalow the day after the money was sent. Moalin called Doreh periodically to check on the status of individual payments. When he called the imam, Mohamed Khadar, Khadar often seemed eager to get Moalin off the phone. Moalin wanted to give Shikhalow a regular stipend; Khadar didn’t want to promise. At one point, Moalin told Khadar to hold back twenty or thirty people “that you trust” after Friday services at the mosque, and ask them for money to give Shikhalow. Khadar is noncommittal. “God willing, it will be all right,” he says. “Don’t worry.” Other times, Khadar criticizes the Shabaab. “They slaughter anyone they capture and that is not good policy to begin with,” he tells Moalin. Khadar tells Moalin to pursue “unity” and “coöperation” among differing groups in the area around Guriceel. “We need to have conditions tied to the support,” one of Moalin’s Guriceel contacts says a few days later. “We need to tell them that we are going to support you but we need a unity.” Moalin appears to agree. “They promise they will not fight with people... because they need fund[s] from us,” he says. Uluso, the clan leader, told me that negotiating with an armed militia from thousands of miles away was a complicated and sometimes frightening business for the diaspora, especially those whose family members still lived in militia-controlled areas. “It’s not that you like or support a certain group,” he said. “You are living in a situation where you don’t have the power to defend yourself.” In March, 2008, the State Department announced that it had added the Shabaab to its list of foreign terrorist organizations. On the phone, Moalin attributed this action to “the American spy agency.” In April, the drought around Guriceel ended. “All the water tanks are full,” Shikhalow told Moalin. “Now it is the time to finance the jihad.” Moalin’s answer is ambiguous. “Yes, we humans cannot feed everyone,” he says. “Only God can, you know?” Eleven days later, on April 23rd, he sent another nineteen hundred dollars to Dhusa Mareb.
On May 1st, a Navy ship off the Somali coast fired four Tomahawk missiles that struck a house in Dhusa Mareb, not far from where Moalin was born. A local headmaster counted sixteen corpses scattered around the crater, according to the Washington Post. That day, a Shabaab spokesman announced that “infidel planes” had killed Ayro. Hours after the attack, Moalin called a fund-raising contact in St. Louis who told him about “a rumor that birds targeted the house where Shikhalow, ‘small legs,’ used to stay one hour ago.” Later that evening, he shared the news with Doreh. “That man is gone,” he said. “That news is highly reliable.” Moalin received no more phone calls from Shikhalow. (Moalin’s attorney maintains that the F.B.I. was wrong about the identity of Shikhalow, and that Moalin and Ayro were never in contact.) The F.B.I. was concerned about what Moalin might do in the immediate aftermath of Ayro’s death. Many in the intelligence community believed that Al Qaeda was expanding its focus from 9/11-style operations to include attacks on “soft targets,” like those which later took place in Mumbai and like the Shabaab’s own assault on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi. “We are keeping our ‘ears’ open for any intelligence of importance,” the F.B.I.’s Somali linguist wrote, in an e-mail to Special Agent Michael Kaiser. “Please let me know if you believe that Basaaly might be thinking about revenge here in the U.S.,” Kaiser responded. “We want to be on the safe side.” In another e-mail, Kaiser raised the possibility that Moalin might try to replace Ayro among the Shabaab’s leadership. In addition to monitoring his phones, the F.B.I. conducted physical surveillance of Moalin. Over the summer, Moalin started to notice. “We are closely watched,” he said. Apparently referring to another money transfer, he added, “The task we were involved in a few days ago was—it was reported to them.” An associate, he said, was “visited by the men.” (In response to written questions submitted through his lawyer, Moalin later denied that he was aware of any specific surveillance.) Up until August, 2008, Moalin expressed sympathy for the Shabaab, calling Mukhtar Robow, the group’s spokesman, his “boss.” (According to the defense’s translation, Moalin called Robow “my man.”) Moalin’s St. Louis contact, Mohamud Abdi Yusuf, who was later convicted of material support, considered Moalin to be dangerously indiscreet. “You are not accountable with anything,” he said. “You don’t even know where you are; you talk as you wish, you don’t know what you should hide and what you should not.” During the course of 2008, the Shabaab’s influence in Somalia grew stronger and its ideology more extreme. Its forces consolidated territory in the southern part of the country, sponsored pirates, used floggings and stonings to enforce their version of Sharia law, and undertook spectacular suicide attacks. Its leaders banned the Somali flag and declared support for Osama bin Laden. In a private letter, bin Laden rebuffed a Shabaab request for a formal alliance, lest “the enemies escalate their anger and mobilize against you.” Whatever credibility the Shabaab had among mainstream U.S. Somalis evaporated in late 2009, when a suicide bomber killed twenty-five people during a university commencement ceremony in Mogadishu. The elders of San Diego’s Somali community held a meeting to condemn the attacks. Issa Doreh was among them. “Suicide martyrdom is not martyrdom,” Khadar, the imam, said, according to a participant. “All Muslim scholars prohibited this action.” The young Somali man in San Diego told me that he had once considered joining the fight against the Ethiopians. “I came to Issa Doreh and said I wanted to help,” he said. “He told me, ‘Don’t go fight. Study. Fix yourself.’ ”
The F.B.I. arrested Moalin on the morning of October 31, 2010, at San Diego International Airport, as he was preparing to fly to Somalia. His last allegedly criminal transfer to Somalia was two thousand dollars, sent more than two years earlier to Omer Mataan, a man who was apparently a Somali militant. (It is unclear whether he was affiliated with the Shabaab.) Across town, at a Department of Homeland Security office in Chula Vista, Mohamed Khadar arrived with his lawyer at what he thought was an interview about a green card. Once he was inside, a group of F.B.I. agents appeared and put him in handcuffs. Doreh was arrested early the next morning, at his home in the Bandar Salaam Apartments, as he was preparing to drive his children to school. The three men and another cabdriver were charged with a variety of crimes, including conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism, a crime that was created in the mid-nineteen-nineties, and whose definition was broadened in 1996 and again with the Patriot Act. Prosecutors used the material-support charge fewer than ten times before 9/11, and have used it successfully more than a hundred and sixty times since, according to Human Rights Watch. In City Heights, the reaction was shock. Doreh and Khadar were men of high standing who had publicly condemned the Shabaab. “The community knew these people,” Hassan, the president of the mosque’s board, told me. “They don’t believe, even up to now.” Two years passed before the trial began, in January, 2013. On the first day, the courtroom was filled with the defendants’ Somali supporters, wearing orange ribbons. The judge, Jeffrey Miller, had served as a deputy attorney general in California for nearly twenty years and was known for his coolheadedness and independence. Concerned that the orange ribbons might influence the jury, he told the Somalis in the gallery to take them off. The prosecution’s case began with Shikhalow’s words: “Now is the time to finance the jihad.” A prosecutor said that Aden Hashi Ayro was “a rock star among terrorists in Somalia.” “I’ve got the whole night on GoPro in case we want to relive the excitement later.” Both sides labored to explain the meaning of snippets of eavesdropped conversations carried on in a foreign language. They brought in experts who summarized the politics of the region around Guriceel. Acronyms piled up as prosecutors described the Islamic Courts Union, the T.N.G., the T.F.G., Ahlu Sunna Waljama’a, Al Itihaad Al Islamiya, Al Shabaab—and explained which of these myriad groups should be considered terrorists and which of them were moderate. Six Somalis had made a dangerous journey to Djibouti in order to testify by video and vouch for Moalin as a gregarious, hardworking extrovert who devoted himself to his family and the care of his ailing mother. One of them, a local police chief, claimed that he, not Ayro, was the one with the nickname Shikhalow, and said that he had fallen out of touch because, on May 1st, the day of Ayro’s death, the Shabaab turned on the local community and he had to flee. The core of the prosecution’s case was excerpts from seventy-nine phone calls that had been culled from more than eighteen hundred conversations and assembled in white binders for the jury. A few alternative translations were put together by the defense. “I’ve never had an experience like this, where things have come in, rolling in so late,” Judge Miller said, wading through the competing transcripts. Doreh appears in eight of the transcripts. One contains a Somali proverb repeatedly cited by the prosecution as evidence that he was part of the conspiracy: BASAALY |
7, not $7k. It doesn’t hurt. You don’t have to fly to Turkey or Paris. And it’s really easy to style because it comes with 35 more.Advertisement
Angry clashes have erupted between members of the Ku Klux Klan and the New Black Panther Party as both groups rally at the South Carolina statehouse.
Confederate flags were stolen and ripped up to cheers and applause from the New Black Panther demonstrators - while KKK members stood on the steps of the capitol performing Nazi salutes.
The white supremacists came out in force on Saturday afternoon to condemn the governor's decision to remove the Confederate Flag due to its associations with racial hatred.
Countering their demonstration, around 400 people with links to the New Black Panther Party marched in the name of racial equality - calling on politicians to do more than simply bring down a flag.
Although leaders insisted they would steer clear of one another, disputes were soon breaking out between off-shoots.
Scroll down for video
Protest: A woman clutching a Confederate flag during a KKK rally in South Carolina wails as emotions run high
Symbol: A man is captured burning a Confederate flag in front of the statehouse steps surrounded by other anti-white supremacy protesters
A second man holds up the burning Confederate flag in front of photographers
Countering: A man holds a black power salute during the Black Educators for Justice rally, which has ties with The New Black Panther Party, on Saturday. His sweater sends a message to the pro-Confederate marchers
A man gives a Nazi salute on the steps of the capitol as the group says they should not be blamed for the shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, last month when pro-Confederacy Dylann Roof killed nine black people
A member of a white supremacist group yells at opposing protesters during the New Black Panther Party and Ku Klux Klan rallies on the grounds of the South Carolina Capitol in Columbia, where the Confederate flag was taken down from its pole
A heavily-tattooed Klu Klux Klan member, covered in Swastkias, stands alongside white-supremacists outside the Columbia capital
A young boy is taken away from the parade by his Klu Klux Klan father. One man wears a t-shirt saying: 'It's a white thing. You wouldn't understand'
Around 300 people came to the state capitol in Columbia to march for racial equality bearing stars and stripes
One police officer was seen holding a white man in a Confederate flag to the ground screaming for assistance. Other officers were seen in tactical gear in case the protests boiled over.
According to the Charleston Post-Courier, there were three fights that police were forced to break up.
It is the latest clash in Columbia, SC, following the racist shooting of nine black churchgoers at the hands of 21-year-old pro-Confederacy Dylann Roof last month.
The attack prompted nationwide calls for leaders to condemn the Confederate flag as a symbol of racial hatred. One hundred and fifty years old, it was used by the seven southern slave states during the civil war. Its racist associations were refreshed during the civil rights movement, when anti-integration state flew the Confederate flag in defiance.
Many of the southern states, where the flag remains prominent, agreed and moved the flag to a museum - notably including South Carolina.
But hitting back, around 300 Ku Klux Klan members applied for a rally permit to swarm the Capitol grounds on Saturday afternoon.
'They cannot punish everyone for what one man did,' Amanda Barker, Imperial Officer of Loyal White Knights, told NBC News.
An automated message on the Loyal White Knights's answering machine said: 'We will be at the statehouse in Columbia, S.C., standing up for our Confederate history and all the southerners who fought and died against federal tyranny.
'Our government is trying to erase white culture and our heritage right out of the pages of history books.'
Meanwhile Black Educators for Justice leader James Evans Muhammad, a former director of the New Black Panther Party, had his own gripes with the historic move.
'The flag coming down is not progress. It is an illusion of progress,' Muhammad told The State. 'Ever since slavery started in America, whites have the privilege of freedom that blacks in South Carolina do not have.
An elderly woman holds her face after getting injured in the ensuing chaos. A police officer and a man help her to safety
Blood is seen coming out her of nose as she makes her way through the crowds on the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse
The same man standing on the statehouse steps raises the Nazi salute while surrounded by police officers and cameras
Law enforcement personnel, heavily armed and wearing body armor, try to keep opposing sides apart during the demonstrations
Fears: Police were out in force on Saturday to ensure the conflicting groups did not start fighting
Dispute: A man shrouded in a Confederate flag appears to have terse words with anti-Confederate protesters
The group, which erupted into chants of 'black power', said the flag ceremony was an 'illusion of progress'
Justice for the next generation: People came out with their children to show why racial equality matters
Police officers walk alongside white-supremacy protesters in a bid to keep relative calm during the demonstrations
Protesters yell at a group of Ku Klux Klan supporters during a rally at the statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina
'White privilege had stuck a knife in black people back in South Carolina and America as a whole. You can't pull a 12-inch knife out two inches and call that progress.'
The New Black Panthers-linked groups started rallying at 2pm with about 200 people.
Many held African flags as speakers addressed the crowds who shouted back: 'Black power! Black power!'
'Equality is more important than a symbol of hate,' Justice Boats, of the Black Lawyers For Justice, told the crowds.
Their demonstration was only meant to overlap with the KKK for an hour at 3pm - but as of 5pm both groups remained out in force, with many coming to join each side.
Some Confederate flag bearers insisted they did not condone the KKK's values but merely joined the KKK-organized rally to show their support for 'Southern heritage'.
Stan Stones, a Baptist minister, told MSNBC that the KKK 'hijacked [the flag] in the mid-1950s, and they made it a symbol of hate.'
He added: 'Southern heritage has nothing to do with hate - it has to do with honoring those who fought [in the Civil War].'
Reporters at the scene said New Black Panther Party members grabbed a Confederate flag and ripped it up
Police keep protesters back near a vehicle driven by a Klu Klux Klan member who knocked into a lamppost at the scene
For the South Carolinan KKK supporters, the Confederate flag symbolized their heritage and their beliefs
A protester holds the Confederate flag over his shoulder in the midst of the demonstrations
A white supremacist poses with a Nazi salute on the steps of the statehouse with a statue of George Washington in the foreground
Protesters hold up an enormous anti-white supremacy banner in front of the statehouse. It depicts a cross going through a character in a Klu Klux Kan robe
The huge sign was draped across the floor during the demonstration. Initial reports suggest three fights broke out in front of the statehouseThunder, lightning and strong winds greeted the National Zoo’s two female Red Panda cubs when they were born June 17, and that stormy night has now determined their names. One cub, Pili, received her name today after voting closed on NBC Washington’s website. Pili, which means “clap of thunder” in Chinese, was the winner among four names—all storm-related—with 30 percent of the vote. A Zoo supporter named Pili’s twin sister Damini, which is Nepalese for “lightning.”
Photo credits: Mehgan Murphy, Smithsonian's National Zoo
Red pandas are native to the cool, temperate bamboo forests of Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar and Nepal. They have long, sharp claws and a reddish coat with white markings, which helps them blend in with the red mosses and white lichens that grow on the trees in which they live. Red pandas are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as the result of habitat loss and poaching. Only about 2,500 adult red pandas remain in the wild.
Red panda enthusiasts can watch both cubs and their parents, Shama and Tate, on the Zoo’s red panda webcam.A study just released finds Floridians were exposed to unsafe drinking water, ranking second in the nation for most violations reported.
The environmental nonprofit organization, the Natural Resources Defense Council, found based on violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act Florida was just behind Texas for most violations when ranked by population served for 2015.
The study finds the top violations by population were:
1. Texas
2. Florida
3. Pennsylvania
4. New Jersey
5. Georgia
The report details the need for a culture change and the investment and improvement in infrastructure and enforcement of the law.
See here: Threats on Tap, widespread violations highlight need for investment in water infrastructure and protections.
The NRDC posted the report with a new threat to the nation's water supplies under the Trump administration.
"America is facing a nationwide drinking water crisis that goes well beyond lead contamination," said Erik Olson, Health Program Director at NRDC.
The NRDC says that nearly 9 in 10 drinking water violations were not subject to formal enforcement by the regulatory agency the EPA.
They point out that the EPA is responsible for setting and enforcing rules for public water systems, however they found formal enforcement was not made.
Nationwide, out of 80,000 total violations in 2015, the most recent data, 10,000 were with formal enforcement action and around 3,000 were associated with penalties.
"The problem is two-fold: there's no cop on the beat enforcing our drinking water laws, and we're living on borrowed time with our ancient, deteriorating water infrastructure," said Olson.
In all, the EPA regulates around 100 contaminants but the nonprofit adds that the EPA has not set a new standard for a drinking water contaminant under the Safe Drinking Water Act since 1996.
"Overall, the EPA has established primary drinking water regulations for about 100 of the many thousands of known or anticipated contaminants that appear in tap water," said the report.
In regards to health based violations the top violations included the disinfection byproducts and coliform bacteria. Lead and copper rounded out the top 5 health concern violations.
One area ABC Action News has looked into recently is the disinfectants used to treat the public water supply, in particular the use of Chlorine.
Pinellas County uses a system called Chlorine Conversion, where twice a year they use just Chlorine as a stronger disinfectant to kill bacteria.
See more here: water samples show toxic chemicals above EPA standards.
The study iterates the exposure to chemical disinfectants can lead to exposure of cancer and potentially impact reproductive systems that can lead to miscarriages and birth defects.
"While adding chlorine or other chemical disinfectants to water has benefits, these disinfectants can react with organic matter in the water to create byproducts that can adversely impact human health," it states.
In Tampa, Culligan Water Conditioning's Director of Operations Brian Kennedy says they are installing 50% more under the sink drinking water systems and water coolers than this time last year.
Kennedy says the local uptick is in response to national stories regarding contamination in the drinking water supply.
"Your drinking water solution should be NSF certified to remove contaminants that may or may not be present in your water at this time," he said.
He points out May is Drinking Water Month, and your local Culligan Man can test water in your home at no charge. However, more extensive testing for lead, nitrates, Chromium, E-coli and coliform bacteria will cost more, but discounted under their Truth About Water campaign.
As for the nonprofit, the NRDC recommends the nation needs to fix, upgrade and maintain the drinking water distribution:
Improve water infrastructure and modernize drinking water treatment plants Increase funding for water infrastructure to protect health and create good jobs. Strengthen and enforce existing regulations and establish new ones.
ABC Action News reached out to the EPA for comment on the report and they say the new administration is committed to modernize the outdated water infrastructure.
Here's their statement from Lincoln Ferguson, EPA spokesman:It’s been 28 years since we last saw the World Rally Championships on stages in the USA. The Olympus Rally, outside of Seattle, was the last time we saw the top level cars in the United States and that was back in 1988. Could you imagine F1 taking a 30 year break from the United States?
Some say it’s because of monetary reasons. That we dont have enough fans. But WRC events are basically free. I’ve been to many of them and I think the service park and maybe a super special like PanzerPlatte in Germany might be only the time they charge an entry but that’s about it. Its hard to imagine that those fees are what motivates the WRC to race in a specific location.
Others say its because they dont sell the street version of race cars here in the US market so there is no point in bringing them here. They say that “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday ” won’t work here like it can in other markets. But if thats the case, how do the cars racing only one weekend in the England really help sell cars all year long in England? It’s because of Television. It doesn’t matter that the cars just raced in Argentina because the fans in the UK watched on Tv and online. So why can’t they watch them race in the US on tv and online. I think they can.
It has to be something else. I think its our legal system. I think the FIA is afraid to sanction rally events on US soil. I hear its the reason why the United States was dropped from the NACAM Fiesta R2 championship. Even thought Ford is based in the US, the exclusively Ford Fiesta series will bypass the US and go from Mexico up to Canada. Why? I heard its because our Tort law system puts too much risk on the organizers and sanctioning body. That racing near trees and rocks and spectators is too dangerous given our legal system in the US.
Now that reason might be right. Accidents happen all the time. Even at the last round of the WRC in Argentina saw 6 spectators hit when a driver lost control after a large jump.
I would like to think that the organizers in the US would take more precautions to protect the crowd and relocate people from dangerous areas but accidents happen. Keep in mind that Argentina has more spectators than most rallies and they routinely shut down stages because there are too many people on stage in unsafe locations.
But if it’s not for safety why haven’t we seen the WRC return to the US in nearly 4 decades? I think its our legal system.
At least we got to host the Group B era here while it lasted. It was amazing. The video of Olympus below says it all, but this collection of photos from Olympus by Denton Morris is pretty amazing and worth a look if you’re a rally fan. So cool that someone took the time to scan and upload them. Go take a look.
Photos by Denton MorrisWhat makes Google's just-announced Pixel phones different from the Nexus products we'e seen before? It's all in the software. Yes, the Pixels will keep current with the latest version of Android and monthly security updates; those are important things! But this is no longer the bare "stock" Android that Nexus devices were always known for. Google has layered on new features exclusive to the Pixel and Pixel XL overtop Android 7.1 Nougat. A lot of the changes are cosmetic, but there's also some genuinely useful stuff that's reserved for Pixel owners. Here's all that's new.
Google Assistant
Google’s answer to Siri and Alexa is one of the Pixel’s biggest features. Google Assistant is more advanced and capable than the Google Now voice assistant on other Android phones; it’s more contextually aware to what’s happening on your devices and can tap into popular third-party apps like WhatsApp and OpenTable.
#Pixel is the first phone in the world with the Google Assistant built in. #madebygoogle pic.twitter.com/Smj1xQBUC0 — Google (@google) October 4, 2016
Daydream
Both Pixel phones are the first to support Google's virtual reality platform, Daydream. You'll need the new Daydream headset for a fully immersive experience. You'll be able to play VR games and watch video apps like YouTube, Netflix, and HBO directly inside the virtual reality experience.
Pixel Launcher
When you unlock the Pixel and Pixel XL, you’ll see a brand new home screen design that Google is calling Pixel Launcher. The app drawer button is gone; instead, you now swipe up from the bottom dock of apps to see all your apps and games. The date, time, and weather are in the top right, and tapping on Google's G logo will quickly get you to search.
Pixel Camera
Google finally made a good camera app! To go along with the Pixel’s 12-megapixel camera — touted as the best camera in any smartphone, ever — Google has unveiled Pixel Camera. With features like white balance control and exposure compensation, it’s a lot more capable than the old Nexus camera app. A new "smart burst" mode captures a stream of shots, and Google uses artificial intelligence to choose the clearest, best shot. The camera also uses HDR+ by default with "zero shutter lag" to achieve the maximum dynamic range for each shot.
#Pixel's camera is packed with cool features like Smartburst and Lens Blur. #madebygoogle pic.twitter.com/QQtZqcz3qz — Google (@google) October 4, 2016
Unlimited backups of photos and 4K videos at original quality
Pixel buyers get worry-free backup with Google Photos. All photos and videos (even 4K recordings) can be backed up — for free — with Google's cloud service.
Smart Storage
The Pixel phones come with either 32GB or 128GB of storage, but there’s no microSD card support. So if you’re running out of room at any point, the devices will automatically clear out photos and videos that have already been backed up to the cloud via Google Photos. Remember that those shots and recordings are stored at full quality, so you’ve got nothing to lose by removing them from local storage.
24/7 voice and chat support
If you’ve got a problem with either Pixel phone, you can head to the settings menu and immediately launch a voice call or chat session with Google’s customer support team. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. From there, you can also choose to allow screen sharing so that the Google employee can control your device and show you firsthand how to fix whatever's not working right.
Easy switching from other phones
A bundled USB-C adapter will let users easily transfer contacts, messages, photos, and other content from their existing Android device or iPhone over to the Pixel.Independents4Change TD Clare Daly has criticised a Naas District Court judge for "irrational decisions" and "causing huge problems with regard to the administration of justice and the inefficiency of the court operation in that area."
On 13 October a bench warrant was issued for the arrest of Ms Daly at Naas District Court for a motoring offence which occurred on 1 January.
Ms Daly said she was due to appear in court but when she turned up with her solicitor, she left again when she saw a large number of people waiting for their cases to be heard before hers.
When the judge heard that Ms Daly had left the court, he issued a bench warrant for her arrest with discretion.
Ms Daly told the Dáil that she was back in court today where she had to listen to the "same judge lecturing me about disrespecting his court, not giving me an opportunity to say anything about his irrational decisions but at the same time carrying on."
During tonight's Private Members' debate on the establishment of a judicial appointments commission, the deputy questioned the actions of the judge in Naas and said the judiciary is an area that needs "radical reform".
Clare Daly tells Dáil a District Court judge is 'causing huge problems with regard to the administration of justice' pic.twitter.com/2GvochzqdM — RTÉ News (@rtenews) October 26, 2016
Recalling her scheduled appearance before Naas District Court, she said her case was listed as number 188 out of 188.
Ms Daly said: "The judge proceeded with the cases for the morning and I watched what had happened in those cases. I instructed a solicitor on this minor driving matter and left the court at lunchtime."
She told the Dáil that later in the day while she was attending a committee hearing, the judge having reached case number 175 "decided to jump to 188, bring the solicitor before the court and ask him where was his client and why was his client not there, even though I had instructed a solicitor, and what reason did I have?
"Of course the reason I had for not being there was that I had been there in the morning. I had watched how this judge had dealt with the cases that were before me, saw cases where people did not turn up on similar charges, did not have a solicitor, and no bench warrant or any proceedings were dealt with. A judgment was simply given in those cases.
"The point I am making is that judges are in an incredibly powerful position. I respect our courts system and I respect that judges have discretion but that discretion has to be exercised proportionally and rationally and when it is not there has to be somebody there that calls that to account.
"While that judge can accuse me without any recall on my part of disrespecting the court, in reality to me, by doing that and issuing a bench warrant in those circumstances, when I clearly wasn't any risk of absconding... the consequence of his action was that An Garda Síochána, who are actually innocent victims in this situation, were subject to massive negative publicity that they had orchestrated the situation."
Ms Daly said that a sergeant had to leave his post in Newbridge and spend the day in court in Swords vacating that order at enormous expense to the State.
"I had to go back there today to listen to the same judge lecturing me about disrespecting his court, not giving me an opportunity to say anything about his irrational decisions but at the same time carrying on", she said.
Deputy Daly added: "Our laws at the moment say nobody can do anything about that judge but he is causing huge problems with regard to the administration of justice and the inefficiency of the court operation in that area."
"This is an area which needs radical reform."
Ms Daly also said, "I really just wanted to use that as an example of how utterly ludicrous some of the behaviour that people we have entrusted to manage our courts is and nobody can do anything about it.
"The saddest thing about that case is that judge is the sitting judge in Naas District Court which means he can stay there for as long as he likes. From looking at him today he has a few years left in him and they could be looking at him for about 12 years.
And the expense to the State of having every day, maybe 100 guards, solicitors, people tied up while he operates his court list like that, and nobody can say anything to him is utterly ludicrous and in radical need of change."Columbia Marriott has since apologised and has broken its no-pet policy
A family of five who lost their home due to the Hurricane Joaquin floods were refused access to a hotel because they had two dogs and a cat with them.
J Britt, his partner and three kids, had to flee their home as the storms hit Columbia in South Carolina.
They went, with their two dogs and one cat in cages, to the Columbia Marriott for a safe place to stay.
However, management at the hotel said they had a strict no-pet policy and the family would not be allowed in.
Mr Britt and his family were forced to drive around 'terrified' in dangerous conditions to find somewhere to stay, before being welcomed at the Sheraton Columbia Downtown Hotel.
Scroll down for video
J Britt, his partner and three kids, had to flee their home as storms hit Columbia, South Carolina
Flooded cars are parked at an apartment complex in Columbia, South Carolina
Satellite dishes and old pay telephones are shown in the parking lot of a flooded apartment building in Columbia
The director of operations at the University of South Carolina took to Facebook to have a sarcastic rant on Columbia Marriot's page.
His post has since gone viral and resulted in the hotel to break its policy to help people affected by the severe weather.
In Mr Britt's naming and shaming post, he said: 'Big shout out to Columbia Marriot and their lovely manager Lauren Olivia and general manager Jeff Kaplan.
'It was probably pretty obvious my family of five was distressed after the emergency evacuation of our house a few hours back when Gills Creek started to sweep it away.
'But your strict adherence to your corporate pet policy was admirable. I appreciated you explaining to me in a very condescending customer-service kind of tone about your pet policy even tho (sic) I was trying to just get my family into a safe place so I could go back and check on my neighbors.
'Our two dogs and one cat (in cages BTW) and my three kids who've just lost their home appreciated having to go back out in incredibly dangerous conditions so you didn't break policy.
'After a nerve racking drive around town terrified that we'd get stuck in standing water and die, we finally found someone at the Sheraton Columbia Downtown Hotel who actually had some human decency.
'They were far more concerned with our crisis than petty policies, and got all of them to safety.
'Great work Lauren and Jeff! We'll be talking again soon! We're all in this together, right?'
Mr Britt took to Facebook to have a sarcastic rant on Columbia Marriot's page and his post has since gone viral
Mr Britt and his family were forced to drive around 'terrified' in dangerous conditions to find somewhere to stay, before being welcomed at the Sheraton Columbia Downtown Hotel
Mr Britt and his family were forced to drive around 'terrified' in dangerous conditions to find somewhere to stay, before being welcomed at the Sheraton Columbia Downtown Hotel
South Carolina experienced a record rainfall, with at least 11.5 inches falling on Saturday
The Facebook post went viral on the internet, with people slamming the staff at the hotel for refusing the family entry.
Later the hotel was forced into an apology, saying it had now changed its stance on the matter.
On its official Facebook page, the Columbia Marriott said: 'Our thoughts and prayers are with all impacted by the flooding that has resulted from the recent severe weather.
'As such, we have modified our no-pet policy and prepared our team to prepare for your family, including pets, for the next 7 days.
'We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused guests looking for pet permissible accommodations prior to this change.'
Pictured is the Columbia Marriot where Mr Britt and his family were refused entry to because they had their pets with them
Mr Britt's rant has resulted in the hotel to now break its policy to help people affected by the severe weather
The Congaree River, swollen with floodwaters, flows under the Gervais Street bridge in West Columbia
The rainstorm drenching the east coast brought more misery to South Carolina, cutting power to thousands, forcing hundreds of water rescues and closing many roads because of floodwaters
Joaquin has killed seven people in Carolina, destroyed houses and cars, uprooted trees and unleashed heavy flooding as it hurled torrents of rain and strong winds in The Caribbean and east coast of the USA.
South Carolina experienced a record rainfall, with at least 11.5 inches falling on Saturday.
The rainstorm drenching the east coast brought more misery to the region, cutting power to thousands, forcing hundreds of water rescues and closing many roads because of floodwaters.
At the weekend the storm was centered about 500 miles (805 kilometers) southwest of Bermuda and was moving northeast at 17 mph (28 kph).
It strengthened again into a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (240 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
The storm is expected to lose strength in upcoming days, but a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch were issued for Bermuda.
The eye of Joaquin was expected to pass west of Bermuda, but the storm still might veer closer to the island, forecasters warned.13 March 2013. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope Francis by the papal conclave on
The papal conclave of 2013 was convened to elect a new pope, the head of the Catholic Church, following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013. According to the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici gregis, which governed the vacancy of the Holy See, only cardinals who had not passed their 80th birthday on the day on which the Holy See fell vacant (i.e. cardinals who were born on or after 28 February 1933) were eligible to participate in the papal conclave.[1] Although not a formal requirement, the cardinal electors invariably elect the pope from among their number.[1]
Of the 207 members of the College of Cardinals at the time of the vacancy of the Holy See, there were 117 cardinal electors who were eligible to participate in the subsequent conclave.[a][3] Two cardinal electors did not participate, decreasing the number in attendance to 115 (7001983000000000000♠98.3 per cent of all cardinal electors, 7001556000000000000♠55.6 per cent of all cardinals).[4][5] The number of votes required to be elected pope with a two-thirds supermajority was 77.[1][6]
Of the 115 attending cardinal electors, four were cardinal bishops, 81 were cardinal priests and 30 were cardinal deacons; 48 were created cardinals by Pope John Paul II and 67 were created cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI; 74 were in charge of pastoral duties outside of Rome, while 41 worked in the service of the Holy See, such as in the Roman Curia. The oldest cardinal elector in the conclave was Walter Kasper, at the age of 79,[b][7] while the youngest cardinal elector was Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, at the age of 53.[8] Another 90 cardinals were ineligible to participate in the conclave, for reasons of age.[3]
The cardinal electors entered the Sistine Chapel to begin the conclave on 12 March 2013.[9] On 13 March 2013, after five ballots over two days, they elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who took the papal name Francis.[10]
Cardinal electors [ edit ]
The College of Cardinals is divided into three orders: cardinal bishops (CB), cardinal priests (CP) and cardinal deacons (CD), with precedence in that sequence. This is the order in which the cardinal electors process into the conclave, take the oath and cast their ballots, generally reflecting seniority and honour.[1] For cardinal bishops, except for those who are Eastern Catholic patriarchs, the Dean is first in precedence, followed by the Vice-Dean and then by the rest in order of appointment as cardinal bishops. For cardinal bishops who are Eastern Catholic patriarchs, for cardinal priests and for cardinal deacons, precedence is determined by the date of the consistory in which they were created cardinals and then by the order in which they appeared in the official announcement or bulletin.[5]
Four of the cardinal electors were from Eastern Catholic Churches: Antonios Naguib (Coptic), Béchara Boutros Raï (Maronite), George Alencherry (Syro-Malabar) and Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal (Syro-Malankara). In addition, the senior cardinal bishop, the senior cardinal priest, the senior cardinal deacon and the junior cardinal deacon were assigned specific roles in the conclave, such as presiding over the conclave itself (the senior cardinal bishop) or announcing the election of the pope (the senior cardinal deacon).[1] These were, respectively, Giovanni Battista Re, Godfried Danneels, Jean-Louis Tauran and James Michael Harvey.[5] The Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, who was in charge of administering the Holy See during its vacancy, was Tarcisio Bertone.[1][11]
The data in the table are as of 28 February 2013, the date on which the Holy See fell vacant. By default, the cardinals are sorted by precedence within each table, as denoted by the No. column. All cardinals are of the Latin Church unless otherwise stated. Cardinals belonging to institutes of consecrated life or to societies of apostolic life are indicated by the respective post-nominal letters.
* Elected pope
Not in attendance [ edit ]
Cardinal electors by continent and by country [ edit ]
The 115 attending cardinal electors were from 48 countries on all six inhabited continents;[f] the countries with the greatest number of cardinal electors were Italy (twenty-eight), the United States (eleven) and Germany (six).
[g] Choropleth map indicating the number of cardinal electors in attendance from each country (unnumbered countries denote one cardinal elector)
* Continent/country of elected pope
Cardinal electors by continent Continent Number Percentage Africa 11 7000960000000000000♠ 9.6% North America 20 7001174009999900000♠ 17.4% South America* 13 7001113000000000000♠ 11.3% Asia 10 7000870000000099999♠ 8.7% Europe 60 7001522000000000000♠ 52.2% Oceania 1 6999900000000000000♠ 0.9% Total 115 100.0%
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ 28 February 2013, the same day as Benedict XVI's resignation, is not included; he was not a cardinal elector at the time of his death.[2] Jean Honoré, who died on, the same day as Benedict XVI's resignation, is not included; he was not a cardinal elector at the time of his death. a b Kasper turned 80 on 5 March 2013, before the conclave began; he had not passed his 80th birthday at the time of Benedict XVI's resignation and was therefore eligible to participate. ^ United Kingdom Territory as archbishop also in the ^ Exact date of birth unknown a b China Special administrative region of ^ 50 countries, if including the two non-attending cardinal electors ^ In this map, Hong Kong is considered a part of China, all of which is shaded.Get the latest news and videos for this game daily, no spam, no fuss.
Sony is expected to reveal a Final Fantasy VII HD remake during its E3 2015 press conference on Monday, according to a growing number of reports emerging online.
Several outlets, such as Siliconera and a "verified" NeoGAF user, suggest that publisher Square Enix commenced production on the game in early 2015. "It will be announced this week for a 2017 release," the NeoGAF user claimed. Meanwhile, Siliconera said that the project is "being created to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII".
In December, Square Enix revealed that a port of the PC edition of FF7 would ship on PlayStation 4. The response to this from some fans was a little subdued, as many were hoping for a full HD remake.
The PC-to-PS4 port was expected to ship in spring. However, it has not been released.To understand the root of Montreal gambling mogul David Baazov’s success, you’d have to have somehow stumbled upon him roughly twenty years ago, at a Dunkin’ Donuts at three o’clock in the morning. There he would have been: sitting in a booth under the glare of 24-hour florescent lights, droopy-eyed, trying valiantly to keep his head off the table. Trying, and failing.
He was 16. He was living on the streets. And he was exhausted.
Driven by a powerful instinct he did not yet understand, he had dropped out of Cégep after a single semester. His father was not impressed, and promptly threw him out of the house. Baazov was cold, hungry and dejected — and too damn proud to go home. So there he was, in an all-night donut shop, stubbornly saving face.
Young, uneducated guy brazenly goes after the biggest player in the online gaming industry…and wakes up a billionaire before his 34th birthday.
While Baazov would soon mend fences with his family and get an apartment on his own, that brief two weeks of homelessness proved pivotal. “It honed some part of me,” he says. The ordeal planted the seeds for the character that would later make Baazov famous. And, not for nothing: very, very rich.
The CEO of Amaya is on the line from his office, a modest converted warehouse in Pointe-Clair, an industrial suburb just west of Montreal’s Trudeau Airport. The space is low-key, adorned mainly with family photos and sports memorabilia from charity auctions. Not exactly the lavish global headquarters you’d expect of a man who’s become the digital version of Sheldon Adelson.
Baazov’s firm has, after all, become a giant in online gambling. Amaya owns mega-brands like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, with a combined registered user base of 93 million people. The company Baazov founded in 2005 is now the largest publicly-traded online gaming company in the world. It’s worth $10 billion dollars, or roughly a quarter of the industry as a whole. His personal net worth? Somewhere in the neighbourhood of $800 million.
“On the one hand, the story of Amaya’s takeover of the Rational Group under Baazov’s leadership is the stuff of MBA mythology,” says David Weitzner, Assistant Professor of Strategy at the Schulich School of Business. “Young, uneducated guy brazenly goes after the biggest player in the shadowy online gaming industry with nothing more than attitude and charisma, convinces one of the biggest private equity funds in the world to finance him, and wakes up a billionaire before his 34th birthday.”
But there’s always another hand.
At 35, Baazov is having his Master of the Universe moment, with the leadership awards, speaking engagements, panel invitations — and intense insider scrutiny, including a potentially crippling insider trading investigation — to prove it. Here he is at the top of his |
with data. Precisely as I experienced after three months with my Galaxy S8, the Note 8's daily performance has started to slow. Most things I do are quick and smooth, but there are still far too many instances now where apps hang up just a few beats before launching or scrolling, or animations stutter and drop frames. If the script from my Galaxy S8 plays out the same way here, a factory reset should be the cure. But why am I factory resetting my $940 phone to get it to perform after three months like it did after three days? I'm growing even less tolerant of this behavior. It just shouldn't be a thing now, particularly in a company's super-high-end phone. (For what it's worth, our own Alex Dobie's Exynos-powered UK Galaxy Note 8 doesn't exhibit such sluggishness. Annoying, to say the least.)
Polarizing powerhouse Galaxy Note 8 Three months on Time has only generated more respect for the quality of the Note 8's hardware — in the materials, design and build quality all around. It's gorgeous from every angle, feels great when you pick it up and has aged as well as you can expect from a phone with this much exposed curved glass. I'm still in awe over how wonderful the display is and suspect I'll feel the same another three, six or nine months from now. Battery life is still good, and wireless charging is a treat. And oh yeah, it has a headphone jack! The old saying of 'time heals all wounds' doesn't apply here. The Note 8 has shortcomings. And yet, the old saying of "time heals all wounds" doesn't apply here. Samsung's fingerprint sensor placement is just as bad today as it was on day one — my finger hasn't gotten any longer in three months. Its iris scanning has proven to be adequate, but far from a quality fingerprint sensor. The phone is also just way too big for me to use in one hand — and it just doesn't offer much of a unique experience, aside from the S Pen, to show for these poor ergonomics. Samsung's software is indeed an acquired taste, and three months on I do have a better understanding of how to get around its quirks and make it work how I want. Turning off Bixby is a great start, as is replacing the launcher and clearing out some default apps. But since the Note 8 came out I have also spent weeks using Android 8.0 Oreo on a Pixel 2 — and Samsung's software experience just doesn't come close to Google's in terms of speed, fluidity, ease of use, consistency and overall delight. And the way the phone now exhibits inconsistent performance stutters is disheartening. The biggest issue with the Note 8 may be that you can get a Galaxy S8 for over $200 less. My complaints about the unwieldy size and extreme price are pretty well mitigated by the fact that Samsung sells the Galaxy S8 and S8+. Just going down to the Galaxy S8+ you instantly save over $100, improve ergonomics just a bit, and get a larger battery while only losing the fringe features of dual cameras and the S Pen. Save another $100 and you get the Galaxy S8, which offers the same core experience as the Note 8 in a size you can actually manage in one hand while retaining most of the features and hardware quality. Samsung's own great Galaxy S8 and S8+ make the Note 8 feel a bit less... valuable. For someone who has to have the absolute best phone a company offers, and doesn't care about the sheer impracticality of what that entails, the Note 8 is a great phone today just as it was three months ago. It does just about everything anyone could ask for. But three months after first reviewing the Note 8, it's even clearer that in pursuit of being the biggest and baddest, it doesn't offer a well-rounded smartphone experience that other phones — including those from Samsung — can. It's just a bit too big, a bit too expensive and overall a bit too compromised to be a go-to recommendation. 4 out of 5 It's a flagship. A halo device. But not the best phone Samsung sells today. See at AmazonISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey’s conflict with Kurdish militants, said to have killed more than 5,000 people since July, has also destroyed at least 6,000 buildings that will cost approaching 1 billion lira ($340 million) to rebuild, according to a government estimate.
Buildings which were damaged during security operations and clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants are pictured in Sur district of Diyarbakir, Turkey February 29, 2016. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar
Large swathes of towns in the mainly Kurdish southeast have been devastated by daily shelling, blasts and gunfire in battles that are still raging, even as President Tayyip Erdogan says the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is in its “death throes”.
Turkish warplanes struck overnight at PKK gun positions and shelters in Semdinli by the border with Iraq and Iran, the army said. The fighting, at its most intense in two decades, resumed after a two-year-old ceasefire collapsed last July.
A day earlier, roadside bombs killed at least six people in two attacks on security forces in the southeast. Air strikes in northern Iraq’s Metina area have killed 14 PKK fighters since last Wednesday, the army said.
As fighting continued, the government of new Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said 6,320 buildings, or 11,000 dwellings, had been destroyed in five areas alone: Sur in Diyabakir, Silopi, Cizre and Idil in Sirnak province and Yuksekova in Hakkari.
“We now face a process of planning reconstruction and repairing damaged houses,” Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said after a cabinet meeting on Monday, estimating the cost of rebuilding in the areas at 855 million lira ($290 million).
Lawmaker Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat of the pro-Kurdish HDP was dismissive of the reconstruction plans in ancient places like Sur and Cizre, where the “historic fabric had been wiped away”.
“They are deluding themselves and trying to cover up their crimes,” he told Reuters. “If they are think they can win over the local people like this they are wrong. The destruction of these towns has caused an emotional rupture.”
MOSQUES AND CHURCHES DAMAGED
Some 338 civilians, including 78 children, have died in the conflict since last summer, and curfews violated the rights of 1.6 million people, Turkey’s Human Rights Foundation said. Ankara says 355,000 people have migrated to other parts of Turkey.
“These are the last death throes of the separatist terror group,” Erdogan told a crowd waving Turkish flags and chanting “damn the PKK” in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir overnight.
Military sources say 5,000 PKK militants have been killed since the conflict resumed, around half in southeast Turkey and half in northern Iraq, where the PKK has bases. They put the death toll for Turkish security forces at around 500.
The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, launched its insurgency in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Alongside destruction of housing, nine mosques and two churches in Sur alone have suffered damage, a local official told journalists taken under escort to the area on Tuesday.
The 500-year-old Kursunlu mosque’s facade is pockmarked by gunfire, its interior burned out and sandbags in its windows testament to fighting there, a Reuters witness said.
The Roman-era basalt walls which surround Sur district were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2015. Weeks later, the armed conflict was reignited.The post first appeared on CityLab.
A recent article in the Atlantic argues that San Francisco’s new urban agriculture property tax incentive will only exacerbate the problem of limited housing supply in an already overheated housing market. We share the author's concern about housing affordability, but his critique of this policy, which SPUR worked to pass, misses the mark.
The law does not discourage anyone who wants to build from building. Instead, San Francisco’s urban agriculture incentive zone program targets land that is unlikely to be developed in the near future. This includes sites that are oddly shaped, not well-suited for development or where the owner, for personal or business reasons, does not intend to put up a building anytime soon. If a property owner wants to build housing (or an office building or anything else) on their vacant lot, they’ll make far more money developing the land then they would from the property tax savings they’d get for committing it to urban agricultural use for five years.
What the law does do is give landowners who can’t or don’t want to develop a reason to consider making something more of their land than leaving it an unused, weedy eyesore. We’re talking about properties like the 15,000 square feet next to a billboard that now houses a small bee garden, mentioned in the Chronicle article that inspired Mr. Friedersdof’s piece. Or the nearly one-acre property in the Mission Terrace neighborhood that sat vacant and blighted for decades and now houses a commercial urban farm. Urban farms and gardens offer more than just aesthetic appeal. They provide numerous public benefits, including vibrant green spaces and recreation, education about fresh food and the effort it takes to produce it, ecological benefits for the city, and sites that help build community. Not every vacant private lot is suitable for housing (or zoned for it) and, where housing is not in the cards, we would rather see a garden or small farm that provides benefits to the neighborhood over an untended patch of dirt.
The housing affordability crisis in the Bay Area is an enormous problem, and SPUR has long advocated for increasing the supply of housing. Most recently, we recommended eight practical, constructive strategies to address the ever-increasing cost of rent and home ownership. And we simultaneously support urban agriculture incentive zones, because they don’t undercut efforts to make housing more affordable.With all the incredible new items popping up on menus around Disney World, sometimes a food fan’s just gotta go back to her roots.
In this case we are referring to a good old fashioned Ice Cream Float. Of course, when you’re talking ice cream in Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, you have to talk about the Main Street Plaza Ice Cream Parlor.
There are plenty of reasons why we love this joint. When we grab an ice cream treat here, we have a front row seat to Cinderella Castle. And then there’s the variety of ice cream on the menu, including options for vegans, the lactose intolerant, and those who avoid sugar.
And recently the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor introduced a new breakfast menu featuring a Donut Sundae. Seriously, y’all, this place just gets better and better.
But if you’re an ice cream treat traditionalist and the Donut Sundae is a little too busy for you (it takes all kinds), Plaza Ice Cream Parlor has you covered too. And on a recent visit, we went for an old standard: the Hard-Scooped Ice Cream Float.
The Float at the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor is unique in the Magic Kingdom in that you can choose one of any of their amazing hard serve, hand-scooped ice cream. There’s no getting stuck with chocolate/vanilla soft serve here, folks. (Of course, if soft serve floats are your jam, Magic Kingdom’s got that too!)
You can choose from either Coke or Barq’s Root Beer. We tried the Barq’s with a couple scoops of strawberry. The combination was so tasty! Other hard serve options include vanilla, chocolate, mint chocolate chip, cookies and cream, raspberry sorbet (no sugar added), and butter pecan (no sugar added).
So perfect. Doesn’t this look so totally classic?!? And at $4.99 or a Disney Dining Plan snack credit, this is pretty good deal.
We never regret a stop into the Main Street Plaza Ice Cream Parlor, and it’s pretty easy to see why. Classics like the Ice Cream Float and exciting new options keep us coming back time and again.
Don’t Miss Out on ALL the Magic Kingdom Snacks! The DFB Guide to Magic Kingdom Snacks is newly updated for your 2017-18 Walt Disney World Trip! With more than 2oo color photos of our favorite Magic Kingdom Snacks, the DFB Guide to Magic Kingdom Snacks is guaranteed to help you find the best snacks and treats (even mini-meals!) for your family while visiting the Magic Kingdom, or your money back! After all, we all know that treats at the Magic Kingdom are just as nostalgic as our first flight on Dumbo! Know what you’re getting BEFORE using a precious snack credit or spending limited vacation dollars. Whether you want sweet, salty, crunchy, healthy, or something in between, The DFB Guide to Magic Kingdom Snacks e-Book tells you where to find a snack to match your craving! To thank you for your support of the blog, we’re offering the Guide for 25% off its purchase price for a limited time! Order your copy now. To secure the discount, use code SNACKS17 at the check-out.
Is the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor on your Magic Kingdom touring plan? Let us know in the comments below!Stamford Olympic boxing hopeful charged with assaulting girlfriend
Olympic boxing hopeful Nick Scaturchio, 19, of Stamford, was charged this week with violating a judge’s protective order, second-degree assault, disorderly conduct, criminal mischief, risk of injury to a child, robbery, larceny and threatening. less Olympic boxing hopeful Nick Scaturchio, 19, of Stamford, was charged this week with violating a judge’s protective order, second-degree assault, disorderly conduct, criminal mischief, risk of injury to a... more Photo: Scott Ericson / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Scott Ericson / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Stamford Olympic boxing hopeful charged with assaulting girlfriend 1 / 4 Back to Gallery
STAMFORD — An aspiring Olympic boxer has been accused of physically and psychologically abusing his girlfriend for years and assaulting her dog, police said.
Nick Scaturchio, 19, of Stamford, was charged this week with violating a judge’s protective order, second-degree assault, disorderly conduct, criminal mischief, risk of injury to a child, robbery, larceny and threatening.
Scaturchio, a 2015 New York Daily News Golden Gloves champion who competed in the 2016 Olympic Trials and is a USA Boxing national champion, remained silent during his arraignment Wednesday at the Stamford courthouse.
Judge Thomas Colin increased Scaturchio’s bond to $550,000, because of the seriousness of the accusations by his recently estranged 15-year-old girlfriend. Colin also prohibited Scaturchio from having any contact with the girl or coming within 100 yards of her.
Colin also warned Scaturchio that he could be held in prison for 10 years alone for disregarding a previous protective order.
According to an eight-page arrest affidavit, the girl told police on June 5 that Scaturchio violated a restraining order that had been issued a few days earlier.
The girl said Scaturchio assaulted her more than 30 times during the three years they dated, the affidavit said.
The girl said the abuse began as psychological with Scaturchio preventing her from seeing friends and using her cellphone to make Facebook posts in her name, the affidavit said.
The abuse turned physical last year when Scaturchio strangled and punched her, the affidavit said.
Scaturchio also threatened the girl “in a joking way” with his gun, pointing the barrel at her head while warning her not to mess with him, the affidavit said.
The girl said she was afraid to report the abuse because Scaturchio threatened to call immigration or the state Department of Family and Children on her mother, the affidavit said.
The girl said Scaturchio once attacked her because he thought she was mocking him, the affidavit said. Scaturchio punched the girl in the back of the head, smashed her head into the passenger side window and banged her head onto the dashboard of his car before punching her in the ribs, the affidavit said.
Scaturchio is also accused of abusing the girl’s dog. The girl said Scaturchio kept the dog in a crate inside a shed at his mother’s home in Waterbury, the affidavit said. The girl said she caught Scaturchio standing above the dog with garden scissors with blood on the floor last July, the affidavit said.
A few days later, the girl said she discovered blood clots around the animal’s ears, the affidavit said.
“I told you I was going to do it,” Scaturchio told her, according to the affidavit.
Scaturchio is due back in court June 19 to enter pleas on the charges.
[email protected];Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Police want to speak to a man who pulled his pants down on top of a bus stop, bounced up and down and fell through it.
Officers are investigating after footage of the escapade was uploaded onto Youtube.
The man – believed to be in his early 20s – is shown climbing on top of the shelter in Green Lane, Wilmslow.
He jumps up and down a few times before smashing through it and onto the ground, causing £560 worth of damage to the bus shelter roof.
Anyone who recognises him is asked to call PC Jo Hooper at Wilmslow Neighbourhood Police.
Alternatively information can be given anonymously by calling Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.A giant asparagus-like stalk with buds reminiscent of broccoli has sprouted through the greenhouse roof at Allan Gardens Conservatory, majestically bursting almost two meters above the glass toward the sky. After some 75 years of storing up energy, the agave americana will, finally, for the first time in its life, flower within the next few weeks, producing spectacular yellow blossoms. And then it will die.
The agave as it can now be seen poking through the greenhouse glass. “There will be hundreds and hundreds of flowers opening in sequence from the bottom up, spreading out on candelabra-like arms and attracting an enormous number of birds and bees,” forecasts a Texas horticulturist familiar with the plants. ( NANCY J. WHITE / TORONTO STAR ) The view from inside Allan Gardens, which has had an agave plant since 1956. It has finally bloomed in majestic fashion -- it's grown so tall the gardeners had to cut out the greenhouse glass to let it through. The plant reaches a couple metres above the roof. ( NANCY J. WHITE / TORONTO STAR )
This towering plant gives new meaning to the term late-bloomer. It has sat in the conservatory not doing much for likely as long as 50 years, says Curtis Evoy, Allan Gardens superintendent. Members of the Toronto Cactus and Succulent Club have estimated the plant’s age at about 75 years old. “That’s a plausible estimate, given your cold climate which would slow it down,” says Mary Irish, a Texas horticulturist who specializes in drought-adapted plants. The agave americana, a species originally from Mexico, got its nickname the “century plant” because it was brought to England and Germany, where it took a very long time to bloom, she explains. In the American southwest, it blossoms in a mere 30 years. In March, gardeners at the Toronto conservatory, on Carlton St. between Jarvis and Sherbourne, first noticed a shoot starting at the plant’s centre. After that, it took off like Jack’s beanstalk. “It happened so fast, you could almost see it growing,” says horticulturist Evoy.
Article Continued Below
When it hit the glass ceiling, the super-charged stalk started to bend and the conservatory faced a dilemma. The plant would surely die unless they cut the glass, but the outside temperatures in March were hardly tropical. They took the gamble and made a hole big enough for the stalk to poke through. “Luckily it was just warm enough out,” says Evoy. In his 23 years with Allan Gardens, the conservatory has never before had to break the glass ceiling for a plant. The stalk is now about 4.5 metres (15 feet) tall from base to towering buds. In another two to four weeks, the plant’s yellow flowers should bloom, he says. And when it does, grab your camera. “There will be hundreds and hundreds of flowers opening in sequence from the bottom up, spreading out on candelabra-like arms and attracting an enormous number of birds and bees,” predicts Irish, plant production manager at the San Antonio Botanical Garden. “It’s quite the spectacle in the plant kingdom.” All these years, the succulent plant has been gathering energy to be marshaled into the buds, poetic in its one final flourish. “That’s why it dies. It puts everything it has into the flowers,” explains Irish. “It’s a one-shot deal.” Evoy expects the blooms to last about four to six weeks. Then the plant will shrivel up and turn brown and the stalk will be sawed off.
Presently, though, the odd-looking stalk shooting through the glass can best be viewed from the Carlton Street side of the gardens. “Holy s---, it went right through the greenhouse. Wow,” exclaimed one passerby.One of the commissioners, George E. Apostolakis, pointed out that existing safety analyses also assume that electricity will be restored within four or eight hours after a power cutoff, but that blackouts on the grid often last far longer. “Why do we still assume things that are now, in retrospect, unrealistic?” he asked.
The task force, appointed in April, is supposed to complete its investigation in August but is periodically updating the commission. In another finding, it warned that emergency vents that had been added to American reactors to protect against a hydrogen explosion after an accident might not function, just as they proved inoperable in Fukushima.
“It may be a challenge to open the vent path in a scenario like the Fukushima accident,” said Mr. Miller, who said that the types of valves used, and their accessibility in the event that they had to be operated manually, needed further evaluation.
Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.
Another challenge is that the commission’s inspectors have not been trained to evaluate the condition of a variety of hardware or review procedures that were adopted as extra precautions after the Sept. 11 attacks. “We do not have the same kind of regulatory oversight on those enhancements,” said R. William Borchardt, the commission’s executive director for operations.
The commission’s staff, which has been struggling to obtain as much information as possible about the Fukushima reactors, has revised its view of the condition of a pool of spent fuel at the plant’s Unit 4 reactor, Mr. Borchardt said Wednesday.
An assumption that that pool was dry or nearly dry, raising the possibility of a massive release of radioactive materials, led the United States ambassador to Japan to recommend that Americans stay 50 miles away from the plant. The Japanese authorities had ordered the evacuation of people within about 12 miles of the plant.
“It’s unlikely that the pool ever went completely dry,” Mr. Borchardt told the commissioners. “The staff welcomes this as very good news, as it’s one indication that the event may not have been as serious as previously believed for Unit 4.” He said the conclusion was based on a recent video of the pool.
The commission has never explained why its chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko, said that the pool was empty or nearly empty. But since the March 11 accident at Fukushima, the plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company, has reported a variety of instrument readings that later came into question.
Mr. Borchardt also said that in Units 1, 2, and 3 at Fukushima, “The cores, to some degree, are ex-vessel,” meaning that the uranium fuel had melted and leaked out of the reactor vessels.Schools have been told they should give transgender pupils a cake to celebrate their “transition”, as experts warn that teachers must be trained to deal with an “explosion” of students who no longer identity with their sex.
Delegates at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers conference this week were told that changing attitudes have resulted in a "huge" surge in the number of transgender and non-binary people coming forward.
“Five years ago, hardly anyone in school or in university would come across a young trans person, but it’s changed substantially,” said Terry Reed, a campaigner for transsexual rights who co-founded the Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES).
She told teachers that they must send an “upbeat” message to pupils who no longer identify with their birth sex. She advised that schools should mark the transitioning of a transgender pupil with “celebratory” events such as marking the announcement of their new name with a cake, the Times Education Supplement reported.The inquiry announced today into claims of Jimmy Savile's child sex abuse will be widened to take in allegations against living celebrities.
The Metropolitan Police said it believed it had identified more than 200 victims of either the dead DJ or other stars. “We are dealing with alleged abuse on an unprecedented scale”, the senior officer leading the inquiry said.
However the Evening Standard understands that the vast majority of the complaints have come from victims who say Savile was the culprit. But it is understood that officers are also examining a “handful” of cases involving living celebrities.
Around six have been accused of child abuse on BBC premises or while they were employed by the corporation. They include Savile and Steptoe And Son actor Wilfrid Brambell, both of whom are now dead.
Celebrities who have been named as either knowing about and even taking part in the abuse include convicted paedophile Gary Glitter and entertainer Freddie Starr. Both have denied the allegations.
Among those not named are a soap actor and a former BBC radio presenter. Scotland Yard refused to give a figure for the number of stars under investigation. They face arrest and questioning. Scotland Yard said in a statement: “As we have said from the outset, our work was never going to take us into a police investigation into Jimmy Savile.
“What we have established in the last two weeks is that there are lines of inquiry involving living people that require formal investigation.”
A spokesman said the Operation Yewtree inquiry had established more than 400 lines of inquiry and identified more than 200 potential victims.
Commander Peter Spindler said: “The public’s response to this issue has been astounding. We are dealing with alleged abuse on an unprecedented scale. The profile of this operation has empowered a staggering number of victims to come forward to report the sexual exploitation which occurred during their childhood.
“I am pleased that victims feel confident enough to speak out about the abuse they suffered and would like to reassure the public that we take all these cases very seriously and they will be investigated with the utmost sensitivity.”
Peter Watt, head of the charity NSPCC’s helpline, said: “It’s now looking possible that Jimmy Savile was one of the most prolific sex offenders the NSPCC has ever come across. We have received over 136 calls directly relating to allegations against him, which we’ve passed to the police.”
BBC bosses are to make a decision on Sunday over the airing of a new investigation into the Savile scandal. A Panorama programme focusing on why an original Newsnight inquiry was pulled was due to go out on Monday.
But the show’s bosses today revealed that it could run after BBC director-general George Entwistle appears before the culture, media and sport select committee on Tuesday. A BBC spokesman said staff would be working over the weekend to get the programme ready. But another is already scheduled for the BBC1 slot.
It came as a leaked email cast doubt on the BBC’s stated reason for cancelling the Newsnight inquiry.
The email, written by press officer Helen Deller and dated December 7, reveals that Newsnight journalists had been “focusing on allegations of abuse” and also gives the impression that it was a lot closer to transmission than the BBC has let on.
Its official line is that it was dropped because it was focusing on a different angle it was unable to “substantiate”.OTTAWA—The Supreme Court of Canada is taking on the question of whether police can access information on a cellphone that isn’t protected by a password.
The court has agreed to hear an appeal from Kevin Fearon, who was arrested after an armed robbery in Toronto in 2009.
Police obtained photos of a gun and cash, as well as a text message about jewelry, after taking a closer look at Fearon’s phone, which was unlocked.
After he was convicted, Fearon appealed, arguing that police breached his rights when they examined the phone after his arrest.
The Ontario Court of Appeal said it was all right for the police to look through the phone in a cursory fashion to see if there was evidence relevant to the crime, but after that they should have stopped to get a search warrant.Jacob’s ladder is a layman’s term to describe the connection between Earth and Heaven. The term relates to the biblical patriarch Jacob (from the book of Genesis) flight dream but has been used for everything from movies, books, flowers and an electrical device to (my favorite) a song by Huey Lewis and the News.
Jacob’s brake or Jake brake is a layman’s term used for an engine braking system – generally heard in big rigs or trucks as they descend into small towns at night. When used, the system opens exhaust valves after the compression cycle which in turn releases the trapped air in the cylinders and slows down the vehicle. The resulting sound is awesome and should be every trucker’s ringtone.
The new RAM Laramie 2500 brings both of the above points together in one giant package.
First of all, you’ll need a ladder because it’s HUGE. Hard to really describe here but I’ll give it a go and add some perspective. The overall length is a shade over 6m and width a fraction over 2m which is essentially 3 King sized beds end to end. On the subject of beds, the flat bed or tray is almost 2m x 1.7m (taking out the arches) which will just about fit a family Spa pool. Its near 2m in height would dwarf some of the most respected All Black forwards and as such the cabin is a place that (without the side steps and cabin handle) you’d need a ladder to get in. Then there’s the (braked) towing capacity, 6.989 Tonnes – enough to pull a quarter of the weight of the Statue of Liberty – get three mates and you could tow the whole thing! I think you get the picture – it’s big, hell; the chrome grille and bumper are a feature all by themselves!
Funnily enough the RAM is also somewhat attractive, large but not fierce – powerful but seemingly gentle, it’s kind of comfortable in its size, a ‘nothing to prove’ confidence about it and that makes it very endearing. In saying that, it still made me nervous to take this beast on the city streets.
Ramtrucks NZ have converted the US model to be a right hand drive; it’s a seamless and meticulous conversion that has literally gone back to the blueprints to achieve – you really would never know. The attention to detail covers far more than just moving the wheel to the other side, it’s been positioned in the exact bonnet line. The ‘hidden’ mechanics such as steering box have been re-engineered and the interior trim is faultless – I climbed inside the 6 seater cab to be given the tour of the rest.
The first button that was pointed out was the brake selection button; at the flick of a switch in the dash you can enlist the help of Jacob (either automatically or full time). Needless to say it spent most of the time in the on position – if I was going to be a trucker for a few days, I wanted to sound the part too. Front and centre is an 8.4” touchscreen with Uconnect (an easy to navigate infotainment/connected system) with Alpine providing the tunes. The cabin materials are robust and well presented with wood and chrome accents and LARAMIE styling across the leather seats. The wheel is RAM branded and holds key functions such as Phone, Cruise and Menu controls. To the right is the gear shift, a column change stem that you wrap your whole hand around. Front seats can be altered from 2 to 3 at the raise of a storage tub and the rear seats convert to a lie flat ‘bed’.
At the flick of a button the window between the cab and the rear tray opens and shuts making it easy to chat to the people in the Spa pool you may be carrying. 2WD/4WD and 4WD low is selected by the turn of a dial and it has heated/ventilated seats and heated wheel. Now you can chose to start the RAM while sitting in the driver’s seat OR you can stand outside and double tap the key fob (I did this every time and never got tired of it once). This is a feature that is mainly used in icy temperatures, you start the truck while in the warmth of your home – it will even heat the seats should it feel necessary – but it was too ‘cool’ not to use constantly.
The engine is a hefty 6.7L Cummins diesel that churns out 276kW and a whopping 1084Nm of torque from as low as 1,600rpm and I can tell you that the wheels will spin given half a chance. Negotiating the Auckland traffic in a truck this size does require your undivided attention (certainly initially) but one of the oddest experiences is looking across at lorry drivers and being at their level. It doesn’t take too long to get into the rhythm of driving the RAM, wider swings when turning into side streets and double/treble checking the big mirrors before lane changing and once you do the ride and the experience is great – fun even!
Despite it has cameras and sensors parking is (as expected) challenging – you do need to think about where you’re going to stop. I had the RAM on my driveway and it overlapped into the road – this is not a compact vehicle.
Most people would say that the RAM 2500 is unnecessary. It’s large and obnoxious and has a VERY American feel about it but I would disagree. Yes it’s difficult to park and not exactly ‘city’ friendly but there is a point where your regular trucks towing (and grunt) capacity stops and bigger trucks that require HGV licenses begin and that’s where the RAM comes into its own. It is a spectacle on the road and ultimately very practical should you have the need to tow towns or ocean liners from one place to another. The height and brakes alone make this a cool truck for the garage – if of course you have the room.
By the way (for the observant amongst you) the photos were taken at the foot of Auckland very own Jacobs ladder stairway.
Subscribe now to keep updated
Like this: Like Loading...As we suggested in our article regarding Mighty No. 9's delay into early 2016, Comcept has endured a tough and damaging period for its image with fans. After the giddy highs of the game's successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013, multiple delays and some poor communication / decision making around its RED Ash: The Indelible Legend Kickstarter campaign has brought plenty of criticism on the company, some of it certainly justified.
Speaking to Engadget at Gamescom, Mighty No. 9 producer Nick Yu discussed the delay to the title and some of the negative publicity that's swirled around the company. To start with the delay itself, Yu shared his regret.
I'm sure a lot of people -- almost everyone is upset about delays, and things that can't be done. But, and this is my personal view, the creators announcing the bad news feel worse than the backers. You know that you have to tell the people, and it'll make them sad; it'll make them upset. And you're the reason for that happening. You're the one making it. Even if it was accidental, or you had no control over it, you're the reason the delay happened. We feel bad. Really, really bad.
People are saying that we didn't announce the delay fast enough. But although we saw the possibility of the delay, we weren't sure. You'll never be sure until the moment when you say, "This is not going to make it anymore." Even if there are rumors or possibilities for delay, we can't say anything until we are sure. In the end, that might cause some bad PR, people calling you liars, but there's nothi-- there's maybe some things we could've done better, but, at that point, we couldn't say anything for sure, so.... We are upset as well, just as much as the backers.
In terms of explaining the delay, it's highlighted that it's related solely to the online aspect for multiplayer, with the solo campaign 100% done. When pressed on whether the game should have been released as a single player experience with online features subsequently patched in, Yu gave a rather long-winded explanation highlighting issues with multiple submission approvals and losing value of the product at market.
For us to make that change -- only single-player, then patch multiplayer later -- simply put, the approval process would be doubled, and we would have to spend even more time to break those two aspects of the game apart into separate packages. Submit the single-player first, get approval, fix the multiplayer campaign, get approval again. And there'll be even more quality assurance because we're taking stuff out. All that together, I think the game will be out with them together before we could've pulled them apart, even with the delay. That's the reality, however, I know we should think about something to show that we are really sorry to the backers. We're looking to see if there's something we can do for the backers. But, we're looking into that, and we're looking to get a proper release date, seeing how bad the bug is. How fast we can fix it. Once we know that, we'll announce the release date properly. For now it's just Q1 2016
Yu also addressed criticisms around the perceived dividing of resources to begin RED Ash before Mighty No. 9 was launched, a negative perspective exacerbated by the delay. In fairness to |
:08:12 ] Jesus Yvormes > I had 4 alts but had to shut them down after my work cut my hours to 6 hours a week after working 17 hours a week.?[ 2016.09.05 20:08:21 ] deeks87 deacon > i also run a roulette chat that does ok for isk?[ 2016.09.05 20:08:32 ] Jesus Yvormes > Nice?[ 2016.09.05 20:08:34 ] deeks87 deacon > wtf they cut you down to 6?[ 2016.09.05 20:08:49 ] Jesus Yvormes > Yeah from 3 days to 1 day.?[ 2016.09.05 20:09:01 ] deeks87 deacon > wtf what do you do if you don't mind em asking?[ 2016.09.05 20:09:26 ] Jesus Yvormes > I wash dishes at this mom and pop burger joint?[ 2016.09.05 20:09:40 ] deeks87 deacon > you still go to school??[ 2016.09.05 20:09:44 ] Jesus Yvormes > Yeah?[ 2016.09.05 20:09:54 ] Jesus Yvormes > School starts Wednesday?[ 2016.09.05 20:10:40 ] Jesus Yvormes > I understood I was going to get cut down in hours but this happened before school even started like I still have 2 days to school.?[ 2016.09.05 20:11:09 ] deeks87 deacon > Well stick at school and you will get better jobs?[ 2016.09.05 20:11:19 ] deeks87 deacon > feel like your dad telling you that lol?[ 2016.09.05 20:11:36 ] Jesus Yvormes > lol?[ 2016.09.05 20:12:57 ] Jesus Yvormes > Yeah go to college which I cant pay for cause of cancerous taxes?[ 2016.09.05 20:13:07 ] Jesus Yvormes > Don't worry we totally arent holding you back or anything?[ 2016.09.05 20:13:30 ] deeks87 deacon > same here bud the gov is out to fuck the poor and keep the rich happy?[ 2016.09.05 20:13:51 ] Jesus Yvormes > So, you cant get social security cause you still have student loans?[ 2016.09.05 20:13:55 ] deeks87 deacon > when we voted out of Europe all the rich fat cunts where crying and trying to get lawers to stop it happening?[ 2016.09.05 20:13:57 ] deeks87 deacon > they make me sick?[ 2016.09.05 20:14:38 ] deeks87 deacon > big corporations can avoid tax illigally and it's ok but little jo blogs mises a payment he's in jail?[ 2016.09.05 20:14:52 ] deeks87 deacon > we aint free bud freedom is an illusion?[ 2016.09.05 20:15:06 ] Jesus Yvormes > yep :(?[ 2016.09.05 20:15:12 ] deeks87 deacon > we are imprisoned in another sense of the word?[ 2016.09.05 20:15:17 ] Jesus Yvormes > yup?[ 2016.09.05 20:16:33 ] Jesus Yvormes > Well I guess its time to go make money to plex for this month?[ 2016.09.05 20:16:50 ] deeks87 deacon > how much u need for plex??[ 2016.09.05 20:16:51 ] Jesus Yvormes > Im still here if I dont answer immeadiately?[ 2016.09.05 20:17:23 ] Jesus Yvormes > Well I got enough to plex now but not plexing now cause I dont wanna be space poor after :D?[ 2016.09.05 20:18:02 ] deeks87 deacon > well bud if you willing i can try help you like i did bill but you got to show faith and trust and please help others less fortunate?[ 2016.09.05 20:19:05 ] Jesus Yvormes > Yeah but so many sp and I dont believe my CEO would be very happy if I was to lose all my SP?[ 2016.09.05 20:19:46 ] deeks87 deacon > no i understand sir it's not easy that's why i reward for it besides you don't loose them you simply re inject. how many sp u got??[ 2016.09.05 20:20:00 ] Jesus Yvormes > Almost 25 million sp?[ 2016.09.05 20:20:31 ] deeks87 deacon > 25 - 5 = 20?[ 2016.09.05 20:20:43 ] Jesus Yvormes > yup which means 40 injectors?[ 2016.09.05 20:20:47 ] deeks87 deacon > so would 20b isk sort you out for a while??[ 2016.09.05 20:21:20 ] Jesus Yvormes > I mean yeah xD?[ 2016.09.05 20:21:34 ] deeks87 deacon > my suggestion is invest it into market?[ 2016.09.05 20:21:42 ] deeks87 deacon > good for making profit?[ 2016.09.05 20:22:30 ] Jesus Yvormes > No clue how it works?[ 2016.09.05 20:23:12 ] deeks87 deacon > easy you buy one extractor then you use it then send me it then i send 2 more extractors u send back injectors ect?[ 2016.09.05 20:23:18 ] deeks87 deacon > but you need to keep a note of the skills?[ 2016.09.05 20:23:24 ] deeks87 deacon > so you can re inject them back?[ 2016.09.05 20:23:54 ] deeks87 deacon > then when your done i send all injectors back + 1 or 2 more in your case i think 2 to make up for the loss off the 100k u loose per extraction?[ 2016.09.05 20:24:04 ] Jesus Yvormes > deeks87 deacon its not that I dont trust you but im scared?[ 2016.09.05 20:24:07 ] Jesus Yvormes > D:?[ 2016.09.05 20:24:09 ] deeks87 deacon > but you have to promisr that you will help others in your path?[ 2016.09.05 20:24:22 ] deeks87 deacon > i know bill had to take up smoking lol?[ 2016.09.05 20:24:43 ] deeks87 deacon > You would have to be mad to not be scared but that's the whole point?[ 2016.09.05 20:24:59 ] Jesus Yvormes > I just dont want lose all my SP to a scammer and I have no clue wether youre a scammer or not?[ 2016.09.05 20:25:16 ] deeks87 deacon > bud i would not blame you for calling me a scammer seriously?[ 2016.09.05 20:25:22 ] deeks87 deacon > i know how it sounds?[ 2016.09.05 20:25:35 ] deeks87 deacon > but it's the best way to know i can trust players with all that isk?[ 2016.09.05 20:26:02 ] deeks87 deacon > like i said you saw my wallet i don't need to scam isk?[ 2016.09.05 20:26:07 ] deeks87 deacon > i have more fun doing shit like this?[ 2016.09.05 20:26:21 ] deeks87 deacon > i reached my isk endgame a long time ago?[ 2016.09.05 20:26:36 ] deeks87 deacon > i'm shit at pvp and pve and every other aspect of this game so this is my fun lol?[ 2016.09.05 20:26:52 ] deeks87 deacon > and my roulette game?[ 2016.09.05 20:27:03 ] deeks87 deacon > SHIP ROULETTE?[ 2016.09.05 20:27:29 ] Jesus Yvormes > Vexor Navy Issue when you trust people D:?[ 2016.09.05 20:27:53 ] deeks87 deacon > wtf?[ 2016.09.05 20:28:04 ] deeks87 deacon > dude?[ 2016.09.05 20:28:08 ] Jesus Yvormes > yeah got fucked xD?[ 2016.09.05 20:28:11 ] deeks87 deacon > never accept anyting from jita local lol?[ 2016.09.05 20:28:19 ] Jesus Yvormes > lol yeah?[ 2016.09.05 20:28:19 ] deeks87 deacon > so amny bad scams there?[ 2016.09.05 20:28:28 ] Jesus Yvormes > except bill posted this in Amarr local?[ 2016.09.05 20:28:45 ] deeks87 deacon > Yeh he said he was gonna do that?[ 2016.09.05 20:28:50 ] deeks87 deacon > think he was excited?[ 2016.09.05 20:29:10 ] deeks87 deacon > do you know bill??[ 2016.09.05 20:29:22 ] Jesus Yvormes > nope he just posted that in local?[ 2016.09.05 20:29:41 ] deeks87 deacon > i amiled him asking if you where his alt trying to get more isk from me lol?[ 2016.09.05 20:29:47 ] deeks87 deacon > can never be too carefull?[ 2016.09.05 20:30:09 ] deeks87 deacon > mailed?[ 2016.09.05 20:30:29 ] Jesus Yvormes > How about this I have an idea?[ 2016.09.05 20:31:13 ] deeks87 deacon > i know what your gonna say?[ 2016.09.05 20:31:21 ] Jesus Yvormes > what am I gonna say?[ 2016.09.05 20:31:34 ] deeks87 deacon > your going to tey compramise with me to make this transaction safer and fair for you?[ 2016.09.05 20:31:51 ] Jesus Yvormes > Maybe xD?[ 2016.09.05 20:31:54 ] deeks87 deacon > and your gonna make a counter offer of this working so you get the isk from me and you feel safe doing it?[ 2016.09.05 20:32:10 ] deeks87 deacon > and i'm going to reject as it's not showing faith or trust lol?[ 2016.09.05 20:32:25 ] deeks87 deacon > sorry but i have been doing this a while i just know how ppl react lol?[ 2016.09.05 20:33:22 ] deeks87 deacon > but the truth is bud that there is only one way i do it and as scammy and shit as it sounds it's great and i know the fear and the apprehensiveness that you feel and let me tell ya it's like no other rush u will ever get in this game?[ 2016.09.05 20:34:02 ] Jesus Yvormes > except I will quit this game if I get scammed like that :P?[ 2016.09.05 20:34:11 ] Jesus Yvormes > And people that scam dont care :P?[ 2016.09.05 20:35:01 ] Jesus Yvormes > I know you want me to have faith?[ 2016.09.05 20:35:04 ] Jesus Yvormes > But I can't?[ 2016.09.05 20:35:12 ] deeks87 deacon > ohhh bud i would never want anyone to leave this game?[ 2016.09.05 20:35:59 ] deeks87 deacon > i understand sir like i said at start you can't do it i'm a verry good judge of character and it takes a lot to do this shit ask bill he was having panic attacks?[ 2016.09.05 20:36:35 ] Jesus Yvormes > How do I know Bill isn't your alt though :(?[ 2016.09.05 20:36:59 ] deeks87 deacon > you don't know that and am not gonna try prove otherwise as it does make me look like a scammer?[ 2016.09.05 20:38:38 ] Jesus Yvormes > Why continue to play eve and not just sell your billions to a RMT site?[ 2016.09.05 20:38:53 ] Jesus Yvormes > You would make thousands of dollars?[ 2016.09.05 20:39:12 ] deeks87 deacon > don't want banned lol?[ 2016.09.05 20:39:22 ] Jesus Yvormes > How many SP do you have?[ 2016.09.05 20:39:23 ] deeks87 deacon > CCP are all over that shit?[ 2016.09.05 20:39:45 ] deeks87 deacon > on this account 45m on my main i have 110m?[ 2016.09.05 20:40:00 ] deeks87 deacon > and 3 trader account about 10m or so each?[ 2016.09.05 20:41:02 ] Jesus Yvormes > Bro you could totally get banned and make another account and buy shit load of injectors?[ 2016.09.05 20:44:15 ] deeks87 deacon > na too much effort and besides am good for rl cash tbh?[ 2016.09.05 20:45:47 ] Jesus Yvormes > Well I am not gonna go through with it cause too scared :(?[ 2016.09.05 20:45:52 ] Jesus Yvormes > Sorry deeks?[ 2016.09.05 20:51:30 ] deeks87 deacon > sorry dog again?[ 2016.09.05 20:51:41 ] deeks87 deacon > ok np i understand?[ 2016.09.05 20:51:46 ] Jesus Yvormes > you're good?[ 2016.09.05 20:58:59 ] deeks87 deacon > you got a mic??[ 2016.09.05 20:59:13 ] Jesus Yvormes > I do?[ 2016.09.05 20:59:40 ] deeks87 deacon > you wanna chat over voice instead of text??[ 2016.09.05 20:59:55 ] Jesus Yvormes > well I am going to be eatting dinner soon?[ 2016.09.05 21:00:05 ] Jesus Yvormes > eating?[ 2016.09.05 21:00:07 ] Jesus Yvormes > *?[ 2016.09.05 21:00:17 ] deeks87 deacon > i see np bud?[ 2016.09.05 21:00:30 ] Jesus Yvormes > After I am down?[ 2016.09.05 21:00:36 ] Jesus Yvormes > You got TS??[ 2016.09.05 21:00:45 ] deeks87 deacon > i have but no server?[ 2016.09.05 21:00:53 ] deeks87 deacon > u got a server??[ 2016.09.05 21:00:56 ] Jesus Yvormes > ts.kilann.fr:10064?[ 2016.09.05 21:01:40 ] Jesus Yvormes > We can talk in Free Chat after dinner?[ 2016.09.05 21:01:56 ] deeks87 deacon > np am in there just poke me?[ 2016.09.05 21:02:04 ] Jesus Yvormes > Gotta give me a bit brb dinner just finished?[ 2016.09.05 21:02:14 ] deeks87 deacon > np take ur time and enjoy bud?[ 2016.09.05 22:24:11 ] deeks87 deacon > Serpentis Modified Capital Microprocessor?[ 2016.09.05 22:34:30 ] Jesus Yvormes > High-grade Slave Alpha High-grade Slave Beta High-grade Slave Gamma High-grade Slave Delta High-grade Slave Epsilon?[ 2016.09.05 22:35:29 ] Jesus Yvormes > High-grade Slave Omega?[ 2016.09.05 22:48:32 ] deeks87 deacon > 47 injectors?[ 2016.09.05 22:50:03 ] deeks87 deacon > 47 + 25 b =?[ 2016.09.05 22:52:53 ] deeks87 deacon > sorry coms are off wife got into bed behind me?[ 2016.09.05 22:53:05 ] deeks87 deacon > am still in game chat however?[ 2016.09.05 22:53:08 ] Jesus Yvormes > okie?[ 2016.09.05 22:53:56 ] Jesus Yvormes > eta??[ 2016.09.05 22:54:59 ] deeks87 deacon > back?[ 2016.09.05 22:55:01 ] deeks87 deacon > sorry?[ 2016.09.05 22:55:07 ] deeks87 deacon > right ok?[ 2016.09.05 22:55:07 ] Jesus Yvormes > you're good :)?[ 2016.09.05 22:55:17 ] deeks87 deacon > firstly well done on getting here?[ 2016.09.05 22:55:32 ] Jesus Yvormes > Scam? :D?[ 2016.09.05 22:55:32 ] deeks87 deacon > brave i respect that so your going to make a lot more than 25b?[ 2016.09.05 22:55:34 ] deeks87 deacon > no?[ 2016.09.05 22:55:41 ] deeks87 deacon > far from it?[ 2016.09.05 22:55:53 ] Jesus Yvormes > I almost shit myself after I saw you left TS?[ 2016.09.05 22:55:58 ] deeks87 deacon > i genuinly had to leave ts wife telling me to shut up lol?[ 2016.09.05 22:55:58 ] Jesus Yvormes > I said to myself "Rip"?[ 2016.09.05 22:56:11 ] deeks87 deacon > i knew you would think that hahah?[ 2016.09.05 22:56:17 ] deeks87 deacon > sorry for that bud?[ 2016.09.05 22:56:17 ] Jesus Yvormes > You're good dude xD?[ 2016.09.05 22:56:40 ] deeks87 deacon > right ok am gonna get you more isk than a shit 25b isk now i know you trust me?[ 2016.09.05 22:57:34 ] deeks87 deacon > how many alts you got??[ 2016.09.05 22:58:25 ] Jesus Yvormes > I have 4 alts but 2 are offline but have less then 5.5 million sp and 1 is online but has 1.5 million sp.?[ 2016.09.05 22:58:30 ] Jesus Yvormes > Well 4 accounts?[ 2016.09.05 22:58:36 ] Jesus Yvormes > 2 active and 2 offline?[ 2016.09.05 22:58:59 ] deeks87 deacon > 2 active ones have less than 5m??[ 2016.09.05 22:59:45 ] Jesus Yvormes > 2 of them have less then 5 million SP and 1 has a little more then 5 million as I extracted from him a couple days ago?[ 2016.09.05 23:00:06 ] deeks87 deacon > forget the sp no poin logging them in?[ 2016.09.05 23:00:22 ] deeks87 deacon > how about assets what are you worth now??[ 2016.09.05 23:00:40 ] Jesus Yvormes > Around 3.5 if that?[ 2016.09.05 23:00:46 ] deeks87 deacon > bil?[ 2016.09.05 23:00:51 ] deeks87 deacon > btw am sending u more mails?[ 2016.09.05 23:00:55 ] deeks87 deacon > with more trade items?[ 2016.09.05 23:01:06 ] Jesus Yvormes > yes billion and okay?[ 2016.09.05 23:01:07 ] deeks87 deacon > keep them in your markket quick bar?[ 2016.09.05 23:01:31 ] deeks87 deacon > ok send 3.5b assets /isk and then i will offer you 35b is that's ok??[ 2016.09.05 23:01:49 ] Jesus Yvormes > wow trying to empty me D:?[ 2016.09.05 23:02:07 ] deeks87 deacon > yes?[ 2016.09.05 23:02:20 ] deeks87 deacon > that's the test you feeling it now arn't ya??[ 2016.09.05 23:02:29 ] Jesus Yvormes > I feel like death?[ 2016.09.05 23:02:32 ] Jesus Yvormes > xD?[ 2016.09.05 23:02:44 ] deeks87 deacon > shit but what u going to feel when your wallet blinks?[ 2016.09.05 23:03:49 ] Jesus Yvormes > Will I get assets back or just the money??[ 2016.09.05 23:04:42 ] deeks87 deacon > no money?[ 2016.09.05 23:04:46 ] deeks87 deacon > if u don't mind?[ 2016.09.05 23:04:58 ] deeks87 deacon > i can give assets back but easier and cleaner to send isk?[ 2016.09.05 23:04:58 ] Jesus Yvormes > okay?[ 2016.09.05 23:05:18 ] Jesus Yvormes > Can only make 1 contract at a time ready to accept?[ 2016.09.05 23:05:42 ] Jesus Yvormes > tell me when ready?[ 2016.09.05 23:06:06 ] deeks87 deacon > kk?[ 2016.09.05 23:06:19 ] Jesus Yvormes > [Multiple Items] (Item Exchange)?[ 2016.09.05 23:08:24 ] deeks87 deacon > btw was that in jita??[ 2016.09.05 23:08:32 ] deeks87 deacon > Kakakela VI - Moon 15 - Caldari Navy Assembly Plant?[ 2016.09.05 23:08:53 ] Jesus Yvormes > what??[ 2016.09.05 23:09:10 ] deeks87 deacon > nvm i thought that ship was jita?[ 2016.09.05 23:09:16 ] deeks87 deacon > is that protious 1b isk??[ 2016.09.05 23:09:29 ] Jesus Yvormes > about?[ 2016.09.05 23:09:30 ] Jesus Yvormes > I can'?[ 2016.09.05 23:09:35 ] Jesus Yvormes > I can't contract the sin?[ 2016.09.05 23:09:43 ] Jesus Yvormes > It has cargo containers in it?[ 2016.09.05 23:09:56 ] deeks87 deacon > where is it??[ 2016.09.05 23:10:03 ] Jesus Yvormes > Nalvula IX - Moon 2 - Spacelane Patrol Assembly Plant?[ 2016.09.05 23:10:37 ] deeks87 deacon > ok i'll fly there with ya have arace?[ 2016.09.05 23:10:39 ] deeks87 deacon > race?[ 2016.09.05 23:10:45 ] deeks87 deacon > if you win i add5b to your haul?[ 2016.09.05 23:10:51 ] deeks87 deacon > rookie ship race?[ 2016.09.05 23:11:01 ] Jesus Yvormes > deal?[ 2016.09.05 23:11:09 ] deeks87 deacon > ok 1 sec lol?[ 2016.09.05 23:11:18 ] deeks87 deacon > u got isk in your wallet??[ 2016.09.05 23:11:18 ] Jesus Yvormes > oh lol guess what?[ 2016.09.05 23:11:22 ] Jesus Yvormes > I can't?[ 2016.09.05 23:11:23 ] Jesus Yvormes > xD?[ 2016.09.05 23:11:31 ] deeks87 deacon > why lol?[ 2016.09.05 23:11:36 ] Jesus Yvormes > Spaceship Command Level I extracted it xD?[ 2016.09.05 23:11:50 ] Jesus Yvormes > and I self destructed to Jita?[ 2016.09.05 23:11:54 ] deeks87 deacon > hahahha?[ 2016.09.05 23:12:03 ] deeks87 deacon > u in jita now??[ 2016.09.05 23:12:07 ] Jesus Yvormes > yep?[ 2016.09.05 23:12:11 ] deeks87 deacon > pod there?[ 2016.09.05 23:12:13 ] Jesus Yvormes > going back to amarr?[ 2016.09.05 23:12:16 ] deeks87 deacon > how many jumps??[ 2016.09.05 23:12:18 ] Jesus Yvormes > Oh okay nvm?[ 2016.09.05 23:12:29 ] Jesus Yvormes > 7 jumps there?[ 2016.09.05 23:12:34 ] deeks87 deacon > ok meet u there?[ 2016.09.05 23:13:16 ] deeks87 deacon > i need you wallet at 0 so when i send u isk you can take a screenshot of me sending it?[ 2016.09.05 23:14:09 ] Jesus Yvormes > I have an idea?[ 2016.09.05 23:14:13 ] deeks87 deacon > yeh?[ 2016.09.05 23:14:57 ] Jesus Yvormes > nvm going there now :D?[ 2016.09.05 23:15:14 ] Jesus Yvormes > sent isk?[ 2016.09.05 23:15:20 ] deeks87 deacon > did u send em isk there i missed that?[ 2016.09.05 23:15:25 ] Jesus Yvormes > just sent?[ 2016.09.05 23:15:30 ] Jesus Yvormes > I have a question?[ 2016.09.05 23:15:41 ] Jesus Yvormes > I will give you the sin but is this a scam?[ 2016.09.05 23:15:45 ] Jesus Yvormes > Be honest?[ 2016.09.05 23:15:47 ] Jesus Yvormes > Like please?[ 2016.09.05 23:15:50 ] deeks87 deacon > nope?[ 2016.09.05 23:15:55 ] Jesus Yvormes > Okay?[ 2016.09.05 23:15:55 ] deeks87 deacon > i bet it feels like one?[ 2016.09.05 23:15:59 ] deeks87 deacon > i can prove it's not?[ 2016.09.05 23:16:01 ] Jesus Yvormes > extremely.?[ 2016.09.05 23:16:24 ] deeks87 deacon > Jesus Yvormes meet AlCopan Yaken?[ 2016.09.05 23:16:29 ] Jesus Yvormes > hey dude?[ 2016.09.05 23:16:36 ] deeks87 deacon > one of my previous customers?[ 2016.09.05 23:16:41 ] AlCopan Yaken > o/?[ 2016.09.05 23:16:43 ] deeks87 deacon > am i a scam AlCopan Yaken??[ 2016.09.05 23:16:47 ] AlCopan Yaken > no?[ 2016.09.05 23:16:57 ] deeks87 deacon > did you feel like you where being scammed??[ 2016.09.05 23:17:00 ] AlCopan Yaken > yes?[ 2016.09.05 23:17:06 ] AlCopan Yaken > everyone does?[ 2016.09.05 23:17:11 ] deeks87 deacon > it's the test?[ 2016.09.05 23:17:27 ] Jesus Yvormes > 3 jumps out?[ 2016.09.05 23:17:33 ] deeks87 deacon > 10?[ 2016.09.05 23:19:10 ] Jesus Yvormes > 1 jump out?[ 2016.09.05 23:19:38 ] deeks87 deacon > kk?[ 2016.09.05 23:19:40 ] deeks87 deacon > 8?[ 2016.09.05 23:19:44 ] deeks87 deacon > am slow u won race?[ 2016.09.05 23:19:53 ] Jesus Yvormes > whoop whoop?[ 2016.09.05 23:20:06 ] deeks87 deacon > pod my self so i go abck to amarr?[ 2016.09.05 23:20:11 ] deeks87 deacon > i can't fly the sin lol?[ 2016.09.05 23:20:21 ] Jesus Yvormes > Neither can I xD?[ 2016.09.05 23:20:28 ] deeks87 deacon > y u got one in low sec??[ 2016.09.05 23:20:37 ] Jesus Yvormes > I could before I extracted xD?[ 2016.09.05 23:21:42 ] deeks87 deacon > no i ment before lol?[ 2016.09.05 23:21:54 ] deeks87 deacon > now i get you ahhaha?[ 2016.09.05 23:22:30 ] deeks87 deacon > OMG?[ 2016.09.05 23:22:39 ] Jesus Yvormes > what??[ 2016.09.05 23:22:41 ] AlCopan Yaken >??[ 2016.09.05 23:22:43 ] deeks87 deacon > Are you 2 related same background??[ 2016.09.05 23:22:48 ] deeks87 deacon > Jesus Yvormes AlCopan Yaken?[ 2016.09.05 23:22:57 ] deeks87 deacon > you scamming me guys lol?[ 2016.09.05 23:23:00 ] Jesus Yvormes >??[ 2016.09.05 23:23:07 ] Jesus Yvormes > Ummmm no??[ 2016.09.05 23:23:09 ] deeks87 deacon > same avatar background?[ 2016.09.05 23:23:14 ] AlCopan Yaken > oh?[ 2016.09.05 23:23:16 ] AlCopan Yaken > lol?[ 2016.09.05 23:23:16 ] deeks87 deacon > joking lol?[ 2016.09.05 23:23:17 ] Jesus Yvormes > Cause I was in Co2?[ 2016.09.05 23:23:18 ] Jesus Yvormes > xD?[ 2016.09.05 23:23:24 ] Jesus Yvormes > Part of the MBC?[ 2016.09.05 23:24:02 ] Jesus Yvormes > deeks87 deacon i need 10,000 to contract it to you.?[ 2016.09.05 23:24:29 ] Jesus Yvormes > [Multiple Items] (Item Exchange)?[ 2016.09.05 23:25:18 ] deeks87 deacon > http://evepraisal.com/e/12562790?[ 2016.09.05 23:25:22 ] deeks87 deacon > worth 2.3b?[ 2016.09.05 23:25:22 ] Jesus Yvormes > Okay, so now what?[ 2016.09.05 23:25:29 ] deeks87 deacon > ok much did i say i owe you??[ 2016.09.05 23: |
this stuff is far from the most important thing to consider or talk about when it comes to this amazing moment where a very libertarian politician seems on the cusp of actually winning the first caucus in a Republican presidential contest. Libertarians, as a rule, especially if you've been in this game for decades before Paul, are used to the fact that peculiar political beliefs attract peculiar people, that there is a sociological overlap between the radical politics of libertarianism and certain other radical beliefs that don't have anything intellectually or necessarily to do with libertarianism, and that isn't the problem or the fault of libertarian ideas, nor is fighting those unpleasant ideas that some people in the libertarian orbit hold the primary responsibility of libertarians. Standing up for political liberty is.
And, more importantly, I believe it's less important to beat up on and condemn a certain set of powerless and marginalized people who think and believe some nasty things everyone agrees are wrong than it is to beat up on and condemn the set of incredibly powerful people who actually act to commit crimes and rights-violation and damage to life across the globe who everyone thinks are perfectly right to do so. And Ron Paul is the only candidate with any public traction and fans who condemns and would fight to stop such crimes, from the drug war to non-defensive overseas wars to armed assaults on people because they sell raw milk to rampant violations of American's civil liberties and privacy to an organization in charge of our money supply that uses that power to scuttle the entire world economy and bailout its buddies.
By any standard of political or moral judgment that I can respect, that is what is important about Ron Paul and the story of Ron Paul now. And from my five years of experience reporting on the Ron Paul movement that's arisen since 2007, both for Reason and for my forthcoming book, I can assure any old libertarian worried about old libertarian movement business that it is the good things about Ron Paul that have won him the support and love he has won, and that this old business is irrelevant to them, and thus irrelevant to the actual important political and cultural story about Ron Paul now.Governor Tells High School Students He'd Like To Shoot A Student's Dad; Arrest/Investigation Fail To Ensue
from the hahaha-but-srsly-i-want-to-kill-ur-dad-jk dept
We've recently discussed at length the subpoena and gag order issued by the Assistant US Attorney over some tasteless, but innocuous, comments made by Reason readers. Anyone who's spent any time in comment sections would have seen these comments as nothing more than the internet being the internet -- a place where hyperbole and stupidity very often outweighs thought and nuance. The comments are being treated as serious threats by the US government, seeing as they were posted below an article about a federal judge. Here are two of the more "violent" comments:
AgammamonI5.31.15 @ lO:47AMltt
Its judges like these that should be taken out back and shot.
AlanI5.31.15 @ 12:09PMltt
It's judges like these that will be taken out back and shot.
FTFY.
croakerI6.1.15 @ 11:06AMltt
Why waste ammunition? Wood chippers get the message across clearly. Especially if you
feed them in feet first.
Cloudbusterl6.l.15 @ 2:40PMIIt
Why do it out back? Shoot them out front, on the steps of the courthouse.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage's joke about shooting a political cartoonist is falling flat.
The son of Bangor Daily News cartoonist George Danby said LePage made the remark after he asked what the governor thought of his father's cartoons Wednesday during an event at Dirigo Boys State, a youth leadership program.
A day after Gov. Paul LePage told a group of high school students that he would “like to shoot” a Bangor Daily News cartoonist, a top advocate for expanding passenger rail to Lewiston-Auburn said that LePage earlier this month said state lawmakers from Lewiston should be “rounded up and executed in the public square.”
And yet, when a prominent political figure says roughly the same thing -- TWICE! (possibly) -- it's not followed up by the issuing of subpoenas or government-led investigations The governor told a crowd of high school students he would like to "shoot" this cartoonist. This was said directly to the cartoonist's son during a Q&A session with the governor. (Video -- albeit silent -- of the incident located here.) The Bangor Daily News noted the audience of teens laughed and took it as a joke. And it was, albeit a horrifically tasteless one considering cartoonists have very recently been shot for expressing their views. (That the governor's joke about shooting someone, delivered at a school event, wasn't immediately greeted with a swarm of police officers and strongly-worded condemnations by school officials is yet another bit of hypocrisy…)Cartoonist George Danby -- the one the governor would like to shoot -- doesn't find the joke particularly funny. But as offended as he is, he's only asking for an apology, not an investigation. (And he still hasn't received one.)But this isn't an isolated experience. It appears Governor LePage would like to kill many, many people That this alleged statement -- made on government property in a government building -- wasn't greeted with police officers, arrests, etc. is also hypocritical. Given the paranoiac thinking that has passed for "caution" since 2001, someone talking about shooting people while in a government building is usually considered to be something best handled with deployments of force and zealous prosecution. Then there's the fact that this joke Godwinsby aligning Governor LePage with other political figures who had opponents rounded up and shot.That LePage ever delivered this second shooting "joke" is still debatable. One person attending this meeting in the governor's office claims to have heard it. Other attendees disagree. But either way, we have at leastconfirmed instance of a political figure claiming he'd like to shoot someone he doesn't like.But there's no investigation underway and no one is calling for an indictment of LePage for issuing a "threat." Because it isn't one. It's simply hyperbolic speech uttered without intent or desire to actually follow through with such an act. It's what people do when expressing displeasure with someone or something. It happens all the time. Except when it happens in a comment section and the subject is a federal judge, it suddenly becomes a threat worthy of investigation and obfuscation by the US Attorney's Office.When it's a politician "targeting" a little person, no one cares, even with the recent Charlie Hebdo shooting as a backdrop -- a justification for cartoonist George Danby to take this "threat" very personally indeed. But Danby doesn't think LePage truly wants him dead and recognizes it for what it is. The "little people" who aren't afforded the full power of their government are much more rational than those with it at their disposal.
Filed Under: comments, doj, george danby, governor, hyperbole, investigation, maine, paul lepage, true threatsNo One Said Following Is Easy
Ina Fried, reporting for Recode on the ongoing Apple-Samsung court case, “Top Android Executive Says Google Didn’t Copy Apple’s iPhone”:
Lockheimer testified that Android, too, was the product of long hours and hard work. “The hours were pretty grueling,” Lockheimer said, speaking of the early days of Android as the operating system was being developed in 2006 and 2007. “They continue to be grueling, by the way. … We work really hard.”
Later in the article:
One thing that was not initially contemplated for the first Android device — at least initially — was any sort of touchscreen.
Weird use of initially in that sentence. As shown below, touchscreens probably were “contemplated” for the first Android devices (they expressly mentioned the potential to support them eventually) but they were explicitly rejected in the specification for Android 1.0.
“Touchscreens will not be supported,” Google said in a 2006 specification for Android devices. “The product was designed with the presence of discrete physical buttons as an assumption. However, there is nothing fundamental in the products [sic] architecture that prevents the support of touch screens [sic] in the future.” Obviously, Google later changed course and a touchscreen became mandatory. Lockheimer said the vision evolved as the company learned what it heard screen manufacturers tell it what was coming down the pipeline.
This testimony defies credulity. Consider the timeline. As Daniel Dilger documents in a report today for AppleInsider looking at Android design documents entered as evidence in the trial, in August 2006, the draft Android 1.0 design document mandated up/down/left/right/select hardware buttons and explicitly stated that touchscreens would not be supported. Then, the very next revision of the specification, in April 2007 — a draft described as a “major update” — multitouch touchscreens became mandatory. In August 2006 Android was planned as a BlackBerry/Windows Mobile style hardware-button platform with no initial support for touchscreens. In April 2007 it became a platform where multitouch touchscreens were mandatory. The only way one could believe that this change was driven by what Google heard from screen manufacturers is if what the screen manufacturers told Google was, “Holy shit, what are we going to do about the iPhone?”
But what caught my attention is the “hard work” angle in Lockheimer’s testimony. Long hours of hard work don’t disprove that Android copied the iPhone. In fact, copying the iPhone would imply more work. They effectively designed the Android platform twice: first as a BlackBerry/Windows Mobile style hardware button platform, and then as an iPhone-style touchscreen platform.
The word copying is pejorative, so let’s just call it following. Of course Android followed the iPhone’s lead. But what else was Google to do? It took genius to conceive and create the original iPhone. But once it was revealed — and especially once it hit the market — anyone with a lick of sense could see that this was how all such devices should work. If Google had stuck to its original design for Android, it wouldn’t have succeeded in a post-iPhone world — it would have been Windows Mobile without the existing market share.
The first successful implementation of a radical idea is usually and correctly lauded as the innovator. The second is derided as an imitator. But by the time you get to the third and fourth, the idea becomes a category.
It was inevitable that competitors would follow the iPhone’s lead, and it was inevitable that Apple would feel wronged when it happened. What I wonder about is whether it was inevitable that Apple would sue. Are they pursuing Samsung in court because Samsung is so clearly their most successful rival in the handset industry, or is it because Samsung so clearly copied — not merely followed but gratuitously copied — so much from Apple? I suspect it’s both — that it was the combination of Samsung’s blatant copying and mimicry of the iPhone’s trade dress, combined with their success, that has compelled Apple to fight them tooth-and-nail in court.1
I suspect Apple’s goal is not so much about procuring redress for Samsung’s past actions, but rather to send a message. I doubt Apple will be awarded enough money from this Samsung lawsuit to have made the effort worthwhile directly. But indirectly, if the message gets through to competitors that Apple is willing to pursue lawsuits like this with a seemingly irrational fervor, and it makes them (the competitors) gun-shy to copy future Apple products, to follow Apple too closely — it may not be so irrational after all.2BALTIMORE -- A Baltimore detective killed by a gunman last week was slain a day before he was set to testify in a corruption probe into activities of indicted officers, the city's police commissioner confirmed Wednesday.
CBS Baltimore reports that the Baltimore Police Department held a press conference Wednesday evening to update the public on their investigation into Detective Sean Suiter's murder.
Baltimore Police Department Commissioner Kevin Davis said Suiter was set to give testimony in a federal grand jury case as part of an incident that took place years ago, CBS Baltimore reports. This involved Baltimore police officers who were federally indicted earlier this year.
The police commissioner's latest revelation will do little to quell speculation. Davis emphasized that Suiter was not the target of any criminal investigation.
The Baltimore police and the FBI do not have any evidence to suggest that Suiter's slaying is "part of any conspiracy," according to Davis. But he added "there's nothing we won't consider" and said he understands why there is speculation.
"It certainly makes for great theater," Davis said.
Suiter wasn't "anything other than a stellar detective, great friend, loving husband, and dedicated father," Davis said.
He was a father of five and an Army veteran.
The federal grand jury is investigating a group of Baltimore officers who worked together on a firearms crime task force and have been charged with stealing money, property and narcotics from people over two years. An indictment has described the members of the Gun Trace Task Force, a small unit dedicated to getting illegal guns off Baltimore's streets, as using their position to allegedly threaten the innocent, detain people on false pretenses and steal their money. They are also accused of faking police reports, lying to investigators and defrauding their department.
Davis emphasized that the evidence collected in Suiter's unsolved killing points to a "spontaneous encounter" the homicide detective had with a suspicious man he observed while working in a high-crime neighborhood with his partner. Evidence indicates a violent struggle, Davis said, including a roughly three-second-long radio transmission in which what seem to be gunshots are heard and Suiter appears to be in distress.
CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave reports that video has surfaced of Suiter's partner, who was away from Suiter taking cover at the sound of gun fire and immediately calling for help.
According to Suiter's partner, both officers observed an African American male in a black coat with a white stripe acting suspiciously about 20 minutes before the shooting, Suiter saw him again moments before he was killed. To date that's the best description the partner has been able to provide.
Investigators have recovered the detective's gun from the gritty lot where he was shot and have determined that the 18-year veteran of the department was shot with his own weapon. Ballistic tests show that recovered shell casings were matched to the recovered firearm.
An autopsy conducted four days after the attack showed that the gunshot was fired in "close contact" to Suiter's head, Davis said.
Davis knocked down speculation that Suiter's partner might have somehow been involved.
"The fact that we have not yet made an arrest creates an environment for rumors to flourish," he said, adding that "many people" have been interviewed and interrogated.
A reward of $215,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the person who killed Suiter.
CBS Baltimore reports that a GoFundMe campaign for Suiter's family has raised more than $44,000, and Suiter's funeral will happen next week.Published on Oct 5, 2012
WALK THE MOON's official music video for 'Tightrope'.
Click to listen to WALK THE MOON on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/WTMoonSpotify?IQid...
As featured on Walk The Moon. Click to buy the track or album via iTunes: http://smarturl.it/WTMwtmiTunes?IQid=...
Google Play: http://smarturl.it/WTMoonTropeplay?IQ...
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/WTMwtmAmz?IQid=WTM...
More from WALK THE MOON
Iscariot: https://youtu.be/fPQeMqiKqKs
Anna Sun: https://youtu.be/qDVW81bXo0s
Jenny: https://youtu.be/I7ar0wdK4vc
Follow WALK THE MOON
Website: http://www.walkthemoonband.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walkthemoon
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WALKTHEMOONband
Instagram: https://instagram.com/walkthemoonband/
Tumblr: http://walkthemoonband.tumblr.com/
Subscribe to WALK THE MOON on YouTube: http://smarturl.it/WTMoonSub?IQid=WTM...
More great Global Hits videos here: http://smarturl.it/GlobalHits?IQid=WT...
---------
Lyrics:
Easy now, with my heart
Easy now, oh with my heart
Walk a tightrope, walk a little tightrope
You walk a tightrope, walk a little tightrope
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh this heart is burning up
I said oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh this heart is burning up
Careful now, with my head
I said careful now, what you do to my head
Make your mind up, make your little mind up
To each his own, each his or her o-o-own
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, this heart is burning up
I said oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, this heart is burning up
In my bed, I'm rolling over
I'm changing, I've been the change, on the swings on the set, on the night that we met
And all the beads of water move up the glass
You speak your mind, you cannot take it back
Walk a tightrope, walk a little tightrope!
Walk a tightrope, walk a little tightrope!
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh this heart is burning up
I said oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh this heart is burning up
I said oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh this heart is burning up
I said oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh this heart is burning up
It's, it's burning up
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh...
#WALKTHEMOON #Tightrope #Vevo #Indie #VevoOfficialPersonal protection order claims Simowski stalked Lewand-Monroe at Ann Arbor home
Former Detroit Land Bank Authority chief Kevin Simowski. (Photo: Detroit Medical Center)
The former director of the Detroit Land Bank Authority was fired from the job he had held less than a year because he came to work drunk and had been accused of stalking and threatening a coworker, according to records and people familiar with the matter.
The board of the land bank fired Kevin Simowski last month without explanation. But people familiar with the matter confirmed to the Free Press that Simowski had shown up intoxicated on the job and had threatened the woman who would ultimately replace him, Carrie Lewand-Monroe, who sought a personal protection order against Simowski.
Lewand-Monroe, 38, daughter of Mayor Mike Duggan’s Group Executive for Jobs and Economic Growth, Tom Lewand, filed the PPO on Oct. 8, the day after Simowski showed up unwanted at Lewand-Monroe's Ann Arbor home, the PPO says.
The revelation answers the mystery of why Simowski, a longtime Duggan friend, was fired summarily last month, with officials saying only that it was a personnel matter that would remain private.
His termination came amid heavy scrutiny of the land bank as costs for demolition of blighted homes in Detroit rose to an average $16,400, up from $10,000 or less under former Mayor Dave Bing’s administration. Officials said Simowski’s firing was unrelated to news reports about the rising costs.
Simowski couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.
Lewand-Monroe said in the PPO, filed in Wayne County Circuit Court, that she feared for her life because of the stalking and threats from Simowski, culminating in him showing up at her home. Once land bank officials learned of the threats, Simowski was fired, the sources said.
Lewand-Monroe said in the PPO that Simowski had harassed her and "displayed aggressive behavior" on multiple occasions beginning in April.
"He told me in one instance he owned a weapon and would kill himself because I stopped being his friend and wouldn't have lunch with him," Lewand-Monroe wrote. "Based on his actions I am fearful and feel threatened."
The threatening behavior came to a head Oct. 7, according to the PPO.
Simowski "parked outside my home and waited for me to come home from work," Lewand-Monroe wrote. "My husband went up to his vehicle and asked why he was there. He mumbled something and then drove off."
The land bank issued a statement late Wednesday from Erica Ward Gerson, the land bank's board chairwoman, who said that Simowski was placed on medical leave Sept. 1. The PPO indicates Simowski was told to have no contact with land bank employees but continued to call Lewand-Monroe.
"He has not been on the premises since that date and was instructed by me to not contact any land bank employees during that leave," Ward Gerson said. "Based on Information provided me by an employee of the land bank relative to an incident on October 7th, the land bank terminated Simowski on October 8th. Simowski was terminated for cause, and no severance was paid."
Ward Gerson said that the board could not comment beyond that.
Simowski, 58, was credited with helping then-Wayne County Prosecutor Duggan to develop a program in the early 2000s in which prosecutors filed nuisance lawsuits against owners of Detroit homes that became blighted drug dens, forcing owners to clean them up or hand over deeds. It was the framework for Duggan’s program to clean up blighted homes in Detroit as mayor through the city's land bank.
Simowski followed Duggan to the Detroit Medical Center, where he was an executive under Duggan, who left the prosecutors office to become the medical center’s CEO in 2004-2012.
Duggan's office declined to comment.
Contact Matt Helms: 313-222-1450 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @matthelms.
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/1MB1IN1The new unity government, in which the major parties would share power, is widely expected to be led by a nonpolitician and to govern for several months, long enough to carry out the debt deal and pass a budget for 2011. The name of the new prime minister and the composition of the new cabinet are not expected to be announced until Monday, when the leaders will meet again, according to a statement Sunday night by the Greek president, Karolos Papoulias, who moderated the talks on Sunday.
In a statement early Monday morning, the Greek Finance Ministry said that delegations from the Socialist Party and New Democracy met on Sunday “to discuss the time frame of the actions” to implement the debt deal, and added that the two parties regarded Feb. 19 as “the most appropriate date for elections.”
In reaching the agreement, Mr. Papandreou agreed to meet Mr. Samaras’s demand that he step down as prime minister, while Mr. Samaras agreed to back the debt deal and a seven-point plan of priorities proposed by Mr. Papandreou that would essentially commit the new government to the terms of the debt deal.
Mr. Samaras is not expected to play a role in the unity government, but would be New Democracy’s candidate for prime minister in the general election.
Photo
In many ways, a new interim government for Greece buys time for European leaders to put together a stronger bailout mechanism that would protect larger economies from the risk of default, chief among them Italy. High debt, low growth and the diminishing credibility of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi have made that nation increasingly vulnerable.
“The decision is very positive, because it will appease the markets and because it shows that Greek authorities are doing what foreign leaders want them to do — to get on with implementing the conditions for the E.U. debt deal,” said Athanassios Papandropoulos, an economist and commentator for the conservative Greek newspaper Estia.
Still, he said, he saw little chance that a unity government could get Greece back on the road to economic, political and social recovery. “I don’t think it will work,” Mr. Papandropoulos said. “It will last three months, then we’ll have elections, and then we’ll have the same problems all over again.”
Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.
Greece has rarely had unity governments. A civil war between right and left in the late 1940s left its political culture deeply divided, and it remains so nearly 40 years after the fall of a military dictatorship. But the dire economic situation has pushed Greece into uncharted territory.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
In an unusually direct ultimatum to Greece, the European Union commissioner for economic affairs, Olli Rehn, said Sunday that finance ministers from the 17 countries in the union that use the euro were expecting the announcement of a unity government before their meeting in Brussels on Monday. Evangelos Venizelos, the Greek finance minister and a key figure in the Socialist government, is scheduled to attend the meeting.
In his efforts to head off the fall of his government and to maneuver Mr. Samaras into backing the debt deal, Mr. Papandreou proposed last week that the debt deal be put to a popular referendum. After the plan threw financial markets into turmoil and European leaders reacted with fury, Mr. Papandreou withdrew the idea, but won a reversal from Mr. Samaras on the debt deal.
One name being mentioned as a possible leader of the new unity government is Lucas Papademos, a former governor of the Bank of Greece and a former vice president of the European Central Bank. He has been teaching at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard since 2010, when he retired from the European bank, and has also been an informal adviser to Mr. Papandreou; he turned down an offer to be finance minister last spring, preferring to remain above the partisan political fray in Greece.
The new unity government will have its work cut out for it. Among the items on the seven-point plan Mr. Papandreou presented are completing the legal and financial terms of private sector involvement in the Greek rescue, in which banks holding Greek debt agree to voluntarily forgive much of its face value, to avoid a default.
The government also faces the challenge of securing the release of a new installment of 20 billion euros ($28 billion) in foreign aid that Greece needs by the end of February to stabilize its finances.
And it must approve the austerity measures that Mr. Papandreou’s government accepted in its talks with the “troika” of foreign lenders — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The layoffs and other cutbacks of Greece’s public sector are likely to generate more angry street demonstrations.
The new government’s success “will depend on the stance labor unions will take,” said Babis Papadimitriou, a political analyst for the daily newspaper Kathimerini and for Skai television. “This will be, maybe, one of the most interesting developments: what will be the relations between unions and the main parties.”Broward Sheriff's Office Lt. Eric Wright turned himself in on Friday on charges of fraud and 14 counts of grand theft after he was accused of working side jobs while he was technically on duty as a supervisor at least ten times between August 2010 and May 2011.
In addition to working only fractions of his assigned shifts (and sometimes just skipping them), Wright is accused of ditching his supervisory duties in Weston to moonlight at Houston's Restaurant in Pompano Beach and at Deerfield Beach High School, collecting his salary as if he'd been working the whole time.
Continue Reading
He joins a disturbing and ever-growing list of South Florida officers with their names at the top of arrest reports instead of at the bottom, a list that, in our special corner of Florida, might leaving you wondering who's going to show up if you need to call 911 or who's walking up to your car at that traffic stop.
It's probably a hard-working, law-abiding officer who's doing his job. But can it be held against someone for worrying, just a little, that it's one of the officers with no qualms about breaking rules? And worrying, just a little, about which rules they're willing to break?
Let's look at a few of the shining stars of South Florida criminal justice: BSO Det. Brent Woodall is the most recently arrested -- he was nabbed last Monday night at Cheetah Gentlemen's Club in Pompano Beach.
"Being at a strip club isn't a crime," you might say, and you would be right most of the time. But Woodall was on house arrest and removed his ankle bracelet to go there, according to the Sun-Sentinel, and that's generally accepted to be a no-no. He already had two strikes against him on the "please don't revoke my bail" front -- after being released to house arrest, he was accused of both leaving the scene of an accident and sending threatening text messages to a witness in his grand theft case.
And that grand theft case? It was on charges that he stole more than $1,000 from a drug dealer he was arresting... except he was totally busted when the drug dealer turned out to be an undercover cop.
Then there are Fort Lauderdale officers Michael Florenco, Matthew Moceri, and Geoffrey Shaffer, who turned themselves in late last month after being accused of breaking policy to go on a car chase in 2009 and perjuring themselves in the cover-up
Even before those charges were filed, Moceri and Florenco were in hot water -- they'd been on paid leave since last year after their names came up in the investigation into two more Fort Lauderdale cops, Brian Dodge and Billy Koepke. Those two could go to prison for life if they're convicted on the giant pile of charges they face for allegedly kidnapping and robbing a guy in an attempt to find drug dealers. Click those links if you want the whole story; it's really difficult to summarize in one sentence how disgusting the whole thing is.
This post could continue for hundreds more words (how about the BSO detective accused of witness tampering on Koepke's behalf?), but you get the idea, and we didn't even touch on Miami-Dade County, where, for example, a cop was raping people in his patrol car and no one will take the blame for letting him.
Over the past year, a Miami police officer was arrested for weaving in and out of traffic at 120 mph on Florida's Turnpike in Broward; another Miami police officer pleaded guilty to stealing thousands of dollars from colleagues; a Hollywood police officer was found guilty of falsifying a DUI-crash investigation; and a Miami Beach cop was arrested after, authorities said, he took a woman on a drunken ATV joyride. [The Herald left out that the ATV joyride involved the cop running over two people and leaving them with critical injuries.] Two Coral Springs officers are under investigation for allegedly trumping up criminal charges against a stranded motorist, two BSO deputies are under investigation for grand theft, two others were arrested in January for allegedly falsifying police reports and Opa-locka has the distinction of having the police officer with the worst Florida Department of Law Enforcement record in the state.
Granted, only a very (very) small fraction of the South Florida law enforcement community has been found acted outside the law. But if these cops can't obey the law, uphold the law, or tell the truth about doing either, what else is going on that we don't know about? And who the hell are we supposed to trust?Izvor: N1
Zaposleni u Pošti Srbije održali su protestnu šetnju u centru Beograda zbog lošeg materijalnog položaja. Okupili su se oko podneva ispred ispred Glavne pošte u Takovskoj ulici odakle su prošetali do zgrade Vlade Srbije u Nemanjinoj.
Dva reprezentativna sindikata, pod parolom "Vratite nam oteto", protestovala su jer su nezadovoljni zaradama i odnosom nadležnih prema radnicima.
Za N1 kažu da su im plate loše, da nemaju osnovne uslove za rad, kao i da su nezadovoljni zbog toga što su javna preduzeća izuzeta od povećanja plata.
Pored povećanja plata, traže i isplatu dela zarada iz dobiti Pošte i poboljšanje socijalno-ekonomskog položaja.
Protestu su se pridruili sindikati Jata, Poštanske štedionice, Železnica Srbije i Telekoma.
Tokom protesta nije bilo incidenat a saobraćaj je bio povremeno obustavljen u ulicama kojima su okupljeni šetali i protestovali.
Podsećamo da su iz Vlade u petak saopštili da su predstavnici reprezentativnih sindikata Pošte Srbije i premijerka Ana Brnabić razgovarali i postigli dogovor o isplati zarade iz dobiti preduzeća. Međutim, sindikati za N1 kažu da uprkos tome protestuju jer im nisu ispunjeni i ostali zahtevi.
Radnici kažu i da zameraju Vladi što sa njima stupa u pregovore tek kad se odluče za protest.
Protest je pratila Jelena Mirković:As readers of my columns know, I am a fan of Peter Schweizer, who runs the Government Accountability Institute and is author of the crucially important Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich. The book is an exhaustively researched account of the Clinton Foundation scheme, and media reporting indicates that it triggered the FBI’s investigation of the Foundation’s pay-to-play scheming.
Mr. Schweizer is the first to admit (maybe I should say, to brag) that he is not a lawyer or a constitutional scholar. He’s a first-rate investigative journalist. In that spirit, I want to rebut a legal error I’ve heard him make in a couple of interviews over the last few days, most recently when interviewed by Rush Limbaugh this afternoon. Apparently making some errant assumptions based on the fact that the FBI director, by statute, has a ten-year term, he has opined that the FBI is an agency independent of the executive branch; therefore, he concludes, the FBI director does not work for, and may not be fired by, the president.
This is incorrect.
In our system, law enforcement is an executive power. The FBI is thus an executive branch agency. Indeed, far from independent, it is a part of the Justice Department; the FBI director is subordinate to the attorney general in the chain-of-command.
Under the Constitution, all executive power is endowed in one official, the president of the United States. Every official who wields power in the executive branch thus wields it at the pleasure of the chief executive. The president may terminate any executive officer, even those who have been confirmed by Congress, for any reason or no reason. The FBI director is no different.
It is true that Congress has given the FBI director a ten-year term, but it is best thought of as a presumptive ten-year limit. There are two explanations for it.404 - Page Not Found Details Published: 12 October 2017
ADVERTISEMENTS
Rick's Cool Collectibles is a memorabilia mail order company serving collectors worldwide! Since 1979 the name Rick Barrett has been associated with quality collectibles including rare concert & event tickets and stubs, Led Zeppelin memorabilia, select music & sports memorabilia, stamps, coins, old postcards, and more!
This Month in
Led Zeppelin History February 07, 1962 - Deborah Bonham, sister to John, was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, England February 23, 1966 - Warren Grant, son of Peter, was born. February xx, 1969 - Led Zeppelin enters the Billboard Top 40
February 16, 1969 - Led Zeppelin wrap up their first American tour in Baltimore, MD.
February 07, 1970 - Edinburgh gig cancelled after Plant receives facial injuries in a car accident
February 28, 1970 - The band performs as "The Nobs" in Copenhagen after threat of legal action from Countess Von Zeppelin
February xx, 1971 - John Paul Jones involved in legal issues regarding a musician who shares the same name
February xx, 1971 - Overdubs for the fourth album are recorded at Island Studios
February 14, 1972 - The band is refused admission into Singapore due to their long hair
February 16, 1972 - The Australian tour begins in Perth
February 21, 1972 - Led Zeppelin: Rock and Roll b/w Four Sticks (Atlantic 45-2865) 45 single is released in the US. February xx, 1973 - The band makes final preparations for the European tour
February 16, 1973 - The release date for Houses Of The Holy is pushed back due to some sleeve problems
February xx, 1974 - Sessions for Physical Graffiti continue
February 14, 1974 - Page, Plant and Bonham attend a Roy Harper concert
February 04, 1975 - Zeppelin perform a last minute show at Nassau Coliseum to accomodate fans after being banned in Boston
February 24, 1975 - Physical Graffiti finally issued worldwide to phenomenal sales
February xx, 1976 - Media reports that Zeppelin are due to release an album entitled Obelisk
February xx, 1977 - Robert contracts a bout of tonsillitis postponing the American tour
February xx, 1978 - Robert Plant helps produce a record for punk band Dansette Damage |
does seem to have a parallel to Buddha-mind or Buddha-nature in its symbolism of the Holy Spirit. In many places in the New Testament the Holy Spirit is spoken of as indwelling Jesus and guiding and impelling him in his work, and also as giving new life to his followers in fulfillment of the prophecy that the Law that was formerly written on tablets of stone would one day be written on the hearts of God’s people (Jeremiah 31:33). In Hebrews the Holy Spirit is mentioned explicitly only once, but in that one verse it is indicated as the animating principle of Jesus’ sacrifice and of the new life that sacrifice opens to his followers: “... how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience...” (9:14).
This may be the only reference in Hebrews to the Spirit, but it has implications that gradually unfold as the author goes on to describe the consequences of Jesus’ sacrifice for his readers: He exhorts them to hold fast in faith to the new life Jesus’ sacrifice has won for them by freeing them from slavery to the fear of death and by renewing their consciences. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1). Freedom from the fear of death comes from their faith in Jesus’ resurrection and the hope for their own to come. The renewal of their consciences comes from the breaking of that fear’s power to make them cling to the life of the illusory desire-self that must be given up. This means they are called to undergo their own metaphorical but very real deaths: “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (12:4). In the last line of what Buchanan thinks is the original “homiletical midrash” we can even hear a distant echo of the image of the Vedic Agni as the fire that comes down from heaven, is buried in the earth, and leaps up again to consume the sacrifice: “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire” (12:28-29).
Notes
1. A reader wanting a full exposition of those theories might look at Webb, The Self Between: From Freud to the New Social Psychology of France, especially 87-119 and 175-193. (back)
2. Cf. the important theological study of Girard’s thought by Raymund Schwager, S. J.,Must There Be Scapegoats?: Violence and Redemption in the Bible, 88. (back)
3. Cf. Girard, The Scapegoat, 187: “... the kingdom of Satan is not one among others. The Gospels state explicitly that Satan is the principle of every kingdom.” (back)
4. See Things Hidden, 225-227. (back)
5. Buchanan, To the Hebrews, 246. (back)
6. Buchanan, 257, thinks Hebrews, because it refers to Temple sacrifices that are sill going on, dates from before the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. This would make it, along with the epistles of Paul, one of the earliest documents in the New Testament. J.H. Davies (A Letter to the Hebrews: Commentary by J.H. Davies, 8) agrees with Buchanan on this early date of the document. (back)
7. If this text really does date from the mid-first century, it would be just one more anachronism to interpret the author and his audience as “Christians” (as opposed to “Jews”) in the sense that word later took on. There is every reason to suppose that it would have been a very rare Christian of the first century who might have thought that Christianity was a new religion separate from the Jewish tradition; for all of its earliest adherents, the Christian movement was understood as a development within the Jewish tradition, not something radically different from it. (back)
8. Passages from the Bible will be quoted in the Revised Standard Version translation.(back)
9. Material in brackets will be my own comments and occasional more literal translations. A more literal translation of archegon than “pioneer” might be something like “original leader.” Arndt and Gingrich’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testamentspells it out as “one who begins someth[ing] as first in a series and thus supplies the impetus.” (back)
10. On the meaning of “hypostasis” in early Christian usage, see Webb, “The Hermeneutic of Greek Trinitarianism.” (back)
11. For a psychological discussion of the idea of enslavement by the fear of death, see Becker, The Denial of Death. (back)
12. Written ca. 1094-1098. Anselm is clearly the major figure among “the medieval theologians” Girard refers to in the quote above from Things Hidden, 182. The reason I speak of this as obvious to specifically western Christians is that Anselm was a westerner working out of a tradition deriving from Augustine of Hippo, who developed the idea of Original Sin, which for Anselm is the offense the propitiatory sacrifice was needed to compensate for. The Eastern Christian tradition did not read either of these Latin writers, had no doctrine of Original Sin as heritable guilt (although it did believe humanity had “fallen,” in the sense of going astray from the path God intended for it), and had an entirely different idea of atonement; for the Christian East, atonement (at-one-ment) was effected by the Incarnation as such, which was believed to have united humanity and divinity, rather than by propitiation of divine wrath. (back)
13. See Buchanan, 140-142. (back)
14. This interpretation of the essence of Torah was not an invention of Jesus but was already familiar to his Jewish audience, as can be seen from the fact that in the parallel passage in Luke 10:25-28 it is stated not by Jesus but by the “lawyer” whom Jesus challenges to tell him what in his view the principal commandments are. For the traditions behind this summation, see, for example, Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18. (back)
15. The psychology of possession is a major theme of Oughourlian’s Puppet of Desire. He considers it, in fact, the key to understanding the other phenomena he analyzes: hysteria and hypnosis. (back)
16. “... teleion... en anthropotéti” and “kata panta homoion hémin choris hamartias.” The conventional picture of Jesus as omniscient divine person is in fact a mixture of some of the positions the Council of Chalcedon explicitly rejected in its definition of the hypostatic union: docetism, monophysitism, and apollinarianism.(back)
9
Works Cited
Becker, Ernest. The Denial of Death. New York: The Free Press, 1973.
Buchanan, George Wesley. To the Hebrews. Translation, Comment, and Conclusions by George Wesley Buchanan. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972.
Davies, J.H. A Letter to the Hebrews: Commentary by J.H. Davies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967.
Girard, René. Deceit, Desire, and the Novel: Self and Other in Literary Structure. Translated by Yvonne Freccero. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1965. Translation of Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque. Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1961.
—-. Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World. With Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort. Trans. Stephen Bann and Michael Metteer. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987. Translation of Des choses cachées depuis la fondation du monde (1978).
—-. The Scapegoat. Trans. Yvonne Freccero. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.
—-. Violence and the Sacred. Trans. Patrick Gregory. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1977. Translation of La violence et le sacré (1972).
Griffiths, Bede. The Cosmic Revelation: The Hindu Way to God. Springfield, Ill.: Templegate Publishers, 1983.
Oughourlian, Jean-Michel. The Puppet of Desire: The Psychology of Hysteria, Possession, and Hypnosis. Translated with an introduction by Eugene Webb. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993. Translation of Un mime nommé désir. Paris: Grasset et Fasquelle, 1982.
Schwager, Raymund, S. J. Must There Be Scapegoats?: Violence and Redemption in the Bible. Trans. Maria L. Assad. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987. Translation of Brauchen Wir Einen Sündenbock? Munich: Kösel, 1978.
Webb, Eugene. “The Hermeneutic of Greek Trinitarianism: An Approach Through Intentionality Analysis.” In Religion in Context, ed. Timothy P. Fallon and Philip Boo Riley. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1988. Also online at http://faculty.washington.edu/ewebb/R428/trinity.pdf.
—-. The Self Between: From Freud to the New Social Psychology of France. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1993.Fortune Summoners Playtest: Looks Can Be Deceiving
By Laura. February 5, 2012. 6:00pm
At first glance, Lizsoft’s Fortune Summoners appears simple. It’s a 2D side-scrolling adventure, with the usual fare of dungeon spelunking and monster slaying. The controls are keyboard only; no mouse, even in menus. The main characters are three young girls accompanied by a magical floating rabbit-like spirit. However, underneath everything that is commonplace lies a fairly difficult game that challenged me the whole way through.
Arche, Sana, and Stella are the three stars of Fortune Summoners. Arche is a cheerful swordsman (swordsgirl?), naïve to the point of obliviousness. Sana is quiet and shy water mage, but very dedicated to her friends. Stella is a rich fire mage who is prickly to everyone and has no friends. All three are classmates in the Minasa-Ratis magic school.
Elemental Stones control magic in the world of Fortune Summoners and is as common as bread. Sana has a water-based Elemental Stone. Stella has a fire-based one. Arche has … nothing, and, unfortunately, because of this she can’t participate in class. Eventually, she does find one, but all it does is spit out a magical bunny; it won’t make magic like she needs it to until all three Wind Crests are assembled.
Thus, the three new friends embark on a journey to find the Wind Crests and to unravel the mystery behind Arche’s new wind-based Elemental Stone.
In Fortune Summoners, you take control of a one character at a time. You can switch between your companions with the press of a button. Each character has a distinct fighting style that heavily affects gameplay. I really like how easy it is to switch between the characters if you need to micromanage a battle according to the situation. The commands you can use to control your party can also be accessed at a touch, and you can even heal quickly with a single button.
Each character has her own style of fighting. Arche, because she has no magic, relies solely on physical attacks. Her sword’s range is very short and thus you’ll need a lot of patience and strategy just to get her close enough to strike the enemy. Guarding is essential and sometimes the only way to defeat your average slimeball.
Sana, with her water spell, focuses on status effect and healing spells. Her attack shoots out in a straight line, and her spells are strong. The spells are designed such that they’re fairly easy to dodge, though.
On the other hand, Stella has offensive fire spells such as creating fire walls to block off the enemy – thus giving you more time to cast another spell – and homing spells. Her attacks bounce back and forth like a yo-yo in front of her. She’s my favorite character to use. Different situations call for different strategies. If I’m facing fast-moving enemies, like Kobolds or Cocorats (squirrel-fox creatures) and I have a party of Arche and Stella, then I would take control of Arche to have her guard and act as a shield so that Stella can pull off a spell and roast everyone in one shot. If the enemies are flying, swooping ones like bats or moth-bees, then I’d take control of Stella and cast a fire wall and watch the monsters burn as they tried to charge me.
That being said, the AI in this game is amazing, both for your characters and for the enemies. Arche, when controlled by the computer, is even better than me at exterminating the nasty critters! In fact, if you use the quick heal button, you will automatically use the best item for the situation (this even applies for curing effects like poison).
On the other hand, the monsters are very smart. They always follow certain patterns (for example, the Cocorat hops up to you with a flying jump kick before kicking at you like a kangaroo, and once its health is down, it runs away and starts hurling acorns at you), but they will dodge, and they will block your attacks. They will get behind you if they can. This, combined with the severe limitations each character has, makes Fortune Summoners a challenging game despite the cutesy art.
In addition to fighting styles, each girl also differs in how they can use their abilities outside of battle.
Stella can burn down vines and brambles blocking your way, as well as light torches. Sana can walk underwater without losing health (but since she can hardly fight on her own, beware of underwater enemies and be prepared to run!). Arche is the only one who can push crates and various vehicles around. All of these abilities are used liberally through the dungeons and sometimes, you’ll have to backtrack to old dungeons with a previously missing party member if you want to fully explore areas.
The dungeons are veritable mazes. This may not sound like anything surprising, but recent years of gaming have accustomed me to the idea of a map when a dungeon is this complicated – doors upon doors upon corridors upon corridors. No such thing exists in Fortune Summoners. I have had to backtrack to explore every possible route more times in this game than I have in almost every other RPG I’ve played. On top of that, puzzles require you to run back and forth between a switch and the door it controls, and sometimes you’ll find yourself running through the same dungeon ten times to heal yourself or to advance the storyline. Luckily, Arche and co. run pretty quickly for girls with such short legs, and almost every encounter is avoidable. Backtracking isn’t as painful as it could have been, but it is very prevalent.
For a game that requires so heavily on timing and active battling, though, the controls could have been more sensitive. I’ve found myself frustrated many a time because Arche would not turn when I wanted her to. It took quite a bit to get used to, and even then, it caused many an irritating death that could have easily been avoided.
I wasn’t particularly fond of the fact that you always have to draw her sword for her to attack, as opposed to it being automatic, either. The mechanic seems to be there to prevent you from investigating chests and items with enemies around; however, the point seems moot when you can press a different button for her examine these objects with your sword out anyways. The tutorials aren’t very good and you’ll have to look through the menus and the included manual yourself to figure out the finer details of using abilities and magic. They’re there, but require some digging.
The same goes for advancing the game. What you have to do next isn’t always very clear. Other than these flaws, though, I was very impressed by the amount of adjusting and strategy required to play as the different girls and by the dungeon designs in Fortune Summoners. I enjoyed trying to figure out different ways for the girls to work together as they trek through night impossible labyrinths. The game isn’t very long, but is a tough one, wrought with challenges the whole way.
Food for thought:
1.) I really like the graphics. Simple, but detailed. The art, not so much, but I’m willing to overlook it.
2.) The enemies are very good at dodging. So good, in fact, that I like to play jump rope them with them using Stella’s yoyo-style fireball. They never come any closer. They just jump, and jump,with jump and … perfectly in time with your attack.
3.) Items in this game are … cheap, cheap, cheap. Except for weapons. They want you to fight and earn your right to use those.
4.) There are four difficulty levels that you can change at any time. I’m playing at Normal. I shudder at the thought of Hard difficulty.
5.) There are several bonuses you can unlock as with go through the game. The ones I’ve unlocked by the sixth chapter include 1-vs.-1 battles an AI, and automated gameplay, where you watch the computer control all your characters and run through a random map. This latter would probably be handy in trying to figure out the best way to defeat new enemies since the AI is so good.Businessmanpredicted Thursday that he would secure the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, playing down the suggestion he might run as a third-party candidate.
"I want to run as a Republican. I think I'll get the nomination," Trump said in Laredo, Texas, during a nationally televised speech amid his trip to the southern border.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I'm a Republican, I'm a conservative," Trump said, touting his recent polling figures.
"The best way to win is for me to get the nomination," Trump said.
During an interview with The Hill on Wednesday, Trump threatened to run as a third-party candidate if national Republicans do not treat him fairly.
He suggested that the Republican National Committee "has not been very supportive."
In the interview with The Hill, pressed on whether he would run as a third-party candidate, Trump said that “so many people want me to, if I don’t win.”
“I’ll have to see how I’m being treated by the Republicans,” Trump said. “Absolutely, if they’re not fair, that would be a factor.”
Trump’s third-party threat sent shockwaves across the political world on Thursday, with pundits wondering whether he could doom the eventual Republican nominee by splitting the vote.
"If Trump decides to run as a third-party independent, the Republicans' chances of winning the White House in 2016 are pretty much dead in the water, and Hillary Clinton automatically becomes the next president of the United States," said Republican strategist Ford O'Connell.
O'Connell compared Trump to Ross Perot, who ran as an independent candidate in 1992 and took nearly 19 percent of the popular vote.
Several Republican lawmakers were hesitant to discuss the possibility of Tump’s third-party run when approached in the halls of Congress — a sign how polarizing and powerful he has become.
GOP strategist Matt Mackowiak said that Trump running as a third-party candidate would be "a disaster" for Republicans.
"He will mortally wound the GOP nominee and undoubtedly ensure Hillary is the next president — which is perhaps his goal," Mackowiak said.
But Trump says he's running to win, and on Thursday called himself the Republican best equipped to take on Clinton, who he described as easily "the worst secretary of State in the history of our country."About
Overview
Forgotten Fane is a singleplayer & cooperative level designed for Unreal Tournament 2004. It is the stand-alone first episode in a planned series of levels that challenges players to explore a recently-unearthed subterranean temple. Players are threatened by their environment, from precarious precipices to deadly traps, and also by the subterranean wildlife as well as the guardians of the temple. Forgotten Fane is inspired by and takes place within the Unreal game universe, although its story is intentionally left vague to allow players to fill in the details with their own imagination and the clues they discover while exploring.
The average play length for Forgotten Fane in testing ranges from approximately 30 minutes to one hour.
.
Philosophy and Goals
Do you look back fondly upon the first person shooter games of the late 1990s? Do you still remember the layout to classic Doom levels? How about other classic games like Marathon, Duke3D, Hexen, Quake, or Unreal? If you're at all like me, you spent countless hours playing these classic first-person shooter games, both by yourself and with friends. Modern shooter games deliver a lot of spectacle, but something seems missing when your player is being led around from cutscene to cutscene by a voice on the radio or a demanding NPC.
.
Forgotten Faneseeks to recapture the experience of playing in an old school first person shooter. Does that mean hunting around for color-coded keycards? Not exactly. Instead what I want to accomplish with this level is to reintroduce non-linear gameplay. While Forgotten Fane has progression and objectives to complete, the player is not railroaded into following a linear path. If you decide to wander off the beaten path you may find a room you've never explored before, containing a hidden note, or perhaps you will stumble upon a lever that reveals a secret room filled with all sorts of items... or enemies. Not all of the objectives are required to complete the level, and there may even be multiple endings for those who choose to explore thoroughly.
Why Your Contribution Is Important
Around this time you might be asking yourself why you would want to contribute to my Kickstarter project. Who is this guy who needs your help to bring this level concept to fruition? Let me tell you a briefly about myself. I have been doing development in Unreal Engine for 7 years, and am extremely passionate about it. I'm a multi-talented developer who has been both programming and developing levels for Unreal Engine games as a hobby since 2005. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that developing high quality content for games takes a large amount of knowledge, skill, and time. While I am happy to spend my skills and time working on new game content for people to play and enjoy, in the current economic climate it's extremely difficult for me to continue doing part-time and freelance work, search for a steady job, AND develop cool things for people to enjoy.
Forgotten Fane has been in development since 2011, and much significant work has already been done on it. Basic level geometry has been blocked out and much of the essential scripted events and enemy behavior within the level has been created. Your contribution directly assists the completion of the project by granting me the opportunity to pursue full-time development of the level. Many of the features I would like to implement are infeasible to accomplish without full-time development, these include:
Level-Wide Visual Detail Passes
Visual Special Effects
Audio Effects and Engineering
Advanced Scripted Level Events
Multiple New Optional Objectives and Level Conclusions
Custom Programming for unique level features (e.g. Enemy Monsters)
My project planning schedule for these tasks is as follows:
1 week: Planning phase: Blocking out new areas and adjusting old areas, determining gameplay elements to be included
3 weeks: Level wide detail passes, including all visual and audio FX
2 weeks: Level scripting, item placement, and AI behavior
1 week: Playtesting and balancing
1 week: Custom programming (Monsters and level-specific behavior)
1 week: Scheduled additional time for project delays
My project budget covers living expenses and labor over the projected 8-9 week development period of Forgotten Fane.
Currently, all of the content in the level is either directly created by me or used with permission from other freely available sources. In addition to permitting my continued work on the level as a whole, your contribution will allow me to pay for any additional services or content that may be helpful such as 3D models, sound effects, textures, and so on.
.
Additional Details
Why develop a single level? Although I would like to eventually develop a full game, this is my first Kickstarter project and I wanted to start with a smaller scope. A single level is like an atomic unit of a game.
Why develop a level for Unreal Tournament 2004? As mentioned above, developing a single level is less ambitious than developing an entire game. I am most familiar with the Unreal Engine, and Unreal Tournament 2004 has many features that Unreal Tournament 3 lacks. For example, built-in enemy monster pawns which would have required significant programming and artwork to create for UT3. In addition, Unreal Tournament 2004 has extremely low system requirements and supports Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Forgotten Fane is designed to function within the freely available Monster Assault / Monster Evolution framework designed by fellow developer Eric Eberhart (DW>Ant) with contributions from myself (E.R. Whiting, DW>Wail). As long as you have a copy of Unreal Tournament 2004 you can play Forgotten Fane free of charge.
To learn more about the Monster Assault / Monster Evolution framework, please view the prerelease trailer for Monster Evolution below, or visit the official Monster Evolution server at IP: 216.86.152.31:7777
.
Forgotten Fane will never be sold. None of your contribution will be used on advertising, marketing, licensing, or other corporate nonsense. The funds you provide go directly towards a single developer and a labor of love, borne out of a desire to create a fun game experience, not to turn a profit.
However, without your contribution it may never be complete. Please help me finish this project by giving me the means to support myself as I strive to create the best level that I can.
Funds raised exceeding the asked for amount will go directly towards paying for additional content for Forgotten Fane. For example, if a sum exceeding $5000 is raised, I may be able to direct funds into paying a 3D artist to create specialized models that I am unable to create myself, or to pay a musician for custom theme music.
If I am otherwise content with Forgotten Fane and there are still additional funds raised from Kickstarter, that money will be used to continue development on other freely-available levels. So while Forgotten Fane is a standalone level, if there are additional funds I may be able to continue work on the planned sequels that otherwise will never see the light of day (nor the light of computer monitor).
.
Thanks for Playing!
And now it's time to get your support. Choose a reward that best fits you and make your pledge now. Your fellow gamers salute you!July 3 2015, Utrecht. It’s the Team Sky media presentation prior to the Tour de France. Chris Froome is the hot favourite, having won two stages plus the overall in the Critérium du Dauphiné, and has worked hard to be in the form necessary to win the race.
Despite his presence, though, it is Dave Brailsford who places himself central stage. Getting proceedings underway, the Team Sky Principal speaks for several minutes before handing over to Froome. His body language and assertiveness are much more pronounced than those of his star rider.
Such is the pattern at these press conferences. Brailsford speaks first, giving a lengthy summary of things from his perspective, clearly enjoying the spotlight. Once done, the designated team leader gets the microphone.
Froome may be the biggest name in the sport, but he gives way to the team boss at such media sessions.
In truth, Brailsford has always been centre stage at Team Sky. He has long been identified, and portrayed, as number one in the organisation. To many, Team Sky is viewed as his brainchild.
Brailsford was once again the centre of attention this week, appearing at the British House of Commons before a Culture, Media and Sport select committee hearing in London. Brailsford, his former right-hand man, Shane Sutton, and others were called before members of Parliament to answer questions relating to the use of medical substances by the 2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins.
The questions were prompted from leaked documents, in September, by the Fancy Bear hackers group — documents showing that Wiggins had received injections of a corticosteroid called triamcinolone prior to the 2011 and 2012 Tours and the 2013 Giro d’Italia.
Normally banned, but approved thanks to a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) the team obtained, the substance nevertheless caused controversy. Aside from clear contradictions with what Wiggins had said before, it had also been abused in the past by doped riders seeking to gain a competitive edge.
The Culture, Media and Sport select committee was keen to get answers on this topic and also to delve into a mysterious package delivered to the team at the end of the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné in France.
The existence of the package was first reported by the Daily Mail in October; Brailsford and others from Team Sky and British Cycling refused to identify the product in question for several weeks. They also declined to say if it had been administered by former Sky team doctor Richard Freeman to Wiggins.
On Monday, Sutton finally confirmed the latter. Somewhat improbably, he insisted that he had no idea what the product was that was administered to the rider he was coaching. Instead, it was Brailsford who explained what was in the package, saying it was a legal decongestant called Fluimucil.
Although the product was readily available in a number of pharmacies close to where Team Sky was situated at the race, he described it as normal that British Cycling’s Simon Cope would transport it from Manchester, saying he was coming to the Critérium du Dauphiné anyway.
That might have been the end of the matter, yet it wasn’t. By his own admission, Brailsford had created much of the buzz around the story, and it has been his conduct in recent weeks which caused much of the harm.
Brailsford declined to tell the Daily Mail in October that the package contained such a benign substance. He also said two things that were subsequently proven to be false: He told the newspaper that Cope didn’t travel to France to meet Freeman and Wiggins, but instead was visiting British competitor Emma Pooley. She was, however, competing almost 700 miles away in Spain.
Brailsford also told Daily Mail journalist Matt Lawton that it was impossible that Wiggins and Freeman had a consultation on the Team Sky bus as it had departed prior to the rider’s return from podium duties. This, too, proved to be inaccurate.
Weeks later, the team’s credibility badly damaged, Brailsford admitted that he had made big mistakes in how he had handled the matter.
“I have looked at myself long and hard in the mirror and thought about this very, very carefully in terms of how I have handled personally the situation,” he told the select committee on Monday. “I think I could have done a lot better, quite frankly. I’d like to think that in performance terms we did pretty well, but on this occasion, in the way I managed this, I think start with myself first and not look at anybody else.
“We run a fantastic operation, we have got fantastic people, they are of the highest standards, they have got great integrity. And they don’t quite frankly deserve to have this shadow cast over them… There are people who are performing fantastically well who don’t deserve any shadow whatsoever and it pains me, really, that they have had to had any doubt cast over them because of my actions. That is going to stay with me for a long time, I can assure you.”
Latest in a number of PR disasters
Taken in isolation, Brailsford’s mea culpa might appear honourable. However it is not the first time that he has badly damaged the team’s reputation.
Following a poor 2010 season, Team Sky signed Dutch doctor Geert Leinders to be part of the squad. Leinders had previously worked with the Rabobank team, a squad connected to a number of previous scandals including the Michael Rasmussen affair.
Brailsford said he did the required due diligence and uncovered nothing. It later emerged that Leinders had been involved in doping practices with Rabobank.
Brailsford later admitted he’d gotten it badly wrong. “Hindsight is a brilliant thing, and what we’ve all learnt is pretty horrific,” he said in January 2013, according to Cycling Weekly. “Had we known then what we know now [about Leinders], we wouldn’t have touched the guy for sure. We went through what we thought was the right procedure – we interviewed the guy, we sat down with Steve (Peters, Sky’s Psychiatrist) and it’s well documented what we did. Had we have had hindsight, we wouldn’t have done it.”
In July 2013 he went further. “The whole thing is my responsibility,” he said. “I will take that squarely on the chin. It’s something I regret, it’s a mistake. I should not have done it. I made an error of judgment.”
In January 2015, Leinders was banned for life by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
Leinders’ signing was not the only instance that Team Sky’s due diligence fell short. The squad has had a strict “zero-tolerance policy” since its inception, requiring all riders and staff to promise they had never doped. In October 2012, Bobby Julich and Steven de Jongh left the team; both publicly admitted doping during their careers. Canadian rider Michael Barry also admitted the past use of banned substances, exited the squad, and retired.
A fourth person, former Lance Armstrong teammate and U.S. Postal Service directeur sportif Sean Yates, also departed, though he made no such admission. He said he was departing the team as he intended to leave cycling. However he subsequently returned, and worked for the Saxo-Tinkoff squad.
Bio-passport failure
The question of due diligence cropped up yet again in September 2013 when it emerged that Team Sky rider Jonathan Tiernan-Locke had a suspicious biological passport. The previous season he’d had a number of standout performances and attracted the attention of Team Sky. He won the Tour of Britain towards the end of the season and rode the world road race championship for Great Britain; a two-year deal with Team Sky was announced soon after.
Although Tiernan-Locke was not part of Team Sky during the period when his blood data was deemed highly suspicious, it later emerged that the team had done far less than it should have before giving him a contract. In September 2014, Garmin-Sharp CEO Jonathan Vaughters explained what his own squad had done, two years earlier, when considering hiring Tiernan-Locke.
The British rider had been competing with the Continental team Endura, which was not part of the UCI’s biological passport programme; no bio-passport profile existed for Tiernan-Locke.
Following team policy, Vaughters required that any riders without existing biological passports do a series of blood and performance tests at short notice in order to build up a profile and prove they were not a risk.
“If we are in contact with a rider and they want to come to the team, we will send them a plane ticket and basically say, ‘come down to Girona tomorrow,’ or even that afternoon, or whatever it is,” he told CyclingTips then.
However Vaughters said that during his period of strong performances, Tiernan-Locke gave excuses on more than one occasion as to why he couldn’t come for testing. When he finally showed, his blood values were normal but his power output was far less than it had been.
“It certainly wasn’t the guy who was ripping Philippe Gilbert and Dan Martin off his wheel at the Tour of Med,” said Vaughters. “It was a power test of a very average professional rider.”
Vaughters resolved to offer him more testing opportunities before a contract, but said that Tiernan-Locke’s interest cooled off due to interest from Team Sky.
Given Team Sky’s oft-stated whiter-than-white stance and zero-tolerance policy, surely the team did similar tests? Not quite.
Brailsford was evasive at the 2014 Tour de France when asked if Tiernan-Locke had attended training camps with the team in 2012, abruptly walking away mid-question when asked about this subject by CyclingTips.
A team spokesman later said that the rider did camps with the team in March and May of 2012. He also said that no specific blood tests were done then or in the months afterwards to build up a biological passport profile.
Simply put, the measures that Vaughters said that Garmin-Sharp took were not carried out by Team Sky, despite Tiernan-Locke’s jump in performances that year, and despite suspicions being raised by French media outlets such as L’Equipe.
The team could have done more. Consequently, when Tiernan-Locke was handed a two-year ban, it encountered further negative headlines and questions about Sky’s recruitment policy.
When leadership becomes a liability
It is in this context that Brailsford’s latest mea culpa must be viewed. He’s made serious errors in his handling of the Wiggins situation, but this is not the first time. His recruitment of Leinders, Barry, De Jongh, Julich and, arguably, Yates, has also damaged the team’s reputation.
The haphazard scrutiny shown prior to signing Tiernan-Locke is another example of actions not squaring up with words.
Much as Brailsford has played a big part in the team’s success, he has also been a major component in a number of damaging episodes. These have jarred with the team’s long-declared transparency and stringent ethics, and called his character into question.
In the aftermath of the select committee session, further concerns have emerged. Lawton, who broke the original story about the mysterious package, elaborated on his October dealings with Brailsford on Tuesday. He wrote that the Team Sky chief was clearly spooked by the information Lawton had received about the package, and indicated that it might mean the end of the team.
Lawton wrote that Brailsford tried to get him to abandon the story, offered him an alternative, more positive story instead. When that didn’t work, he floated the possibility of furnishing Lawton with details about a rival team winning races with TUEs.
Lawton also wrote that, after more than two hours together, Brailsford asked if there was “anything else that could be done?”
If true, these actions do not appear to square up with a package containing a legal medication. On Tuesday suggestions emerged that Brailsford may have given incorrect information to the select committee.
CyclingTips has spoken to |
3.4%, Korea 2.4%, Mexico 2.2%, and Taiwan and Iran tied with 2.2% each, according to government data obtained by Computerworld.
"This demonstrates just how dominant the outsourcing companies have become," said Russell Harrison, director of government relations at the IEEE-USA, of the country-by-country breakdown of H-1B visas that go to people in computer occupations.
The IEEE has 60,000 members in India and 40,000 in China, and "if companies were looking around the world to find the best possible candidates for their jobs, you would expect a distribution that was similar to the distribution of engineers on the planet, and that's not what you have," said Harrison.
Apple and Aetna were both contacted but didn’t have comments by deadline.Blockbuster games. Big exclusives. Windows 10 crossplay and an enviable backwards compatibility service. Get off the fence. Now is the time to buy an Xbox One, says Matt Martin.
“Microsoft is bombing the Xbox One with content from all directions, understanding the insatiable need of games players.”
It’s been easy to knock the Xbox One since its disastrous unveiling way back when, but the joke is long since over. Microsoft cemented it last week at Gamescom: you should really own an Xbox One if you give a hoot about high-quality console gaming.
In the immediate future there’s a hot line-up for Xmas; the long-anticipated Halo 5: Guardians and another helping of Forza will please the faithful. They both contain the highest production values you can buy with a Microsoft blank cheque. But the bigger hit could be the exclusive-to-console-for-a-year Rise of the Tomb Raider, bringing back that classic video game adventure and exploration, wrapped in a budget to make Midas wince. You shouldn’t wait to buy new Tomb Raider on a different format a year later. We’ll have all moved on. Get that gold while you can. This is why you play triple-A.
That triple threat kicks off over a year of visible exclusives that rolls into 2016 with Quantum Break, Scalebound, Sea of Thieves, Cuphead, another season of Killer Instinct, Recore, Gears of Wars 4, Crackdown 3 and Halo Wars 2. A list as fit as a butcher’s dog.
Microsoft is bombing the Xbox One with content from other directions too, understanding the insatiable need of games players. Backwards compatibility is coming this November and Games With Gold 360 titles will also be playable on Xbox One. If you already own a copy of a 360 game, no one is charging you to play it again. Have some of that. Have it all.
“The robotic speak and corporate grins of the Don Mattrick era are dead.”
The Xbox Preview Program will continue to grow. Current Steam darling Ark: Survival Evolved joins the Early Access-style service later this year giving players the chance to feed back on development. Inclusionary game creation has marked a path to consoles and it’s a liberating thing to get involved with. It’s something you want to be involved with if you care more than spending a couple of hours a week on FIFA (which you can now play early on Xbox One thanks to continued smart deals with EA. Tick.)
And then there’s the Windows 10 hook-up, adding a truly unique service to the Xbox One than no other console can do. Games like Killer Instinct, Bloodstained and Halo Wars 2 will be crossplay across the two formats. Every single indie game published by Microsoft will be released on Win 10 and Xbox One from now on. Windows and Xbox One should work seamlessly together without any detriment to a single format. If that works as advertised, Xbox One can add untold millions of PC players to the fold. The party just got a lot bigger.
It’s not just the games, either (although it’s mostly about the games). Microsoft has dropped as much corporate BS as it’s ever going to do from the Xbox business. The robotic speak and corporate grins of the Don Mattrick era are dead. Phil Spencer is a likeable frontman, backed by Chris Charla, a modest enthusiast who knows more about the indie games community than 100 self-important studio heads. And then there’s Shannon Loftis, who’s clearly listening to what the players want. Do not underestimate the draw of charming, passionate leaders.
Xbox One is rolling like thunder right now, finally confident with a clear direction. It’s games line-up is enviable, its services solid and tempting, its basic hardware pricing accessible for newcomers. Xbox One has distinguished itself from the competition. It’s time to buy into the Microsoft dream.The online evangelical world has been abuzz of late with trinitarian discussion. I won’t review all the literature (e.g., see here for a synopsis of the debate), but I would like to highlight a few things that Particular Baptists have written on the subject in the past. More specifically, I’d like to continue the discussion around eternal generation (and not eternal submission) as the means of differentiating the divine persons (see this excellent post by Matthew Emerson on eternal generation). Or, more simply, if a single divine nature is shared among the three persons of the trinity, what differentiates the Father from the Son, or the Son from the Spirit? Particular Baptists have agreed with the classical understanding that it is the personal relations that serve as the only means of distinction between the divine persons.
The First London Baptist Confession states succinctly:
“In this divine and infinite Being there is the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; each having the whole divine Essence, yet the Essence undivided; all infinite without any beginning, therefore but one God; who is not to be divided in nature, and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties” (2; emphasis added).
The Father is the Father because He is unbegotten; the Son is the Son because He is eternally begotten; and the Spirit is the Spirit because he is eternally breathed out by the Father and Son. This is classical trinitarian formulation that most Baptists have held. For example, Gill writes in his Body of Divinity:
It is the personal relations, or distinctive relative properties, which belong to each Person, which distinguish them one from another; as paternity in the first Person, filiation in the second, and spiration in the third; or, more plainly, it is “begetting”, (Ps. 2:7) which peculiarly belongs to the first, and is never ascribed to the second and third; which distinguishes him from them both; and gives him, with great propriety, the name of Father; and it is being “begotten”, that is the personal relation, or relative property of the second Person; hence called, “the only begotten of the Father”, (John 1:14) which distinguishes him from the first and third, and gives him the name of the Son; and the relative property, or personal relation of the third Person is, that he is breathed by the first and second Persons; hence called, the breath of the Almighty, the breath of the mouth of Jehovah the Father, and the breath of the mouth of Christ the Lord, and which is never said of the other two persons; and so distinguishes him from them, and very pertinently gives him the name of the Spirit, or breath (Job 33:4; Ps. 33:6; 2 Thess. 2:8).
Gill also wrote, in a letter to John Davis, a pastor in Pennsylvania:
“Jesus Christ is the Son of God by nature and not office, … he is the eternal Son of God by ineffable filiation and not by constitution or as mediator in which respect he is a servant, and not a Son. And of this mind are all our churches of the particular Baptist persuasion nor will they admit to communion, nor continue in communion [with] such as are of a different judgment. … I have some years ago published a treatise upon the doctrine of the Trinity, in which I have particularly handled the point of Christ’s sonship, have established the orthodox sense of it, and refuted the other notion, which tho’ it may be held by some, as not downright Sabeleanism [sic], yet it tends to it.”
Likewise, the Second London Baptist Confession affirms:
“Three divine Persons constitute the Godhead-the Father, the Son (or the Word), and the Holy Spirit. They are one in substance, in power, and in eternity. Each is fully God, and yet the Godhead is one and indivisible. The Father owes His being to none. He is Father to the Son who is eternally begotten of Him. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. These Persons, one infinite and eternal God not to be divided in being, are distinguished in Scripture by their personal nature or in relations within the Godhead, and by the variety of works which they undertake. Their tri-unity (that is, the doctrine of the Trinity) is the essential basis of all our fellowship with God, and of the comfort we derive from our dependence upon Him” (2.3).
Andrew Fuller battled agains the Socinians of his day. He was an ardent defender of the Eternal Generation of the Son as well.
Here is one instance:
“The incarnation, resurrection, and exaltation, of Christ declared, but did not constitute him the Son of God; nor did any of his offices to all which his Sonship was antecedent. God sent his son into the world. This implies that he was the Son antecedently to his being sent, as much as Christ’s sending his disciples implies that they were his disciples before he sent them… I have heard it asserted that ‘Eternal generation is eternal nonsense.’ But whence does this appear? Does it follow, that because a Son among men is inferior and posterior to his father, that it must be so with the Son of God?…Of the only- begotten Son it is not said he was, or will be, but he is in the bosom of the Father; denoting the eternity and immutability of his character. There was never a point in duration in which God was without his Son.” (see also here and here on Fuller’s trinitarianism).
These are just a few examples of Particular Baptists that affirmed the differentiation of the godhead based on personal relations of origin. Eternal generation is an important part of classical trinitarianism and needs to be clearly articulated and defended, lest we see another rise of trinitarian heresies that don’t seem content to remain in the past.from R.C. Sproul Category: Articles
Jesus suffered for us. Yet we are called to participate in His suffering. Though He was uniquely the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, there is still an application of this vocation for us. We are given both the duty and the privilege to participate in the suffering of Christ.
A mysterious reference to this idea is found in the writings of the apostle Paul: “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church” (Col. 1:24). Here Paul declared that he rejoiced in his suffering. Surely he did not mean that he enjoyed pain and affliction. Rather, the cause of his joy was found in the meaning of his suffering. He said that he filled up “what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.”
On the surface, Paul’s explanation is astonishing. What could possibly have been lacking in the afflictions of Christ? Did Christ only half-finish His redemptive work, leaving it to Paul to complete it? Was Jesus overstating the case when He cried from the cross, “It is finished”? What exactly was lacking in the suffering of Christ?
In terms of the value of Jesus’ suffering, it is blasphemous to suggest anything was lacking. The merit of His atoning sacrifice is infinite. Nothing could possibly be added to His perfect obedience to make it even more perfect. Nothing can be more perfect than perfect. What is absolutely perfect cannot be augmented.
The merit of Jesus’ suffering is sufficient to atone for every sin that has ever been or ever will be committed. His once-for-all atoning death needs no repetition (Heb. 10:10). Old Testament sacrifices were repeated precisely because they were imperfect shadows of the reality that was to come (Heb. 10:1).
It was not by accident that the Roman Catholic Church appealed to Paul’s words in Colossians 1:24 to support its concept of the treasury of merits, by which the merits of the saints are supposedly added to the merit of Christ to cover the deficiencies of sinners. This doctrine was at the eye of the Protestant Reformation tornado. It was this eclipse of the sufficiency and perfection of Christ’s suffering that was at the heart of Martin Luther’s protest.
Jesus suffered for us. Yet we are called to participate in His suffering
Though we vigorously deny Rome’s interpretation of this passage, we are still left with our question. If Paul’s suffering did not add merit to what was lacking in Christ’s sufferings, what did it add?
The answer to this difficult question lies in the broader teaching of the New Testament in regard to the believer’s call to participate in the humiliation of Christ. Our baptism signifies that we are buried with Christ. Paul repeatedly pointed out that unless we are willing to participate in the humiliation of Jesus, we will not participate in His exaltation (see 2 Timothy 2:11–12).
Paul rejoiced that his suffering was a benefit to the church. The church is called to imitate Christ. It is called to walk the Via Dolorosa. Paul’s favorite metaphor for the church was the image of the human body. The church is called the body of Christ. In one sense, it is proper to call the church the “continuing incarnation.” The church is really the mystical body of Christ on earth.
Christ so linked His church to Himself that when He first called Paul on the Damascus Road He said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” (Acts 9:4, emphasis added). Saul was not literally persecuting Jesus. Jesus had already ascended to heaven. He was already out of reach of Saul’s hostility. Saul was busy persecuting Christians. But Jesus felt such solidarity with His church that He regarded an attack upon His body, the church, as a personal attack on Himself.
The church is not Christ. Christ is perfect; the church is imperfect. Christ is the Redeemer; the church is the company of the redeemed. However, the church belongs to Christ. The church is redeemed by Christ. The church is the bride of Christ. The church is indwelt by Christ.
In light of this solidarity, the church participates in Christ’s suffering. But this participation adds nothing to Christ’s merit. The sufferings of Christians may benefit other people, but they always fall short of atonement. I cannot atone for anyone’s sins, not even for my own. Yet my suffering may be of great benefit to other people. It may also serve as a witness to the One whose sufferings were an atonement.
The word for “witness” in the New Testament, martus, is the source of the English word martyr. Those who suffered and died for the cause of Christ were called martyrs because by their suffering they bore witness to Christ.
What is lacking in the afflictions of Jesus is the ongoing suffering that God calls His people to endure. God calls people of every generation to suffer. Again, this suffering is not to fulfill any deficiency in the merit of Christ, but to fulfill our destinies as witnesses to the perfect Suffering Servant of God.
Because of Christ, our suffering is not useless
What does this mean in practical terms? My father suffered a series of cerebral hemorrhages that caused him great suffering and eventually ended his life. I’m sure that while he was suffering he must have asked God, “Why?” On the surface, his suffering seemed useless. It seemed as though his pain was for no good reason.
I must be very careful. I do not think that my father’s suffering was in any way an atonement for my sins. Neither do I think I can read God’s mind with respect to the ultimate reason for my father’s suffering. But I know this: my father’s suffering made a profound impact on my life. It was through my father’s death that I was brought to Christ. I am not saying that the ultimate reason my father was called to suffer and die was so that I could become a Christian. I don’t know the sovereign purpose of God in it. But I do know that God used that suffering in a redemptive way for me. My dad’s suffering drove me into the arms of the Suffering Savior.
We are followers of Christ. We follow Him to the Garden of Gethsemane. We follow Him into the hall of judgment. We follow Him along the Via Dolorosa. We follow Him unto death. But the gospel declares that we also follow Him through the gates of heaven. Because we suffer with Him, we also shall be raised with Him. If we are humiliated with Him, we also shall be exalted with Him.
Because of Christ, our suffering is not useless. It is part of the total plan of God, who has chosen to redeem the world through the pathway of suffering.
This excerpt is taken from Surprised by Suffering by R.C. Sproul.This image taken from video posted on a militant Web site purports to show the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, delivering a sermon at a mosque in Iraq. (Islamist Web site via Associated Press)
This weekend, a video posted online appeared to show something very rare: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the enigmatic leader of the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State, making a speech.
For Baghdadi to make such an appearance and allow it to be filmed seems to be highly unusual -- not long ago, two photographs of the man were known to exist, and he was notorious for avoiding the spotlight. The new video may offer a rare chance to not only see the man, but also hear him talk, and see how he presents himself.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is said to be the leader of the newly-named Islamic State, made his first public appearance from Mosul in a video posted online Saturday. (Reuters)
Dressed in black and sporting a thick beard, the man who appeared to be Baghdadi was speaking to followers at a mosque in the Iraqi city of Mosul. As Hassan Hassan, a columnist with the National, an English-language newspaper in the United Arab Emirates, pointed out on Twitter, Baghdadi's attire appeared designed as a nod to the Abbasid Caliphate, a Baghdad-led caliphate that is associated with the golden age of Islam. To many observers, however, one detail stood out more than anything else the Islamic State leader wore: his watch.
The chrome timepiece may seem incongruous when contrasted with his appearance and the setting, and London's Daily Telegraph speculates that the watch may not have come cheap — it appeared to have been either a Rolex or an Omega Seamaster, Oliver Duggan reports, with a potential price tag in the thousands of dollars.
A knee-jerk reaction might suggest that a luxury watch contradicts Baghdadi's message. He has become famous for leading the Islamic State, which controls a vast swath of land between Syria and Iraq and has declared a new caliphate purportedly modeled on the Islamic empires of old. In the speech made in the video, the man who appeared to be Baghdadi thanks God for the caliphate's return and directly dismisses materialism.
“I do not promise you what the kings and rulers promise their subjects and followers — luxury and security and leisure,” Baghdadi says. “But I promise what God promises those who believe in him.”
But is the watch really such a surprise? The Islamic State's leader doesn't appear to have grown up with the wealth and connections that his mentor, Osama bin Laden, did, but in the past few years Baghdadi has become well known for his fundraising prowess -- during an interview with the Guardian newspaper last month, one official estimated that the group may have more than $2 billion in finances.
It seems unlikely that Baghdadi bought the watch in a store: For one thing, U.S. officials don't believe he has ever traveled outside Syria or Iraq, and, having taken over much of Iraq, the Islamic State has been able to loot a large number of goods. The group has paraded online the substantial military goods it has looted — both as a warning and an insult to its enemies — and bragged about its finances on Twitter. Showing off a luxury watch certainly fits in with that M.O.
Perhaps more importantly, focusing on the watch ignores the real takeaways from the video: Despite the rumors of Baghdadi's death, he seems to be very much alive — and keen to begin his position as "Caliph Ibrahim."In September Barack Obama launched the “It’s on Us” campaign, designed to fight what he called the “nightmare” of campus sexual assault. “An estimated one in five women has been sexually assaulted during her college years,” Obama announced, pausing for emphasis. “One in five.” America, the president went on to argue, suffers from a “quiet tolerance of sexual assault,” all too often blaming victims, making excuses, or looking the other way. To combat sexual violence, he said, we need a “fundamental shift in our culture.”
With these words, the president of the United States went all in on the idea that America’s academic institutions have been taken over by a “rape culture” —a culture that normalizes, trivializes, and quietly condones male sexual assault against women, blaming female victims while subtly celebrating male predators.
Once rather obscure and confined to sociology and women’s studies departments, the term “rape culture” has slowly invaded the national consciousness. According to Google search analytics, the topic generated almost no traffic in 2005 or before. After 2011, its popularity slowly began to rise—as we’ll later see, this is no accident—and then, beginning in 2013, it spiked, the graph forming a hockey stick that would make global-warming doomsayer Michael Mann proud.
The idea that one in five college women has or will be sexually assaulted is mind-boggling and horrifying. It’s also not true. As Slate’s Emily Yoffe pointed out in December, the statistic—together with two other dubious studies that, just for the heck of it, upped the ante to one in four—would “mean that young American college women are raped at a rate similar to women in Congo, where rape has been used as a weapon of war.”
Both the “one in five” and “one in four” sexual-assault numbers, it turns out, have been repeatedly and resoundingly discredited. The former statistic comes from the 2007 Campus Sexual Assault Study, an online survey of students at two college campuses that reportedly compensated respondents and categorized actions such as “kissing” and “rubbing up against” someone as sexual assault. (Even the author of the study, Christopher Krebs, told Yoffe that “one in five” is not “a nationally representative statistic.”)
“One in four” has proved even more resilient, given that it first popped up in a 1988 Ms. Foundation study by an Ohio State professor named Mary Koss—a survey later dismantled by Christina Hoff Sommers in 1994 based on work originally conducted by the Berkeley social-welfare scholar Neil Gilbert. As Sommers wrote, “For Gilbert, the most serious indication that something was basically awry in the Ms./Koss study was that the majority of women she classified as having been raped did not believe they had been raped. Of those Koss counts as having been raped, only 27 percent thought they had been; 73 percent did not say that what happened to them was rape.”
A more recent “one in four” study, conducted by the Department of Justice in 2000 and subtly titled “The Sexual Victimization of College Women,” went even further afield. Its initial results were within the boundaries of reason; it estimated that 2.8 percent of college women had been victims of rape. After performing some serious statistical voodoo, however, the authors estimated that one in four women “might” be raped—but, they admitted, “these projections are suggestive.” Oh. Well, OK. Good thing we don’t have a national panic on our hands.
Well, cancel that last thought: Actually, we do.
This month, CNN Films, in partnership with the Weinstein Company, is slated to release The Hunting Ground, which the Sundance Film Festival has called “a piercing, monumental exposé of rape culture on campuses.” The film’s promotional poster, as the New York Times noted, “resembles an ad for a horror movie.”
This follows the release of yet another “study,” thrown into the pack in January. It declared—allow me to paraphrase—that men are soulless, earth-ravaging ogres. “Nearly one-third of college men admit they might rape a woman if they could get away with it,” Newsweek reported, breathless and giddy. As it turned out, this new survey, which was eagerly splashed across international media, had a sample size of 83, a participation number of 73, highly questionable survey methods, and was conducted solely using volunteers seeking extra credit at the University of North Dakota.
If your professional dream is to concoct a completely biased yet well-received and well-publicized study, congratulations: It’s apparently fairly easy. If you wish to soberly present facts and data, well, good luck. The latest Department of Justice hard data on sexual assault, released in December 2014, estimates that 0.61 percent of female college students are the victims of sexual assault. That’s 6.1 cases per 1,000 women. Curiously, these new numbers, which come from the Obama administration, aren’t making headlines at the Obama White House’s official website. In fact, in a special public service announcement broadcast during February’s Grammy awards, the president informed the nation that “nearly one in five women in America”—not just college students—”has been a victim of rape or attempted rape.”
Speaking of culture, what does it say about ours when such clearly preposterous statistics are so easily believed? More important, what does it mean that discredited and long-debunked rape “statistics” are repeated, over and over, all the way up to the bully pulpit of the highest political office in the country?
In fact, if the latest official statistics are accurate—the unfortunate yet not-so-dramatic 0.61 percent that many feminists seem intent on ignoring—then America seems to have the opposite of a “rape culture.” Rather than pushing actual rape under the rug and celebrating male predators, in other words, we’re inventing fictional rapes and throwing actual men under the bus.
“Rape culture,” in other words, is an idea that swings, cocky and unhinged, from media and campus chandeliers. It dodges logical bullets, performs backflips around statistical cannonballs, and waltzes right through ground-leveling factual nuclear bombs. Much like an Olympic diver, it’s an idea that easily slices, clean and quiet, into the crevices of supple brains.
And once it’s settled in, it’s hard to pry it out. Like a poorly stabbed and strong-limbed B-movie villain, it refuses to die. This is, in part, because it’s an idea with a long, storied provenance, dating back more than 40 years. It has been a central feature of American feminism for nearly as long: “Feminism,” as legal theorist Catherine MacKinnon wrote in a 1988 book, is “built on believing women’s accounts of sexual use and abuse by men.”
But the enduring power of the rape-culture concept comes from another source as well. It addresses, albeit in a scrambled and unjust fashion, a deep problem in contemporary American life—a huge cultural resistance to the fact that sex is a profoundly serious business.
In 1968, a self-described “striver,” civil rights activist, and journalist in New York City named Susan Brownmiller was a pot on the verge of a boil. Employed by the American Broadcasting Corporation on a freelance basis, Brownmiller “seethed in silence” (as she would later recall in a memoir) over her seemingly dead-end, gender-restricted career options, particularly her failure to reach the status of on-air television correspondent. ABC, she was informed, “already had a woman” in that capacity, and that was more than enough.
“I was a woman,” Brownmiller wrote, “in a defiantly male preserve.”
One night she shuffled into a meeting of the New York Radical Women, a “consciousness-raising” crew peppered with socialists, antiwar activists, and feminists. Two weeks earlier, the group had gained notoriety by ambushing the Miss America pageant and inaugurating the concept of “bra-burning.” The event sparked later debates as to whether its members had actually set fire to their brassieres outside the beauty contest or merely thrown a bunch of high heels, Playboy magazines, and false eyelashes into an empty Atlantic City garbage can. (Spoiler alert: It was the latter, but we can be consoled by the fact that at least a few rogue bras were tossed into the mix.)
The group’s long-run impact, however, went far beyond protesting skin-tight sequins, soulless marimba playing, and, as one pamphlet put it, the nation’s most “degrading mindless-boob-girlie symbol.” At each meeting, the New York Radical Women engaged in a “sharing” time, “designed to unlock the door to collective truths.” One should never underestimate the power of a good consciousness-raising session.
Brownmiller, while skeptical at first—“oh brother,” she thought when the sharing began, “how naive”—was promptly sucked in when the topic turned to abortion. There, crammed in a “decrepit office building,” Brownmiller sat in silence, shocked that most of the group’s women could claim only one abortion each—unlike her three illegal abortions, which she promptly detailed. “I guess,” she told the group, eyes filled with tears, “I’m lucky to be alive.”
That first meeting with the New York Radical Women, Brownmiller later wrote, was “my feminist baptism, my swift immersion in the power of sisterhood.” It also sowed the seed for the hugely successful and influential book she would write just seven years later. Released in 1975, Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape became a national bestseller, gaining critical acclaim—the New York Times Book Review labeled it “monumental” and “chilling”—and standing as a classic in feminist circles for years to come. Brownmiller didn’t invent the term “rape culture”—that credit is largely given to Rape: The First Sourcebook for Women, a compendium published in 1974—but she certainly paved the way for the concept’s impressive growth and emerging power over the next 40 years.
On the surface, Against Our Will is rather simple: It is an exhaustive and detailed history of rape. The topic of serious sexual assault, the author told People magazine upon the book’s release, “is part of women’s experience that hasn’t been considered important enough for the history books.” The book is not without authority or value, but it is—there’s no other way to put this—kind of nuts. Brownmiller’s historical observations include the claim that gang rape “must have been” one of “the earliest forms of male bonding,” the declaration that “Little Red Riding Hood” is a “parable of rape,” and, as she famously put it: “From prehistoric times to the present, I believe, rape has played a critical function. It is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear.”
“All men.” “All women.” If true, it’s a deeply discomfiting idea. In a speech to a men’s conference eight years later—not just any old men’s conference, it should be noted, but the regional meeting of the “anti-sexist” National Organization for Changing Men—the radical feminist Andrea Dworkin would take this idea to its logical endpoint: “We are very close to death. All women are. And we are very close to rape….Men are doing it, because of the kind of power men have over women.” Dworkin’s conclusion: “Men are very dangerous.” Here one might imagine a drafty auditorium full of earnest, fidgeting, and slightly doughty males, heads slumped in collective shame.
Decades after Brownmiller’s 407-page opus and Dworkin’s damning speech, buoyed by dozens upon dozens of “rape culture” essays she may or may not have read, Audrey Logan, a student at Occidental College in Los Angeles, believes she is a victim—or “survivor,” in today’s preferred parlance—of rape. Her rapist, as she told the Nation in the summer of 2014, was a “young man she considered a friend.”
Oddly enough, this “friend” managed to assault Logan on two separate occasions. “Because she knew him and had been very drunk both times,” Michelle Goldberg reported in the magazine, “it took a while for her to identify what had happened as assault.” It wasn’t until “a close friend at another school simply listened and validated my feelings that I finally was able to start my arduous healing process,” Logan told Goldberg.
That “healing process” largely consisted of filing a complaint with the school, not the police. Thanks to a 2011 directive from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights—the same year that “rape culture” began to trend in Internet searches—colleges now set up campus tribunals to adjudicate sexual-assault reports, needing only a “preponderance of evidence” (as opposed to, say, evidence “beyond a reasonable doubt”) to find accused students guilty. In Audrey Logan’s case, Occidental’s dean of student life, who is employed as neither a judge nor a lawyer, led the charges against Logan’s former friend. He was later expelled.
Quiet Occidental, a private school where tuition and fees reached $60,972 in 2014, is no stranger to “rape culture.” One of the most notorious recent student-rape accusations also happened to bubble up at Occidental, where, in the wee morning hours of September 8, 2013, “Jane Doe,” at the time a rather drunken young lady, capriciously texted her equally boozed-up friend, “John Doe.”
Bogie and Bacall it wasn’t. “In the messages,” the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports, “the accuser asked Doe, ‘do you have a condom,’ texted another friend ‘I’mgoingtohave sex now’ [sic], and, in an exchange spanning 24 minutes, coordinated with Doe to sneak out of her dorm and proceed to Doe’s dorm to have sex with him.” Later, Jane Doe, traumatized by the experience, decided it had been rape. John Doe was expelled, quietly whisked away to the proverbial but fast-growing Island of Outcast Young Men.
For people who take rape seriously—and for those who understand it as the horrible crime it is—cases like these are jarring, even insulting. Occidental, however, is not alone. Similar stories have mushroomed at universities across the country, including the University of Michigan, Auburn, Stanford, and Duke. According to a database compiled by A Voice for Male Students, there are at least 57 pending legal cases filed by accused young men who claim they were railroaded by a false rape charge, their due-process rights thrown out the door. This number will, no doubt, continue to grow.
“We’ve been around for 15 years,” says Joe Cohn, the legislative and policy director at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), “and we started seeing this issue as a priority in 2011.” This was when the Department of Education, as President Obama later put it, “clarified” the “legal obligations” of universities “to prevent and respond to sexual assault.”
“The quintessential case” of this kind, Cohn told me, “is Caleb Warner’s at the University of North Dakota back in 2010. There was such overwhelming evidence of his innocence.” Despite this—and despite the Grand Forks Police Department’s later charging his accuser of lying to police—Warner was banned from the university campus and given a three-year suspension. After his case gained national attention, Warner was eventually reinstated. His accuser’s name remains unreported, even though police in North Dakota issued a warrant for her arrest for lying to them. She is still at large.
Most of these contested rape cases share a few common threads: alcohol, texting, a consensual hookup gone awry—and, most notably, “empowered” young women who are apparently too weak, too afraid, or too emotionally torn to know what they want. “Research shows that women engage in sex they don’t want for a variety of reasons,” writes Robin Wilson in the Chronicle of Higher Education, describing the struggle colleges face to define rape properly, “including to avoid conflict, because they don’t want to be labeled a tease, and because they feel obligated.”
Conduct a thorough reading of questionable college rape reports, and you’ll begin to see a pattern: A legion of confused young women, long coached that sex means nothing—casual sex is just something that empowered women do, after all—who quickly and traumatically realize, either consciously or not, that something feels dreadfully wrong.
One female student, cited in Wilson’s Chronicle of Higher Education piece, “realized she didn’t want to have sex” midway through a romantic—or, in hindsight, not-so-romantic—encounter with a male classmate. “But she kept quiet,” Wilson writes, “flashed him an occasional fake smile, and stared at the ceiling waiting for it to be over.” Later, of course, “part of her thought she’d been violated,” and, sorting out her feelings, she finally declared the encounter to be “rape-ish.” Thus far, she has apparently refrained from pressing charges.
In her bestselling memoir, Not That Kind of Girl, Lena Dunham, television star and widely celebrated “feminist icon,” romps through several meaningless sexual encounters upon her arrival at college. The most notorious is a cloudy recounting of what she would later call rape. Many details are, to put it kindly, questionable, as Dunham herself has admitted. But whatever you think of Dunham’s claim of sexual assault—and the story is tragic on a number of levels—it’s telling to read what she reportedly told herself while that assault was happening: “The refrain I hear again and again in my head, a self-soothing mechanism of sorts, is |
abortion rights, would not be a strong defender of gun rights, and who can't beat President Obama, whose reelection Gingrich says "would be a genuine disaster," in a farewell video to supporters that he released Tuesday. Winning Our Future sharply criticized Romney's record at the private equity firm Bain Capital, hammering him for overseeing a company in the early 90's later fined for Medicare fraud and producing a documentary that portrayed Romney as a corporate raider.
While Winning Our Future has made no effort to sanitize the record on Romney, Gingrich's official campaign committee recently has tried to hide its attack ads, making them private on its YouTube account. Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond has not returned an email asking why. However, a YouTube user named NewtonGingrich has preserved the negative ads.
The pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future scrubbed its YouTube account of ads bashing another Romney rival for the presidential nomination, former Sen. Rick Santorum, some time after he dropped out of the race on April 10. Then, in the final days of April, after Gingrich said he would exit the race, the super PAC also made its anti-Gingrich ads private. All but two of Restore Our Future's ads are now hidden.EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros has acquired rights to Live Fast Die Hot by bestselling author Jenny Mollen. Anne Hathaway has come attached to star in a film based on the author’s experiences, and Gail Berman will produce with Hathaway. Mollen, whose book was published by Doubleday in June, will be executive producer.
REX/Shutterstock
Mollen wrote about a transformation of her priorities as she evolved from a social-media-centric and impulsive personality — who once invited her drug dealer to Passover Seder so he wouldn’t feel like they were only using him for drugs — to a first-time mother. The irreverent self-discovery essays in the book make her a kindred spirit to the likes of Chelsea Handler and Lena Dunham, both of whom lent laudatory blurbs when the book was published. The project will be overseen by WB’s Chantal Nong, and it is part of a concerted effort by Greg Silverman’s feature division to recruit female filmmakers and talent to tell stories.
Hathaway, who’s repped by CAA and Management 360, just signed on to be part of the cast of the Ocean’s Eleven spinoff Ocean’s Eight (Ocho), which Gary Ross will direct. She stars with Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Rihanna, Awkwafina, Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling and Sarah Paulson.
Mollen is repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Ziffren Brittenham.Granted, many American corporations did well last year. Profits were up substantially. As a result, many companies are sharing the wealth, at least with their executives. “We’re seeing a lot of that reflected in the pay,” Mr. Boyd says.
And at a time of so much tumult in the media business, it might be surprising that some executives in media and communications were among the most richly rewarded last year.
The preliminary and final studies put Philippe P. Dauman, the chief executive of Viacom, at the top of the list. Mr. Dauman made $84.5 million last year, after signing a new long-term contract that included one-time stock awards.
Leslie Moonves, of the CBS Corporation, got a 32 percent raise and reaped $56.9 million. Michael White of DirecTV was paid $32.9 million, while Brian L. Roberts of the Comcast Corporation and Robert A. Iger of the Walt Disney Company each received pay packages valued at $28 million.
“Media firms seemed to be paying a lot,” said Carol Bowie, head of compensation policy development at ISS Governance, which advises large investors on corporate governance issues like proxy votes. “Media companies in general tend to be high-payers, and they tend to feed off each other.”
Other big payers included oil and commodities companies like Exxon Mobil and a few technology giants like Oracle and I.B.M.
Some of the other highly paid executives on the new list who were not in the April survey are Gregg W. Steinhafel of Target, who had a $23.5 million pay package; Michael E. Szymanczyk of Altria, $20.77 million; and Richard C. Adkerson of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, $35.3 million.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
Most ordinary Americans aren’t getting raises anywhere close to those of these chief executives. Many aren’t getting raises at all — or even regular paychecks. Unemployment is still stuck at more than 9 percent.
Photo
In some ways, chief executives seem to live in a world apart when it comes to pay. As long as shareholders think that the top brass is doing a good job, executives tend to be well paid, whatever the state of the broader economy. And some corporate boards were probably particularly generous in 2010 after a few relatively lean years for their top executives. In other words, some of this was makeup pay.
“What is of more concern to shareholders is that it looks like C.E.O. pay is recovering faster than company fortunes,” says Paul Hodgson, chief communications officer for GovernanceMetrics International, a ratings and research firm.
According to a report released by GovernanceMetrics in June, the good times for chief executives just keep getting better. Many executives received stock options that were granted in 2008 and 2009, when the stock market was sinking.
Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.
Now that the market has recovered from its lows of the financial crisis, many executives are sitting on windfall profits, at least on paper. In addition, cash bonuses for the highest-paid C.E.O.’s are at three times prerecession levels, the report said.
Of course, these sorts of pay figures invariably push the buttons of many ordinary Americans. Yes, workers’ 401(k)’s are looking better than they did in some recent years, but many investors still have not recovered from the hit they took during the financial crisis. And, of course, millions are out of work or trying to hold on to their homes — or both.
And it’s not as if most workers are getting fat raises. The average American worker was taking home $752 a week in late 2010, up a mere 0.5 percent from a year earlier. After inflation, workers were actually making less.
On the flip side, some chief executives have consistently taken token salaries — sometimes, $1 — choosing instead to rely on their ownership stakes for wealth. These stock riches don’t show up on the current pay lists, but they can be huge.
Warren E. Buffett, for instance, saw his stock holdings rise last year by 16 percent, to $46 billion. Other longtime chief executives or founders who are sitting on billions of paper profits include Jeffrey P. Bezos of Amazon.com and Michael S. Dell, the founder of Dell.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
Resurgent executive pay has some corporate watchdogs worried that companies have already forgotten the lessons of the bust. Boards have promised to tie executive pay to company success, but by some measures pay is rising faster than performance. The median pay raise for chief executives last year — 23 percent — was roughly in line with the increase in net corporate profits. But it far exceeded the median gain in shareholders’ total return, which was 16 percent, as well as the median gain in revenue, which was 7 percent.
FOR the moment, shareholders aren’t storming executive suites. And while they received a say on pay under new federal rules last year, their votes are nonbinding. In other words, boards can still do as they please.
Pay specialists say companies are taking a hard look at these votes. Still, only about 1.5 percent of the 200 companies in the Equilar study were rebuffed by their shareholders on pay. A vast majority of the votes passed overwhelmingly, with 80 percent or 90 percent support, according to Mr. Boyd of Equilar.
Mr. Boyd says companies are making an effort to explain their pay plans. “We saw companies take it very seriously,” he says of the new rule.
In some respects, the mere possibility that shareholders might reject a proposed pay plan is enough to make corporate executives think again. Ms. Bowie of ISS says that outrageous payouts — such as so-called tax gross-ups, in which companies cover executives’ tax bills on perks like corporate jets — are becoming rarer.
Disney for instance, eliminated tax gross-ups this year in the face of shareholder ire, she said.
Company directors have the power to rein in runaway executive pay, but it is unclear whether either they or shareholders will do so in 2012. “It can be done if there is the will,” Ms. Bowie says.Gerry Shaw/Wikimedia Commons Resistance is futile — scientists are now one step closer to the Borg of "Star Trek," wiring brains together into "brainets" that can solve problems as teams, new experiments with monkeys and rats suggest.
The researchers say these so-called brain-to-brain interfaces could lead to "organic computers" made of multiple animal brains wired together.
Scientists worldwide are developing brain-machine interfaces through which people and lab animals can control robotic arms and exoskeletons using only their minds. These work by converting brain signals to computer signals and vice versa.
Recently, neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis at Duke University Medical Center and his colleagues developed the first brain-to-brain interfaces, arrays of microscopic wires implanted in the brains of rats that allowed real-time intercontinental transfer of data between pairs of the rodents. One set of rats would learn to solve movement- or touch-based problems, and their brain activity was recorded as patterns of electrical stimulation that were transferred into the brains of another set of rats, helping the recipient animals solve those problems more quickly.
Now, Nicolelis and his colleagues have used brain-to-brain interfaces to create what they call brain networks, or brainets, that can work together to complete simple tasks.
In one set of experiments, the scientists linked rhesus macaque monkeys together into either a two-brain brainet, a B2, or a three-brain brainet, a B3. The primates all sat in separate rooms, sharing brain activity relating to their senses and movements.
The researchers next had the monkeys control the movements of a realistic virtual monkey arm on a video display. The amount of control each primate had over the arm depended on the experiment.
For example, in one experiment, the monkeys in a B2 could each control only one of two dimensions of the arm's movement (such as up and down, or left and right), while in another, the monkeys in a B3 could each control two of three dimensions of movement (towards and away, for example).
If the monkeys successfully guided the arm to touch a moving target, they got a small reward of juice. The scientists found that with long-term training, the monkeys increasingly coordinated their behavior and synchronized their brain activity, leading to improved performance.
Monkeys in separate rooms faced a computer monitor that showed a virtual arm. Researchers found that the animals synchronized their brain activity and worked together in these "brainets" to complete simple tasks. Drawings by Miguel A.L. Nicolelis In another set of experiments, the researchers connected three or four adult rats into a brainet to solve basic computational problems. The scientists first implanted arrays of microscopic wires in the primary somatosensory cortex of the rats, the brain region linked with the sense of touch. They next showed they could mildly electrically stimulate this part of the brain, generating what Nicolelis said was probably a tactile feeling of some kind.
In one experiment, when given this stimulation cue, thirsty rats learned they could get water if they synchronized the electrical activity of their brains. It's not known what exactly the rats do to change their brain activity, Nicolelis said.
Over time, rat brainets learned how to complete the simple computational task of pattern recognition. The rats recognize different patterns of brain stimulation, synchronizing their brain activity when they received one kind of stimulus and desynchronizing it if they received another, the researchers said.
The study revealed that such pattern recognition skills could be used to predict an increased or decreased chance of rain. The rats received patterns of electrical stimulation that represented increasing or decreasing air temperature and increasing or decreasing air pressure. Decreasing air pressure and increasing air temperature often signal early evening spring thunderstorms in North Carolina, where the research took place.
The brainets predicted the chance of rain with 41 percent accuracy, much higher than chance, and better than single rats that received this data.
"The rats could divide tasks across animals, so their individual workload was much smaller," Nicolelis said. "We didn't expect that in the beginning."
One potential clinical application of this research is to link paralyzed patients with healthy volunteers to help them learn how to move again, or help patients learn how to control robotic limbs or exoskeletons, Nicolelis said.
"We hope to be able to report data on such research in a few months," Nicolelis said. "One day this could also help stroke patients, epilepsy patients and patients with other neurological disorders. Also, this could be done non-invasively, instead of having to use implants like we did in our experiments with monkeys and rats."
The scientists detailed their findings online July 9 in two studies in the journal Scientific Reports.
Follow us @livescience, Facebook, &Google+. Original article on Live Science.About us
The Charlie Awards Film Festival was founded by Teacher, Wayne McNanny in 1972 and is possibly the oldest student film festival in Canada. The Charlie Awards is a film competition for high school students in the KW region that helps students to discover their creative potential, build their confidence, develop leadership skills, and work collaboratively in teams. Students film everywhere and anywhere, developing a variety of story lines and plots to create dynamic, innovative productions. At the school site the student's films are assessed by a panel of judges. Two films from each school are submitted, previewed by judges and premiered to the public. This year, the films will be presented on April 28, 2016, 7:00 p.m. at the Princess Theatre in Waterloo. The Charlies are judged by media professionals who donate their time to work with the best of the K-W region's young film makers. They help our students improve their filmmaking abilities; they provide editing and production advice and consult on solutions to problems. This year is the 45th Anniversary of The Charlies Awards Film Festival.
Our Goal this Year
This year we would like to make this opportunity more rewarding for our students. We would like to offer financial support for placing in the Charlie's. Financial Awards for young directors will help them further develop their projects, have access to more sophisticated equipment and contribute to their future goals in post secondary studies. We would like to thank all our judges and volunteers in advance for all their dedication and expertise in coordinating and hosting The Charlies.
Rewards
Every donation counts! To make sure that you get the most out of our project; we would like to offer you some rewards!
$10 dollars or more: Special thanks on the Charlie Awards Facebook page
$50 dollars or more: Special thanks on the Charlie Awards Facebook page and a Charlie Awards Poster
$100 dollars or more: Special thanks on the Charlie Awards Facebook page, A Poster, and a Charlie Awards T-Shirt
$250 dollars or more: All of the above PLUS free advertising for your company on our webpage (Poster + T-shirts can be order/picked up at RCSS)
$500 dollars or more: All of the above PLUS we would like you to present the awards to the students Directors on the night of the Charlie Awards Film festival!
Our End Goal
Our goal is to offer financial incentives to young high school film directors in our community and to give teenagers a forum to show their creativity, their passion and their voice through film. We want to make the Charlie Awards Film Festival a household name in our community. We want to bring more students to our event, to offer more opportunities to outstanding young film makers, and ultimately announce to the world, that K-W Region produces the most innovative and creative young film makers ever! Thank you so much for all your support.It’s that time of the year again when Eurobike (the biggest bike tradeshow in the world) is over and we get to take a closer look at the bike touring, bikepacking and adventure gear and innovation from the show.
Bikepacking bags have continued to become more prevalent at the show this year, as have off-road adventure bikes and Pinion gearbox touring bikes. There’s a carbon fibre touring bike here in the mix, and you should take a closer look at the new Surly alt handlebars.
Here’s the CyclingAbout roundup gallery of all the touring, trekking, adventure and bikepacking gear from the show. I will update this resource as more photos become available. 🙂
A special thanks to Franz from Velologie for running around and taking all of these great photos.
AcePac
Apidura
Blackburn
Boo Bikes
Breezer
Bruno
Busch & Muller
Co-Motion
Fuji
Gates Carbon Drive
Giant
Gilles Berthoud
Hartje
HiLite
Intec
Koga
Marin
Maxx
Moulton
MTB Cycletech
Ortlieb
Patria
Pedal Power
Pinion
Restrap
Ritchey
Rohloff
Rose
Rotor Bikes
Salsa
Schauff
Schmidt
Simplon
Soma
SP Dynamo
Supernova
Surly
Tern
Topeak
Tout Terrain
Vaude
Velo de Ville
Velotraum
VSF Fahrradmanufaktur
Wiawas
YasujiroFor other television series with same or similar titles, see Outcast (disambiguation)
Outcasts is a 2011 British television science-fiction drama serial,[1][2] starring Liam Cunningham, Hermione Norris, Amy Manson, Daniel Mays, Eric Mabius and Ashley Walters. It originally aired on BBC One, and BBC HD. It was broadcast in the United States on BBC America.[3]
Plot [ edit ]
Outcasts is set in the year 2060[4] on the fictional planet Carpathia, a habitable planet five years travel from Earth. Carpathia has been colonized by a succession of spaceships fleeing destruction and nuclear conflict back on Earth. Most of the planet's population is living within the limits of the pioneer town Forthaven, which was first settled ten years before the time of the beginning of the series. The Carpathians live in ignorance of Earth's fate, receiving news only through the few evacuee transporter ships that successfully pass through the difficult atmospheric entry to Carpathia. Carpathia was so-named by the colonists in honour of the RMS Carpathia, a ship that came to rescue survivors of the historic RMS Titanic disaster.[5]
The story focuses on the President of Carpathia, Richard Tate, and core members of the Protection and Security (PAS) team, as well as Expeditionaries (XPs), whose role is to explore the planet on foot and retrieve resources and medicines. With the arrival of CT-9, perhaps the last transporter that will reach Carpathia from Earth, the storylines revolve around the ongoing lives of the existing settlers, the induction of new evacuees into the Forthaven community and the effect of others living outside the walls of Forthaven.
Science fiction elements [ edit ]
While much of the series deals with human relationships in a hostile environment, there are a number of sci-fi elements – such as being set in the future, on a planet in a faraway solar system, after some sort of global catastrophe.
The Advanced Cultivars (ACs) are a group of genetically enhanced humans designed to survive in harsh conditions. Early in the colonisation, they were wrongly accused as being the carriers/source of a plague which killed many of the new colony's children, including those of President Tate. Some of the ACs have specific problems due to their conditioning. They are supposedly sterile.
Though the planet has only simple native animals and birds, over the course of the series the colony discovers evidence of both an extinct native hominid species and a mysterious alien intelligence capable of manifesting physical entities based on the colonists.
The Deep Brain Visualization (DBV) machine translates brain activity into visual images on a screen showing what the person remembers. The person sits in a reclining chair with their head between two blocks containing sensors to non-invasively collect the data.
Cast [ edit ]
Production [ edit ]
In development since 2007,[6] produced by Kudos Film & Television for BBC One, the series started shooting in South Africa in May 2010, coinciding with the 2010 FIFA World Cup being held there.[7] According to David Stephenson, writing in the Daily Express, the original scripts underwent 25 rewrites.[8]
Episodes [ edit ]
Episode Title Directed by Written by UK viewers
(million) Share
(%) Original air date 1 "Episode 1" Bharat Nalluri Ben Richards 4.50[9] 17.9[9] 7 February 2011 ( ) CT-9, a transport ship, is about to arrive to Carpathia, but its re-entry heat shield is compromised. Meanwhile, Mitchell Hoban, head of the Expeditionaries, displays increasingly erratic behaviour. 2 "Episode 2" Bharat Nalluri Ben Richards 3.30[10] 13.0[10] 8 February 2011 ( ) The escape pods have landed. Julius Berger seems to have saved his life at a high price. The ACs have taken a girl hostage and want the colonists to cure a baby as a price for her life and freedom. 3 "Episode 3" Omar Madha Ben Richards and Simon Block 2.95[11] 11.8[11] 14 February 2011 ( ) While a huge whiteout (a ferocious dust storm caused by Carpathia's twin moons) is threatening Forthaven, two technicians are sent to secure the Earth beacon, and Cass leaves on a rescue mission that no one believes he will survive. 4 "Episode 4" Omar Madha Jack Lothian 2.63[12] 10.05[12] 15 February 2011 ( ) Elijah, a troubled AC, enters Forthaven and attacks a citizen. Fleur wants to return him to his people and seeks the help of Cass and Rudi. Expeditionaries make a stunning discovery. 5 "Episode 5" Andy Goddard Ben Richards and Jimmy Gardner 2.70[13] 10.8[13] 21 February 2011 ( ) Pak, an old expeditionary, leads Cass and Fleur around radioactive areas to a diamond-scattered beach with skeletons of a hominid-like family in the foreshore. Julius secretly contacts spaceship CT-10. 6 "Episode 6" Andy Goddard David Farr 1.52[14] 10.5[14] 27 February 2011 ( ) Three expeditionaries disappear and nobody seems to know why they were outside the town. One returns but the mystery only gets deeper. The ACs hatch a plot of their own. A choice must be made between the life of a mother, or that of her baby. Julius secretly continues to contact spaceship CT-10. 7 "Episode 7" Jamie Payne David Farr 1.33[15] 9.7[15] 6 March 2011 ( ) Cass finds a note threatening to expose his secret, while Stella and Tate must face the prospect of another, superior, hostile lifeform on Carpathia. 8 "Episode 8" Jamie Payne Ben Richards 1.56[16] 11.6[16] 13 March 2011 ( ) A deadly virus hits Forthaven and Berger sets about bringing down Tate's government. A disturbing secret about Fleur is revealed and many people including Tipper and Lily are infected by the virus but are saved and CT-10 spaceship is about to land.
Reception [ edit ]
Writing in The Independent, Brian Viner admitted that at first Outcasts rekindled his prejudices about science fiction but he was gradually sucked in. The first episode was "well written", "smartly directed" and "splendidly acted".[1] These quotes are also used as blurb on the cover of the Blu-ray Disc release of the series.
However, other reviews for the series were generally more negative. Reviewing for The Daily Telegraph, Chris Harvey found it "one of the most staggeringly uninteresting dramas that’s been on television for a while", "drab" and "pretty turgid human drama."[17]
Kevin O'Sullivan writing for The Daily Mirror said, "Hermione Norris and Daniel Mays in excrutiating [sic] sci-fi rubbish", and "Who directed it? Ed Wood? And what a script! So jaw-droppingly dreadful it hurt".[18]
The Times reviewer, David Chater wrote, "Not since Bonekickers has the BBC broadcast such an irredeemably awful series. Sometimes catastrophes on this scale can be enjoyed precisely because they are so dismal, but this one has a kind of grinding badness that defies enjoyment of any kind".[19]
Andrew Anthony for The Observer concluded, "All along I've been misreading the series as a kind of cosmic tragedy when in reality it was a tragic comedy. It wasn't trying to be wise. Deep down, Carpathia was pure Morecambe."[20]
Discussion of the series and its plot/script issues took place across various sites, including The Guardian's episode by episode review by Phelim O'Neill,[21] an interactive interview with writer/creator Ben Richards,[22] and at Digital Spy.[23]
Audience figures for the series were poor: starting from an initial low figure of 4.5 million viewers for the pilot episode, the show lost nearly two-thirds over its run, to finish with 1.56 million UK viewers.
Scheduling and cancellation [ edit ]
Having originally launched on Mondays and Tuesdays at 21:00, The Guardian reported that after disappointing ratings, the fifth episode would be the last in this prime time slot, with subsequent episodes being rescheduled to late nights on Sundays.[24]
Ben Richards, the writer/creator of the show, remained defiant, commenting, "I have every confidence we will rule our new slot. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!" and "Cultdom beckons. And keep watching hardcore because remaining eps great."[25]
On 14 March 2011 (the day following the final episode), the BBC confirmed that Outcasts had been cancelled, and that there would be no second series.[26] A second series was in planning by this point, which Richards has said he intends to write as a novel instead.[27]
International broadcast [ edit ]
DVD releases [ edit ]
Outcasts was released as both a three-disc DVD and two-disc Blu-ray Disc package on the 4 April 2011, through 2 Entertain, BBFC rated 15.
Format Prod. code
ASIN ref Other details Special Features DVD
3 disc BBCDVD3339
B004M5J7XU Region 2, Anamorphic Widescreen 16:9, PAL, Run Time 470 minutes, English language, English subtitles Reaching out to the stars: Hear from the Producers, writers and cast from the series.
Forthaven – Set Tour Blu-ray Disc
2 disc BBCBD0156
B004PFB8K2 Region 2, Anamorphic Widescreen 16:9, PAL, Run Time 470 minutes, English language, English subtitles Reaching out to the stars: Hear from the Producers, writers and cast from the series.
Forthaven – Set Tour
See also [ edit ]A portion of a static discharger on an aircraft. Note the two sharp metal micropoints and the protective yellow plastic.
Static dischargers, commonly known as static wicks or static discharge wicks, are installed on the trailing edges of aircraft, including (electrically grounded) ailerons, elevators, rudder, wing, horizontal and vertical stabilizer tips. Fitted on almost all civilian aircraft today, they are high electrical resistance (6-200 megaohm) devices with a lower corona voltage than the surrounding aircraft structure. They control the corona discharge into the atmosphere.[1] They are used on aircraft to allow the continuous satisfactory operation of onboard navigation and radio communication systems during precipitation (p-static) conditions. Precipitation static is an electrical charge on an airplane caused by flying through rain, snow, ice, or dust particles. When the aircraft charge is great enough, it discharges into the surrounding air. Without static dischargers, the charge discharges in large batches through pointed aircraft extremities, such as antennas, wing tips, vertical and horizontal stabilizers, and other protrusions. The discharge creates a broad-band radio frequency noise from DC to 1000 MHz, which can affect aircraft communication. Static dischargers contain sharper points than any other part of the aircraft, cause the charge to discharge through them instead, and do so gradually.
Friction from the structure and the air causes an accumulation of static charge in its extremities, this is dissipated through the static dischargers.
Static dischargers are not lightning arrestors and do not affect the likelihood of an aircraft being struck by lightning.
Static dischargers will not function if they are not properly bonded to the aircraft. There must be a conductive path from all parts of the airplane to the dischargers, otherwise they will be useless. Access panels, doors, cowls, navigation lights, antenna mounting hardware, control surfaces, etc., can create static noise if they cannot discharge through the static wick.
The first static dischargers were developed by a joint Army-Navy team led by Dr. Ross Gunn of the Naval Research Laboratory and fitted onto military aircraft during World War II. They were shown to be effective even in extreme weather conditions in 1946 by a United States Army Air Corps team led by Capt. Ernest Lynn Cleveland.
See also [ edit ]JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Greek Orthodox seminary in Jerusalem was set on fire in what is believed to be a hate crime.
Graffiti reading “Redemption of Zion” and disparaging Jesus were spray-painted on the walls of the seminary in the early Thursday morning attack. A room was damaged in the blaze; no one was injured.
“There is no room for such deplorable activity in Jerusalem,” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said in a statement. “We must eradicate this behavior and bring those responsible to justice.”
Barkat said he asked the city’s police chief to speed up the investigation.
The attack comes a day after a mosque was set ablaze in the West Bank village of Jaba, near Bethlehem, in what is believed to be a nationalist attack.
“These attacks are a direct consequence of the calls for recognition of Israel as a ‘Jewish State’ and Jerusalem as the ‘eternal and undivided capital of the Jewish people,'” chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement issued by the Palestinian Authority. “We hold the Israeli government fully responsible for those attacks that aim at terrorizing our people in order to leave their land.”Ty Lawson Arrested for DUI
Ty Lawson -- Arrested for DUI
EXCLUSIVE
Denver Nuggets star Ty Lawson got busted for DUI in Los Angeles last night -- his second DUI arrest this year.
TMZ Sports has learned Lawson was pulled over by CHP for speeding on the 101 Freeway early this morning... and officers determined he showed signs of intoxication... so they gave him a field sobriety test.
Didn't go so good for Lawson. He was arrested around 2:30 AM.
Cops say during the arrest, Lawson identified himself as an NBA player -- and was carrying $6,000 IN CASH on his person.
We actually spoke to Lawson as he and his GF Ashley King (former "Bad Girls Club" star) were leaving Le Jardin nightclub in Hollywood -- moments before they jumped on the freeway. Interesting... we talked marijuana with him.
He's still in jail right now. His bail's been set at $5,000.
Lawson was also charged with a DUI in Denver, back in January.Artist’s impression of how the surface of Pluto might look, according to one of the two models that a team of astronomers has developed to account for the observed properties of Pluto’s atmosphere, as studied with CRIRES.
It would be must-see TV for space geeks everywhere — two big-name scientists debating whether or not Pluto should be reinstated as the solar system's ninth "true" planet.
Alan Stern, the principal investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto, has challenged astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to just such a debate, NBCNews reported last week.
"I am challenging him to the equivalent of the 'Thrilla in Manila,'" Stern told NBCNews. "Before New Horizons gets to Pluto, I want him to accept the debate."
That gives Tyson — the host of "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey," a TV series that aired this spring on Fox and the National Geographic Channel — about a year to work the proposed debate into his schedule, if he so chooses. New Horizons is scheduled to fly by the Pluto system in July 2015, giving astronomers their first-ever up-close look at the frigid world and its five known moons.
Pluto was regarded as the solar system's ninth planet for more than 75 years after its 1930 discovery. But in 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) — the organization responsible for giving "official" scientific names to celestial objects — came up with a new definiton of "planet," and Pluto didn't make the cut. (It hasn't sufficiently "cleared its neighborhood" of other objects, IAU officials said.)
So Pluto was demoted to the newly created category of "dwarf planet," a status it shares with several other large bodies in the frigid, faraway Kuiper Belt. Some scientists, such as Tyson, have expressed support for the decision, while others are not at all happy about it.
Stern is perhaps the most prominent and passionate of the dissenters. He has no problem with the "dwarf planet" designation but believes that dwarfs should enjoy the same status as rocky worlds like Earth and gas giants such as Jupiter.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.After a 10-week break, the public hearings for Quebec’s corruption inquiry resumed Tuesday morning with more testimony about bid-rigging — this time involving companies outside Montreal.
Construction companies in Gatineau participated in an elaborate price-fixing scheme to maintain profit margins, according to the testimony of engineer Marc-André Gélinas, the 82nd witness to appear since the inquiry's hearings began last fall.
Gélinas, the Outaouais executive director of the engineering firm AECOM, said collusion was the unintended consequence of Quebec’s Bill 106.
The law came into force in 2002, requiring municipalities to take the lowest bid submitted on infrastructure projects.
He called that law a "false economy," saying it forces everyone bidding on a contract to cut costs.
"You might save a little in terms of engineering costs," Gélinas testified, but as a result, there is less experienced engineering oversight on construction projects.
He said municipal officials often asked him why recent paving projects require work so soon after the completion of a job.
Gélinas said that's because engineering firms are not paid to do a good job — they're paid to do a cheap job.
Code disguised bid-rigging
Earlier, Gélinas testified how companies worked together to rig bids after Bill 106 was passed.
"We knew it was illegal," he said, describing how they avoided discussions of bid-rigging over the telephone. Instead, they came up with a verbal code to thwart anyone who might be listening in.
He testified that he created a spread sheet in which days of the month and times of day corresponded to bid amounts, and then gave it to other colluding firms.
Gélinas said the collusion scheme in his region wasn't the same as those described by previous witnesses in the Montreal area, which involved organized crime and kickbacks to political parties.
He said that in Gatineau only the engineering firms knew what was going on. However, after a U.S. firm bought his company and brought in a tough code of conduct, it was no longer "business as usual."
Then, in 2009, he saw a story in a Gatineau newspaper, describing how 14 people had been arrested in connection with a collusion scheme.
"There were criminal charges," he exclaimed in his testimony.
"You did this for years!" commission counsel Denis Gallant replied. "You made up the code! What did you think? It was like speeding on the highway?"
"Honestly, yes," Gélinas replied. "I failed to grasp the gravity of the game I was in."
Gélinas said that once he did, he stopped colluding and started co-operating with corruption investigators.
Accurso to fight order to testify
Several people, some facing criminal charges, have launched battles in court to try to avoid being called as witnesses before the commission.
Tony Accurso, the embattled former construction magnate, is one of those people and is scheduled to appear in Quebec Superior Court Friday to fight an order to appear issued by the commission earlier this year.
He has maintained that his testimony at the inquiry would make it impossible for him to have a fair trial in his impending fraud cases.
Unions to come under inquiry's lens
The commission's chief lawyer, Sonia Lebel, said studies in the U.S. have shown how organized crime uses unions to infiltrate the lucrative construction business.
She said that during this fall's session the inquiry will delve into how involved the Mob and criminal biker gangs are in Quebec's powerful union movement.
It will look into the ways organized crime allegedly accessed the assets of the Quebec Federation of Labour's Solidarity Fund.
The inquiry is also expected to dig deeper into lucrative construction contracts issued by Transport Quebec and examine how much of taxpayers’ money was involved.Golden Dawn, one of Europe’s most violent far-right parties, has emerged as one of the biggest winners of Sunday’s general election in Greece, consolidating its presence in parliament and power on the streets.
Greek election: Syriza |
c51f5efd28aefa079958d100da7c978e6c007e2d7527339226951 i2pupdate_0.9.32.zip e9c3cebf6ecc55a229f05cee4658d73f18f1cb694f7c07a9990ac92f001227e3 i2pupdate.su3ISLAMABAD - Pakistani officials say they have opened an investigation into a businessman who has been accused of blasphemy after refusing to join protests over an anti-Islam video and allegedly trying to convince others also not to take part.
Police officer Munir Abbasi says that hundreds of protesters in the city of Hyderabad who rallied against the film that mocks the Prophet Muhammad demanded businessman Haji Nasrullah Khan shut his shops in solidarity.
When Khan refused, one of his tenants said his decision supported the film.
City police chief Fareed Jan said Wednesday the protesters claim Khan insulted the Prophet.
Jan said there's no evidence to suggest this happened and said police were pressured by the mob to open the case.
Blasphemy is punishable by life in prison or death in Pakistan.As world leaders prepare for climate talks in Paris, Republicans are under fresh scrutiny for their refusal to acknowledge the science. Here, from the extreme to the merely contrary, is a sample of some of their statements
Donald Trump
Tweeted in November 2012: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.”
Tweeted in December 2013: “Global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax!”
Tweeted in January 2014: “This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps, and our GW scientists are stuck in ice” and “Any and all weather events are used by the GLOBAL WARMING HOAXSTERS to justify higher taxes to save our planet!”
Said in September 2015: “I mean, Obama thinks it’s the number one problem of the world today. And I think it’s very low on the list. So I am not a believer, and I will, unless somebody can prove something to me, I believe there’s weather. I believe there’s change, and I believe it goes up and it goes down, and it goes up again. And it changes depending on years and centuries, but I am not a believer, and we have much bigger problems.”
Marco Rubio
Said in May 2014: “Our climate is always changing. And what they have chosen to do is take a handful of decades of research and say that this is now evidence of a longer-term trend that’s directly and almost solely attributable to manmade activity. I do not agree with that.”
Said in September 2015: “We’re not going to make America a harder place to create jobs in order to pursue policies that will do absolutely nothing, nothing to change our climate. America is a lot of things, the greatest country in the world, absolutely. But America is not a planet.”
Ben Carson
Said in November 2014: “There’s always going to be either cooling or warming going on. As far as I’m concerned, that’s irrelevant. You can ask it several different ways, but my answer is going to be the same. We may be warming. We may be cooling.”
Said in October 2015: “Just the way the Earth rotates on its axis, how far away it is from the sun. These are all very complex things. Gravity, where did it come from?”
Ted Cruz
Said in October 2015: “Climate change is not science. It’s religion. Look at the language, where they call you a denier. Denier is not the language of science. Any good scientist is a skeptic. If he’s not, he or she should not be a scientist. But yet the language of the global warming alarmists, ‘denier’ is the language of religion. It’s heretic. You are a blasphemer.”
John Boehner
Said in May 2009: “Every time we exhale we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know when they do what they do you’ve got more carbon dioxide.”
Said in May 2014: “Listen, I’m not qualified to debate the science over climate change.”
Jim Inhofe
Said in October 2004: “Global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people. It was true when I said it before, and it remains true today. Perhaps what has made this hoax so effective is that we hear over and over that the science is settled and there is a consensus that, unless we fundamentally change our way of life by limiting greenhouse gas emissions, we will cause catastrophic global warming. This is simply a false statement.”
Said in February 2015, while holding a snowball he took to the floor of the Senate: “It’s very, very cold out. Very unseasonable.”The nine-year-old was ‘well hydrated’ when he was discovered by rangers in New Mexico on Tuesday while on a routine patrol
A French couple who died during an afternoon hike across the searing New Mexico desert probably saved their nine-year-old son by giving him two sips of water for each one they took before their supply ran out, a sheriff has said.
The boy was dehydrated but in remarkably good shape when he was found alongside his dead father on a trail in the White Sands National Monument, the Otero County Sheriff Benny House said.
The pair were found on Tuesday about half an hour after park rangers found the mother dead. “That may be why he fared so well, is he was a lot smaller and probably had twice as much water,” House said. “He was well hydrated, compared to the other two.”
House identified the couple as David Steiner, 42, and his wife, Ornella Steiner, 51. The boy’s name wasn’t released. They were tourists from the small town of Bourgogne, near the city of Reims.
L'Union-L'Ardennais (@UnionArdennais) Voici la Une de L'union de ce samedi pic.twitter.com/cFhclXhsnS
The couple appeared to have died of heat-related causes, House said. An autopsy to determine the official cause of death was pending, the state medical investigator’s office said.
The family had two 20-ounce (591mL) water bottles when they set out on the hike along the national monument’s Alkali Flat trail about 1pm, House said.
New Mexico park rangers rescue child after French tourists found dead Read more
The trail is known for crystalline-white sand dunes and ends at the edge of the Alkali Flat, an ancient dry lake bed.
There is no vegetation or shade and the National Park Service warns summertime visitors to hike only in the cool hours and carry at least a gallon (3.8L) of water for each person. The high temperature at the monument on Tuesday was 101F (38.3C), according to the national weather service.
House said warning signs were posted in several languages, including French, at the trailhead.
The sheriff’s office contacted the French consulate in Los Angeles and officials there notified the family’s relatives. The boy’s grandmother flew to Albuquerque and was reunited with him on Thursday.In 2013, Reflektor cemented Arcade Fire as a band to watch. Headlining festivals around the world, their groovy-techno-logic sound, crossed with spacey love stories and anarchic idealism, heightened their already bubbling commercial success.
Four years later, with studio album number five rearing its head (titled Everything Now, due July 28th), two questions arise: has the popularity gotten to their heads? And have they already peaked?
Short answer: no and no.
Long answer: Dream big or go home. That’s the sentiment I was left with after my first listen. Not only have the Canadian Indie-Rock band expanded the sounds explored in Reflektor, but they have gone one, two and three steps further. Everything Now is an experiment of sorts. I can’t tell if it’s the band testing out how far they can evolve their sound, or how far they can stretch their fans. Either way, despite the lack of consistent flow, it works.
The title track, “Everything Now”, (which was released early as one of the several teasers) received mixed reviews. Co-produced by Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter and Pulp’s Steve Mackey, the buoyant disco-rock track drew many comparisons to ABBA; and rightfully so. The upbeat piano melody and swirling strings, layered with dreary vocals and sarcastic lyrics could easily be compared to “Dancing Queen”, only sadder and less disco-y.
The album opens with a continuance from this track, labelled, “Everything Now (Continued)”, acting as a kind of backwards intro. It reaffirms the contradicting sadness of the lyrics whilst bouncing of the fun sounding instrumentals.
“Signs of Life”, pulls slightly away from this with its erratic beats. It sets the scene for an existential crisis, and sees Win Butler stepping out of his comfort zone with serenading cries. Stuart Bogie appears on the track playing the saxophone, once again confirming my theory that the addition of a saxophone makes any song great.
“Creature Comfort”, gives a disco throw-back, with its glitchy techno guitar riffs and fuzzy synths, supported by Régine Chassagne’s high pitched backing vocals. The recurring rhythmic beats partnered with disillusionment, continue as the upbeat track is filled with sad chants about body image and suicide.
The album turns almost jazzy as it gets; “Peter Pan” drifting on a harsh digital percussion back beat. Bogie appears once again, this time with Preservation Hall Jazz Band member Charlie Gabriel, scattering the track the horns, whilst Butler murmurs promises of eternal youth. “Chemistry”, brings the mood back up with its bouncy dance-floor techno, and completely changes things again with the mid-song electric guitar riff.
“Infinite Content: Fast” and “Infinite Content: Slow”, sees the band once again experimenting with mash ups. “Infinite Content: Fast”, nudges the album in a more punk-rock direction, with its soaring dramatic vocals. “Infinite Content: Slow” completely changes things AGAIN and goes in a more country torpor direction, despite continuing on the lyrics and beat from the previous track.
“Electric Blue” has Chassagne taking the centre stage with her bustling falsetto, mimicking the 80’s, and “Good God Damn” echoes influences from Daft Punk with its groovy bass.
The album closes with yet another version of, “Everything Now (Continued)”, but this time altering the song with slow, dramatic instrumentals, stretching it out into a theatrical gloomy end.
Whether you’re a fan of Arcade Fire or not, you have to admire their ability to continuously reinvent their sound in a way that seems fresh and unique, despite clearly being influenced by sounds we’ve heard before. They can take a late 70’s or early 80’s beat, give it a modern twist, and make it sound futuristic. As I said in the beginning, being five albums in, they could have crashed and burned. But instead, they’re only just finding their stride.
Review Score: 7.5 out of 10.
Everything Now is released on July 28th.An Irish-educated surgeon has rejected criticism over comments she made saying surgical trainees should stay silent if they’re sexually assaulted by a colleague.
Dr Gabrielle McMullin, a Sydney-based vascular surgeon, said on ABC radio that sexism is commonplace among Australian surgeons and that young woman should accept unwanted sexual advances because coming forward could ruin their career.
Speaking in an interview following the launch of the book Pathways to Gender Equality - The Role of Merit and Quotas, which she co-authored, Dr McMullin referred to a woman called Caroline, who took a case against a surgeon accused of sexually assaulting her while she completed neurosurgical training at a Melbourne hospital.
Though she won the case, Caroline was subsequently unable to get work at any public hospital in Australia or New Zealand.
“Her career was ruined by this one guy asking for sex on this night. And, realistically, she would have been much better to have given him a blow job on that night,” Dr McMullin said.
“What I tell my trainees is that, if you are approached for sex, probably the safest thing to do in terms of your career is to comply with the request; the worst thing you can possibly do is to complain to the supervising body because then, as in Caroline’s position, you can be sure that you will never be appointed to a major public hospital.”
Dr McMullin’s comments have been called “appalling” and “irresponsible” by organisations that deal with sexual assault and domestic violence cases.
“I would have thought highly trained professionals would be able to operate a better system than that,” Carolyn Worth of the Centre Against Sexual Assault said. “I actually don’t think that’s acceptable advice in this day and age.”
Fiona McCormack, chief executive of Domestic Violence Victoria, said Dr McMullin’s comments were “pretty extraordinary”.
“We need to be looking at the sexism that exists in the medical profession,” she said. “It’s a sad indictment on us and the community when this is what women are being advised to do to benefit their career.”
Dr Saxon Smith, president of the Australian Medical Association in New South Wales, denied that a female doctor’s career would be damaged if she spoke out about sexual harassment.
“Medicine has moved in the last 20 years. Sure, if you go back further than that, yes, it may well have been the case,” Dr Smith said.
“But we know increasingly, and the trend is, that every graduating year for medicine is more female than male as far as the graduate numbers and as such, there is a tide to turn.”
Dr McMullin graduated from Trinity College in 1980 and moved to Australia in 1990.Republican Congressional leaders and members of the House Freedom Caucus are trying to distort Donald Trump’s “America First” mandate on trade and immigration to comply with the globalist agenda demanded by the party’s major donors, according to GOP staffers who are familiar with the discussions that occur in the closed-door meetings.
Top aides tell Breitbart News that certain members of the House Freedom Caucus are backing the Republican leadership’s agenda by supporting the re-election of House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has long championed globalist donor class policies, such as the uninhibited flow of cheap foreign goods and labor across international borders through expansionist immigration policies and unrestricted free trade.
“At a certain point, we’re going to have to change our group’s name from the ‘House Freedom Caucus’ to the ‘Paul Ryan Caucus,’” one senior aide to a member of the House Freedom Caucus told Breitbart.
The aide continued:
Many members of the Freedom Caucus never opposed Ryan’s positions on trade and immigration the way their constituents do. So they’re more than happy to ignore and cast aside the policies that got Trump elected in exchange for going along with the Ryan’s policies. They’d rather keep the status quo and march lockstep with Ryan than have to stir things up by electing someone who would fight for Trump’s mandate and fight to fulfill the wishes of the American people.
The same message is getting out to establishment media outlets.
“Republican congressional leaders are already trying to twist” the platform that got Trump elected into something that more closely aligns with their own agenda, Capitol Hill reporter Matt Fuller writes:
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has already begun the long Washington slog of twisting President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda into something less Trump, with the California Republican insisting on Monday that Trump’s border wall just meant border security and mass deportations just meant deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records.
Fuller followed up on Twitter:
This is not what Trump ran on. This is not what voters were told. This is not what they voted for. But Congress, Trump fans, Amirite?? — Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) November 15, 2016
Similarly, on Sunday, Paul Ryan told CNN that removing illegal aliens was not going to be a “focus” of Donald Trump’s administration. Ryan has been a vocal supporter of immigration amnesty and has a two-decade-long history of pushing for open borders immigration policies. Indeed, open borders advocate Luis Gutierrez has previously described Ryan as his “guiding light” on immigration, and was one of Ryan’s earliest backers for House Speaker last year.
Breitbart News spoke to several top aides to members in the House Freedom Caucus— all of whose members voted for Paul Ryan as House Speaker last year.
The aides explain that, while it has gone virtually unreported by corporate media, many members of the Freedom Caucus never shared Trump’s— nor their constituents’—desire to curb immigration into the United States, nor did they share his skepticism of globalist trade policies.
As such, top aides to members of the House Freedom Caucus now say that many of the group’s members are more than happy to accept what Conservative Review has described as leadership’s effort to “bastardize” Trump’s platform.
According to polling data, Paul Ryan’s vision on trade and immigration is opposed by roughly nine in 10 GOP voters.
Yet despite the clear opposition of their constituents, “A lot of House Freedom Caucus members really don’t oppose Ryan’s positions on trade and immigration,” a separate senior aide for a conservative member of the group told Breitbart. “Typically the issues that unite the House Freedom Caucus are spending and government issues.”
Prior reports have similarly documented House Freedom Caucus members’ support for Ryan’s open borders agenda.
“I think if you were to poll all of the Freedom Caucus members, they’d say that Paul Ryan is an improvement over Boehner, but that they’d still prefer someone better. The members just don’t have a plan to do anything about it.” the aide added.
“Privately, a lot of the members would probably tell you that they thought the ‘Better Way’ [agenda] was not a huge success– and maybe was even a failure. It definitely didn’t send people to the polls,” the aide said.
“Everybody in the House Freedom Caucus and the establishment, at this point, is looking to play the reconciliatory game of saying: ‘Well, Trump was really saying what I’ve been saying all along.’ Of course, we all know this isn’t true. The people who voted for him don’t think that’s what he was running on,” another House Freedom Caucus aide told Breitbart.
“I worry we’ve got establishment Republicans like Mike Pence and Reince Priebus trying to tell Trump that the people who voted for him didn’t really mean X or didn’t really want Y. That worries me,” the aide added.
The stealth co-opting of Trump’s agenda is perhaps best evidenced by former Ryan advisor Dan Senor who— despite actively working to undermine Trump’s chances of electoral success during the election— now says the Republican Party is unified around the realization that it finally has an opportunity to enact tax reform. Senor told CBS:
When I talked to Republicans yesterday what I’m struck by, is that they’re sitting there saying some of us may have had our differences with Donald Trump and the kind of campaign he waged, but at the end of the day we’ve been wanting for years to get big things done on tax reform, in repeal and replace of Obamacare, in getting rid of some of these regulations… overturned. […] And we couldn’t get it done without unified Republican control of the executive branch and legislative branch. Now we have it.
Notably, Senor excluded any mention of enacting reforms on policies like trade or immigration that propelled Trump to victory.
All of the aides–even those whose bosses plan to vote for Ryan–said that it’s doubtful as House Speaker Paul Ryan would ever champion or expend political capital or twist arms to enact Trump’s mandate on the critical issues of trade and immigration.
As late-conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly explained in August, Trump’s agenda stands diametrically opposed to that of current House Speaker Paul Ryan’s. “I think one of the reasons Trump was nominated was because he wants to put America first and defend the interests of the United States,” Schlafly said. “Obviously, Paul Ryan is not an ‘America first’ guy.”
While Tuesday’s Speaker election is just an internal election—and the more formal election comes when the members return at the beginning of January—the “significance of the election Tuesday is the fact that Ryan decided to go ahead and rush it through on Tuesday,” one aide told Breitbart.
“He was asked to delay it, which would allow returning Members to consider his handling of the Lame Duck and newly elected Members could at least meet a few people. He decided to stick with the old, heavy-handed way of doing business,” the aide said.
House Freedom Caucus members have noted that Ryan has broken several significant promises he made to them to secure their vote for him as House Speaker.
For instance, Ryan promised immigration hawk Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks that he would not bring up any major immigration legislation while Barack Obama was president. Ryan swiftly broke that promise by quadrupling the controversial H-2B guest worker program in his omnibus spending bill, which immigration attorney Ian Smith explained would disproportionately “hurt America’s most vulnerable workers” by allowing them to be replaced by temporary foreign workers.
Brooks, who indicated that he is leaning towards supporting Ryan for Speaker, now says that he has gotten a new promise from Ryan on the issue of immigration.
Brooks was quick to admit that he has no reason to believe that Ryan will keep his promise to him this year any better than he did last.
Congressman Dave Brat, who voted against Ryan last year and urged for a delay of Tuesday’s leadership election, noted that “Speaker Ryan promised last year that if elected, he would adhere to regular order. It didn’t happen,” Brat wrote. “This year, the House didn’t even vote on a budget.”
“Is this what the American people want?” Brat asked.
The House Freedom Caucus’s stated purpose is to give “a voice to countless Americans who feel that Washington does not represent them.” It remains unclear whether the group’s members believe that their constituents are entitled to Congressional leadership that represents their views on these significant issues, which were at the center of the 2016 election.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus include, among others: Jim Jordan, Mick Mulvaney, Raul Labrador, Dave Brat, Mo Brooks, Jeff Duncan, Matt Salmon, Mark Meadows, John Fleming, Jim Bridenstine, Justin Amash, Barry Loudermilk, Gary Palmer, and Alex Mooney.Republicans who served top roles in President George W. Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation (DOT) are coming out against Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE's presidential campaign.
The 12 former officials — and one former Energy Department official — criticized the Republican in an open letter Wednesday, led by former EPA head Christine Todd Whitman and former Transportation Secretary Mary Peters.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We believe in effective government, a society of hope and optimism balanced with realism, and a politics of civility and honesty. None of these values are present in Donald Trump’s campaign,” the ex-officials wrote.
The former Bush officials did not endorse Democrat 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 for president, but said that Trump is not qualified to hold the office.
The letter comes near the end of a presidential campaign in which dozens upon dozens of longtime Republicans have denounced their party’s candidate.
Clinton has pounced on the defections in an attempt to paint Trump as too extreme for the GOP, hoping to push voters away from him.
The Wednesday letter follows an open declaration in August from 50 foreign policy experts who served in GOP administrations. In their letter, those experts opposed Trump while backing Clinton.
Those ex-officials warned that Trump exemplifies none of the traits that the Republican Party holds dear and “would be the most reckless president in American history.”
The EPA and DOT leaders drew a direct line from the foreign policy letter to theirs.
“From our experience in government and politics, we believe that his appeals to racial and religious differences, his unfounded charges and personal attacks against those with whom he disagrees, and his broad and repeated misuse of facts and data have damaged the future of our party and have undermined his ability to govern effectively, should he be elected,” they said.
On their specific environmental and transportation policy priorities, the former officials said Trump falls flat.
Trump, they wrote, has called for increased infrastructure spending, but “he has not been clear about the sources of new or additional revenues to support such an investment beyond substantially expanded federal borrowing.”
On the environment, they charge that Trump has irresponsibly called for “eliminating regulation without regard to the circumstances.”
William Ruckelshaus, an EPA head under Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and William Reilly, an EPA head under President George H.W. Bush, endorsed Clinton in an August letter that castigated Trump for endorsing what they saw as anti-environmental policies.
Whitman, a former New Jersey governor, has previously joined Ruckelshaus and Reilly in endorsing President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of his climate change agenda, which Trump has promised to repeal.
This story was corrected at 1:10 p.m. to reflect that the former officials oppose Trump. A previous version contained incorrect information. The Hill regrets the error.I HAVE to write a separate news story about the Sotomayor confirmation hearings this week, so the column will probably be about something non-newsy: a summer camp for the children of atheists in Ohio.
I visited Camp Quest a couple of weeks ago. It's like a regular summer camp—lots of kids sleeping in cabins, exploring the woods, roasting marshmallows over campfires and heaving buckets of water over each other for no particular reason.
Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks.
But unlike, say, Bible camp, there's a strong atmosphere of scepticism. All the counsellors are secular humanists. The kids are taught to question everything. They also learn about the scientific method while examining bugs in a pond.
Summer camps satisfy a ravening demand. American kids have immensely long summer holidays, while their parents hardly get any time off at all. Solution: send the little blighters to sleep in the wilderness.
Camp Quest offers something more specific. In the most religious parts of America, it is tough being a secular teenager. Many of the kids at Camp Quest say that, at school, they either keep quiet about their lack of belief or are teased for it. What they like about Camp Quest is that no one tells them they are going to Hell.
Plus, of course, summer camp is fun. You get to shoot longbows and stage comedy skits. I listen to an amateur naturalist teaching the older kids something slightly rude about a certain type of toad they find in that pond. You can tell a male from a female because it croaks when you press its back. Why? Because males of this species will try to mate with anything. So when a male feels a weight on his back, he assumes it is another male. He croaks to say: "I'm male, too. Go away."The shift that has generated the most media attention is the finding that a large majority of Americans now believe that gay and lesbian sexual relations are morally acceptable. This is a dramatic reversal in public opinion compared to 2001, at which time a large majority of the country felt that such behavior was immoral. Of course, this change isn’t particularly surprising in light of all of the social and political gains made by the gay and lesbian community in the last few years, such as the fact that same-sex marriage is now legal in all 50 states and the federal hate crimes statute has been expanded to cover sexual minorities.
Of the sexual attitudes assessed, sex between unmarried men and women and divorce are seen as the most morally acceptable, a trend that has continued since 2001. At the same time, both consensual non-monogamy (e.g., polygamy) and non-consensual non-monogamy (i.e., cheating) continue to be the least accepted. However, it is notable that the percentage of Americans approving of polygamy has more than doubled in the last 12 years. It would be interesting to know whether acceptance of other forms of consensual non-monogamy (e.g., polyamory, open relationships, swinging) have changed over this time period as well; however, Gallup (unfortunately) does not routinely inquire about these other relationship configurations.
One other finding worth noting is that attitudes toward abortion have remained pretty flat in recent years, whereas attitudes toward stem-cell research have become more favorable.
It will be interesting to see how these findings continue to evolve over the next few years, although, as noted above, I would love it if Gallup expanded the list of sexual topics they inquired about. For instance, In addition to inquiring about attitudes toward other forms of consensual non-monogamy, it would be interesting to see whether people's views of bisexuality are changing in the same way as people's views on homosexuality.
Want to learn more about Sex and Psychology? Click here for previous articles or follow the blog on Facebook (facebook.com/psychologyofsex), Twitter (@JustinLehmiller), or Reddit (reddit.com/r/psychologyofsex) to receive updates.
Image Source: 123rf.com/Agata Gladykowska
You Might Also Like:MUMBAI: Notwithstanding the malnutrition deaths in Mumbai’s Palghar district last month, a survey from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), states that Maharashtra has the best health index among the country’s big states.A statistical model worked out by IIM-A analyses that Maharashtra’s health infrastructure as well as its health indicators are way ahead of the 20 other big states included in the study.The study was conducted on the behalf of the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) and released on the occasion of OPPI’s golden jubilee celebrations on Friday.Maharashtra, as per the IIM paper called `Development of a Health Index of Indian States’, is ahead of Tamil Nadu and Kerala which are the usual favourites.The study considered mortality (infant mortality rate, under 5 mortality rate, neonatal mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, deaths due to HIV/TB and malaria) as ``outcomes’’. Infrastructure such as primary health clinics and hospitals as well as human resources were termed as ``inputs’’. A matrix weighing the outcomes against the inputs was prepared to arrive at the health index score, said IIM-A researchers at the OPPI function held on Friday.While Maharashtra was third in ranking for input variables (Tamil Nadu was 2nd and Andhra Pradesh was 3rd) and second for outcome variables (with Kerala at 1st and Tamil Nadu at 3rd), it topped the outcome-income matrix.So, is Maharashtra really the tops in public healthcare? Maharashtra director of health services Dr Satish Pawar certainly believes so. ``The mortality indicators show that we are ahead of others in healthcare delivery,’’ he said.However, health economist Dr Ravi Duggal said that the survey had only considered mortality and not morbidity. ``Health index cannot only be based on a few parameters,’’ said Dr Duggal, whose study a decade back showed that Maharashtra’s healthcare infrastructure was abysmal and on par with the poorest states of India.However, OPPI said the study was commissioned to get an idea of Indian healthcare needs in the near future. OPPI president Dr Shailesh Ayyangar, “Today, as a nation, we are at the edge of transformation. We have yet to fix healthcare financing issues, so that the disease burden doesn’t impoverish our nation. More than ever, the need of the hour is for all stakeholders to come together to find solutions and keep our nation healthy.”The study divided states into three categories of high performers--middling performers and laggards for the purpose of policy directions. “This report is a first step. With the existing data, we are able to make limited comments on the drivers of changes – which can provide preliminary pointers on where action is required. At this stage, we are able to look at the changes in the underlying variables that may have caused the movement. Moving forward we will be able to provide more granular recommendations” said IIM-A professor Arvind Sahay, one of the authors of the study.You can thank Germany for all your childhood memories of hunting down colourful eggs, and eating way too many chocolate treats topped with those distinctive long ears. That's because the Easter Bunny comes from the German tradition of the Osterhase - literally Easter hare.
But according to Manfred Gräfe of the Berlin City Museum Foundation, the exact origins of the Easter Bunny folklore are unknown, and there are a number of different theories.
Gräfe explained to The Local in an email that the hare has a special connection to the Christian Easter season's themes of resurrection and eternal life. This is because young bunnies are born into the world with “open eyes” - meaning they're fully developed.
“People used to think that they slept with open eyes, and that they were ‘always awake' from birth,” Gräfe explained. “Therefore they became a symbol of eternal life, likewise with the egg.”
One theory that is widely circulated is that the hare was a companion of an Germanic spring goddess named Ostara, for whom the German word for Easter - Ostern - is supposedly named. But Gräfe warns that the actual existence of a goddess Ostara is very much disputed.
More likely, according to the museum foundation, the connection between hare and egg has a very agrarian background.
In the Middle Ages, Green or Maundy Thursday before Easter was typically the end of the business year and therefore when farmers would have to pay their dues to landowners. Due to the Lent time fasting leading up to Easter, they had a surplus of eggs, so they would often pay these dues with cooked eggs and hares they had killed in their fields.
This combination of the hare and eggs thus became enshrined in people's minds.
By the 17th century, parents were telling their kids the eggs came from Easter bunnies. But foxes, cranes and storks were also sometimes named as the mystical creatures instead, depending on the region. By the end of the Second World War, the bunny had become mainstream.
And naturally the bunny didn't just stay in Germany, travelling abroad to places like the United States with German or Prussian immigrants.
The tradition of painting eggs for Easter is also quite German: The oldest surviving decorated egg dates back to the fourth century AD, and was discovered in a Romano-Germanic sarcophagus near Worms in Rhineland-Palatinate.
SEE ALSO: Viral German supermarket ad reveals 'true' origins of Easter BunnyImage caption Most of the transplant organs in China come from prisoners on death row
China has pledged to end the practice of taking organs from executed prisoners within the next five years, state media report.
Officials say the country would instead rely on a new national donation system for organ transplants.
Prisoners account for two-thirds of China's transplant organs, according to previous estimates from state media.
Human rights groups say death row inmates are pressured to donate organs - China denies such allegations.
Correspondents say that China has long said it intends to reduce reliance on prisoners for organ donation, but the sheer volume of organs needed may make this difficult to achieve within the timeframe set out.
Official figures from the health ministry show that about 1.5 million people need transplants, but only 10,000 are performed annually, state-run agency Xinhua says.
Huang Jiefu, vice minister of health, was quoted by Xinhua as saying that a trial system for public organ donation has been launched in some areas.
"The pledge to abolish organ donations from condemned prisoners represents the resolve of the government," he said.
He added that organ donations from prisoners were not ideal because infections are usually high, affecting the long-term survival rates of those who undergo the transplants.
Rights groups estimate that China puts to death thousands of prisoners a year.
Official figures, however, remain a state secret, according to the BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing.
He adds that the country faces a severe shortage of organ donors, partly because many people do not want to donate organs due to the cultural belief of that they should be buried whole.
This has led to a thriving black market. Officials outlawed organ trafficking five years ago, but it still remains a problem.
The Red Cross Society of China has also said that guidelines would be issued regarding financial aid to families of the deceased organ donors to help curb the illegal organ trade.Sony has officially announced a sequel to the Denzel Washington thriller “The Equalizer.”
Rumors of an “Equalizer” follow-up began months before the R-rated auctioneer opened in September, but it was the film’s strong box office results and home entertainment sales that ultimately pulled the trigger on the second installment.
Washington is expected to reprise his role as vigilante Robert McCall in “Equalizer 2.” Chloe Moretz and Marton Csokas co-starred in the original.
Based on the 1980s TV series, “The Equalizer” earned over $192 million at the global box office last year. It was co-financed by Village Roadshow and debuted at the Toronto Film Festival.
Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”) directed the first “Equalizer.” It’s unknown whether he’ll return for the sequel. He and Washington are next re-teaming on MGM’s remake of “Magnificent Seven,” which reunites the duo with “Training Day” actor Ethan Hawke.
Sony also announced a new “Spider-Man” animated movie from “Lego” directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller.JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. and European criticism of Israeli actions in the occupied West Bank have drawn a furious response from Israel this week, including a former official dismissing the U.S. ambassador to Tel Aviv as a “little Jew boy”.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro (L) stands next to then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2nd L) as she listens to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (2nd R) during their meeting in Jerusalem, in this July 16, 2012 file picture. REUTERS/Abir Sultan/Pool/Files
Although the concerns expressed by Israel’s closest allies were partly cloaked in diplomatic language they struck a nerve in Israel, which is anxious to counter what it sees as growing attempts to isolate it over its policies toward Palestinians.
Ambassador Dan Shapiro’s supposed misstep was to observe in a speech to a security conference that Israel applies the law differently to Israelis and Palestinians living in the West Bank. “There seem to be two standards,” he said.
It is |
)
The incident is being investigated by Vita Coco (Picture: Barbara Evelyn Marie/Guzelian)
She said: ‘I took out my refrigerator. I shook it, I opened it, I put a straw in it and then I drank it. It was only when I unknowingly swallowed one of those clumps I realized it tasted awful I started vomiting. The diarrhoea honestly just stopped on Friday
‘I immediately dumped out all the water. I shook it because I heard stuff bouncing around. I opened it with a knife and that’s when I discovered the octopus looking thing. There were four of them all together, maybe five and I swallowed one of them.’
Hundreds of 'witches' marks' used to fend off evil spirits discovered in caves
Barbara visited the doctors and required blood tests as a result of her sickness.
She has sent a clump of the object and her doctor’s notes to the company and is hoping to find out what the mystery object really is.
Advertisement
Advertisement
She also plans to get the objects individually examined.
A spokesman for Vita Coco said: ‘We have been in touch with the consumer, Barbara Kline, multiple times since April 26, 2017.
‘We take all consumer inquiries and product quality issues very seriously, and as a global brand have protocols to properly investigate quality inquiries.
‘We asked Ms. Kline for the product information for this unit on April 26, 2017 so that we could report the issue to quality control and investigate it further, but only received that information on Friday, May 5, 2017.
‘As it stands now, we are reviewing Ms. Kilne’s claim thoroughly so we can assist her in the best manner possible.
‘Vita Coco employ the highest standards of food safety at all its production facilities and our beverages are quality and food safety tested internally, and also by an external quality control specialist, before being distributed.
‘However, because Vita Coco beverages do not contain preservatives, on rare occasion, random spoilage may occur. This is what we are investigating now with Ms. Kline.’
MORE: Drivers could face paying £7.50 to drive in Manchester city centre
MORE: Another gang of moped thugs are terrorising Londoners with machetesA petition asking the Electoral College not to vote on the next president until a full investigation is done of Russian interference in the 2016 US election can be signed here.
Why?
Because according to the New York Times and the Washington Post and other mainstream media sources, the Central Intelligence Agency has confirmed substantial evidence that the government of Russia may have hacked this election.
But at least one top-ranked Republican leader -- US Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) -- agrees.
The Agency says it has "high confidence" the Russians meant to help make Donald Trump president.
Trump is now attacking the agency, the hacking, he told Time Magazine, "could be Russia, it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey."
As the CIA has reported it, such foreign meddling in an American election is unprecedented -- and illegal. If Trump or any of his staff or associates conspired with the Russians to thus win the U.S. presidency, it would clearly be an impeachable offense. The legal ramifications would ignite a Constitutional crisis even before Trump could take office.
Meanwhile, preliminary citizen-funded attempts to require recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are under continual attack from well-funded Trump interventions. The recounts have been spearheaded by Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
Trump claims 3 million people illegally voted in 2016. But he's relentlessly sabotaged recounts in three states that could decide the Electoral vote.
In those and many other states, massive disenfranchisement, inconsistencies, irregularities, targeted machine breakdowns and more have already been uncovered.
It's been suggested that more than enough 2016 votes were cast on hackable black-box electronic voting machines to flip the outcome of the Electoral College vote. Perhaps those machines could have been hacked by computer experts from Russia. Until that possibility is also fully investigated, no Electoral College vote should proceed.
The Clinton campaign and Democratic party have sent legal observers but no tangible support for these recounts. These new revelations about Russian intervention make them more critical than ever. A petition asking Clinton's tangible support for the recounts can be signed at www.solartopia.org.
The CIA's evidence indicates Russia hacked internal Democratic National Committee Party emails indicating party leaders conspired to deny the nomination to US Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT). The revelations led to the resignation of DNC Chair Deborah Wasserman (no relation) Schultz.
Trump has repeatedly urged the Russians to hack and release Clinton's own emails. "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing" from Clinton's email servers, he has said. But he's denied conspiring with the Russians. Clinton was also slammed by FBI Director James Comey's announcement that the Bureau was investigating an aide's emails.
As the Times reported, an October report issued by Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, Jr., and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson says the DNC hack "had to have been approved at the highest levels of the Russian government."
But the Times says that "until now, intelligence findings have been scattered in fragmentary reports". On Friday, December 9, White House aide Lisa Monaco said, "we may have crossed into a new threshold here."
President Obama wants the investigation done before he's slated to leave office on January 20. The Electoral College is currently scheduled to vote on December 19.
But the Electors should not certify anyone implicated in an impeachable offense. Nor should it entrust him, once president, to act on or make public a report that might indict him of one.
President Obama should require the CIA to complete and release this report before December 19. The Electoral College should not vote until it can be fully examined.
Nor should the Electoral College certify an outcome prior to a full recount of an election in which more than enough votes were cast on hackable electronic machines to flip the outcome, and where the presumptive winner still claims more than three million were fraudulent.Harold Hamm, the billionaire founder of oil company Continental Resources, is famous for being one of the first wildcatters to take a chance in developing the Bakken field of North Dakota. The Bakken has been one of the cornerstones of America's Oil and Gas Boom. While Hamm, with Continental, has made arguably more money off drilling, fracking and unconventional oil than anyone else in the world. If only we had Hamm and the Bakken (and the Eagle Ford and the Permian and the Marcellus) churning and burning when the Saudis and the rest of the cartel shut the spigot on U.S. oil imports. Naturally, when Hamm said he might have some thoughts on the anniversary of the embargo, we were eager to read them. And share them with our readers.
By Harold Hamm
Forty years ago, OPEC exerted its control of worldwide oil supplies by detonating what became known as the “oil weapon” – an embargo that quadrupled oil prices, forced gasoline rationing, and revealed a serious weakness in America’s energy and national security.
Since the OPEC Oil Embargo of 1973, the American public has been misinformed, misled and perhaps even taken advantage of in terms of the truth about oil and natural gas. On the 40th anniversary of the embargo, it’s important to recognize America’s new energy reality and correct two misconceptions that have been erroneously driving public discourse and policy. First, the misconception that America has reached peak oil and, second, that fracking is the root of America’s new supplies of oil and gas.
The truth is America has a significant amount of oil in place. For the Bakken play of North Dakota and Montana alone, we estimate it contains 900 billion barrels. In fact, America as a whole has so much oil and natural gas that most experts agree energy independence is possible in less than a decade.
It’s also time for America to hear the truth about the real source of our modern-day oil and natural gas renaissance – horizontal drilling. This technology allows us to access 5,000 to 10,000 feet of resource rock compared to just a fraction of that with conventional vertical drilling. Prior to horizontal drilling, we could recover only a small portion of the oil in place in tight reservoirs of low permeability and porosity. With the advent of horizontal drilling, today we can recover much more. The industry foresees that number reaching 10 percent or more with future technological advancements. We’re talking Saudi Arabia numbers here.
It’s not hard to figure out folks, it’s just math. But most states already have horizontal drilling regulations in place. So how does the environmental lobby create fear and, therefore, new and cost prohibitive regulations for oil and gas? It hypes hydraulic fracturing, a technology that has been consistently in use for more than 60 years, as the cause of new supplies – and flammable water. In reality, Hollywood players like Gasland director Josh Fox and Promised Land star Matt Damon are being used by the environmental lobby to exploit a naturally occurring phenomenon in an effort to end fossil fuel use in America. Three years and several lawsuits after the movie Gasland was first released, the federal government has deemed fracking to be safe. It’s time to move on from this diversion.
Today it’s time to celebrate how far America has come since the OPEC Oil Embargo of 1973. Never again are we going to be held hostage and extorted. With vast new supplies of oil, America has the ability to become energy independent and gain all the associated benefits – and it isn’t necessary to retool American infrastructure. Although natural gas is an important part of our energy mix, the infrastructure required to convert vehicles to CNG is too expensive. To put it in perspective, people aren’t dying in the Middle East over natural gas.
Although oil is harder to find and does not share the same ubiquity as natural gas, what we’re doing today is working. We’re making an immediate impact in terms of creating jobs, national security and wealth in America.The industry supports more than 9 million U.S. jobs. New supplies are creating an extra $1,200 per year per family in America. Perhaps most significantly on the 40thanniversary of the OPEC Oil Embargo, U.S. gasoline prices are down despite an escalating crisis in the Middle East and we are no longer beholden to go to war and sacrifice American lives to protect our oil interests.
A great paradigm shift has occurred due to the innovations of American independent producers. Instead of being held hostage to its necessary oil supply, America can now concentrate on rejoining world commerce by exporting both natural gas and oil to those countries that are still at the mercy of tyrants.Divestment – as in, divestment from fossil fuel industries – is a relatively hot topic nowadays. It’s sometimes difficult to determine whether the prevalence of the debate is limited to liberal-leaning groups or if the conversation is a broader one. But with the recent success of the divestment movement at Stanford University, it’s evident that momentum is gaining. And, knowing the consequences of climate change, it’s apparent that this momentum needs to be universal.
Mainstream culture and media has raised awareness for the frightening future of unattended climate change – see records of rising sea levels and accounts of withering rainforests. Yet, little has changed when it comes to the practices which perpetuate environmental decline; there has been an insignificant amount of reconsideration among people when it comes to their behaviors. In light of recent studies, however, it seems that there are well-founded reasons to have a more pressing sense of urgency about this issue.
“Our current models ‘grossly underestimate’ the economic damage that will be wrought by climate change,” according to British climate change economist Lord Nicholas Stern. Stern, alongside one of his colleagues, has revised the current analysis system, the Dynamic Integrated Climate-Economy (DICE) model. His new model befits a more realistic and less simplistic view of how economies grow, which is a critique often made of the DICE model. The results of these modifications yield far more severe projections as to what the effects of climate change will be on the international economy.
“Stronger storms can damage infrastructure; sea level rise can force people to abandon homes, businesses or equipment; and climate damage can channel more investment into repairs and away from creating new capital.”1 This, coupled with a higher consideration for “tipping points,” occurrences in which climate change in greatly accelerated by its own compounding effects within certain ecosystems, led Stern to suggest that climate change will be far more impactful on our means of production than the human race currently considers it to be. Furthermore, these impacts are far more imminent than one might hope, with global living standards projected to peak before the end of the century and very quickly decline thereafter.2
In regards to how this may affect people throughout the world, it’s a fairly intuitive deduction that developing industries will be less able to adjust their industrial methods in the event of necessity, such as crop failure, drought, or adverse situations wrought by compounding economic effects stemming from these occurrences. It’s also fairly intuitive that the wealthier businesses and economies in the world not only have the capability to better withstand climate change, but also have a far greater capacity to combat it through more environmentally-friendly technologies and better business practices. Thus, we, the parties concerned with alleviating systemic poverty and creating partnerships throughout the global economy, should conflate the tandem issues of global poverty and climate change.
This is by no means a conclusive and all-encompassing argument for immediate fossil fuel divestment. Fossil fuels are an important part of economies throughout the world, and some even argue that divestment is not the most effective path to change. Christine Wood, a Vassar College (N.Y.) trustee with 30 years experience in the investment management field, argues that divestment only serves to leave institutions voiceless. “If you don’t own shares you’re not eligible to vote with a proxy, you can’t elect boards of directors, you can’t vote on proposals,” she says.3
Contrarily, others argue that, in light of historical precedent, divestment is in fact an effective practice. Evidence from the South African apartheid suggests that, while “ineffective in a financial sense, [divestment] can have an impact by shaping public discourse.”4 Similarly, the current divestment movement taking place at Harvard notes that, “The aim of divestment is not to drive these corporations out of business. It was never the intention of Harvard’s South African or tobacco related divestments to eliminate industries…instead, divestment aims to expose corporate attitudes and change corporate behavior.”5
Regardless of how one views the ongoing debate about the best way in which to approach the problem of climate change, the only wholly wrong thing to do at the moment is to do nothing at all. Paradigms must change and actions must follow; regardless of how change should happen, research and deduction demonstrate that it needs to happen. This is an issue which very significantly and very literally impacts the global economy as we know it. As World Bank President Jim Yong Kim urged, “Be the first mover. Use smart due diligence. Rethink what fiduciary responsibility means in this changing world.”6
This means that each of us needs to consider the ways in which we utilize resources as individuals, as businesses, and as a culture. This means that we need to reconsider the practices we undertake, the groups we invest in, and perhaps, some groups which we don’t yet support. By “us” and “we,” I refer to those currently reading this post. We, who have a relatively vast command of resources, interact with powerful social structures, and who have a passion or an aim for social justice; those who, by merit of investing the time to read this, have expressed an interest in being a responsible global citizen.
Change is not easy. However, if anyone’s intentional and unified action has a capacity for significant, real world change, it is ours.
1http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/16/3449645/stern-updated-climate-model-economic/
2http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/16/3449645/stern-updated-climate-model-economic/
3http://www.universitybusiness.com/article/divestment-debate
4http://iop.harvard.edu/does-divestment-work
5http://www.harvardfacultydivest.com/
6http://www.harvardfacultydivest.com/Often times, white people get frustrated with the state of their country. They do not like the President, or Congress, or the health care system, or the illegal status of Marijuana. Whenever they are presented with a situation that seems unreasonable to them, their first instinct is to threaten to move to Canada.
For example, if you are watching TV with white people and there is a piece on the news about that they do not agree with, they are likely to declare “ok, that’s it, I’m moving to Canada.”
Though they will never actually move to Canada, the act of declaring that they are willing to undertake the journey is very symbolic in white culture. It shows that their dedication to their lifestyle and beliefs are so strong, that they would consider packing up their entire lives and moving to a country that is only slightly different to the one they live in now.
Within white culture, it is agreed upon that if Canada had better weather it would be a perfect place.
Being aware that this information can be used quite easily to gain the trust of white people. Whenever they say, “I’m moving to Canada,” you must immediately respond with “I have relatives in Canada.”
They will then expect you to tell them about how Canada has a perfect healthcare system, legalized everything, and no crime. Though not true, it will reassure them that they are making the right choice by saying they want to move there.
But be warned, they will reference you in future conversations and possibly call on you to settle disputes about Canadian tax rates. So use this advice only if you plan to do some basic research.
Note: Canadian white people threaten to move to Europe.
Note: Europeans are unable to threaten to move anywhere.
AdvertisementsGet the biggest Daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
A Kemsing parrot popular with punters was discovered dead clutching his favourite pub snack in his claw – a pork scratching.
Charlie, the African Grey parrot, was a regular at The Rising Sun in Cotman's Ash Lane for more than 40 years until three weeks ago.
Landlady of the pub Michelle Hunter said: "I have been with Charlie for the best part of 23 years.
"So it's such a shame he's gone. The pub doesn't feel the same without him."
No one knows how old he was, but Mrs Hunter believes he was well into his forties, if not older. African Greys can live for up to 80 years.
She inherited Charlie as part of the pub when she took over with her late husband Peter in 1993, but it is believed the parrot moved in alongside the previous owner in 1973.
"We didn't know we'd get the parrot as well as the pub when we moved in. We knew it was there, but didn't realise it hadn't left with the previous owner," she added.
"He was listed as an item in the inventory. It said: 'One African Grey parrot, complete with cage', and then in brackets afterwards, 'not stuffed'."
And it appears over the years he had become part of the furniture. Sat right by the bar, Charlie would greet customers with nothing other than a classic "hello" as they walked into the pub, in a different voice every time.
"He will be missed," said Mrs Hunter, who also has cats, dogs, and a herd of cows, "When customers come in now they ask, 'Where's Charlie?'"
But spending all his time in the pub bred unhealthy habits, and they probably took their toll on the feathered friend.
Mrs Hunter said: "He did all the things which were bad for him.
"His favourite foods were cashew nuts and pork scratchings, which makes sense when he lived in a pub, I suppose.
"One morning I found him lying in the bottom of his cage, holding a pork scratching. So he must have been happy at the time he died, as he was eating away."
In spite of punters mourning his absence, Mrs Hunter said there will not be a replacement pub parrot.
"There's only one Charlie," she said.As an IT Professional, I am always looking for ways to automate tasks and make daily operations simple. When it comes to Microsoft Teams, being able to automate the creation of teams, channels, and settings within a team is critical to the success of Microsoft Teams within an organization. PowerShell support for Microsoft Teams allows you to do exactly that, and it gives me additional ideas to make the administration of Teams easier:
Automatically provision new teams, new channels within the team, add members and set options such as a picture, and member permissions.
Create a self-service tool that uses PowerShell on the back-end to make creating teams easy for end-users but with controls for IT. For example, a user browses to a website form to create a team. PowerShell can check for a team that has a duplicate name, to ensure users aren't creating teams with the same name. I see this as one simple example but is powerful when we start to think about governance we can provide to the business on Microsoft Teams.
If I need to add a large number of members to a team, using PowerShell I can add those members in bulk from a.csv
Standardize settings within each team that is created.
What's your idea for using PowerShell with Microsoft Teams? (Tell me in the comments below!)
UPDATE: 12/2/2018: PowerShell module updated to 0.9.6 now allows admins to manage any team, even when they are not the team owner.
UPDATE 12/28/2017: Documentation on GitHub
https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/office-docs-powershell/tree/master/teams/teams-ps/teams
In this blog I will take you through how to download, install and run the a few examples in the Microsoft Teams PowerShell module. At the time of this writing, the following cmdlets are available:
Add-TeamUser
Get-Team
Get-TeamChannel
Get-TeamFunSettings
Get-TeamGuestSettings
Get-TeamMemberSettings
Get-TeamMessagingSettings
Get-TeamHelp
Get-TeamUser
New-TeamChannel
New-Team
Remove-Team
Remove-TeamChannel
Remove-TeamUser
Set-TeamFunSettings
Set-TeamGuestSettings
Set-TeamMemberSettings
Set-TeamMessagingSettings
Set-Team
Set-TeamChannel
Set-TeamPicture
Connect-MicrosoftTeams
Disconnect-MicrosoftTeams
For demonstration purposes of my blog I am going to allow PowerShell to automatically download and install the module from the PowerShell Gallery. Let's step through that together:
First, launch PowerShell as an administrator by typing PowerShell in the start menu then right click Windows PowerShell and select Run as administrator. At the UAC prompt click Yes.
Next, within PowerShell type the following and press Enter:
Install-Module MicrosoftTeams
At the prompt type Y and press Enter:
If you are prompted for untrusted repository, type A (for Yes to All) and press Enter. The module will install.
Once installed, we can now connect to Microsoft Teams. To connect type the following and press Enter:
Connect-MicrosoftTeams
At the Microsoft Teams PowerShell Cmdlets dialog box, type your Office 365 credentials and press Enter
Once connected to the Microsoft Teams instance in your Office 365 tenant, the following will be displayed:
You can now start to run cmdlets, or scripts against Microsoft Teams! Note, at any time you can type Get-Command -Module MicrosoftTeams to see a full list of commands available:
To return a list of the teams in the environment, type the following and press Enter:
Get-Team
Note: Within PowerShell, teams are referenced as a GroupID for the underlying Office 365 Group.
For the next example, let's create a new team for marketing employees in San Diego that is a private team. Type the following command and press Enter:
New-Team -DisplayName "San Diego Marketing" -AccessType Private
The team will be created with an Office 365 GroupID assigned:
Note: The GroupID is important when you wish to assign classification policies to the underlying Office 365 group, in addition to when you need to remove the team among other things.
Within the Microsoft Teams client (teams.microsoft.com) we can see the team has been created:
To remove the team, type the following and press Enter. Where <GroupID> is the GroupID of the team you created:
Remove-Team -GroupID <GroupID>
Conclusion: These are some of the basic functions you can perform with the Microsoft Teams PowerShell Module. Over time I'll be adding additional scenarios with PowerShell – if there's one you are interested in leave me a comment and I would be happy to write about it!So, Red Sox pitching ace and conservative lightning rod Curt Schilling wants to run against polarizing progressive rock thrower U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren?
I say pass the popcorn.
The 2018 Senate showdown would feature two of the Bay State’s most controversial, divisive figures and would likely draw national media attention eager for another celebrity Republican campaign — especially against a far-left star like Warren.
The faceoff could be a win-win for the diametrically opposed Bay Staters.
Schilling, who has railed against President Obama, also hinted last week on his Facebook page that he might be looking to run for president as soon as 2020.
“I’ve never been one to sit around and talk about getting stuff done without trying to help,” Schilling said about his reasons for throwing his hat in the ring.
ESPN fired Schilling in April from his position as an analyst because of a controversial Facebook post on a North Carolina bill preventing transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice.
The outspoken pitcher has already indicated that, like GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, he plans to make Warren’s Native American heritage claims an issue, calling Warren “a woman who’s clearly and comfortably milked the system.”
Schilling’s appeal as the beloved pitcher who helped deliver Red Sox Nation its first World Series in 86 years could also override tough questions about his bankrupted gaming startup in Rhode Island.
Meanwhile Warren, who has lost prominence since Trump has been ignoring her attacks, would have another conservative boogeyman to rail against. Schilling’s well-documented social media outburst on guns and transgender people would give the senator plenty of chances to play to her progressive base.
But Schilling should have no illusions about the incredible obstacles facing him in a campaign against Warren. Despite statewide Republican wins by Gov. Charlie Baker in 2014 and former U.S. Sen Scott Brown in 2010, Massachusetts is not only a famously Democratic state but Warren fans across the nation would likely send in the cavalry to prevent her ouster.
One thing is clear — Schilling’s tendency for fiery social media rants combined with Warren’s already tart Twitter tirades mean that the media will likely be the biggest winners of a showdown between Schilling and Warren."Hey folks — just an FYI that reports this morning of imminent political news from Paul are not true," top Paul Ryan aide Brendan Buck wrote to his colleagues. | AP Photo Ryan: ‘Nothing has changed’ on lack of Trump nod
Speaker Paul Ryan is in no hurry to endorse Donald Trump as the GOP presidential nominee, but he plays down any talk of a split between them.
“I don’t have a timeline in my mind, and I have not made a decision,” Ryan told reporters during a wide-ranging press conference on Wednesday. “Nothing has changed from that perspective and we’re still having productive conversations.”
Story Continued Below
Ryan — who is set to chair the Republican convention in July, where Trump will be formally crowned as the GOP nominee — was pressed repeatedly on whether he would back the businessman mogul and reality TV star-turned-politician.
Ryan (R-Wis.), however, yielded no more clues of when that might happen.
“I want this to be a sincere deliberative process,” Ryan added. “I think it’s important that we actually discuss the principles that we all share in common and the policies that come from them, and I get good understanding on those. And that’s the kind of conversations we’re having.”
Ryan and Trump are expected to talk by telephone on Wednesday night, sources said.
"The purpose of the call tonight is for the two of them to continue their conversation about unifying the party. We never gave any indication that the call was about an endorsement," said Zack Roday, a spokesman for Ryan.
Ryan also made clear that he holds widely divergent positions with Trump on issues such as immigration and how to address the millions of undocumented immigrants in this country.
When asked about Trump's comments disparaging New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez — she has been a pointed Trump critic — Ryan showed he strongly disagreed.
"Susana Martinez is great governor. She turned deficits into surpluses. She cut taxes. She's a friend of mine. I think she's a good governor, I'll leave it at that," Ryan said.
Ryan’s comments came after several news reports on Tuesday night and early Wednesday — apparently originating from Trump's camp — that Ryan was on the verge of backing the presumptive nominee. The move would be significant because Ryan is virtually alone among GOP congressional leaders in holding out on a public endorsement.
A top Ryan adviser sent an internal memo Wednesday saying that no endorsement was coming, directly refuting the stories.
"Hey folks — just an FYI that reports this morning of imminent political news from Paul are not true," Brendan Buck, a top Ryan aide, wrote in the missive, obtained by POLITICO. "Just bad reporting. Carry on, and happy Wednesday."
The tenor of the internal memo reflects Ryan's continuing caution in dealing with Trump. Ryan has said that his conversations with Trump have been positive, but he has never indicated an endorsement is coming in the immediate future.
Ryan and Trump are expected to meet again in the coming weeks. Trump is expected to speak to the entire House Republican Conference in June.
“I want this to be a sincere deliberative process,” Ryan said at the news conference. “I think it’s important that we actually discuss the principles that we all share in common and the policies that come from them, and I get good understanding on those. And that’s the kind of conversations we’re having.”
Rachael Bade contributed.“This is the End” Movie Review
The Avengers for comedians?
This is the End is a comedy film written and directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. It stars the entire “Apatow Crew”, plus many other familiar celebrity faces. The plot goes something like this; while attending a party at James Franco’s house, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel and many other celebrities are faced with the apocalypse.
Now, most of the main actors in the film (Rogen, McBride, ect) have fallen into a bit of rut lately. Picking projects that haven’t exactly been the greatest. However, I am still a pretty large fan of these guys. I grew up with their comedies throughout my middle-school years and have continued to love them ever since; and two hours of them just going off on each other should make for a pretty hilarious ride, right?
Hell yes.
I went into This is the End with pretty high expectations and it somehow surpassed them.
Comedies are typically the hardest movies to review because everyone has their own comedic taste. So, what some might find funny, others might not. I could honestly just rip this movie apart and say there wasn’t any character development and the acting was sub-par. But really, you can’t judge a broad comedy like that. You judge it with; did I have a fun time and did I laugh? Happily enough, I laughed pretty consistently here. But maybe this is just my kind of humor.
Most of the film seemed pretty unscripted and more improvised. Which gave the actors room to riff and come up with some pretty ingenious stuff. There were multiple instances where I was laughing so hard my ribs hurt. Particularity a sequence titled “The Exorcism of Jonah Hill”. Only these guys can come up with stuff like that.
I don’t really wanna spoil anything because there’s some genuine surprises here. From cameos to even subplots that I didn’t expect.
On top of it all, the special effects were also pretty damn good for a below 30 million dollar budget film and are used in some pretty creative ways. Even some of the action scenes were really solid.
The only thing problem here is that not everyone is going to get all of the jokes. The film is essentially one big inside joke between the actors. There are lots of pop-culture references towards themselves and even some LA jokes scattered around here and there, but I think if you know anything about the actors, you’ll be able to follow along pretty easily.
Really though. For a movie like this, you just go in to laugh, and I’m guilty for doing so. So, honestly. It’s just a really funny, satisfying movie that quenched my comedic thirst until at least the new Simon Pegg movie.
4.5/5 Stars
- @KieranTriplett
(Source: kierantriplett)This week it came to light that BP had photoshopped—poorly—an official image of their crisis command center. Apparently, that wasn't an isolated incident. Let's take a closer look at this view from a helicopter, shall we? UPDATED:
The photo, sent in by a tipster and entitled "View of the MC 252 site from the cockpit of a PHI S-92 helicopter 26 June 2010," shows up here, a section of BP's website that hopes to explain their response effort through pictures. This one, sadly, is fabricated.
The first thing you might notice out of place is the looming air traffic control tower in the upper left hand side of the photo:
Advertisement
Then, direct your attention to where the water abruptly changes shades of blue in a frenzy of pixelation, blurring, and a disappearing vessel:
Zeroing in on the pilot on the left, evidence of a pretty sloppy cutting job:
Advertisement
And last, while the helicopter clearly appears to be situated at some height above the boats ahead, the readouts on the dash appear to indicate that that door and ramp are open and the parking brake engaged, not to mention that the pilot appears to be holding a pre-flight checklist:
And so on. As one reader pointed out, the tower may in fact be an oil rig adjacent to a helipad (which would also explain why the pilots are in prep mode), but the photo's still clearly been doctored. Badly.
Advertisement
Obviously there are bigger fish to fry when it comes to BP. But every time they fabricate an image like this, it undermines whatever little credibility they have left, along with all of the actual documentation of the massive undertaking this has been and will continue to be. It speaks to a company still more concerned with image than reality, in charge of repairing something so terribly broken that we can't afford to treat it with anything but total candor.
UPDATE: BP has acknowledged that they manipulated the image and has posted the original here. [BP]PIT-CLE grades: Le'Veon Bell, Steelers' O-line lead way in road win
By Gordon McGuinness • Nov 20, 2016
Pittsburgh Steelers 24, Cleveland Browns 9
Here are the highest-graded players and top takeaways from the Steelers’ Week 11 win over the Browns.
Quarterback Grade: Ben Roethlisberger, 78.0
QB Ben Roethlisberger didn’t do anything extraordinary against the Browns, but his proficiency in getting the ball out to his playmakers helped the Steelers dominate time of possession in the first half. He did not complete a pass attempt over 20 yards in the air, but finished 20 of 25 on passes under 10 yards. Roethlisberger played well when he was kept clean in the pocket, earning a 91.4 QB rating and completing 77.8 percent of his passes when not under pressure. Still, the Steelers could have fared better in the red zone after failing to convert a touchdown until an untimed down to end the first half.
Top offensive grades:
RT Marcus Gilbert, 82.8
LT Alejandro Villanueva, 82.4
RB Le’Veon Bell, 80.0
QB Ben Roethlisberger, 78.0
WR Antonio Brown, 76.2
Bell and offensive line help the offense dominate play
RB Le’Veon Bell showed why he is touted as one of the best running backs in football on Sunday. Although known as a threat whether running or receiving, Bell did almost all of his damage on the ground against the Browns. He forced six missed tackles and posted 63 yard after contact on his way to a 146-yard rushing performance. Perhaps most notable was that Bell’s longest carry of the day was only 12 yards, as he lacked a big play to pad those stats. It was consistent and constant movement in the ground game for Bell, and the offensive line contributed to that as well. LT Alejandro Villanueva earned an 85.3 grade in run blocking, as he collapsed the defense often, creating space for Bell to work. RT Marcus Gilbert was solid in pass protection as he kept a clean sheet, although he didn’t shine quite as much in the run game.
Top defensive grades
LB Ryan Shazier, 88.6
CB Artie Burns, 83.5
S Michael Mitchell, 79.4
S Sean Davis, 77.6
LB Lawrence Timmons, 76.6
Big day for rookie Artie Burns
Rookie first-round draft pick Artie Burns had an active day at cornerback, with the Browns targeting him on 10 occasions. He did give up a 14-yard touchdown on a post route to tight end Gary Barnidge, but allowed just four receptions for 34 total yards on the day. Even more impressive was how well he was able to play the ball in the air, finishing the game with an interception and two pass breakups.
Quarterback grade: Cody Kessler, 48.1; Josh McCown 36.9
McCown replaced the injured Kessler in the second half, and found himself under pressure on 15 of his 33 dropbacks. From those 15 plays, he was sacked four times, ran once, and completed just 40.0 percent of the passes he attempted. His NFL passer rating dropped from 86.4 without pressure to 57.9 when the Steelers’ defense got there.
Top offensive grades
LT Joe Thomas, 81.7
WR Terrelle Pryor, 78.6
LG Spencer Drango, 76.7
TE Gary Barnidge, 72.8
RT Austin Pasztor 70.8
Frustrating day for rookie WR Corey Coleman
The Browns’ top draft pick from this spring, wide receiver Corey Coleman, found himself having a frustrating day, despite seeing a team |
and the weapons they are using against you are in your very homes entertaining you and your children and gradually indoctrinating you without you even realizing. In today's society people are spending more and more time engaged with modern media. Television, Cinema, Computer Games, The Internet, Popular Fiction and Popular Music are integral part of their lives. Yet these provide a vast expanse on information which you are taking either consciously or subconsciously into your mind. Information on society ranging from ideals and morals and the difference between right and wrong to the way societies and economies should be structured is past before you every single day. These media play a significant role in providing the basis for determining an individuals view of the World and everything that exists. Thus any one group in complete control of this information placed on these media will in effect have the power to indoctrinate practically the entire populace of the World to their way of thinking and it is this fact the Free Masons are exploiting. The Masons are using the entertainment industry in particular to condition people to their way of thinking either openly or subliminally. The methods they use vary but the goal is the same to impose their beliefs, their ideology and their objectives on you in such a way that you begin to think of them as your own. Evidence of their presence within popular entertainment is wide spread. Masonic involvement in the industries is not a new thing. Hail is one of histories great composers, Wolf Gang Amadeus, Mozart a Free Mason himself composed a symphony which was an open display of Free Masonry. The symphony is based on a story taken from an ancient Egyptian mythology Avysus and Cyrus. The pagan rights of ancient Egyptian mythology form through the Kabala one of the fundamental aspects of Free Masonry. It is from these same pagan origins of Egypt that the symbol of the One Eye Stems. Evidence of the Free Masonic presence is also commonly found in the popular music of more recent times. Michael Jackson hails today the King of pop regarded as the greatest entertainer of all times responsible for producing best selling albums in the World may not be known to be linked with the Free Masons. However the cover of his "Dangerous" album had some interesting features on it the Free Masonic symbol of the One Eye can be found and also the picture of a watery Lake behind which laid burning flames. It seems as though anyone entering into the water would really be entering into the fire. The cover also has on it a picture of a bald headed man well known to the occult as Alistair Crowley. He himself was a Free Mason who became a Satanist and wrote the book "The New Law of Man" which stated in it that it would one day replace the Qur'ân as the law of man. Links between Free Masonry and the occult do not end there. The products of the Masonicaly controlled music industry are riddled with subliminal satanic messages. Back tracking is the means of placing recorded messages into sound tracks in such a way that they only become intelligible when the track is replayed backwards. When its played forwards however the listener would be totally unaware that a message is being played. Although the listener may be unaware that subconscious mind can pick up and understand the messages and in the long term these can be stored in the subconscious mind and may actually effect the person's behavior or judgment. In many ways back tracking is a form of hypnotism or brain washing and has the power to be very destructive. The first example of back tracking is from the famous female artist Madonna. It features on one of her most famous albums and is taken from the song "Like a Prayer". However as you will hear it is not god that the prayer appears to be directed at but Satan. When played backwards the words "Oh hear us Satan" are clearly audible. The Free Masonic One Eye has also been featured on the video for one of Madonna's songs where Madonna actually appears with the One Eye coming out from her forehead. She also appears on a video for one of her songs where she is standing on some writing closer examination revealed that this writing is actually Arabic the language of the Qur'ân. Another example of back tracking is taken from the group "The Eagles" and the song is called "Hotel California". The words when played backwards "Yeah Satan" can be clearly heard. As well as containing this message the song itself is a story in its own right. The California of the song is not a hotel but is actually a street in America called California. It is on this very street that the headquarters of a church were founded but it was not the type of church the one may think instead it is a church that some have called "The Church of Satan". It was headed and founded by Anthony Sans Delivy the author of the Satanic Bible. It appears the teachings of this church may have become the integral belief of many famous personalities in the entertainment industry from rock groups to more main stream artists some have gone as far as promoting the Church and its beliefs. One alleged member of the church is the lead singer of the Rolling Stones Mick Jagger who wrote the song "Sympathy for the Devil". It seems that what originally started as a Christian Organization later turned into a heretic religion even to the Christians and now has Satanic elements mixed in. The entire entertainment world is rife with evidence of the Free Masons presence openly or subliminally their agenda of beliefs and ideals are propagated. This is specially evident within the film industry on the big screen and the small screen from big budget Hollywood films to simple cartoons the Masons have not let anything to chance in promoting their message of a global government. Matt Growning the creator of one of the most popular cartoon series in television history "The Simpsons" is a self confessed anarchist. Matt Growning himself has openly declared that he wants to get his own political ideas across within his work but he wanted to do this in such a way that people would find it easy to accept his ideas and the means he chose to this was a clever full cartoon called "The Simpsons". So what exactly the Simpsons are teaching us and our children? There are many lessons being programmed into us these include disregard for authority either parental or governmental the bad manners and disobedience is the way to attain status amongst people and that ignorance is trendy and cool where as knowledge is unfashionable. However what is especially worrying is the Masonic undertones of one episode in particular. The episode in which the father figure of the family Homer Simpson becomes obsessed with the group called the stone cutters. Upon joining the group his fellow members find a birth mark on him the mark that makes the rest of the group declare him to be the chosen one but with his new found honor and dignity he Homer Simpson fools himself into thinking that he is god. Some may dismiss it as nothing more than a children cartoon a bit of harmless fun but the influence it has on the audience makes it a very effected means of propaganda indoctrinating a people without them even realizing. Its very creators admit that they are propagating their political ideas to the audience in a covert manner. Ideas spread through the domestic television can reach a far wider audience than movies in cinema and it is through this media that a new concept is being introduced. the concept of one global leader. Famous for his novel "The Jungle Book" Rudyard Kippling another Free Mason wrote a book called "The Man Who Would One Day be King" This was later made into a big budget Hollywood film starring Sean Connery, Michael Kane and Saeed Jaffery. The book is a story of two soldiers that journey to a country on the edge of India. A country that was once rumored to contain great riches that once belonged to Alexander the Great. Upon reaching the country the two soldiers are captured by the local inhabitants a people called Kafirs named after their country Kafiristan. When the two men are about to be killed a necklace is discovered around the neck of one of the soldiers engraved on it is the symbol of the Masonic One Eye. The Kafirs revere him as their god and a tribute to him the divine attribute of immortality. The man himself first regards himself as a King and then his new found power begins to regard himself really as being a god. From the Muslim perspective if not that of others the similitude's that can be drawn from the story are very interesting. The Muslim scriptures called Hadith contains many prophecies of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). In these it is prophesized that a man would arrive from amidst the Kaffirs which means infidels in Islam who would be recognized by his One Eye and would be made a World leader claiming first to be a King and later to be a god and that he would seem immortal until an appointed time. In another film a concept of global leader and global government is also strongly propagated. In 1996 the film "Independence Day" broke all box office records becoming the 7th highest ranking films of all times is entranced audiences around the World with a fictional story of an Alien invasion on Earth however deep within the film subliminal messages can be found indicating the Free Masonic presence and a Free Masonic agenda. In the film there is a military base known as "Area 51" it is from here that the military offensive is launched on which the salvation of the whole world and the future of its inhabitants depends. The entrance to its installation is a pyramid on which is engraved the symbol of the One Eye. The film shows the U.S.A as the four runner in establishing a global offensive involving all the nations of the world an offensive which is devised, controlled and commanded by one man. One overall leader. The film is a part of an upsurge in an upsurge of films and television serials on topics of Aliens, UFO's and invasions threatening the whole of mankind. These are gradually fuelling the growing interest of public unrest on the issue. This is just one of the many ways in which Free Masons are paving the way for their global government. The Free Masons are using a number of approaches to drive fear into the hearts of the masses instilling in them the need for greater protection and thereby the need for greater security. A need that could only be fulfilled by a Worldwide coalition government protecting the interests of all human beings across the globe. "I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an Alien threat from outside this world and yet I ask you is not an Alien force already amongst us". Other tactics that the Masons are using in order to bring about a one world government and a need for a global security force controlled by them is to allow crime rates to sore thus creating fear for personal and national security. The drugs industry according to official estimates is in terms of monetary value one of the largest industries in the world. The countries of the world are currently involved in trying to solve this problem on a national and international scale. The USA for example has a huge and growing drugs problem the direct result of which is being soaring crime rates which continue to increase at an alarming rate. Backed by the growing levels of public demands for tough action the government has justifications to use heavy handed overt and covert operations to combat the drugs problem and satisfy the public opinion. However certain disturbing facts about the American drugs war throw a shadow of doubt upon its credibility and motives of the government. It is commonly believed that during the 1960's J. Edgar Hoover the then chairman of the FBI allowed the drugs trade to flourish within the African American community in an attempt to undermine the black communities uprising within the American society. During the 1980's with the threat of communism taking over central America money was urgently required to finance the rebellion movement against communism and to raise this the CIA allowed drugs to be traded into America. Revelations by the American senator Jack Bloom who was part of an investigatory committee into the matter confirms this. Historically the Free Masons have used or created problems within the society to turn and manipulate events in accordance with their agenda. The rising drug problems in America gives the authorities all the justification needed to use stronger heavy handed tactics on an even wider scale. Already major Trans Atlantic operations as well as American and Latin American operations have been undertaken to combat the drugs epidemic. It will not be long before there is a significant backing for strong global offensive. Distortion of the facts and usage of manufactured and biased statistics of the tools of Free Masonic governments of today as well as creating a public need for a greater national and global security, rising rates of crime, drug abuse and increasing threat of terrorism acts serve the purpose of promoting greater control of the masses. Advances in technology is a way forward for the Free Masons, these allow the actions of all individuals in society to be monitored, checked and recorded. Information is their key. the more information they have on individuals the more accurately they can predict their actions and the way they think and the easier they are to manipulate control and subdue. The Free Masons are creating a society and in a society choices but an illusion technology is there to restrict the choices you have and the choices you do have are the actual facts of products of the manipulated mind that has been steered into a predefined direction controlled the masses means the complete control of every aspect of human life, Your Life!!! shocking acts of terrorism, soaring crime rates, increasing incidences and violence are propounded by film media and government reports are alike creates strong public sympathy and support for harsh tactics and surveillance techniques more and more technology can be introduced and the level of monitoring and surveillance can be increased until individuals are monitored to a level more befitting a totalitarian state. Public opinion will once again be manipulated to give Masons justification for their actions and make their goals easier. the means to monitoring the masses and storing all personal information on individuals in society on a massive database is already underway. Rapid movements are taking place towards storing personal information on individuals on plastic such as banking detail, driving license information and national insurance details. Apparently these details are stored on separate cards for plans are well underway to merge all the information on one identity card. The consequence would be complete monitoring of all purchases and transactions and personal details of an individual on the touch of a button. In 1992 the Vice Chancellor of the British Supreme Court Nicholas Brown Mulkinson told the High Court that if the information obtained by the police in land revenue the social services, the health service and other agencies would be gathered together in one file the freedom of the individual will be greatly at risk. However the Free Masons through the governments controlled by them already have access to a vast array of information about you. They can already find out who you talk to on the telephone, where you work, where you shop, what you eat, what you wear, how much you are worth, what you earn and the list goes on and on. One identity card would allow even closer monitoring and enable a complete psychological profile to be compiled on every individual in society. Information which would make it very easy to predict control of manipulate actions. However there is a gap the Masons need to fill in by using hard currency an individual can evade detection and vital information is lost since hard currency transactions are untraceable. As a result moves are being made to replace hard currency with the system that relies totally on an electronic funds transfer. In other words the system that relies totally on cards. Trails and swindle have held the first signs of the move towards the introduction of smart cards and electronic money on a national scale in the UK. The mondex scheme is pioneered by net western midland banks and British telecom and is the first British trail of the smart card. Inside a smart card is a micro chip which calculates every single transaction not any financial transactions but records every single thing for which it is used. It can serve as a credit card, a building society passport, library card, travel card, phone card and quite possibly an identity card. The concept was pioneered in France which already has its own rigorous identity system. Although an identity card would reveal much detail it would not be able to locate any one person precisely at any given instant time this would require some sort of tracking device that could be put on and detected where ever that person may be on the globe. The tracking device would be an all purpose micro chipped identification device or an electronic implant placed under the skin. These implants could then off a signal which could then be picked up by satellite on low earth orbit locating and identifying the subject. Although this may sound like the works of fiction it is however already well on its way to becoming reality. There are already approximately 48 global positioning satellites in orbit that are in use by the United States and her allies. These satellites can act upon incoming signals and pass down accurate information to the source of the signal about its location. At present the source of the signals are devices that attached tanks, battleships, aircraft or hand held instruments for accurate navigation purposes. The next step would be to introduce the device that created the source signal on every individual. Currently one form of device that has been created specifically as a signal source for the satellite is the electronic tag already a scheme using such tags on individuals is in operation in the UK. The justification used is that it is necessary to cope the growth in the population of the already over flowing prisons. The tag fits ocular around the offenders wrists and can monitored to see if the offenders are violating curfew regulations. Pilot tagging schemes are already in operation in greater Manchester, Bark Shaw and Norfolk with plans for expansion in other countries in the coming year. In an article of the Daily Telegraph stated the 13th of November 1997 Jack Straw the current British home secretary stated that electronic tagging has developed rapidly in the past few years as has peoples confidence in it. There is no argument that it has within it the scope for further significant development and with the people firmly under their watchful eye the Masons can now further advance their plans for global control manipulating them in accordance with their own ends and this manipulation would be achieved by any means necessary. The Free Masons plan for complete global control by one governmental body means they must pave the way for complete global economic union, complete global legislatory and political union and complete global military union. On March the 25th 1957 with the creation of the European economic community the first significant steps in the creation of this global government were taken. Since then the EEC has become a testing ground for the new world order. With the basic tennets of freedom of movement between member states already established goods and people can move relatively freely within this one super state. The plans are already underway for the establishment of complete monitory union and the powers of the governmental body of Europe are growing everyday paving the way for complete political and legislatory union. All this will mean that eventually in the super state of the European economic community there will be one currency, one economy and one government and the government most certainly be a Masonic government. The three most important players of the European community are Britain, France and Germany. Britain and France have long been Masonicaly controlled nations. During World War II Germany was completely annexed by Britain and France along with the United States another Masonic nation and the Soviet Union. The sectors of Germany controlled by the former three countries are Masonic nations formed a separate political identity called West Germany and with the downfall of the Berlin wall west Germany has now taken over the former east Germany. Europe is not alone in its efforts to achieve super states status. America and Mexico are currently the only two members of NAPHTHA the North American Free Trade Agreement however the nations of the South are increasingly being pursued to join. with Masonic super state in both Europe and America firmly established global union would be a logical and easy progression. However there is another problem that the Masons need to contend with if they are to be the masters of this global union. By the 1970's it was becoming increasingly clear that the population of Europe and White America was rapidly declining unless something was done the expanding size of the population of third world nations would pose a serious threat to national security of Masonicaly controlled countries. Western consumer power and productivity would reduce and as a result they would be completely dependant on that of the third world population. Somehow the gap between Western population and third world population had to be a bridge to restore Western supremacy or more precisely Masonic supremacy at a global scale. In the 1970's the president Jimmy Carter commissioned the global 2000 report the findings of the report blamed virtually all of the world problems on the population growth of the non-white people. The report went on as far as recommending the elimination of at least 2 billion people in third world nations off the face of the earth by the year 2000 in order to restore Western supremacy. Interestingly enough also in the 70's the AIDS Epidemic broke out claiming huge amounts of life in the third world nations as well as amongst the growing black and Hispanic population of America. It was said that the virus originated from green monkeys in Africa and was later past on to the local population through either acts of bestiality or through consuming them as food. From there on AIDS spread like wild fire across the African continent and later on to the rest of the world claiming millions of lives. However the story was just a smoke stream. On June 2nd 1988 The Los Angeles Times published an article refuting the idea that the human AIDS virus originated from green monkeys. It uncovered evidence that DNA composition of AIDS was totally inconsistent with that of green monkeys in fact it could be proven that the AIDS virus could not be found anywhere in nature and could only of ever survive in the human biological system. If the virus did not exist anywhere in nature the question is raised as to where exactly the virus all of a sudden stemmed from? On July the 4th 1984 The New Delhi newspaper in India called The Patriot published an article making the first detail charges of AIDS is being a counter biological warfare agent. An anonymous American Anthropologist has quoted claims of AIDS was genetically engineered of the US armies biological warfare laboratory at Ford Detrick near Fredrick. Then on October the 30th 1985 the Soviet Journal Glitter a Liternia Gazetta repeated the charges made by the Indian Newspaper making it an international controversy. All this however was easily passed off as a communist rhetoric by the Masonic west. However on October the 26th 1986 the Sunday Express became the first Western newspaper to run a front page story confirming the findings of the Indian and Soviet newspapers entitled "AIDS made in lab shocks". In this article the distinguished position Dr. John Seal and Prof. Jacob Seagall the retired director of the institute of biology at Berlin university both concluded that the AIDS virus was man made. The out break of AIDS has been linked to vaccine programs around the world. The internationally respected London Times newspaper published an article of the front page story on May 11th 1987 entitled "Small Pocks Vaccine Triggered AIDS". The article establishes its direct correlation between the small pocks vaccine administered by the world health organization to an estimated 50-70 million people in different central African countries and the subsequent out breaks of AIDS in those regions. The world health organization is the medical wing of the United Nations. The evidence suggests that AIDS is a genetically engineered virus spread through vaccination programs in third world countries. Germ warfare against the innocent and the weak aimed at eliminating an entire populace of the face of the earth. AIDS is nothing other than a modern day final solution and all of this for the purpose of installing an economic policy that will give complete global domination to the Masonic West. However for the Free Masons economic domination on its own is not enough. In order to have Masonic government of the head of global union under complete Masonic control and economic union may suffice but to keep it there they need a military union and that union would be none other than the UN. France and American are already ranked within the five major powers of its security council with the others being Russia and China. This means that they have enough power to VITO any motion passed. In December 1992 the president of the General Assembly declared that the UN must become a functional world parliament and went on to say that he UN should be equipped with its own intelligent service. However the UN has already attained military power. It operates its own army. An army that stood back while thousands of Muslims were killed by the serbs in Bosnia and instead implement an arms embargo that left Muslims by any means of self defense. When UN soldiers were sent to wage war against General Muhammad Farah Ideed during the months between June and October 1993. American helicopters fired on hospitals, houses and civilian crowds killing hundreds of unarmed people often attacked in which 71 died the head of the UN mission Admiral Jonathan Howard said "We knew what we were hitting it was well planned". This was a clear breach of the Geneva convention but when the US military attorney was confronted on these points his reply was that the Geneva convention did not apply to the UN forces on a technicality that the UN is not the signatory to the convention. In other words UN troops were free to commit any war crimes or atrocities they wanted and were above any law. In fact the UN far from bringing feast with as it claims instead has spread corruption in the land leaving a trail of death and destruction where ever it has gone. Day that the cold war of a very existence of the Soviet Union when the Free Masons opt to the global government would take time. Now that communism has being destroyed it seems the Free Masons can at last use the UN to achieve their goals of the global government. Therefore having the entire world at their grasp with none to stand in their way also they thought whereas the Earth cries out because of the corruption and injustice they have spread over the land through the agonizing centuries of their domination. The world is witnessing the reawakening of an old warrior. Now the Free Masons have another enemy to contend with an enemy which they have thought that they have destroyed. An enemy that will never bow down to the evil and demonic plan of the Free Masons. That enemy is Islam and against it they have declared war. However the Muslims have already been fore warned about an enemy that will face them. The last Prophet of God Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that a man will appear after the Muslims have conquered a Roman city called Constantinople. He will first appear as a tyrannical king then he will be claimed to be a Prophet and finally he will claim to be the Lord god himself. Already the first part of the prophecy has been fulfilled. Constantinople was conquered and renamed Istanbul. The prophet further fore told that this liar will start to conquer the world. Country by country, fortress by fortress, region by region, town by town and no place will remain un escaped except the two Holy cities of Mecca and Medina. He will possess powers to issue a command to the sky and it will rain and to the earth and it will produce crops. He will call to a false religion and bring something which resembles paradise and hell but that which resembles paradise will in fact be hell and that which resembles hell will in fact be paradise. He is the Dajjal meaning imposter and he will be born with one eye and your Lord is not one eyed!! It is also known that before the appearance of Dajjal a group of people will pave the way setting up the system to prepare the world for his arrival in other words these fore runners to the Dajjal and their system will bear all the characteristics of the Dajjal and he will be the final embodiment of these inhuman forms. The fore runners to the Dajjal are none others than the Free Masons. The one eye is one of the ways to recognize the Dajjal, the one eye is the symbol of the Free Masons. It is part of their beliefs and is taken from ancient Egyptian mythology. In their ideology it represents the supreme being sometime referred to as the great architect of the universe. The Scholars of Islam say that the similitude of the Dajjal is that of the Pharaoh who carried by the Prophet Moses. The Pharaoh was a tyrannical leader who elevated himself in status and declared himself to be god. He used magicians to create illusions and fool the people and oppressed all who did not confirmed his false religion. Today the Free Masons weave another kind of magic. The illusions they create take the form of hidden or openly propagated messages in films, televisions, cartoons, music and all the other cogs in their well oiled media machine and this same media machine has continuously been put into action to slander and destroy the character of Islam. Following another trade of the Dajjal who goes further and slanders God directly. The Dajjal is an oppressor to all who do not follow him. He will have powers to increase the land harvest or destroyed depending whether the people follow him. Similarly the Free Masonic west through the World Bank hold the third world nations to ransom if they do not act in accordance with their wishes. Abundance of IMF development loans are often used to ensnare such nations and the unattainable interest payments keep them ensnared. They are forced to submit or face economic collapse and dire poverty. Another way in which the Dajjal will control the people either deluding them or forcing them to submit is by spreading disease. He will have the ability to spread disease or cure it. In fact he will be playing god and with this power he will delude many to his false religion. The Free Masons also play with peoples lives in this manner. Evidence exists showing that many viruses have created or mutated in military labs and later used an experiment on human beings and it has been established that AIDS is a man made tool used to suit the purposes of Masonic West. The Dajjal shall try to strip God on all of His Divine attributes and claim them for himself. This arrogance is also the way of Free Masons who are engaged in replacing the laws of God with those that are man made and claiming justice across the land using technology to monitor all that you do trying to see and hear everything using genetics to alter and to improve the creation to reach their false standards. The arrogance knows no bounds and they obey no law but that of their own making. These are the fore runners to the Dajjal these are the Free Masons. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said that a time would come and the whole world would gather around to plan a destruction of the Muslims as if they were gathered around a table to take part in a meal. Today the nations of the world are doing just that around the circular tables of the United Nations general assembly hall. He also said that time of the Dajjal will be years of confusion people would believe a liar and disbelieve who is trustworthy and those who rebel against God will have a say in general affair. Today during the time perceiving the Dajjal there is also the time of confusion. The system set up by the fore runners have ensnared many Muslims away from truth using wealth and materialism and fulfillment of Earthly desires. A miserable betray. These times of tribulation are like a giants sib sorting out the true believers from the apostates and hypocrites. Many have adopted the life style and philosophy of Dajjal system retaining perhaps their Muslim name or clothing wearing like a badge to their identity and in every other way embracing whole heartedly the system that has been used to eradicate Islam. Embracing the same system has stood back and did nothing when pregnant Muslim women at their bellies ripped over by serbs killing them. The same system that stand still whilst women and small girls are being raped in Kashmir. A system that stood still whilst mothers saw their children dragged away by soldiers during the night never to return. Simply because they spoke out of being refugees in their own homeland and the same system that said nothing to the tyrant that guest women and children to simply because they dance to the Masonic tune. For those who choose this system claim to love Allah and His messenger but hate what he has brought leave the guidance that is Islam and they had heird to the evil system of the Dajjal living their lives accordance with its rules and seeking from it worldly rewards disregarding the truth that is the laws of Allah. They are those who invite upon themselves the wrath of Allah. The fore runners to the Dajjal have set up this system to destroy Islam either directly through military and economic conversion or indirectly using ideological warfare. They have divided and conquered in stilling diseases such as nationalism and races into the heart of the Ummah. Their biggest fear is Muslim unity and revival of the message brought by the last Prophet to mankind and everything they do is geared to prevent this. They have manipulated Muslims setting up and promoting divides. They have installed their own universal language compelling all to learn or be shut out and reducing Arabic to secondary and inferior language in society and what they have used most to keep the Muslims a bay is oil. During World War I the Free Masonic governments have anicked to destroy the Islamic caliphate and anicked all its territories. The part now called Iraq was put British mandate and current borders were defined by them and through the Iran-Iraq war. After its independence the USA took over interest in Iraq in fear of purest Islamic uprising. The CIA aided the both parties rise to power making Saddam Hussein the leader of Iraq and an ally to the Masonic states. When Kuwait later started raising its oil prices it was destroying the war to an economy of Iraq. Threats were made but ignored. the situation worsen until finally Iraqi troops were mobilized to the border. The Free Masonic media the American media in particular portrayed this as a shock and an outrage. However it is reported that the US ambassador to Kuwait had prior knowledge of the invasion and Iraq's intentions as did the CIA. After the Gulf War Saddam is still alive and Kuwait is being liberated it remains to be asked exactly what purpose the Gulf War served to its Free Masonic orchestraters. The Masonic West has long realized that the control of oil is vital to their economies. One of the main reasons is their reliance on cars and road transport however although technology exist to mass produce fully operational electric cars. All attempts to do so have been Vetoed. This is because oil is crucial to maintaining their world order without the wealth from oil Muslim economies would fall and without the puppet governments and leaders such as Saddam Hussein the Free Masonic West could not control the Muslim nation. Without the division of wealth and false leadership of these nations nothing would prevent the purest Islamic movements from coming to power. Poverty creates unity and Muslim unity is the greatest fear to the fore runners of the Dajjal. The Gulf War serves many purposes to promote Western unity to create divides amongst the Muslim nations to act as a testing ground for entire arsenal of military weapons and cocktails of chemicals and drugs but most of all it serves to ensure a strong military presence in the middle east. The Dajjal has placed a strong hold in the very heart of Islam itself and laid a firm grip on the Muslim holy lands But although they plan Allah also plans and Allah is the best of planners. The final victory will be with the Muslims. ALLAHU AKBAR So dear Muslim brothers & sisters where we stand right now. Just think about it for a moment sincerely. GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES
According to Encarta Encyclopedia Great Seal of US is described as:
"Great Seal of the United States, official seal of the United States government. It is two-sided, having both an obverse and a reverse. Only the obverse has been cut as a die, but the design of the reverse has been copied and appears, for example, on the U.S. one-dollar bill.
The dominant figure on the obverse of the seal is an American eagle, shown with wings spread. On its breast the eagle bears a shield having 13 narrow vertical stripes, 7 white alternating with 6 red, which are surmounted by a broad horizontal stripe of blue. The eagle holds an olive branch in its right talon, a cluster of 13 arrows in its left, and in its beak a scroll on which appears the Latin motto E pluribus unum ("From many, one"). A cluster of 13 five-pointed stars, surrounded by a glory, appears above the eagle.
A pyramid, truncated near the top, is the central figure of the reverse side. The base of the pyramid is inscribed with the date 1776 in Roman numerals: MDCCLXXVI. At the zenith of the pyramid, within a triangle surrounded by a glory, appears the all-seeing eye of Divine Providence. Above the eye is inscribed the motto Annuit coeptis ("He has smiled on our undertakings"). Below the pyramid is a scroll bearing the motto Novus ordo seclorum ("New order of the ages") This seal is also engraved on the dollar note of US,
Underneath it which is written Novus Ordo Seclorum
Translated as: NEW SECRET ORDER.
Now what does the Pyramid carrying one eye on its top means. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) 1400 years back warned us about Dajjal in following words: Narrated by Ibn Umar Once Allah's Apostle stood amongst the people, glorified and praised Allah as He deserved and then mentioned the Dajjal saying, "I warn you against him (i.e. the Dajjal) and there was no prophet but warned his nation against him. No doubt, Noah warned his nation against him but I tell you about him something of which no prophet told his nation before me. You should know that he is one-eyed, and Allah is not one-eyed."
Hadith 4.553(Sahih Bukhari Hadith) HALLA: The Jews were known for their practice of black arts of Kabala. They have used their black art on the Muslims for many centuries in different ways. So the name mentioned above "HALLA", is the name of a yougart product used in Pakistan. If it is read backwards it spells "ALLAH", so the Muslims themselves are helping the freemasons and they don't even know about it. COCA-COLA : This is the most commonly used cold drinks in the world. If you ever see coca-cola written in Mirror Image you just might notice with a thorough observation that it says "LA MAKKAH, LA MUHAMMAD", (meaning no Makkah, no Muhammad) in Arabic, This is another freemasonic work. SEE THESE WORDS COCA-COLA
"...........RANK HATRED HAS ALREADY APPEARED FROM THEIR MOUTHS: WHAT THEIR HEART CONCEALS IS FAR WORSE...." [AL-QUR'ÂN] NIKE'S AD: I am one of the many muslims who you hurt by Nike's ad which shows muslims prostrating to a woman in one of their brand jeans. I will remind you of what the Company Nike did to muslims when they portray the name of Allah on one of their sports shoes. The result was that Malaysia, Indonesia and the Gulf states including Saudi Arabia stopped importing Nike products. If you look carefully you will find that it was after that incident that Nike began to report earnings less than expected on the wall street which caused their stock price to tumble. The stock price has not recovered yet. Check it for yourselves. You owe this to your shareholders. If this picture reaches the governments of some of those countries I bet the fate of our company will not be much different from Nike. "AIR" was written in such a way on the backside of the shoe, if observed closely looks as "Allah" written in Arabic. "...........RANK HATRED HAS ALREADY APPEARED FROM THEIR MOUTHS: WHAT THEIR HEART CONCEALS IS FAR WORSE...." [AL-QUR'ÂN] Now a days media can be used as the most powerful weapon in the world, best used by freemasons. In an American advertisement a woman wearing a new |
it would attract more Muslim women to the police force. The success of the Progress Party has forced the ruling Labour Party to react But after widespread criticism of the proposal, the government dropped the idea. On International Women's Day in March, Syrian-born Sara Azmeh Rasmussen protested against headscarves by burning hers in public in the capital, Oslo. Ms Jensen's Progress Party has produced a list of special measures it says Muslims have requested to accommodate their religious sensitivities and traditions. On top of changes to the police uniform, the list mentions prison inmates wanting Halal food, and parents of teenage girls demanding that schools separate their daughters from boys during sports lessons. Most of her supporters say it is her hardline stand against Islamic values and rules that make her their favourite candidate. Some polls suggest that Ms Jensen's party could win the election, and that she could become the country's next prime minister - though to do so she would have to secure the support of other parties like the Conservatives, the Liberals and Christian Democrats. 'Empty rhetoric' The significant success of the Progress Party has forced the governing Labour Party to react. Earlier this year, the government tightened asylum rules despite earlier pledges not to do so. In Norway, extreme Islamist activity is carried out by small groups
Norwegian Police Security Service And last month, senior members of the Labour Party called for a fight against radical Islam in Norway. However, the former prime minister and Labour Party leader, Thorbjoern Jagland, called it an unnecessary fight that would only lead to confrontation. While he argued that it was empty rhetoric, saying there was no radical Islam in Norway, the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) insists radical Islam does represent a threat. "In Norway, extreme Islamist activity is carried out by small groups. However, the international connections the persons in these groups represent, in addition to activities they carry out, are such in nature that they can also influence that national threat picture," it said in a recent report. While the debate is getting more heated, not all Muslims agree with Mr Mahmood. "Three to four articles critical of religion and the burning of a headscarf is not persecution of Muslims; it is a process of modernising," says Shakil Rehman, another Labour Party member. "Criticism isn't a smear campaign, but necessary progress."
Bookmark with: Delicious
Digg
reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionDiplomatic activity between India and Israel is picking up momentum ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel in July – the first by an Indian PM. The importance of the trip is not just what it means for Indian-Israeli relations, but also what it might say about India’s wider relations around the Middle East.
Ahead of Modi’s trip, senior civil servants are being sent from New Delhi to Israel to prepare the way for deals around water, agriculture and industrial policy. Defence cooperation will also be high up the agenda.
Israel is India’s third largest supplier of defence equipment after Russia and the US. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Israel has supplied $1.7bn worth of defence equipment to India over the past ten years. Much more business is in the pipeline – last month, India placed a $1.6bn order for an Israeli anti-aircraft missile system.
What is less clear is what will be said or done about the Palestinian issue, something which has stymied relations with Israel in the past. Some observers suggest New Delhi is now ready to put the issue to one side, in pursuit of other economic and security aims.
“Modi's government is now ready to de-hyphenate the issues of Israel and Palestine,” says Kabir Taneja, an associate fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.
If that does indeed happen, it will be a sign that India may be embarking on a new phase in its approach to the Middle East more generally. Ever since Jawaharlal Nehru was installed as India’s first prime minister in 1947, the country has tried to pursue a strategy of neutrality in the international arena, but using that approach as the basis for navigating the complex rivalries of the Middle East is becoming harder, particularly when India is keen to claim greater influence for itself in the world.
“India's modern ambitions are challenging the notion of how it approaches the region. It is becoming harder for India to portray itself as a neutral power in the region,” says Taneja. “There is going to be a time soon when India's ambitions of becoming a global superpower are going to collide with its neutrality.”
Security concerns
There are a few big issues for India when it comes to the Middle East which, to date, have encouraged it to take a compromising, even passive line.
The first is demographics. There are 8.5 million Indian nationals living in the region, the vast majority of them in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, including 3 million in Saudi Arabia and 2.8 million in the UAE.
Most of these people work in low-paid, low-skill jobs where conditions are often poor and the risk of exploitation is high. The New Delhi government has a duty to look after the interests of these people, although it has not always been easy to do so. The most challenging event was when 200,000 Indians were airlifted out of Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion in 1990. More recently the Indian Air Force and Air India evacuated several thousand from Yemen in 2015.
As Kadira Pethiyagoda, visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, pointed out in a recent article, “Indian policymakers are concerned about increasing instability and the weakening of states in the Middle East… India’s past inability to influence geopolitics in the Middle East, combined with its lack of security presence, led to costly evacuations of its diaspora.”
The financial benefit that the diaspora workers bring to India is also important. Indians send home close to $40bn a year in remittances, according to the World Bank, providing a vital source of income to the domestic economy.
Another key aspect is energy supplies. India imports 75% of its oil needs according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and 37% of its natural gas. The vast majority of imported fuels come from the Middle East, with oil from Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq and gas from Qatar.
Lastly, there is security and the exchange of information around terrorist threats. “Saudi Arabia and the UAE have very robust exchanges in this field. They are making that extra effort to work with India on counter-terrorism. There is something very similar with Qatar as well,” says Taneja.
Slow change coming
Even if India does find that it has to start choosing its friends more carefully in the Middle East, it is likely to still try and maintain cordial relations wherever possible, rather than pick sides.
That is clear in the timing of a visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to visit India later this month, ahead of Modi’s trip to Israel. It will serve as a useful alternative to Modi visiting the West Bank when he travels to the Levant.
Another case in point is in the Gulf. Ties with the Arab Gulf states have been based around a mix of labourers, energy and security for years, but relations with Iran have tended to be less complex, focused almost exclusively on oil imports, but that relationship is also becoming more multi-faceted.
In May last year Modi visited Iran, where deals were signed involving investment of some $500m in Chabahar port in the south of the Islamic Republic. The planned transport hub is important for India for several reasons. It provides it with trade access to Afghanistan and the central Asian republics while bypassing Pakistan and it is also a useful counterweight to Gwadar port in Pakistan, which is being heavily backed by China as part of its new Silk Road strategy.
A tendering process for two new terminals at Chabahar funded by India is now under way, according to recent media reports in Iran. Tehran also recently offered India a two-year contract to manage the first phase of the port. But for all the agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs), there is still some scepticism about how quickly things might move ahead.
“If you talk to the Indian government or people who have served in Tehran, it's probably the most difficult relationship to take forward,” says Taneja. “India and Iran have signed more than ten MoUs [involving Chabahar] without much action taking place. If you talk to the Iranians they say there is too much bureaucracy in India; if you talk to the Indians they say there is too much bureaucracy in Iran.”
Regional rivalries with China and Pakistan provide lenses through which to view India’s evolving policies in the Middle East, but they aren’t its only motivation. The long-running factors of the diaspora, energy and security will remain of vital importance, but the broader desire of New Delhi to be seen as an international power is itself likely to lead to change."Euro Disney" redirects here. For the wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company that is responsible for Disneyland Paris, see Euro Disney S.C.A.
Disneyland Paris, originally Euro Disney Resort, is an entertainment resort in Marne-la-Vallée, France, a new town located 32 km (20 mi) east of the centre of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, many resort hotels, a shopping, dining, and entertainment complex, and a golf course, in addition to several additional recreational and entertainment venues. Disneyland Park is the original theme park of the complex, opening with the resort on 12 April 1992. A second theme park, Walt Disney Studios Park, opened in 2002. Disneyland Paris celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2017. In 25 years, 320 million people visited Disneyland Paris.[1] The resort is the second Disney park to open outside the United States following the opening of the Tokyo Disney Resort in 1983. The current CEO is Natacha Rafalski. [2]
Ownership [ edit ]
Walt Disney announced a €1 billion ($1.25 billion) bailout plan to rescue its subsidiary Disneyland Paris, the Financial Times reported on 6 October 2014.[3] The park is burdened by its debt, which is calculated at about €1.75 billion ($2.20 billion) and roughly 15 times its gross average earnings.
Until June 2017, Disney only held a majority stake in the resort, when they bought the remaining shares. In 2017, The Walt Disney Company offered an informal takeover of Euro Disney S.C.A., buying 9% of the company from Kingdom Holding and an open offer of 2 euros per share for the remaining stock. This brought The Walt Disney Company's total ownership to 85.7%. The Walt Disney company will also invest an additional 1.5 Billion euros to strengthen the company.[4]
History [ edit ]
Seeking a location for a European resort [ edit ]
Following the success of Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida, plans to build a similar theme park in Europe emerged In 1972. Under the leadership of E. Cardon Walker, Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1983 in Japan with instant success, forming a catalyst for international expansion. In late 1984 the heads of Disney's theme park division, Dick Nunis and Jim Cora, presented a list of approximately 1,200 possible European locations for the park. Britain, France, Italy and Spain were all considered. However, Britain and Italy were dropped from the list due to both lacking a suitable expanse of flat land. By March 1985, the number of possible locations for the park had been reduced to four; two in France and two in Spain. Both nations saw the potential economic advantages of a Disney theme park and offered competing financing deals to Disney.
Both Spanish sites were located near the Mediterranean and offered a subtropical climate similar to Disney's parks in California and Florida. Disney had asked each site to provide average temperatures for every month for the previous 40 years, which proved a complicated endeavour as none of the records were computerised and were registered on paper.[5] The site in Pego, Alicante became the front-runner, but the location was controversial as it would have meant the destruction of Marjal de Pego-Oliva marshlands, a site of natural beauty and one of the last homes of the almost extinct Samaruc or Valencia Toothcarp, so there was some local outcry among environmentalists.[6] Disney had also shown interest in a site near Toulon in southern France, not far from Marseille. The pleasing landscape of that region, as well as its climate, made the location a top competitor for what would be called Euro Disneyland. However, shallow bedrock was encountered beneath the site, which would have rendered construction too difficult. Finally, a site in the rural town of Marne-la-Vallée was chosen because of its proximity to Paris and its central location in Western Europe. This location was estimated to be no more than a four-hour drive for 68 million people and no more than a two-hour flight for a further 300 million.
Michael Eisner, Disney's CEO at the time, signed the first letter of agreement with the French government for the 20-square-kilometre (4,940-acre) site on 18 December 1985, and the first financial contracts were drawn up during the following spring. The final contract was signed by the leaders of the Walt Disney Company and the French government and territorial collectivities on 24 March 1987. Construction began in August 1988, and in December 1990, an information centre named "Espace Euro Disney" was opened to show the public what was being constructed. Plans for a theme park next to Euro Disneyland based on the entertainment industry, Disney-MGM Studios Europe, quickly went into development, scheduled to open in 1996 with a construction budget of US$2.3 billion.[7] The construction manager was Bovis.[8]
Design and construction [ edit ]
'Disneyland Hotel'. Through the hotel is the entrance ticket hall to the Park.
In order to provide lodging to patrons, it was decided that 5,200 Disney-owned hotel rooms would be built within the complex. In March 1988, Disney and a council of architects (Frank Gehry, Michael Graves, Robert A.M. Stern, Stanley Tigerman, and Robert Venturi) decided on an exclusively American theme in which each hotel would depict a region of the United States. At the time of the opening in April 1992, seven hotels collectively housing 5,800[9] rooms had been built.
An entertainment, shopping, and dining complex based on Walt Disney World's Downtown Disney was designed by Frank Gehry.
With its towers of oxidised silver and bronze-coloured stainless steel under a canopy of lights, it opened as Festival Disney.[10] For a projected daily attendance of 55,000, Euro Disney planned to serve an estimated 14,000 people per hour inside the Euro Disneyland park. In order to accomplish this, 29 restaurants were built inside the park (with a further 11 restaurants built at the Euro Disney resort hotels and five at Festival Disney). Menus and prices were varied with an American flavour predominant and Disney's precedent of serving alcoholic beverages was continued in the park.
2,300 patio seats (30% of park seating) were installed to satisfy Europeans' expected preference of eating outdoors in good weather. In test kitchens at Walt Disney World, recipes were adapted for European tastes. Walter Meyer, executive chef for menu development at Euro Disney and executive chef of food projects development at Walt Disney World noted, "A few things we did need to change, but most of the time people kept telling us, 'Do your own thing. Do what's American'."[11]
Unlike Disney's American theme parks, Euro Disney aimed for permanent employees (an estimated requirement of 12,000 for the theme park itself), as opposed to seasonal and temporary part-time employees. Casting centres were set up in Paris, London, and Amsterdam. However, it was understood by the French government and Disney that "a concentrated effort would be made to tap into the local French labour market".[12] Disney sought workers with sufficient communication skills, who spoke two European languages (French and one other), and were socially outgoing. Following precedent, Euro Disney set up its own Disney University to train workers. 24,000 people had applied by November 1991.[12]
Controversies [ edit ]
The prospect of a Disney park in France was a subject of debate and controversy. Critics, who included prominent French intellectuals, denounced what they considered to be the cultural imperialism of Euro Disney and felt it would encourage an unhealthy American type of consumerism in France.[13] On 28 June 1992, a group of French farmers blockaded Euro Disney in protest of farm policies supported at the time by the United States.[14]
A journalist at the centre-right French newspaper Le Figaro wrote, "I wish with all my heart that the rebels would set fire to [Euro] Disneyland."[15] Ariane Mnouchkine, a Parisian stage director, named the concept a "cultural Chernobyl",[16] a phrase which would be echoed in the media during Euro Disney's initial years.
In response, French philosopher Michel Serres noted, "It is not America that is invading us. It is we who adore it, who adopt its fashions and above all, its words." Euro Disney S.C.A.'s then-chairman Robert Fitzpatrick responded, "We didn't come in and say O.K., we're going to put a beret and a baguette on Mickey Mouse. We are who we are."[12]
Topics of controversy also included Disney's American managers requiring English to be spoken at all meetings and Disney's appearance code for members of staff, which listed regulations and limitations for the use of makeup, facial hair, tattoos, jewellery, and more.
French labour unions mounted protests against the appearance code, which they saw as "an attack on individual liberty". Others criticised Disney as being insensitive to French culture, individualism, and privacy, because restrictions on individual or collective liberties were illegal under French law, unless it could be demonstrated that the restrictions are requisite to the job and do not exceed what is necessary.
Disney countered by saying that a ruling that barred them from imposing such an employment standard could threaten the image and long-term success of the park. "For us, the appearance code has a great effect from a product identification standpoint," said Thor Degelmann, Euro Disney's personnel director. "Without it we couldn't be presenting the Disney product that people would be expecting."[17]
Opening day and early years [ edit ]
Euro Disney opened for employee preview and testing in March 1992. During this time visitors were mostly park employees and their family members, who tested facilities and operations. The press were able to visit the day before the park's opening day on 12 April.
On 12 April 1992, Euro Disney Resort and its theme park, Euro Disneyland, officially opened, on the same date that Mediaset's La Cinq (unrelated to the resort) ceased transmissions.[18] Visitors were warned of chaos on the roads. A government survey indicated that half a million people carried by 90,000 cars might attempt to enter the complex. French radio warned traffic to avoid the area. By midday, the car park was approximately half full, suggesting an attendance level below 25,000. Explanations of the lower-than-expected turnout included speculation that people heeded the advice to stay away and that the one-day strike that cut the direct RER railway connection to Euro Disney from the centre of Paris made the park inaccessible.[15] Due to the European recession that August, the park faced financial difficulties as there were a lack of things to do and an overabundance of hotels, leading to underperformance.[19]
A new Indiana Jones roller-coaster ride was opened at Euro Disney in 1993. A few weeks after the ride opened there were problems with the emergency brakes which resulted in guest injuries.[20]
In 1994 the company was still having financial difficulties. There were rumours that Euro Disney was getting close to having to declare bankruptcy. The banks and the backers had meetings to work out some of the financial problems facing Euro Disney. In March 1994 Team Disney went into negotiations with the banks so that they could get some help for their debt. As a last resort, the Walt Disney Company threatened to close the Disneyland Paris park, leaving the banks with the land.[19]
Financial, attendance, and employment struggles [ edit ]
Disney's Newport Bay Club
In May 1992, entertainment magazine The Hollywood Reporter reported that about 25% of Euro Disney's workforce – approximately 3,000 people – had resigned from their jobs because of unacceptable working conditions. It also reported that the park's attendance was far behind expectations. The disappointing attendance can be at least partly explained by the recession and increased unemployment, which was affecting France and most of the rest of the developed world at this time; when construction of the resort began, the economy was still on an upswing.[21]
Euro Disney S.C.A. responded in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, in which Robert Fitzpatrick claimed only 1,000 people had left their jobs. In response to the financial situation, Fitzpatrick ordered that the Disney-MGM Studios Europe project would be put on hiatus until a further decision could be made. Prices at the hotels were reduced.
Despite these efforts in May 1992, park attendance was around 25,000 (some reports give a figure of 30,000) instead of the predicted 60,000. The Euro Disney Company stock price spiralled downwards and on 23 July 1992, Euro Disney announced an expected net loss in its first year of operation of approximately 300 million French francs. During Euro Disney's first winter, hotel occupancy was so low that it was decided to close the Newport Bay Club hotel during the season.
Initial hopes were that each visitor would spend around US$33 per day, but near the end of 1992, analysts found spending to be around 12% lower.[22] Efforts to improve attendance included serving alcoholic beverages with meals inside the Euro Disneyland park, in response to a presumed European demand, which began 12 June 1993.[23]
By the summer of 1994, Euro Disney was burdened with $3 billion worth of debt. Disney CFO Richard Nanula and Wall Street financier Steve Norris worked with Alwaleed's business advisor Mustafa Al Hejailan to rescue the overleveraged company. In that deal, the Walt Disney Corporation's 49 percent stake was reduced to 39 percent, the banks agreed to forego interest payments until 1997, Disney wrote off royalties and fees until 1999, and Alwaleed agreed to pay $345 million for a 24 percent stake in Euro Disney.[24]
1995 turnaround [ edit ]
On 31 May 1995, a new attraction opened at the theme park. Space Mountain: De la Terre à la Lune had been planned since the inception of Euro Disneyland under the name Discovery Mountain, but was reserved for a revival of public interest. With a redesign of the attraction (which had premiered as Space Mountain at the Walt Disney World Resort's Magic Kingdom in 1975)[25] including a "cannon launch" system, inversions, and an on-ride soundtrack, the US$100 million attraction was dedicated in a ceremony attended by celebrities such as Elton John, Claudia Schiffer, and Buzz Aldrin.
On 25 July 1995, Euro Disney S.C.A. reported its first ever quarterly profit of US$35.3 million.[26] On 15 November 1995, the results for the fiscal year ending 30 September 1995, were released; in one year the theme park's attendance had climbed from 8.8 million to 10.7 million – an increase of 21%. Hotel occupancy had also climbed from 60 to 68.5%.[citation needed] After debt payments, Disneyland Paris ended the year with a net profit of US$22.8 million.[27]
2000 onwards [ edit ]
As of March 2002, Euro Disney underwent a name change to Disneyland Resort Paris. In 2002, Euro Disney S.C.A. and the Walt Disney Company announced another annual profit for Disneyland Paris. However, it then incurred a net loss in the three years following.[28] By March 2004, the Walt Disney Company had agreed to write off all debt that Euro Disney S.C.A. owed to the Walt Disney Company.[29] On 1 December 2003, Euro Disney S.C.A launched the 'Need Magic' campaign, which lasted until March 2006 to bring new, first-time European visitors to the resort. And by 2005, having been open fewer than fifteen years, Disneyland Paris had become the number one tourist destination for Europe, outselling the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.[30]
In March 2006, Disneyland Resort Paris launched the advertising campaign, "believe in your dreams" and paired with the TGV East European Line to encourage European family attendance to the resort.[30][31] Shortly after announcing a 12% increase in revenues for the fiscal year of 2007,[32] Euro Disney S.C.A. implemented a "reverse split" consolidation of shares of 100 to 1.[33] August 2008 brought the resort's 200 millionth visitor,[34] and made for the third consecutive year of growth in revenues for the resort as well as record a record of 15.3 million visitors in attendance.[35]
In 2009, the resort demonstrated dedication to the recruitment of new employment positions, especially for the Christmas and summer seasons,[36] which continued in 2010 and 2011 when 2,000 and 3,000 employment contracts being offered, respectively.[37][38] The 2009 fiscal year saw a decrease in revenues by 7% and a net loss of 63 million[39] followed by stable revenues at 1.2 billion in fiscal 2010.[40] Euro Disney S.C.A. refinanced their debt to Walt Disney Company again for 1.3 billion euros in September 2012.[41]
A study done by the Inter-ministerial Delegation reviewing Disneyland Paris' contribution to the French economy was released in time for the Resort's 20th anniversary in March 2012. It found that despite the resort's financial hardships, it has generated "37 billion euros in tourism-related revenues over twenty years," supports on average 55,000 jobs in France annually, and that one job at Disneyland Paris generates nearly three jobs elsewhere in France.[42]
For the first time in the resort's history, both the Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park closed from 14 to 17 November 2015, as part of France's national days of mourning following the November 2015 Paris attacks.[43]
On 19 June 2017, the resort's operating company, Euro Disney S.C.A, was acquired by The Walt Disney Company, in the process, giving them full control of the resort.
Plans [ edit ]
On 27 February 2018, Bob Iger announced that The Walt Disney Company will invest €2 billion into the Disneyland Paris resort. The Walt Disney Studios Park will be expanded with three new areas based upon Marvel, Frozen and Star Wars. In addition to the three new areas, the expansion includes a new lake, which will be the focal point for entertainment experiences and will also connect each of the new park areas. The first phase of the expansion will be completed in 2021.[44]
On 1 June 2019, Disneyland Paris will sponsor the Magical Pride Party, an LGBTQ celebration.[45] Magical pride events have taken place since 2014 at the park, but were sponsored by others; in 2019, Disney is the sponsor.[45]
The complex [ edit ]
Disneyland Paris encompasses 4,800 acres (19 km2)[46] and contains 2 theme parks, 7 resort hotels, 7 associated hotels, a golf course, railway station, a large outlet centre (la vallée village), and a large shopping mall: Val d'Europe.
Parks [ edit ]
Disneyland Park, opened with the resort on 12 April 1992 and is based on the original Disneyland in California and the Magic Kingdom in Florida.
Walt Disney Studios Park, opened on 16 March 2002 celebrating showbusiness, films, and behind-the-scenes
Shopping, dining, and entertainment [ edit ]
Disney Village, an entertainment district containing a variety of restaurants, entertainment venues and shops.
Val d'Europe, a shopping centre including a variety of outlet shops and large department stores with a huge Disney Store.
Other recreation [ edit ]
Golf Disneyland features 9-hole and 18-hole courses.
Rides and attractions [ edit ]
According to the Disneyland Paris website the theme park's top five attractions are It's a Small World, Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain (formerly known as Space Mountain: Mission 2), Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters.[47][48] It's a Small World, located in Fantasyland, takes visitors on a musical tour of world attractions;[49] Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain is a roller coaster in Discoveryland; Big Thunder Mountain is a mine train roller coaster in Frontierland;[47][50] Pirates of the Caribbean is located in Adventureland; and Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, located in Discoveryland, was inspired by the Disney/Pixar film Toy Story 2 and features people shooting lasers at targets to earn points.[50]
The park is approximately 4,800 acres (1,942 ha), and is divided into two main parks that each hold separate attraction areas within them. The park receives around twelve million visitors a year which makes it the most visited place in Europe.[51]
In 2018, Disneyland Paris announced a multi-year expansion project. It is expected to be completed by 2024 in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Roller coasters [ edit ]
Hotels [ edit ]
The complex features seven Disneyland Paris hotels. The Disneyland Hotel is located over the entrance of the Disneyland Park and is marketed as the most prestigious hotel on property. A body of water known as Lake Disney is surrounded by Disney's Hotel New York, Disney's Newport Bay Club, and Disney's Sequoia Lodge. Disney's Hotel Cheyenne and Disney's Hotel Santa Fe are located near Lake Disney; Disney's Davy Crockett Ranch is located in a woodland area outside the resort perimeter.
Disneyland Paris includes six on-site partner hotels which are not managed by Euro Disney S.C.A. but provide free shuttle buses to the parks: B&B Hotel, Algonquin's Explorers Hotel, Vienna House Dream Castle Hotel, Vienna House Magic Circus Hotel, Kyriad Hotel, and Radisson Blu Hotel. There are also 2 associated hotels located in Val d'Europe: Adagio Marne-la-Vallée Val d’Europe and Hôtel l’Élysée Val d’Europe.
Transport [ edit ]
Marne-la-Vallée – Chessy station, view to the platform area
A railway station, Marne-la-Vallée–Chessy, is located between the theme parks and Disney Village. It opened on 1 April 1992 and is notably served by regional express line RER A which provides a direct connection with the centre of Paris.
The railway station is also served by long-distance high-speed TGV and Ouigo trains offering direct services to many cities across France. Thalys does not any longer operate from the station. There are daily services from and to London St Pancras on the Eurostar.
Free shuttle buses provide transport to all Disney hotels (except Disney's Davy Crockett Ranch) and Associated Hotels. The yellow shuttle buses go to the main Disney hotels while the pink shuttle buses go to the other hotels further away but still in the Disneyland area.
Backstage Disney [ edit ]
Disneyland Paris has strict rules designed to prevent guests from seeing backstage areas of the park. Photography and filming are strictly forbidden in all backstage areas. The edges of the parks are lined with ride buildings and foliage to hide areas that are not for the public to see. Numerous area gates allow entrance into the park for cast members, parade floats, etc. When area gates around the park are open, anything that can be seen through them is considered to be on-stage and part of the Disney Magic. Therefore, from the moment the gates are open, all of the cast must be in character and in place to 'perform'. As the complex is so big, shuttle buses take cast members to different parts of the parks via service roads located around the perimeter of the parks.
Many attractions are housed in large, soundstage-like buildings called "show buildings", some of which are partially or completely disguised by external theming. Generally, show buildings are painted a dull green colour in areas not seen by guests; this choice helps to disguise them among the foliage and make them less visually obtrusive. Walt Disney Imagineering has termed this colour "Go Away Green." Most show buildings have off-white flat roofs that support HVAC units and footpaths for maintenance cast members. Housed inside show buildings are the actual attractions, which include hidden walkways, service areas, control rooms, and other backstage operations.
Attendance [ edit ]
2009 - 15,400,690
2010 - 15,158,800
2011 - 15,700,000
2012 - 16,000,000
2013 - 14,900,000
2014 - 14,200,000 [52]
2015 - 14,800,000 [53]
2016 - 13,400,000 [54]
2017 - 14,860,000[55]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Norway’s third largest city has voted to boycott all goods and services produced in illegal Israeli settlements located in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Trondheim City Council approved the motion yesterday, in a resolution that states how “illegal settlements are expanding, the construction of the wall continues, Palestinians are subjected to daily harassment and face major obstacles in their daily lives.”
The resolution added: “This is a policy that Trondheim Municipality cannot support. The municipality will therefore refrain from purchasing goods and services produced in the occupied territories.”
According to reports: “The city council is also asking residents of Norway’s third largest city to personally boycott settlement goods and services.”
The boycott resolution was supported by the Labour, Socialist Left, Green and the Red party, it was opposed by the Conservatives, Christian Democratic, Progress, Centre Party and the Pensioner’s Party.It has been established in various courts that bank officials literally bribed Jefferson County Commissioners to refinance using outrageously expensive interest rate swap deals, but despite a number of convictions of local pols like former Commissioner Larry Langford (who got 15 years for accepting bribes), Jefferson County will still be stuck paying this tab for the next gazillion years.
All of which sucks, of course, but the news keeps getting worse. The House Financial Services Committee has just voted to delay the scheduled implementation of reforms in the Dodd-Frank bill that would limit the ability of banks to pull Jefferson-County style scams in the future. Among other things, the new rules would have required banks to act in the best interests of their clients, and disclose daily pricing information about swaps, making it harder for banks to gouge clients.
In Jefferson County, the Alabamans were massively overcharged by Chase and other banks in large part because interest rate swaps, unlike, say, stocks, are not traded on open exchanges, so nobody knows how much they really cost. The situation is similar to what sports betting would be like if casinos did not publish the point spreads. If you walk into a casino the day before the Super Bowl and you're told the spread is Green Bay -6, you might think you're getting a good deal-- but the actual spread might be nine or ten points. Wall Street is making a killing similarly overcharging states and cities and counties (and even countries like Greece) for interest-rate swaps, regularly stealing half a touchdown here and there in these billion-dollar finance transactions.
The Dodd-Frank bill, ball-less as it mostly was, did have a few provisions in it that would have tightened up the rules governing such derivative transactions. But the House Financial Services Committee voted to stall implementation of these new rules until September 12th, at the very least. The cruel irony here is that the Committee is chaired by... Jefferson County's own congressman!
That's right: Alabama Republican Spencer Bachus, who up until recently was sounding like a real critic of these banking practices. This was Bachus a few years ago, making his own casino comparison:
When you have a county or city that is basically unsophisticated dealing with Wall Street professionals it's very similar to a person walking into a casino where the house always wins. Simply, the county and the Wall Street firms gambled with ratepayers money. While interest rates were low in the beginning, things ultimately blew up when the auction rate securities market collapsed.
That was then. Now, Bachus is the driving force behind this latest move to delay reforms. Wonder why? Just look to see who happens to be the top contributor to Bachus's campaigns for his career: J.P. Morgan Chase. Bloomberg elaborated on Bachus's ties to Wall Street, describing him as the third-biggest recipient of Wall Street cash in the House:
During his two decades in Congress, Bachus-- like Frank, his predecessor as chairman-- has nurtured ties to Wall Street donors who have poured cash into campaign chests of both Democrats and Republicans. He has received more than $7.1 million from political committees of finance, real estate and insurance companies and their employees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington group that tracks campaign donations. That’s more than any House member since 1989 aside from the Republicans’ two top leaders, Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
If you read the whole Bloomberg piece you'll see other villains here, including Barney Frank and Michelle Bachmann(who is seeking to have all of Dodd-Frank overturned). But Bachus is the big story here. Here you have a congressman who represents a district that just happens to be the most conspicuous group of Main-Street victims of predatory banking practices in all of America-- and even he can't find a way to man up and do the right thing for his voters.
The other angle here is how finance reform inevitably gets whittled down into nothing. Dodd-Frank to begin with was maybe a ten-percent reform effort; the finance lobby killed about 90 percent of the real stuff before it even got voted on. The ten percent that did make it into "law" was still in limbo, as it always is after such laws are passed, while regulators hammered out the actual procedures for implementing the new legislation. These rulemaking processes inevitably take place in conference sessions heavily attended by industry stooges and lobbyists, with reform advocates seldom having even one or two voices at the table. You can count on another five percent disappearing in that process, if not more.
And now here comes the way to deal with the last five percent: stall. When all else fails, go into the four-corner offense and wait out the public. They will eventually forget, or else the political winds will change. It's really a beautiful demonstration of political organization and willpower |
Day's GP referred him to a urologist at Liverpool's Broadgreen hospital last December and after a series of scans, he was booked in for surgery in February.
His daughter Jennifer, 54, added: 'With the size of it, I thought they were going to say it’s too late, there’s nothing we can do.
'When you think of cancer, you think that’s it. It is remarkable what they have done for him.'
Mr Day will have more scans every three months to make sure he remains cancer-free.
His surgeon, Mr Coonoor Chandrasekar, said: 'Lumps and bumps are common. One in 100 turn out to be a sarcoma.
'Sarcomas are treatable and if people come forward for treatment earlier, it can be easier.'
' If Bob hadn’t had it checked, because of the way tissue breaks down, it could have spread to his lungs which can prove fatal.'Within the next few months, United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) members will be asked to elect a leader to replace Paul Nuttall, the Catholic conservative, mildly pro-Zionist Member of European Parliament for North West England, who resigned after leading the party off a cliff at the last General Election.
It’s fair to say that Nuttall was neither intellectually equipped, nor politically astute enough to lead a defanged UKIP into the Brexit negotiation period, as evidenced by his inability to achieve the slightest electoral success in 2017.
UKIP’s share of the vote, which reached a staggering 4 million when I stood as a prospective Member of Parliament for West Lancashire in 2015, collapsed at this year’s General Election — with both the Labour Party, from whom UKIP had previously siphoned off hundreds of thousands of voters from disenfranchised White working class communities in the north, and fiercely patriotic English Conservatives, whom UKIP had targeted down south, hacking large swathes of support back from Nuttall’s party.
In fact, Nuttall’s inability to put his personal stamp on the populist party resulted in UKIP losing over 80% of its vote (from 12.6% in 2015 to 2% in 2017), its membership rumored to have dropped by more than half, and the party Farage had built from scratch all but relegated to a footnote in the annals of British history and dustbin of British politics.
Most UKIP supporters I know who blame Nuttall for the Party’s cataclysmic implosion fault the MEP’s incoherent, often schizophrenic message.
Would Nuttall’s UKIP be genuinely anti-Islam or simply happy to carry on pandering to the litany of extremist religious groups Farage pandered to?
Was Nuttall going to utilize his working-class roots to target the dispossessed White working class northern vote – Nuttall is in fact conspicuously working class in his manner and speech patterns – or was he going to dress up like the aspiringly aristocratic Farage to try to attract the same sorts of landowning libertarians and disenfranchised Eurosceptic Tory voters, Farage had successfully courted?
Unlike Farage, who was successfully able to market himself as a man for all people, Nuttall couldn’t successfully court both.
Was Nuttall the Catholic conservative who stood for traditional values — the platform on which he campaigned, or the moderate that sold out to the likes of Pink News the moment he was grilled over his stance on homosexuality.
No one really knew where Farage’s replacement stood on anything. In all fairness, I am not convinced Nuttall himself knew where he stood.
Nuttall’s political positions compatible with traditional nationalist values
– Nuttall has called for the establishment of an independent English (as opposed to British) Parliament — a position taken by the English Democrats and other English Nationalist groups.
– He is seen as anti-abortion and has shown support for the reintroduction of the death penalty, both unpopular positions in Britain.
– He’s been an outspoken critic of political correctness and laws that stifle free speech.
– He opposed the Labour Party’s 2015 plans to mandate the teaching of LGBT-inclusive sex education in schools. This education requires that schools discuss homosexuality and alternative lifestyle choices, with primary/elementary school children.
– He is an outspoken critic of mass immigration and against the free movement of people within the EU.
– He opposes global warming legislation, due to the fact it stifles GDP and imposes an unfair burden on British business. Nuttall contends that such legistlation enables Brussels to sink their regulatory fangs into British commerce.
– He is in favour of a ban on burqas in public places, and has been a far more vocal opponent of Islam than Farage.
Although Nuttall once penned an article on the devastating impact of Cultural Marxism for a major British newspaper — that has since been deleted from their official site — it is fair to say that Nuttall failed to present a cogent ideological position on anything, nor did he offer the British electorate anything in the way of political substance. In fact, the failed leader appeared as if he was hoping to ride Farage’s name, their association, as well as the former commodities trader’s cheeky-chap style all the way to Westminster.
Unfortunately it’s been his decision to amplify the rhetoric on the genuine threat to Western civilization Islam poses that has enabled a far more insidious danger to slip into UKIP’s sphere. This is a strategy he adopted after visiting Israel and one he assumed would slow down the Party’s death spiral and attract genuine nationalist voters. Nevertheless, this decision has enabled a far more insidious danger to slip into UKIP’s sphere.
Enter Anne Marie Waters, Tommy Robinson and their North American Zionist backers
Although UKIP has had Jewish supporters in the past and punished candidates who dared to critique organized Jewry’s impact on the West (see here), I’ve come to the conclusion that Farage is more of a political opportunist when it comes to supporting Jewish issues than anything more sinister. Despite paying lip service to UKIP’s support for Israel (the party does in fact have a Friends of Israel Society), Farage has always been about maintaining power, generating fame and fortune, “chasing skirts,” remaining in the public eye, and seeing Britain sever relations with the autocratic European Union. Farage is, at the end of the day, the consummate showman.
There’s no doubt that Farage benefited from deals he cut with Zionist media magnate Rupert Murdoch, and Jewish smut king turned newspaper and tabloid owner, Richard Desmond, as well as the disproportionately Jewish state-funded British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), with which he conspired to harm the anti-Zionist British National Party, which had two MEPs elected in 2009 — Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons.
However, it is fair to say that Farage’s relationships with Zionist organizations and organized Jewry have been driven by the opportunities they afforded him, rather than anything ideological in nature. I doubt the former UKIP leader has even heard of the Yinon Plan or has the faintest idea that the Neoconservatives he serves when he appears on American Fox News are even Jewish.
Although Farage is as slick as British politicians get politically, colleagues of mine who know him personally, claim that his grasp of geopolitics is weak due to his lack of formal education, and is further attenuated by his self-deceptive political thinking, which enables him to selectively block out truths that interfere with his political aspirations.
In fact, Farage found himself in hot water in the mainstream Zionist Press due to his expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin and — more importantly — his open hostility to the idea of Britain interfering in Syria. If Farage thoroughly understood what his Zionist masters thought about Messrs Putin and Assad, I doubt he would have been so bold. Predictably though, these topics were never broached during his appearances on Fox News or the BBC.
Therefore, it is fair to say that UKIP has been run by sycophants that pander to the wealthy Jewish elite but who nevertheless are not entirely on board with a Zionist foreign policy. To claim the party’s raison d’être is the advancement of the same Zionist and globalist agenda that the American Democratic and Republican Parties unashamedly advance, as some Nationalists claim, would be unfair and untrue.
However, All That Is About To Change…
Over the past few years an Irish-Lesbian identitarian by the name of Anne Marie Waters has advanced upon the British political scene.
Waters first entered the fold as the spokesperson for the National Secular Society. It was during her stint with this far left organization, linked to several British Marxist groups, that she campaigned against the Pope being invited to Britain — acting as a co-signatory of a letter drafted by left wing extremists opposing the Pope’s State Visit.
Along with Waters, the letter was signed by Jewish homosexual extremist, Stephen Fry, Zoe Margolis, and a troop of other left wing anti-Christian atheist zealots and deviants whose hatred of Western civilization rivals that of the Bolsheviks.
Unlike the vast majority of her Leftist comrades, Waters also aligned herself with organizations that were openly hostile to Islam, while simultaneously promoting Israeli interests and defending its appalling record on human rights. (For American readers, think Pamela Geller.) Ms. Waters:
Support of, or sympathy to Israel can make you an immediate enemy to many (on the Left). Israel is the untouchable issue; the consensus from which you can not veer. I was approached recently by a trade union group which is supportive of Israel (such things do exist but are widely maligned) and asked my opinion on what is labelled on the left as the “Pinkwashing Campaign”. This is a campaign which is represented at ‘Pride’ parades, has vast numbers of supporters among trade unionists, and which aims to highlight what it calls a “PR tactic used by Israel which cynically exploits support for LGBT people.” The fact that Israel is the only country in the Middle East in which gay people enjoy anything resembling freedom or human rights is apparently a fraud — because the anti-Israel left demands that it be so. The “No Pinkwashing” campaign explains that “Israeli groups have adopted a strategy which aims to defend Israel by presenting it as modern, democratic and LGBT-friendly, and by demonising surrounding countries.” The truth, it claims, is that Israel is in fact a vicious human rights abuser and of course, an “apartheid state”. The “No Pinkwashing” campaign essentially wants us to disregard Israel’s human rights record when examining its human rights record. None of it matters anyway because Israel is an “apartheid state” and anything good or democratic in Israel is simply a rouse (quite an elaborate one at that).
Waters’ blind and egregiously hypocritical support of the Jewish ethnostate, as well as what can only be defined as a sheer hatred of Islam (and Christianity for that matter), didn’t sit well with Waters hard-lined Leftist Brighton comrades. So it was at this juncture that Waters launched her foray into mainstream British politics.
But the media-described right winger didn’t join the BNP, the National Front, even the Tory Party or centrist Lib Dems. The Marxist atheist LGBT advocate joined Britain’s traitorous Labour Party, where she immediately began criticizing it for Antisemitism.
Although Waters is now the female face of Britain’s far right, she originally opted for the Labour Party as they were simply the best fit. After all, it’s Ann Marie’s Lesbianism, strident atheism and adherence to Marxist feminist ideology that underpins her identity.
It was while representing the Labour Party that Waters made two failed attempts to be selected as a parliamentary candidate: first in South Swindon for which she gave a member of the Central Committee of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran as her personal reference, and then more recently in 2013, when she attempted to be selected as a Labour prospective Member of Parliament for Brighton.
There are literally dozens of examples of Ms Waters’ support of hard-line left wing causes, ranging from her demand that the Labour party support work strikes, even when they damage the country, to her pathological pursuit of egalitarianism. She’s an ardent supporter of Gay marriage legislation — which she utilized when marrying her (female) partner — has shown extreme hostility towards organised Christianity, taken part in pro-abortion activism in her native Ireland (where it is still illegal to have an abortion), etc.
Bearing all this in mind it’s fair to say that Waters is not the ‘neo fascist’ flag-waving Joan of Arc type, she’s been ludicrously described as in the mainstream media.
In fact the accusation that UKIP is about to be taken over by right wing extremists, has resulted in widespread panic within the party, which was undoubtedly part of the plan.* Things have gotten so bad that 18 of the party’s 20 MEPs, including Farage, have threatened to resign and create a new party if Waters is victorious.
Guardian writer, Danny Cohen, who has about as much grasp of what it means to be a traditional nationalist as Waters, had this to say:
It sounds like the start of a bad stand-up routine. An Irish lesbian feminist walks into Ukip’s HQ and… And the Kippers walk out. Or at least three-quarters of Ukip’s members of the European parliament say they will walk out if Anne Marie Waters becomes their new leader. Ukip’s politicians are not threatening to resign because Waters is Irish or a lesbian or even a feminist. Despite Nigel Farage’s cloying friendship with Trump and admiration for Putin, despite Ukip’s naked use of racist scaremongering in the Brexit campaign, Ukip politicians are not objecting to Waters because she is left wing, but because she is not nearly left wing enough. Waters has managed a feat many thought impossible — she is too reactionary for Ukip’s leaders to stomach.
When Cohen refers to Waters as left wing as opposed to right wing or nationalistic, he is conflating Zionist-funded single issue nationalism (opposition to Muslim immigration) with genuine nationalism.
Anne Marie is not anti-immigration; she is anti-Muslim immigration. She is not anti-society-destroying social and sexual reengineering. In fact, she supports it! She just dislikes Muslims. She has no issue with the ideological Leftists and Globalists moving other non-Western people into the West, such as non-Muslim Africans. Nor is she opposed to the wars propagated by the same Zionists now funding her, which result in the conditions many Muslims are in fact leaving their homelands.
Waters has in fact said as much: “There is one issue on which Ukip really should now step up to the plate — Islam and Muslim immigration,” Waters’ manifesto, which was launched on Ezra Isaac Levant’s Rebel Media, explains. “The party must publicly acknowledge that Islamic culture is simply not compatible with our own.”
Neither is yours, Ms. Waters. Neither is yours.
Although there are many supporters of the Alt-Right who also unfortunately adhere to left-wing positions on abortion, the EU, and homosexuality — there has always been a homosexual element on the far right — Anne-Marie Waters has about as much in common with genuine European nationalism as the notorious Barbara Spectre. On every last issue — abortion, non-Islamic immigration, gay rights, mandated teaching of homosexuality in schools, etc. — Ms Waters is a dogmatic Bolshevik to the core.
True nationalists, as well as the sorts of people that vote UKIP, have one thing in common with Ms. Waters — a healthy aversion to Islam. Anne Marie Waters has ridden concerns over the dangers posed by the religion of peace—concerns shared with PEGIDA and Tommy Robinson’s English Defense League (EDL)—right to the very top of the United Kingdom Independence Party.
Unlike genuine nationalists, Waters is in bed with an array of suspicious characters and organizations. From dissident Iranian Marxists who I have reason to believe are funded by hardline Wahhabi backers in the Gulf and Israel, to homosexual action groups based in Britain.
And unlike her political opponents within UKIP, whom I will discuss in Part Two of this essay, Waters is cozy with well-known British Zionist, Tommy Robinson, who has championed her cause on social media, as well as lesser known British based Zionists linked to US Jewish organisations, Paul Weston, Jack Buckby; and most alarmingly, it appears Waters has successfully enlisted the help of Ezra Isaac Levant’s, Rebel Media, the online propaganda outlet from which she launched her UKIP campaign and Manifesto.
I’ll conclude part one by proposing that if Anne Marie Waters had abandoned the relativist left because of its complicity in terrorism, the grooming-gang rapes, Islamic oppression of women, its refusal to oppose misogyny unless blame can be pinned on a White heterosexual capitalist boogeyman, I’d understand her position, perhaps even support her work.
The fact that she literally resigned from the Labour Party due to her unflinching support of Israel — a state with an egregious record on human rights — should tell us all we need to know about Ms. Waters and the hypocrisy rife in her brand of pseudo-nationalism.
End of Part 1
Jack Sen is the cofounder of Resistance Radio. His on-air discussion with former Member of European Parliament, Nick Griffin, on Anne Marie Waters and the Zionist attempted takeover of British politics can be found here.
* There is a belief that UKIP has served its purpose and therefore needs to go. Without a genuinely Eurosceptic party in the fold, there’s literally no one left to fight for a hard Brexit — i.e., a Brexit that ends the free movement of people within Europe — is successfully negotiated. If an extremist like Waters is elected leader, the mainstream media will have an excuse not to involve UKIP in its coverage of Brexit negotiations. Without UKIP there would never have been Brexit. Without UKIP remaining relevant, there might not be a proper hard Brexit.Herd Immunity Simulator written by Shane Killian
modified by Robert Webb
* - Vaccinated cell
* - Unvaccinated cell
* - Infected cell
Click on a cell below to infect it and watch how it spreads.
Immunization rate on left: Immunization rate on right: Same as left Infection rate if not vaccinated: Infection rate if vaccinated: Infection speed: Results: Total population: = vaccinated + unvaccinated.
Number infected: = vaccinated + unvaccinated.
% of population infected.
% of vaccinated population infected.
% of unvaccinated population infected.
% of infected that had been vaccinated.
Anti-vaccinationists point to examples of real outbreaks where more than half of those infected had been vaccinated. Surely if most of those infected had been vaccinated then the vaccine isn't much good, right? Wrong. The simulator above shows that this is exactly what we expect to find. This is because most of the community is vaccinated, so even though a much lower percentage of those vaccinated become infected, the total number may still be greater. It's a bit of statistical trickery on the anti-vaxxer's part.This to-be-2-part-because-this-got-long post is a continuation of the series on Kylerec 2017 starting with the previous post, and covers most of the talks from Days 2-3 of Kylerec, focusing on the use of J-holomorphic curves in the study of fillings. I should mention that two more sets of notes, by Orsola Capovilla-Searle and Cédric de Groote, have been uploaded to the website on this page. So if you wish to follow along, feel free to follow the notes there, and in particular, the relevant talks I’ll be discussing in this post are:
Part 1
Day 1 Talk 1 – The introductory talk by (mostly) Roger Casals (with some words by Laura Starkston)
Day 2 Talk 2 – Roberta Gaudagni’s talk introducing J-holomorphic curves
Day 2 Talk 3 – Emily Maw’s talk on McDuff’s rational ruled classification
Part 2
Day 2 Talk 4 – Agustín Moreno’s talk on Wendl’s J-holomorphic foliations
Day 3 Talk 1 – Umut Varolgüneş’ talk on Barth-Geiges-Zehmisch’ diffeomorphism types of symplectic fillings
It should be obvious in what follows which parts of the exposition correspond to which talks, although what follows is perhaps a pretty biased account, with some parts amplified or added, and others skimmed or skipped.
J-holomorphic curves – basics
Gromov introduced the study of J-holomorphic curves into symplectic geometry in his famous 1985 paper, immediately revolutionizing the field. One might wonder why we care about these objects, and the rest of this post (along with part 2) should be a testament to some (but certainly not all) aspects of the power of the theory.
The “J” in “J-holomorphic” refers to some choice of almost complex structure on a manifold. Given an almost complex manifold, a J-holomorphic curve is a map such that is a Riemann surface and. In the case where is a complex manifold, we see this is precisely what it means to be holomorphic.
We are mostly concerned a choice of which is compatible with a symplectic manifold. By this, we mean that the (0,2)-tensor is a Riemannian metric. We say is tame if for each nonzero vector (note that as defined above is not necessarily symmetric in this case).
Proposition: The space of compatible almost complex structures on a symplectic manifold is non-empty and contractible. So is the space of tame almost complex structures.
This suggests either:
Studying the space of J-holomorphic curves into for some particular choice of.
for some particular choice of. Study some invariant of spaces of J-holomorphic curves which does not depend on the choice of compatible (or tame) with respect to a given symplectic form.
In walking down either of these paths, there are a large number of properties at our disposal. What is presented in this section is far from a conclusive list, and I have completely abandoned including proofs and motivation, so beware that there is a lot of subtlety involved in the analytic details. For many many many more details, consult this book of McDuff and Salamon.
Firstly, there is a dichotomy between somewhere injective curves and multiple covers. Some J-holomorphic curves will factor through branched covers, meaning that factors as such that the first map is a branched cover of Riemann surfaces. J-holomorphic curves which are not multiply covered are called simple, and it turns out that simple curves are characterized by being somewhere injective, meaning there is some for which and. Even better, somewhere injective means that is almost everywhere injective.
The main tool in the theory is the study of certain moduli spaces of J-holomorphic curves. There are many flavors of this, but we discuss a specific example to highlight the relevant aspects of the theory. The analytical details are typically easier for simple curves, so we denote by the moduli space of all simple -holomorphic curves. It turns out to be fruitful to focus in on a specific piece of this space, so we often restrict to a given domain of definition, say some, and also restrict the homology class of the map to some. The main question is:
When is such a moduli space actually a smooth manifold?
This is certainly a subtle question, and it turns out that not every works. However, it is a theorem that for generic, this moduli space is a smooth manifold of dimension, where.
Given our nice moduli space, we also might be interested in what happens as we change our choice of, so that we go from one regular choice to another. A generic path of such almost complex structures will give a smooth cobordism between the moduli spaces, a property which allows us to cook up invariants which do not depend, for example, on choices of compatible with a given symplectic structure.
To note a few variants of the discussion so far, sometimes we will study J-holomorphic disks with certain boundary conditions, or J-holomorphic curves with punctures sent to a certain asymptotic limit. In all cases, the same analytic machinery already swept under the rug (Fredholm theory) will give that the moduli spaces in question are smooth for generic choices of almost complex structure, and the dimension of this moduli space is given by some purely topological quantity (by, for example, the Atiyah-Singer index theorem).
One common thing to do is to quotient out by the group action given by reparametrizing the domain of a given J-holomorphic curve. That is, we consider the equivalence relation where is a biholomorphism. A more careful author would probably distinguish between the map as opposed to the corresponding equivalence class, which is really what one should mean when they say curve. Hence, one can quotient our moduli spaces by reparametrization to obtain moduli spaces of curves. Usually, these are the main objects of interest.
So now we have our nice moduli space, in whatever situation we desire, and we can ask about studying limits of J-holomorphic curves in that moduli space. In general, no such curve might exist. The first reason for this is that any such curve has an energy attached to it (when is compatible with ). If this quantity diverges to, then there can be no limiting curve. One can ask instead about what happens when the energy is bounded.
Consider the following sequence of holomorphic curves given by. We see that away from, this is just converging to the curve. But near, if we reparametrize the domain by, we see this converges to the sphere. In this case, our curve formed what is often called a bubble. More generally, a curve can split off many bubbles at a time. For an example of this, consider instead given by, in which a new bubble forms at in addition to the one discussed above. More generally, a sequence of curves can limit to a curve with trees of bubbles sticking out.
Such bubble trees are called stable or nodal or cusp curves (or probably a lot of other things), depending upon how old your reference is and to whom you talk. The incredible theorem, which goes under the name of Gromov compactness, is that this is the only phenomenon which precludes a limit from existing. We state this vaguely as follows:
Theorem [Gromov ’85]: The moduli space of curves of energy bounded by some constant (modulo reparametrization of domain) can be compactified by adding in stable curves of total energy bounded by.
Another generally important tool is that of the evaluation map. Suppose that we wish to study the moduli space of simple J-holomorphic maps in the homology class. Suppose is the group of biholomorphisms of. Then the group acts on by. Notice then that the evaluation map only depends on the orbit, and hence descends to a map. Proving enough properties of such an evaluation map sometimes allows us to compare the smooth topology of to that of. There are other variants of this – sometimes we wish to evaluate at multiple points, or sometimes we consider J-holomorphic discs and want to evaluate along boundary points. And often the evaluation map extends to the compactified moduli spaces considered above.
Finally, we come to dimension 4, where curves might actually generically intersect each other. With respect to these intersections, there are two key results to highlight. The first is positivity of intersection (due to Gromov and McDuff), which states that if any two J-holomorphic curves intersect, then the algebraic intersection number at each intersection point is positive (and precisely equal to 1 at transverse intersections). This can be thought of as some sort of rudimentary version of a so-called adjunction inequality (due to McDuff), which states that if is a simple J-holomorphic curve representing the class with geometric self-intersection number, then
.
Further, when is immersed and with transverse self-intersections, this is an equality, yielding an adjunction formula.
A first example – Fillable implies tight (in 3 dimensions)
On a first pass, I want to expand upon the example of fillability implying tightness in three dimensions which Roger Casals discussed in his introductory talk. Really, we prove the contrapositive – that an overtwisted contact manifold cannot be filled. For simplicity, we will consider exact fillings. This result is typically attributed to Gromov and Eliashberg, referencing Gromov’s ’85 paper as well as Eliashberg’s paper on filling by holomorphic discs from ’89. This is essentially the same proof in spirit, although we take a little bit of a cheat by considering exact fillings.
Firstly, recall that an overtwisted contact manifold is one such that there exists an embedding of a disk, such that the so-called characteristic foliation on, which is actually a singular foliation, looks like the following image, with one singular point in the center and a closed leaf as boundary.
So now suppose has an exact filling. We study the space of certain J-holomorphic disks with boundary on the overtwisted disk. The key is that a neighborhood of the overtwisted disk actually has a canonical neighborhood in up to symplectomorphism, and one can pick an almost complex structure to be in a standard form in this neighborhood. It turns out that with this standard choice, in a close enough neighborhood of the singular point in the interior of, all somewhere injective J-holomorphic curves are precisely those living in a 1-parameter family, called the Bishop family, which radiate outwards from the singular point.
Let us be a bit more precise, so that we can see this Bishop family explictly. Consider the standard 3-sphere, with its standard contact structure given by the complex tangencies, i.e., with the standard complex structure on. Then consider the disk given by. The characteristic foliation on this disk looks like the characteristic foliation near the center of the overtwisted disk, so a neighborhood of this disk in yields a model for a neighborhood of the center of the overtwisted disk. We may assume the almost complex structure in this neighborhood is just given by the standard one,. Then the Bishop family is just the sequence of holomorphic disks given by for a real constant near 0. That these are all of the somewhere injective disks is a relatively easy exercise in analysis. Namely, suppose we had such a disk of the form. Then since boundary points are mapped to the overtwisted disk,. But each component of is harmonic, hence satisfies a maximum principle. Therefore,. But by holomorphicity, cannot have real rank 1 and so must be constant. Hence, any disk in consideration must have is a real constant.
All of these disks live in, but in particular in the slice where the second component is real, so we can draw this situation in by forgetting the imaginary part of. This is depicted in the following figure.
This Bishop family lives in some component of the moduli space of somewhere injective J-holomorphic disks with boundary on. Perturbing, one can assume this component is actually a smooth 1-dimensional manifold. We can compactify this moduli space by including stable maps, i.e. disks with bubbles, via Gromov compactness. On the Bishop family end, we see explicitly that the limit is just the constant disk at the point. So there must be another stable curve at the other boundary of this moduli space. We prove no such other stable curve can exist.
Similar to how we proved that the only disks completely contained in a neighborhood of the singular point on the overtwisted disk must have been part of the Bishop family, one can use a maximum principle argument to conclude that every holomorphic disk entering this neighborhood must have been in the Bishop family. Alternatively, one can use a modified version of positivity of intersections to conclude that continuing the moduli space away from the Bishop family, these boundaries have to continue radiating outward. Either way, the moduli space has to stay away from the central singularity of the overtwisted disk. But also, the boundary of a J-holomorphic disk cannot be tangent to, and in particular cannot be tangent to. This is by a maximum principle which comes from analytic convexity properties of a filled contact manifold.
The only possible explanation is that this is a stable curve with some sphere bubble having formed in the interior of. But one checks that the relation implies that for a -holomorphic sphere, we have. This vanishes by Stokes’ Theorem since is exact, and so must be constant, and so there is no bubble. In other words, this cannot explain the other boundary point of the component of the moduli space containing the Bishop family, so this yields a contradiction.
On McDuff’s The structure of ruled and rational symplectic 4-manifolds
Emily Maw’s talk from the workshop followed this paper by Dusa McDuff. In what follows, we shall consider triples such that is a smooth closed symplectic 4-manifold and is a rational curve, by which we mean a symplectically embedded. We call a rational curve exceptional if with respect to the intersection product on (with respect to its orientation coming from ). We say is minimal if contains no exceptional curves. The main theorem is as follows:
Theorem [McDuff ’90]: If is minimal and, then is symplectomorphic to either:
, in which case is either a complex line or a quadric (up to symplectomorphism).
, in which case is either a complex line or a quadric (up to symplectomorphism). A symplectic -bundle over a compact manifold, in which case is either a fiber or a section (up to symplectomorphism).
Before describing the proof, which is the part involving J-holomorphic curve techniques, we apply this to strong fillings. We shall concern ourselves with fillings of the lens spaces with their standard contact structures, where is an integer. Let us first define this contact structure. Recall that the standard contact structure on is the one coming from complex tangencies by viewing. Then the standard contact structure on is the one given by the quotient where the action of given by preserves the contact structure, so that it descends.
Theorem [McDuff ’90]: The lens spaces all have minimal symplectic fillings, and when, these fillings are unique up to diffeomorphism, and further up to symplectomorphism upon fixing the cohomology class. The space has two nondiffeomorphic minimal fillings.
Proof (sketch): The complex line bundle over comes with a natural symplectic structure, and this forms a cap for. The zero section of is a rational curve of self intersection. McDuff’s explicit classification includes examples for any such given, and thus gives a minimal filling for. The remaining statements come from a more detailed analysis of the classification result.
Now, I will not go through all of the details of McDuff’s proof of the main theorem, but I will highlight where various J-holomorphic tools appear in the proof. Let me break up the proof into two big pieces.
Step 1: “Mega-Lemma” Consider minimal as above. There is a tame almost complex structure such that can be represented by a -holomorphic stable curve of the form, where:
Each is -indecomposable (meaning any stable curve representing must actually be a legitimate curve of one component)
is -indecomposable (meaning any stable curve representing must actually be a legitimate curve of one component) The almost complex structure is regular for all curves in the class.
is regular for all curves in the class. The are distinct and embedded curves of self-intersection -1, 0, or 1, with at least one index for which.
We didn’t prove this at the workshop, so I won’t discuss it in detail here. But this is a major reduction into cases. For example, if and, then it had already been shown that this implies that. This bleeds into…
Step 2: Using the evaluation maps constructively
Let us discuss the proof of this last fact briefly. The idea is as follows. We consider the moduli space consisting of simple holomorphic spheres representing the class. This comes with an evaluation map of the form
where is the group of automorphisms of. Both sides have dimension 8 and this evaluation map is injective away from the diagonal since and we have positivity of intersection. Therefore, this map has degree 1, and so any pair of distinct points on has a unique curve passing through it. This is enough to show.
Let us do another case, but show that the adjunction formula also comes into play.
Proposition: Suppose is a simple homology class in (i.e. is not a multiple of another homology class) with, and suppose is a rational embedded sphere representing. Then there is a fibration with symplectic fibers and such that is one of the fibers.
Proof (sketch): The idea is to consider the moduli space of rational embedded -holomorphic curves with 1 marked point, and where is chosen to tame and such that is itself a -holomorphic curve, and where we have quotiented by reparametrization of the domain. Then one can compute the dimension of this moduli space at a given curve in the appropriate way as
,
where the last -4 comes from quotienting by the subgroup of fixing the marked point. Applying adjunction for the curve represented by, so that, yields. We also have an evaluation map
Since, there is at most one -curve through each point in, so it follows that this evaluation map has degree at most 1, and hence equal to 1 by regularity. This yields the structure of a fibration where the fibers are precisely the curves in our moduli space. Since the fibers are holomorphic, they are symplectic by the taming condition.Facebook Twitter Reddit Google+
In a state boasting more than 200 breweries, you’d think this would have happened sooner, but Central Washington University just announced the establishment of a craft brewing program and now offers a four-year brewing degree. Enrollment is now open. Successful students will earn a Craft Brewing Bachelor of Science. The interdisciplinary program, approved by the CWU Board of Trustees on April 20, is the first of its kind in Washington state.
The degree prepares graduates for careers in brewing production, quality assurance, brewery management, beer merchandising, distribution, brewing technology, packaging, safety, sanitation, sensory evaluation, and entrepreneurship.
“In the craft brewing program, students will get hands-on training in the use of ingredients and processes to make flavorful, distinctive beers characteristic of the northwest and the growing market of northwest beers and craft styles worldwide,” said Professor Steve Wagner, program director.
A statement from the university explains the program, noting that there’s a lot of science behind beer. The program intends to teach the complex process of brewing, by providing an in-depth knowledge of chemistry, microbiology, physics, and engineering, as well as business and leadership. Extra emphasis will be placed on science-based laboratory skills and other hands-on learning opportunities. Courses also incorporate pilot brewing, field trips, industry speakers, and research activities.
“Industry needs aren’t being met by any program in Washington, which has the second largest number of breweries in the nation,” Wagner said.
According to the University, a 2014 industry survey by the Master |
editor of the Personal Democracy Forum and co-founder of TechPresident.com, said, "I'm a big believer in the wisdom of crowds." By the end of the second day at this largely but not exclusively liberal/progressive conference, a confidence in crowds had been challenged. This dialectic shapes not only a larger debate, the kind that occurs at conferences, but also the current presidential race. Tuesday's arc was illustrative. In the morning the digital ethnologist Mark Pesce gave a bracing corrective to crowd wisdom. Speaking from a sociological and philosophical perspective, Pesce talked about the hyper connectivity that the internet provides. We are being asked to believe this will help political campaigns, he said. We are asked to believe things and politics will be different. "Bullshit." Under an iconic image of Barack Obama, Pesce's PowerPoint presentation showed YES WE CAN HAS. In other words, the fact that Barack Obama now has over a million friends on Facebook (mentioned frequently at PDF) may not be such a happy portent.
At the closing plenary session, Gina Cooper, executive director of Netroots Nation, seemed to embody Pesce's fears. In talking about "the government of everybody," Cooper asserted that Barack Obama has made "a promise that cannot be reneged on at this point." She went on to say, "I don't think they're [an Obama Administration] gonna have a choice." Cooper's sure tone was in and of itself a dramatic enactment of Pesce's further point about hyper connectivity, that it begets hyper mimesis, which in turn begets hyper empowerment. From Pesce's point of view, Cooper is hyper empowered. We've had some "lovely sentiments" from Senator Obama about grassroots organization, Pesce said in the morning. "But his hyper connected will do as it pleases." After Cooper's remarks in the afternoon, Pesce twittered on the big twitter board above the stage, "People having a voice in trade policy. Quelle horror."
I would like to say that Mark Pesce was the best speaker at PDF because he challenged much PDF conventional wisdom--which of course he did. But in the end I was struck by him, in that typically human way, because he confirmed some of my own thinking even though I place Gina Cooper in a different perspective. I come not from thinking about and observing social media but from watching the Obama Campaign unfold. From the ground, I see two big problems with Cooper's assertion. First of all, the progressives are not Barack Obama's only constituency -- even now, when he is just a candidate. Older African-Americans, younger Hispanics, Midwestern farmers, Reagan Democrats, Independents and Obamacans don't all want the same "government of everybody." More importantly, Gina Cooper has made a fundamental misapprehension of Barack Obama if she believes that he is going to allow people to "demand" certain things of him. But the hopes of progressives have been raised. Furthermore, Obamamania itself is an inchoate force that has been let out of the bottle and cannot be re-stoppered. For quite awhile now, I have thought that the netroots affair with Obama would not end well. Cooper's beliefs only confirm my foreboding.
There was a lot of Obama at PDF just as a backdrop to general conversation. Because so many of the participants and speakers were liberals, the talk was largely buoyant. But there was a whiff of sourness, expressed best by Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig (also founder of Stanford's Center for Internet and Society) when he referred to our "quad-annual hope fest." Lessig, who has been a proponent of public election financing, is unhappy with Senator Obama, not surprisingly. And unlike many PDFers, uneasy over Obama's reneging (to use Gina Cooper's verb) of his promise about election funding but willing to forgive because winning is more important than a promise, Lessig stands on principle because he has seen money change votes.
This slight disenchantment in the air emanated mostly from the press, some of whom are coming down from a bit of an Obama high if not experiencing a full-blown hangover. I recognize the process because I went through it some months ago. The shift in attitude stems not so much from Obama's refusal of public financing, or from such moves to the center as his support for the FISA bill. Reporters understand that Obama will do what he needs to do to get elected. But Senator Obama and his campaign have begun to control press access more tightly. At the PDF plenary session on Monday with the internet directors of some of the presidential campaigns, Tracy Russo of the Edwards Campaign complimented Obama's Joe Rospars for the tight control the Obama Campaign has maintained over its blog site. "Insular" though the Obama blog may be, as all the internet directors seemed to agree, it succeeds precisely because it has been so controlled. Now this isn't the way most bloggers like to think of blogging. Nor is it the way reporters like to think of press access. But the tight control of the Obama website blog has always been a forewarning of what would eventually happen to the reporters following the Obama Campaign.
Correction: Yesterday I said that Jonathan Zittrain spoke about Wikipedians. In fact, Mark Pesce used them in his speech. My apologies to Mr. Pesce. Note to self to return to audio taping.
Tomorrow, What I Learned from Al Jazeera about The Road AheadLace 'em up! The Golden State Warriors are coming to Vancouver to play an exhibition against the Toronto Raptors on Oct. 1.
The pre-season game at Rogers Arena will mark the Warriors debut of newly recruited basketball star Kevin Durant, and he'll get the chance to see what it's like to play with two-time MVP Stephen Curry.
Durant has been a difficult adversary for the Warriors, and his decision to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Warriors was the most highly anticipated move of the summer.
"As someone who spent some time as a kid growing up in Canada, I'm really looking forward to our preseason game in Vancouver," said Warriors guard, Curry.
"To have the opportunity to visit such a beautiful city and play in that exciting environment is going to be a lot of fun."
Kevin Durant will get the chance to see what it's like to play on the same side as two-time MVP Stephen Curry. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
The Warriors will take on NBA All-Stars DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry in the game against the Raptors.
The Raptors will then face the Denver Nuggets at Scotiabank Saddledome in another exhibition game in Calgary on Oct. 3. The game features Canadian guard Jamal Murray, who was selected seventh overall by the Nuggets at the 2016 draft.
"The NBA has never been more popular in Canada," said NBA Canada vice-president Dan MacKenzie.
"Between the Raptors' Eastern Conference finals run, the excitement around the Warriors' record-setting season and the Nuggets' talented young core, our passionate Canadian fans are in for a real treat when these teams come to Vancouver and Calgary in October."
Tickets will go on sale Sept. 2.(Register illustration by Melissa Hartog)
New Evangelization Draws Students to New Colleges
Colleges Week feature from Feb. 12 issue: How Catholic identity surmounts tough economic times.
JOSEPH PRONECHEN
The economy might be experiencing one of its worst times, but Catholic colleges seem to be experiencing their best times, all things considered, because of their commitment to Catholic identity.
The Augustine Institute in Denver, which offers graduate degrees on campus and through distance education, saw record enrollment this past year. “One big draw for us is our program,” said Edward Sri, provost and professor of Scripture and theology. “Particularly, our distance-education program is booming.”
The distance program was launched in 2008, and by fall 2011, it had more than 200 students. Students like how the DVD format makes them feel part of a live class, plus the flexibility of the program means they can “maintain their work and revenue and responsibilities on the home front with their families and still work on their master’s degree,” Sri said.
Additionally, the institute’s graduate program is competitively priced at $365 per credit hour.
Students also “know the school stands out for being completely faithful to the magisterium and teachers dedicated to the New Evangelization,” said Sri. “That’s the point we hear the most from students, in addition to the high-quality video of the distance program.”
Ave Maria University officially opened its Florida campus in 2003. Jim Towey’s appointment as president and CEO of Ave Maria early in 2011 was followed by the arrival in September of the largest incoming class in Ave Maria’s history.
Enrollment jumped 22% from the previous year, and the school is already looking at a 35% increase from 2011, according to Towey.
Ave Maria’s uniqueness is what Towey attributes to the record numbers. “It stands as a place where excellence, affordability and Catholic values meet in full measure,” he said via email.
The school benefits from the generosity of the university’s founder, Thomas Monaghan, and many donors. And with generous scholarships, the net cost of tuition and fees is remarkably competitive — “even more impressive when one considers that the campus is only a few years old and offers state-of-the-art facilities,” the president observed.
Another essential draw is how “the university respects the values instilled at home by the parents of our students. Ave Maria University seeks the advancement of human culture, the promotion of dialogue between faith and reason, the formation of men and women in the intellectual and moral virtues of the Catholic faith, and the development of professional and pre-professional programs in response to local and societal needs.”
Enrollment is growing elsewhere, too.
“Our enrollment is definitely growing,” said Derry Connolly, president of John Paul the Great Catholic University in San Diego.
“We have a compelling program that people want,” he said. The media focus is especially appealing to students (see story on C1). In addition, there’s the recent biblical theology graduate program, which is offered online as well as on campus. Since the online biblical master’s degree began in the fall of 2009, the enrollment has risen to 45.
Tuition plays its part, too, in the college’s appeal. The president said it is still significantly less than at big Catholic schools: “That works out well for us.”
The College of Saint Mary Magdalen in Warner, N.H., draws people for unique reasons, according to Tim Van Damm, vice president of advancement and admissions.
Not only does the college thrive because of its rigorous Great Books liberal arts education — this is the only college in the country that grants the apostolic catechetical diploma for undergraduates on behalf of the Holy See. The college also includes two years of art and music as part of its program, which appeals to many students.
Another draw is the college’s rebirth. “We’re in a period of refounding and looking to grow the school significantly over the next couple of years,” Van Damm said. “In the last year we have a new president, name and vision. For students, this is an exciting time, a rebirth of the college.”
And tuition is also key.
“We intentionally kept our tuition low,” Van Damm said, “so we can make a world-class education affordable for families sacrificing to enable their sons and daughters to go to an academically serious place where their faith is going to be encouraged and built up.”
At Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy in Ontario, Canada, enrollment is growing slowly but surely, according to senior development officer Maria Reilander. The student body is 10% American.
“Our students are drawn by our tuition, the Catholicity, orthodoxy and spiritual environment, and the safe atmosphere,” she said. “The students really appreciate the simpler life here.” The “simpler life” includes a small-town atmosphere.
Although the school relies a lot on donor support, low tuition is a draw for students. Tuition is $5,950 Canadian for the year — $11,000 with room and board. As Reilander said, “That’s a big reason why we’re still on peoples’ radars.”
At Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif., the average enrollment continues to grow, too, with 370 students, a 20% increase, for next year.
“The idea of a serious Catholic liberal arts education using the Great Books and involving students in an active way in their education continues to hold an attraction for a significant number of people,” said Michael McLean, president of Thomas Aquinas.
McLean described how the school’s two-week summer program for 120 high-school students has proven to be an excellent pipeline to enrollment. Close to 50% who attend go on to apply for admission to the college.
Even in these difficult economic times, donors remain generous. “Thanks be to God we’ve been able to raise scholarship funds sufficient to provide financial assistance to deserving students and families,” McLean said, “so we’re able to make our education very affordable in these times. Our tuition and room-and-board rates compare favorably with schools in our category.”
In Merrimack, N.H., The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts freshman class has grown by 25% in each of the past two years.
“We are on track to continue this growth rate in fall 2012,” said Charlie McKinney, vice president for institutional advancement.
The school notes several reasons for this growth. First, the college has a low student-to-faculty ratio and a strong academic program.
Second, a variety of programs allow students to augment their studies in meaningful ways, such as through the Guild Program, which trains them in woodworking, art, baking and music, or through internship programs in areas like law, business, publishing and politics. Also, this is the only college that sends every student to Rome for a full semester at no extra cost.
McKinney observed that when families are pinched financially, they begin to look hard at the return on their investment, concluding: “At a fraction of the cost of major universities, they find in Thomas More College the benefits of attending a small Great Books college along with the opportunities normally associated with larger institutions.”
Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyo., is also meeting the challenges for many of the same reasons. Mark Randall, vice president for institutional advancement, believes it has two distinct advantages as a smaller, newer college.
First, a smaller budget and less administrative bureaucracy allow the college to be quite nimble reacting to the economic situation. Second, the college has a nationwide base of benefactors very keen on seeing it succeed as a start-up college. One donor recently told him, “We’ve seen the great things small Catholic liberal arts institutions like Thomas Aquinas College can do. We want to give Wyoming Catholic College the same chance.”
Now in its fifth year, Wyoming Catholic has done quite well drawing students to the school because of its mission and liberal arts degree.
“Moreover, they are attracted to our Outdoor Leadership Program [see accompanying story in this section], something that no other college in the U.S. provides,” he said. “And they appreciate that their Catholic faith is not going to be undermined here, but, rather, enriched and appreciated.”
While the University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D., is not new, it has new qualities and vision that are meeting the challenges of the times.
“We’re the most affordable Catholic college and university in the country, as far as we know,” underlined Father James Shea, the president, about the $13,000-per-year price. “Here you get a world-class education that’s affordable.”
“Serious Catholic families are looking for a good place where their students can get a quality education in a values-based Catholic environment and where they can be confident in the safety and security of their students,” he said. Bismarck ranks as one of the country’s safest cities.
After he became president in 2009, Father Shea rolled out the Catholic Scholars Program, where graduates of a Catholic high school anywhere in the country receive free room and board, courtesy of donors.
“The reason we do that is we’re trying to build a real culture on the campus which is amenable to the things of faith,” Father Shea explained.
As the new president, he has steered the school to a stronger Catholic identity. Attendance at daily Mass, Eucharistic adoration, confession and Bible study are increasing, as is enrollment.
“It’s an answer to prayer,” he said. “God has been really good to us.”
Register staff writer Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
July 1, 2015, 10:12 PM GMT / Updated July 1, 2015, 10:19 PM GMT By Alex Johnson and Andrew Blankstein
Two journalists got their hands on a crime story up close and personal this week.
Former CNN and Headline News anchor Lynne Russell and her husband, former CNN reporter Chuck de Caro, were involved in a fatal shooting at an Albuquerque, New Mexico, motel, police told NBC News on Wednesday.
Albuquerque police said Russell was accosted by a man about 11:35 p.m. Tuesday (1:35 a.m. ET Wednesday) in the parking lot of a Motel 6 and was pushed into her room.
De Caro — a former investigative reporter, Special Forces member and military expert — and the man then got into an altercation, and both were shot, police said.
The assailant was unresponsive when officers arrived and died at a hospital, while de Caro was wounded and was being treated at a hospital Wednesday.
Russell — herself a licensed private investigator and former Fulton County, Georgia, sheriff's deputy with two martial arts black belts — told NBC station KOB that she and her husband had stopped in Albuquerque for dinner with a friend and were planning to get up early because they were traveling.
"'Is there anything in here we can give him?' Chuck said, 'Oh, yes, there is.'"
Russell described the man's gun as "a 40-caliber big shiny silver handgun." The man pushed her into the motel room just as her husband was coming out of the shower, she said.
"In the process, I recognized what I had seen before — I was a deputy sheriff for many years — that this guy was used to this," Russell said. "I suddenly realized that it wouldn't bother him at all to pull the trigger."
Russell and de Caro — both described as expert shots — were legally carrying concealed handguns, she said. She said she offered to search her purse for something of value to hand over to the gunman — and slipped her gun into the purse, which she then handed to her husband.
"'Is there anything in here we can give him?'" Russell said she asked. "Chuck said, 'Oh, yes, there is.'"
Russell said the man took de Caro's briefcase over to the bed of the motel room and began firing at her husband.Vladimir Putin leads a growing band of international leaders voicing support for WikiLeaks' boss Julian Assange, describing his detention in Britain as "undemocratic".
The Russian prime minister's broadside came as hackers escalated their cyber war on opponents of the whistleblower website, setting their sights on Amazon.com.
"Why was Mr Assange hidden in jail? Is that democracy? As we say in the village: the pot is calling the kettle black," Putin said on Thursday in response to a question on Russia's undemocratic image in US embassy cables leaked by the website.
His comments echoed Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who expressed "solidarity" with Assange, blasting the Australian activist's arrest as a blow against "freedom of expression".
Assange has "exposed a diplomacy that had appeared unreachable," said Lula, who criticised the failure of other governments to challenge Assange's detention.Were it not for the tops of skyscrapers visible over the trees, you'd never know you were in the heart of Atlanta.
For decades, the 12-acre compound known as the Goat Farm has been one of the city's best-kept secrets, a private, rustic compound where roosters strut, goats graze and artists collaborate in an idyllic, almost communal environment. More recently, its red brick buildings — some of which are slowly deteriorating — have become a hot venue for under-the-radar concerts, art happenings, and film and photography shoots.
"You're not gonna find a place like this in New York or Chicago," says Mark Field DiNatale, whose Fresh Roots Farm occupies a small corner of the property. "And the people here made it what it is. This place has a charm to it, some sort of spirit that you don't find in the rest of Atlanta."
On July 15, however, after years of unsuccessful attempts by deep-pocketed developers to buy the property, the Westside compound near the Atlanta Water Works was finally sold — for the reported price of $7 million, according to Real Estate Rooster, an industry newsletter.
But even though its intown location and proximity to the Beltline makes it an obvious choice for the next condo block or subdivision, its new owner, Hallister Development, which specializes in renovating historic properties, says it plans to preserve and even boost the property's status as an arts-friendly community.
If the company keeps its pledge, the Goat Farm could help cement the Westside's reputation as Atlanta's burgeoning Left Bank, a haven for working artists and creative businesses.
The complex was built in 1889 on what was then considered the outskirts of Atlanta by New Jersey industrialist Edward Van Winkle as a cotton-gin factory. In 1912, the Murray Company of Texas bought out Van Winkle and expanded the campus. During World War II, the Westside plant cranked out munitions. At its peak, the property contained more than 15 buildings.
It was the late Robert Haywood, who bought the site in the early '70s, who helped the Goat Farm earn its quirky and mysterious reputation. Former tenants and real estate brokers remember the ex-Army Ranger and Georgia Tech graduate as a drawling, likeable character who fiercely guarded his property — and, by extension, the privacy of the up-and-coming sculptors, musicians, painters and photographers who flocked to its studio spaces.
Stories of Haywood's eccentric behavior abound: pedaling around the compound wearing a gold hard hat, khaki shorts and boots; buying goats to control kudzu; and scaring off inquisitive developers and gawkers with the threat of gunfire.
Over the years, some of Atlanta's biggest real-estate developers tried to buy the property but were rebuffed by Haywood, who died in December of last year at 79.
"He couldn't let it go," said Helen Durant, a painter who's rented studio space in different buildings throughout the complex since the mid-1990s.
When Hallister signed a contract with Haywood's family to purchase the land in March 2008, the property was a ghost town, largely vacant because a previous developer who held the contract didn't want to bother with tenants.
The new owners began rehabbing spaces and clearing out junk that filled the various buildings. Thanks to word-of-mouth and ads posted in coffee shops promoting work studios, tenants started filling the more than 100 studio spaces. The result is an intimate community of artists who gather for drinks or to play pool in a common room and who come together for open-air movie screenings in a gutted warehouse building.
While the current real estate market isn't conducive to large-scale developments, that hasn't stopped Hallister from considering potential uses for the property and its buildings, many of which are protected by the National Register of Historic Places.
Anthony Harper, a Hallister partner who's on a first-name basis with the artists as he leads prospective tenants on tours of the property, says he wants to maintain the artsy vibe while planning a mixed-use development that would include restaurant, retail and gallery space, and possibly residential units.
"Our plans for the property are to use it to push culture forward through comprehensive support of the arts," Harper says.
As if providing a sanctuary for artists wasn't enough, Harper hopes eventually to adopt something of a co-op model, using a portion of the company's profits to create grants for tenants and artists throughout Atlanta. Describing his potential plans for the Goat Farm, he sounds more like a new-age conceptualist than a hard-boiled developer: "a three-story non-soil-based vertical farm with a market and restaurant attached, a shipping-container village of creative studios, and an organized curriculum of classes for creative-related skills that might not be offered at more traditional institutions."Picard played for the Blues from 1967 until 1973, playing in 278 regular season games and registering 12 goals, 46 assists (58 points) and 583 penalty minutes. Picard also played in 47 playoff games for the Blues, including the club's first three appearances in the Stanley Cup Final.
ST. LOUIS - The St. Louis Blues organization is saddened to learn of the passing of original Blue Noel Picard, who passed away Wednesday after a long battle with cancer.
In the early years of the franchise, Picard played as a defense partner with Bob Plager, who provided the following statement after learning of the passing of his friend:
"Noel was one of the best friends and teammates that I had here. He gave me a chance to be a better player. He made a lot of us better players and our success in the playoffs in those early years, he was a big, big part of us being successful. He was a player that gave a lot of our players a chance to become better players. I know he made a better player of me.
"Everybody knew Noel Picard. Everybody in this city from those days will have a Noel Picard story. He was around the city, everybody loved him and everybody talked about him. They all had stories, and some of them could be a little crazy, but those were the true ones."In a telephone interview, Mr. Billings recalled how unflappable Mr. Mayer was on the plane as he readied his parachute for the jump and gave a few final directives.
Image Mr. Mayer in 2013. Credit Office of Sen. Jay Rockefeller
“I was in awe of him,” Mr. Billings said. “He was born without the fear gene. He feared nothing, and he was able to be whatever he needed to be.”
Mr. Mayer was born on Oct. 28, 1921, in Freiburg, Germany, on the edge of the Black Forest. Known as a boy as Fritz, he had his bar mitzvah in Germany just as Hitler and the Nazis were rising to power in 1933, but he never considered himself terribly religious.
With the Nazis’ systematic anti-Semitism growing more onerous in the mid-1930s, Fritz and his mother pushed his father, who had a metal-fabricating shop, to flee the country. But his father resisted; he had served in the German Army in World War I, receiving an Iron Cross, and he told his son that the Nazis would never go after a war veteran, even one who was Jewish.
The elder Mr. Mayer finally relented in 1938, months before the start of the mass deportations and ultimately the genocide of the European Jews, and the family made its way to Brooklyn when the younger Mr. Mayer was 16. He insisted on being called Fred in his new country; he never answered to Fritz again, saying it reminded him of Nazi Germany.
Trained as a mechanic, he enlisted in the Army on Dec. 8, 1941, a day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Early assignments at bases in Arizona, Georgia and Maryland bored him, he said, and when he had the chance to train for covert missions in Italy as a corporal with the O.S.S., he quickly put his hand up.
On the ground in Austria in a German uniform, Mr. Mayer not only collected crucial intelligence on Nazi troop movements and military production, but also secretly organized hundreds of anti-Nazi resistance fighters in the region.There was a time not long ago when Eddie Wineland was having some second thoughts about this whole fighting thing, even if he didn’t plan on having them.
At UFC Fight Night 40 against Johnny Eduardo in Cincinnati, Wineland became the victim of one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, at least as far as the betting odds are concerned, when the Brazilian knocked him out and handed him his second career broken jaw.
That broken jaw, along with the pending birth of his first child, gave Wineland some pause when considering whether or not to come back. He eventually did, but wasn’t himself in a tentative performance against Bryan Caraway in July 2015.
But 2016 brought the return of the Wineland of old. In front of his home fans in Chicago, he picked up a $50,000 performance bonus for a knockout of Frankie Saenz. And later that year, he knocked out Takeya Mizugaki.
On Saturday at UFC Fight Night 108, Wineland (23-11-1 MMA, 5-5 UFC) fights former flyweight title challenger and bantamweight “TUF 14” winner John Dodson (18-8 MMA, 7-3 UFC). Their fight is part of the FS1-broadcast main card at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville following prelims on FS2 and UFC Fight Pass.
These days, he’s fighting for his two sons.
“When I broke my jaw against Johnny Eduardo, I had a lot on my plate,” Wineland recently told MMAjunkie Radio. “My fiancee at the time was pregnant with our first, we were building a house, I was trying to build a pole barn – way too many irons in the fire. My head wasn’t in the game, so I paid the price for it. With the Caraway fight, mentally I was there. But subconsciously, I wasn’t ready to let my hands go or test my jaw.
“After my boys were born, it kind of re-lit that fire to prove to these kids that, ‘Your dad got knocked down. … You keep moving forward. You get up, you move forward, you mkae it happen. You do what you’ve got to do to get there.'”
Wineland said he knows he’ll have a tough test against Dodson. He’ll have four inches of height and three inches of reach on his side against the smaller former flyweight. But he’s not taking anything for granted.
Nearly six years ago, he fought the similarly sized Joseph Benavidez and drove back home to Northwest Indiana from Milwaukee on the wrong side of a sweep of the judges’ scorecards.
“I look at Dodson kind of like Benavidez,” Wineland said. “He’s small, but he’s very fast. The size isn’t to be overlooked, because he’s been fighting guys bigger than him his whole career. He went down to ’25 and fought guys that were his size and had very good success. He’s had good success at 135.”
The difference maker, Wineland hopes, will be his power. In 23 career wins, he’s only gone the distance four times. Of his 19 finishes, 14 are by knockout.
And he believes that’s what’s fated for Dodson, as well.
“I just think that as soon as I find a home for my right hand, or even my left hand, I think he’s going to realize he’s in for trouble,” he said. “He claims he’s never been knocked out, but neither had (Scott) Jorgensen when I fought him. Everybody I put my hands on, they all fall down. Whether they stay down or get back up, I’m going to knock them right back down. I think he brings a speed factor. He moves a lot, I move a lot – so it’s going to be a matter of who finds a home first.”
Check out the video above for more from Wineland ahead of his bout with Dodson at UFC Fight Night 108.
And for more on UFC Fight Night 108, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.Drones' success have made them appealing to terrorist groups, the author writes. The coming drone arms race
Another terrorist overseas dies in a U.S. armed drone strike. This far from uncommon occurrence is an impressive reminder of the U.S. drone program’s remarkable success rate. Washington’s success, however, is proving a double-edged sword.
Drones’ reliability and cost-effectiveness have made them the U.S. weapon of choice. Most notably, drones play a key role in its targeted killing program, which aims to eliminate suspected terrorists overseas.
Story Continued Below
Their battle-proven success has, however, made drones appealing to other states as well as terrorist groups. This continuing global proliferation of drones presents complex legal and policy challenges, with far-reaching implications for U.S. and global security, international law and the future of warfare.
The United States is now the global leader in development and procurement of drone technology. While this reflects America’s leadership in defense spending and military technology, components like extended surveillance, precision strikes, relatively modest costs and no danger to the human operator far away have also made drones Washington’s counterterrorism tool of choice.
But many others also find drones attractive. Today, a rapidly growing number of states — including China, Russia, Iran and Israel — are using drones for lethal and non-lethal missions. Even Hezbollah, with the help of Iran, has used drones to carry out lethal missions. In time, Hezbollah is likely to develop new drones with new lethal and non-lethal capabilities. Other terrorist groups are likely following its example.
Given the ease with which drones can be armed, the United States or its allies could eventually face a state or terrorist adversary that has drones. Or that countries like China or Russia will use armed drones to kill minorities — including Chechens, Tibetans or Uighur Muslims — it accuses of plotting terrorism.
Of particular concern are the legal and policy challenges posed if other states imitate the U.S. targeted killing program. For Washington is setting a precedent whereby states can send drones, often over sovereign borders, to kill foreigners or their own citizens, who are deemed threats.
Other states may also follow Washington’s example and develop their own criteria to define imminent threats and use drones to counter them.
Washington will find it increasingly difficult to protest other nations’ targeted killing programs — particularly when the United States has helped define this lethal practice. U.S. opposition will prove especially difficult when other states justify targeted killings as a matter of domestic affairs.
Should enough states follow the U.S. example, the practice of preemptively targeting and killing suspected threats may develop into customary international law.
Such a norm, however, which requires consistent state practice arising out of a sense of legal obligation, now looks unlikely. While targeted killing policies are arguably executed by states citing a legal obligation to protect themselves from imminent threats, widespread state practice is still uncommon.
But international law does not forbid drones. And given the lack of an international regime to control drones, state and non-state actors are free to determine their future use.
This article tagged under: Terrorism
DronesAfter shocking the nation with her involvement in a high profile prostitution scandal, the Makdee actress Shweta Basu Prasad was sent into a remand home for few months. The actress who recently got out of the remand home can breathe a sigh of relief as Hyderabad sessions court has given a clean chit to her.
Shweta Basu Prasad had mentioned earlier that she had made peace with past and the prostitution case doesn’t affect her anymore. But she was visibly relieved after the court’s verdict. “Yes, I’ve been given a clean chit from a sessions court in Hyderabad. I can’t begin to tell you what a relief it is for me and for my family. My parents are smiling for the first time in months”, said the relieved actresses.
“This was just the vindication I was waiting for. Although I had already put the incident behind me there was still a closure that I needed to put on the issue. All my earlier charges from the trial court have been withdrawn. I can’t describe the relief I feel. It’s like my name has been cleared after months of doubt and suspicion. I now see how futile and unnecessary the whole episode was. I am glad to be alive and kicking and raring to go. Life looks beautiful and hopeful. My only regret is I was put on trial by a section of the media. I should’ve been given the right to defend myself. Never mind. Now that my name has been cleared, I hold no grudges against anyone”, added the Makdee actress.The world is getting more and more synthetic.
People are becoming more and more artificial. They smile at others but they do not really smile. They ask acquaintances how they are doing, whether everything is fine, but they would not mind if those acquaintances were not doing well. More and more, words are becoming artificial, coming more from lips, less and less from hearts. The case can be made that the desire for artificial flavor is growing all over the world. We are encouraged not to like the flavor of tea anymore. Advertisements publicize the flavor of chrysanthemum, pineapple, orange, cherry, and similar tastes. All kinds of artificial fruit flavors get mixed with water, which is now called tea. Some say they love fish, but they can’t tolerate the smell of fish, so they add lots of smelly things to destroy the original smell of fish before eating any.The other day I met a man who smelled like mango. Why did he smell like mango, I asked? He smiled and said it was his deodorant. My reaction was that I preferred his own body odor. Men like to have sex with women, but there are many men who do not like the smell of healthy vaginas. What do they want? Well, they want vaginas that smell like jasmine or jackfruit. They want their favorite fruits and flowers inside vagina, and they want vaginal fluid that seemingly turns into some kind of fruit juice! But should women feel embarrassed when their male partners complain about vaginal odor? Women should know that if a strange smell comes from the vagina, it is mostly because of semen or condoms. Both old semen and spermicide have offensive odors. So do bacterial vaginosis, candida vulvovaginitis, trichomoniasis, all not as strange as they sound.
Vaginal fluid is made up of normal vaginal secretions, sloughed off cells from the vaginal wall, and cervical mucous. The vagina is a self-cleaning organ. Like the mouth, the vagina is full of bacteria. It is necessary for a vagina to have a balance of different species of bacteria. Women should avoid disrupting the delicate vaginal balance. Why should women perform vaginal douching in order to make ignorant men happy! Vaginal douching is nothing but applying some annoying |
social discourse under Western post-industrial capitalist modernity. Fredric Jameson has presented Marcuse as the ideological heir to, and borrower of, Freud and Marx’s “classical opposition between individual happiness and social organisation.” In assigning relevance to the study of the Australian volunteers in Spain, I follow Jameson in highlighting the particular epoch in which Marcuse adapted this Freudian/Marxian dichotomy. Relative to his predecessors, the Marcusian model was concerned with analysis of Western societies “on the other side of the great watershed of post-industrial capitalism…which began to emerge at the end of World War II”. The lives of the Australian Brigaders - mobilised by rare idealism (in an Australian context) during the tail end of the Marxian/Freudian era, before feeling the social and cultural impacts of ‘post-industrial capitalism’ - straddled this period. As such, their recollections offer an almost tailor-made historical narrative in which to test Marcuse’s hypothesis.
Also guiding my study are the contributions of another Frankfurt School theorist, and fellow Marxist humanist, Erich Fromm. Complementing Marcuse’s sociological gaze, Fromm’s psychoanalytical enquiry was concerned more with the alienating influence on individuals of the progressively generic nature of society and State. As formulated most fluently in his 1968 book The Sane Society, Fromm conceived the social conditions outlined by Marcuse as resulting in the loss of an individual’s ability to identify their own distinctive role or purpose within much wider institutional frameworks. In turn, the projection of the concerns of the State onto people’s interactions with others occurs with little resistance, forcing, in an environment of increasing confluence, political idealists to the sidelines as an ‘other’ to be mistrusted.
Applying these theories to the volunteers’ stories, I contend that the very nature of Cold War Australian society would manifest barriers of both active (surveillance and monitoring, in the name of national security concerns) and passive (mainstream community opinion, manipulated by such governmental rhetoric as Robert Menzies’ fierce anti-communism) capacity on those who returned from participation in Spain. Further institutional factors at a more geopolitical level, such as implications of ruptures in the global communist movement throughout the century’s middle decades, were also personally to affect some of these individuals, causing alienation and ideological discombobulation to varying degrees.
Chapter 1 contextualises the global response to the Spanish Civil War, within which the Australians mobilised, and the subsequent treatment of former International Brigaders. Despite hindsight having vindicated the Brigaders as the first to rebel against the spread of European fascism, the antipathy towards communism defining the Cold War era would undermine attempts at memorialisation and acknowledgement of their service in Western states. Other elements of the Spanish Civil War which would impinge on Brigaders’ later lives, such as the destructiveness of internal tensions on the Republican side, are also outlined.
Chapter 2 delves, specifically, into political elements of the Australian individuals’ legacy of involvement in Spain. Factors covered in this chapter include the impact of monitoring by Commonwealth security agencies, the treatment of volunteers by their peers in wider society as manipulated by governmental policy and rhetoric, and the extent to which their idealism was sustained in a professional capacity.
The more personal, emotional legacy of the Spanish experience will then be examined in Chapter 3, with the case study of Aileen Palmer attracting particular focus. A gifted writer, daughter to one of Australia’s most influential literary couples, the contrast between the violence and urgency of her time in Spain and the mundanity of life back in Australia from the late-1940s would, it is contended through an application of Fromm’s theories, play a significant role in the psychological breakdowns plaguing much of her later years. At the acknowledged risk of making too naïve a diagnosis, it was very possibly a combination of both the struggle to reintegrate into Australian society in peacetime, and her losing faith in communism after Khrushchev’s revelations about his predecessor, Stalin, that at least partially contributed to Palmer’s mental and emotional turmoils. Not all personal legacies of the war were negative, though, as this chapter will also analyse.
Chapter 1. “Around your bones, the olive groves will grow”: the ‘last great cause’ and the International Brigades
Portraying literature’s most famous dreamer, Don Quixote, on the silver screen, Peter O’Toole once cried “too much sanity may be madness! But maddest of all [is] to see life as it is and not as it should be.” Sharing such a utopian outlook were the subjects primarily discussed in this thesis: five Australian volunteers who threw quixotic caution to the wind in travelling to Spain in 1936. Against the Australian Government’s wishes, and with all the accompanying logistical obstacles, they had left for Europe to help defend the democratically-elected government from an armed military coup spearheaded by General Francisco Franco. While, as will be examined, the fuel may have differed between individuals, the fire of their idealism was clear. In risking their life to contribute to a struggle against the rampant threat of spreading European fascism, each of the Australian contingent might just as sooner had La Mancha recorded as a spiritual ‘place of birth’ in their passports than the realities of Dubbo, Broken Hill, or Hobart.
The distinct Australian brand of political idealism in the period during which the Spanish Civil War took place was markedly different from its British counterpart. For an Australian New Idealist of the day, the notion of the ‘state’ was of less importance than concepts such as ‘empire’, ‘humanity’, and the ‘international order.’ It is not a stretch to appreciate the resonance of such terms among progressive intellectual residents of a young nation still dealing with its status as a colonial outpost, and its treatment of Indigenous peoples and resources. Having said that, I am more inclined towards the description of idealism discussed in the next paragraph in describing the Australian volunteers in Spain; largely because of the authority with which it allows for identification of those driven by motivations of a practical, as much as political, nature.
David Raphael defines an idealist as a person for whom the concept of freedom is a positive, rather than (the more standard) negative, value. In other words, instead of simply representing an “absence of restraint”, freedom is entwined in the striving of self-realisation; namely, the realisation of our ‘true’ or ‘higher’ self. Such a version of one’s self is that which can be of most assistance to the world and people around us. Raphael treads almost precisely the same philosophical ground here as Isaiah Berlin, who too elaborates on the distinction between negative and positive freedom, extolling the latter over the former. Accepting such a principle, it follows that idealism should not be limited to use solely in a political sense. It must also relate to any human activity that calls upon, as its inherent motivation, a desire to contribute to a cause transcending one’s own current individual concerns.
Framed in such a way, it is difficult to avoid an assessment of the majority of the men and women from myriad countries who volunteered for the International Brigades as - whether political ideologues driven by principles such as communism and anti-fascism, or people who simply believed that the application of their particular vocational skills could help those in peril – to a person, idealists. On an unprecedented scale, left-wing idealism of the 1930s found a focal point in the global response to the conflict in Spain and, to this day, scholars continue to mine sources related to the foreign volunteers. Efforts to delve into a range of issues, however, continue to approach the topic at a broad, macro level. Mystifyingly neglected has been the examination of individuals’ later legacies of their time in Spain. Indeed, even after noting the preference of his contemporaries (Richard Baxell and Bill Alexander among them) to “steer clear of such personal and emotive territory” in the study of British Brigaders, Tom Buchanan still proceeds himself to analyse the personal and family impacts of involvement only in the period either during or shortly succeeding the war. When he does address the latter decades of the twentieth century, it is only in the context of scrutinising general quasi-institutional trends, such as efforts of organisations to commemorate the Brigaders’ service, in a more receptive, post-Cold War world. As a social history, the narratives of the individuals’ lives seem, in the scholarly scene, to have abruptly ended well before their own lives would. As Matthew Poggi notes, the study of the International Brigades continues to fail to “take into account the entire lives of the veterans [italics added].” It is this academic vacuum that, albeit in a strictly Australian context, this study attempts to begin to fill.
Volunteering for the International Brigades was seen, around the world, as a chance to convert radical leftist theorising and proselytisation into action. If one was prepared to become a martyr to a cause, here finally was one worth breathing the last for. While philosophes sat in Parisian salons arguing over the minutiae of ideological differences between Stalin and Trotsky (engaging in the sort of behaviour that civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael might later condemn as “intellectual masturbation”), the magnetism of a physical frontline of principles and purpose in Spain burned brightly. It attracted thinkers, writers, and poets, among perhaps less educated but just as equally passionate labourers, to a real call to arms. Positioning Spain within a Europe of increasing fascist influence in the wake of the Great Depression, Raymond Carr exemplified the attendant sense of moral urgency when he claimed that the Republic represented “the last twitch of Europe’s dying conscience.”
Before long though, in light of Franco’s victory and the dawning of his brutal dictatorship in 1939, this fascination with the Spanish battlefield of ideas would give way to a “dull prolonged anguish of spirit.” This sorrow, the lament of a chance lost, would in turn be magnified by a concurrent romanticisation of the almost mythical sense of moral righteousness felt at the time, reflected as much in the artistic world as in the political sphere occupied by the far-left. Yet, of course, romanticism in a political sense such as this implies a condemnation to the past of halcyon, henceforth-unrepeatable memories. Indeed, the fact that the Republic lost the war perhaps crystallised these notions even further. Hence, despite the enduring nature of cultural portrayals of the fight for the salvage of the Republic, Jack Lindsay’s anguish foreshadowed an appreciation that, within the complex new climate of the Cold War era, a cause of such unifying nature would never again present itself. At the Dialectics of Liberation conference in London in July 1967, at which Herbert Marcuse also spoke, American anthropologist Jules Henry agreed, turning a spotlight onto the seemingly schizophrenic state of post-1945 geopolitics facilitating such “radical alterations in the definition of the enemy.” So too did historian Stanley Weintraub, as the very title of his book, The Last Great Cause, affirmed.
Modernity had caught up with, indeed overtaken, the old guard of left-wing idealism. Investigating Australian literary responses to the conflict, Brian Beasley argued that the legacy of the Spanish Civil War in Australia would come to encapsulate a tragic modernist indictment of the Brigaders’ innocence. Forever they would be frozen in a time and place which seemed to be becoming increasingly distant:
The Republican belief that ‘culture’ and ‘values’ can defeat fascism [was] mocked by modernity; as [was] the ideal that cultural history has a certain teleology, progressing ‘upward’ to a just end. Quote:
A brutal introduction to the barbarism and cruelty of a whole new mode of warfare had sliced through the Brigaders’ idealism like bullets through flesh. Their “ideological arsenal - Marxism, poetry, philosophy” - was impotent in shielding against the much realer forces of modernity, personified with particular viciousness by Hitler and Mussolini’s bombers. One poignant anecdote told of pages of poetry, pamphlets, and books, discarded from rucksacks as superfluous extra weight come the heat of battle, strewn across a battlefield behind a heap of the corpses of Republican soldiers. For those who personally remembered, or were regaled with passed-down tales of, such destruction of dreams, “the loss of the Spanish Civil War was…one of the great tragedies of a century that has seen its fill of tragedies.”
Contributing both to its defeat and to the disillusionment of some of the International Brigaders who returned to their own countries, was the significant divergence of thought among Republican ranks. At the onset of the War in 1936, the Republican movement was a wildly disparate collection of actors, reflecting a broad electoral base which had seen the Popular Front narrowly clinch power in the February elections. Fearing a relapse into the oppressive rule of a despised pre-Republic trinity of Church, landowners, and army, they vowed to defend the left-wing government from the military uprising. However, the Republic’s need to balance the demands of so many differing groups – with Catalan and Basque nationalists thrown into the mix – made for, unsurprisingly, a military coalition lacking cohesion.
Traditionally, communism in Spain had been overshadowed by anarchism and anarcho-syndicalism, as well as a more moderate form of socialism, in its capacity to galvanise the labour movement. Reflecting this was the strength of trade unions such as the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional de Trabajo (National Confederation of Labour: CNT) and the Socialist International-aligned Unión General de Trabajadores (General Union of Workers: UGT), relative to the Partido Comunista de España (Communist Party of Spain: PCE). The PCE, indeed, had only been formed in 1921. Despite the symbolic importance communism would later retrospectively attach to the War, it would not be until the Soviet Union became the only major foreign power to provide support for the Republic that, out of necessity, concessions to communist groups began to be made, and they duly stepped in from their peripheral role. In having developed the International Brigades, instigating communist parties from Paris to New York to recruit volunteers, the Soviet leadership expected ideological allegiance to follow. Their naïveté would be matched only by their ruthlessness. The suppression of Republican groups that did not align with Comintern policy was most famously elucidated by George Orwell in his description of time spent with the anarchist Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification: POUM). The Briton was just one wave among an ocean: one of the staples of post-defeat historiography would be a critiquing of the role played by the Soviet Union in fomenting such bitter infighting.
As recently as this decade, though, there has been revisionism in the scholarship on this point, seeing to a split on precisely what Stalin’s intentions were in Spain. Robert Stradling continues along the well-trod path to claim that the Brigades were essentially a front for Soviet imperialism (“agents of the Kremlin first and soldiers of the Spanish Republic only second”). Countering, Richard Baxell suggests that they were in fact a defensive tool used by Stalin to attempt to stave off the threat of German expansionism. In any case, at a personal level first-hand experience of the intrusion of Soviet command in Spain would have an impact on the politicism of those who had mobilised as members of domestic communist organisations. As this thesis will explain in the Australian context, this included disillusionment with communism itself, significantly shaping for the worse one’s wider remembrance of involvement in the Spanish Civil War.
Despite the internal ruptures within either of the belligerent camps in Spain, the acuteness of animosity between Republicans and Nationalists was, of course, exponentially greater. The deadly violence it wreaked was a language screaming with murderous intent, before sending thousands into untraceable, unmarked graves with a whisper. To this day, the wounds of the war in Spain remain if not more raw than ever, then certainly more treatable. A process of re-democratisation which began with Franco’s death in 1975 has slowly blossomed into an atmosphere in which families can feel comfortable to openly seek exhumation of the remains of predecessors who had disappeared in those fateful years. Still, in its title alone, Guardian correspondent Giles Tremlett’s historical and cultural biography of a country, Ghosts of Spain, invokes the deep, oft-hidden scars associated with contemporary Spaniards’ disagreements over how to deal with this dark chapter of their country’s past. Its first three chapters – “Secretos a Voces” (‘Open Secrets’), “Looking for the Generalísimo”, and “Amnistía and Amnesia: The Pact of Forgetting” particularly grapple with the balancing act Spain faces today. In 2007, the Law of Historical Memory initially proposed three years earlier by the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party: PSOE) passed Congress, introducing legislative statutes responding to the troubled era, attracting inevitable criticism from the right. Unfortunately too late for any of the Australians involved, these decrees included the granting of Spanish citizenship to any surviving members of the International Brigades.
Seven decades earlier, participation was likely to attract the negative gaze of the State upon return home, if one was lucky enough to survive. In Western countries, official acknowledgement of service predictably evaded Brigaders during the decades of the Cold War. On the contrary, the virulent anti-communism pervading Western society condemned any political idealist remotely on the left to marginalisation, if not prosecution. Among those feeling the brunt of the most overt influence of the State would be those who stirred the communist-fearing ire of Senator Joe McCarthy’s own Spanish inquisition of sorts, in the United States of the 1950s. In Canada, members of the McKenzie-Papineau Battalion were “considered criminals for defying the Foreign Enlistment Act,” denied employment and the ability to enlist for World War II service, and were subjected to surveillance by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police until, in some cases, as late as the 1980s.
For Australian Brigaders, the most difficult period came during the height of the Cold War during the prime ministership of Robert Menzies, who saw it as his personal crusade to eliminate communism. Andrew Moore has linked Menzies’ hatred of the far left to his earlier admiration, as attorney general in 1938, of Hitler’s dismantling of the German labour movement. As Opposition Leader a decade later, months before he won power for the second time, he blamed the so-called “rising influence of the Communist loafers and schemers” for national industrial concerns surrounding production levels and the efficiency of exports. The failure of Menzies’ subsequent attempts to ban the CPA – first through a High Court decision, secondly at a referendum – would, as Brian Galligan suggests, be “crucial in saving Australia from the McCarthyist phobia which swept the United States.”
It would be folly to take from such a statement that communists had it easy in Australian society during this period, though. During the middle decades of the twentieth century the CPA faced struggles related to both domestic persecution and splits in the wider global communist movement. Judith Brett outlines the nature of the trickle-down effect of conservative ideology on wider societal judgements of left-wing idealists in the 1950s, as the country became afflicted by what Les Louis has labelled Menzies’ aim to establish a ‘national security state.’ In this political atmosphere, while the Soviet Union was the obvious foreign enemy, communists were deemed as constituting “a potential fifth column.” Moore even equated Menzies with the infamous junior senator from Wisconsin, bunching him alongside fellow Liberal (and future Governor-General), Richard Casey, and Country Party members, Archie Cameron and Joseph Abbott, as McCarthy’s “Australian counterparts.” Under Menzies, the leeway given to the recently-established ASIO to harangue and harass the ‘fifth column’ saw it become a “political force in its own right.” As ASIO’s official historian David Horner puts it, this politicisation of the department stemmed from Menzies’ (duly met) expectations that “ASIO was to play a major role in the Government’s campaign” against communism. By January 1950, weeks after his election, Menzies was being supplied with detailed security reports on the CPA. Among former Brigaders so easily tarnished by the brush of communism, regardless of whether they remained (or indeed ever were) CPA members, experiences in this period ranged from the subtle (slurs and criticism from peers) to the more direct (monitoring or imprisonment by ASIO and other Commonwealth security bodies). For those whose idealism was too strong to be crushed by the weight of such a climate of fear and repression, Menzies’ attacks on the union movement, and his use of conscription for “an undeclared and unwinnable war” in Vietnam, afforded outlets for ongoing activism.
Under such conditions, attempts to forge any form of collective memory of the efforts and sacrifices of the Western battalions of the International Brigades were, for decades, curtailed. While in Australia the geographical dispersion of a group of such small numbers and a general lack of ongoing communication between volunteers (aside from small groups here and there, as will be explored) meant no such efforts were ever made, this was certainly not the case in the United States, Canada, and Britain. With the benefit of the time that has passed, organisations which continue to honour the memory of the Brigades “have now shuffled off their Comintern-inspired origins and Cold War affiliations.” Today, loyal memorialisation comes hand in hand with principles of much wider public palatability than anti-fascism, with “world peace and social democracy” chief among them. Claims for legitimacy are given added credibility by the expounding, and increasing historical acceptance, of supporters’ arguments that the Brigaders, and the Spanish Republic more generally, were truly the first casualties in the Second World War. Despite this, it was not until 2008 that efforts for any kind of mainstream recognition of American volunteers succeeded: the first tribute to Brigaders worthy of gaining National Monument status being created in San Francisco. In this regard, they had been well and truly pipped to the post by the British. In 1985, a national memorial to British volunteers killed in Spain was unveiled on London’s South Bank. This, in turn, was merely the high point of a commemorative process which had begun back in 1950, when the first plaque for an individual – Ralph Fox – had been erected in Halifax.
For the Australians, drowned out by countless ceremonies for compatriots slain fighting the same enemy of fascism within months, a modest plaque unveiled in front of Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin in 1993 remains a lonely testament to those whose blood stained Spanish soil. In its humility is reflected that of the Australian contingent in the years since. As a reviewer of Lloyd Edmonds’ Letters from Spain noted, “for some decades his story was known only to friends.” After returning home with five compatriots at Sydney’s Pyrmont wharf on 19 February 1938, Brigader Jim McNeill proudly stated that their efforts in Spain had followed an Australian tradition of striving for liberty and freedom. To a story in which the Eureka Stockade and the emergence of Australia’s labour movement were already heralded as historical markers, his and his compatriots’ experience in the International Brigades should well comprise a new chapter. This thesis examines how, through a look at the later lives of five of McNeill’s comrades, his hopeful plea would never ring true.
Chapter 2. Old wounds, new battles: the sustainability of Brigaders’ political idealism in Cold War Australia
…under the threat of international communism…the programs of the big parties become ever more undistinguishable, even in the degree of hypocrisy and in the odor of clichés. This unification of opposites bears upon the very possibilities of social change where it embraces those strata on whose back the system progresses – that is, the very classes whose existence once embodied the opposition to the system as a whole. Quote:
Thus, in his 1964 critique of Western modernity, Herbert Marcuse addressed a stifling of alternative ideological expression (to that facilitating the seamless continuation of capitalism) under an increasing confluence among elected representatives of this ‘new society.’ Attributing power to systems of mass communication in transmitting this ‘one-dimensionality,’ masked by the State’s ability to provide “an ever-more-comfortable life for an ever-growing number of people,” Marcuse noted a resultant stultifying effect on the politicism of the general population. Political thought, if left to germinate only with the nourishment of an undiscerning mainstream media, begins to occupy less a complex spectrum than a see-saw. In relation to the State, then, which after all represents the organ of power shaping this convergence of ideas, individuals become either ‘with us or against us.’
So, within the ideological confines of such a societal framework, what of those who possess a certain idealism, particularly of the sort not easily placated by material concessions of the welfare safety net? What of those who apply the weight of an exotic philosophy to the comfortable plateau of plainness, to tip the see-saw in either direction? If the reader will permit an answer by way of a contemporary example, let us consider the commonality of (indeed, the lack of distinction between) governmental responses to Australian nationals fighting with Islamic State or with Kurdish independence movements. Clearly, the motivations justifying involvement on either side of this divide stem from two vastly different viewpoints. To the State, however, such distinctions can be found wanting. Under the contentious legislative framework of the Autonomous Sanctions Act of 2011, Australian citizens returning from combat with either side of the conflict “face life behind bars if they return.” In conflating the opposing forms of idealism exhibited by such individuals, the effect on the general populace of such a stance by leadership is telling. Albeit balanced by those who honour their actions and sacrifice, the readiness of everyday Australians to taint those supporting the Kurdish freedom fighters with the same vigour they do their Islamic State enemies can be seen in the comments sections of online news articles. Informed by the blurring of both sides in the media, the “facts mean little in comparison with the suggestive noise which hammers at them.”
The Australians in 1936 who, just as fervently as today’s fighter in the Middle East, acted on their idealism in volunteering to support the Spanish Republic, similarly evaded the endorsement of the State. To appreciate the naïveté of their identification and associated marginalisation by both the State and the society they returned to, one does not need to trawl far through the pages of history to find evidence. Take Robert Mason’s article exploring the wide range of responses to the Spanish Civil War amongst the ideologically-diverse Spanish diaspora in northern Queensland. Citing internal police correspondence, Mason highlighted the Australian authorities’ farcical inability to differentiate, for example, émigré anarchists from communists. The security services, too, failed to grasp such variances. If the agencies so-named for their ostensible possession of the ‘intelligence’ pertinent to making such assessments could make these generalisations, it should come as no surprise that the general public could similarly paint with such a broad brush. The paranoia and judgement of far left ideologues in Australia would reach a peak in the 1950s, as Menzies capitalised on a society which, still drifting between losing the cultural shackles of convictism and finding an identity of its own, “was deeply unsure of itself.” Despite his well-professed love for all things Empire, he distorted the coordinates of the nation’s foreign policy compass towards those of the United States, exploiting the new ally’s stance on conflicts on our Asian doorstep to target communism, and its proponents, domestically.
I argue in this chapter that the existence of such State-generated societal suspicion of sympathisers of communism, as well as more obvious applications of the State’s strength, would result in alienation among the Brigaders in subsequent decades. Ultimately, this would impinge on the sustainability and strength of their initial idealism, as well as the manner in which they presented associated memories in the company of different social groups. In addition, even amongst apparent allies in idealism - for instance, within the confines of the CPA – developments at a wider institutional level, such as splits in the global communist movement, affected the professional relationships of individuals for whom allegiances had been profoundly cemented by the Spanish experience.
Despite these factors, the ideological struggle that had initially motivated volunteering for the defence of the Spanish Republic by no means died out completely. While it is true that the romanticism in memorialisation, and continuing camaraderie, of the volunteers never engulfed the surviving Australian International Brigade contingent to the extent it did internationally, an aura associated with involvement in the iconic struggle against fascism in Spain nonetheless gave a certain air of authority to those aspiring to leadership positions in communist or trade union circles. For Sam Aarons and Ron Hurd, such ambitions would come to fruition, in the CPA and the Seamen’s Union, respectively, though, as will be explained, at no little cost.
*
It must have come as some surprise to Mary Lowson when in the space of a few months in 1983, more than four and a half decades since her time spent nursing in Spain and yet not in a year coinciding with any particularly momentous anniversary, two separate historians approached, seeking her recollections of that period. Certainly, an initial reticence in speaking about these experiences barely wavered in the months that followed, despite repeated attempts to engage her. Having by now lived in Perth for some forty years, Lowson remained close to an old nursing comrade from her Spanish days, Dorothy Low, also a resident of the city. Correspondence between Amirah Inglis and Dorothy’s husband, Bill Irwin, during Inglis’ researching for Australians in the Spanish Civil War, reveals Lowson’s attitude to her past involvement in Spain in stark detail. Sadly, with Low at this time very unwell, any mention of her in Bill’s letters centred on updating Inglis on her failing health. Inglis’ interest in Lowson, on the other hand, was piqued by the historian’s desire to read Lowson’s unpublished memoirs written during her time in Spain.
The other academic keen to speak to Lowson was Judith Keene from the University of Sydney, who would in 1988 present an edited, annotated version of the wartime journal of one of Lowson’s fellow nurses, Agnes Hodgson, titled The Last Mile to Huesca. Back in August 1983, these twin sources of attention from Keene and Inglis had begun to frustrate Lowson considerably. Responding to a letter of 3 August, in which Inglis had enquired about the possibility of reading the manuscript Keene had also requested access to, Irwin spoke of Lowson’s resolute reluctance “to open old wounds.” Inferring a particular stubbornness to Mary at this time, he claimed that attempting to get her to come around to his way of thinking and assist Inglis with her research was “like arguing with the QE2. Hopeless.”
It is a shame that Lowson’s recollections consequently did not feature with any prominence in Inglis’ study. A communist of considerable passion and verve, Hobart-born Lowson had been working as a nurse in Sydney when she volunteered to assist the Spanish Republican cause, heeding the call of the SRC in Sydney. She duly took on the mantle of leadership among the handful of women recruited. Upon her return to Australia in September 1937, Lowson headlined a speaking tour in which the central focus was on raising awareness and money for refugees from the violence; less than six months later, she would be back in Spain once more to continue the struggle. Already forty-one years old when she had left for Spain, it was no doubt her life and professional experience that saw to Lowson’s gravitation to the position of leader among the Australian women, rather than simply her deep connection to communism. Certainly, among the four nurses who finally left Australian shores at Fremantle on board the Oronsay on 2 November 1936, hers was not the only idealism so shaped by politics: May MacFarlane, too, was a CPA member. However, just as in the much larger male cohort, for whom impetuses for involvement varied from political idealism to a desire to escape financial hardships still lingering from the Depression, motivating factors among the women were just as diverse.
For Hodgson, for example, inspiration was particularly derived from vocational considerations. Attracted more by a sense of adventure than any political conviction, Hodgson had been well-travelled in previous years, and saw in this venture another chance to marry her nursing skills with her wandering soul. Time previously spent in Italy, and her (unsuccessful) attempts to provide nursing support in Abyssinia after Mussolini’s 1935 invasion, inspired suspicion on the part of the highly dogmatic Lowson. Coupled with Hodgson’s fluency in Italian, the apparent coincidence surrounding her presence in Sydney right at the moment she emerged to replace one of the initial four nurses (Edith Curwen; coerced by her family to back down from the endeavour), must have raised Lowson’s doubts even more. Subsequently made to feel, at times, doubted and discarded, Hodgson became disillusioned by the political intrigue, infighting, and jostling for positions of leadership within the very side she was attempting to support. Despite saying that the horrors witnessed in Spain had made of her a “a militant pacifist for ever,” Hodgson would later volunteer for nursing service in the Second World War, highlighting just how apolitically pragmatic and vocationally-based her initial motivations for involvement had been.
It is unfortunately beyond the scope of this thesis to explore Hodgson’s later perceptions in great detail. However, the steep downward trajectory of Mary Lowson’s idealism over the years – from a leader among fellow Australian nurses in Spain in the late 1930s, to a total shying-away from even the most sympathetic and interested of historical enquirers in the mid-1980s – demands analysis and exploration. While the disinclination to speak to Inglis in 1983 about her experience does not, of course, allow us to make any concrete assessments of Lowson’s life, relationships, politics, or convictions since, an incident the following year served to legitimise her desire to keep elements of her past well-hidden.
Asked by the convenor of a literary group she had joined at the Association for the Blind whether she had ever written anything, Lowson was convinced by Bill Irwin to have a “colourful chapter” of her unpublished manuscript about Spain read out at the next meeting. The response from her fellow members was telling, half of the group walking out upon hearing these reminiscences. She was almost completely shunned by the group after this. “Guess why?,” Irwin asked Inglis rhetorically, speaking volumes. At the next meeting, the one man – new to the group, having clearly been prompted by an acquaintance’s denouncement of Mary – who did speak to her, did so only to criticise Lowson personally, pointedly remarking that “you would make mischief wherever you are.”
It is difficult to imagine this being the first time Lowson had been treated with such derision and condemnation by members of the wider community for having the temerity to speak publicly about her involvement in Spain and the communist movement. Certainly, the lingering nature of her peers’ conservativeness – this interaction occurring, after all, nearly fifty years after the events of which Lowson spoke - suggests an obstinacy to such attitudes that surely must have manifested themselves on numerous other occasions over the years. Despite having left the CPA and been, for an indeterminate period of time, a member of the Labor Party, references in Irwin’s letters to her local Claremont ALP branch’s refusal to endorse an application for life membership based on her efforts fighting for democracy suggest that even in the face of a more ‘respectable’ political self-identification in later years, Lowson’s Spanish efforts were far from celebrated, even by those on the left of mainstream politics. In this context, the gratitude expressed by Irwin to Inglis after she had sent a tape letter to the almost-completely blind Lowson in early 1984 – “she was really happy about it. How many show affection to her?” – takes on a certain, profound resonance, even if, still, it failed to invoke a more helpful approach to the historian’s questioning.
Expanding on Marcuse’s attribution of a populace’s collective political lethargy to the forces of Western modernity, Erich Fromm’s theory about the disconnect between an individual’s private and public existence comes to the fore in the literary group meeting anecdote. Fromm posits that under the era of modernity denigrated by Marcuse each individual has become to one another “a commodity, always to be treated with certain friendliness, because even if he is not of use now, he may be later.” The existence of dialectical human relationships, such as employer/employee, salesman/customer, and so on, underpin this development. The effect of this added veneer of “superficial friendliness…distance…[and] subtle distrust” to what is humanity’s innately sociable nature ultimately leads to the “projection of all social feelings into the state, which thus becomes an idol, a power standing over and above man.” Fromm exemplifies this by showing how someone who would ordinarily exhibit indifference to providing financial support for a stranger would in fact, if they were to become soldiers defending the State together the following day, risk their own life to help save the other.
The results of a 1955 social experiment survey are cited by Fromm as further clarification of this detachment between the private and public (or, alternatively, personal and social) spheres. When asked what things they worried most about, ninety-two per cent of respondents named factors related to their own personal lives and existence; financial concerns, health problems, or issues with relationships close to them. However, when asked if communism should be considered a cause of serious concern, more than half of the respondents agreed. Therefore, without prompting, such social worries had not been deemed worthy of concern at a personal level.
What Mary Lowson did, then, by recounting her earlier communist days in and following the Spanish Civil War, was arguably just that; prompted in her peer group the projection of their collective, but nonetheless underlying, social concerns (as manipulated and enhanced by the governing and media institutions under which they had lived for decades) onto her. The same groundswell of anti-communist policy stimulating the consolidation of security forces into the establishment of ASIO in 1949 dominated considerations of national security throughout the 1950s, as the Korean and Malayan conflicts played into the hands of the conservatives. Speaking in Parliament ahead of his failed referendum that sought to ban the CPA, Menzies promulgated within Australian society the notion that demonstrations for peace, including calls for the banning of the bomb, constituted a Soviet conspiracy “to prevent or impair defence preparations in the democracies.” |
occupation, colonisation and structural discrimination.
Paradoxically, opponents of BDS frequently claim that any boycott of Israel - no matter its basis in international law - is inherently motivated by anti-Semitic prejudice. This claim is as baseless as it is dangerous. Guidelines relating to the academic and cultural boycotts are unequivocal in their opposition to any form of bigotry, positions headlined by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and others. The movement, an attempt to end racist, systemic discrimination, does not target individuals according to their nationality or beliefs, and as such is incompatible with any form of racism, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. When Zionists falsely equate this nonviolent resistance movement with anti-Semitism, it can only serve to undermine sincere efforts to challenge racism of all kinds, in Israel and elsewhere.
While some British musicians have been vocal in their rejection of the boycott, perhaps most notably Ride’s Mark Gardener, many have refused to play in Israel, including those who cancelled shows that were already booked. In one example, Klaxons were amongst several groups who pulled Tel Aviv performances in 2010, in the wake of Israel's killing of ten unarmed civilians on the Gaza aid flotilla, the Mavi Marmara. Jamie Reynolds told me soon after: "I'm certain that we made the right decision regardless of the barrage of hate mail."
This year Thurston Moore cancelled his band's scheduled performance in Tel Aviv, without giving an official explanation, leading to speculation in the Israeli press that it was due to the boycott. He wrote to me at the time that through private dialogue with other artists and activists, he had undergone something of a "conscientious decision process". This resulted in his endorsement of the Palestinian call for solidarity in their struggle for, in his words, "empowerment through choice of non-violent activism". I later asked him to expand on the reasons behind his decision:
"Since it was founded in 2005 I have honored the Palestinian BDS call by not accepting offers to perform in Israel, though all the while having the inherent belief in the importance of bringing music, art, education (love) to friends. With cursory knowledge of the boycott's principles and not exactly concurring with the aspects of requesting certain limitations on cultural exchange I reconsidered and accepted a kind offer from promoters in Tel Aviv (as announced for April 2015).
"It was with serious deliberation that I eventually arrived at the personal conclusion that to perform with my band in Israel was in direct conflict to my values. With the realization that a cultural and academic boycott is central to its purpose in exposing a reality of brutal human rights violations – including those accompanying Israel's discriminatory laws and occupation of the West Bank - I felt the need, with humility, to cancel the engagement.
"Subsequently the choice to play in Tel Aviv, while a boycott based on principles of non-violence exists, initiated for me an active study and contemplation in which emerged an enlightenment of personal judgment. This is in admiration to the fans, friends and neighbors who have engaged me in discussing the complicity of crossing this very real line of protest.
"With apology and thanks to everyone I work with professionally, as this decision incurs difficult rectification, and to every individual with a wish to hear us play live, I've made the decision, with certitude, to fully acknowledge the dedication of the boycott until the time comes for it to be unnecessary."
He added: "When Sonic Youth played Tel Aviv in 1996 it was an amazing, wonderful experience and education. I hope to return soon."
The last comments are particularly apt, for the boycott does not exist in perpetuity but has specific aims, namely, an end to the occupation, equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the implementation of the right of return of the refugees ethnically cleansed from their land and homes in 1947-48. Distinct from censorship, which seeks to suppress ideas or aesthetic, the boycott aims to hold to account a rogue state, one that enjoys impunity, encouragement and material support from the governments of the West in its ongoing crimes against humanity. Acts of solidarity such as joining the boycott are never negative or passive, but in fact are strongly communicative protests.
By contrast to these acts of resistance, last summer, at the height of Israel’s brutal seven-week military campaign, our very own David Cameron reaffirmed his "staunch support" for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assault, as the US quite literally replenished his munitions. The relationship between Western powers and Israel is one of extensive collusion too detailed to go into here; it's enough to point out the USA's more than $100 billion in aid to Israel and the UK's central role in its establishment. The abject failure of powerful governments to challenge Israeli apartheid, siege and occupation, means it falls on the shoulders of ordinary people to organise against oppression.
Founding member of Jesus and Mary Chain and film director Douglas Hart has refused professional engagements in Israel in the past. I asked him why.
"Who in their right mind would have performed in South Africa during the Apartheid era? However you wish to term what is happening to Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli state, or whether you agree or disagree with the parallels between apartheid South Africa and Israel's occupation of Palestine, you can't deny the abject suffering of the Palestinian people, and the obscene iniquity between the quality of lives of Palestinians and Israelis. We have to do anything we can to change it."
Palestinians face overwhelming challenges, particularly in the form of an extremist, right-wing Israeli government committed to entrenching ethnocracy, one prepared to employ extreme violence in its efforts, but they are challenges which must be overcome in order to achieve self-determination. Yet the counter-argument is often made that Israel should be regarded as a force for democratic values in the region, if not as "the only democracy in the Middle East", and treated accordingly, rather than subjected to boycotts and labelled with pariah status. This has been a useful diversion.
Israel could only be founded as a Jewish-majority state through a programme of ethnic cleansing, a concerted campaign of usurpation involving massacres, intimidation, and wholesale theft of land, property, bank accounts, art and literature, which caused the flight of the majority of the native Palestinian population in what is known across the Arabic-speaking world as the Nakba, or catastrophe. Israelis see the establishment of their settler-colonial state as the "war of independence" and deny the historical fact of the Nakba at every possible official, legal and cultural level.
That a parliamentary system of democracy now exists within a state that expelled its indigenous inhabitants for not being Jewish, and which still upholds that system through racist laws that prohibit those refugees from returning to their own homes, does not a democracy make. Israeli lawmakers and commentators flit between obsessing over the ‘demographic threat’ posed by Palestinian babies – one well known scholar and government advisor Arnon Soffer is nicknamed "the Arab-counter" - and openly calling for genocide. Given the incessant violence and ongoing dispossession, Palestinians see the Nakba as continuing to this day.
In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel restricts every aspect of the lives of 2.7 million Palestinians. Travel, education, work, housing, legal rights, freedom of expression and anything else you can think of are ruled by the military occupation forces, or IDF (Israel Defence Forces) as they’re known outside of Palestine. Children are routinely abducted and interrogated day and night, shackled in foreign prisons, coerced to sign confessions in a language they do not know and are subject to systematic physical abuse. Meanwhile, half a million Israeli settlers live on illegal colonies, travel on Jewish-only roads and monopolise scarce resources, protected by the same military that subjugates their Palestinian neighbours.
Jean-Hervé Péron, founding member of Faust, was unaware of the boycott when he played in Tel Aviv in 2007 (and he remains undecided). While in Israel, a human rights organisation invited him to visit the West Bank. I asked him to recount his experiences.
"This day turned out to be the most 'terrible' day of my life... I mean 'terrible' in its proper meaning: appalling, shocking, emotionally unbearable.
"The bus we travelled in was stopped so many times, soldiers barking at us; in a street, all windows were shut and welded blind with sheets of metal.
"Everywhere was hatred, hostility, violence, aggression from the Israeli settlers. Everywhere was despair, fright, helplessness in the eyes of the Palestinians.
"I managed to slip away from our group and get into a district where obviously no-one was supposed to enter. I walked deserted streets but felt heavily observed, so I sat down on a house porch and waited. Soon a young boy appeared. I asked him for coffee. After a few hesitations and me stupidly repeating with a smile "kawa, choukran?" (coffee, thank you?), the little one decided I must be nuts but harmless and took me to his parents house. I cannot express well what I felt but it was extremely moving: they had not much to offer, but it was given with warmth, grace, honourably.
"They told me in broken English and broken French how life was on their side: No work, no school, no stores, no freedom of movement.
"I was not dreaming, I was not reading an horror-fiction book, no, all was real, all was now. I rejoined the group and my guide took me to another family, closer to the Israeli settlements: I was told more horrible stories. We returned to Tel Aviv where I broke down in tears in my hotel room... I felt useless, helpless, worthless...
"Is boycott the answer?"
Within Israel itself, roughly one-fifth the population is Palestinian, the descendants of those who survived the ethnic cleansing of 1947-48, representing perhaps as little as 15% of the original population of Palestine and subject to yet another, more subtle system of control. There are scores of discriminatory laws that ensure that Palestinian citizens of Israel remain unable to gain anything like an equal foothold in society, condemned to citizenry without full rights, in a state whose leaders openly incite hatred and violence against them.
This is not democracy. It’s not even close. This is why Palestinians have called for people of the world to end their economic, cultural and academic complicity in these crimes. This means not buying Israeli produce, or from companies who profit from the occupation, refusing professional or academic engagements in Israel and not working with projects that are funded by Israeli government ministries, until Palestinians' rights under international law are recognised. The director of the UK-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Sarah Colborne (who was onboard the Mavi Marmara), gave me their position on the Palestinian boycott call:
"The Israeli regime is an apartheid regime. It has constructed a huge wall and checkpoints in the West Bank to segregate Palestinians from the Israeli settlers who have stolen their land, and it holds Gaza under siege to prevent Palestinians from leaving and to prevent food, medicines and construction materials from entering."
"The Palestinian people have called on the world to boycott Israel, including a cultural boycott, until it ends its occupation of their land and the oppression of their people. As people of conscience, who stand against racism and apartheid, the only moral response we can have to that call is to heed it."
The boycott is just one way that anyone, anywhere can express their solidarity with Palestinians, to contribute towards justice and begin to agitate for peace. I believe that musicians have a particular responsibility to not allow their work to be co-opted, especially not by a rogue state that aims to divert attention from its ongoing crimes against humanity. But refusing to engage with institutions and corporations complicit in those crimes is something we can all do.I think Libertarians are socially more liberal than Democrats. At first glance, they appear to be equal. Both favor abortion rights and LGBT equality. Yet, when the lens is turned on sex, libertarians pull away easily.
Libertarians are very much live and let live types. If someone wants to talk very openly about sex and make comments of an erotic nature in environments that aren’t necessarily appropriate, libertarians don’t give a shit. Democrats, however, do and will likely get their undies in a bunch and start caterwauling about women being subjugated.
I say this as a dyed in the wool Democrat and with much regret, mind you. I have always been frustrated about how uptight Democrats can be about sex. Everything seems to be inappropriate in just about every setting. This is particularly true on campuses where comedians like Chris Rock and Bill Maher will not play anymore. One comment about a woman having a nice ass and they are banned/tarred/feathered.
Libertarians, who I have many philosophical disagreements with in general, don’t bother with this sort of stuff and are, thus, more socially liberal.Intel's rollout of Optane products, based on 3D XPoint memory, continues. Today is the release of the 750GB Optane SSD DC P4800X, a larger capacity version of the model launched earlier this year. Now Intel's flagship enterprise SSD family has a more useful capacity while offering the same chart-topping performance as the 375GB model that launched earlier this spring.
We tested the 375GB model earlier this year through remote access to an Intel server lab. Last month, we reviewed the consumer counterpart to the P4800X, the Intel Optane SSD 900p. Today, we have the results of hands-on testing of the 750GB P4800X add-in card model.
The 750GB add-in card model was originally planned for a Q2 introduction, followed by the 750GB U.2 model and the 1.5TB models in the second half of 2017. Both 750GB models are now launching, and Intel says the 1.5TB models are "coming soon". This is a fairly minor delay, but that is of little comfort to customers who have been eagerly awaiting drives like this since 3D XPoint memory was first announced in July 2015.
Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X Specifications Capacity 375 GB 750 GB Form Factor PCIe HHHL or 2.5" 15mm U.2 Interface PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe Controller Intel SLL3D Memory 128Gb 20nm Intel 3D XPoint Typical Latency (R/W) <10µs Random Read (4 kB) IOPS (QD16) 550,000 Random Read 99.999% Latency (QD1) 60µs Random Read 99.999% Latency (QD16) 150µs Random Write (4 kB) IOPS (QD16) 500,000 Random Write 99.999% Latency (QD1) 100µs Random Write 99.999% Latency (QD16) 200µs Mixed 70/30 (4kB) Random IOPS (QD16) 500,000 Sequential Read (64kB) 2400 MB/s Sequential Write (64kB) 2000 MB/s Active Power Read 8 W 10 W Write 13 W 15 W Idle Power 5 W 6 W Endurance 30 DWPD Warranty 5 years MSRP $1520
The performance specifications of the Optane SSDs stand out in several ways.
The latency for reads at low queue depths is far lower than NAND flash-based SSDs. This can provide a boost to almost any application that waits on storage. With no complicated wear leveling and garbage collection process going on under the hood, the Optane SSDs offer much better performance consistency than most flash-based SSDs, to the point that Intel specifies 99.999th percentile latency for the Optane SSD.
Perhaps most significant is that capacity doesn't affect performance. For flash-based SSDs there is usually a very strong correlation between capacity and performance. The simpler, more direct architecture of Optane SSDs cuts out most of the intermediate buffering that flash SSDs need to perform well.
The sequential transfer speeds of the P4800X are not record-setting, and the read speed rating is actually 100MBps lower than that of the consumer Optane SSD 900p. However, nobody is going to buy an Optane SSD primarily for its sequential performance when flash-based SSDs can compete in that aspect at a fraction of the price. It is interesting to note that the sequential performance specifications are given for 64kB transfers, when 128kB is more common within the industry and 128kB transfers are supported by the Optane SSD.
Power consumption is the only area where the specifications differ between the 375GB and the 750GB model. The SSD DC P4800X does not implement the standard NVMe power state management or Autonomous Power State Transition features, but it does have a power governor setting controllable through vendor specific commands. This allows the P4800X to be limited to 12W instead of the default limit of 18W. Since imposing a lower power limit will reduce performance, this feature is probably not going to get much use with a product like the P4800X. There may be a few situations where it could be of use with the U.2 model that has less surface area for cooling, provided that it leads to more consistent performance than simply letting the drives thermally throttle.
The P4800X's write endurance rating of 30 drive writes per day is far higher than most enterprise SSDs and beats any previous Intel SSD, but it isn't actually high enough to put the Optane SSD in an entirely different class from the best high-endurance flash based SSDs. When the P4800X exhausts the rated write endurance, it will switch to a "write protect" mode where writes are throttled to 30MB/s. This is a gentler end of life strategy than the hard read-only mode that some of Intel's previous drives have used. The mode switch happens when the "Percentage Used Estimate" SMART indicator reaches 105%.
Once the P4800X has reached its write endurance rating, it is specified for unpowered data retention of 3 months, which is standard for enterprise SSD. Intel doesn't say anything directly about data retention when the drive is new, but the do caution that the drive will perform background data refreshing. When the drive is powered on, it will devote more time than usual to background data refreshing for a period of about three hours, to clean up any data degradation that may have occurred while the drive was off for an unknowable period of time.
Model Dies per channel Channels Raw Capacity Spare Area Intel Optane SSD 900p 280GB 3 7 336 GB 56 GB (16.6 %) Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X 375GB 4 7 448 GB 73 GB (16.3 %) Intel Optane SSD 900p 480GB 5 7 560 GB 80 GB (14.3 %) Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X 750GB 8 7 896 GB 146 GB (16.3 %)
The Optane SSD DC P4800X and the Optane SSD 900p both use the same 7-channel controller, which leads to some unusual drive capacities. The 900p comes with either 3 or 5 memory dies per channel while the P4800X has 4 or 8. All models reserve about 1/6th of the raw capacity for internal use.
Aside from the number of 3D XPoint memory packages and the number of dies they contain, the PCBs of the P4800X and the 900p differ only in the presence of a few diagnostic LEDs on the P4800X. Neither model has any large power loss protection capacitors because the Optane SSDs don't use any volatile caches and write immediately to the 3D XPoint memory itself.
The heatsinks and PCIe brackets are slightly different between the consumer and enterprise versions, but both are predominately black aluminum. The P4800X omits the solid backplate and instead places the label with model and serial numbers on the side of the heatsink.A study of three colleges has shown that sending regular encouraging text messages to learners can dramatically cut dropout rates.
The experiment was carried out by the Behavioural Research Centre for Adult Skills and Knowledge (ASK), which was launched last September by social purpose company the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) in partnership with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
An ASK spokesperson said it involved 2,000 learners aged 19 or above from Manchester College, Leicester College, and Stoke-on-Trent College, who were all studying courses with entry requirements below level two for English and maths.
Half of them were sent texts, which encouraged them to continue with their studies, every Sunday evening during term times throughout 2014/15 and more frequently during the holidays.
A BIT update report for 2013 to 2015, which was published today, said that the experiment had been a success, as “these simple text messages led to a 7 per cent increase in [day-to-day] attendance [rates]” compared to the other 1,000 learners involved with the study who were not sent texts.
It added that the dropout rate, which shows the proportion of students who quit courses and never returned, was 36 per cent higher among learners who did not receive the texts.
Zhi Soon (pictured above), director of ASK, said: “The figures were very encouraging. We sent out more encouraging texts during the holidays, because that is a key time when dropout rates are higher than usual.”
Joyce Black, assistant director for development and research at the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, said: “Any interventions that providers use to support increased retention of learners on programmes are always a good thing. We know that many providers use such interventions regularly.
“We hope that their continued attendance has helped them to grow in confidence, changed their attitude to learning and to achieve their potential.”
Another experiment run by ASK over the last academic year attempted to demonstrate whether employers value GCSEs more than equivalent functional skills qualifications.
The BIT report explained that “variants on a CV were used in over a thousand job applications”, with some showing grade C maths and English qualifications and others equivalent level two functional skills qualifications.
Mr Soon said: “The final data is not back on this yet, but early indications suggest that employers have a more positive reaction to CVs displaying GCSEs.”
He added: “What we are trying to do with all of these trials is to equip providers with additional tools to engage in an even more effective way with their learners.
“We are planning to run more experiments with a larger selection of colleges next academic year.”
David Corke (right), director of education and skills policy for the Association of Colleges, said: “Anything which helps students to stay on the right education and training programmes will be of interest to colleges.
However, he added: “All students need good skills in English and maths in order to go into the work place, but in some cases a GCSE is not appropriate and a more applied qualification would most benefit the student and their future career.
“The government should work with employers in the public and private sector and colleges to develop new maths and English qualifications which are related to the world of work and everyday life.”
BIS declined to comment
No-one from Manchester College, Leicester College, and Stoke-on-Trent College was available to comment.The decision of people in Britain to leave the European Union has come as a surprise, even a shock to most of my friends and colleagues who work in academia here in England. While the EU’s neoliberal tendencies and never-ending crises in banking, sovereign debt and migration made the deficiencies of the organisation clearly evident over the past years, most of us had not expected that a majority of people in England and Wales would consider a drift back into nationalism to be the appropriate response. Sure, it is not usually our job to deal in short-term predictions of social trends, and anthropologists have famously missed the rise of important political currents in the past. [1] But to many of us, the extent to which we have misread the mood of people in large parts of Britain today feels highly unsettling.
This surprise is partially grounded in the fact that the economic case for leaving the EU was unconvincing. Economic analysts inside and outside of Britain had made clear that the net weekly savings of £350m promised by the leave campaign were a myth, that abandoning the EU was likely to cost Britain far more than its actual weekly contributions, and that the British economy substantially increased its risk of recession as a result of Brexit. Michael Gove, the Conservative Justice Secretary and a key figure in the leave campaign famously countered these arguments by declaring that the people of Britain “have had enough of experts […] saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong.” Today, it seems, that voters in the referendum may have tired of economic reasoning altogether. The leave vote turned out to be strongest in those parts of the country that are most economically dependent on the EU.
Now that the votes have been cast, teleological accounts as to why the referendum turned out as it did abound, and at this point it seems too early to provide an authoritative summary of what has happened. As usual, political commentators on the right and on the left highlight predominantly economic reasons for the vote, pointing to the fact that people in the most deprived parts of England and Wales were the ones who wanted Britain out. After decades of seeing their public services reduced to shambles and their job opportunities nullified, it is likely that they wanted to show the politicians in both Brussels and Westminster that they had nothing left to lose. A clear case it seems, of popular disregard for bureaucratic elites, and maybe even a revolution by the people, in an act of popular democracy.
While this account seems plausible at first, we should be reluctant to accept it as the whole story. Generally speaking, economistic reasoning can never explain why people respond to their social predicament in the way they do. As E.P. Thompson (1967) shows with reference to food riots in 18th century England, people living in poverty do not react to economic stimuli in a spasmodic fashion. [2] They are just as likely to retreat from party politics, to resort to political activity other than voting, or they may hold on to the belief that abstract institutions represent their interests, even when that is not the case. The links between deprivation and a protest vote are not hard and fast, and we need more precise explanations of why economic circumstances led to the very specific political outcome that we now face. After all, the notion that people chose the contrived opposition between Britain and the EU in the first place makes little intuitive sense [3], and their decision to vote leave might have to be understood in a cultural context in which economic hand-outs are equated to a lack of autonomy and dignity.
Moreover, we should acknowledge that the EU referendum has been orchestrated by political elites from the start. Far from being a natural result of widespread economic inequality, this political process was instigated by the Prime Minister David Cameron to ensure the continuous support of Conservative party members. His equally privileged rival Boris Johnson pushed the economic case for saving EU membership fees and fuelled anti-bureaucratic sentiments against Brussels, while former commodities trader, lobbyist and right-wing figurehead Nigel Farage successfully equated Britain’s EU membership with a lack of control over immigration. Their attempts at heightening and using “integralist” sentiments of romantic collective belonging, cultural difference and alienation from modern society [4] failed in Scotland and large parts of Northern Ireland. In England and Wales, however, the absence of a strong opposition allowed their triumvirate of political incompetence, an empty will to power and anti-intellectualist xenophobia to win the popular vote. It turned what could have been a measured re-assessment of political allegiances into yet another exercise in escalating tensions along national and religious lines within Europe [5]. So while the referendum has surely been shaped by economic inequality and deprivation, it has also been an illustration of right-wing elites capturing the public discourse so as to to steer public grievances toward ethnic and racial “others” – and away from their own austerity policies.
This is where the humanities and social sciences come in. The current rise of ethnic, racial and religious prejudice throughout Europe – and the United States for that matter – are a call for action to us as academics. We have not been outspoken enough on these topics over the past few years, and should respond to Brexit by consciously renewing our engagement with the public. If we refuse to do so, we risk repeating the mistakes of conservative and liberal intellectuals in 1930s Germany, who all too often responded to the rise of xenophobic populism by means of “inner emigration”, i.e. the retreat into spaces of like-minded interlocutors.[6] Put off by what they considered the aesthetic sensibilities and argumentative incoherence of the populists, these potentially critical voices chose not to engage a broader audience. It may be tempting to behave like this again today, but Britain’s decision to leave the EU so as to control immigration, and the recent killing of British MP Jo Cox in the run-up to the referendum, are clear calls for our greater involvement in public discourse. If we ignore the rise of popular xenophobic sentiment it may have dire consequences in the long run.
Anthropology is particularly well-equipped as a discipline to challenge the current tides of national, racial and religious prejudice, before it is too late. We have long thought about many of the key terms that shape European politics today, such as “culture”, “identity”, “nation” or “tradition”, and we tend to deal in nuance, which is a quality that is sorely lacking in contemporary public debates around immigration and sovereignty. While we should certainly continue our academic work to the best of our abilities, we also have a responsibility to engage our work with multiple publics, to unsettle and challenge the accounts of the political elites fostering xenophobia and anti-intellectualism [7]. Before the EU became synonymous with violent austerity politics in the Mediterranean, it was one of the key institutional structures that successfully worked to overcome national and ethnic conflict in Europe. Maybe it is not the best such structure to continue this work today, but the goal remains important, and as anthropologists we have a lot to contribute to the broader socio-political project of bringing about a climate of tolerance and peace.
[1] Starn, O. (1991). “Missing the Revolution: Anthropologists and the War in Peru.” Cultural Anthropology 6(1): 63-91. [2] Thompson, E. P. (1967). “Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism.” Past and Present 38: 56-97. [3] Hann, C. (2016). Awkward Island (a Welsh-Eurasian Perspective on “Brexit”) [accessed 26/06/2016]. [4] Holmes, D. R. (2000). Integral Europe: Fast-Capitalism, Multiculturalism, Neofascism. Princeton, University Press. [5] Eriksen, T. H. (2016). Europe’s Destructive Spirals of Distrust. Sapiens. Online. [6] Benz, W. (2003). “Widerstand traditioneller Eliten [Resistance of traditional elites].” Informationen zur politischen Bildung Deutscher Widerstand 1933-194 [German resistance 1933-1945] 243 [accessed 25/10306/12016]. [7] Compare Eriksen, T.H. & Felix Stein, (forthcoming) ‘Anthropology as counter-culture’ – An Interview with Thomas Hylland Eriksen, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
This post was originally published on PoLAR blog.
Featured image by frankieleon (flickr, CC BY 2.0)Given that frustration, activist investors have been considering whether to mount a proxy fight of their own to oust the Yahoo board, say people familiar with the situation.
That does not mean such a fight will break out.
And given the unexpectedly high level Yahoo's stock has traded at, potential activists who might want to build a large position in the stock have found themselves stymied.
The stock is down 15%, but the risk reward of mounting a proxy fight when you don't know whether Microsoft will be there if you win requires a stock price lower than this. (Video: CNBC's David Faber discusses what's next for Yahoo)
Emotions are still running hot on both sides of this failed deal. Yahoo announced that its annual shareholders meeting will take place on July 3, and notices from stockholders of nominations for persons to be elected to the Board of Directors must be sent by May 15.
Yahoo's largest shareholders told CNBC they would support a move to replace the board, given they feel that board let them down during negotiations this weekend.
On Friday, it was made clear to Yahoo's board that the largest shareholders would accept $34 a share for their stock. And given that Microsoft was willing to offer $33 a share, the expectation was that a deal would get done.
But in allowing Yahoo's two founders, Jerry Yang and David Filo, to negoatiate without the presence of advisers, these shareholders say they hold the board accountable for what was a predictable outcome.
While those shareholders won't embark on a public campaign, they would support activists, should they try to wrest control of the company through a proxy fight.
Still, the ultimate question--whether Microsoft is still interested in Yahoo after walking away--remains elusive.
Advisors to CEO Steve Ballmer say he has mentally moved on, while others who have spoken with him today say they believe he still considers Yahoo a strategic imperative.View image metadata A landscape of broken dreams.
The southwestern coastal region of Taiwan 台灣 is salt country. From Bùdài 布袋 in Chiayi 嘉義 down through Běimén 北門, Jiāngjūn 將軍, and Qīgǔ 七股 in Tainan 台南, an incredible expanse of manmade salt evaporation ponds sprawl across a completely flat and almost featureless landscape, much of it reclaimed from the briny lagoons that line the coast. Salt has been produced here for more than three centuries by channeling seawater into artificial enclosures and letting the strong tropical sun do the rest. Taiwan’s accession to the WTO in 2002 doomed the industry and all remaining salterns (or salt fields, if you like) were decommissioned that same year. This led to the abandonment of the unique Qīngkūnshēn Fan-Shaped Saltern 青鯤鯓扇形鹽田, now a surreal reminder of the history of salt production in southern Taiwan 台灣.
View image metadata Beneath an electric blue sky on the perimeter of the fan-shaped salt field.
Qingkunshen1 dates back to 1975, making it the youngest saltern in the area and the only one developed under the control of the Kuomintang. Its name is derived from Qingkunshen 青鯤鯓, the fishing village immediately to the south, notable for being the westernmost settlement on the island of Taiwan. Although formally located in Jiāngjūn 將軍, the 716 hectares fan-shaped saltern was administered from the Qigu Saltworks 七股鹽場 in neighbouring Qīgǔ 七股, where you will now find the Taiwan Salt Museum 臺灣鹽博物館 and Qigu Salt Mountain 七股鹽山2.
View image metadata Approaching one of several small buildings on the outer rim.
View image metadata Inside one of several buildings on the outer rim. Not much to see here. View image metadata A secret butterfly garden inside the ruins of a building on the edge of the fan-shaped salt field.
Salt—along with tobacco, alcohol, opium, and camphor, among others—was one of the main trades controlled through the monopoly system during the Japanese colonial era. The KMT maintained the lucrative monopoly system after taking over Taiwan as it was a significant source of funding for the incipient colonial regime. Salt fields were exempt from land reform policies implemented in the years after the war and salt production continued under the aegis of the state-owned Taiwan Salt Company 台鹽公司. Additionally, the KMT imposed a controversial salt tax on consumers3 that was only abolished decades later in 1977, two years after the development of Qingkunshen.
View image metadata Attempting to discern the fan-shaped design from ground level is somewhat difficult. View image metadata The last solar-powered salt field of Taiwan.
The fan-shaped4 design of the Qingkunshen salt field is completely unique—nowhere else in Taiwan will you find such a plan. The evaporation ponds extend outward from a tiny nub of land that once housed the salt workers’ dormitory building, which now lies in ruins (and pictured below). Navigation channels run along both sides of the fan, allowing local fishermen access to the sea. The overall plan is difficult to discern from ground level—which has made this salt field a popular destination for drone operators. For a taste of Qingkunshen from the air, have a look at Google Maps, these videos here and here, and this set of interactive panoramas.
View image metadata Out on the fan-shaped salt field of Qingkunshen. This is the view looking east toward the Chianan Plain.
View image metadata A saltwater world. Looking west across the lagoon to the open sea.
I visited this part of Taiwan on my first round-the-island bicycle trip in 2013. Something about this desolate manufactured landscape made a lasting impression on me so I returned in 2014 to capture more of this strange, dreamlike landscape, still not knowing very much about what I had stumbled upon. I learned a lot more while preparing this post for publication in 2016 and seized the opportunity to make a third visit in 2017, mainly to document the ruins of the salt worker dormitories located at the center of the arc traced by the fan.
View image metadata The half-abandoned salt worker dormitories at the center of the fan as shot from the bridge over one of the navigable waterways coursing around the saltern.
Much to my surprise the dorms were not entirely abandoned—an old man still resided in one of the units. Perhaps he’s a holdout, a former employee of the salt company who refused to move when the saltern was abandoned more than a decade ago. He did not seem at all receptive to the foreign interloper in his midst so I left him in peace, questions unanswered. Perhaps some day I will return again—to more fully elucidate the secrets of this obscure place, so remote from modern Taiwan 台灣. If I do I will be sure to update this post. For now, let your imagination do the rest.Updates on the trial of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire in Athens (Greece)
Translated by Act for freedom now/boubourAs
Update on the trial of the C.C.F.
Sessions 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15, 2012
In these sessions most lawyers completed their speeches concerning the objections but also the proposition made by the prosecutor during the 12th |
the archives of an Italian abbey. The only thing we know for sure about its history is that it was handled by Rudolph II, who paid a small fortune for it — suggesting he too fell under its spell. After Voynich found it the manuscript passed between several owners, and Yale University Library now has it in its archive. I suspect they are bored of people coming to look at it — and snobbishly dislike the fact that it’s not been proven to be bona fide. It’s also been digitised for anyone to view online.
There are four theories about what it is.
A code or cipher: a medieval Enigma code
Many of the people who have spent the most time working on the Voynich have been trying to ‘crack’ it. They believe that the strange text is a carefully encoded message, which with enough hard graft can be translated into the Latin script and made intelligible.
The problem with this is that no one has ever made any headway whatsoever — and cryptography was only in its very infancy in the 1400s: if it was a code, it would be child’s play for us now. There are also other similar theories that the text has meaning, but is also chock-full of red herrings, or that in order to be read, something needs to be laid over the text so only the salient parts are visible. But why go to so much effort with so much of the work just for that? And the text doesn’t sit neatly on the page, so how would the overlay thing work?
A forgery from someone trying to make a quick buck
Some believe that it’s all fake. Someone wrote some stuff in a random scrawl, added some pictures of horoscopes and weird tubes criss-crossing the page, and tried to flog it as some old mysterious book. There are plenty of contenders for this — Roger Bacon, John Dee, even Voynich himself could have acquired some old paper and ink and drawn it.
The problem with this is that it doesn’t make sense. Why would someone use such valuable materials to construct something so bizarre and complex — complete with the new language, with its consistent words, phrases, and spellings — when you could probably make more money creating a much simpler document, like a forged ‘found’ Shakespeare play, for example?
A genuine message written in a script that’s been lost
The language, although very odd, has the internal consistency of a natural language and obeys rules all languages are meant to follow — although it does have odd aspects, such as multiple consecutive letters (e.g. ‘eeee’) and words that are repeated up to four times in a row. Stephen Bax has had some success decoding some of the words, and works under the hypothesis that this is a lost script from around the area (north Italy) of the time. His work comes from his attempt to recognise some of the plants, and to analse the text based on names for that plant in other languages.
The problem with this: why have we never found any other example? And why does the presumed subject — herbs and plants — have to include the pictures of the women bathing?
Automatic writing or an attempt to record a vision or hallucination
A number of people have put forward the idea that it’s a record of the visions or physic powers of some powerful person. Joan of Arc, for example, believed that her epileptic fits were visits from God, and placed great store by them. It’s not outside the bounds of the imagination that a group of people could become enamoured by one of their number who had strange visions, and tried to record them both visually and in prose. It also explains why such good-quality materials were used, and could tie in with the idea that it’s a lost script and/or language.
But that said, why would they write this and absolutely nothing else? Why wouldn’t they just write it in a Latin script? And why write about such strange, disparate things?
If I had to say which explanation I thought was correct, I would say that it was a toss-up between two. One: it’s an important text in a script that’s been subsequently lost (with the caveat that we’ve never found anything like it). Two: it’s an example of automatic writing by the followers of a now-forgotten saint, written out in ‘best’ from endless notes (with the caveat that it exhibits spectacular internal coherence).
It says a lot about you what you want the answer to be — or whether you think there’s an answer at all. Some of the articles I’ve read have claimed the lack of an answer is a good thing, because it fosters so much debate and inspires such wonder. I disagree. After all the attention, effort and fascinating that this manuscript has caused over the last half-millennium: I want to know.
Share this: Twitter
Facebook
Email
More
Telegram
WhatsApp
Skype
LinkedIn
Print
Reddit
Pocket
Pinterest
TumblrA STRONG Australian dollar has pushed Sydney and Melbourne up on the list of the world's most expensive cities for expatriate workers, according to a global cost of living survey.
The research, which measured the cost of living in 143 cities, revealed prices are rising in Australia's major cities - particularly in Melbourne, which catapulted 28 places to become the 36th most expensive city.
Sydney remains the nation's most costly city, jumping six places to be ranked as the world's 15th most expensive city.
The Mercer Consulting Group survey, taken in March, is based on the needs of expatriates and measures the comparative cost of more than 200 items including transport, food and housing. The rankings are relative to New York, which is the reference point and has an index rating of 100.
"Without a doubt, Australian cities are becoming more expensive," said Mercer executive Rob Knox.PORTLAND, Ore. -- A leader in Portland anti-Trump protests who was accused of sex abuse has been arrested for an additional sex crime.
Micah Rhodes, 23, was arrested Tuesday after his court appearance in Multnomah County, where he faced four counts of second-degree sex abuse and one count of third-degree sex abuse. On Tuesday, he was charged with another count of second-degree sex abuse.
Detectives believe there may be additional victims.
Rhodes is a self-proclaimed leader of Portland's Resistance, a group which led disorderly anti-Trump protests.
More: Protesters arrested after several Portland demonstrations
More: Portland's Resistance leaders arrested during anti-Trump march
According to booking papers, the initial sexual abuse accusations are for statutory, non-forced rape.
While Rhodes was in jail, detectives learned he had sexual contact with a juvenile male in Multnomah County and a juvenile female in Washington County, according to police. Charges were added in Multnomah County and Rhodes was indicted by a Multnomah County grand jury.
Sign up for the daily 3 Things to Know Newsletter Thank You Something went wrong. This email will be delivered to your inbox once a day in the morning. Thank you for signing up for the 3 things to Know Newsletter Please try again later.
Submit
According to an affidavit, the first case involves sex with a teenage boy.
The boy said he met Rhodes in 2015 via the Grindr dating app. He told Rhodes he was 17 and Rhodes told him that he had a record of sexual crimes and needed to exercise caution. The boy said despite that, they had consensual sex in Gresham and Troutdale.
Rhodes was interviewed by police on Jan. 25 and on Jan. 28. Both times he waived his Miranda rights, according to the affidavit. He acknowledged meeting the boy via Grindr and said the boy told him he was 17.
Rhodes did not admit specifically to sex in Gresham but said he may have had sex. Rhodes did admit to sex taking place in Troutdale, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit does not specify what led police to the victim and Rhodes now. It does say that in 2015, the Oregon Youth Authority informed Portland police that Rhodes reportedly confessed that year to having sex with the victim. At the time, Rhodes was on parole for first-degree sex abuse and first-degree sodomy crimes.
Detectives believe that there may be additional victims that have not come forward. Anyone who is a victim or has information about additional victims is asked to call Detective Jeff Myers at 503-823-0595David Wondrich, one of the world’s top cocktail historians, included the two Denver bars on a list that includes Danny Meyer’s Porchlight in New York and the Teardrop Lounge in Portland, Ore., a pioneer of America’s craft-cocktail bar scene.
Wondrich said he chose the Occidental in LoHi (1950 W. 32nd Ave.) because it’s “a modern, thrilling dive that happens to be owned by Sean Kenyon, one of America’s top mixologists.”
Kenyon also owns the speakeasy next door, Williams & Graham, which was named one of the 50 best bars in the world in 2014.
Wondrich’s suggestions for the best experience at the Occidental is to grab a seat outside on the deck, with its view of the Denver skyline, and order a shorty of Genesee cream ale and a caballito of Los Monjos mezcal.
Where the Occidental is new and hip, Shelby’s Bar & Grill (519 18h St.) is a veteran of the local bar scene, opening in 1979.
When the Carolina Panthers played in the Super Bowl, its fan club met there, and the Denver Post described the place as “much like the Carolinas themselves: hospitable and unpretentious, warm yet sassy, with a proud, 37-year history that hasn’t changed to accommodate moody hipsters or a rainbow of craft beers.”
And Esquire’s cocktail historian likes it because, standing outside, “you’ll look around — all the way around — and you’ll remember that Denver used to be an ornery frontier town, full of crust and character. And then you’ll step back inside and call for another round, and the bartender will tell you to shut up and wait your damn turn like a human being.”
And, he says, you should definitely order a Jameson.SINGAPORE - JUNE 17: Colby Covington reacts after the conclusion of his welterweight bout against Dong Hyun Kim during the UFC Fight Night event at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on June 17, 2017 in Singapore. (Photo by Brandon Magnus/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Colby Covington isn’t looking past Demian Maia but hopes an impressive victory will garner him a title shot with rival Tyron Woodley. Covington explains the bad blood he has towards the champion.
There are a few things that are crystal clear; Colby Covington has become one of the bigger personalities in the UFC, he is looking to make a huge statement against Demian Maia on Oct. 28 and he just plain does not like Tyron Woodley.
Covington will take on Maia in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 119 which takes place at Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil and will air on FS1. “Chaos” has won four consecutive fights including a dominant unanimous decision victory in his most recent performance over, at the time, the no.7 ranked Dong Hyun Kim back in June at UFC Fight Night 111.
The 29-year-old American Top Team-trained Covington is certainly not looking past the always dangerous Maia but he is hoping an impressive performance will set him up for a title shot with welterweight champion and rival, Tyron Woodley. Covington, along with teammate Jorge Masvidal, have become known for their #EasyMoney tour they created on social media. However, if all goes according to plan for Covington, he may have a new hashtag to promote.
“Tyron Woodley; he’s going to be my next opponent,” Covington told FanSided MMA via the SFLC Podcast. “I don’t care what anybody says. After I completely embarrass Demian Maia in his home country and retire him, Tyron Woodley’s next. I’m going to retire him next. People can say whatever they want about my fighting style but I get the job done and I win in very impressive fashion.”
Maia brought an impressive seven-fight winning streak into his long-awaited welterweight title fight with Woodley at UFC 214, which the champ retained the belt via unanimous decision. UFC 214 was one of the most watched pay-per-view events of the year and Covington, naturally, was one of the many who tuned in.
“Yeah, definitely [watched the fight between Woodley and Maia],” Covington said. “I’ll use a lot [from what I learned watching the fight]. I won’t really talk too much about what I saw and was able to pick up on in that fight but I learned a lot in that fight, from both sides.”
Covington stated that he has tremendous respect for Maia and what he has accomplished in the sport. How he views Tyron Woodley is completely different. “Chaos” is not mincing words; the distaste is real.
“It just came from his fakeness,” Covington explained about Woodley. “We trained together at American Top Team a couple of years ago and it’s just his shadiness. As soon as I got to the UFC he acted like he didn’t know me. He tried to act like I was nobody, didn’t give me any respect when I would see him at UFC events. I would say ‘What up?’ to him at events and he would act like he didn’t know me in front of Dana. He’s just fake, man. He’s a shady guy. I don’t trust the guy.
“And then, also, I see his interviews and he’s always playing the victim role,” Covington continued. “C’mon, bro. Just because you’re in boring fights and nobody wants to see you fight anymore and you want money fights, that’s not it. You’re a boring fighter. You’re just not a money fighter. I’m sick of seeing him play the victim and acting like, ‘Oh, everybody’s racist because they think I’m a boring fighter.’ There’s real hate. There’s real bad blood between us and when we get in that Octagon, I swear, this will be the most exciting welterweight title fight you’ve ever seen.”
Recently, Woodley spoke to Sports Illustrated and said that he would welcome the opportunity to move up to middleweight to challenge Georges St-Pierre should he defeat Michael Bisping for the 185-title in the UFC 217 headliner on Nov. 4. The reigning welterweight champion suffered a torn labrum in his successful title defense against Maia and there hasn’t been any word on how much time he will miss. Still, Woodley is interested in a big money fight with St-Pierre, or even Bisping, should he get that chance, which doesn’t surprise Covington.
“I think that’s the easy way out for him,” Covington said of Woodley pondering a move to 185-pounds. “He’s already looking for excuses. After Oct. 28, he’s going to have preventative injuries that he’s going to come up with; ‘Oh, I’m hurt. I can’t fight Colby,’ this and that. He knows what comes from me as an opponent, what I will do to him in the Octagon, and what I have done to him in training. He can say whatever he wants. Deep down inside, he knows what happened when we trained together when I used to whoop his ass at American Top Team.
“Of course he wants to go up to 185 and fight GSP, or an old-ass Michael Bisping who is ready to retire himself. He’s already talking about making his way out of the sport. Of course, he wants the easy fights. He doesn’t want the young, hungry lion on the way up, who he’s already had a taste of getting his ass whooped in the gym again. I think he’s fake. He’s phony and is trying to find a way out of these tough fights already.”
Again, Colby Covington is not looking past Demian Maia and knows he needs to perform impressively in a victory to be put in the title conversation with Woodley. He plans on doing that, and then some, in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Oct. 28 on the biggest night of his professional career.
“It’s very fair to say that I’m going to be cutting a promo on that little b—- [after I beat Demian Maia].”Bitcoin does not as yet pose a threat to existing centralised payment networks, argues Citibank in a new research report, dismissing the digital currency as an interesting experiment with limited use cases for peer-to-peer transfers.
The bank's research team cites problems like scalability, network adoption and lack of a legal/regulatory framework for dispute resolution as drawbacks to more widespread adoption of the virtual currency.
The report points to social payments network Circle, financial inclusion outfit BitPesa, and B2B remittance firm Abra as companies developing interesting niche business cases for bitcoin, but argues that no-one has yet to build a killer app that could propel the crypto-currency into the mainstream.
The authors dispute the idea that bitcoin can provide a cheaper, frictionless payments experience compared to established infrastructures.
"Since the network incurs substantial energy-related costs due to proof-of-work, we believe that these costs will eventually be borne by the users through high transaction fees, which will make it more expensive than centralized networks," the report states.
And while a central bank-backed digital currency could pose a disruptive threat to current bank operations, Citi views this as an improbable "long-tail" risk.
A more likely long-term future for bitcoin may lie in integration with machine-to-machine payments supporting applications in the Internet of Things.
States the report: "We believe an open network like bitcoin combined with mobile, machine learning, big data and the Internet of Things has the potential to create radically new models."WHEN the euro crisis was at its height it became commonplace for struggling European economies to insist that they were not outliers like Greece. Whatever their woes, they declared, Greece’s were in a class of their own. In Latin America, by contrast, the unwanted title of outlier has two contenders: Argentina and Venezuela.
Both have been living high on the hog for years, blithely dishing out the proceeds of an unrepeatable commodities boom (oil in Venezuela; soya in Argentina). Both have been using a mix of central-bank interventions and administrative controls to keep overvalued exchange rates from falling and inflation from rising. Both now face a come-uppance.
Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks.
High inflation is a shared problem. Argentina’s rate, propelled higher by loose monetary and fiscal policies, is unofficially put at 28%. Argentina’s official exchange rate is overvalued as a result, fetching 70% more dollars per peso than the informal “blue” rate in mid-January. Venezuela’s prices are rising faster still. Last year, during an awkward political transition after the death of Hugo Chávez to the presidency of Nicolás Maduro (pictured with Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the Argentine president), the Central Bank stepped up money-printing to finance public spending, pushing inflation to 56.2%. A dollar fetches 75-80 bolívares on the black market, up to seven times the official rate.
Both countries have dwindling arsenals with which to defend their overvalued currencies. Venezuela’s reserves of gold and foreign currency, which stood at nearly $30 billion at the end of 2012, were down to just over $21 billion by last week. Only about $2 billion of that is in liquid assets. Ecoanalítica, a research firm, estimates that the government can also dip into around $13 billion of opaque, off-budget funds. Argentina’s reserves have also been tumbling (see chart).
Something had to give, and late last month it did. Argentina first allowed the peso to plunge, by more than 15% in the week starting January 20th, and then announced a relaxation of the government’s ban on buying foreign currency for saving purposes. Argentines making over 7,200 pesos ($900) monthly are now able to change 20% of their salary into dollars at the official exchange rate so long as they get approval from AFIP, Argentina’s tax agency. The dollars are transferred to their bank accounts, not released in cash, and hit by a 20% fee if withdrawn before a year. If that sounds complicated, it is still cheaper than buying dollars in the illegal market.
The government’s objective seems to be to close the gap between the official and blue exchange rates, alleviating the need to spend more of those precious reserves to prop up the official rate. Although the gap has closed a little, fear that devaluation will lead only to yet higher inflation explains continued high demand for dollars, even at the less favourable exchange rate. So too does the fact that only a third of Argentine workers meet the declared-income threshold for buying dollars, according to analysis by IARAF, a think-tank.
Guido Sandleris of the University Torcuato di Tella says the plan is doomed to failure unless the government becomes more open about its intentions and adopts a genuinely restrictive set of policies to battle inflation. Although the Central Bank this week raised one of its interest rates by a full six percentage points, rates remain below inflation, giving Argentines little reason to hold pesos.
On the fiscal front the government needs to reduce subsidies and remain unyielding in the face of workers’ demands for pay rises. Miguel Kiguel of EconViews, a consultancy, says wage increases to be negotiated in March and April must remain under 30% if they are to serve as an anti-inflationary anchor. That will be hard given lavish pay awards handed out to striking policemen last year.
Whether the government is willing to put prudence before politics is not clear. On the day that her government let the peso’s slide turn into a slump, Ms Fernández announced a plan to fund education for unemployed 18- to 24-year-olds that could cost 11 billion pesos. Her only reference to the currency’s fall was a tweet accusing banks of helping favoured investors to speculate on the peso. There are some people, she wrote, who “want to make us eat soup again, but this time with a fork.”
At least Argentina’s partial liberalisation of currency controls is a halting step towards normality. Venezuela, where the situation is even more perilous, is heading in the other direction. On January 22nd the government unveiled new rules under which a higher rate for non-essential transactions is set weekly (it stood at 11.36 bolívares to the dollar this week). The old rate of 6.3 still applies for government imports and basic items such as food and medicine, so reserves will keep falling as the government defends the currency.
Venezuela is running out of dollars to pay its bills. Although payments to its financial creditors of around $5 billion this year do not appear to be at risk, the country’s arrears on non-financial debt are put at over ten times that sum. These include more than $3 billion owed to foreign airlines for tickets sold in bolívares, and around $9 billion in private-sector imports that have not been paid for because of the dollar shortage. “Under the current economic model, and with this economic policy,” says Asdrúbal Oliveros of Ecoanalítica, “this [debt] looks unpayable.”
The effects are already apparent. Foreign airlines have placed tight restrictions on ticket sales; some have suspended them altogether. Many drugs and spare parts for medical equipment are unavailable. Car parts, including batteries, are increasingly hard to find; newspapers are closing for lack of paper. The country’s largest private firm, Empresas Polar, which makes many basic foodstuffs, is struggling to make some products. In a statement Polar said the government owed it $463m and that production was “at risk” because foreign suppliers of raw materials and packaging were threatening to halt shipments.
The government blames the crisis on private businesses and “irresponsible” use of hard currency by ordinary Venezuelans. It has ordered drastic cuts in dollar allowances for travellers, especially to popular destinations like Miami. Remittances to relatives abroad have also been slashed. In a bid to curb runaway inflation, it has introduced a new law restricting companies’ profits to 30% of costs. Long jail sentences await transgressors.
Without a big injection of dollars from the state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, which brings in 96% of foreign earnings, the crunch will continue. Better terms for foreign investors in the oil industry would bring in much-needed cash and boost stagnant production. But unless the government abandons its antipathy to private capital, the prospect of new investment is dim. Shortages of goods are only likely to worsen. If Argentina is an outlier, Venezuela risks straying into a different category entirely.What does it mean to identify across race lines and to claim a racial identity disconnected from background or biology? Why does so-called reverse passing (white to black) generate such extraordinary attention and controversy? The Rachel Dolezal case reveals a conundrum in race debates that remains unresolved.
Dolezal, who evidently has been passing for black for years as an activist and Africana-studies instructor, maintains that she is black because she feels black. She says that she "certainly can’t be seen as white" and be the mother of a black son. She asserts that her choices are "misunderstood" because "race as a construct has a fluid understanding." Her defense of what some dub deception is consistent with social constructionism, which maintains that there is no biological or essential basis to race and that all notions of racial difference are rooted in culture. And this makes her case especially troubling.
While the bulk of commentary on Dolezal has been condemnatory, some observers have described her as a "Voluntary Negro" to indicate that they "admire," as the black female journalist Camille Gear Rich put it, Dolezal’s "choice to live her life as a black person."
The category "Voluntary Negro," however, was never intended for whites. The term was coined in the 1920s to describe — and honor — light-skinned blacks, like the NAACP official Walter White, who looked white but insisted on being identified as black (and had the black ancestry to back that up). Blacks who might have passed for white, but didn’t, were lionized by their community. Voluntary Negroes were those who expressed loyalty to their "own" race, not those who cross-identified. They became exemplars of what was seen as a proper ethical relation to race, an embodiment of the "race pride" that was the heart of "New Negro" sensibilities. They were celebrated as part of a broader cultural argument for affirming blackness in the face of white prejudice, and as part of the larger energies of black self-determination and self-definition that fueled cultural renaissances in Harlem, Chicago, and elsewhere. Voluntary Negroes became icons of what Alain Locke, often considered the "midwife" of the Harlem Renaissance, called "the admirable principle of loyalty."
What if Dolezal is logically right and culturally wrong?
"New Negroes," committed to "racial solidarity," deplored passing almost as much as white racists, who lived in terror of secret infiltrations of their families. And critiques of passing in the defense of blackness, while widespread, were also often riven by contradictions. Every call for racial "loyalty" and "racial solidarity" risked supporting the pernicious notion that race was innate, biological, predetermined, or fixed — the ideology that we call "essentialism" now and that black intellectuals challenged vigorously. Voluntary Negroes like Walter White — as committed an anti-essentialist as the Harlem Renaissance ever produced — had to use their vaunted status carefully to avoid shoring up everything they opposed.
But the adulation accorded Voluntary Negroes gave some whites the idea that they too could — and should — volunteer for blackness. A number of white women passed for black, or claimed blackness, in the 1920s. And even more white women, drawn by myths of black exoticism, expressed a longing or "prayer" to become "yellow … bronze … or black." Many, like Dolezal, felt, in her words, "isolated and alienated" among other whites. The white British heiress Nancy Cunard, for example, wrote that she "longed" for a "white friend with feelings such as mine." Crossing race lines relieved their alienation and afforded feelings of uniqueness, of being a pioneer who could brave what others would not.
Some of the white women who claimed blackness in the 1920s did so as an act of empathy and solidarity, others as a claim for identity’s mutability and flexibility, echoing Dolezal’s view of the "fluidity" of race. Some felt, like Dolezal, that their experiences as anti-racists gave them insight and even authority about "the black experience." "I speak as if I were Negro myself," Cunard proclaimed. Some believed they had been black in previous lives. "I am a Black God," declared Charlotte Osgood Mason, a white Park Avenue philanthropist who supported both Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.
Advertisement
Others felt they’d experience a stronger sense of community or succeed more easily in the arts in black circles than in white ones. A few white women argued, just as Dolezal has done, that no white mother of black children would still be considered white in a racist society.
When the white Texas artist Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, married to Harlem’s most prominent black journalist, gave birth to their biracial daughter, she noted that she had forfeited her whiteness and achieved a sufficient degree of blackness to write under various black personae. Those included the figure of Julia Jerome, Harlem’s "black" Ann Landers, dispensing advice — including the protocols for black womanhood — to black, female newspaper readers throughout the nation, via Schuyler’s literary passing.
Many of those women argued for their choices in terms that resonate strongly with those who defend Dolezal on the grounds that race is "elective" and that anyone, in Rich’s words, "has a right and dignity to claim the identity of one’s choice." Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, coining a new term to express both institutional racism and social constructionism, dismissed race as a "superstition" to which she owed, in her view, nothing at all. If race was a social fiction and not an essential — or biological — component of being, she and other race-crossing white women maintained, then on what grounds could anyone say that they weren’t black?
Their position, in fact, is logical. And it is hard not to fall back on essentialism ("not your culture"; "you’re appropriating what is not yours") in reply. Cultural experiments like Dolezal’s, or like those of Miss Anne (as Harlem’s white women were called), push hard against all our racial logics. On what grounds can we argue that they’ve transgressed? How do we defend our outrage at their actions? Attempts to do so, and at the same time avoid essentialist or fundamentalist claims for racial difference, often end up leaning on an essentialism that is rarely conceded.
When push comes to shove in debating the ethics of a case like Dolezal’s, it’s difficult not to weave versions of essentialism into narratives of trespass and moral questions of cultural rights and privileges. So these debates can uncomfortably unveil the extent to which the most fervent social constructionists (I am one of them) may harbor hidden essentialisms.
But what if Dolezal and Miss Anne are both logically right and culturally wrong? Even if social constructionism supports Dolezal’s choices, wouldn’t a nuanced understanding of culture suggest that volunteering for an identity is most ethical when — and if — it is also invited, and welcomed, by the community one wishes to join? Recognizing that race is a social construction need not mean believing that race is "elective" or that we can choose to be whatever we want. The same cultural respect that fosters advocacy and activism can help delineate when volunteering slides into imposition and deception.
Ironically, it may be the most difficult and disturbing figures who help to move us forward. As unlikely and sometimes unwelcome as her gestures were in the 1920s, for example, Miss Anne fostered important rearticulations of racial boundaries and possibilities. She lit up contradictions in her culture’s racial thinking. Her messy and often failed attempts to rewrite racial identity served as reminders that the historical illogics of racist ideology cannot be defeated by the logics of racial arguments alone.
Carla Kaplan is a professor of American literature at Northeastern University whose books include Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance (Harper, 2013), a group biography of white women who crossed race lines in the 1920s, and the 2007 Norton Critical Edition of Passing, the 1929 novel by Nella Larsen.CLOSE James Mattis is a retired four-star Marine general who played several leading roles in the military for over 40 years. USA TODAY NETWORK
Retired Marine general James Mattis (Photo: Alex Brandon, AP)
CLOSE President-elect Trump revealed the'secret' that he appointed retired Gen. James Mattis as Defense secretary during his 'Thank You Tour' in Cincinnati. USA TODAY NETWORK
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has selected James Mattis, a legendary, tough-talking retired Marine Corps general who favors a robust military and criticized the Obama administration's approach to war, to lead the Defense Department.
Trump joked about the announcement at a rally Thursday night in Cincinnati.
"We are going to appoint 'Mad Dog' Mattis as our Secretary of Defense," Trump said. "But we're not announcing it 'til Monday, so don't tell anybody."
Mattis retired in 2013 after leading the military’s Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East and Africa. He will require a waiver from Congress to become Defense secretary because the law prohibits veterans who have been retired for fewer than seven years from taking the job. That is expected to be a formality, given support for him from many in Congress, including Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz., the influential chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
Mattis made headlines at a series of prominent commands with blunt talk that appealed to troops and left no doubt about his approach to war. After leading troops in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, he told an audience in San Diego in 2005 that he relished fighting.
"Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot," Mattis said. "It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling. You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."
Those remarks earned him a rebuke from his superiors but didn’t stop his ascent to the military’s most prestigious and taxing posts. Known as the “Warrior Monk,” Mattis also cultivates a bookish reputation.
Mattis is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and has continued to speak out about military policy in retirement. In 2014, he criticized the Obama administration’s plan to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan at the end of 2016, a stand that it has abandoned in favor of leaving about 10,000 troops there to train local forces and fight terrorists.
Deadlines for withdraw, Mattis said then, simply embolden American enemies.
“We want to crush the enemy’s hope to win through violence,” Mattis said. “Yet we have now given the enemy hope that if they hang on until our announced withdrawal date they can perhaps come back.”
Mattis’ views may mesh with Trump’s calls to beef up the military and more aggressively prosecute the war against Islamic State terrorists.
As Defense secretary, Mattis will inherit the ongoing air war in Iraq and Syria, as well as the thousands of U.S. troops on the ground there who training local forces and elite commandos who are targeting leaders of the terrorist organization, also known as ISIL. The war against Taliban insurgents and al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Afghanistan will grind on as well.
He’ll be responsible for more than 1 million active-duty troops and a budget of more than $600 billion annually.
Also on his plate: the increasingly aggressive Russian military, which has seized Crimea from Ukraine and regularly harasses U.S. ships and warplanes operating in international waters and airspace in Europe; and China’s mounting ambitions in the South China Sea where it has built artificial islands and fortified them with landing strips and troops.
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in New York Thursday, and met with Michael Flynn, Trump's choice to be national security adviser. Gates' top priority at the Pentagon, while the wars raged in Iraq and Afghanistan, was the fielding of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles to protect troops from roadside bombs.
In 2005, Mattis was the top officer at the Marine Corps command that allowed a request to field the urgently needed combat trucks to languish. A 2008 Pentagon inspector general report singled out his Marine Corps Combat Development Command for failing to act on an urgent plea for MRAPs to replace vulnerable Humvees.
It wasn't until 2007, after Gates read about the trucks' superior protection in a story in USA TODAY, that he forced the Pentagon bureaucracy to buy them to replace Humvees. The Pentagon and Gates credit MRAPs with saving the lives of thousands of troops.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2grmKIYDemocratic front-runner Hillary Clinton said March 21 that the outcome of American elections in November 2016 will affect the U.S. relationship with Israel, emphasizing that "Israel's security is non-negotiable." (Reuters)
Hillary Clinton forcefully rebuked Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump without naming him onstage at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Monday, suggesting that he lacks the "steady hands" necessary to manage the U.S.-Israel relationship in the future.
With Trump slated to speak hours after her appearance, Clinton set the table by focusing on the challenges awaiting the next U.S. president and implied that Trump’s policy view on Israel is “dangerously wrong.”
“The next president will sit down at that desk and start making decisions that will affect both the lives and livelihoods of every American and the security of our friends around the world. So we have to get this right,” Clinton said. “Candidates for president who think the United States can outsource Middle East security to dictators or that America no longer has vital national interests at stake in this region are dangerously wrong.”
Trump’s impending speech at A |
-generated content. The group of companies and platforms we assess does not include infrastructure providers (e.g. Cloudflare), storage (e.g. Dropbox, Google Drive), communications providers (e.g., Gmail, Outlook), or search engines (e.g. Bing, Google).
The scope of this report does not include several types of censorship. We do not cover removals of child exploitation imagery, or intellectual property removals, restrictions, and reporting. Further, for the two "app stores" we evaluate this year, we limit the scope of our review to developer accounts and the apps themselves.
We also distinguish between how companies censor at the request of governments from how they censor independently. The latter type of private censorship is not the focus of this report. However, many of this report's criteria—including transparent reporting, meaningful notice, and appeals—serve to encourage best corporate practices regardless of whether censorship is driven by governments, companies, or a combination of the two.
Major Findings and Trends
Our major findings include:
Three companies—the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and YouTube —are receiving credit in all five categories.
,, and —are receiving credit in all five categories. The companies that got four out of five stars— Medium, Reddit, and WordPress.com —all missed the same category: meaningful notice.
,, and —all missed the same category: meaningful notice. Facebook's and Instagram's policies fall short of those of other similar technology companies.
's and's policies fall short of those of other similar technology companies. Although many large tech players did not score well in our assessment, it is clear that public pressure and scrutiny around content moderation has paid off.
We are pleased to announce that three companies earned stars in every category we evaluated in this year's report: the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and YouTube. And three more earned stars for all but one of this year's categories: Medium, Reddit, and WordPress.com. These companies serve to provide examples of strong policy language for others hoping to raise the bar on content moderation policy.
Notably, two of the highest-scoring companies are app stores. This means that the users submitting content are typically app developers with strong incentives to comply with guidelines, and that the companies have one primary type of content—apps—to moderate. The Apple App Store and Google Play Store also operate at a relatively smaller scale compared to large social media networks. These variables combine to make it easier for these companies to implement the requirements of this year's report, particularly providing users with meaningful notice and an appeals process.
Also notably, YouTube gets a perfect score as well. As a massive platform with an incredibly diverse user base, YouTube provides a good counterexample to the two app stores. If YouTube can achieve this level of transparency with regard to content takedowns and account suspensions, it's reasonable to expect other companies of its size and scope to also meet that standard.
However, other major companies fell short in more than one category. In particular, Facebook's and Instagram's policies lag behind other social networks and large tech companies. Facebook's transparency report does not meet our requirement to provide detail on all government-requested content removals. Further, Facebook does not commit to providing users with meaningful notice of, nor an appeals process to dispute, many types of content takedowns and account suspensions. Given that Facebook is the site of some of the most controversial content moderation decisions and has the largest number of users among platforms of its type, its decision to deny its users more comprehensive notice and appeals is particularly concerning.
Indeed, providing users with meaningful notice of content takedowns and account suspensions posed the greatest challenge for the companies we assessed. The three companies that earned four out of five stars all missed only the notice category. Notice is a critical component of accountable content moderation. With timely, informative, on-the-record notice, users are in a better position to appeal to companies directly as well as to draw public attention to government targeting and censorship.
Although many companies fell short on notice and other categories, it is clear that intense public scrutiny around content moderation is overall leading to concrete changes for the better in corporate policies. For example, Facebook recently made its internal moderator guidelines more public, and released a preliminary report on its community standards enforcement. In another first, Twitter began reporting recurring terms of service takedowns as well as specific details regarding terrorism-related takedowns.
Content moderation policy and ethics is a complex area that cannot fit neatly into just five criteria. This report is just a beginning snapshot as we look forward to more long-term improvements across the industry.
Overview of Criteria
Only publicly available statements can qualify for credit in this report. Positions, practices, or policies that are conveyed privately or internal corporate standards, regardless of how laudable, are not factored into our decisions to award companies credit in any category.
Requiring public documentation serves several purposes. First, it ensures that companies cannot quietly change an internal practice in the future in response to government pressure, but must also change their publicly posted policies—which observers can note and document. Second, by asking companies to put their positions in writing, we can examine each policy closely and prompt a larger public conversation about what standards tech companies should strive for. Third, it helps companies review one another's policies around content moderation, which can serve as a guide for startups and others looking for examples of best practices.
In this report, we strive to offer ambitious but practical standards. To that end, we only include criteria that at least one major company has already adopted. This ensures that we are highlighting existing and achievable, rather than theoretical, best practices.
We analyzed five criteria for this report:
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests
To earn a star in this category, the service provider must regularly publish records of government requests for takedowns based on claims of legal violations, for instance in its transparency report. This should include, at a minimum, the information necessary to determine:
the number of requests received,
the country from which the request originated, and
the number of requests acted upon and/or the number of posts removed or restricted or accounts suspended.
Takedown requests include requests to restrict public access to the post, including geographic limitation, and account suspensions that limit access to posts for a period of time.
A request is categorized as a "government request" if it is provided through official channels (such as an order issued by a competent judicial authority); if the requestor identifies themselves as a government official or relies upon their governmental position or authority; or if the provider otherwise is aware a government is being represented in the request.
If the service provider is restricted by applicable law from disclosing the request, it may delay including the request until that restriction is lifted and still get credit in this category.
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests
To earn a star in this category, the service provider must regularly publish records of content or account restrictions based upon identifiable government allegations of violations of the provider's policies, such as Terms of Service or Community Standards, regardless of whether the request came through channels for government requests or through customer service channels. This includes government requests alleging facts that lead to a content or account restriction based on a provider's policies.
The provider's reporting should include, at a minimum, the information necessary to determine:
the number of requests received,
the country from which the request originated, and
the number of requests acted upon and/or the number of posts removed or restricted or the number of accounts suspended.
A request is identifiably from a government if it is provided through official channels (such as an order issued by a competent judicial authority); if the requestor identifies themselves as a government official or relies upon their governmental position or authority; or if the provider otherwise is aware a government is being represented in the request.
Provides Meaningful Notice
To earn a star in this category, the service provider must publicly commit to provide meaningful notice to users of every removal and suspension, unless prohibited by law, in very narrow and defined emergency situations,1 or if doing so would be futile or ineffective.2
For legal takedowns, the notice must (1) identify the specific content that allegedly violates the law, and (2) inform the user that it was a legal takedown request. For policy takedowns, this notice must (1) identify the specific content that allegedly violates a provider policy, and (2) include the specific provider policy the content allegedly violates.
This category excludes spam, phishing, and child exploitation imagery.
1 The exceptions should not be broader than the emergency exceptions provided in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 USC § 2702 (b)(8).
2 An example of a futile scenario would be if a user's account has been compromised or their mobile device stolen, and informing the "user" would concurrently—or only—inform the attacker.
Allows Appeals
To earn a star in this category, the service provider must publicly commit to respect due process by providing users with an appeals process. This process must provide users with effective mechanisms to appeal all provider-policy based content and account restriction decisions, including during temporary suspensions. Upon a successful appeal, the account or material must be reinstated promptly.
This category excludes spam, phishing, and child exploitation imagery.
Limits Geographic Scope
To earn a star in this category, the service provider must publicly commit to reasonable efforts (such as country-specific domains or relying upon user-provided location information) to limit legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where the provider has a good-faith belief that it is legally required to restrict the content.
Looking Ahead
We hope this report will encourage more tech companies and platforms to adopt principles of transparency, notice, appeal, and limited scope with regards to government-ordered censorship. Otherwise, tech giants can misuse their power not only to silence vulnerable speakers, but also to obscure how that censorship takes place and who demanded it.
Company Reports
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. Apple has publicly committed to reporting government takedowns in its future transparency reports:
Starting with the Transparency Report period July 1 - December 31 2018, Apple will report on Government requests to take down Apps from the App Store in instances related to alleged violations of legal and/or policy provisions.
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. Apple has publicly committed to reporting government takedowns in its future transparency reports:
Starting with the Transparency Report period July 1 - December 31 2018, Apple will report on Government requests to take down Apps from the App Store in instances related to alleged violations of legal and/or policy provisions.
Provides Meaningful Notice. The Apple App Store publicly commits to notifying users of every app removal with the reason for removal:
Apple sometimes receives notices that require us to remove content on the App Store. We may also remove content for the reasons set forth in the App Review Guidelines or any of our agreements with you. Apple will notify you when and why an app is removed from sale, with the exception of situations in which notification would be futile or ineffective, could cause potential danger of serious physical injury, could compromise Apple's ability to detect developer violations, or in instances related to violations for spam, phishing, and child exploitation imagery.
For account suspensions, Apple does not lock or disable accounts except in relation to security issues.
Allows Appeals. The Apple App Store allows users to appeal app removals, as well as app rejections.
Apple also provides a contact support form for locked or disabled accounts.
Limits Geographic Scope. The Apple App Store has a published policy of limiting legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required:
Whenever possible, apps that are removed from the App Store will only be removed in countries and territories specific to the issue, and will remain available in locations that aren't impacted.
Note: Despite attempts to contact Dailymotion via their contact form, Twitter, and LinkedIn, we did not receive responses.
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. Dailymotion does not publish a transparency report.
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. Dailymotion does not publish a transparency report.
Provides Meaningful Notice. Dailymotion does not publicly commit to providing meaningful notice to users of every removal and suspension.
Allows Appeals. Dailymotion does not have a published policy or process for users to appeal takedowns and suspensions.
Limits Geographic Scope. Dailymotion does not have a published policy of limiting legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required.
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. While Facebook produces a transparency report on government takedown requests that breaks requests down by country and reports the number of pieces of content removed, it does not report the total number of government takedown requests received.
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. While Facebook produces a transparency report on government takedown requests, that report does not include platform policy-based requests.
And while Facebook has produced a preliminary report of its own Community Standards enforcement, that report does not specify instances in which Community Standards violations are reported by governments.
Provides Meaningful Notice. While Facebook has a published policy of notifying users of content takedowns, it limits that notice only to certain categories of policy-based restrictions: "posts that were removed for nudity/sexual activity, hate speech or graphic violence."
Allows Appeals. While Facebook allows users to appeal takedowns, and further commits to timely human review of those appeals, it limits the option to appeal only to certain categories of policy-based restrictions: "posts that were removed for nudity/sexual activity, hate speech or graphic violence."
Limits Geographic Scope. Facebook has a published policy of limiting legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required:
When we restrict content based on local law, we do so only in the country or region where it is alleged to be illegal.
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. Google publishes a transparency report that includes all government takedown requests. The transparency report states:
Governments contact Google with content removal requests for a number of reasons. Government bodies may claim that content violates a local law, and include court orders that are often not directed at Google with their requests. Both types of requests are counted in this report.
Information for each country includes the total number of takedown requests, the total number of items requested for removal, and the percentage of requests in which some content was removed. Country-level reports also categorize the reasons behind requests, as well as describing the details and outcomes of individual requests.
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. Google publishes a transparency report that includes all government takedown requests. The transparency report states:
We also include government requests to review content to determine if it violates our own product community guidelines and content policies.
Information for each country includes the total number of takedown requests, the total number of items requested for removal, and the percentage of requests in which some content was removed. Country-level reports also categorize the reasons behind requests, as well as describing the details and outcomes of individual requests
Provides Meaningful Notice. Google+ does not publicly commit to providing meaningful notice to users of every removal and suspension.
Allows Appeals. While Google+ allows appeals for account suspensions, it does not have a published policy or process for users to appeal content takedowns.
Limits Geographic Scope. Google has a published policy of limiting legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required. Its government requests FAQ states:
Where possible, we remove or restrict access to the content in the country where it is deemed to be illegal.
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. Google publishes a transparency report that includes all government takedown requests. The transparency report states:
Governments contact Google with content removal requests for a number of reasons. Government bodies may claim that content violates a local law, and include court orders that are often not directed at Google with their requests. Both types of requests are counted in this report.
Information for each country includes the total number of takedown requests, the total number of items requested for removal, and the percentage of requests in which some content was removed. Country-level reports also categorize the reasons behind requests, as well as describing the details and outcomes of individual requests
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. Google publishes a transparency report that includes all government takedown requests. The transparency report states:
We also include government requests to review content to determine if it violates our own product community guidelines and content policies.
Information for each country includes the total number of takedown requests, the total number of items requested for removal, and the percentage of requests in which some content was removed. Country-level reports also categorize the reasons behind requests, as well as describing the details and outcomes of individual requests
Provides Meaningful Notice. Google Play publicly commits to notifying users of every app takedown and account termination with the reason for removal.
For takedowns:
If your app violates any of our policies [which include policy against illegal activity], it will be removed from Google Play, and you will receive an email notification with the specific reason for removal.
For account termination, the Google Play Store publicly states it will include a "reason for termination" in the "email sent to your registered developer email address."
Allows Appeals. Google Play allows users to appeal app rejections, removals, and suspensions, as well as account termination.
Limits Geographic Scope. Google has a published policy of limiting legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required. Its government requests FAQ states:
Where possible, we remove or restrict access to the content in the country where it is deemed to be illegal.
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. While Instagram's parent company Facebook produces a transparency report on government takedown requests that breaks requests down by country and reports the number of pieces of content removed, it does not report the total number of government takedown requests received.
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. While Instagram's parent company Facebook produces a transparency report on government takedown requests, that report does not include platform policy-based requests.
And while Facebook has produced a preliminary report of its own Community Standards enforcement, that report does not specify instances in which Community Standards violations are reported by governments.
Provides Meaningful Notice. While Instagram's parent company Facebook has a published policy of notifying users of content takedowns, it limits that notice only to certain categories of policy-based restrictions: "posts that were removed for nudity/sexual activity, hate speech or graphic violence."
Allows Appeals. While Instagram's parent company Facebook allows users to appeal takedowns, and further commits to timely human review of those appeals, it limits the option to appeal only to certain categories of policy-based restrictions: "posts that were removed for nudity/sexual activity, hate speech or graphic violence."
Limits Geographic Scope. Instagram's parent company Facebook has a published policy of limiting legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required:
When we restrict content based on local law, we do so only in the country or region where it is alleged to be illegal.
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. LinkedIn's transparency report does not include government takedown requests.
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. LinkedIn's transparency report does not include government takedown requests.
Provides Meaningful Notice. LinkedIn does not publicly commit to providing meaningful notice to users of every removal and suspension.
LinkedIn's commitment to transparency regarding content blocked from the site states (emphasis added):
When we block content that you have authored due to the local legal requirements of the country from which you access LinkedIn, we will attempt to provide you with a notification that your content has been blocked. LinkedIn would provide this notice to the primary email address that you gave to LinkedIn or through a message on the site. In some cases, local legal requirements may prevent us from providing you with a notification that your content has been blocked.
However, that same page also states (emphasis added):
If your content or the content you attempt to access has been blocked by LinkedIn in all locations because we believe the content is illegal or violates the terms of our User Agreement and/or Professional Community Guidelines, you may not receive a notification that this content was removed.
Allows Appeals. LinkedIn allows users to appeal takedowns and suspensions:
If your account has been restricted or content removed and you believe the action was in error, you can appeal your case and we'll review your account.
Limits Geographic Scope. While LinkedIn's notice policies suggest that it aims to limit the geographic scope of content restrictions when complying with legal takedown requests, it does not have a published policy that explicitly states it will limit legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required.
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. Medium sends all takedown requests it receives to Lumen (formerly Chilling Effects), a database for collecting and documenting legal complaints and takedown requests for online content. Its rules state:
Medium submits to the Lumen database government requests to restrict access to content (redacted where appropriate to protect privacy or prevent harm to a person), regardless of what or whether action is taken on the request. This includes government requests to review content to determine if it violates these Rules or other Medium content policies.
Each record specifies the country from which the request originated and the URL in question, as well as an explanation for the request, the law or regulation that motivated it, and the government agency that made the request.
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. Medium sends all takedown requests it receives to Lumen (formerly Chilling Effects), a database for collecting and documenting legal complaints and takedown requests for online content. Its rules state:
Medium submits to the Lumen database government requests to restrict access to content (redacted where appropriate to protect privacy or prevent harm to a person), regardless of what or whether action is taken on the request. This includes government requests to review content to determine if it violates these Rules or other Medium content policies.
Each record specifies the country from which the request originated and the URL in question, as well as an explanation for the request, the law or regulation that motivated it, and the government agency that made the request.
Provides Meaningful Notice. While Medium has a policy of advance notice before taking down content, as well as a policy of notice specifically for government takedown requests, it does not publicly commit to specifying in that notice the specific content in question and the legal or policy reason for taking it down. Medium also does not commit to providing notice for account suspensions.
Regarding notice before disabling content, Medium's rules state:
Before disabling content associated with your account, we will give you advance notice, unless we believe your account is automated or operating in bad faith, or that notifying you is likely to cause, maintain or exacerbate harm to someone.
Regarding notice for government takedown requests, Medium's rules state:
If Medium receives a request from a government actor to restrict access to content associated with your account, we will notify you unless we are prohibited by law or believe doing so may endanger others.
Allows Appeals. Medium allows users to appeal takedowns and suspensions:
If you believe your content or account have been restricted or disabled in error, or believe there is relevant context we were not aware of in reaching our determination, you can write to us at [email protected]. We will consider all good faith efforts to appeal.
Limits Geographic Scope. Medium has a published policy of limiting legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required. Its rules state:
Where applicable, we will work to limit legally-ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where we have a good faith belief that we are legally required to restrict the content.
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. While Pinterest publishes a transparency report that includes the total number of government takedown requests and the number complied with, it does not break down those requests by country.
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. While Pinterest publishes a transparency report that includes the total number of government takedown requests and the number complied with, it does not break down those requests by country.
Provides Meaningful Notice. Pinterest does not publicly commit to providing meaningful notice to users of every removal and suspension.
Allows Appeals. Pinterest allows users to appeal takedowns and suspensions through its contact form, which is linked from its help center. To appeal content takedowns, users can select "Reporting something" and "Appeal a policy violation removal" from the drop-down menus. To appeal account suspensions, users can select "Getting into my account" and "Appeal account suspensions" from the drop-down menus.
Limits Geographic Scope. Pinterest has a published policy of limiting legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required:
When Pinterest complies with a government request to remove content, we restrict that content from appearing only in the country where the request originated. That content will still be available to all other users.
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. Reddit publishes a transparency report that breaks down all government takedown requests by country, as well as noting the company's compliance rate, the type and number of posts affected, and the reason for their removal. Reasons for removal include "legal reasons."
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. Reddit publishes a transparency report that breaks down all takedown requests from government by country, as well as noting the company's compliance rate, the type and number of posts affected, and the reason for their removal. Reasons for removal include "violation of the Content Policy."
Provides Meaningful Notice. While Reddit has a published policy of providing notice to users whose accounts have been suspended, it does not publicly commit to providing notice to users whose posts have been taken down. In neither case does Reddit publicly commit to notifying users of the reason for the suspension or takedown.
Allows Appeals. Reddit allows users to appeal takedowns, suspensions, and any other decisions by contacting the admins.
Limits Geographic Scope. Reddit has a published policy of limiting legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required. Its transparency report states:
Where appropriate, rather than removing a post outright, Reddit may make the post inaccessible in a particular country ("Geoblock").
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. Snap publishes a transparency report that breaks down all government takedown requests by country, as well as noting the company's compliance rate.
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. Snap does not track this kind of takedown request in its transparency report:
Although we do not formally track when we remove content that violates our policies when a request has been made by a governmental entity, we believe it's an extremely rare occurrence.
Provides Meaningful Notice. Snap does not publicly commit to providing meaningful notice to users of every removal and suspension.
Allows Appeals. Snap does not have a published policy or process for users to appeal takedowns and suspensions.
Limits Geographic Scope. Snap has a published policy of limiting legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required:
When we believe it's necessary to restrict content that is deemed unlawful in a particular country, but does not otherwise violate our policies, we seek to restrict access to it geographically when possible, rather than remove it globally.
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. Tumblr's parent company Oath publishes a transparency report that breaks down all takedown requests from governments by country, as well as reporting the number of requests, the number of "items specified" in those requests, and the company's compliance rate. This includes legal requests.
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. Tumblr's parent company Oath publishes a transparency report that breaks down all takedown requests from governments by country, as well as reporting the number of requests, the number of "items specified" in those requests, and the company's compliance rate. This includes content that violates Oath's Terms of Service and Community Guidelines.
Provides Meaningful Notice. While Tumblr has a published policy of providing notice to users, it does not specify when users may or may not receive notice of government-ordered takedowns or suspensions. Its community guidelines state:
If we conclude that you are violating these guidelines, you may receive a notice via email. If you don't explain or correct your behavior, we may take action against your account.
Allows Appeals. Tumblr allows users to appeal content takedowns and account suspensions through Tumblr's support interface. This interface allows users to choose a category in which their problem fits, including "Terminated blog" and "Blog incorrectly marked as explicit."
Limits Geographic Scope. Tumblr does not have a published policy of limiting legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required.
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. Twitter reports legal takedown requests from governments in its transparency report, specifying:
The removal requests reflected in this section of the Transparency Report only include official legal process, such as court orders served on Twitter, and other legal requests that are specifically directed to our intake channels for law enforcement and other authorized reporters ("Legal Requests"). This section does not include requests, including those submitted by government officials, that are directed to our customer support team through our online support forms.
Twitter reports the number of legal requests per country, the type of legal request, its compliance rate, the number of accounts specified in requests, and the number of tweets and accounts ultimately withheld.
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. While Twitter reports government requests related to platform policy in its transparency report, it does not break them down by country.
Provides Meaningful Notice. While Twitter has a published policy of providing notice to users, it does not provide notice in cases related to "terrorism":
Twitter may notify you of the existence of a legal request pertaining to your account unless we are prohibited or the request falls into one of the exceptions to our user notice policy (e.g., emergencies regarding imminent threat to life, child sexual exploitation, terrorism).
Because Twitter does not commit to providing notice in cases related to "terrorism," a class of content that is difficult to accurately identify and prone to mistakes, it does not earn a star in this category.
Allows Appeals. Twitter allows users to appeal tweet takedowns and account suspensions.
For tweet takedowns:
When we determine that a Tweet violated the Twitter Rules, we require the violator to delete it before they can Tweet again. We send an email notification to the violator identifying the Tweet(s) in violation and which policies have been violated. They will then need to go through the process of deleting the violating Tweet or appealing our review if they believe we made an error.
For permanent account suspensions:
Violators can appeal permanent suspensions if they believe we made an error. They can do this through the platform interface or by filing a report. Upon appeal, if we find that a suspension is valid, we respond to the appeal with information on the policy that the account has violated.
For other types of account locks and suspensions:
If you are unable to unsuspend your own account using the instructions above and you think that we made a mistake suspending or locking your account, you can appeal.
Further, Twitter provides step-by-step instructions for users whose accounts have been temporarily locked or limited, and allows appeals via a specific form for locked or suspended accounts.
Limits Geographic Scope. Twitter has a published policy of limiting legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required:
In our continuing effort to make our services available to people everywhere, if we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time. Such withholdings will be limited to the specific jurisdiction that has issued the valid legal demand or where the content has been found to violate local law(s).."
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. Vimeo does not publish a transparency report.
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. Vimeo does not publish a transparency report.
Provides Meaningful Notice. Vimeo does not publicly commit to providing meaningful notice to users of every removal and suspension.
Allows Appeals. Vimeo does not have a published policy or process for users to appeal takedowns and suspensions. Vimeo's terms of service explicitly state that users whose accounts are terminated may not re-register:
Vimeo may suspend, disable, or delete your account (or any part thereof) or block or remove any content you submitted if Vimeo determines that you have violated any provision of this Agreement or that your conduct or content would tend to damage Vimeo's reputation and goodwill. If Vimeo deletes your account for the foregoing reasons, you may not re-register for the Vimeo Service. Vimeo may block your email address and Internet protocol address to prevent further registration.
Limits Geographic Scope. Vimeo does not have a published policy of limiting legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required.
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. WordPress.com's parent company Automattic publishes a transparency report in which it details both overall and per-country numbers for total takedown requests, whether they are court orders or requests from law enforcement, compliance rate ("percentage of requests where content was removed solely in response to the demand"), and the number of WordPress.com sites specified in requests.
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. WordPress.com's parent company Automattic publishes a transparency report in which it details both overall and per-country numbers for total takedown requests, whether they are court orders or requests from law enforcement, compliance rate ("percentage of requests where content was removed due to a violation of our policies"), and the number of WordPress.com sites specified in requests.
Provides Meaningful Notice. While WordPress.com has a published policy of providing notice to users, it does not specify when users may or may not receive notice of government-ordered takedowns or suspensions:
In some cases, we may add a warning note in your dashboard. It will contain a link that you can use to contact us regarding the issue. We might also disable posting on your site, or discontinue other features on your account.
Allows Appeals. WordPress.com allows users to appeal takedowns, suspensions, or other errors:
We do make mistakes from time to time. If you feel that we've done anything in error, please contact us via the link on your dashboard or by using the form below. A real person will review your request and reply with our decision as soon as possible.
Limits Geographic Scope. WordPress.com's parent company Automattic has a published policy of limiting legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required:
We aim to promote freedom of expression around the world, and are also mindful of local laws that might impact that expression. When we receive an order to remove content, we may block it in only those jurisdictions where it violates local law (aka "geoblock), so that it remains accessible in areas where it may not be illegal.
Further, Automattic documents in its transparency report the countries for which it exercises geoblocking, the websites blocked in those countries, and the error page users see when they attempt to access a geoblocked page.
Transparent About Legal Takedown Requests. YouTube's parent company Google publishes a transparency report that includes all government takedown requests. The transparency report states:
Governments contact Google with content removal requests for a number of reasons. Government bodies may claim that content violates a local law, and include court orders that are often not directed at Google with their requests. Both types of requests are counted in this report.
Information for each country includes the total number of takedown requests, the total number of items requested for removal, and the percentage of requests in which some content was removed. Country-level reports also categorize the reasons behind requests, as well as describing the details and outcomes of individual requests.
Transparent About Platform Policy Takedown Requests. YouTube's parent company Google publishes a transparency report that includes all government takedown requests. The transparency report states:
We also include government requests to review content to determine if it violates our own product community guidelines and content policies.
Information for each country includes the total number of takedown requests, the total number of items requested for removal, and the percentage of requests in which some content was removed. Country-level reports also categorize the reasons behind requests, as well as describing the details and outcomes of individual requests.
Provides Meaningful Notice. YouTube provides notice—or "strikes"—for account terminations as well as content takedowns due to Community Guidelines notifications or legal requests.
For account terminations:
When an account is terminated, the account owner receives an email detailing the reason for the termination.
For content takedowns due to Community Guidelines violations:
Community Guidelines strikes are issued when our reviewers are notified of a violation of the Community Guidelines. … If a strike is issued, you'll get an email and see an alert in your account's Channel Settings with information about why your content was removed (e.g. for sexual content or violence).
For content takedowns due to legal requests:
YouTube makes reasonable efforts to notify creators when their content is restricted due to a legal request.
Allows Appeals. YouTube allows users to appeal takedowns and suspensions.
For content takedowns, users follow the process to appeal Community Guidelines actions.
For account suspensions, users can appeal through a dedicated form.
Limits Geographic Scope. Google has a published policy of limiting legally ordered content restrictions to jurisdictions where such restriction is required: Its government requests FAQ states:
Where possible, we remove or restrict access to the content in the country where it is deemed to be illegal.
Apple App Store
Transparency report on government and private party requests:
https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/transparency/requests-2017-H2-en.pdf
App store information for developers:
https://developer.apple.com/support/app-store/
If your Apple ID is locked or disabled:
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204106
App review information:
https://developer.apple.com/support/app-review/
Dailymotion
Terms of Use:
https://www.dailymotion.com/legal/termsofsales
Facebook
Content Restrictions Based on Local Law transparency report:
https://transparency.facebook.com/content-restrictions
Publishing Our Internal Enforcement Guidelines and Expanding Our Appeals Process:
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/04/comprehensive-community-standards/
Community Standards Enforcement Preliminary Report:
https://transparency.facebook.com/community-standards-enforcement
Google+
Government requests to remove content transparency report:
https://transparencyreport.google.com/government-removals/overview
Government requests to remove content FAQs:
https://support.google.com/transparencyreport/answer/7347744
Form to appeal profile suspension:
https://support.google.com/plus/contact/suspension_appeal
Google Play Store
Government requests to remove content transparency report:
https://transparencyreport.google.com/government-removals/overview
Enforcement:
https://play.google.com/about/enforcement/enforcement-process/
Developer Program Policies:
https://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy/#!?modal_active=none
Contact form for account termination or app removal:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/troubleshooter/2993242?visit_id=1-636616675496211013-209119645&rd=1
and
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/troubleshooter/2993242?visit_id=1-636616675496211013-209119645&rd=1#ts=2993244
App removal information:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/troubleshooter/2993242?visit_id=1-636616675496211013-209119645&rd=1#ts=2993244
Instagram
Content Restrictions Based on Local Law transparency report:
https://transparency.facebook.com/content-restrictions
"Publishing Our Internal Enforcement Guidelines and Expanding Our Appeals Process" Newsroom post:
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/04/comprehensive-community-standards/
Community Standards Enforcement Preliminary Report:
https://transparency.facebook.com/community-standards-enforcement
LinkedIn
Transparency report:
https://www.linkedin.com/legal/transparency
About restricted accounts:
https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/82934
Account/content restricted or removed:
https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/82934?query=account%20restriction
Account suspensions appeal form:
https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/ask/hr
Commitment to Transparency Regarding Content Blocked From Our Site:
https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/46925/linkedin-s-commitment-to-transparency-regarding-content-blocked-from-our-site
Medium
Medium Rules:
https://medium.com/policy/medium-rules-30e5502c4eb4
L |
to a new acquaintance that Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was a favorite film of mine, and after I convinced him that I didn’t just think of it as a kid’s movie (it’s an all ages movie–there’s a difference), he asked me just what was Pee-Wee Herman’s deal. Like, what is he supposed to be? I suspect it’s a question that anyone who doesn’t see the appeal of Herman (the alter ego of actor/writer Paul Reubens) might ask. Pee-wee dresses like a stereotypical 1950s kid with a buzz cut and bow tie, delivers corny jokes and catch phrases in a swallowed voice, and appears to live in a candy-colored funhouse. The best answer I could come up with then, and still, is that Pee-wee is a “man child.”
There are plenty of television shows, movies, and comic strips featuring children who act like adults: hearing seemingly innocent children crack wise like Borscht Belt comedians or swear like sailors may produce cheap laughs, but they’re laughs nonetheless. On the more sophisticated end of the spectrum, Charles Schulz’s classic Peanuts and Berkeley Breathed’s Bloom County, among others, featured children who made sage observations about the existential dilemmas of life or filtered the political concerns of the day through their own experiences. And of course The Simpsons has been making a case for more than twenty-five years that Lisa is more intelligent, sensitive, and mature than her father. Heck, in many episodes Bart clears that hurdle.
The comedy of adults acting like children is trickier, however (witness “jerk-ass Homer” in some of The Simpsons’ weaker episodes), easily veering into the cringe-inducingly maudlin or obnoxious. This is where Pee-wee Herman, as a character, walks a fine line, and his role has changed in the various films and television programs he’s appeared in. In his earliest incarnation as a character Reubens performed on stage, Herman was a child, albeit one with a naughty streak; much of the comedy (as I recall it; it’s been years since I saw the stage show that was broadcast on HBO) emphasized the contrast between his innocent appearance and the mildly risqué situations he found himself in. Being taken for a goody two-shoes just made it easier for him to look up girls’ skirts or deliver double entendres.
Obviously Herman became more family-friendly after the success of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and especially the Saturday morning TV program Pee-wee’s Playhouse, but there was still a sense that Pee-wee was a naif surrounded by more worldly characters. His distrust of feminine entanglement has been a common thread through many of his vehicles. I remember one sketch from his 1985 Saturday Night Live appearance in which a friend confesses his marital problems to Pee-wee, trying to explain in a roundabout way that he might need to find someone to help relieve his “needs.” After Pee-wee offers a series of increasingly ridiculous guesses as to what kind of person his friend is talking about (“an evil mailman”), he finally gives up and says, “Gee, why don’t you just get yourself a hooker?”
As the new film Pee-wee’s Big Holiday opens, Pee-wee is a more familiar kind of man child, an adult (he has a job and a car, for example) who likes his life just the way it is and resists anything that threatens to change it. His structured existence in the idyllic community of Fairville resembles both that of Jim Carrey’s character in The Truman Show and Steve Carrell’s in The 40-Year-Old Virgin (fitting, since Virgin director Judd Apatow produced Big Holiday). The cracks begin to show, however, when he puts off a pushy travel agent (Pee-wee hasn’t left Fairville since he had a bad experience) and a flirtatious librarian (see above re: feminine entanglement). The real crisis occurs when his band, the humorously clean-cut Renegades, break the bad news that they’re splitting up because the other members’ lives are taking them in separate directions. Pee-wee is so distraught that he burns their picture and breaks his flutophone in half.
Enter a cool, mysterious stranger (Joe Manganiello) who, despite his bad boy attitude and good looks (he pulls up on a motorcycle and wears a tight tee-shirt like Marlon Brando in The Wild One) has a lot in common with Pee-wee. They both agree on the superiority of root-beer barrels as the best candy in the world, and they hit it off over Pee-wee’s milkshake, which Manganiello declares “top five, all-time.” Pee-wee gives Manganiello a tour of Fairville, including the miniature model of the town Pee-wee has built in his backyard, but Manganiello is shocked when he realizes how sheltered Pee-wee is. He encourages him to hit the open road, “break some rules and break some hearts,” and as an incentive invites Pee-wee to his upcoming birthday party in New York City.
Manganiello is playing himself, sort of; I wasn’t familiar with him, so I was in the same boat as Pee-wee (although he played Flash Thompson way back in the 2002 Spider-Man movie, so I guess I did see him in that). Manganiello is a winning and hilarious foil to Pee-wee, “cool” in a more traditional way than Pee-wee but eccentric enough to fit into Pee-wee’s world. The best part about his character is that his friendship with Pee-wee is genuine: he really likes Pee-wee and recognizes in him a different kind of cool. Later, Manganiello’s anticipation for his birthday party and his deep disappointment when he thinks Pee-wee isn’t coming are fertile sources of comedy. Like Pee-wee Herman, “Joe Manganiello” is a childlike character, a child’s idea of a rich and famous star who rides a motorcycle around the country and throws lavish (but PG-rated) parties for himself when not acting.
With a motive to leave town, Pee-wee embarks on his journey, and from here the film is completely episodic, and like Big Adventure it consists of encounters with funny characters in a slightly off-kilter version of roadside America. Pee-wee is first carjacked by a trio of buxom bank robbers straight out of a Russ Meyer film, and after he escapes he hitches a ride with a traveling novelties salesman. Later, Diane Salinger (Simone in Big Adventure) turns up as a Katharine Hepburn-like heiress piloting a flying car. One of the running jokes and a constant for Pee-wee’s character is that while he’s good-natured, he isn’t a Pollyana, and while we trust that the world won’t be unnecessarily cruel to Pee-wee, he faces enough zany setbacks to make him (and the audience) wonder whether he’ll make it to Manganiello’s party in time.
While this version of Pee-wee is a little less trusting of the outside world, he still makes friends wherever he goes, and many of the episodes show him being encouraged by his new friends or learning to his surprise that he can handle the rough world outside Fairville. Whether he’s caught in an extended “farmer’s daughter” joke, hitching a ride with a group of sassy hairdressers, or adjusting to life in an Amish hamlet, Pee-wee sees the best in people, even when it would make sense for him not to.
Like many modern reboots and revivals of old properties, this “comeback” is packed with nostalgic callbacks and Easter eggs, remixing an older story by sprinkling in familiar themes, character types, and imagery to summon up the old magic. Instead of the dinosaur-themed truck stop in Big Adventure, there’s a touristy snake farm; the criminal supervixens recall both the movie archetypes that director Tim Burton incorporated into Big Adventure‘s world and more specifically the ex-con Mickey whom Pee-wee befriended in that film; and the famous “Breakfast Machine” from Big Adventure is homaged in an extended Rube Goldberg sequence that stretches all the way down the street from Pee-wee’s house and encompasses every aspect of his morning commute (I was waiting for a joke to reveal that Pee-wee can’t leave town because he spends so much time setting up this contraption).
I’m a big enough fan that I enjoyed those references, but I’m glad to say that the film has plenty of original gags, and that most of the material works well enough on its own, even if you’ve never seen a Pee-wee Herman movie before. And the film is fast-paced enough that jokes that don’t work are quickly left behind for something new. In addition, Pee-wee’s desperate desire to please his new friend and make it to his party is a slightly different dynamic than the search for his stolen bicycle in Big Adventure; after all, there was no risk that his bicycle might not be happy to be found. Unlike Paul Reubens, Pee-wee himself hasn’t aged a day: his voice is a little deeper in a few scenes, and there’s one scene toward the end where he looks a little like John Waters without the mustache, but in general he’s as timeless as the mash-up of time periods in which he lives.
Director John Lee (Wonder Showzen; The Heart, She Holler) captures the sincere but heightened tone of Pee-wee’s world quite well, proving his own surreal brand of humor more than compatible with Reubens’. The many comic performers in the cast are game and then some, and Dan Butts’ production design captures both the Norman Rockwell world of Fairville and the many different locations Pee-wee travels to. Musically, it’s hard to compete with Danny Elfman’s contributions to Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and the circus-themed Big Top Pee-wee, but former DEVO frontman Mark Mothersbaugh (whose film credits have included scores for Rushmore and The Lego Movie) provides an enjoyably quirky score; the highlight is a slightly cracked Leonard Bernstein-style salute to New York.
To sum up, I’m probably too close to tell you whether this is a fans-only proposition, but as a fan, I liked it. It’s not quite on the level of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, but since I’ve already revealed that’s one of my favorite movies of all time, that’s no great criticism. It’s streaming on Netflix Instant now, so I invite you to give it a try. What have you got to lose?
AdvertisementsHouston is reeling from Hurricane Harvey. Houses on the Texas Gulf Coast were devastated over the weekend, and tens of thousands of people fled their homes. The National Weather Service expects the rain to continue through Thursday. And the Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates more than 30,000 people will be housed in temporary shelters, calling for all hands on deck in helping Texas recover from the disaster.
But for unauthorized immigrants, dealing with the aftermath of a natural disaster has an extra layer of complexity and risk.
There are more than 400,000 immigrants without proper documents in Houston, according to the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative. To put them at ease, FEMA put out the following statement on its website, under a portion titled “Rumor Control”:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has stated that it is not conducting immigration enforcement at relief sites such as shelters or food banks. In the rare instance where local law enforcement informs ICE of a serious criminal alien at a relief site that presents a public safety threat, ICE will make a determination on a case-by-case basis about the appropriate enforcement actions.
The disaster relief agency pointed to an ICE-CBP statement issued Friday that said, “Routine non-criminal immigration enforcement operations will not be conducted at evacuation sites, or assistance centers such as shelters or food banks.”
However, as The Intercept reported the same day, the ICE-CBP statement is not entirely forthcoming. While the agencies committed to prioritizing “life-saving and life-sustaining activities,” a CBP spokesperson confirmed to The Intercept that border patrol would continue to operate checkpoints so long as state highways remained open.
The best news for undocumented immigrants in need of shelter, meanwhile, may be that shelters tend not to be run by the government. “Most shelters are managed by local communities, the Red Cross, and other voluntary agencies,” FEMA noted in its statement, and the Red Cross will not request identification from people seeking to stay at its shelters.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also said on Friday that people seeking shelter would not be asked to present identification. “It’s my understanding, from what I saw from the border patrol instructions yesterday, that it will not be an issue,” Abbott said to MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle.
So far, there have been no reports of immigration authorities using the disaster as a way of rounding up and deporting people. Astrid Dominguez, an immigrants’ rights activist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said she had not heard about any enforcement action so far. “That’s been one of the main concerns from the community,” Dominguez said. “I think the community is coming out because we understand how dangerous the situation is, and want people to call the police, and don’t be afraid of doing so. So far we have not heard of any actions on [immigration] enforcement.”
But over the last eight months, ICE has carried out President Donald Trump’s agenda to ramp up immigration enforcement by carrying out operations in traditionally safe spaces — including a church homeless shelter and courthouses — in the name of public safety. Given what we know about ICE’s ongoing enforcement practices, FEMA’s statement leaves open the question of whether the agency will cooperate with aggressive immigration enforcement agents if they do show up.
And some changes between the public statements put out by immigration authorities before and after Trump send a signal that anything is possible. In 2012 and again in 2016, for hurricanes Matthew and Isaac, ICE and CBP used the same language in both their statements (emphasis added):
In light of Hurricane Matthew, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) highest priorities are to promote life-saving and life-sustaining activities, the safe evacuation of people who are leaving the impacted area, the maintenance of public order, the prevention of the loss of property to the extent possible, and the speedy recovery of the region. As such, there will be no immigration enforcement initiatives associated with evacuations or sheltering related to Matthew, including the use of checkpoints for immigration enforcement purposes in impacted areas during an evacuation.
That assurance, in this year’s statement, was replaced with the vague wording about “routine non-criminal immigration enforcement.” Highlighting how fraught the issue has become for federal agencies, a spokesperson for FEMA would only speak on background in order to say the agency is heavily engaged in ongoing, lifesaving efforts in response to the hurricane — referring additional questions to ICE.
If ICE does try to step in, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said he’d represent those swept up himself.
“There is absolutely no reason why anyone should not call [for help]. And I and others will be the first ones to stand up with you,” Turner, who is an attorney, told reporters on Monday. “If someone comes and they require help and then for some reason tries to deport them, I will represent them myself.”
Alex Emmons contributed reporting.Will Toledo says regular touring has honed his band’s performance skills.
Singers can be picky about how they record their vocals. Some like to have the studio lights out while overdubbing, others prefer going full tilt live with the band. Will Toledo is different. The bulk of his recorded vocals so far have been done in the back of his car, often in a supermarket parking lot in his home town of Leesburg, Virginia.
That’s one of the things that set apart Toledo and his band Car Seat Headrest, so named because of the singer and songwriter’s line of sight during his formative recording career.
“I was a fairly introverted person,” says Toledo, 24, who with his band is about to make his Australian debut with performances at Laneway Festival and sideshows in Sydney and Melbourne. “I wanted to make music, but I wanted a private place to do that. I didn’t have the resources to go into a studio. I didn’t feel confident in my music enough to take it to other people in a group setting.
Read Next
“The most isolated I could be was in the car, parked somewhere away from home.”
It was from this isolation that Toledo’s quirky pop creation Car Seat Headrest emerged in 2010. Over the next three years the band released 11 albums, all of them posted on popular streaming site Bandcamp, just as a means of getting his music out to an audience rather than as a commercial exercise. They became a cult success.
Teens of Denial by Car Seat Headrest.
The cottage industry nature of the operation changed in 2015, however, when Car Seat Headrest signed to indie label Matador and released the album Teens of Style, featuring re-recorded versions of some of the best tunes from the Bandcamp period, such as Something Soon, Sunburned Shirts and Times to Die. Last year their profile rose rapidly on the back of another album, Teens of Denial, which garnered international acclaim. Thirteen albums in, Car Seat Headrest is on its way.
Toledo acknowledges that Teens of Denial has been a game-changer in his fledgling career.
“This album has been much more widely distributed and talked about than any other record,” he says. “It’s something I’d planned for. I spent a long time working on the songs and the recording. Obviously I wanted it to be more of a hit because I’ve been working kind of underground for a while. It’s designed to be a good entry point into the band.”
It wasn’t all plain sailing once he had stepped up. Car Seat Headrest’s rise was based largely on word spreading online, whether through streaming or YouTube or social media. The release of Teens of Denial led some devout followers to feel he had sold out, but Toledo doesn’t accept that.
“It was a warped perception of my popularity at the time,” he says. “Certain people felt I had gotten too popular and I had compromised my music. Firstly, that didn’t happen and, secondly, it wasn’t actually popular at all. It was just people seeing my name popping up a lot. If you’re engaged in music culture you’re not always going to get support. It’s a matter of taste.”
Toledo’s music is an odd but infectious hybrid of influences, from the 1960s pop of the Beatles and Phil Spector through to Talking Heads and more contemporary artists such as Magnetic Fields and Franz Ferdinand.
“It’s reflective of my musical journey,” says Toledo. “I started out liking 60s pop like the Beatles and the Who and then slowly branched out to alt 90s music. And then I got interested in all kinds of music. There’s certainly a lot going on with Denial. It was meant to be an homage to older records I grew up with — 60s and 70s rock records — but there are more rhythmic influences going on as well.”
Toledo made another journey that has had a significant impact on his career. In 2014, after graduating in Virginia, he moved to Seattle, Washington, with the intention of finding more opportunities to develop his craft. There wasn’t a lot going on in Leesburg, he says.
“Virginia’s not much of a music place and most of my friends I’d gone to college with left there,” he says. “For some people who stay in their home town that can be a depressing thing and I didn’t want to be a part of that, so I went as far away as possible for a while. Seattle is known as a good music city so I wanted to make a few connections there.”
The transition from bedroom and car to studio and stage has been a steep learning curve for the young musician. As a teenager churning out those early albums he had no real idea of making it a full-time gig, but the Matador deal changed everything and he has spent much of the past year on the road with his band, learning how to deliver in front of an audience.
“Certainly I hoped it could be something large,” he says. “I always knew that I wanted to do something with art in my life and I’ve always had an affinity for music. For a long time it was hard to see how it could become anything when I was just making it on my own. I didn’t have any connections. I was just putting out music for a very small number of followers.
“But slowly it grew and that attracted a few people from the industry and everything kind of snowballed from there.”
To begin with, Toledo says, he didn’t have a lot of faith in his ability to win over a crowd. “I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my performance ability,” he says. “But you get better at that. We’ve been touring solidly for well over a year now and my voice has gotten so much stronger and we’ve gotten way tighter as a band. We started out wondering if we could do a good show and now we’re at a point where we’d really have to make an effort to do a terrible show. We’ve stopped complaining after every show about how much we sucked and gotten quite comfortable with it. It got easier to make music in public the more they were supportive of it.”
Now that he’s on a more conventional career trajectory than when he was releasing a new album every few months, Toledo is still keen to get moving on making new music and will go back into the studio after this Australian trip.
“I’m still generating a lot of material,” he says. “For most of last year I was writing but not recording. I’m pretty excited to get working on the next release, which will be at the end of this year.”
Car Seat Headrest performs at Laneway Festival in Brisbane, January 26; Melbourne, January 28; Adelaide, February 3; Sydney, February 4; and Fremantle, February 5; plus sideshows in Sydney, January 25, and Melbourne, February 2.
Iain Shedden Music writer Iain Shedden became The Australian's music writer in 1998. He interviewed some of the biggest names in music and wrote profiles, news, reviews and Spin Doctor - a weekly column for Review. He also spent many ye... Read more
Read NextAbout 24 hours after he was charged with misdemeanor assault, Republican Greg Gianforte was elected Thursday night to represent Montana in the House of Representatives.
Gianforte was projected to win the race at about midnight by Cook Political Report analyst Dave Wasserman and the Decision Desk. At the time of the call, his lead was roughly 10 percentage points.
Gianforte, 56, defeated Democrat Rob Quist in what once might have been considered an unexpectedly close special election for a House seat vacated by former Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), now President Donald Trump’s interior secretary.
Gianforte will take office even after he allegedly body-slammed Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs, who was sent to the hospital for an X-ray on his elbow at a campaign event on Wednesday night. Gianforte won’t be the only member of Congress facing criminal charges, but the eleventh-hour assault charge appears to be without precedent in modern American politics, according to two congressional scholars.
Due to early voting in the state, close to two-thirds of ballots had been cast before news of the Jacobs assault even emerged. The story was widely covered in the Montana press, but it’s far from clear if it moved any votes.
At polling place in Bozeman, haven't found anyone yet who changed their mind bc of last night's events. #MTAL — Alexis Levinson (@alexis_levinson) May 25, 2017
While we don’t know the final margin, the victory also has Republicans nationwide breathing a sigh of relief. A Democratic upset in one of the most Republican-leaning seats in the country would have galvanized the minority party, boosted its recruitment efforts, and may have even stalled the GOP legislative agenda in Congress. Instead, in a third consecutive special election, Democrats came up just short.
Who were the candidates in Montana’s special election?
Even though the Montana race may have consequences for evaluating the national political landscape, the outcome may have been just as shaped by the personalities and personal eccentricities of the candidates themselves.
Quist is renowned at home as a founding member of the Mission Mountain Wood Band (M2WB). Attacked by his opponents as a “cowboy hat wearing hippie,” Quist praised Bernie Sanders, campaigned with the Vermont senator, and made affordable health care and defending public lands the centerpieces of his campaign. He’s well known in the state for his music, which led to headlines about “the poet” running for Congress and allows Quist to get away with campaign lines like, “I’ve really been representing Montana through my music and poetry all my life.”
More recently, Quist has come under a barrage of criticism for his personal financial history. In 2013, he was sued by Mission Mountain Wood Band bassist Steve Riddle for breach of contract. In May, the Associated Press revealed that Montana filed three tax liens to collect about $15,000 in back taxes from Quist. A subsequent AP report showed that he underreported his income by $57,000 — an embarrassment Republicans seized on immediately.
Quist’s opponent has had reams of bad headlines of his own. Gianforte was born in California, educated in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and only came to Montana in 1995. After moving to Montana, Gianforte sued to try to keep people from being able to fish in a stream that ran by his property.
As the Huffington Post notes, Gianforte ran for governor and lost to Gov. Steve Bullock (D-MT) in 2016. In the process, he spent more than $5 million of his own money in a failed gubernatorial bid. That was good for airing 30,661 television ads — more than that of any other state candidate in history, a staggering figure in such a small state.
Gianforte’s career led Quist to seek inroads with voters by portraying his opponent as a corporate stooge. “The other choices we’re offered are really connected to corporate America, which in a lot of ways has undue influence on the politics of our country,” Quist told the Guardian. “My goal is to be a strong, independent voice for the people of Montana.”
And then there was the late-breaking news Wednesday that Gianforte had apparently attacked a reporter at a barbecue over a question about the Congressional Budget Office’s assessment of the impact of House Republicans’ health care bill.
None of that was apparently enough.
A close Montana race could bolster Democratic recruiting efforts
In 2016, House Democrats didn’t just face the obstacle of gerrymandering when going up against the GOP. They also ran a slew of extraordinarily weak candidates in red but achievable districts, including someone who had been unemployed for the past six years and a beekeeper with no elected experience.
Democrats hoped a Quist win would help change that. Victories in the special elections are seen as encouraging better Democratic candidates to throw their hats into the ring.
“If the general feeling is that it represents a warning sign for Republicans, that has strong implications for whether Democratic candidates jump in for 2018,” said Dave Hopkins, a Boston College political scientist, in an interview last week.
And the reverse effect also holds: If Republicans sense they’re in for a rough reelection bid, then vulnerable Republican incumbents will race toward the exits — creating more opportunities for House Democrats.
“There’s a self-fulfilling prophecy here, as incumbents consider retirement thinking they’ll face a tough race, which in turn makes the field tougher for Republicans,” Hopkins said.
Montana’s special election result suggest that Republicans can still win — and that may encourage vulnerable but formidable incumbents to try holding onto their seats.While first-round pick Justise Winslow was the featured rookie in Sunday's preseason-opening 90-77 loss to the Charlotte Hornets at AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami Heat second-round pick Josh Richardson was thankful for his brief opportunity to get his initial jitters out of the way.
"I was excited," Richardson said Monday. "It was tough to slow my mind down when I got on the court. But I talked to guys like Amar'e Stoudemire in the locker room after, and they were like, 'It's tough when you start out, you know, the game's moving so fast.' But they said I looked all right, so that's encouraging."
Richardson, the guard out of Tennessee who was selected at No. 40 in the second round, 30 picks after Winslow went at No. 10, played the final 5:40, missing both of his shots, with his lone statistic a steal.
Richardson said it was helpful having the previous experience of summer league under his belt.
"The first day of summer league, I was shaking when I walked on the court, just nervous," he said. "I wasn't nervous or anything like that [Sunday]. It was just the game was moving fast.
The Heat showed a lot of new moving parts on the court against Charlotte, the biggest of which was the return of Chris Bosh. The Heat showed a lot of new moving parts on the court against Charlotte, the biggest of which was the return of Chris Bosh. SEE MORE VIDEOS
"I mean, I can adapt. It's not a problem."
He did not take his first action in an official Heat game jersey for granted.
"It was cool just growing up watching them my whole life and wanting to do it and being able to step on the court for the first time was great," he said.
Now, he said, he can slow down while moving forward, a lesson he learned from Heat guard Dwyane Wade.
"Coming in first, I had one speed, just go fast everywhere," he said of his initial steps as a pro. "I thought that would get me to where I needed to be at. But the NBA is a game of pace. Just being able to watch guys like D-Wade play every day, and they play at their own pace, it's good to be able to learn from that."
Staff augmented
The Heat on Monday named two assistants for the coaching staff of their NBA Development League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
Named to work under coach Dan Craig, the former Heat assistant, were Octavio De La Grana and Corey Belser.
De La Grana, who previously served as a Skyforce assistant, last season was named the Heat's director of minor league operations and will retain that title. He is expected to split his time between Sioux Falls and South Florida.
Belser served as a Skyforce assistant last season under Phil Weber, who since has joined Alvin Gentry's coaching staff with the New Orleans Pelicans.
[email protected]. Follow him at twitter.com/iraheatbeat or facebook.com/ira.windermanTHE mother of a severely autistic boy has praised a “little act of kindness” from a warm-hearted supermarket worker.
Catherine Newell, from Hove, said she regularly faces abuse and a lack of understanding from members of the public over her son Axel’s behaviour.
However, a kind café worker at Waitrose in Nevill Road, Hove, went out of her way to help.
Heloise Crafer made a special drink for the boy, who has food intolerances and is not allowed milk or soya.
Heloise tried out several different products from the supermarket aisles to create the perfect frothy beverage for Axel, testing different concoctions to see which made the best foam.
Axel, 12, is so severely autistic he has to live in a care home away from his mother most of the week and is unable to talk to explain his anxieties.
When he was recently diagnosed with food intolerances his trips to his favourite café became extremely difficult.
He was not allowed anything on the menu and Catherine said the sudden ban on his favourite frothy milk was hard for him to understand. Catherine, 48, said: “Axel is a child with very severe autism and we often get really nasty comments from people. The public can be really intolerant.
“One time a man walked up to us and said ‘disgusting’ to us. By the time I had fully taken in what he said he had gone so I couldn’t give him a piece of my mind.
“My son is very noisy and does disturb people but I was so touched by Heloise’s little act of human kindness.
“I want to show the nice things people can do. These little things can make our lives so much nicer. People like Heloise should be celebrated.
“I thank Heloise, Waitrose and anyone who makes a little effort to do something nice for someone else.”
Heloise Crafer told The Argus: “We are delighted we were able to help Axel and his mum.”
Catherine, 47, runs a Facebook page dedicated to sharing her experiences of her son’s autism – her post about Heloise has received hundreds of likes.
To visit her page, go to facebook.com/CatherineNewellAndAutismSate your afternoon sugar cravings with a dead-easy chocolate cake recipe that only requires hot chocolate mix, flour, an egg, cooking spray, and oil (all stuff you've got in your pantry anyway). Grab the biggest microwavable coffee mug you've got in your cupboard, and cover the inside with cooking spray. Mix up four tablespoons of flour and nine tablespoons of hot chocolate mix, then throw in three tablespoons of water, three tablespoons of oil and one egg. Once it's thoroughly mixed into an even batter, microwave the whole shebang for three minutes on high. Watch how high it rises from the cup in the video below:Click to view When you hear that BEEEP of completion, you'll have yourself a piping hot, single-serving cake in a cup. In the name of research (ahem), I gave this a try myself this afternoon, and the result was—well, not the best cake I've ever had. Actually, it was kind of gross. The texture much less cake-y than one would expect and much more gummy than you'd ever want. I also made the mistake of using some fancy-pants hot chocolate mix from Jacques Torres back in Brooklyn that clearly wasn't meant to be microwaved with an egg. That said, I'm going to give this a try once I get ahold of some plain old Swiss Miss and see what happens—the result was indeed instant, hot, chocolate cake, and even the worst chocolate cake is better than no chocolate cake. See also no-knead bread and omelets in a bag for more wacky DIY recipe shortcuts, and hit the link below for more cake-in-mug details.
Make Cake in a Mug [Wired How-To Wiki]The city will bite the bullet and spend $500,000 from a parkland fund to replace the harsh artificial turf at Minto Field, a decision that one field hockey coach calls “a bad deal for taxpayers.”
Brian Lee, who coaches field hockey in Ottawa, said the city is spending a large sum of money to appease one football club, while field hockey teams will be left without a field during the turf swap.
Lee believes “the quality of field hockey facility will be degraded” and the turf will likely lose its national-level standard for the sport.
Dan Chenier, the city’s general manager of parks and recreation, confirmed that the city will replace the relatively new artificial turf with another turf with slightly longer blades after consulting with groups who use Minto Field at the Nepean Sportsplex.
The city paid $1.3 million to upgrade the field from the old AstroTurf in 2015, but football clubs, particularly the Myers Riders, flagged the unsafe abrasiveness of the new turf, forcing teams to find other fields out of their district.
The outcry prompted the city to reconsider the turf product.
The city will install a football-friendly turf made by Nexxfield with blades 34 millimetres long, rather than a 25-millimetre alternative that would have been better for field hockey.
A sand ballast, which is the infill between the turf blades, will be applied to the field. The existing cushion below the turf will remain.
The main complaint from football teams is the abrasiveness of the existing turf, which has blades 18 millimetres long.
The city decided to go with the longer turf after discussing a new product with Nexxfield and listening to football representatives, Chenier said.
“The feeling is it will be virtually identical to the (25-millimetre) product after a year of use,” Chenier said, noting that the city wanted to make sure football teams have a decent turf.
The turf will be safe for football even when it mats down, he said.
Work will be done around July and August with hopes of having the field ready for the fall football season.
However, it would mean field hockey teams that use the turf for games and practices in late summer would lose their field.
Lee said the Outaouais Field Hockey Club, which he coaches, probably won’t be able to play anywhere else since natural grass fields aren’t suitable for the sport.
The money to replace the turf at Minto Field will come from a citywide cash-in-lieu of parkland account, Chenier said. The account collects funds from developers who can’t provide mandatory park space in new projects.
Some of the dismantled turf will be immediately repurposed.
“We’re going to use some of the turf that we’re pulling up to create a small practice field for field hockey, just to the north of the existing field but still within the Minto Field compound,” Chenier said. “During our consultation with the group, they said this would be something really valuable to them and a good use of the turf.”
Chenier said the city is looking at other ways to use the rest of the ripped-out turf.
“By the time we’re pulling it up, I’m sure we’ll have lots of ideas,” Chenier said.
In an effort to bolster the supply of football gridirons in south Ottawa, the city is also working to secure a lease for the natural grass field at the former Confederation High School, which is next to the Nepean Sportsplex.
Federal land-use approval came through last week and now it’s up to the city and the National Capital Commission to settle a five-year lease, which Chenier said would be a “nominal” cost to the city.
Landscapers would fix the ruts and replace the goalposts, but the city isn’t intending to install lights during the initial lease period.
The Myers Riders is also expected to be the main customer for the natural grass field, but it would be open to anyone for bookings. The city hasn’t decided if the field will be primarily for football, but Chenier said it’s likely that soccer nets will be put there.
[email protected]
twitter.com/JonathanWillingPlanned Parenthood campaigned hard for Hillary Clinton. It’s now clear why, as Republicans investigate federal funding for the abortion giant and alleged |
, white working-class people feel that they have a future. And that’s going to require a reorientation of their own.More than 35,000 people showed up in Ballston for the Taste of Arlington last week to drink beer, listen to live music, and sample food from some 40 area restaurants. But for eight of the chefs and restaurateurs serving the sunburned masses, the stakes were high. As contestants in Ballston’s Restaurant Challenge, they were competing, Top Chef–style, for the chance to win a fully equipped restaurant in the neighborhood.
The prize is serious: Brookfield Office Properties teamed up with the Ballston BID to offer an 11-year lease—with 12 months of free rent—at 1110 N. Glebe Road, a $245,000 interest-free loan, and free legal services and financial advising. Chef Mike Isabella, who will open Kapnos Taverna in Ballston this year, was brought in to headline.
By all appearances, it seemed this part of the competition would be left up to democracy. A press release from the Ballston BID leading up to the event implied as much: “Taste of Arlington attendees will vote for their favorite contestant using the BallstonConnect mobile app. Two winners will then be selected to move on to the June 4 cook-off finale in the restaurant space.” No other judging criteria or judges were mentioned.
In reality, though, the public vote was completely meaningless. The 263 votes yielded one decisive victor: Kristen Robinson, an instructor for the Art Institute of Washington and alum of Westend Bistro. Her market, bar, and tasting room concept, Laurel, won more than a third of the total votes.
But Robinson will not move on to the next round of the Restaurant Challenge. Instead, Del Campo and Taco Bamba chef/owner Victor Albisu was named one finalist for his casual Mexican restaurant concept Bombazo. Christiana Campos, who hopes to open a Spanish tavern called Casita, is the other.
It turns out there was another panel of 10 judges who also evaluated the contestants. The judges were featured on the Taste of Arlington website, but not as part of the Restaurant Challenge; the site said the judges would pick best appetizer, entree, and dessert from the 40 or so other restaurants in attendance that day.
But even the judges weren’t the ultimate arbiters of who would move to the next round, although they did give Campos and Albisu the highest scores on food. For all the spectacle and guise of community involvement, there was really only one judge that mattered: Brookfield Office Properties.
* * *
The Restaurant Challenge began as a spinoff of the LaunchPad Challenge, a similar competition for startups launched by the Ballston BID last year. After it concluded in December, Ballston BID CEO Tina Leone says one of her board members, Brookfield Office Properties VP and Regional Counsel Simon Carney, approached her about a property where he was hoping to attract a unique restaurant operator. “It just dawned on us, ‘Why not make this a challenge?’” Leone says.
Carney saw it as a triple win: The competitors would get exposure, Ballston could bolster its image as a dining destination, and Brookfield would get a strong new tenant. “The Ballston Restaurant Challenge is aimed at bringing a signature restaurant to Ballston and enabling an aspiring restaurateur to achieve their goals here,” Leone said in a press release calling for applications in February.
But the contest actually wasn’t just for “aspiring” restaurateurs who might not otherwise have the resources to open a place. A couple of the semifinalists already own restaurants, including the owners of The Daily Dish—and, of course, Albisu. Albisu told Washingtonian he plans to open a restaurant in Ballston, win or lose. Albisu’s publicist told me the chef wouldn’t be able to comment on the competition this week because he is in “the midst of working out some things related to the Restaurant Challenge.” She wouldn’t elaborate on what that meant.
Competing against established restaurateurs surprised semifinalist David Ivey-Soto. The culinary educator and caterer says he wouldn't be able to open a restaurant without the help: “I definitely saw it as an opportunity for someone to start their own restaurant, as opposed to open up store No. 2 or 3.”
But Brookfield’s Carney says that wasn’t what he had in mind: “We wanted to make sure we had an open competition, so that people who had experience or didn’t have experience felt that they could compete.”
The real goal was to bring in a strong operator who’d be able to attract foot traffic to a less buzzy corner of Ballston. Leone says one of the reasons Brookfield offered such an attractive incentive is because of the tricky location: It’s a little further from the Metro than the main cluster of restaurants in Ballston. Until the redevelopment construction for Marymount University’s Ballston campus is complete, “getting people to cross that street is a challenge,” Leone says of North Glebe Road. The space’s previous tenant, Red Parrot Asian Bistro, closed in December after only nine months. “Whoever goes into that space has got to be a destination restaurant,” Leone says.
The Ballston BID received about 25 applications, which a panel including Leone, Carney, Isabella, and other Ballston BID board members cut to eight semifinalists based on their business plans, financial projections, concepts, and fit with the neighborhood. Some attendees voted at the Taste of Arlington with the belief that they were helping to further narrow the field. “A lot of my friends and family were like, ‘Well, I thought since you were winning fan favorite, that that meant you were going on to the next round,’” Robinson says.
Contestants were more in the loop: In a conference call for semifinalists a week before the event, the organizers made clear that the fan favorite wasn’t necessarily the winner. Zena Polin of The Daily Dish, another semifinalist, says she personally thought the majority of the process was transparent.
But there was still plenty of frustration among contestants about the way the Taste of Arlington competition was run. “Oh, you don’t want me to go there…I don’t want to say exactly what I think,” says semifinalist chef Jacques Imperato. “The whole thing was very weird.” He says it wasn't clear what the judges were looking for, and that they picked up their dishes late—during the busiest part of the afternoon—when the food wasn’t at its freshest. Plus, he says, “I saw one of the judges tasting my soup with a fork.”
Ivey-Soto says organizers told him that the judges would be stopping by the booths, but they never did. Instead, he brought food to them. He had designed a logo for his proposed Cuban and Caribbean restaurant, had uniforms made, and created a banner for the menu. “The judges never saw that,” he says. Ivey-Soto says he was aware that the Taste of Arlington was only one factor in who would make the finals, but he wasn’t sure how the different criteria were being assessed. He wasn’t aware that it was actually representatives from Brookfield who would make the final decision.
“The ultimate decision, really, is with Brookfield,” Leone says. “They are the property owner and manager, and they are the people that are doing this. However, Mike [Isabella]’s influence was very strong.” Leone says the decision on the finalists was based not just on food, but on the cumulative strength of the contestants’ business plans, experience, and more.
Asked if she thought the press release touting the public vote at Taste of Arlington was misleading, Leone says, “I thought our press release was clear, and I apologize if people were confused. You’re talking about a business that has to be sustainable and viable. The public can’t vote on that. That is a real heavy decision…I would think that people would understand that this is not like Top Chef Bravo.”
Except that the whole thing seemed to be promoted just like Top Chef, complete with one of the show’s own stars, Isabella. That’s the problem with applying a reality TV plot to real life: It’s great marketing, but not so practical. The Ballston BID and Brookfield Office Properties realized that picking a tenant is a serious decision that shouldn’t be left up to a couple dishes or a panel of judges, yet they put on the whole charade anyway.
The winner of the popular vote, Robinson says she wasn't sure who the judges were, or even how many judges there were. “They wouldn’t even tell us how we were judged either,” she says. “Since it was Taste of Arlington, I had assumed it was based on the food, so I put all my effort into making really good food over the course of four days of preparation.” She also put in nearly $2,000 of her own money in food and supplies.
Carney says the public vote “was an aspect of the general Taste of Arlington, and it wasn’t part of this specific part of the program.” Asked if he personally took the fan favorites into consideration, Carney demurs: “I’m not going to go into the details of what our decision-making process is because this is an ongoing competition.”
Robinson received no prize for winning the popular vote, although Leone says she’s looking into honoring her at the Ballston BID’s annual meeting on June 23, when the winner will be announced. “I don’t understand why they had people vote if it wasn’t considered,” Robinson says.
In the final round of the competition on June 4, the two finalists will go head-to-head in a cook-off at the restaurant space. Both will serve samples of their signature appetizers, entrees, desserts, and drinks. Sponsors and VIPs will be in attendance, along with anyone who buys a ticket for $50. Again, the crowd will vote for their favorite restaurant. And again, none of their votes will necessarily matter.
“Probably the simplest way to put it is: It’s down to the wire, and there’s really a final judge to this at this point,” Leone says.
So one restaurateur could win the cook-off, and Brookfield could give the other one the lease?
“That is entirely possible,” Leone says. “Yes.”
Photo by Laura HayesHOUSTON – Halliburton Co. said Tuesday it has cut jobs in Houston because of weakening market conditions as oil prices slide, but the oil field services company refused to say how many employees it let go.
“While these reductions are difficult, we believe they are necessary to work through this challenging market,” Halliburton spokeswoman Emily Mir said in an emailed statement. Mir declined to say how many jobs were cut in Houston.
“We continue to monitor the business environment closely and will make adjustments to the cost structure of our business as needed,” she said.
Texas Workforce Commission spokeswoman Debbie Pitts said the state agency hasn’t received any notifications from Halliburton of job cuts, but that in some cases companies aren’t required to notify state regulators.
On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said it projects Texas employers will add 235,000 to 295,000 workers to their payrolls this year. Outside of that, a Dallas Fed model of how oil prices affect U.S. jobs shows the oil slide could cost Texas some 140,000 jobs.
Halliburton’s layoffs in Houston follow its announcement last month that it would cut 1,000 jobs across multiple regions in the eastern hemisphere.
U.S. oil prices have crumpled to less than half their value in June 2014. Firms including Hercules Offshore and oil field service firms owned by OFS Energy Fund have said they’ve laid off hundreds of employees in recent weeks.
Halliburton will report its fourth quarter earnings on Jan. 20.
The company had around 6,500 local employees in March 2014 and it has around 6,200 workers here now. However, the gap between the company’s local headcount this year and last doesn’t necessarily reflect job cuts alone.
“Halliburton sees changes in its employee numbers on an ongoing basis due to normal attrition and business activity,” Mir said in an email.The present work is a complete translation of La Revolution Inconnue, 1917–1921, first published in French in 1947, and re-published in Paris in 1969 by Editions Pierre Belfond. An abridged, two-volume English translate of the work was published in 1954 and 1955 by the Libertarian Book Club (New York City) and Freedom Press (London). The present edition contains all the materials included in the earlier edition (translated by Holley Cantine), as well as the sections which were omitted (Book I, Part I and II, and some brief omissions later in the work, translated by Fredy Perlman). In the newly translated sections, Russian words are transliterated into English. However, in the sections which are reprinted from the earlier edition, French transliteration of Russian words was frequently retained in the English translation. As a result the present edition, a Russian word is frequently spelled in two different ways.
Voline (1882–1945) by Rudolf Rocker
Vsevolod Mikhailovich Eichenbaum was born on August 11, 1882, in the district of Voronezh in Great Russia. So far as I know only one of his writings, a small booklet of Russian poems, was published under his real name, while all the others, and certainly his many articles and essays, were signed with his pseudonym. It is much easier to think and speak of him as Voline.
Both his parents were medical doctors, who lived in comfortable circumstances which permitted them to engage French and German governesses for the early education of their, children. So Vsevolod and his brother Boris had opportunity to become familiar with both languages from their early youth. Voline was able to speak and write French and German as fluently as his Russian mother tongue.
His first general education was received at the college in Voronezh. After he had finished his studies there he was sent to St. Petersburg to study jurisprudence. But all plans for preparation for his future life were interrupted by the critical situation which developed in Russia at that time. Voline became acquainted with revolutionary ideas as a student at the age of nineteen, and made himself notably useful in the labour movement from the year 1901.
In 1905, when the whole Russian Empire was under the spell of the great revolutionary upheaval which nearly overthrew the tyrannical Romanov rule, the young man from Voronezh joined the Social Revolutionary Party and took an active part in that uprising. And after the bloody suppression of the insurrection he, like so many thousands, was arrested. In 1907 a Tsarist tribunal’s sentence banished him to one of the numerous places in Russia for political exiles. But he was lucky enough to find means of escape and went to France.
It was in Paris that Voline found a larger opportunity to study and weigh the various schools of the Socialist movement and the many-sided aspects of the social problem in general. He became associated with various libertarians, among them Sebastian Faure, the eloquent orator of the French Anarchists. And he made connections with the small circle of Russian Anarchists in Paris, with A. A. Kareline and his group, and other organizations of Russian exiles. Under the influence of his new surroundings it was inevitable that Voline gradually altered his political and social views, with the result that in 1911 he separated himself from the Social-Revolutionaries and joined the Anarchist movement.
In 1913, when the danger of armed conflict cast a shadow over all Europe, he became a member of the Committee for International Action Against War. This activity nettled the French authorities, and in 1915, when the battle-lines were being extended on the Continent, the Viviani-Millerand Government decided to put him in a concentration camp for the duration of the fighting. Warned in time, he was able, with the help of some French comrades, to escape to Bordeaux. There he shipped out as a storekeeper on a freighter bound for the United States.
In New York, Voline joined the Union of Russian Workers in the United States and Canada, a formidable organization with about 10,000 members which entertained ideas similar to those of the Confederation Generate du Travail (the General Confederation of Labour) in France in that period. Thus he found a rich field for his activities. And soon he was serving on the editorial staff of Golos Truda, The Voice of Labour, weekly paper of the Federation, and as one of its most gifted lecturers.
But in 1917, when the Revolution broke out in Russia, the whole staff of Golos Truda decided to leave for that country and to transfer the periodical to Petrograd. Arriving there, they got ready co-operation from the lately organized Anarcho-Syndicalist Propaganda Union. So it was easy to make arrangements for the publication of Golos Truda on Russian soil. Voline joined that Union and was immediately elected as one of the editors. During the early months the paper appeared as a weekly, but after the events of October, 1917, it became a daily.
Meanwhile the Bolshevik Government in Moscow had signed the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk by which the whole Ukraine was handed over to the German and Austrian occupation forces. For this reason Voline left Petrograd and joined a troop of libertarian partisans who went to Ukrainia to fight against the foreign invaders and their Russian supporters. Thus he found it possible to go to Bobrov and visit his family, which he had not seen since 1915, when he was compelled to leave France for America.
During ensuing months of comparative freedom in Russia, when other social movements beside the Bolsheviki still enjoyed opportunity to spread their ideas through their own publications and at public meetings, Voline was constantly busy in many fields. He took part in the work of the Soviet Department for Public Education and Enlightenment of the People, first in Voronezh and later in Kharkov. In autumn, 1918, he helped to build up the Anarchist Federation of the Ukraine, for a few months a potent organization, known by the name Nabat (Tocsin), which issued a great deal of literature. Besides its principal organ in Kursk, Nabat had regional papers under the same name in several parts of the Ukraine. Voline became a member of Nabat’s Secretariat and of the editorial staff of its periodicals. And the Conference of that organization in Kursk entrusted him to work out a Synthetical Declaration of Principles which would be acceptable to all schools of libertarian Socialism in Russia and permit them to work together.
But all Nabat’s plans for the future came to naught when in spring, 1919, the Soviet Government began to persecute the Anarchists by suppressing their papers and arresting their militants en masse. It was then that Voline joined the revolutionary army of Nestor Makhno. And Makhno had in that army also a special department to enlighten the people and prepare them for a new social order, based on common ownership of the land, home rule of communities, and federative solidarity. Voline soon became head of this department, and acted as such during the whole campaign against Denikin.
In December, 1919, the Military Revolutionary Council sent him to the district of Krivoi-Rog to oppose the dangerous propaganda of the agents of Hetman Petlura; but on his way he was stricken with typhoid fever and had to remain in the cottage of a peasant. Meanwhile Denikin’s army was defeated, and shortly afterward there was a new break between the Soviet Government and Makhno’s partisans. Still exceedingly ill, Voline was arrested rtn January 14, by military agents of the Moscow Government and dragged from one prison to another. Trotsky already had ordered his execution, and according to Voline, he escaped death then only by sheer accident.
March, 1920, saw him taken to Moscow, and he was a prisoner there until October, when he and many other Anarchists were released by virtue of a treaty between the Soviet Union and Makhno’s army. Voline then returned to Kharkov, resuming his old activities and participating in continuing negotiations between the Lenin Government and a delegation from Makhno’s forces. But the agreement reached by these contending parties was quickly broken by the Bolsheviks, and in November, scarcely a month after their release, Voline and most of his comrades were arrested again and confined in the Taganka prison in Moscow.
There was nothing against them except their libertarian views. Yet there can hardly be any doubt that except for a sudden tum of circumstance they all would have been liquidated in one way or another like so many thousands later. It was by a mere coincidence that their lives were saved.
In the summer of 1921 the Red Trade Union International held a Congress in Moscow. The delegates included representatives of some Anarcho-Syndicalist organizations in Spain, France, and other countries, who had come to ascertain whether an alliance with this new International would be feasible or not. They arrived in the capital just as the Anarchists in the Taganka prison went on a hunger strike which lasted more than ten days and was carried on to compel the authorities to explain publicly why they had been jailed.
When those delegates heard what had been happening they voiced a vehement protest, demanding the liberation of their Russian comrades. But it was only after the affair became an open scandal in the Congress that the Government consented to release the hunger-strikers, on condition, however, that they leave Russia. It was the first time that political prisoners were deported from the vaunted Red Fatherland of the Proletariat.
And the Soviet Government had the audacity to furnish those victims with passports taken from Czechoslovakian war prisoners en route to their homeland. When the deportees arrived at the German port of Stettin they gave the authorities their real names and pointed out that the passports given to them by the Bolsheviki actually were not theirs. Fortunately for them, Germany itself was then in the midst of a revolutionary situation, when many things could be done which were later impossible.
Though the commissar of the port had no legal right to let this group of about twenty remain on German soil, he sympathized with their plight and permitted them to send two of their comrades to Berlin to see whether they could find a friendly organization which would assume responsibility for their maintenance and good behaviour. When the two delegates appeared at our headquarters in Germany’s capital, Fritz Kater, chairman of the Freie Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands, went with them to the Chief of Police and signed all necessary documents, so that within a few hours they had permission to bring the whole group to Berlin. They arrived by the end of 1921.
It was not an easy job to provide for such a number, but the German comrades did what they could. Especially was it hard to find places for the newcomers to live in, for the housing question in Germany after the first World War was simply abominable and remained one of the nation’s greatest problems for many years. And our toughest task was to discover a spot where the Voline family of seven could all be under the same roof. The only shelter our committee could find for them at that time was an attic which could be heated.
It was then that I first met Voline and his comrades. Although only forty-one, he looked much older, for his hair and beard were almost white. But his energetic gestures and quick movements quickly corrected my initial impression. He was a genial and intelligent man with mild manners, thoughtful and courteous, and almost immune to outer circumstances and personal hardship. Having an unusual faculty for concentration, he could go on with his writing, apparently without difficulty, in the same attic where his whole family had to sleep, eat, and carry on their daily lives.
In fact, Voline did a great deal of useful work while in Berlin. He wrote, in German, a valuable pamphlet of eighty pages, entitled The Persecutions of the Anarchists in Soviet Russia. This was the first authentic and documented information to the outer world about what was then going on in Russia. He also translated Peter Arshinov’s book. The History of the Makhnovist Movement, [Published by the Group of the Russian Anarchists in Germany, Berlin, 1923.] into German, and at the same time edited a Russian Magazine, The Anarchist Worker. Besides, he did extensive work for the German libertarian movement, lecturing and writing articles for our press.
Voline remained in Berlin for about two years, then received an invitation from Sebastian Faure to settle with his family in Paris, where living conditions in those days were much better than in Germany. Faure was occupied with the preparation and publication of his Encyclopedic Anarchiste and needed a man who was familiar with foreign languages as a regular contributor. So Voline found a challenging and engrossing field for his further activity. He wrote various articles for the new Encyclopedia, many of which were also published as special pamphlets in several languages. Too, he accepted an invitation of the Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labour) in Spain to become editor of its French periodical in Paris, L’Espagne Anti-Fasciste.
But although his economic fortunes in France were notably more favourable than they could have been in Germany, he suffered a succession of misfortunes, of which the death of his wife under harrowing circumstances was the worst. Shortly afterwards he left Paris for Nimes, and a little later arrived in Marseilles, where he was caught by the second World War. After the Nazis invaded France, his position became more and more dangerous. Going from one hiding place to another, he was compelled to live amid constant tragedy and in dire misery.
When the war ended he returned to Paris, but only to enter a hospital, for he was afflicted with incurable tuberculosis and knew that his days were numbered. There he died on September 18, 1945. Many of his old friends followed him on his last journey, which led to the crematorium in the old cemetery of Pere-LachaisE. They mourned the loss of a dauntless comrade who had suffered much in his life, but who remained to the last a valiant fighter for a better world and the great cause of freedom and social justice.
Rudolf Rocker. Crompond, N.Y.,
May, 1953.
Introduction: Some Essential Preliminary Notes
“Russian Revolution” can mean three things: either the entire revolutionary movement, from the revolt of the Decembrists (1825) until the present; or only the two consecutive uprisings of 1905 and 1917; or, finally, only the great explosion of 1917. In this work, “Russian Revolution” is used in the first sense, as the entire movement. This is the only way the reader will be able to understand the development and totality of events as well as the present situation in the U.S.S.R. A relatively complete history of the Russian Revolution would require more than one volume. This would have to be a long-term project carried out by future historians. Here we are concerned with a more limited project whose aims are: (a) to provide understanding of the entirety of the movement; (b) to underline its essential elements, which are largely unknown abroad; (c) to make possible certain evaluations and conclusions. As the work progresses, it becomes increasingly broad and detailed. It is mainly in the sections dealing with the upheavals of 1905 and 1917 that the reader will find numerous details which have until now been unknown, as well as a large number of previously unpublished documents. One problem should be constantly kept in mind: the difference between the general development of Russia and that of Western Europe. In fact, an account of the Russian Revolution should be preceded by a complete historical study of the country, or better yet, should be inserted into such a study. But such a task would be far beyond the limits of our subject. To remedy this situation, we will give the reader historical information whenever this seems necessary.
Preface
Every revolution — even when studied closely by many authors of various tendencies, and at different times — long remains, fundamentally, a great Unknown. Centuries pass, and from time to time, men turn up new facts and unpublished documents among the remains of old uprisings. These discoveries upset our knowledge and ideas which we had supposed to be complete. How many works about the French Revolution of 1789 already existed when Kropotkin and Jaures unearthed from the ruins elements unknown until then, which threw unexpected light on that period? And didn’t Jaures say that the vast archives of the Great Revolution were hardly tapped?
Generally, it is not known how to study a revolution, just as it is still not known how to write the history of a people. Moreover, authors, even when experienced and conscientious, commit errors and negligences which prevent the reader from getting a clear understanding of their theme. They take the trouble, for instance, to examine meticulously and explain in detail the striking facts and phenomena, those which unfold in the light of day, in the burning “revolutionary furnace”. But they mistrust and ignore those developments which occur silently, in the depths of the revolution, outside the “furnace”. Or, at best, they accord them a few words in passing, basing their comment on vague testimonies, with interpretations which are frequently erroneous or biased. And it is precisely these hidden facts which are important, and which throw a true light on the events under consideration and on the period.
Too, the scientific keys to the phenomena of revolution — economics, sociology, psychology — are at present incapable, by reason of their rudimentary state, of explaining adequately what has happened.
And this is not all. Even from the point of view of pure “reportage”, how many gaps there are. In the terrible whirlwind of revolution, a multitude of facts, engulfed by crevices which open and shut at every instant, remain undiscovered, perhaps forever. Those who live through a revolution, those millions of men who, in one way or another, are carried away by the storm, are, alas, very little concerned with noting down, for future generations, what they saw, thought, or experienced.
Finally, there exists still another reason, which I particularly want to emphasize. With very few exceptions, the rare witnesses who leave notes, and also the historians, are disgustingly partial. Each one deliberately seeks and finds, in a revolution, the elements which will support a personal thesis, or will be useful to a dogma, a party, or a caste. Each one carefully hides and discards all that might contradict his own theory. The revolutionaries themselves, divided by their theories, try to dissimulate or distort whatever does not agree with such and such a doctrine.
We of course are not speaking of the disconcerting number of books which simply are not serious.
In the last analysis, who then can seek to establish the real and only truth? No one — or practically no one. And it is not astonishing that there exists, on the subject of a revolution, nearly as many versions as volumes, and that the fundamental truth of the real revolution remains unknown.
However, it is this hidden revolution which carries within it the seeds of future upheavals. Whoever wants to live meaningfully, or who wants to understand events clearly, must discover and scrutinize this Unknown. And the duty of the author is to help the seeker in his task.
In the present work this unknown revolution is the Russian Revolution, not the one which has been treated many times by politicians and bought-and-paid writers, but the one that has been either neglected or adroitly hidden, or even falsified by such people.
Leaf through a few books on the Revolution in Russia. Until now nearly all have been written by more or less biased individuals, and from a doctrinal, political, or even personal point of view. According to whether the writer is a White or a Red, a Democrat, a Socialist, a Stalinist, or a Trotskyite, everything differs in appearance. The reality itself is adapted to the design of the narrator. The more you seek to establish it, the less you succeed. For authors [of histories of Russia in 1917] have all too often passed over in silence facts of the highest importance, if they did not conform to their own ideas, did not interest them, or were inconvenient.
A fundamental problem has been bequeathed to us by the revolutions of 1789 and 1917. Opposed to a large extent to oppression, animated by a powerful breath of liberty, and proclaiming liberty as their essential purpose, why did these revolutions go down under a new dictatorship, exercised by a new dominating and privileged group, in a new slavery for the mass of the people involved? What will be the conditions which will permit a revolution to avoid this sad end? Will this end, for a long time still, be a sort of historical inevitability, or is it due to passing factors, or simply to errors and faults that can be avoided from now on? And in the latter case, what will be the means of eliminating the danger which already threatens the revolutions to come? Is it permissible to hope to avert or surmount it?
In the opinion of the author, it is precisely the elements that are unknown — or that have been deliberately dissimulated — which offer us the key to the problem before us and supply material indispensable to its solution. And this volume is an attempt to clarify that problem with the help of incontestable facts.
The author actively participated in the Russian Revolution of 1917, as well as in that of 1905. And he wants to examine, with complete objectivity, the available authentic facts [about the overturn in 1917]. Such is his only concern. If he did not have it, he never would have bothered to write the pages which follow.
This concern for a frank exposition and an impartial analysis of that revolution is favoured by the author’s ideological position. Since 1908 he has not belonged to any political party. By personal conviction, however, he sympathizes with the libertarian idea. So he can permit himself the luxury of being objective, for, as an Anarchist, he has no interest in betraying the truth, no reason to deceive. He is not interested in power, nor in a high position, nor in privilege, nor in the triumph, “at any cost”, of a doctrine. He seeks only to establish the truth, for only the truth is fertile. His passion, his only ambition, is to explain the events of 1917 in the light of exact facts, for only such an explanation permits one to formulate correct and useful conclusions.
Like all revolutions, the Russian Revolution involved a wealth of unknown and even unsuspected facts.
The present study is offered in the hope that some day it will take its modest place beside the works of authors who have wished, been able, and known how, to explore those great riches, honestly, and in complete independence.
Part I. The First Fruits (1825–1905)
Chapter 1. Russia at the Beginning of the 19th Century; Birth of the Revolution
The enormous size of the country, a sparse population whose disunity makes it an easy prey for invaders, Mongol domination for more than two centuries, continual wars, varied catastrophes and other unfavorable factors caused the enormous political, economic, social and cultural backwardness of Russia in relation to other European countries.
Politically, Russia entered the 19th century under the rule of an absolute monarchy (the autocratic “Tsar”) which was dependent on an enormous landed and military aristocracy, an omnipotent bureaucracy, an extensive and pious clergy, and a peasant mass consisting of 75,000,000 souls — primitive, illiterate and prostrate before their “little father,” the Tsar.
Economically, the country had reached the stage of a type of agrarian feudalism. Except for the two capitals (St. Petersburg and Moscow) and some cities in the South, the cities were hardly developed. Commerce and particularly industry stagnated. The economic base of the country was agriculture which supported 95% of the population. The land did not belong to the direct producers, the peasants, but was the property of the State or of large landed proprietors, the “pomeshchiks.” The peasants, legally tied to the land and to the property-owner, were his serfs. The largest proprietors owned veritable fiefs, inherited from their ancestors who, in turn, had received them from the sovereign, the first proprietor, in exchange for services rendered (military, administrative or other). The “lord” determined the life and death of his serfs. He not only made them work as slaves; he could also sell them, punish them and make martyrs out of them (he could kill them without much inconvenience to himself). This serfdom, this slavery on the part of 75,000,000 people, was the economic foundation of the State.
It is hardly possible to talk of the social organization of such a “society.” On top were the absolute masters: the Tsar, his numerous relatives, his slavish court, the high nobility, the military caste, the high clergy. On the bottom, the slaves: peasant-serfs in the countryside and the lower class people of the cities, who lacked all notions of civic life, all rights, all freedoms. Between the two, there were certain intermediate strata: merchants, bureaucrats, functionaries, artisans and others -colorless and insignificant.
It is clear that the cultural level of the society was not very high. Nevertheless, already for this period we have to make an important reservation: a striking contrast which we will again describe later, existed between the uneducated and poverty-stricken population of the cities and villages and the privileged strata whose education and training were quite advanced.
The serfdom of the masses was the plague of the country. A few noble-spirited individuals had already protested against this abomination toward the end of the 18th century. They had to pay dearly for their generous gesture. On the other hand, the peasants rebelled with increasing frequency against their masters. Besides local uprisings of a more or less individual nature (against one or another lord who went too far), the peasant masses gave rise to two extensive movements (the Razin uprising in the 17th and the Pugachev uprising in the 18th century) which, though they failed, created enormous problems for the Tsarist government and nearly overthrew the entire system. It should be noted, however, that these two spontaneous movements were directed mainly against the immediate enemy: the landed nobility, the urban aristocracy and the corrupt administration. No general idea of overthrowing the social system in its entirety and replacing it with another and more equitable system was formulated. By using treachery and violence, with the help of the clergy and other reactionary elements, the government succeeded in totally subjugating the peasants, even “psychologically,” to such an extent that any movement of widespread revolt was rendered nearly impossible for a long period of time.
The first consciously revolutionary movement directed against the regime appeared in 1825 when, after the |
irritable bowel syndrome: a matched cohort study using the General Practice Research Database. Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. 24, 879–886 (2006).
44. Tayama, J. et al. Maladjustment to academic life and employment anxiety in university students with irritable bowel syndrome. PLoS ONE 10, e0129345 (2015).
45. Vu, J., Kushnir, V., Cassell, B., Gyawali, C. P. & Sayuk, G. S. The impact of psychiatric and extraintestinal comorbidity on quality of life and bowel symptom burden in functional GI disorders. Neurogastroenterol. Motil. 26, 1323–1332 (2014).
46. Kennedy, P. J. et al. Cognitive performance in irritable bowel syndrome: evidence of a stress-related impairment in visuospatial memory. Psychol. Med. 44, 1553–1566 (2014).
47. Canavan, J. B., Bennett, K., Feely, J., O'Morain, C. A. & O'Connor, H. J. Significant psychological morbidity occurs in irritable bowel syndrome: a case–control study using a pharmacy reimbursement database. Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. 29, 440–449 (2009).
48. Qi, R. et al. Intrinsic brain abnormalities in irritable bowel syndrome and effect of anxiety and depression. Brain Imaging Behav. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11682-015-9478-1 (2015).
49. Icenhour, A. et al. Neural circuitry of abdominal pain-related fear learning and reinstatement in irritable bowel syndrome. Neurogastroenterol. Motil. 27, 114–127 (2015).
50. Song, G. H. et al. Cortical effects of anticipation and endogenous modulation of visceral pain assessed by functional brain MRI in irritable bowel syndrome patients and healthy controls. Pain 126, 79–90 (2006).
51. Hong, J. Y. et al. Altered brain responses in subjects with irritable bowel syndrome during cued and uncued pain expectation. Neurogastroenterol. Motil. 28, 127–138 (2016).
52. Grzesiak, M. et al. The lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorders among patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Adv. Clin. Exp. Med. 23, 987–992 (2014).
53. Hillila, M. T., Siivola, M. T. & Farkkila, M. A. Comorbidity and use of health-care services among irritable bowel syndrome sufferers. Scand. J. Gastroenterol. 42, 799–806 (2007).
54. Talley, N. J., Fett, S. L., Zinsmeister, A. R. & Melton, L. J. 3rd. Gastrointestinal tract symptoms and self-reported abuse: a population-based study. Gastroenterology 107, 1040–1049 (1994).
55. Talley, N. J., Fett, S. L. & Zinsmeister, A. R. Self-reported abuse and gastrointestinal disease in outpatients: association with irritable bowel-type symptoms. Am. J. Gastroenterol. 90, 366–371 (1995).
56. Drossman, D. A. et al. Sexual and physical abuse in women with functional or organic gastrointestinal disorders. Ann. Intern. Med. 113, 828–833 (1990).
57. Koloski, N. A., Jones, M. & Talley, N. J. Evidence that independent gut-to-brain and brain-to-gut pathways operate in the irritable bowel syndrome and functional dyspepsia: a 1-year population-based prospective study. Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. 44, 592–600 (2016).
58. Thabane, M., Kottachchi, D. T. & Marshall, J. K. Systematic review and meta-analysis: the incidence and prognosis of post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome. Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. 26, 535–544 (2007).
59. Marshall, J. K. et al. Incidence and epidemiology of irritable bowel syndrome after a large waterborne outbreak of bacterial dysentery. Gastroenterology 131, 445–450 (2006).
60. Ford, A. C. et al. Prevalence of uninvestigated dyspepsia 8 years after a large waterborne outbreak of bacterial dysentery: a cohort study. Gastroenterology 138, 1727–1736 (2010).
61. Wouters, M. M. et al. Psychological comorbidity increases the risk for postinfectious IBS partly by enhanced susceptibility to develop infectious gastroenteritis. Gut 65, 1279–1288 (2016).
62. Dunlop, S. P., Jenkins, D., Neal, K. R. & Spiller, R. C. Relative importance of enterochromaffin cell hyperplasia, anxiety, and depression in postinfectious IBS. Gastroenterology 125, 1651–1659 (2003).
63. Neurath, M. F. Cytokines in inflammatory bowel disease. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 14, 329–342 (2014).
64. Isidro, R. A. & Appleyard, C. B. Colonic macrophage polarization in homeostasis, inflammation, and cancer. Am. J. Physiol. Gastrointest. Liver Physiol. 311, G59–G73 (2016).
65. La Flamme, A. C. et al. Type II-activated murine macrophages produce IL-4. PLoS ONE 7, e46989 (2012).
66. Goldberg, R., Prescott, N., Lord, G. M., MacDonald, T. T. & Powell, N. The unusual suspects — innate lymphoid cells as novel therapeutic targets in IBD. Nat. Rev. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 12, 271–283 (2015).
67. Goto, Y. et al. Innate lymphoid cells regulate intestinal epithelial cell glycosylation. Science 345, 1254009 (2014).
68. Zimmerman, N. P., Vongsa, R. A., Wendt, M. K. & Dwinell, M. B. Chemokines and chemokine receptors in mucosal homeostasis at the intestinal epithelial barrier in inflammatory bowel disease. Inflamm. Bowel Dis. 14, 1000–1011 (2008).
69. Charo, I. F. & Ransohoff, R. M. The many roles of chemokines and chemokine receptors in inflammation. N. Engl. J. Med. 354, 610–621 (2006).
70. Habtezion, A., Nguyen, L. P., Hadeiba, H. & Butcher, E. C. Leukocyte trafficking to the small intestine and colon. Gastroenterology 150, 340–354 (2016).
71. Feagan, B. G. et al. Vedolizumab as induction and maintenance therapy for ulcerative colitis. N. Engl. J. Med. 369, 699–710 (2013).
72. Sandborn, W. J. et al. Vedolizumab as induction and maintenance therapy for Crohn's disease. N. Engl. J. Med. 369, 711–721 (2013).
73. Ulrich-Lai, Y. M. & Herman, J. P. Neural regulation of endocrine and autonomic stress responses. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 10, 397–409 (2009).
74. Elenkov, I. J., Wilder, R. L., Chrousos, G. P. & Vizi, E. S. The sympathetic nerve — an integrative interface between two supersystems: the brain and the immune system. Pharmacol. Rev. 52, 595–638 (2000).
75. Felten, D. L., Felten, S. Y., Carlson, S. L., Olschowka, J. A. & Livnat, S. Noradrenergic and peptidergic innervation of lymphoid tissue. J. Immunol. 135, 755s–765s (1985).
76. Mawdsley, J. E., Macey, M. G., Feakins, R. M., Langmead, L. & Rampton, D. S. The effect of acute psychologic stress on systemic and rectal mucosal measures of inflammation in ulcerative colitis. Gastroenterology 131, 410–419 (2006).
77. Vanuytsel, T. et al. Psychological stress and corticotropin-releasing hormone increase intestinal permeability in humans by a mast cell-dependent mechanism. Gut 63, 1293–1299 (2014).
78. Nakano, K. et al. Dopamine induces IL-6-dependent IL-17 production via D1-like receptor on CD4 naive T cells and D1-like receptor antagonist SCH-23390 inhibits cartilage destruction in a human rheumatoid arthritis/SCID mouse chimera model. J. Immunol. 186, 3745–3752 (2011).
79. Khan, N. A. & Poisson, J. P. 5-HT3 receptor-channels coupled with Na+ influx in human T cells: role in T cell activation. J. Neuroimmunol. 99, 53–60 (1999).
80. Aune, T. M., McGrath, K. M., Sarr, T., Bombara, M. P. & Kelley, K. A. Expression of 5HT1a receptors on activated human T cells. Regulation of cyclic AMP levels and T cell proliferation by 5-hydroxytryptamine. J. Immunol. 151, 1175–1183 (1993).
81. Buttari, B. et al. Neuropeptide Y induces potent migration of human immature dendritic cells and promotes a Th2 polarization. FASEB J. 28, 3038–3049 (2014).
82. Payan, D. G., Brewster, D. R., Missirian-Bastian, A. & Goetzl, E. J. Substance P recognition by a subset of human T lymphocytes. J. Clin. Invest. 74, 1532–1539 (1984).
83. Johnson, M. C., McCormack, R. J., Delgado, M., Martinez, C. & Ganea, D. Murine T-lymphocytes express vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor 1 (VIP-R1) mRNA. J. Neuroimmunol. 68, 109–119 (1996).
84. Sanders, V. M. et al. Differential expression of the β2-adrenergic receptor by Th1 and Th2 clones: implications for cytokine production and B cell help. J. Immunol. 158, 4200–4210 (1997).
85. Sanders, V. M. The role of adrenoceptor-mediated signals in the modulation of lymphocyte function. Adv. Neuroimmunol. 5, 283–298 (1995).
86. Sanders, V. M. & Straub, R. H. Norepinephrine, the β-adrenergic receptor, and immunity. Brain Behav. Immun. 16, 290–332 (2002).
87. Panina-Bordignon, P. et al. β 2 -agonists prevent Th1 development by selective inhibition of interleukin 12. J. Clin. Invest. 100, 1513–1519 (1997).
88. Ramer-Quinn, D. S., Baker, R. A. & Sanders, V. M. Activated T helper 1 and T helper 2 cells differentially express the beta-2-adrenergic receptor: a mechanism for selective modulation of T helper 1 cell cytokine production. J. Immunol. 159, 4857–4867 (1997).
89. Takenaka, M. C. et al. Norepinephrine controls effector T cell differentiation through β 2 -adrenergic receptor-mediated inhibition of NF-κB and AP-1 in dendritic cells. J. Immunol. 196, 637–644 (2016).
90. Orand, A. et al. Catecholaminergic gene polymorphisms are associated with GI symptoms and morphological brain changes in irritable bowel syndrome. PLoS ONE 10, e0135910 (2015).
91. Gabanyi, I. et al. Neuro-immune interactions drive tissue programming in intestinal macrophages. Cell 164, 378–391 (2016).
92. Kurowska-Stolarska, M. et al. IL-33 amplifies the polarization of alternatively activated macrophages that contribute to airway inflammation. J. Immunol. 183, 6469–6477 (2009).
93. Li, D. et al. IL-33 promotes ST2-dependent lung fibrosis by the induction of alternatively activated macrophages and innate lymphoid cells in mice. J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 134, 1422–1432.e11 (2014).
94. Cirillo, C. et al. Evidence for neuronal and structural changes in submucous ganglia of patients with functional dyspepsia. Am. J. Gastroenterol. 110, 1205–1215 (2015).
95. Girodet, P. O. et al. Alternative macrophage activation is increased in asthma. Am. J. Respir. Cell Mol. Biol. 55, 467–475 (2016).
96. Airaksinen, M. S. & Saarma, M. The GDNF family: signalling, biological functions and therapeutic value. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 3, 383–394 (2002).
97. Ibiza, S. et al. Glial-cell-derived neuroregulators control type 3 innate lymphoid cells and gut defence. Nature 535, 440–443 (2016).
98. Limsui, D. et al. Symptomatic overlap between irritable bowel syndrome and microscopic colitis. Inflamm. Bowel Dis. 13, 175–181 (2007).
99. Midhagen, G. & Hallert, C. High rate of gastrointestinal symptoms in celiac patients living on a gluten-free diet: controlled study. Am. J. Gastroenterol. 98, 2023–2026 (2003).
100. Isgar, B., Harman, M., Kaye, M. D. & Whorwell, P. J. Symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome in ulcerative colitis in remission. Gut 24, 190–192 (1983).
101. Farrokhyar, F., Marshall, J. K., Easterbrook, B. & Irvine, E. J. Functional gastrointestinal disorders and mood disorders in patients with inactive inflammatory bowel disease: prevalence and impact on health. Inflamm. Bowel Dis. 12, 38–46 (2006).
102. Ford, A. C., Talley, N. J., Walker, M. M. & Jones, M. P. Increased prevalence of autoimmune diseases in functional gastrointestinal disorders: case–control study of 23471 primary care patients. Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. 40, 827–834 (2014).
103. Bashashati, M. et al. Cytokine imbalance in irritable bowel syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Neurogastroenterol. Motil. 26, 1036–1048 (2014).
104. Dinan, T. G. et al. Hypothalamic–pituitary–gut axis dysregulation in irritable bowel syndrome: plasma cytokines as a potential biomarker? Gastroenterology 130, 304–311 (2006).
105. Dinan, T. G. et al. Enhanced cholinergic-mediated increase in the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 in irritable bowel syndrome: role of muscarinic receptors. Am. J. Gastroenterol. 103, 2570–2576 (2008).
106. Liebregts, T. et al. Immune activation in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Gastroenterology 132, 913–920 (2007).
107. Liebregts, T. et al. Small bowel homing T cells are associated with symptoms and delayed gastric emptying in functional dyspepsia. Am. J. Gastroenterol. 106, 1089–1098 (2011).
108. Gao, J. Correlation between anxiety-depression status and cytokines in diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome. Exp. Ther. Med. 6, 93–96 (2013).
109. Aerssens, J. et al. Alterations in mucosal immunity identified in the colon of patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Clin. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 6, 194–205 (2008).
110. Macsharry, J. et al. Mucosal cytokine imbalance in irritable bowel syndrome. Scand. J. Gastroenterol. 43, 1467–1476 (2008).
111. Barbara, G. et al. Activated mast cells in proximity to colonic nerves correlate with abdominal pain in irritable bowel syndrome. Gastroenterology 126, 693–702 (2004).
112. Guilarte, M. et al. Diarrhoea-predominant IBS patients show mast cell activation and hyperplasia in the jejunum. Gut 56, 203–209 (2007).
113. Martinez, C. et al. Diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome: an organic disorder with structural abnormalities in the jejunal epithelial barrier. Gut 62, 1160–1168 (2013).
114. Weston, A. P., Biddle, W. L., Bhatia, P. S. & Miner, P. B. Jr. Terminal ileal mucosal mast cells in irritable bowel syndrome. Dig. Dis. Sci. 38, 1590–1595 (1993).
115. Akbar, A. et al. Increased capsaicin receptor TRPV1-expressing sensory fibres in irritable bowel syndrome and their correlation with abdominal pain. Gut 57, 923–929 (2008).
116. Cremon, C. et al. Mucosal immune activation in irritable bowel syndrome: gender-dependence and association with digestive symptoms. Am. J. Gastroenterol. 104, 392–400 (2009).
117. Barbara, G. et al. Mast cell-dependent excitation of visceral-nociceptive sensory neurons in irritable bowel syndrome. Gastroenterology 132, 26–37 (2007).
118. Buhner, S. et al. Submucous rather than myenteric neurons are activated by mucosal biopsy supernatants from irritable bowel syndrome patients. Neurogastroenterol. Motil. 24, 1134–e572 (2012).
119. Wouters, M. M. et al. Histamine receptor H1-mediated sensitization of TRPV1 mediates visceral hypersensitivity and symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Gastroenterology 150, 875–887.e89 (2016).
120. Santos, J., Yang, P. C., Soderholm, J. D., Benjamin, M. & Perdue, M. H. Role of mast cells in chronic stress induced colonic epithelial barrier dysfunction in the rat. Gut 48, 630–636 (2001).
121. Ronkainen, J. et al. Prevalence of oesophageal eosinophils and eosinophilic oesophagitis in adults: the population-based Kalixanda study. Gut 56, 615–620 (2007).
122. Vanheel, H. et al. Impaired duodenal mucosal integrity and low-grade inflammation in functional dyspepsia. Gut 63, 262–271 (2014).
123. Walker, M. M. et al. Duodenal eosinophilia and early satiety in functional dyspepsia: confirmation of a positive association in an Australian cohort. J. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 29, 474–479 (2014).
124. Walker, M. M. et al. Implications of eosinophilia in the normal duodenal biopsy — an association with allergy and functional dyspepsia. Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. 31, 1229–1236 (2010).
125. Futagami, S. et al. Migration of eosinophils and CCR2-/CD68-double positive cells into the duodenal mucosa of patients with postinfectious functional dyspepsia. Am. J. Gastroenterol. 105, 1835–1842 (2010).
126. Powell, N., Walker, M. M. & Talley, N. J. Gastrointestinal eosinophils in health, disease and functional disorders. Nat. Rev. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 7, 146–156 (2010).
127. Kindt, S. et al. Immune dysfunction in patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders. Neurogastroenterol. Motil. 21, 389–398 (2009).
128. Ohman, L., Isaksson, S., Lundgren, A., Simren, M. & Sjovall, H. A controlled study of colonic immune activity and β7+ blood T lymphocytes in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Clin. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 3, 980–986 (2005).
129. Spiller, R. C. et al. Increased rectal mucosal enteroendocrine cells, T lymphocytes, and increased gut permeability following acute Campylobacter enteritis and in post-dysenteric irritable bowel syndrome. Gut 47, 804–811 (2000).
130. Elsenbruch, S. et al. Are there alterations of neuroendocrine and cellular immune responses to nutrients in women with irritable bowel syndrome? Am. J. Gastroenterol. 99, 703–710 (2004).
131. Bal, S. M. et al. IL-1β, IL-4 and IL-12 control the fate of group 2 innate lymphoid cells in human airway inflammation in the lungs. Nat. Immunol. 17, 636–645 (2016).
132. Suto, G., Kiraly, A. & Tache, Y. Interleukin 1β inhibits gastric emptying in rats: mediation through prostaglandin and corticotropin-releasing factor. Gastroenterology 106, 1568–1575 (1994).
133. Hermann, G. & Rogers, R. C. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha in the dorsal vagal complex suppresses gastric motility. Neuroimmunomodulation 2, 74–81 (1995).
134. Benakis, C. et al. Commensal microbiota affects ischemic stroke outcome by regulating intestinal γδ T cells. Nat. Med. 22, 516–523 (2016).
135. Felger, J. C. & Lotrich, F. E. Inflammatory cytokines in depression: neurobiological mechanisms and therapeutic implications. Neuroscience 246, 199–229 (2013).
136. Emch, G. S., Hermann, G. E. & Rogers, R. C. TNF-α activates solitary nucleus neurons responsive to gastric distension. Am. J. Physiol. Gastrointest. Liver Physiol. 279, G582–G586 (2000).
137. Soulet, D. & Rivest, S. Bone-marrow-derived microglia: myth or reality? Curr. Opin. Pharmacol. 8, 508–518 (2008).
138. Rivest, S. Molecular insights on the cerebral innate immune system. Brain Behav. Immun. 17, 13–19 (2003).
139. Jack, C. S. et al. TLR signaling tailors innate immune responses in human microglia and astrocytes. J. Immunol. 175, 4320–4330 (2005).
140. Arnett, H. A. et al. TNFα promotes proliferation of oligodendrocyte progenitors and remyelination. Nat. Neurosci. 4, 1116–1122 (2001).
141. Klein, M. et al. Innate immunity to pneumococcal infection of the central nervous system depends on Toll-like receptor (TLR) 2 and TLR4. J. Infect. Dis. 198, 1028–1036 (2008).
142. Zhang, S. Y. et al. TLR3 deficiency in patients with herpes simplex encephalitis. Science 317, 1522–1527 (2007).
143. Bogie, J. F., Stinissen, P. & Hendriks, J. J. Macrophage subsets and microglia in multiple sclerosis. Acta Neuropathol. 128, 191–213 (2014).
144. Liu, Y. et al. LPS receptor (CD14): a receptor for phagocytosis of Alzheimer's amyloid peptide. Brain 128, 1778–1789 (2005).
145. Casellas, F., Aguade, S. & Molero, J. Intestinal permeability in inflammatory bowel disease. Am. J. Gastroenterol. 81, 502 (1986).
146. Mujagic, Z. et al. Small intestinal permeability is increased in diarrhoea predominant IBS, while alterations in gastroduodenal permeability in all IBS subtypes are largely attributable to confounders. Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. 40, 288–297 (2014).
147. Dlugosz, A. et al. Increased serum levels of lipopolysaccharide and antiflagellin antibodies in patients with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome. Neurogastroenterol. Motil. 27, 1747–1754 (2015).
148. McDonnell, M. et al. Systemic Toll-like receptor ligands modify B-cell responses in human inflammatory bowel disease. Inflamm. Bowel Dis. 17, 298–307 (2011).
149. Dunn, A. J., Swiergiel, A. H. & de Beaurepaire, R. Cytokines as mediators of depression: what can we learn from animal studies? Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 29, 891–909 (2005).
150. Kronfol, Z. & House, J. D. Lymphocyte mitogenesis, immunoglobulin and complement levels in depressed patients and normal controls. Acta Psychiatr. Scand. 80, 142–147 (1989).
151. Maes, M. et al. Evidence for a systemic immune activation during depression: results of leukocyte enumeration by flow cytometry in conjunction with monoclonal antibody staining. Psychol. Med. 22, 45–53 (1992).
152. Miyaoka, H. et al. Depression from interferon therapy in patients with hepatitis C. Am. J. Psychiatry 156, 1120 (1999).
153. Loftis, J. M. et al. Vulnerability to somatic symptoms of depression during interferon-alpha therapy for hepatitis C: a 16-week prospective study. J. Psychosom. Res. 74, 57–63 (2013).
154. Dantzer, R. & Kelley, K. W. Twenty years of research on cytokine-induced sickness behavior. Brain Behav. Immun. 21, 153–160 (2007).
155. Kapas, L. et al. Somnogenic, pyrogenic, and anorectic activities of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and TNF-alpha fragments. Am. J. Physiol. 263, R708–R715 (1992).
156. Kent, S., Rodriguez, F., Kelley, K. W. & Dantzer, R. Reduction in food and water intake induced by microinjection of interleukin-1 beta in the ventromedial hypothalamus of the rat. Physiol. Behav. 56, 1031–1036 (1994).
157. Besedovsky, H., del Rey, A., Sorkin, E. & Dinarello, C. A. Immunoregulatory feedback between interleukin-1 and glucocorticoid hormones. Science 233, 652–654 (1986).
158. Silverman, M. N., Pearce, B. D. & Miller, A. H. in Cytokines and Mental Health (ed Kronfol, Z.) 85–122 (Springer Science, 2003).
159. Mark, K. S. & Miller, D. W. Increased permeability of primary cultured brain microvessel endothelial cell monolayers following TNF-α exposure. Life Sci. 64, 1941–1953 (1999).
160. Lopez-Ramirez, M. A. et al. Role of caspases in cytokine-induced barrier breakdown in human brain endothelial cells. J. Immunol. 189, 3130–3139 (2012).
161. Cohen, S. S. et al. Effects of interleukin-6 on the expression of tight junction proteins in isolated cerebral microvessels from yearling and adult sheep. Neuroimmunomodulation 20, 264–273 (2013).
162. Maruo, N., Morita, I., Shirao, M. & Murota, S. IL-6 increases endothelial permeability in vitro. Endocrinology 131, 710–714 (1992).
163. Bsibsi, M. et al. Toll-like receptor 3 on adult human astrocytes triggers production of neuroprotective mediators. Glia 53, 688–695 (2006).
164. Human Microbiome Project Consortium. Structure, function and diversity of the healthy human microbiome. Nature 486, 207–214 (2012).
165. Kostic, A. D., Xavier, R. J. & Gevers, D. The microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease: current status and the future ahead. Gastroenterology 146, 1489–1499 (2014).
166. Chassaing, B. et al. Crohn disease — associated adherent-invasive E. coli bacteria target mouse and human Peyer's patches via long polar fimbriae. J. Clin. Invest. 121, 966–975 (2011).
167. Sokol, H. et al. Faecalibacterium prausnitzii is an anti-inflammatory commensal bacterium identified by gut microbiota analysis of Crohn disease patients. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105, 16731–16736 (2008).
168. Machiels, K. et al. A decrease of the butyrate-producing species Roseburia hominis and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii defines dysbiosis in patients with ulcerative colitis. Gut 63, 1275–1283 (2014).
169. Carroll, I. M., Ringel-Kulka, T., Siddle, J. P. & Ringel, Y. Alterations in composition and diversity of the intestinal microbiota in patients with diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome. Neurogastroenterol. Motil. 24, 521–e248 (2012).
170. Sundin, J. et al. Altered faecal and mucosal microbial composition in post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome patients correlates with mucosal lymphocyte phenotypes and psychological distress. Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. 41, 342–351 (2015).
171. Giamarellos-Bourboulis, E. et al. Molecular assessment of differences in the duodenal microbiome in subjects with irritable bowel syndrome. Scand. J. Gastroenterol. 50, 1076–1087 (2015).
172. Jeffery, I. B. et al. An irritable bowel syndrome subtype defined by species-specific alterations in faecal microbiota. Gut 61, 997–1006 (2012).
173. Ikeda, M., Hamada, K., Sumitomo, N., Okamoto, H. & Sakakibara, B. Serum amyloid A, cytokines, and corticosterone responses in germfree and conventional mice after lipopolysaccharide injection. Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. 63, 1006–1010 (1999).
174. Souza, D. G. et al. The essential role of the intestinal microbiota in facilitating acute inflammatory responses. J. Immunol. 173, 4137–4146 (2004).
175. Ivanov, I. I. et al. Induction of intestinal Th17 cells by segmented filamentous bacteria. Cell 139, 485–498 (2009).
176. Atarashi, K. et al. Th17 cell induction by adhesion of microbes to intestinal epithelial cells. Cell 163, 367–380 (2015).
177. Seo, S. U. et al. Distinct commensals induce interleukin-1β via NLRP3 inflammasome in inflammatory monocytes to promote intestinal inflammation in response to injury. Immunity 42, 744–755 (2015).
178. Lakhdari, O. et al. Functional metagenomics: a high throughput screening method to decipher microbiota-driven NF-κB modulation in the human gut. PLoS ONE 5, e13092 (2010).
179. Powell, N. et al. The transcription factor T-bet regulates intestinal inflammation mediated by interleukin-7 receptor+ innate lymphoid cells. Immunity 37, 674–684 (2012).
180. Furusawa, Y. et al. Commensal microbe-derived butyrate induces the differentiation of colonic regulatory T cells. Nature 504, 446–450 (2013).
181. Smith, P. M. et al. The microbial metabolites, short-chain fatty acids, regulate colonic T reg cell homeostasis. Science 341, 569–573 (2013).
182. Round, J. L. & Mazmanian, S. K. Inducible Foxp3+ regulatory T-cell development by a commensal bacterium of the intestinal microbiota. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 12204–12209 (2010).
183. Bailey, M. T. et al. Exposure to a social stressor alters the structure of the intestinal microbiota: implications for stressor-induced immunomodulation. Brain Behav. Immun. 25, 397–407 (2011).
184. Sudo, N. et al. Postnatal microbial colonization programs the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal system for stress response in mice. J. Physiol. 558, 263–275 (2004).
185. Clarke, G. et al. The microbiome–gut–brain axis during early life regulates the hippocampal serotonergic system in a sex-dependent manner. Mol. Psychiatry 18, 666–673 (2013).
186. Neufeld, K. M., Kang, N., Bienenstock, J. & Foster, J. A. Reduced anxiety-like behavior and central neurochemical change in germ-free mice. Neurogastroenterol. Motil. 23, 255–e119 (2011).
187. Diaz Heijtz, R. et al. Normal gut microbiota modulates brain development and behavior. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 3047–3052 (2011).
188. Galley, J. D. et al. Exposure to a social stressor disrupts the community structure of the colonic mucosa-associated microbiota. BMC Microbiol. 14, 189 (2014).
189. Galley, J. D. & Bailey, M. T. Impact of stressor exposure on the interplay between commensal microbiota and host inflammation. Gut Microbes 5, 390–396 (2014).
190. Galley, J. D. et al. The structures of the colonic mucosa-associated and luminal microbial communities are distinct and differentially affected by a prolonged murine stressor. Gut Microbes 5, 748–760 (2014).
191. Bailey, M. T. et al. Stressor exposure disrupts commensal microbial populations in the intestines and leads to increased colonization by Citrobacter rodentium. Infect. Immun. 78, 1509–1519 (2010).
192. Gareau, M. G. et al. Bacterial infection causes stress-induced memory dysfunction in mice. Gut 60, 307–317 (2011).
193. Desbonnet, L., Clarke, G., Shanahan, F., Dinan, T. G. & Cryan, J. F. Microbiota is essential for social development in the mouse. Mol. Psychiatry 19, 146–148 (2014 |
of the ‘Russian Ku-Klux-Klan', specially filmed at the request of an ATV journalist. After the revelation that the internet clip of the brutal execution-style murders of a Tajik and Dagestani man in 2007 was genuine footage, this seems almost inconceivably irresponsible journalism.
The SOVA report continually highlights the failings of the Russian media. There is the self-censorship that results in regional (and sometimes national) media ceasing to report racist or ‘extremist' crime following announcements by local politicians that such crimes have been eradicated. There is the careless or malicious dissemination of inflammatory material. There is the failure to release accurate and timely reports during the mass disturbances which are now labelled ‘Kondopoga-style' events, in reference to the riots in the Karelian town of Kondopoga in 2006.
The Kondopoga scenario
This latter phenomenon merits its own section of SOVA's report. The ‘Kondopoga scenario' is an opportunity - an ‘ordinary' crime, fight or disturbance involving individuals from an ethnic minority - which nationalists seek to exploit for political purposes. The pattern developed in Kondopoga in 2006 has yet to be replicated with the same degree of success. But the pattern is that nationalist agitators arrive on the scene to escalate the violence and inflame latent tensions. They then ‘help to resolve' these tensions by calling public meetings and demanding sanctions against ‘immigrants'. SOVA's evidence suggests that despite the media's failure to respond appropriately to such ‘provocations', local authorities are now wise to these tactics and better able to deal with them. Karagai local authority (in Perm region) is singled out for particular praise.
The MovementAgainst Illegal Immigration (better known by its Russian acronym, DPNI) has been instrumental in manipulating most of these Kondopoga-type scenarios, and indeed can be credited with transforming the face - and the vocabulary - of Russian racism in recent years. Protesting against the influx of ‘migrants' in the rhetoric of the European far right, the DPNI has gathered an alarming degree of popular support and media airtime, despite its close connections with skinheads and other marginal extreme nationalist groups.
The good news
Perhaps the most encouraging news in the report is that the acrimonious fragmentation the DPNI experienced in 2008 has yet to be resolved. As a result, the ‘Russian march' held annually on November 4 since 2005 reflected the divisions that continue to plague the nationalist movement. In 2008 there were three separate ‘Russian march' events in Moscow, two of which were organised by DPNI splinter groups. In contrast to the first Moscow march,which attracted around 3,000 participants, it seems that less than half that number joined the farcically disorganised Moscow marches in 2008.
More constructive news is to be found in the section on combating radical nationalism. After years - along with many other researchers and NGOs - of lamenting contradictory or inadequate legislation, inept investigations and the dearth of prosecutions, SOVA reports that criminal proceedings against racists are increasing both in quality (with better investigations leading to more convictions) and in quantity. There have even been successful prosecutions of racist law enforcement officials - against one police officer who maintained a neo-Nazi blog and another who colluded in a racist attack.
However, those working within the criminal justice system are, like NGOs working in this field, increasingly finding themselves the target of neo-Nazi intimidation. Judges and prosecutors found themselves included in the latest list of ‘enemies of the Russian people' that was published on the internet in early 2008, along with journalists, members of the Public Chamber and human rights activists. Unusually, personal details such as home addresses were included on the list - a serious enough issue given the 2004 murder of Nikolai Girenko, for example, an academic and expert witness for the criminal justice system in Petersburg who was shot through his own front door. Threats, including the mailing of photos of a severed head, have followed.
The fact that the extreme right have lost their political lobby is further good news. Not only, the report points out, did ultra right groups fail to win any seats in the December 2007 elections, but most of their former allies lost their seats. With the fracture of the thus-far influential DPNI, and the loss of active nationalist politicians, two major factors for generating and encouraging racism and discriminatory behaviour amongst the ordinary populace - which generally takes a dim view of neo-Nazis and skinhead gangs - are weakened.
Future trends
SOVA identifies another two factors which may take their place, however. Firstly, the appearance of groups of youths from the Caucasus committing violent retaliatory acts is encouraging the public (led by a media which describes these new groups as ‘skinheads from the Caucasus') to perceive nationalist violence as necessary vigilantism.
Secondly, the pro-Kremlin youth groups, most significantlythe Young Guard of United Russia, joined the DPNI's anti-immigrant band wagon in 2008 with a Russia-wide campaign ‘Our money to our people', which effectively demanded that vacancies be offered to Russian citizens in preference to economic migrants from abroad. SOVA argue that the participation of ‘official' groups in such campaigns legitimizes ‘ethnically-coloured anti-migrant moods and discriminatory practice.' Since this sort of protectionism is a growing worldwidetrend in a worsening economic climate, we should probably expect to see more of it. One can only hope that the racist violence so carefully documented by SOVA does not continue to rise alongside it.Crime
Chennai police have chargesheeted a female doctor for trying to kill her 82-year-old father
Chennai police have chargesheeted a female doctor for trying to kill her 82-year-old father, a heart patient on medical support, in an ICU. She had pulled the plug on him after getting his thumb impression on a set of papers. This did not go unnoticed – the incident was caught on CCTV camera.
Pushpa Narayan of The Times of India reports that though the incident happened in September 2015 and her father had died two months later, the charge sheet was only filed recently, booking Dr Jayasudha Manoharan for attempt to murder.
The CCTV footage shows, Dr Jayasudha, visiting her father along with her two sons at the Aditya Hospital, which her brother Jayaprakash owns in Kilpauk. After getting the nurses to vacate the room, Dr Jayasudha’s son Dr. Hari Prasad takes out a document from underneath his shirt and pulls out an ink pad and takes his thumb impression. Taking out a bottle of spirit from her person, Dr. Jayasudha proceeds to wipe the ink from his thumbs.
What happens next is shocking. She removes the line delivering life-saving medicines through a vein in the neck. The CCTV footage shows blood trickling down onto the hospital floor. As nurses and a doctor rush in, she says something and rushes out, with the hospital staff running behind her.
In February this year, her brother lodged a complaint with the Tamil Nadu State Medical Council alleging that Dr Jayasudha, her husband Dr U Manoharan and their son Dr Hari Prasad tried to kill his father Dr E Rajagopal. He demanded that they be removed from the medical rolls. Dr Jayasudha's family owns Manoharan Hospital in R S Puram, Coimbatore. He then sent unedited and edited versions of the CCTV footage along with a copy of the FIR filed by the city police in January.
Police initially filed cases of trespassing, extortion and criminal intimidation against the family, but later altered them to attempt to murder in the charge sheet.
G3 police inspector Thiyagarajan told TOI, “When we first got the complaint, we thought it was sibling rivalry and extortion case. Further inquiries revealed there was an attempt to murder."
In his complaint to the council, Dr Jayaprakash said the September 5, 2015 incident led to a gradual decline in his father's health and he died on November 2, 2015. “Jayasudha took my father's thumb impression, wiped the ink from his fingers and unscrewed the IV line so he did not get the lifesaving drug. There was slow but steady reverse flow of the blood. The ICU nurses caught it just on time to save him," he said.
The state medical council, which asked Dr Jayasudha and her family to appear before a committee on July 22, said it would hold an independent inquiry to find out if they misused their medical knowledge.
According to sources, the police had recorded Dr Rajagopal's statement a few days after the incident in the ICU, which would be crucial to the investigation.
Watch the video here:Empty seats he was used to — but a woman team executive having a baby out of wedlock was too much for Mets co-owner Jeff Wilpon to handle, a blockbuster new suit claims.
The first woman senior vice president in the team’s 52-year history claims in a federal lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Wednesday that Wilpon, the struggling team’s chief operating officer, canned her from her post heading ticket sales last month because he was “morally opposed” to her being pregnant and unmarried.
University of Pennsylvania grad Leigh Castergine, says in the suit, that Wilpon “frequently humiliated [her] in front of others by, among other things, pretending to see if she had an engagement ring on her finger.”
The suit claims Wilpon even stated “in a meeting of the team’s all-male senior executives that he is ‘morally opposed’ to Castergine ‘having this baby without being married.’”
“Wilpon told her that when she gets a ring she will make more money and get a bigger bonus,” the filing claims.
“I am as morally opposed to putting an e-cigarette sign in my ballpark as I am to Leigh having this baby without being married,” Wilpon said in a meeting over a proposed ad deal, according to the suit.
The son of Mets principal owner Fred Wilpon even warned Castergine’s co-workers to refrain from taking any interest in her unborn child.
“Do not rub her belly,” the suit says he commanded. “Don’t ask how she’s doing. She’s not sick, she’s pregnant.”
And it only got worse after she gave birth, Castergine claims. “Something had changed,” in her then, Wilpon told her, according to the suit. “Wilpon told her that she was no longer as ‘aggressive’ as she used to be.”
Her complaints to human resources and legal staffers were blown off, the suit states. She gave birth in March and returned to the team in June when for the first time in her four years with the team, she was hit with negative evaluations.
Wilpon told her that she wasn’t meeting ticket sales expectations for the out of contention team, but offered to let her remain through the end of the season if she promised to keep her mouth shut about the discrimination claims, the suit states.
But the disgusted mom rejected the deal and had her lawyer e-mail Wilpon to tell him that they were taking him to court. She was fired three minutes later, according to the suit.
Castergine took several shots at the team in the suit, noting it “failed to field a winning team in six years,” “fans had … pledged not to attend any games until there was a change in ownership,” and comparing her job “to selling deck chairs on the Titanic.”
Castergine — who previously worked for the Philadelphia 76ers, Orlando Magic and Boston Bruins — seeks unspecified damages from Wilpon and the team.
“We have received and reviewed the complaint. The claims are without merit. Our organization maintains strong policies against any and all forms of discrimination,” the Mets said in a statement.SINGAPORE - The Singapore Red Cross is appealing for O+ blood type donors as blood bank levels have dropped below the healthy level needed to circulate to hospitals.
It made a Facebook post on Wednesday calling for people with blood type O+ to donate.
An average of 700 units of type O blood has to be maintained daily to circulate to hospitals. As of Wednesday morning, there were 473 units.
Red Cross blood donor recruitment programme head Elaine Tham said that the call was put out to help recover the healthy level of type O blood.
She said: "Today, we are not at the healthy level, so we would like to highlight to the community of this blood type to please come in this week to help to recover that level."
She added that blood collection usually slides over holidays and long weekends, because of donors travelling overseas. Blood stocks can dip as much as 20 per cent across all blood types.
Ms Tham said: "We have a full-fledged seven long weekends to manage, very different from last year or the year before."
People can donate blood at blood banks at the Health Sciences Authority building, Dhoby Xchange, Woodlands Civic Centre and Westgate Tower, as well as mobile donation vehicles (http://www.donorweb.org/singapore-bloodmobiles/).
Potential blood donors need to meet some basic requirements: http://www.redcross.sg/articles/save-livesCalifornia is still in a drought. But there are some dramatic signs of improvement -- especially if you look at some of the state's most important reservoirs. Months of rain and snow in the Sierra region have done much to replenish the reservoirs, which are a key source water for the state.
Now, officials are increasing releases of water from the lakes.
Here are some images of what's going on:
Lake Folsom
Here are some dramatic photos of how much water Lake Folsom has gained in recent months. The lake was dangerously dry a year ago but has seen an impressive revival.
Folsom Lake from top to bottom: November 6 2015, February 6 2016, and March 23 2016 #cawx #cadrought pic.twitter.com/l1J2VcyytN — Courtney Obergfell (@ceober4) March 23, 2016
Join the conversation on Facebook >>
Lake Shasta
Shasta is one of California's most important reservoirs, providing water for large parts of the state. It's also doing very well.
.@usbr will increase releases from Keswick Dam below Lake Shasta tonight. Last release this high: 6/3/2011 #cawx pic.twitter.com/sPXGCkYwCC — NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) March 17, 2016
Each one of these holes on the dam is much bigger than it looks A photo posted by Brian Srotananda (@hypnoswami) on Mar 20, 2016 at 3:08pm PDT
Quick stop at Lake Shasta/Shasta Dam... A photo posted by @kimnygaard8 on Mar 23, 2016 at 1:42pm PDT
RTLove Boat! @NWSMedford: El Nino has helped bring a parade of storms. Lake Shasta up 134 ft since early Dec. pic.twitter.com/JDpYuzb8VW — Mark Freeman (@MTwriterFreeman) March 24, 2016
NEWSLETTER: Get essential California headlines delivered daily >>
Oroville Lake
This is also a key source of water, and is also coming back to life.
Lake Oroville hits flood control limit, may have to release water (82' in 1 mo!) via Chico …/buff.ly/1PpczuD pic.twitter.com/rq4YKtSOcg — Tim Johnson (@timflyfisher) March 22, 2016
Another angle of the water release this morning at the Oroville Dam. DWR opened the spillway around 9:30 and they plan to keep the outflow going for six days. KRCR News Channel 7 Posted by Stephanie Barnes on Thursday, March 24, 2016
Lake Oroville's amazing compback. Courtesy Mark Tamayo pic.twitter.com/jncME51EbA — Bill Martin (@BillMartinKTVU) March 17, 2016
Updated at 11:45 a.m. with additional photos from Folsom and a map from Shasta.
Updated at 11 a.m. with additional photos and videos from Shasta and Oroville.
Port of L.A. helped pay for cleaner China Shipping vessels--which later stopped docking in L.A.
Discount grocery chain Aldi opens first eight Southern California stores
Construction worker's fatal fall from a downtown high-rise is ruled a suicideMy Xbox has become an integral part of our family's living room. I get to play games. My wife gets to Skype with her family. And we don't have to worry about our toddler running away with the remotes since we don't have to use them anymore.
I do think it's a shame that Microsoft made so many sacrifices to create that experience. Load times are frustrating, and there's no way to upgrade the hard disk to a hybrid drive to speed things up. And to see games released on both the Xbox One and the PS4, and how much the PS4 dominates, is a tough pill to swallow. Would you rather have a game running in 60fps or 30fps? It's not even a question. It's a given.
It's going to be interesting to see how the next couple of years are going to pan out for the two consoles. If it's going to come down to games, the PS4 is going to make me regret my purchase--it's clearly a machine built for games, and aside from securing exclusive games, there's nothing Microsoft's marketing department can do to close that gap. But I'm really hoping that Microsoft can get all of its ducks in a row, and really explore fresh ways to make the Xbox a media hub.
A few of the things I love:
- Titanfall is an excellent game
- Using Skype with the Kinect is a magical experience, the way it pans to each speaker and follows you around the room is really awesome
- The Xbox controller is a joy to use. I don't feel any soreness in my hands when I play for long periods of time. All the buttons are where they're supposed to be, and I can just focus on the game.
- Xbox fitness is awesome and is a great example of what the Kinect can do. Being able to see yourself on screen with tips on how to correct form is an excellent experience.
A few things that I love/hate:
- Voice control is really a hit or miss, my success rate for turning on the Xbox is maybe 20%. It's especially embarassing when I have friends over and say, "Check this out...Xbox on" and nothing happens. It's also instantly frustrating when I ask it to change the channel, and it goes to the wrong one. I really wish it was more accurate. That said, still beats using remote.
My regrets:
- The system is underpowered. In a game like Titanfall, having to wait 20 seconds for each match to load is a joke. Seeing PS4 games run in 1080p at 60fps is depressing.
- The Kinect needs to be exploited. It's a fascinating device with a ton of unexplored potential. The Kinect should be what the Wiimote was for the original Wii, a real differentiator that transcends graphics performance.
- Getting a party together takes a lot of trial and error. The first time I tried to get two friends together to play a match on Titanfall took over half an hour. It was a terrible experience.
- The interface for Netflix is garbage. The system they came up with for browsing videos is really half-baked.
I know I've had quite a few negative things to say, but let me be clear, I don't regret my purchase. There's simply nothing like this on the market that combines gaming, media, physical activity, and virtual interaction like this on the planet. I really hope Microsoft continues to make each of these experiences inspiring and easy to use.Erding joined Paris Saint-Germain from Sochaux in 2009
Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew is interested in signing Paris Saint-Germain striker Mevlut Erding.
The 24-year-old Turkey international scored 12 goals for the French side in the 2010/11 season.
Pardew told The Journal: "Erding has always been on our radar. He's a very good player and that is all I will say at the moment.
"We are working extremely hard to make the deal happen and I'm pretty happy with how things have gone so far."
The Magpies have turned their attention to Erding after missing out on two other targets.
Kevin Gameiro has joined PSG from Lorient, while Lille frontman Gervinho looks set for a move to Arsenal.
"We had a bit of a disappointment with Kevin Gameiro as he has decided to go elsewhere," said Pardew. "We made a fantastic offer to the club and to him, but these things happen.
"We tried very hard on that one, but we always knew there would be setbacks along the way and we have always had other people in mind, deals we have been trying to keep to ourselves for obvious reasons."
Newcastle are also thought to be interested in West Ham striker Demba Ba and have made a bid for Swansea left-back Neil Taylor.A 22-year-old man was charged Tuesday with animal cruelty for allegedly stomping on a Hawthorne couple’s 9-pound white Maltese, killing the tiny pet with purple ears following a dispute over whether he could continue to live with their granddaughter at their residence.
Seth Estrada allegedly yelled “I killed my first dog” when police officers responded to the couple’s home on Friday and placed him in handcuffs, said the dog’s owner, Chuck Hayes.
“All the cops looked at him, like he was happy he did it,” Hayes said. “It was a little white poodle and it never bothered anybody, never. It slept with me every night. It was a really good dog.”
Suspected in other deaths
During police questioning, Estrada told detectives he had previously killed three animals, although he claimed they were all accidents, Hawthorne police Lt. James Royer said. Hayes and his wife, Holly, said they suspect Estrada is responsible for the recent death of a cat found dead in their driveway. They allege he broke the cat’s neck and tossed it from a second-story window.
Animal lovers, the Hayes said they never had a problem with any of their pets. Estrada moved in with their granddaughter about a year ago.
“He’s been periodically hurting my animals since he moved in,” Holly Hayes said. “They were all accidents, of course. It’s never been this bad.”
Told him to leave
Chuck Hayes said they finally had enough. In addition to fearing Estrada was hurting their pets, he also did not work. Hayes, a retired taxidermist, wanted him to move out of his house on 136th Street. They argued about it on Friday.
Later that day, Hayes said a neighbor told him she heard Estrada punch the dog, named Rain, three times. Each time the dog yelped.
“Then I came home and I yelled, “Rainy,” and she wouldn’t walk,” Hayes said. “I go, ‘What’s wrong, Rainy?’ I stood her up and she walked all crooked.”
Hayes said he held the dog for 30 minutes, but had to pick up his 7-year-old grandson from school. He laid the dog on a pillow on the coffee table and went outside. Before he left, Estrada ran out of the house with the dog in his arms, bleeding profusely.
“I said, “What’d you do! Give me that dog!” Hayes said. “Before I could get back to the house, it died.”
Claimed accident
Hayes called the police. According to an officer’s report — which Hayes was using to apply for a temporary restraining order — Estrada claimed he was trying to help the dog walk and was pushing it forward when it turned around and bit him. Estrada said he accidentally fell back and stepped on the front of the dog’s face.
Royer said Estrada provided different stories of how the dog was injured to Hayes and his girlfriend, and was arrested.
A necropsy revealed the dog suffered multiple skull fractures, broken ribs, a collapsed spleen, and internal hemorrhaging. The injuries were considered intentional, not accidental, Royer said.
Possibly more deaths
“According to our investigation, we believe that he’s responsible for the deaths of as many as three animals, this by his own admission,” Royer said. “We are still continuing to investigate.”
The Hayeses said they planned to seek a restraining order because they feared Estrada will make bail and return. Estrada remained in custody Tuesday, but his bail was just $20,000.
Holly Hayes said they suspect Estrada was responsible for the disappearance of one of their cats, and for stepping on another’s back and injuring its spine. The cat was unable to walk for three weeks.
“I have another dog that has pink ears that doesn’t like him much,” Holly Hayes said, referring to her small dog, Gracie. “He did something to her one time and she bit him and he punched her in the eye. …The kid is just an absolute loser. Just terrible.”Wales's Liam Williams could miss his side's matches against Fiji and Australia after being knocked unconscious in a clash with England's Tom Wood
England v Australia Venue: Twickenham Date: Saturday, 3 October Kick-off: 20:00 BST Coverage: Live on BBC Radio 5 live, plus live text commentary on BBC Sport website
England flanker Tom Wood is free to play against Australia after he was not cited for the incident which saw Wales full-back Liam Williams knocked unconscious on Saturday.
However, Wood has been given a warning after his shin made contact with Williams' head as he tried to secure possession for Wales in the 28-25 win over the hosts at Twickenham.
A warning equates to a yellow card.
Three yellow cards in the tournament lead to a disciplinary hearing.
England's Tom Wood is set to play in his side's vital World Cup match against Australia
On Sunday, Wood apologised to Williams with a message on Twitter. Wood wrote: "Really relieved to hear you're back on your feet OK mate. Horrible to see you stretchered off because of me. Hope you have a speedy recovery."
Full-back Williams, 24, though, could pay a heavier price for the clash as he can only make a gradual return to play under head injury protocols.
These could see him ruled out of Wales' remaining pool matches against Fiji and Australia.
Williams's potential absence adds to Wales's injury problems with centre Scott Williams (leg) and winger Hallam Amos (shoulder) set to be ruled out of the tournament.
Wales play Fiji in Cardiff on Thursday, before England host Australia at Twickenham on Saturday.Hamilton, Ont. — Liberal national campaign handlers guided Marie Bountrogianni to stand on an X taped to the floor of a Hamilton, Ont., hospital. The position ensured she was at Michael Ignatieff’s right hand when the Liberal leader made his choreographed appearance.
Her pride of place marks her as the party’s star candidate in the region’s ridings, an area with a strong tradition of Liberal support that shut the party out last election.
Wearing a Liberal-red blouse under a dark business suit, she smiled broadly at Mr. Ignatieff as she introduced him on Friday’s campaign stop. It is not the first stage they have shared; he has being touting her for months. The announcement of the former provincial Cabinet member’s candidacy in the diverse, New Democrat-held riding of Hamilton Mountain was front-page news in this city.
Ms. Bountrogianni is a challenger running like an incumbent.
Hamilton Mountain is being targeted by the Liberals as one of the 20 ridings it can take away from their opponents this election.
Chris Charlton, the real incumbent, though, suggests the Liberal strategists don’t know her riding as well as they think.
“Hamilton Mountain has had competitive, three-way races in the past, but the voters have been incredibly loyal to incumbents. On the doorsteps, the response has been amazing,” she said.
With a population of about 120,000, the riding’s economic diversity makes it difficult to pin down politically. Portions have above-average poverty rates and are home to social housing, but it also boasts expensive suburban homes on wide lots overlooking the lower city.
Accordingly, Hamilton Mountain has changed hands over the years, passed around between all three major parties, both federally and provincially.
The riding was NDP for eight years and then Liberal for 18 years until Ms. Charlton took it back for the NDP in 2006.
Despite Ms. Charlton being re-elected by a comfortable margin in 2008, pundits are marking the riding as a battleground this election.
As a former Ontario Cabinet minister Ms. Bountrogianni has, running provincially, twice trounced Ms. Charlton at the polls and, in the familiarity of city politics, also bested Ms. Charlton’s husband, Brian, although both Mr. Charlton and Ms. Bountrogianni lost to a Conservative then, in 1995.
The past competitions provincially between Ms. Charlton and Ms. Bountrogianni means this election is a rematch with a personal edge.
“I don’t take anything for granted,” said Ms. Bountrogianni, “I know how difficult it is to defeat an incumbent — although I’ve done it before.”
Ms. Charlton said that after electing Ms. Bountrogianni and the provincial Liberal government, they suffered “buyer’s remorse.”
“The Liberals ran a distant third last election, so it is a bit of a stretch,” she said of Mr. Ignatieff’s hints that if the Liberals form the government and take the riding Ms. Bountrogianni would be elevated to Cabinet.
But Mr. Ignatieff clearly does have ambitions for Ms. Bountrogianni.
At her nomination, he compared her with Hamilton Liberal legends John Munro and Sheila Copps. Both politicians were Liberal legends here for 20 years, both serving in Cabinet. Within local Liberal ranks they are synonymous with electoral success and hark back to a time when the city wielded some political clout.
That is a powerful message in a city whose nickname has been the Ambitious City.
It is that ambition that is played on by the Conservatives.
The party’s candidate, Terry Anderson, is a nine-year city council veteran who came in second to Ms. Charlton in the 1988 federal election. He is not ceding to Ms. Charlton or Ms. Bountrogianni.
“If we have learned anything since the last election, it is that an MP in opposition cannot get the job done,” Mr. Anderson said.
“The residents of Hamilton Mountain deserve more from their MP than partisan mail-outs and voting against key pieces of legislation. It’s time for Hamilton Mountain to join the Conservative government.”
If there is something that Ms. Bountrogianni and Mr. Anderson agree on, it is the unlikelihood of the NDP forming the government.
National Post
[email protected] on the positive feedback in April, we will do another Crate Polishing Meetup.
But this time, we’d like to skip the search for crates and issues: Instead, we want to use the list of issues (and guidelines!) the Rust Libs Team’s new Libz Blitz initiative has created over the last months, and dive right into fixing and improving code. You can, of course, work in teams.
One bonus for working on these issues: You can win RustFest Zürich tickets (incl. travel and accommodations)! See the RustFest announcement for more details.
If you have a suggestion, feel free to comment in our planning issue.
You can register here.
See you soon!
Yours, Jan-Erik, Pascal, Florian and Colin
The meetup will likely be held in German, we will however reevaluate this at the beginning of the evening and may switch to English if needed.Oliver followed that up with his second straight Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week award after rushing for 101 yards against the Oakland Raiders. He cemented the win by bullying his way into the end zone for the game winning touchdown with 1:56 remaining.
Unfortunately, the running back missed the past year and half after suffering a pair of injuries. The first was a toe injury on Nov. 1, 2015 against the Baltimore Ravens. Then, after an impressive start to training camp last season, he ruptured his Achilles in the third preseason game and was lost for the entire year.
In addition to his prowess as a jack of all trades running back, Oliver is a proven special teams performer as well. He served as the team’s primary kickoff returner in 2015, averaging 24.6 yards per return before being placed on the reserve-injured list.View 20 Photos
The 2014 Lexus IS 350 F Sport sedan has been officially uncovered online. The automaker released photos of the new compact luxury sports sedan today, showing a bold update of what was already a stylish car. Though the 2014 Lexus IS photos seen here show the more aggressive F Sport model, the design is sure to make an impression on luxury buyers when it goes on sale later this year. The new Lexus is debuting at the 2013 Detroit auto show.
While the U.S. market will get the 2014 Lexus IS 250 and IS 350, Europe, Japan, and other markets will also get an IS 300h hybrid. At this point, that model isn't slated for a U.S. release, which means luxury hybrid buyers will have to make do with the Lexus CT 200h, ES 300h, GS 450h, and LS 600h L.
From the front, the 2014 Lexus IS' spindle grille is unmistakable, with two extra openings on each side of the lower front fascia. The headlights aren't drastically different from the outgoing IS', and like that car, the side mirrors are mounted on the body of the car. Unlike the previous model, however, the 2014 Lexus IS sports L-shaped LED daytime running lights that have an independent housing from the actual headlights.
Read more on the 2014 IS: 2014 Lexus IS Sedan U.S. Spec Prototype First Drive
The 2014 IS looks similar to its predecessor from the side with a well-defined shoulder line and rear side windows that curve upward toward the rear of the car. What's new is a swooping character line that starts on the lower body, just in front of the rear wheels. You've probably noticed those taillights, which stretch from the rear of the car down toward the rear wheels. L-shaped LED accents are part of the package, as well, as are dual exhaust outlets and a black lower rear fascia.OTTAWA — Liberal minister Maryam Monsef accused a special committee studying electoral reform of not doing its job Thursday, even as committee members called their 333-page report an unprecedented show in cross-partisanship — and accused Monsef of either lying or not understanding the process.
During a raucous question period, the Minister of Democratic Institutions reiterated there’s “no consensus” on reform, drawing ire and mockery from the opposition. One MP said, incredulously, “people aren’t stupid.”
In what became a sticking point, Monsef said the committee was asked to “recommend a specific system,” and “it did not do that.” But as opposition members pointed out Thursday afternoon, the committee’s mandate was to study various options — not to recommend a single alternative.
What the committee did recommend, in a report released Thursday morning, was a referendum on changing Canada’s voting system to proportional representation, where the share of seats more closely reflects the percentage of the popular vote each political party gets — the type of system a big majority of committee witnesses and public participants wanted.
That’s opposed to Canada’s current first-past-the-post system, where candidates who win the most votes in a riding are automatically elected. It is often accused of being disproportionate, since parties can win majorities with less than 40 per cent of the popular vote, as in the last two elections. Liberals campaigned on 2015’s election being the last to use first-past-the-post.
It’s a win for the Tories, who’ve been gunning for a referendum from the beginning, though they haven’t stated a preferred system. It’s also a win for the NDP and Greens, who advocate for proportional representation.
But not all MPs on the committee were in favour of all the recommendations.
In a supplementary report, the Liberals on the committee said they don’t believe Canadians are engaged enough, and committee recommendations are “rushed,” “too radical” and “racing toward a predetermined deadline” — a deadline the government itself had set.
Another supplementary report from the NDP and Green Party stated both have “serious concerns” about a referendum, though it remains “an option.” It also offered two specific systems — mixed-member or urban-rural — the government could consider, both of which score well on the Gallagher Index, a tool developed to rate how proportional electoral systems are.
In the Commons Thursday, holding up a piece of paper with a large equation printed on it, Monsef called that tool “an incomprehensible formula” and said in presenting it, the committee “did not complete the hard work we had expected it to.”
She repeatedly stated the committee was asking the government to “choose your own adventure” and said the opposition was asking for “a referendum on the following: would Canadians like to take the square root of the sum of the squares of the difference between the percentage of the seats for each party and the percentage of the votes passed?”
“What happened in question period today was an absolute disgrace,” Conservative leader Rona Ambrose told reporters. “What Minister Monsef did today was just dismiss all of (the committee’s) hard work and insult Canadians. … She also lied in the House.”
In misrepresenting the committee mandate, “she was either lying or she doesn’t understand what the committee was doing,” Cullen said, calling Monsef’s comments cynical and insulting.
“Stop it,” he said. “People aren’t stupid.”
For my part I accept @MaryamMonsef ‘s apology. It is hard to admit making a mistake, but all mere mortals do. Now 4 fair voting! #ERRE #GPC —
Elizabeth May (@ElizabethMay) December 02, 2016
Green leader Elizabeth May said Monsef should apologize for “the most insulting treatment imaginable” of a parliamentary committee. “If she meant what she said, it’s appalling.”
Liberals are launching an online consultation that will be advertised with postcards sent to 15 million households, one way they hope to find “broad consensus.” If it doesn’t include specific questions but instead focuses on “values,” as Monsef implied Thursday, Cullen says it risks being akin to a “teen magazine” or “dating service” survey.
Still, despite a dramatic day, no one was ready to throw in the towel on electoral reform. As Monsef told reporters |
part of a democratic project that reconfigures what it means to desire a better and more democratic future.”
Robin Davis Gibran Kelley is the Gary B. Nash Professor of American History at UCLA.A “super-safe” nuclear reactor that does not require any external water or electricity for a month for cooling the red hot core in case of an accident, may be a reality in the near future.
Indian scientists have finalised the design of the reactor, which will come up near Mumbai.
“In all probability, the 300 MWe advanced heavy water reactor (AHWR) will come up in Tarapur, near Mumbai. It is designed to have a life of 100 years,” Sekhar Basu, director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, which designed the futuristic reactor told Deccan Herald.
While AHWR is well known to be the first reactor that will consume thorium as fuel, it has several unique design features to make it a super-safe reactor that can be installed closer to urban areas. The Tarapur plant will be a technology demonstration project.
The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) plans to co-locate the reactors within thermal power plants as many of them may be abandoned in the future due to paucity of coal. As many coal-fired stations are located close to urban areas, DAE wanted a reactor with top-grade safety parameters. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India currently needs 600 acres for setting up of a nuclear power plant as large tracts of land are used to keep a 5-km exclusion zone around the main plant.
Since land acquisition has turned out to be a contentious issue in the last few years, scientists focused their attention on reactors with futuristic design that will not be requiring that much of land.
Besides providing a proof-of-concept for the thorium technology that will be the mainstay of Indian nuclear sector after a couple of decades, AHWR will also have high longevity unlike the current breed of nuclear reactors that has an average life of 40 years.
The AHWR has been designed to tackle simultaneous extreme events like station black out, multiple system black out, loss of coolant, reactor temperature crossing 1,000 degrees Celsius in the absence of cooling and core meltdown.
“Essentially, it can handle an accident without any external help. The water storage is enough for one month. No electricity is needed to run the pumps as the heat is taken out naturally,” Basu said.
The safety analysis of AHWR has identified an exhaustive list of 55 causes of accidents, which are unlikely to cause any disruption in the functioning of this futuristic nuclear power plant.Palestinians sit in a makeshift shelter near their house destroyed during Israel's offensive, in Gaza City February 8, 2009. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem
GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli fire killed a Palestinian militant who was on a mission on Monday to attack an Israeli patrol along the border with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, the Islamic Jihad group said.
Israel’s military, revising an earlier statement, said its forces killed a gunman who tried to infiltrate through its Gaza border fence.
Islamic Jihad identified him as a member of its armed wing and said he was killed near the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun while trying to attack Israeli troops along the frontier.
Earlier, Israel launched air strikes against what the military described as Hamas outposts in Gaza, saying this was a response to a Palestinian rocket salvo on Sunday.
Palestinians said at least one Israeli missile hit a building used by Hamas police. There were no casualties.
A fragile cease-fire has been in place since Israel ended a 22-day military offensive in Gaza on January 18 that was designed to punish the Islamist Hamas group for cross-border rocket and mortar bomb attacks.
Egypt is trying to secure a lasting cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, which holds a parliamentary election on Tuesday. Diplomats said the Egyptian proposal includes a prisoner exchange and the initial opening of at least two of the enclave’s border crossings.
With his opinion poll lead narrowing ahead of the election, right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to end Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip and proposed focussing peace talks with the Palestinians on economic issues.
His main opponent, the centrist Kadima party leader Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister, said she would continue U.S.-sponsored land-for-peace talks, an outcome favoured by the new Obama administration in Washington.A spoof of the Star Wars franchise is in development with Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, whose credits include the Scary Movie franchise, “Epic Movie” and “Vampires Suck.”
The duo will write and direct the project, titled “Star Worlds Episode XXXIVE=MC2: The Force Awakens The Last Jedi Who Went Rogue.” Covert Media’s CEO Paul Hanson (“District 9”) is producing the film alongside Broken Road Productions’ Todd Garner (“True Memoirs of an International Assassin”).
The film is currently in pre-production targeting a fall shoot. “Star Worlds” is being fully financed by Covert Media, whic will launch worldwide sales on the film at the Berlin Film Festival this week.
“Jason and Aaron are a powerhouse duo who have proven time and time again that they are fully tapped into the what audiences love,” Hanson said. “Their fearless take on pop culture has us beyond thrilled to tackle the world’s most popular franchise with the two of them leading us into a galaxy far, far away.”
The film is the second project announced under the two-year first look deal between Covert and Broken Road. The partnership announced the underwater thriller “Resurface” in May at the Cannes Film Festival.
Executive producers on “Star Worlds” include Covert’s Elissa Friedman, Media Content Capital’s Sasha Shapiro and Anton Lessine and Broken Road’s Jeremy Stein.
Mel Brooks spoofed the first three “Star Wars” movies in 1987 with “Spaceballs,” which starred Brooks, Bill Pullman, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Daphne Zuniga and Dick Van Patten. “Spaceballs” grossed $38 million domestically for MGM.
Friedberg and Seltzer are represented by Fourth Wall Management and Paradigm. The deal was negotiated by Covert’s Chet Devaskar and Paradigm on behalf of the filmmakers.Scientists at GlaxoSmithKline spent a small fortune studying cancer cells, and then gave most of their precious information away – for free – to the research community. That massive donation, which was announced on Friday, could accelerate the discovery of new oncology drugs and blood tests by giving brilliant, but underfunded, researchers a chance to pick through boatloads of data.
For the pharmaceutical giant, sharing makes a lot of sense: They rely upon academics and small companies to do pioneering work – identifying new targets for medications, discovering early warning signs, and figuring out the underlying biological malfunctions that cause cancer. Once those groundbreaking studies have been done, Glaxo and other large corporations can step back into the picture and create new products.
Most of the data was gathered by microarrays, chips that can record lots of biological information. Its new home is the caBIG website, a massive repository of genetic information run by the National Cancer Institute. Glaxo gave the online community information from three hundred different sets of cells, which were taken from diseased breast, prostate, lung and ovarian tissues.
Image: suncana / flickrDog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class
Campaigning for president in 1980, Ronald Reagan told stories of Cadillac-driving "welfare queens" and "strapping young bucks" buying T-bone steaks with food stamps. In trumpeting these tales of welfare run amok, Reagan never needed to mention race, because he was blowing a dog whistle: sending a message about racial minorities inaudible on one level, but clearly heard on another. In doing so, he tapped into a long political tradition that started with George Wallace and Richard Nixon, and is more relevant than ever in the age of the Tea Party and the first black president.
In Dog Whistle Politics, Demos' new Senior Fellow Ian Haney López offers a sweeping account of how politicians and plutocrats deploy veiled racial appeals to persuade white voters to support policies that favor the extremely rich yet threaten their own interests. Dog whistle appeals generate middle-class enthusiasm for political candidates who promise to crack down on crime, curb undocumented immigration, and protect the heartland against Islamic infiltration, but ultimately vote to slash taxes for the rich, give corporations regulatory control over industry and financial markets, and aggressively curtail social services. White voters, convinced by powerful interests that minorities are their true enemies, fail to see the connection between the political agendas they support and the surging wealth inequality that takes an increasing toll on their lives. The tactic continues at full force, with the Republican Party using racial provocations to drum up enthusiasm for weakening unions and public pensions, defunding public schools, and opposing health care reform.
Rejecting any simple story of malevolent and obvious racism, Haney López links as never before the two central themes that dominate American politics today: the decline of the middle class and the Republican Party's increasing reliance on white voters. Dog Whistle Politics will generate a lively and much-needed debate about how racial politics has destabilized the American middle class—white and nonwhite members alike.
Watch Haney López describe dog whistle politics:Geneva policemen won’t have to worry about coming to work unshaven soon, as the canton’s police have agreed to remove a long-established ban on beards. New regulations will list the maximum lengths and thicknesses allowed, however.
In a bid to fit in with the rest of the country, Geneva canton police have announced plans to lift a regulation forbidding officers from wearing beards that stipulates they must be “freshly shaven and without a beard or long sideburns,” Swiss news agency SDA reports. Geneva is the only canton in Switzerland where the restriction dating back to Napoleonic times is still in place.
Read more
The new regulation, which will contain separate chapters on beards, mustaches, and sideburns, is expected to come into force by the end of this year, Tribune de Geneve reported.
Policemen will not be completely free to design their whiskers, however, as they will have to abide by the regulation’s limits on lengths and thicknesses. In particular, policemen will need to make sure their necks are clean-shaven and that their beards are “neatly trimmed” with a maximum length of one centimeter, Tribune de Geneve reports. Officers should also grow their beards in such a way that they are “compatible with function and personal safety” and do not in any way impede the wearing of respirator masks.
The beard ban will be lifted when police head Monica Bonfanti gives the green light to the new regulations, a police spokesman said, confirming a report in Tribune de Geneve.
The issue of beards and moustaches has been brewing since the canton’s parliament adopted a motion two years ago calling for the ban on facial hair to be removed. According to Tribune de Geneve, the parliament argued that “very many cantons allow policemen to wear a beard and Geneva police is the latest body to keep the ban.”
READ MORE: NYPD to review beard ban after Muslim officer suesDerek Boogaard’s death rings on in hockey circles to this day. At least, it should.
Maybe we should start wondering about that.
Boogaard was a 28-year-old New York Rangers enforcer when he died in a Minneapolis apartment on May 13, 2011. An autopsy found a lethal combination of oxycodone and alcohol in his system.
An examination of his brain found worse.
Boogaard had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, commonly known as C.T.E., a close relative of Alzheimer’s disease. It is believed to be caused by repeated blows to the head. It can be diagnosed only posthumously, but scientists say it shows itself in symptoms like memory loss, impulsiveness, mood swings, even addiction.
Brought up in the sport he loved and told fighting was the only ticket to his NHL dreams, Boogaard suffered numerous concussions and grew fatally addicted to painkillers. They staved off his symptoms so he could get back on the ice and keep making a living. And he died for it.
So imagine, just five years later, an NHL player making a lot of money to grind on a fourth line, just like Boogaard, dismissing the very notion of NHL-mandated concussion spotters.
Oh, wait. You don’t have to imagine it. It happened on Monday.
Well-paid Edmonton Oilers grinder Patrick Maroon grumbled about teammate and NHL star Connor McDavid leaving the game for a few minutes under concussion protocol. McDavid had fallen chin-first on the ice but was removed for evaluation just in case.
“This is a man’s game,” the St. Louis, Mo. native said. “People are going to get hit, get high-sticked. They’re going to go through the middle and get hit. That’s part of hockey, and that’s why we have all this gear that protects us. “Yes, if someone gets seriously hurt, we’re concerned. But he just fell, got tripped... I just don’t get it.” He repeated: “It’s a man’s game.”
Insisting that hockey is a "man's game" only obfuscates the real issue here. This isn't about gender or manliness. Concussion awareness is about living well, especially after your career is over.
It is, however, a demeaning comment to the female fans and players around the world who watch the NHL on a daily basis. Particularly in the case of NWHL and CWHL players, who put themselves at risk every day on paltry (or non-existent) contracts just to play the “man’s game” Maroon is so privileged to play, as well.
But it’s also demeaning to Boogaard. And Marek Svatos, the former NHL player who also died of a drug overdose in early November after dealing with heroin addiction, suicidal thoughts, and depression. At the young age of 34, he left behind a wife and two sons.
Are they not man enough, in Maroon’s eyes? Boogaard died trying to “man up” and stay viable in the NHL. Was Svatos not man enough for that “man’s game” by struggling after his hockey career?
Athletes so rarely see the forest for the trees. From a young age, they focus every ounce of their being on succeeding in their chosen sport. The (at most) 15 years they spend in the big leagues goes by in a flash.
Suddenly, they’re done. Their life in the sport is over oftentimes when they’re still in their 30s. But every hit, every mild concussion, every ache and broken bone and surgery lingers on. The body has been through hell and back for 30 years, and now they have most of their life ahead of them with no idea where to put that drive next.
At least some fans show serious concern for concussions. Former players do. Factions within the NHL may feel concern, and the league has taken the necessary steps to implement a concussion-spotting protocol that did its job perfectly with McDavid this weekend. Even if it’s only for the sake of litigation and not player safety.
But Maroon’s sentiments indicate that the same near-sighted problems with athletes and their own health still remain in sports as violent as hockey. The NHL can force policies all it wants. Fans can demand change.
But what if current players like Maroon still can’t feel the loss of troubled brothers like Svatos or Boogaard and recognize that potential in themselves? How much progress are we really making?
It’s distressing, those Maroon comments. In every possible way. His comments were either dismissive or ignorant, and both are inexcusable in 2016 after players like Boogaard, Svatos, Marc Savard, Eric Lindros, Paul Kariya, Sidney Crosby, and Steve Moore have dominated headlines for two decades. Svatos’ coroner’s report had just hit the presses hours beforehand. “All that gear” that protected them didn’t keep them completely safe.
Player safety can’t improve if current players fail to grasp the concept of life after hockey. Concerns about a minor bump on the head in your playing days suddenly aren’t so trivial when you’re out of the league, struggling to adapt to the life you didn’t spend two decades preparing for while your body struggles to recover from the past life you did embark upon.
Maroon’s comments at least confirmed that those viewpoints exist in hockey. Clearly, they even exist in the upper echelons of hockey media, some of the strongest voices in the sport. Still. Somehow.
Marooon might look back on those sentiments after his career with some regret, as I’m sure a lot of athletes do. Some level of deeper understanding and appreciation for player safety.
Something that should be attainable just by noticing the hole in the hockey community Derek Boogaard and Marek Svatos left behind.Nearly four years after Google Chrome became the most-used web browser according to StatCounter, rival metrics firm NetMarketShare has come to the same conclusion.
Both firms now say that Chrome is more popular than Internet Explorer, though their respective percentages vary greatly. According to NetMarketShare, Chrome captured 41.66 percent of desktop browser usage in April, compared to 41.35 percent for IE. StatCounter shows 60.47 percent for Chrome, versus 13.25 percent for IE. (This actually puts Microsoft’s browser behind Mozilla Firefox, which captured 15.62 percent in April.)
NetMarketShare tracks the rise of Chrome at the expense of Internet Explorer.
Why the discrepancy? As we explained way back in 2012, StatCounter merely samples raw page views across a network of sites. NetMarketShare (also known as NetApplications) measures unique visits, and weighs its data against Internet traffic by country, so areas that are more active on the Internet are better-represented. Both metrics have pros and cons, but Microsoft has unsurprisingly favored NetMarketShare’s data, which for years has maintained that Internet Explorer was the leader.
In fairness, Microsoft itself is now deemphasizing Internet Explorer in favor of Edge, its new browser for Windows 10. But as ZDNet notes, NetMarketShare’s figures for Internet Explorer include usage for Edge, which by itself stands at 4.39 percent. Even worse, data from StatCounter and Quantcast shows that people are abandoning Edge shortly after trying it.
Meanwhile, it looks like Chrome is picking up the slack. Although Google’s browser stands at a crossroads in terms of features and direction, the masses have yet to find an alternative worth adopting.
Why this matters: Edge has gotten better lately, and the arrival of extension support later this year could make it a more practical replacement for Chrome and Firefox. But the latest metrics show that replacing Internet Explorer with a new browser isn’t going to be a cakewalk for Microsoft. Perhaps that explains why Microsoft is forcing the issue, and preventing its Cortana search bar from linking to other search engines and web browsers.According to multiple sources reporting to Tech Crunch, Electronic Arts is going to acquire PopCap Games for around $1bn. The negotiations are reportedly in the final stages.
Other companies were rumoured to be in the running for PopCap as well. Social games giant Zynga had reportedly “kicked the tires”, but deemed the purchase price to be too high. Another company reported to be in the market was Japanese mobile giant DeNA, who’s founder and CEO Tomoko Namba is set to retire on Saturday. Google was also widely believed to be a player due to a recent job posting indicating that they would be entering the games industry.
PopCap, the company behind Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies, makes revenues of about $100m – $150m per year, which makes the purchase price anywhere from eight to ten times their annual revenues. The company’s last big game was Bejeweled 3. This buyout is contrary to earlier reports that PopCap would be going forward with an IPO.
Electronic Arts has made big splashes in the past with purchases, purchasing social gaming company Playfish for $400m in 2009.
Analysis: This is a lot to digest, so I’ll try to take things in steps.
For one, this is an outstanding deal for Popcap. You can’t really do much better than 10X your incoming revenue when it comes to being purchased, so they’re definitely selling high.
As for EA… eugh. I can’t help thinking of the Skype sale, where Microsoft said “we have a need… LET’S THROW MONEY AT IT.” This is different in that Microsoft outbid itself for an asset that made almost no money, whereas PopCap is definitely making money and had other companies looking at purchasing it, but the result is the same: a big company is hoping to make a splash in an area it’s not leading in, so instead of innovating to that point, they’re basically buying the leader. It’s a nice point of penetration, but I have to seriously wonder how investors are going to react to a company that’s bled money the past few years buying another company at almost 13% of its market cap (EDIT: Speculators are not pleased). In terms of what this does for EA as a business, this only makes sense if they were *absolutely sure* another company like Zynga was getting ready to pull the trigger.
As for what EA gets out of this, they already have Pogo doing their “casual” games and Playfish doing their “social” games. I think this is about further pushing Origin. EA can do two things with PopCap: They can put pressure on Steam with PopCap’s existing lineup (the entire PopCap bundle is on Steam for a very good price, and EA and Valve aren’t exactly friendly right now), and most of all, in the future, they can affect the market by making future PopCap releases tied to Origin. They’re starting to do this with some of their AAA titles such as The Old Republic, but the thing about AAA releases is that you have to have them available through more traditional channels like retail. PopCap’s traditionally been a heavily online-centric publisher; EA might be banking on that to further push Origin down consumer’s throats. I think they’re going to make PopCap’s future releases – and possibly some of their older ones – require Origin to further penetration for that service. Personally, I don’t think that will necessarily work – it’s going to turn off more casual gamers, and it runs the risk of creating pirates – but this is the kind of anti-consumer thinking that permeates EA’s entire strategy with Origin.
What’s ironic is that this is probably the best hope consumers had, outside of possibly Google. The other options were outright bad. DeNA is making a strong Western push, but their number one priority is mobile gaming; console and PC gamers would have been left out of the loop. But that’s infinitely preferable to PopCap being swallowed whole by the behemoth that is Zynga, who has acquired fourteen companies in the past twelve months. If that would have happened, I think there would have been a heavy exodus of talent from the company, or at least a lot of updated resumes hitting the market. PopCap would have just become another brick in what is becoming a very ugly wall, so in a way, speaking as a gamer, I’m glad EA bought PopCap, if only to keep them away from Zynga.
Still, it doesn’t mask the fact that, once this is complete, it’s an extremely large purchase by a company that’s been at odds with investors and analysts for some time now, due to the fact that it’s lost a lot of money for the past few years. From a PopCap perspective, this is great because it puts EA’s considerable marketing and technological prowess behind the company, and they sold very high. From an EA perspective, it’s good, but a very Microsoft-like answer to a question that has already been answered. From a consumer perspective… well, no one really cares about them.From 4/21 – 4/27 we will have a “New Orleans Week” in thePhish.
Phish has played 10 shows over the years in New Orleans. Only 9 of these shows have recordings. We have uploaded each show for playback in Plug.DJ. We hope that DJs will add these shows to their queue and play the tracks throughout the week as they desire. There will be no official replay scheduled this week, but we hope to get a lot of these plays in! See below for information on how to obtain these shows. Enjoy!
There are 6 shows on Soundcloud and 3 shows on YouTube.
You should first be familiar with the standard process of adding tracks to your queue, if you aren’t, see here.
To add the Souncloud shows, first change your search to Soundcloud, then search the following:
Note: The search terms will vary, just copy/paste each line:
1991-11-07 New Orleans, LA
tthephishdjs 1993-03-03
tthephishdjs 1994-05-04
tthephishdjs 1994-10-14
tthephishdjs 1995-10-17
tthephishdjs 1999-09-26
To add the YouTube shows, click Import > enter thephishfromtt in the username field, add the following:
1990-10-22 Tipitina’s – New Orleans, LA (no recording available)
1991-03-09 Tipitina’s – New Orleans, LA
1993-03-02 Tipitina’s – New Orleans, LA
1996-04-26 New Orleans Fairground – New Orleans, LA
http://plug.dj/thephish
Help promote NOLA WEEK across the web:(Updated) New design guidelines coming for Houston’s historic districts by James McClister September 9, 2016
The City of Houston will now provide historic preservation design guidelines for certain neighborhoods. The changes will affect builders, homeowners and agents alike.
A multi-phase project, the City’s will first phase will see guidelines drafted for: Houston Heights East, Houston Heights West, Houston Heights South, Freeland Historic District, Norhill Historic District, Old Sixth Ward Historic District, and Woodland Heights Historic District. The project’s second phase will start in 2017 and include guidelines for Main Street Market Square Historic District and Glenbrook Valley Historic District.
As to what the guidelines will actually entail, the City itself is still unsure.
“This is not a one-size-fits-all plan,” says project manager Steph McDougal. “The changes will be specific to the distinct character of each respective district.”
In May, the City brought on the Denver-base design consulting firm Winter and Company to help expedite the process.
“Everything is very data driven,” McDougal says. “Our consulting team has been collecting information all summer on the types of architecture and lot sizes in each of our historic districts. They’ll also be hosting community workshops to refine their understanding of the individual communities’ wants and needs.”
But while Winter and Company will help determine and organize potential guidelines, the consulting firm will not be the ultimate decision makers. Instead, an appointed Houston Archeological and Historical Commission will have final authority over any home-exterior changes, both to existing and new construction homes.
Ultimately, McDougal says, the guidelines will serve as clarification for builders erecting new homes in historic districts and existing homeowners who want to expand their living space. The changes will not impose retroactive changes to homeowners whose properties don’t meet the new guidelines.
“A big challenge to homeowners living in our historic districts is expansion. Families don’t live the same way they did 100 years ago, and sometimes they want to add space,” she explains. “Our guidelines will instruct homeowners on how to expand their homes while preserving its historic character.”
The City’s forthcoming guidelines will mean restrictions on builders and a less diverse supply for buyers to buy and agents to market. But it could ultimately prove to be a good thing. Because as Inman pointed out earlier this year: “It’s hard to ignore the facts. The hottest real estate markets in the U.S….all have predominately historic homes.”The company’s CEO denounces the recent actions made by President Trump.
Bandcamp has announced all their profits from every sale made on their site this Friday, February 3, will be donated to the American Civil Liberties Union (ALCU).
The company posted an open letter from its CEO and founder Ethan Diamond, who described his immigrant heritage and decried the order as “not simply immoral, it violates the very spirit and foundation of America.”
In an act of solidarity, the site has highlighted releases by artists from each of the banned countries, as well as Mexico.
Listen to a few below and revisit our monthly feature The Best Of Bandcamp for plenty more suggestions.
Un Deseo de Muerte by Deseo de Muerte
میراث by Akvan
awal akalin by chaco
Read next: The 20 Best Bandcamp Releases of 2016[ibimage==51068==Large==none==self==null]
Thanks to one recently launched Chicago startup, you might never have to make a last-minute run to the grocery store again.
Introducing Recipe Rack, the search engine that’s reverse engineered to discover recipes based solely on ingredients you already have on hand.
“We want to change the way people cook at home,” said Matthew Sayers, Recipe Rack’s co-founder in a statement. “Too many people start the process by going to the store to buy ingredients that they’ll only use once. 40 percent of prepared food in this country is wasted. We’re ready to change all of that.”
With Recipe Rack, first-time cooks and classically trained chefs alike have access to a library of recipes for fresh, home-cooked meals. Users simply enter at least five ingredients they’ve got stowed at the back of their refrigerator, and Recipe Rack will aggregate a number of meal options they can chose among.
“As a restaurateur – it sounds funny – I’m always encouraging our guests to cook in their own kitchens,” said Michael Muser, General Manager and Partner of Grace restaurant in Chicago in a statement. “Someone who cooks at home has an even greater appreciation for what we do. For me, there's no better tool than Recipe Rack. It assists the home cook in making meals with what they have in their kitchen. I think it's brilliant.”
Apparently, users of the search engine agree with Muser. Recipe Rack, which is based out of 1871, said the site had users in all 50 states and a dozen countries in the first day alone.
According to the announcement, Recipe Rack users have access to a fully interactive experience, where they can review recipes and save certain meals to cook again.
“How many times have you said, ‘I don’t know what to cook for dinner,’ thinking that you don’t have what it takes to make a great meal?’” Sayers asked. “We want you to be inspired by the ingredients around you and Recipe Rack helps users unlock the full potential of their kitchen.”
Have a tip for us or know of a company that deserves coverage? Email us via [email protected].This post is from May 26th BUT Skype is down again. Details of the most recent outage can be found here.
Skype’s telephony service appears to be suffering an outage, with many users all over the world unable to use the service using their desktop clients or not able to access the Skype website.
At first it appeared that the issue would was just affecting Windows clients, but after tests at The Next Web, we have found that Mac and Linux clients are also having difficulty accessing the service. Upon visiting the Skype website, pages take a long time to load or they do not resolve at all – at times the site serves a “Hi – Our server has taken a short break” error message.
Skype is aware of the problem and has issued the following tweet:
Some of you may have problems signing in to Skype and making calls. We’re investigating and hope to have more details to share soon.
Some have speculated that Skype is in the middle of migrating some of its services to Microsoft’s platforms but because the deal has only been announced and not yet finalised, none of Skype’s platforms will be migrated to Microsoft until it has been confirmed.
We have contacted Skype and are awaiting a response, we will update as soon as we have one.
Update: Skype has issued a temporary fix for Skype clients on Windows and Mac clients to get the service working again. The company recommends you follow the steps below to regain access:
Windows Vista and Windows 7
1. Close Skype.
a. Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
b. Choose Quit.
2. Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.
a. Click Start, type run and press Enter.
b. Type control folders and click OK.
c. Select the View tab and ensure relevant entry is enabled.
3. Locate the shared.xml file.
a. Click Start, type run and press Enter.
b. Type %appdata%\skype and click OK.
c. Delete the shared.xml file.
4. Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated.
Windows XP
1. Close Skype.
a. Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
b. Choose Quit.
2. Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.
a. Click Start and then Run…
b. Type control folders and click OK.
c. Select the View tab and ensure relevant entry is enabled.
3. Locate the shared.xml file.
a. Click Start and then Run…
b. Type %appdata%\skype and click OK.
c. Delete the shared.xml file.
4. Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated.
Mac OS X
1. Quit Skype.
2. Go to the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Skype/
3. Delete the file shared.xml (it will be recreated once you open Skype again, this is fine).
4. Start Skype.
Please note that the ~ sign means your home folder. You can find your home folder by opening Finder and selecting Go > Home from the menu bar or pressing Command (Apple), Shift and H keys at the same time.
Update 2: Some readers have reported that the instructions above aren’t providing them with access to the service. We are in contact with Skype and will update as soon as we know more.
Update 3: Skype has released a new update for Skype, you can download it here.
Read next: Lost your Apple device? Picturescue for Mac could recover all of your photosMisinformation campaign tells VA Dems to vote on wrong day Nick Juliano
Published: Tuesday October 28, 2008
Print This Email This A forged flyer going to voters in a closely fought Virginia congressional district seems aimed at suppressing Democratic turnout on Election Day.
Purporting to come from Virginia's Board of Elections, the flyer says "All Democratic party supporters and independent voters supporting Democratic candidates shall vote on November 5th." That's one day after Election Day.
Whoever is circulating the flyer seems concerned with electing Republicans. The phony information tells "Republican party supporters and independent voters supporting Republican candidates" to vote on Nov. 4, the real day of the election.
The flyer's circulation was first reported in the Virginian-Pilot. The somewhat official-looking flier - it features the state board logo and the state seal - is dated Oct. 24 and indicates that "an emergency session of the General Assembly has adopted the follwing (sic) emergency regulations to ease the load on local electorial (sic) precincts and ensure a fair electorial process."
The four-paragraph flier concludes with: "We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause but felt this was the only way to ensure fairness to the complete electorial process." The flyer was circulated around several locations in Hampton Roads, according to the paper.
Hampton Roads, in southeast Virginia near Virginia Beach, sits in the commonwealth's 2nd Congressional District, where Democrats are in a hard-fought race to unseat incumbent Republican Rep. Thelma Drake, who won re-election two years ago by a margin of just 5,000 votes. The latest poll in the district shows Drake leading by just 5 percent.
It is unclear who is circulating the flyer, but state police are investigating.
Hampton County Virginia also was strongly supportive of Barack Obama's candidacy during this year's primary. Obama took nearly 80 percent of the vote from the county's Democrats; the county's Republicans split their votes between John McCain and Mike Huckabee.
Polls have showed Obama is pulling away in Virginia in recent weeks, and many analysts say it is becoming more likely he will prevail in the state.ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- For weeks now, members of the Denver Broncos' defense have ahead on the calendar. They’ve looked with one part hope, two parts anticipation, to when “we get everybody back."
When the Broncos return from their bye to prepare for the Nov. 27 game against the Kansas City Chiefs, it might finally happen. The Broncos might, for the first time since their Week 2 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, have all of their defensive starters available to play.
Von Miller, in somewhat of a sacks dry spell, stands to benefit from a healthier Broncos defense. Mark LoMoglio/Icon Sportswire
“We’ve shown what we can do with some of our young guys and other guys coming in," cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said. “And I think we played some good football in there. But we want to be at our best for these games coming up and get into that playoff mode."
Since outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware fractured his right forearm just before halftime of that win over the Colts, the Broncos have been forced into some roster juggling they didn’t really have to deal with in 2015, when the group finished at, or near, the top of every major defensive category on the way to a dominant postseason run.
But this time around, Ware missed five games after his injury, Pro Bowl cornerback Aqib Talib has missed the past three games with a back injury and defensive end Derek Wolfe has missed a game with a fracture near his right elbow. Linebacker Brandon Marshall has started nine of Denver's 10 games, but he has been slowed at times with a hamstring injury.
“We have had guys come in and do the job," said linebacker Shane Ray, who started the five games Ware missed. “But I think everybody knows what we can do with everybody back."
Talib practiced Tuesday for the first time since Oct. 28 and has said he will be ready to play next week. Broncos coach Gary Kubiak said Wolfe likely would be back at practice by the Wednesday after they return from the bye, and that if expectations hold, he could be ready for at least some duty in the defensive-line rotation.
And while Ware has played in the Broncos' past three games -- going 26, 28 and 30 plays, respectively -- Kubiak said this week he believes Ware is ready for “50 plays a game" when the Broncos return to the practice field.
“I think so -- |
ound at length on the details. Perhaps those plans to consolidate the government’s computer systems have hit a snag.
The Stats. The budget, eight questions. Ethics and immigration, six questions each. Trade, the environment and the military, four questions each. The United Nations, military procurement, the Library of Parliament and employment, one question each.
John Baird, Pierre Poilievre and Jason Kenney, six responses each. Gerald Keddy and Peter MacKay, four responses each. Vic Toews, three responses. Joe Oliver, Peter Kent and Diane Finley, two responses each. Tony Clement, Christian Paradis, Rona Ambrose and Peter Van Loan, one response each.This article is over 4 years old
Sacked Cronulla playmaker says the incident was a 'prank' that ended up hurting his dignity and his family
Todd Carney'shattered' over posting of photo of him urinating in his mouth
Sacked Cronulla star Todd Carney said he was shattered when he learned a picture of him urinating in his own mouth in a nightclub toilet had been posted on social media.
Carney, who lost his $650,000-a-year contract after the picture was posted late on Saturday night, said he had no idea it existed.
"I've been through this situation before but this is the toughest," he told the Nine Network on Monday. "It's something I didn't know was out there and would surface like this. To receive the message on Saturday night was gut-wrenching."
"It was just a prank, the boys have seen me doing it before," Carney said. "I didn't know it had been taken and I didn't think it would become public.
"Much as it's hurt Cronulla, it's hurt my pride and my dignity as a person and my mum and my sisters.
"I didn't do it for a picture to be taken, I didn't do it to let anyone down."
The photograph was taken by Carney's friend Mick Robinson, who said he forwarded it to his brother.
Mick Robinson then claimed his brother had lost his phone on a day out at the races.
Later the picture was posted on Twitter.
The former NSW representative playmaker hit out at Sharks chief executive Steve Noyce for the manner in which his contract was terminated on Sunday evening.
Noyce sacked Carney from the Sydney Roosters in 2011 and the 28-year-old believes he would not have been shown the door from the club had there been someone else in charge.
Carney has also been dismissed by Canberra.
"He [Noyce] asked me what I thought should happen," Carney said.
"I just said I wanted the opportunity to talk to the players then talk to the board and the staff.
"He said he'd let me know, then 10 minutes later the boys got in touch to let me know it had happened.
"I felt betrayed and lied to.
"If he wasn't my previous CEO at the Roosters then I don't think I would have been sacked. I just hope this is not the end of me as a footballer."Brussels sprouts are little buds from a type of cabbage which, themselves, resemble miniature cabbages. They’re edible, but if you are like millions of children worldwide, you’d probably not admit to that fact. There’s a reason for this. Brussels sprouts contain a chemical compound in them which triggers a response from the bitter-detecting taste buds on our tongues. And as Popular Science notes, we lose taste buds as we age, and the bitter taste therefore isn’t as strong as we get older. But children take the full brunt of the bitterness. Further, PopSci argues, children’s aversion to bitter foods isn’t just stubbornness, but perhaps evolutionary — the overwhelming taste signalling, perhaps, a toxin in the food being eaten. (It may be true, too: if you eat too much cabbage, your body may have difficulty absorbing iodine.)
But what about us grown ups who still don’t like Brussels sprouts? What’s our excuse? Turns out, it may be genetics.
As reported by the BBC, a typical person has “25 types of bitter receptors” on their tongues. But some people — “due to their genetic make-up,” as stated by Dr. Lisa Methven, a food and nutritional services professor quoted by the BBC — have more. Dr. Methven estimates that these people are super-sensitive to bitter foods — “they experience the bitter tasted up to 60 times higher than someone with an average number of taste buds.” Understandably, these people typically hate Brussels sprouts.
But there’s a flip side. As reported by the Telegraph, some people have a genetic mutation which blocks the bitterness entirely. And the mutation is not all that rare. The Telegraph puts it at about fifty percent of the world’s population while DNA analysis startup 23andMe says that about 25% of people are, in their words, “taste-blind” to bitter tastes. So, yes, some people will gladly eat their Brussels sprouts — because they can’t taste them.
Bonus fact : Brussels sprouts aren’t unique here. Cilantro (also called coriander), an herb, evokes a different response from different people, based on the genetic makeup of the would-be eater. But in this case, it isn’t the taste buds which are causing the problem — it’s the nose. As NPR reported, a small but sizable group of people are able to detect the odor emitted by an organic compound in the herb (unsaturated aldehydes) which makes the cilantro “taste” like soap.
From the Archives: Telling Thyme: How herbs and spices can be used as a clock.
Related: Spicy Brussels sprouts in a jar. (Yes, spicy. Yes, in a jar.)Smaller F1 teams face another hard season
Formula 1 stands accused, ahead of a new world championship season set to generate even more revenues for the billionaire sport, of burying its head in the sand about a looming cost crisis.
Some of the smaller teams are still fighting for survival, with Caterham now gone, even as double world champion Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes negotiate a new deal that few others could afford.
There are those who fear the division between haves and have-nots is becoming untenable.
“I think we are at very significant risk of losing more teams. We said that last year and nothing’s changed,” Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley told Reuters.
“I think it’s a sad reflection… on our industry that we are not recognising there are some issues and that we are probably doing a bit of an ostrich trick which could easily come back to haunt us.”
The calls at the end of last season by Lotus, Force India and Sauber for more money and significant cost cuts have produced little.
Force India have struggled to get their new car ready, running it for only three days in testing, while Sauber’s driver selection has been dictated by finance as much as talent.
The sport boasts an annual turnover in excess of $1.5 billion, with more than half of that paid out to the commercial rights holders. But while teams will share more than $900 million, the pot is not split equally.
In 2013, Ferrari received an estimated $166 million, according to Autosport magazine.
Marussia, who have only just extricated themselves from administration and are battling to return, were paid just $10 million — half the cost of an engine supply — although they stand to get much more now after finishing ninth in 2014.
“What we were hoping for is that there would be a recognition, particularly by the manufacturing teams and the sport as a whole, that we need to do something that is innovative and constructive,” said Fernley.
“Unfortunately that is not forthcoming. In fact it is vehemently opposed. The four (big) manufacturing teams don’t want to give any concessions. They have demonstrated that for the last 18 months.”
The likes of champions Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren, whose annual budgets are estimated to be in excess of $250 million, deny they are unsympathetic but argue that the sport has always been this way.
“It’s a normal way, up and down, related to Formula One,” commented Ferrari principal Maurizio Arrivabene.
“I think the aim of everybody is to have as many teams and competitors as possible to enhance the show, but also to avoid people who come into Formula One just to put the car on the grid and after a couple of races say ‘Goodbye and Thank You’.”
Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff pointed to former champions Williams as an example of a team that had turned themselves around.
“The team has not complained. The team has spent what it had to spend, did not go into major debt but took it step by step. You can see the fruits of that,” he told reporters.
“I think these are the kind of stories we need around Formula One now, that probably don’t make the headlines in a spectacular way.”
Fernley said costs had to be reduced in a sport where running a team capable of scoring regular points requires an annual budget of between $140-160 million.
“You can’t do it for less,” said the Briton, calling for a “root and branch review” of the sport.
“It’s too much. Because with the revenues that are coming in, the gap between that amount and the expenditure is too high.”
Cash-flow is a problem for smaller teams over the winter months, when factory costs are high due to the production of new cars but revenue payments do not start until March.
The demise of Caterham and Marussia’s failure to pay hundreds of unsecured creditorshas made the situation tougher, although Force India, Lotus and Sauber have been offered an advance to tide them over..
Fernley said some suppliers faced ‘massive losses’ as a result and could no longer afford to be flexible.
New sponsors are thin on the ground, with even McLaren now entering their second year without a title partner.
“Sponsorship for Formula One, as for all sports, is under pressure because there is so much choice for the sponsors,” said Fernley. “So we have to be smarter and more competitive and we are not prepared as a sport to recognise that.
“If we are not careful we are just going to drive the sport into an alleyway where there is no escape.”People who believe they have the greenest lifestyles can be seen as some of the main culprits behind global warming, says a team of researchers, who claim that many ideas about sustainable living are a myth.
According to the researchers, people who regularly recycle rubbish and save energy at home are also the most likely to take frequent long-haul flights abroad. The carbon emissions from such flights can swamp the green savings made at home, the researchers claim.
Stewart Barr, of Exeter University, who led the research, said: "Green living is largely something of a myth. There is this middle class environmentalism where being green is part of the desired image. But another part of the desired image is to fly off skiing twice a year. And the carbon savings they make by not driving their kids to school will be obliterated by the pollution from their flights."
Some people even said they deserved such flights as a reward for their green efforts, he added.
Only a very small number of citizens matched their eco-friendly behaviour at home by refusing to fly abroad, Barr told a climate change conference at Exeter University yesterday.
The research team questioned 200 people on their environmental attitudes and split them into three groups, based on a commitment to green living.
They found the longest and the most frequent flights were taken by those who were most aware of environmental issues, including the threat posed by climate change.
Questioned on their heavy use of flying, one respondent said: "I recycle 100% of what I can, there's not one piece of paper goes in my bin, so that makes me feel less guilty about flying as much as I do."
Barr said "green" lifestyles at home and frequent flying were linked to income, with wealthier people more likely to be engaged in both activities.
He said: "The findings indicate that even those people who appear to be very committed to environmental action find it difficult to transfer these behaviours into more problematic contexts."
The team says the research is one of the first attempts to analyse how green intentions alter depending on context. It says the results reveal the scale of the challenge faced by policymakers who are trying to alter public behaviour to help tackle global warming.
The study concludes: "The notion that we can treat what we do in the home differently from what we do on holiday denies the existence of clearly related and complex lifestyle choices and practices. Yet even a focus on lifestyle groups who may be most likely to change their views will require both time and political will. The addiction to cheap flights and holidays will be very difficult to break."
The frequent flyers said they expected new technology to make aviation greener, echoing comments made by Tony Blair last year, who said it was "impractical" to expect people to take holidays closer to home. He said the solution was "to look at how you make air travel more energy-efficient, how you develop the new fuels that will allow us to burn less energy and emit less."Further changes to the appearance of Europe’s best-selling car include a new range of wheel designs and exterior colours.
Technology
The main focus of the changes made to the seventh-generation Golf is reserved for the interior. New to the facelifted model are revised trims for the doors, dashboard and centre console.
In line with other recent new Volkswagen models, it also receives a new optional Active Info Display with 12.3in high-definition monitor, which can be ordered in place of the standard analogue instrument pack.
The Active Info Display supports five different information profiles, called classic, consumption and range, efficiency, performance and driver assistance and navigation. Depending on the model, the digital instrument graphics are customised, with the GTI receiving a predominantly red theme and the GTE using mainly blue hue.
More significant are the updates brought to the various infotainment systems offered on the new Golf. The facelifted model receives five optional touch-based systems, all of which now support larger screens and an altered operating system that, on the range-topping Discover Pro unit, supports gesture control.
The earlier 5.0in monitors of the Composition Touch and Composition Colour systems are replaced by 6.5in units, while the 6.5in screens of the Composition Media and Discover Media have made way for larger 8.0in monitors. The top-line Discover Pro’s previous 8.0in display is superseded by a 9.2in screen featuring touch, voice command and gesture control operation.
Volkswagen Golf variants to be cut from the range
Together with the new optional infotainment systems, the facelifted Golf also receives the latest generation of Volkswagen’s on-line services, including an updated App Connect feature that allows it to integrate with the latest versions of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and MirrorLink.
Volkswagen’s best-selling model also adopts a number of new or updated driver assistant systems. Included is Traffic Jam Assist, which automatically applies the brakes to ease driving in stop/go traffic at speeds of up to 37mph, Emergency Assist, which sounds a warning and subsequently initiates an emergency stop when it detects the driver is incapacitated, Lane Assist plus ACC for active lane keeping with countersteer ability, an updated City Emergency Braking system that brings pedestrian detection to the existing Front Assist function that employees autonomous braking for collision avoidance, and Park Assist 3.0 that provides semi-autonomous parking in both parallel and perpendicular spaces.A flyweight fight is close to being added to the UFC's debut in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Paddy Holohan vs. Willie Gates is currently in the works for the May 8 event, MMAFighting.com has learned.
Holohan (12-2-1) is coming off a second-round rear-naked choke submission loss to Louis Smolka in October. That loss snapped a two-fight winning streak for the popular Irishman.
Gates (12-6) is also looking to rebound from a loss. "Whoop Ass" lost to Dustin Ortiz via first-round TKO in August.
Both fighters have been going back and forth on Twitter for the past few months, making this fight an easy booking for the UFC.
The UFC's debut in the Netherlands will be headlined by Alistair Overeem vs. Andrei Arlovski, and it will take place the Ahoy Rotterdam stadium.There has been a lot of talk about quarterback Nick Foles' future with the Eagles, especially since Philadelphia coach Chip Kelly's former pupil at Oregon -- Marcus Mariota -- will be part of this year's draft class.
On Thursday, Foles addressed the rumors and stated he is expecting to be back on the Eagles' roster in 2015.
"Yeah you hear about it," Foles said in between doing paid appearances at Super Bowl XLIX, per NJ.com. "You are going to hear about it every single year. That's just part of it. The main word is 'rumor.' You can't put too much into it....I plan on being in Philly.
"I only listen to (head coach) Chip Kelly. That's what is most important. He is the one that will make the decision. Right now all I am going to do is work because I plan on being back in Philadelphia and playing with my team. That's all I ever thought. So that is what I plan on doing and I'm not looking at it any other way."
Foles added he hasn't talked with Kelly since the end of the season.
"We haven't talked a lot. He has a lot going on," Foles said. "This time of year you really just get away from everything. He is busy looking at the draft, doing all that. I saw he is more of the decision maker. Haven't really talked to him too much, but I'm sure I'll hear from him soon."'Siberia is warming faster than anywhere in the world'. Picture: Nikita Rusanov
Siberia is associated around the world with cold but it is now the capital of global warming, says distinguished Russian meteorological authority Valentin Meleshko, former head of St Petersburg-based Voyeikov Geophysical Observatory.
One impact will be even more snow in winter leading to excessive flooding in late spring and early summer, as seen last year in the devastating submerging of vast tracts of the Far East of Russia.
'The process of warming in Siberia goes faster than elsewhere; it is not just hypothesis, there is data and observational evidence to prove it. Siberia is warming faster than any other place in the world,' Mr Meleshko told the The Siberian Times.
'In theory we can delineate the influence of anthropogenic (manmade) factors and natural changes. For the last 30 years, we have seen the significant reduction of ice cover in the Arctic and we can observe significant warming there. It reduced by about 30%'.
Devastating floods hit the Far East of Russia in August-September 2013. Pictures: DVhab.ru, Alexander Kolbin
Forecasts show that if it continues at the same rate 'in 20-to-40 years there could be no ice in Arctic in the summer time.
'It could totally melt by September. But it doesn't mean that there will be no ice during the year. It will re-form in winter, but it will be seasonal, like on our Siberian rivers. If we use only our observations, it is hard to give some definite conclusion, because it is not such a long period of time.
'If we use our models, we can make a very large series of calculations. And we see the strong signal that the warming is coming. It is not just a hypothesis, we are proving this with our models.So the fact is that the ice cover in the Arctic will reduce and even disappear in summer time.
'This huge area of the ocean surface - free from ice - will impact significantly on Siberia. And it already impacts.
'Large areas of open water in Kara, Barents, Laptev and East-Siberian seas give conisderable warmth and water vapour.
'It is transferred by air currents to Siberia and Far East. The humidity is also growing. Absolutely, all the forecasts on all complicated physical models show that Siberia will get more precipitation. Mostly in winter, when more snow will accumulate.
'It will naturally melt in spring and this melting snow will give more water to rivers, and the floods in Siberia will be more intense than before. Climate variability grows as the climate changes, and we need more studies to be able to predict new weather patterns.
'Generally we all are not so interested in the fact that the global temperature changed to 0,5 degree; but we are very keen to understand new patterns of droughts and heavy rainfalls'.
End of May 2014 in Siberia. Pictures from Altay and Novosibirsk: Olga Loshkareva, Aleksandra Zaitseva
One particular aspect has urgent and far-reaching implications for northern regions of Siberia in the permafrost belt.
'I can say for sure that there is a constant slow thawing of the permafrost,' said Professor Meleshko, a doctor of Physical and Mathematical sciences, and Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation.
'The border of the permafrost by the 2050, 2060 will move up by about 100, 150 kilometres. The process is quote slow, but it is underway.
'As of now we register permafrost thawing from five to fifteen centimeters - it might seem minute to some, but it is very significant. There are already shifts and dips in the ground, with some buildings getting destroyed. We need to change approach to construction in such regions and build differently, perhaps use piles or base buildings on rocks. I would say it is a very important issue that needs to be treated with great attention'.Uh oh. The Ted Cruz cheating allegations are gaining more attention as more pieces of the puzzle fall together. On Mar. 25, a reputable reporter from the ‘Washington Times’ backed up the ‘National Enquirer’ claims, saying at least a few are ‘accurate’. See his tweets, here.
This story keeps getting crazier! Following the National Enquirer’s shocking expose of a Ted Cruz, 45, sex scandal, Washington Times columnist Drew Johnson is saying that these outlandish claims are at least partially “accurate.” We have all the details, right here.
There are always rumors in any presidential campaign, and often they include sex scandals and end up being completely false. However, since the National Enquirer reported on Mar. 25 that Ted has had five affairs behind his wife Heidi Cruz’ back, more pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place. Now, a reputable reporter from the Washington Times has admitted that the affair is actually well known, with “at least 2 of the women named as Cruz mistresses by the National Enquirer” being “accurate.”
When someone on Twitter questioned him about news outlets staying quiet when they knew what was going on, Drew responded that many didn’t want to publish an unconfirmed story. However, there was one who had done extensive research and still didn’t run it. He also insisted that it was never a Washington Times story, though he knew about it.
COMING CLEAN: From what I know, at least 2 of the women named as Cruz mistresses by the National Enquirer are accurate #TRUMP #CRUZ #TCOT — Drew Johnson (@Drews_Views) March 25, 2016
@MAGAmerchant @realDonaldTrump @Campaign_Trump Lots heard rumors. An online media outlet new the whole story but they chose not to run w/it. — Drew Johnson (@Drews_Views) March 25, 2016
@obama_speech Not a reporter.Just a columnist.This has nothing to do with the Times.Another outlet has the details.it's their story to tell. — Drew Johnson (@Drews_Views) March 25, 2016
Ted, however, is brutally condemning the report, and implicating Donald Trump in it’s release. “I want to be crystal clear: these attacks are garbage. For Donald J. Trump to enlist his friends at the National Enquirer and his political henchmen to do his bidding shows you that there is no low Donald won’t go. These smears are completely false, they’re offensive to Heidi and me, they’re offensive to our daughters, and they’re offensive to everyone Donald continues to personally attack. Donald Trump’s consistently disgraceful behavior is beneath the office we are seeking and we are not going to follow.”
Donald has since claimed that he has nothing to do with the release of the news, but did draw attention to the fact that the National Enquirer was correct about disgraced candidate John Edwards‘ affair. We can’t wait to see how this pans out!
HollywoodLifers – do you think Ted actually cheated on his wife with hookers? Let us know!Prime minister calls for website operators to'step up to the plate' following death of 14-year-old Hannah Smith
Internet users should boycott "vile" websites that allow cyberbullying to help prevent more deaths of young people, the prime minister has said.
David Cameron asked parents to boycott sites that granted bullies unmoderated access to young people and said those who posted abuse online were not above the law.
He urged website operators to act responsibly to protect children from bullies, following the death of 14-year-old Hannah Smith, who killed herself on Friday after receiving abuse on Ask.fm.
Her father, David Smith, has said those who run the website should face murder or manslaughter charges and called for more regulation of social networking sites.
The government has been criticised for not doing enough to tackle online abuse directed at children.
Cameron told Sky News: "The people that operate these websites have got to step up to the plate and show some responsibility in the way that they run these websites.
"Just because someone does something online, it doesn't mean they're above the law. If you incite someone to do harm, if you incite violence, that is breaking the law, whether that is online or offline.
"Also there's something all of us can do as parents and as users of the internet and that is not to use some of these vile sites. Boycott them, don't go there, don't join them – we need to do that as well. I'm very keen we look at all the action we can take to try and stop future tragedies like this."
His comments were welcomed by Emma-Jane Cross, from the campaign group Beatbullying, who said Ask.fm had to start taking children's safety more seriously.
"For some young people, this site has become an ecosystem of hate and we must ensure that cases like Hannah's can never happen again," she said. "Until this happens, we're calling on the public, young people, parents and schools to boycott Ask.fm."
The Labour MP Barry Sheerman has called for the creation of a cross-party commission on cyberbullying in order to understand the extent of the challenge facing children and their parents.
"The government is simply not showing enough leadership in this area. The fact is, the response has been inadequate," said Sherman, co-chair of the skills commission, an independent body that meets in parliament to discuss education. "Childhood is being squeezed all the time, particularly by the horrific manipulative bullying children are now exposed to online.
"We need the government and leadership across the political parties to come together and tackle this. There is no simple solution, we need to find a balance between legislation and conversation with the people who run these sites, but if the law needs changing then lets do it."
Diane Abbott MP said the education secretary had to rethink policy and give greater importance to teaching children about relationships.
"I think the main failing of the government in this issue is Michael Gove's refusal to make sex and relationship education compulsory in all schools," she said. "This would mean that children would not only learn about how to cope with sexting and pornography but they would also discuss how to relate to each other on the internet."
Parenting websites joined the calls for greater scrutiny of social networks such as Ask.fm. "It is not enough to say parents and teachers need to monitor their children's internet use – they do, but there will always be a disconnect, and parents will always be one step behind," said Netmums founder Siobhan Freegard. "We need action from pressure groups, experts and the owners of these websites themselves, but ultimately there needs to be action taken by the government."
Ask.fm, which allows users to send messages anonymously, described Hannah's death as a "true tragedy" and promised to work with police investigating the incident.
In a statement, a spokesperson said: "Ask.fm actively encourages our users and their parents to report any incidences of bullying, either by using the in-site reporting button or via our contact page. All reports are read by our team of moderators to ensure that genuine concerns are heard and acted upon immediately and we always remove content reported to us that violates our terms of service."Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s embattled president, faces renewed pressure to step down this weekend after a series of media reports detailed links between elected officials and a family of tycoons accused of holding undue sway over his administration.
More than 100,000 documents and emails leaked to reporters in recent weeks appear to detail improper dealings in lucrative government contracts made with the Gupta family - secretive and immensely wealthy businessmen of Indian origin who have lived in South Africa for decades.
Authorities have launched an investigation into several allies of Zuma who have been linked to corruption at three state-owned companies. One of the allegations involves suspected kickbacks worth $411m (£316m). The Gupta family and Zuma have consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest South Africans protest against the government in Cape Town. Photograph: Nic Bothma/EPA
The African National Congress, which led the fight against apartheid and has ruled South Africa since Nelson Mandela won the first multiracial elections in 1994, met on Friday to debate the future of a country mired in recession, corruption and political deadlock.
Critics say Zuma has betrayed Mandela’s legacy, replacing idealism and ethics with a brutal and avaricious bid for wealth and power, dividing the ANC and tarnishing the reputation of the post-apartheid “rainbow nation”.
In a defiant 90-minute speech, the 75-year-old politician told 5,000 delegates gathered in Soweto that to “restore and maintain its character, the ANC needs to cleanse itself of the negative tendencies which have crept in over the years”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cyril Ramaphosa could replace Zuma. Photograph: Siyabulela Duda/government inf/EPA
Analysts have described the challenges facing the ANC as the greatest in 20 years. Prof Anthony Butler, an expert and author at the University of Cape Town, said the party was “in very big trouble”.
“The ANC is moving out of step with society … and is suffering from extremely destructive factional politics … and we shouldn’t underestimate the amount of damage Zuma is doing [to the party],” Butler said.
There is rising concern within the ANC that Zuma could cost the party power. Tens of thousands protested against him in March after he sacked the widely respected finance minister, leading rating agencies to downgrade South Africa to “junk” status. The ANC was punished at municipal elections last year.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nkosazana Dlamini is another candidate to replace the president. Photograph: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images
The economy is now officially in recession and unemployment has hit a 14-year high. Butler added: “The country is facing a wide range of problems. There is no prospect of economic growth accelerating and no plan. The [ANC’s] focus is always on internal politics.”
Zuma is due to be replaced as ANC leader at a national conference in December. The two strongest candidates are the deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, who is seen as the leader of the “reformist” faction of the party, and Zuma’s ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini, a former African Union chair and minister seen by analysts as closer to her ex-husband and his supporters.
Whoever wins the contest later this year is likely to become president of the country. Parliamentary elections are due to be held in 2019.MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Uruguay is set to become the first country to fully legalize and regulate the growing, selling and taxation of marijuana.
Late Wednesday night, legislators in the lower house narrowly passed the Regulation of Marijuana bill, wide-ranging legislation that, if successful, will propel this small South American nation to the vanguard of progressive drug policy worldwide.
The legislation, which now proceeds to an expected easy ride in the country’s Senate, is unprecedented in its scope and potential impact. The Uruguayan government plans to experiment with policies that have never before been tested on a national scale, and the world’s eyes will be watching.
So, how did this tiny country of a few more than 3 million inhabitants find itself at the forefront of drug law experimentation? What sets the Uruguayan approach apart from other countries like the Netherlands, or states like Colorado, that have decriminalized pot? And how likely is this legislation to succeed anyway?
GlobalPost has identified five key takeaways from the groundbreaking Uruguayan marijuana bill.
Takeaway 1: Nobody’s ever done this before
What the Uruguayan government’s proposing is a lot more radical than the steps other countries and US states have taken toward marijuana legalization.
While pot consumption has long been legal in the Netherlands, for example, cannabis cultivation is still banned. By contrast, Uruguay’s government plans to manage the cultivation of the drug itself by regulating private businesses to grow and harvest it.
The government would, in essence, compete with illegal marijuana imports from neighbors like Paraguay. The idea is to provide a better, cheaper and safer product than smokers can find on the street, then tax it and regulate its consumption.
This direct government involvement sets Uruguay apart from Washington and Colorado, where voters approved legalizing limited marijuana cultivation and use last year.
“This is a very big deal,” said Hannah Hetzer, a Montevideo-based policy manager for the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that pushes for drug policies that are “grounded in science.” “Uruguay has a history of progressive drug policies, but this is one or even 10 steps further than other countries have ever done.”
Takeaway 2: It’s about security, stupid
While Uruguay has been on a progressive tear recently, legalizing gay marriage and passing South America’s most liberal abortion law, legislators here insist the marijuana bill is more about domestic security than pushing a progressive agenda.
In the hours-long debate that preceded Wednesday’s vote, supporter after supporter of the bill lambasted the region’s failing policies in the “war on drugs,” and stressed the need for a new approach.
Indeed, the marijuana regulation bill grew out of 15 policy strategies proposed last year by the administration of President Jose Mujica in response to a crime spree that culminated in a shooting in a popular local fast food chain.
While Uruguay has a relatively low crime rate for the region, public fears about crime have mounted in recent years. Driven by a boom in the use of cocaine paste, known here as “pasta base,” petty crime and murders have been on the uptick, leaving this traditionally safe and peaceful country searching for solutions.
“Next to today’s narco traffickers, Pablo Escobar is a suckling baby,” lawmaker Jorge Orrico of the ruling Broad Front party told the legislature Wednesday.
The national fear that Uruguay could slide into criminal chaos, then, has been a significant catalyst for the marijuana legislation.
This is the Uruguayan government’s approach to knee-capping drug traffickers by both taking away a lucrative source of income and providing a safe haven for marijuana users, so they’re not drawn into “dark corners,” as one legislator put it yesterday, where they might be tempted to try other illicit drugs.
Takeaway 3: The law’s really not that popular
Surveys in recent months have shown a significant majority of Uruguayans do not approve of the marijuana regulation bill.
Outside of the capital city, Montevideo, home to almost 50 percent of the population, residents typically hold more conservative views on issues like this.
Lawmakers like Veronica Alonso from the conservative National Party have questioned the country’s ability to regulate marijuana without creating an unmanageable government bureaucracy, while other legislators have raised concerns about the health impacts of smoking pot.
Citing an April poll that pegged opposition to the law at 66 percent and support at just 25 percent, several opposition lawmakers vowed Wednesday to seek a referendum to overturn the law should it go into effect.
In response to criticism that it was trying to steamroll controversial legislation, in April President Mujica’s Broad Front party held a series of community meetings across the country to seek public input on the bill.
Concurrently, a coalition of NGOs has been running a polished public relations campaign called "Responsible Regulation,” seeking to educate the public on the benefits of legalization.
Martin Collazo, a spokesman for the campaign, said the lack of public support for the bill is due to poor general understanding about what it would accomplish.
“There is a lot of disinformation out there,” Collazo said. “If everyone truly understood the proposed law, they would certainly approve of it.”
Since its genesis last year, the bill has been toned down significantly. Most notably, the government initially planned to cultivate and sell marijuana itself in a state-owned monopoly. It abandoned that plan earlier this year in one of several steps the Broad Front has taken to mollify opponents.
Still, the bill remains controversial and would likely face attacks from its introduction.
Takeaway 4: A finger in the eye of the US drug war, but not overtly intended
The international media has written a lot recently about Uruguay’s regional “leadership” on the marijuana issue. Generally, this has focused on Latin America’s drive to find alternatives to the US-backed war on drugs.
But Uruguayan legislators stressed that they’re not seeking to antagonize their neighbor to the north. Rather, they’re trying to find a new solution to a uniquely Uruguayan problem, they said.
“Quite simply, we’re not interested in becoming an example to the world,” said Sebastian Sabini, a key proponent of the law. “We have an internal problem with cannabis, and we’re trying to solve it.”
Nonetheless, the new law will bring Uruguay into conflict with international bodies that regulate the use of drugs. The United Nations’ International Narcotics Control Board has already voiced concern about where Uruguay is headed.
The organization issued a statement Thursday urging Uruguayan authorities to “ensure that the country remains fully compliant with international law which limits the use of narcotic drugs, including cannabis.”
Takeaway 5: The legislation will now almost certainly become law
Wednesday’s vote ultimately came down to the support of one man, Dario Perez, a Broad Front lawmaker and doctor who’s been vocally critical of the law, and whose “no” vote could have killed it.
All eyes were on Perez as he addressed the house Wednesday, and when it became clear he would be supporting the legislation despite his concerns, Twitter exploded with proclamations that the law was a done deal.
“Dario Perez has voted. |
’s claim that Levy admitted her office has made oversights.
Soon after, Seligman called another alleged statement by Levy — that “it was not uncommon for less powerful women to seek out more powerful men for sexual relationships, similar to how poor women sometimes enter into a relationship with a rich man for economic benefit” — “grotesque.”
But he said he would not fire Levy, either, without an investigation, prompting outcry from attendees.
“This is not rule by mob, guys. File something in writing,” he said. “We’re not going to ignore it.”
Many of the exchanges played out like this, with both Seligman and speakers raising their voices and cutting each other off. Seligman sighed often, pacing around the stage and at one point sitting on its edge. Some speakers swore at him.
When freshman Andrew Bailey asked Seligman if would he say whether he believes the accusations against Jaeger, using only yes or no, the president replied: “That is McCarthyism.”
People laughed at his response, but their tone, as it was in other instances, was mocking or in disbelief.
“Some of the allegations [in the complaint] are totally false,” Seligman said in that exchange. “Some of the allegations, I believe, are probably true. The question is, do they rise to a level where they are actionable under our standard?”
Two of the professors who filed the federal complaint — Jessica Cantlon and Steven Piantadosi, who is married to Kidd — pressed Seligman throughout the night, often interjecting to “fact-check” the president.
“Are not you protecting — do you have the power to fire [investigator] Kate Nearpass and Morgan Levy?” Piantadosi asked at one point.
“I have the power to fire a lot of people,” Seligman said.
“Great, so you’re protecting them right now,” said Piantadosi.
“But I have to do it on the basis of an evidentiary basis,” Seligman said.
“Well, now you got it — you got 100 pages there,” said Piantadosi.
Seligman told the audience that the pain and frustration he feels over this situation “is as acute as anything I’ve felt in my 12-plus years here,” but many called this — and the entire forum — just lip service, for which they would hold him accountable.
“I’m sick of your pointless commissions and retroactive, save-face actions,” senior Laura Cowie-Haskell told Seligman. “I want change now.”
A protest against Jaeger and UR is slated for 1:40 p.m. on Wednesday, outside Rush Rhees Library. The Campus Times will be live-streaming it on Facebook. Video of the town hall can be found on the Campus Times’ Facebook page, with some small gaps due to technical issues.
News Editor David Schildkraut and Managing Editor Jesse Bernstein contributed reporting to this piece.Being wealthy has become so passé that rich people are increasingly choosing not to display that wealth—that’s the theory behind a new book exploring the changing consumption habits of rich people in the West.
In 1899, the American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen published the classic polemic The Theory of the Leisure Class. Veblen’s book was among the first to examine how the wealthy used purchasing decisions to demonstrate their class. To describe this behavior, Veblen coined the term “conspicuous consumption”—defined as spending on publicly observable goods like clothing and accessories. Veblen argued, as an example, that the main point (pdf) of wearing high-heel shoes or a top hat for the rich was to demonstrate that you could not possibly do any manual labor. The book became well-known as an early criticism of the excesses of capitalism.
Almost 120 years later, sociologist Elizabeth Currid-Halkett has taken the baton from Veblen—but with a modified target. In her new book, The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class, Currid-Halkett takes aim at “Aspirationals”—the group that she sees as the new elite. They’re best characterized on the book’s webpage as:
Highly educated and defined by cultural capital rather than income bracket, these individuals earnestly buy organic, carry NPR tote bags, and breast-feed their babies. They care about discreet, inconspicuous consumption—like eating free-range chicken and heirloom tomatoes, wearing organic cotton shirts and TOMS shoes, and listening to the Serial podcast. They use their purchasing power to hire nannies and housekeepers, to cultivate their children’s growth, and to practice yoga and Pilates.
Currid-Halkett’s biting, often humorous commentary is not just a send up of the so-called “coastal elites.” It’s a trenchant analysis that combines economic and sociological evidence to describe major trends. The book focuses primarily on US data, which she believes could be applied elsewhere in the developed world.
Her argument is based on two trends:
1. Conspicuous consumption is decreasing among the rich now that everybody can do it.
Over the past 100 years, improvements in technology and globalization have made consumer goods increasingly accessible to the average American. Currid-Halkett says this led to the “democratization of conspicuous consumption,” which has made consumer products a less appealing way for the wealthy to show their class. Rather, acts of conspicuous consumption are now focused on limited edition versions of goods that are difficult to imitate, like $20,000 Birkin bags and rare vintage wines.
Currid-Halkett demonstrates this recent decline of conspicuous consumption among wealthy Americans through an original analysis of US household consumption data. She shows that while conspicuous consumption as a share of all household spending increased for low income households from 1996 to 2014, its share has actually declined for the wealthiest.
2. Inconspicuous consumption is the new conspicuous consumption
Unlike the aristocracy of Veblen’s time, Currid-Halkett notes that most of the wealthy today actually have to work for their riches. “Other than the odd trust fund playboy or oligarch’s debutante, the leisure class no longer exists,” she writes. In fact, today, in a reversal from the 1970s, the highest earning 20% of workers work more hours than those in the bottom 20%.
The fact that the aspirational class works, and that most of their income is based on the skills they have gained from high levels of education has made ”social, environmental, and cultural awareness” the most valuable sources of social capital, Currid-Halkett argues.
So instead of spending money on consumer products, Currid-Halkett finds that the rich increasingly focus their spending on “nonvisible, highly expensive goods and services” that allow them to have time to gain that social capital and foster it in their children. Such goods and services include child care, gardeners, and, most importantly, education. She refers to this type of spending as “inconspicuous consumption.”
The second half of Currid-Halkett’s book is devoted to arguing that a person may be part of the elite “aspirational class,” even without a high income. “[T]hose with creative writing degrees from Yale, screenwriters who have yet to sell a screenplay, musicians and Teach for America… are also members of this new cultural and social formation,” she writes. Though she offers a large number of provocative anecdotes defending this assertion, her empirical evidence that this is a new trend is comparatively weak.
Still, Currid-Halkett’s book is an important glimpse into the decisions driving how today’s rich spend their money. And while it may be funny to joke about their yoga pants and affinity for kale, the rise of the “aspirational class” may have very real consequences. Perhaps most disturbing is Currid-Halkett’s conclusion that these consumption trends may exacerbate inequality. Increased spending by wealthy parents on education and health for their children, for example, may deepen class divides and limit opportunities for poorer kids.The bartenders at the Marquis Theatre might want to order some more small umbrellas.
Following four out-of-town tryouts, Escape to Margaritaville will hang its hammock at the Marquis Theatre. Performances are scheduled to start on February 16, 2018, and tickets will go on sale to special fans three weeks before the general public tomorrow morning.
Starring Paul Alexander Nolan as a bar entertainer who falls in love with a tourist, the new musical features the famous songs of Jimmy Buffett. Two television writers developed the plot, and Christopher Ashley will serve as the director.
“I think they’re just gonna love it,” Buffett said of the musical last month. “I think it’s an evening of entertainment where they’re going to know the songs, and it’s going to be like they’re gettin’ to go to Margaritaville,” he stated.In the three years since Yelawolf released his 2011 debut album, Radioactive, the Alabama-born rapper has released a handful of mixtapes as well as a collaborative side project with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, Psycho White. And while his sophomore studio album has been long-rumored, until recently it seemed like nothing more than chatter.
However, as he explains in a new interview with Billboard, the delay between full-length albums was solely thanks to his relentless dedication to getting his second LP right: Love Story, due April 21, finds the rapper expanding his musical boundaries in inventive new ways, embracing his lifelong love of Southern rock and country, all the while dashed with his signature Bayou hip-hop flair.
Yelawolf & Eminem Team Up for 'Best Friend': Listen
Wolf is the first to admit that Radioactive was an over-thought and undercooked project ("I was anybody's dog on that album. I was just there to do it: 'I'm in!'" he explains), which made him all the more determined to stick to his outside-the-box vision for Love Story. With the full support of Shady Records boss Eminem, the rapper born Wayne Atha took more than a year writing, recording and linking up with trusted producers to cook up his new LP. "This is the album that I fought for the freedom to do," he says of Love Story.
Listening to the back porch-flavored soundscapes of "Till It's Gone," "American You" and the Eminem-featuring "Best Friend," his vision comes into focus. When he hopped on the line on a recent afternoon, Yelawolf was unrestricted and transparent, riffing on his take-no-prisoners approach to Love Story, his respect for Andre 3000 and Kid Rock, and why his album didn’t start to make sense until he went to jail.
How are you feeling right now? Love Story is a project you've been working on for quite some time and it's finally set to drop.
Every song that has come out has been really, really exciting for me. I'm eager for people to hear them. And the reaction to the songs has been great too. It's a risk. It's always a risk to do new things. It's always challenging and you don't know what's going to come of it. You never know what the reaction is truly gonna be. But the reaction to "Till It's Gone" was good. And then "Whiskey In a Bottle." And now "American You" and "Best Friend." So the sequence of the songs, man, has really got me excited. People hearing "American You" and backing it, backing where I’m going, really backing what I’m bringing back… the sound and the style has been something I've been sitting on for a long time.
When did you decide you were going to take these musical risks for the album?
Music tends to not allow people to grow up. It's unfortunate for some artists that they get stuck in this kind of trap to remain within the same boundary of style, you know? They'll go off and they'll play a certain kind of music or they’ll go home and when they're not playing their own music they’re infatuated with this other style of music and it’s something they really wish they could do or be a part of, but they think their fans will turn on them. So this has kind of been like a calculated risk. Because throughout my career, so far I've planted seeds of where I was going. Even if it was a strictly hip-hop to straight-rap verse I've always sprinkled in the idea -- maybe it might have been a Johnny Cash or when I was onstage with Big Boi at the BET Awards wearing a Hank Williams shirt -- that someday I would like to go there.
I think more artists need to take chances like this.
The biggest inspiration for that, not particularly for their music but the way they went about their careers: Andre 3000 and Kid Rock.
I had a feeling you'd say Kid Rock.
Yeah. They're obviously from totally different worlds but they've showed the same kind of progression in their own way. That freedom is something that I always wanted. I fought for it, really got focused on this album and tried my hardest to make it make sense and make good out of the best of any kind of music that I’m attempting to do. I tried to make it count.
You've made reference to the fact that Radioactive wasn't your best showing. I get the sense you feel this album is a much more a proper statement of who you are as an artist.
Around the time of Radioactive, there were ideas floating around the camp, not even particularly at all with Marshall [Mathers] and I, but ideas outside of the camp. The music business can get hairy, you know? So there were ideas about where I should be going and not really considering where I personally thought I should be going. I was anybody's dog on that album. I was just there to do it; "I'm in!" That's the double-edged sword of hip-hop and being an MC: You can apply a rap verse to any music. So if you're not careful it can be very confusing or it may seem like a project doesn't have a specific direction. On that album there were just a few attempts with maybe the wrong production or maybe the wrong hook. Because it's very easy to say "Insert Rapper Here." You've got the track, you've got the hook, just put verses on it. It's a very microwaved style of making music. It’s not how I naturally work. Some songs do come fast but usually I'm very focused on a conceptual project. I think we just missed the mark a few times with a few songs that took the concept from what that album could have been. I'm very proud of that album and there are songs on that album that I’ll perform for the rest of my career.
So how was Love Story different?
It was an opportunity to say, 'Alright, we're closing the doors this time. The only people invited are the producers that we personally invite and then Eminem.' He has the only feature on the album. There's no random guest producers. There's no other vocal appearances other than the McCrary Sisters, the backup singers on "Devil In My Veins." They toured with Bob Dylan and sang with Johnny Cash. They're legendary.
I hear you laid it out there for guys like Jimmy Iovine, Eminem and Paul Rosenberg and said, "Take it or leave it. This is the album I'm making."
That's exactly what happened. It was totally a trust thing. Marshall and Paul were like, "Hey man, go do what the fuck you wanna do. When you're done give us a call and then we'll bring you up to Detroit and we’ll wrap it up and that’s it." Obviously it had to be quality and it had to be of a certain par. It took me five months to make the first song. That’s how serious we were. There were about 40 ideas before I had an idea that I felt was good enough to be on this album. It was "Outer Space," the opening song. We had been working on it for months. I went to jail the night before I wrote for just getting rowdy. I never went to sleep. I left jail that morning, got a taxi to the studio, fell asleep on the couch, woke up, hit the space bar, and "Outer Space" was the track [I] loaded up on to the computer. [Producer] Will Power had worked on it while I was in jail [Laughs]. And then I came and recorded it and that was it. Then things started to happen easier creatively. It was not at all rushed and it wasn't contrived. There was not one single idea on Love Story where we walked into the studio and were like, "Man, we need a single."
Are there any other tracks in particular on the album that really signaled you were on the right track?
"American You." Last minute, [producer] Malay came out to Nashville and man, we hadn't had the time to work and get in the studio for a long time. So after going back and re-touching up some earlier ideas and making them right for the album he played that riff for "American You." And I loved it. It's one of those songs that came really quick. I wrote it probably in 20-30 minutes maybe and then recorded it. It was like, "This is what this album needs." It was almost like, "Is this a song for the album after Love Story?" But we were just like, 'Fuck it, man! Let's go with all this shit. Let's just be open and do it all." And when Marshall was excited about "American You," man, it was like, if they were down for this shit... oh man.
I get the feeling this is the album you've always wanted to make.
It's the album that I fought for the freedom to do. I've definitely always wanted to do this. I'm not at all upset though. Hip-hop and being an MC obviously has taken me all the way to Shady Records and has done great for me. So I'm excited that there is this whole other base of ideas that I just unlocked. There's a lot to follow that.
You seem excited to take these songs on the road.
That's what I do. I make an album and I tour. There's no other real connection then when you see someone live. For me, personally, that's what I look forward to. We're just gonna rock, man.Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero has said that he would like to be coached by Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola, with speculation buzzing around Guardiola, who is reportedly set to take over at the Etihad at the end of the season.
The Argentine striker, who looks set to miss about a month of action after picking up a hamstring injury while on international duty at the end of last week, was quoted by NBC as saying: “I would like to be coached by him in the future because he is a great coach, but today I’m so happy with Manuel Pellegrini.
“It has been talked about a lot. I don’t know him, but he’s a great manager and it’s wonderful to have the best managers train you. I’m very good with Manuel Pellegrini, we talk a lot. I’m happy in the team and with him, but the club will be the one who chooses who comes in.”
Aguero was just beginning to hit his stride after his slow start to the campaign, scoring five times against Newcastle in an extraordinary thumping before the international break, and his injury added to David Silva's knock will give Pellegrini some headaches going forward after his side lost two of their last three Premier League games.
Mundo Deportivo in Spain report that Guardiola has verbally agreed to take over at the Etihad after conversations with City director of football Txiki Begiristain, in a deal which could have wide-reaching implications.
With Guardiola potentially leaving the Bayern position open and Pellegrini on the market, the move could spark a scramble of top managers switching jobs around Europe's biggest clubs this summer.
Bayern chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge recently told Bild : "I am optimistic about Pep's renewal. We have a great offer on the table, which you cannot just shove aside. We have a first-class team, a fantastic club, a great stadium and a wonderful city to offer."
Amid Pep rumours, Kun Aguero backs City boss Pellegrini. http://t.co/YCcTjwnPSr — ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) October 9, 2015
Maybe you’ve seen spider webs strung high in the branches between two trees. How is the spider able to reach between this distance, which is often more than several feet?
The answer begins with the spider’s ability to transform liquid silk inside its special glands into solid threads. The spider does this by physically pulling the spider silk through its spinnnerets – silk-secreting organs on its abdomen. Once the thread is started, the spider lifts its spinnerets into the breeze. It’s the breeze that is the secret to the spider’s ability to spin a web from tree to another.
Spider silk is very lightweight. Any slight breeze – even convection currents from a patch of ground warming in the sun – can carry the thread from tree to tree.
Although the thread isn’t sticky or gluey, it can still stick to the tree. Most likely it just gets tangled on small protuberances. Or it adheres due to static electrical forces, like balloons sticking to a TV screen.
At this point, the spider can use the thread to “tightrope walk” from one tree to another. Usually, the spider is hanging underneath the thread on its journey from tree to tree.
Many spiders build new webs each night or day, depending on when they hunt.
And spiders recycle – some eat their old webs and use the digested silk to produce new ones.
Bottom line: The breeze is the key to a spider’s ability to spin a web between two trees.What does Benjamin Netanyahu think about Mizrahi – or Sephardic – Jews? In the Friday edition of Yedioth Ahronoth, veteran journalist Nahum Barnea wrote that a few months ago, the prime minister told Finance Minister and Kulanu party chairman Moshe Kahlon: “You will never get the votes of the Mizrahim — only I know how to get them. I know who they hate: They hate the Arabs.”
Kahlon’s office denied the comments were ever made in a conversation between Netanyahu and Kahlon.
Yedioth Ahronoth's Nahum Barnea Tomer Appelbaum
Netanyahu has a somewhat sordid history with Israel's Arab citizens. On Election Day, Netanyahu caused a storm by telling right wing voters that: “The rule of the right is in danger. Arab voters are streaming in droves to polling stations. Leftist NGOs are bringing them in buses. Go vote, with God’s help and yours we’ll establish a national government that will defend Israel.”
He later said he was "sorry" if the comments offended Israeli Arabs: "I know the things I said [] hurt some Israeli citizens. [But] my actions as prime minister, including massive investment in minority sectors, prove the exact opposite," he said.
Since then, Netanyahu's government has even authorized a hefty five-year investment plan worth 10 billion shekels ($2.5 billion) for Israeli Arabs. However, this too has been marred by what some have called race-baiting.
Following the January 1 terror attack in Tel Aviv by an Israeli Arab, Netanyahu delivered a speech condemning lawlessness in Israeli Arab society, which many saw as an indictment of the entire community.
"Whoever wants to be Israeli must be Israeli all the way," he said. "I will not accept two states within Israel," following his comments with what seemed to be new conditions on the investment plan's implementation.
Keep updated: Sign up to our newsletter Email * Please enter a valid email address Sign up Please wait… Thank you for signing up. We've got more newsletters we think you'll find interesting. Click here Oops. Something went wrong. Please try again later. Try again Thank you, The email address you have provided is already registered. Close
In recent weeks, Netanyahu has promoted a bill that would allow the Knesset to suspend lawmakers for "improper behavior" – a move which critics say would de facto target Israeli Arab lawmakers.Looking for news you can trust?
Subscribe to our free newsletters.
Governors across the country are trying to roll back Medicaid in the name of slashing spending. But New Jersey’s Chris Christie has just proposed benefit cuts that may be even more extreme than the rest. In attempt to cut a whopping $300 million from the program, Christie has put forward a proposal that could eliminate Medicaid coverage for any adult who makes more than $5,317 a year, or 25 percent of the national poverty level, the Associated Press reports.
The cut would throw some 23,000 New Jersey residents out of the program, on top of the 1,400 who are already losing their state-subsidized coverage this year due to Christie’s budget cutbacks. In recent years, the state had been aggressive about expanding coverage for the needy and vulnerable through Medicaid and New Jersey FamilyCare, another program for low-income families—at one point covering families up to 185 percent above the federal poverty line, according to Joan Alker, co-executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown’s Health Policy Institute.
Though Republicans haven’t been shy about pushing Medicaid cuts, Christie may have set the bar at a new low, Alker adds. That said, it’s highly unlikely that Christie’s proposal will ever take effect, even if it passes the New Jersey statehouse. The Obama administration would have to grant the state a waiver to make such drastic cutbacks, and presumably it won’t be inclined to do so. But Christie’s plan could push the goalposts even farther to the right on Medicaid.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) - When you see a dog at the vet, don't assume it's sick, it may be helping another dog see more days.
"An emergency clinic probably does more transfusions than we do here, we probably do a handful of transfusions a year," explained Dr. Staci Armstrong with Whitesburg Animal Hospital.
It's a longtime practice that few people know about. Most donors at Whitesburg, and many other hospitals, are pets of clinic employees.
"Cats have three blood types an dogs have a lot of different blood groups, there's at least 13 different blood types," said Dr. Armstrong.
Dogs can only donate to other dogs, cats to other cats, and so on. But like us, the donors have to be pre-screened.
"They need to be within a certain age range, typically 2-7 years old, and meet weight requirements as well," she explained. "We also screen for blood borne diseases that could be transmitted."
The system is very much like that of human blood transfusions.
Dogs usually need the most transfusions and the blood expires after a while, so vets usually seek the resources after there is a need.
There are also nationwide blood banks from which clinics can order.Blue Goose Tavern plans addition of brewery in Toronto
Toronto – The Blue Goose Tavern, a staple of south Etobicoke’s Mimico community since the 1800s, is seeking city approval for a large building expansion that would include brewing facilities.
In the bylaw zoning application, the ddition of a fourth story, new outdoor patio, and brewery installed in the basement are outlined.
Additionally, the Blue Goose Tavern is currently being researched and evaluated by Heritage Preservation Services for potential inclusion on the city’s heritage register, according to InsideToronto.com.
Built in 1892 as the Windsor Hotel, it was rebuilt due to fire in 1909 as the Windsor Public House. In 1971, the name was changed to The Blue Goose Tavern — a nickname it got from a blue-tinged steam engine whose engineer used to make frequent stops at the pub while passing through town, according to the Etobicoke Guardian.
A timeline was not given.The death penalty is one of the most hotly debated topics in American politics. Supporters of the practice claim that capital punishment provides justice to people who have committed the most heinous crimes and makes violent criminals think twice about committing murder and rape. Opponents say that it is an inhumane and costly practice, and issuing a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole is an effective alternative to the death penalty.
When did it become legal
Despite the fact that the death penalty has long been part of America’s justice system (the first recorded execution of a colonist happened in 1608), our most reliable data about the practice starts in 1976, when it was made legal after being briefly banned nationwide. Since then (as of August 1, 2013) 1342 people have been executed in the United States, with the majority of executions taking place in Texas.
Lethal injection is the most common method of execution at most facilities, but more gruesome ways to be put to death are not entirely out of practice. In 1996, Billy Bailey became the most recent convict to be executed by means of hanging. The firing squad has been used as recently as 2010, when twice-convicted killer, Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed in Utah.
This infographic has the most current data on the state of the death penalty in the U.S. Please share so more people will be empowered with the facts on execution in America.
DISCLAIMER: It is PROHIBITED by law to use our service or the information it provides to make decisions about consumer credit, employment, insurance, tenant screening, or for any other purpose subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 USC 1681 et seq. Instant Checkmate does not provide consumer reports and is not a consumer reporting agency. The information available on our website may not be 100% accurate, complete, or up to date, so do not use this information as a substitute for your own due diligence, especially if you have concerns about a person’s criminal history. Instant Checkmate does not make any representation or warranty about the accuracy of the information available through our website or about the character or integrity of the person about whom you inquire. For more information, please review Instant Checkmate Terms of Use.CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union said on Saturday that it would investigate the actions of federal officers who had arrested five members of the Rainbow Family in western Wyoming during the group’s annual gathering.
The federal Forest Service said a mob of about 400 members of the Rainbow Family, a group of hippie types and eccentrics who hold a weeklong national gathering on public land each year, threw rocks and sticks at Forest Service officers who tried to arrest a member of the group. The agency would not give a reason for the original arrest.
About 60 federal and local officers responded, Forest Service officials said, and fired pepper balls — pellets that disperse a pepper solution — at the crowd.
As many as 7,000 members of the Rainbow Family camped out this year on Forest Service land.
Linda Burt, executive director of the A.C.L.U.’s Wyoming affiliate, said on Saturday that the organization planned to accept collect calls from Rainbow Family members for the next two weeks to hear their version of events.Yesterday news broke that Katy Perry* (among other things, the intended star of the 2015 Super Bowl Halftime Show) demanded that the 3D printing website Shapeways stop selling a model of Left Shark (perhaps the actual star of the Super Bowl Halftime Show). The letter to Shapeways came on fancy letterhead and was full of scary words, but is it backed up by any law?
Quick Background (Costumes and Copyright)
In order to start to answer that question, there are two things that are worth keeping in mind. First, although the letter first broadly references a generic “intellectual property depicted or embodied in connection with the shark images and costumes,” later on it references a specific section of copyright law. In light of that, let’s assume that Katy Perry (and although the letter comes from Katy Perry’s lawyers, they are her representatives so I’m just going to refer to them collectively as Katy Perry because it is more fun) is claiming to have a copyright in the shark costume.
The problem with this is that courts have generally found that copyright does not protect costumes (even fairly creative ones). Essentially, courts have lumped costumes in with other kinds of clothing and considered them all the kind of “useful article” that is beyond the scope of copyright protection. If you are curious, that use in this articles is things like “preventing you from being naked” and “keeping you warm.”
There are some legal theories that could be put forward to try and get copyright protection for a specific costume, but they mostly come into play when there are elements of a costume that could exist independently of the costume or when the costume is tied to a character developed in a book, movie, or play. It would probably be a stretch to put Left Shark into either of these categories.
An addition note is that even if the Left Shark costume is protected by copyright, that doesn’t automatically make Katy Perry the owner of that copyright. But let’s set that aside for now.
Quick Background (DMCA)
The second thing to keep in mind (and I promise I’ll bring all of this home) has to do with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or the DMCA for short. There are a number of parts of the DMCA (click here to learn about the part that might prevent you from using your own filament in a 3D printer, ripping your own DVD, or accessing data from medical devices implanted in your chest), but one of them protects websites that host content for people – websites like Shapeways, YouTube, and Facebook – from copyright liability.
Websites get this protection as long as they comply with a specific set of requirements, and are under no obligation to take down infringing content as long as they are in compliance. One of these requirements is to takedown copyrighted content if they get a request from the copyright holder – this request is sometimes called a DMCA takedown request. However, that request includes a requirement that the person sending it affirm under penalty of perjury that they are the owner of the copyright (or their designated agent).
Background Over – Let’s Get On With It
With those two things in mind, let’s look at Katy Perry’s letter. The most important thing about the letter is probably what it is not – the letter is not a real DMCA takedown notice. For one thing, it is missing a link to the actual allegedly infringing work. Perhaps more importantly, it is missing a statement – remember this statement has to be made under penalty of perjury – that the person sending the notice actually owns a copyright in the work being discussed.
Instead, the letter is presented as a “cease and desist” letter, a kind of letter sometimes described by lawyers as a “nastygram.” In some – although not all – cases nastygrams are designed to intimidate the recipient into compliance (often through the use of fancy letterhead and scary language) even if the sender does not actually have the legal power to back up the threats.
It is hard to tell if this letter falls into that category, but there are some interesting clues. First, there is the question of the costume copyrightability at all. It is not clear that anyone owns a copyright in Left Shark. And if no one owns a copyright in Left Shark, no one can demand that a Left Shark model get taken down from Shapeways. Second, there is the question of who would own the copyright in Left Shark if it were to exist. It is certainly possible that Katy Perry was farsighed enough to demand ownership of the copyrights of every costume in the halftime show, but it isn’t automatic.
And third is the choice of a nastygram over a real DMCA takedown notice. Katy Perry has fancy lawyers. They know that a website like Shapeways is immune from copyright liability unless they receive a properly formatted DMCA notice. But they also know that a property formatted DMCA notice would require an oath that Katy Perry actually owned an existent copyright in Left Shark. If they were worried about the truth of either of those things, they might have hoped that a nastygram would give them the outcome they were looking for without exposing them to perjury liability.
Or maybe they just prefer sending nastygrams to DMCA notices. Hopefully Katy Perry will explain what part of Left Shark she owns so we can clear all of this up. Until then, color me a skeptic.
*I admit that I’m not familiar enough with the Katy Perry catalog to artfully weave Katy Perry puns and references into this blog post. You are well within your rights as a reader to expect them, and I’m sorry to disappoint you.Downtown Columbus is closing in on 8,000 residents, and is on track to hit 10,000 by 2018. So apartment buildings continue to rise to meet the demand in the heart of the city. Yet even with all this new construction, and rents north of $1,500 a month, the Downtown apartment occupancy rate is 97 percent, according to a mid-year "State of Downtown Columbus" report released today by the Capital Crossroads and Discovery special-improvement districts.
Downtown Columbus is closing in on 8,000 residents, and is on track to hit 10,000 by 2018.
So apartment buildings continue to rise to meet the demand in the heart of the city. Yet even with all this new construction, and rents north of $1,500 a month, the Downtown apartment occupancy rate is 97 percent, according to a mid-year �State of Downtown Columbus� report released today by the Capital Crossroads and Discovery special-improvement districts.
�I do think Downtown is in a strong position now,� said Rob Vogt, principal of Vogt Strategic Insights, a Columbus real-estate market research company. �It�s following many of the trends we are seeing nationally.�
Those trends include more people moving to Downtown areas to live, especially Millennials, who want to live close to work, to restaurants and bars, to parks, to fun. According to the Capital Crossroads report, 44 percent of Downtown residents are 20 to 34 years old.
The demand continues to grow for Downtown housing. Of the 28 projects under construction in the Downtown area, including one just across the river in Franklinton, about a third of them are residential projects.
People are willing to pay for it, too. According to the report, the average monthly rent of a high-end, one-bedroom apartment Downtown is $1,542; a two-bedroom apartment goes for $2,200.
Amy Schmittauer, president of the Downtown Residents Association of Columbus, said her group wants to see a wider demographic of residents, not just those who can afford the high rents.
Columbus isn�t the only Ohio city where Downtown living is becoming more popular. Downtown Cincinnati now has close to 16,000 residents. Cleveland, an estimated 14,000.
�Downtown Cleveland was in a spotlight last week with the (Republican) convention," Vogt |
tins of oolongs that need to be separated or in a bigger tin.
Fourth Shelf – This is the scary shelf. These are teas that are unopened. There was a time when I’d get new teas and I’d open them all and sample. Unfortunately at this stage of my tea collection, doing that will just be too much tea opened at once. Many of these teas are saved for Oolong Owl tea reviews. Just quickly looking at the shelf I got teas from Teavivre, Eco-Cha, Taiwan Tea Crafts, and Verdant Tea.
Bottom Shelf, not pictured – This shelf is on the ground and holds only empty tea tins and boxes that held tea pots.
Pool Table – In the same room as my main tea stash is my husband’s pool table. All my new arrivals and teas grouped for “Review Soon!” are here. They can normally get placed in tins (along with stuff on the Fourth Shelf!) but right now it is looking kinda of sketchy to fit everything as well as having tins for everything.
Top left is my recent Mandala Teas order (some of it I cracked into already and haven’t shared). The top right box is almost everything I got from the World Tea Expo (around 60 teas) that I need to go through one more time and schedule reviews for. Bottom left are some teas that I’m aiming to review very soon. Middle bottom is a new arrival from White 2 Tea that I should be cracking into this week which I’m super excited for! The bottom right is some oolongs and blacks from Cameron Teas.
Oolong Owl’s Tin Organization
As an example of one of my tins, I group teas of similar type or flavor. Opening a random tin, this one has unflavored Japanese green teas from Yunomi!
I tend to try and group by brand if possible, if not, unflavored or similar blends. I have a tin that holds firey teas, another for black spiced teas and one for mint blends.
Some teas I cannot group with others, so they have their own small tin, such as teas like Lupicia’s King of Fruits have to be away from other teas as the scent is very potent (I am pretty sure that particular tin is gonna smell like durian forever). My favorite teas always have their own tin!
The teas I often keep in their original bags so I have the information on the tea there, less clean up on the tin when the tea is finished, and maybe a debatable extra protection of freshness for the tea. If the bag does not have a zip seal, I used an IKEA bag clip to close it.
My tins tend to get shuffled around – especially the Second and Third Shelf teas – to encourage me to drink the older ones sooner.
Observations and Goals for my tea stash
I have around 130 teas unopened! CRAZY! Most of my teas in my stash are 2oz and under – some even 2 cups samples. I have maybe 5 tea that I have 4oz of (not counting pu’er cakes), and they get drank down fast or given to others as samples.
Obvious, but I need to cut down my current stash. I’m debating selling a few cheap mystery boxes in a few months.
I found a green tea blend that was from 2010. This was before me labeling stuff and the only time I bought a pound of tea for myself. The tea was perfectly tucked in its own tin, however the smell was turning sour. Ewww! I hope my compost likes it. I found some even older tea bags, which I tossed, but most of my stash is no older than 2012 (not counting pu’er!)
Under the 200 tea count, I can remember what tin a certain tea is in- which is scary. I seem to route memorize stuff very well without trying too hard. However, after the 200 mark, I start to forget where some teas are. I don’t label the tins – which I’ve been meaning to do with chalkboard labels, so my system makes it harder to find teas. I modpodge or add stickers to many of my tins, but some of them I haven’t gotten around to doing, so a bunch look the same adding to the confusion!
I want a better shelving unit for my teas. Probably a bigger one too. Or maybe a bigger shelf would be a bad idea as I’ll just fill it with more tea.
There are way too many packages of unflavored oolong unopened. I realized that I tend to only open maybe 6 oolongs and drink those until they are gone, then I open some more, review them, and drink them down. With that said, I got a really big oolong backlog!
I don’t have enough pu’er. Seriously. My non sample pu’er stash is under 20. NOT ENOUGH!
Where are the Tea Owls? They were helping out writing the review by the computer! They work in shifts to watch the tea stash and pose for tea photos.
Share this: Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Google
Reddit
Like this: Like Loading...In a major operation, Bihar Police nabbed eight gangsters including their kingpin Nitish Yadav alias Nito alias Don, wanted in several cases of murder, dacoity and loot from Hemjapur village in Patna district on Saturday.
The police team led by Patna SSP Manu Maharaj came under fire while trying to catch them. All the eight persons surrendered after the police returned the fire. Six pistols, two magazines, 32 cartridges and five bombs were recovered from them.
Maharaj said Yadav and his gang has been involved in several cases of murder, loot, dacoity, extortion and forcibly capturing land belonging to others.
"A surprising aspect of this gang was that they used to provide arms and criminals to politicians and other people on rent. We are investigating this further to find out the identity of such persons," said Maharaj.
Police officers said the terror of Yadav was such that people targeted by him usually avoided registering FIRs. They also said that the kingpin has confessed about extorting money from railway contractors and local businessmen. He was in touch with several notorious criminals operating in various parts of Bihar, they said.Draft Jockey Box One Faucet via Adventures in Homebrewing. One tap Draft Box/Jockey Box. 50′ by 5/16″ 304 stainless steel coil and 28 quart marine cooler.
Check AIH for current price, description and availability.
Draft Box / Jockey Box
Also available in a two tap version: Draft Jockey Box 2 Faucet
Also: Kegerator Tips & Gear | Keg Repair Part #s | Recent Keg Finds Our Top Draft Resources Convert Your Mark II Keg & Carboy Washer to a Recirculating Draft Line Clea…
Step by Step Balancing Your Kegerator Draft System
Checking for Draft System CO2 Leaks – Using The Pressure Gauge Method
Step by Step: Finding and Fixing Keg CO2 Leaks
Kegerator Foam Problems? – Fight the First Foamy Pint!
Bulk Keg Orings and Keg Repair Part Numbers
Portable Draft Beer Serving Options!
Serve Homebrew & Sanke Kegs on Any Kegerator
Home Brew Keg Roundup – New & Used, 5 and 2.5 Gallon & More!
Tips and Gear for Growler Filling
Damp Kegerator? Fix Kegerator Condensation
Kegerator Beer Line Temperatures & Reducing Foam with a Recirculating Fan
Recent Homebrew Keg Finds
Upgrade Your Kegerator – 6 Improvements!
Homebrew Temp Controller Roundup! – Kegerator and Fermentation – con…
Hands On Review: Inkbird ITC-308 Dual Stage Temperature Controller
Kegging CO2 Use Estimations and Calculations
Build a Recirculating Draft Line Cleaning Pump
What’s the Difference Between Ball Lock Kegs and Pin Lock Kegs?
Also: Check out AIH Sale Items – Selection Changes Regularly
More: Recent AIH Finds
prod:aih1tapjockeyboxSteve Cotterill's side are one of five teams with 100% win records in League One
Aaron Wilbraham made it three goals in two league starts as Bristol City came from behind to beat Colchester.
The visitors took the lead in the ninth minute when George Moncur tapped home Sean Clohessy's low cross.
But City hit back just after half-time with Greg Cunningham crossing for Wilbraham to convert.
And the striker was on hand again in the 68th minute to head in a Wade Elliott delivery to make it two wins from two for the Robins.
Bristol City manager Steve Cotterill told BBC Radio Bristol:
Media playback is not supported on this device Cotterill on Bristol City v Colchester
"It was a hard-earned three points in the end. It's always difficult when you go 1-0 down at home.
"To show character to come from behind to win the game, I think that takes a lot more effort.
"I'm obviously pleased with the win and it's been a good start for us but there's nothing to get carried away with yet."Prolog
Facebook ist sehr bemüht, einem immer wieder Gruppen, Seiten und potenzielle neue Freunde vorzuschlagen, von denen es denkt, sie könnten zu einem passen. Allzu oft liegt der zugrundeliegende Algorithmus jedoch mit seiner Intention komplett daneben, denn er weiss z.B. nicht, ob man sich aus kontroversem oder wohlwollendem Interesse mit bestimmten Schlagworten beschäftigt hat. So schlug mir das System kürzlich vor, einer Gruppe mit dem schönen Namen “Impfen…NEIN danke!!!!!” [sic!] beizutreten. Da es mich, wenn ich gerade Kapazität für das Ertragen von Bullshit frei habe, durchaus interessiert, was “die andere Seite” so denkt und tut, betätigte ich den “Gruppe beitreten” Button und schlug mir schon mal den Verstand an der Beschreibung der Gruppe an, die sich auszugsweise dergestalt liest:
In einer modernen Welt wie dieser, frage ich mich wiso es immer wieder neue Erkrankungen gibt, trotz zahlreicher Impfungen (aber keine Bange es werden immer wieder neue erfunden:-)..) ist es vielleicht die Antwort auf viele zahlreiche unterdrückte Abwehrmechanismen des Körpers gerade auch wegen der Impferei????
Nun denn. Ich war bereit für das, was kommen sollte und nachdem meine Mitgliedschaft von den Gruppeninhabern bestätigt worden war, blubberten Beiträge aus dem Dunkelreich der Impfgegnerszene auf meine Timeline. Der Grundtenor: Impfungen sind schädlich, nutzlos und nichts weiter als ein Komplott der Pharmaindustrie zur Steigerung der eigenen Profite. So weit so simpel. Ansichten der beschriebenen Art sind mir nicht neu, die Hauptargumente der Impfgegner sind mir bekannt (man findet sie auf Wikipedia) und ausser der Feststellung, dass die Beiträge noch platter wirkten und formuliert waren, als ich es mir vorgestellt hatte, nahm ich das ganze ohne besondere Vorkommnisse für einige Tage zur Kenntnis.
Am letzten Freitag jedoch erscheint dort der folgende Beitrag:
Corinna H. Hallo, es geht um meine Tochter (13 Monate). Wir sind grad im Hotel und sie hat auf dem Balkon gespielt und als sie rein kam habe ich gesehen das sie alles winzig kleine holzsplitter im Bein hat. Ein paar konnte ich selbst entfernen bin dann aber auch direkt ins Krankenhaus um drüber schauen zu lassen weil noch einige drin sind. Der Arzt sagte in Kamillentee baden und mir einem Handtuch über die Haut rubbeln um sie zu entfernen weils mit der Pinzette nicht geht. Es wurde natürlich über die tetanusimpfung diskutiert weil meine kleine nicht geimpft ist. Ich habe abgelehnt – aber dennoch hat er mich verunsichert. Ich weis das eigentlich kein Tetanus entstehen kann wenn eine Wunde blutet aber wie ist das bei kleinen Splittern? Wahrscheinlich mache ich mich wieder total verrückt – Ärzte und ihre Panikmache
sowie in einem weiteren Beitrag
Corinna H. Er faselte dann noch was von wegen Entzündungen und Antibiotika geben in 2 Tagen. Und ganz wichtig tetanusimpfung!
Es folgen zwei Nachrichten anderer Gruppenmitglieder, in denen die Fragende darin bestätigt wird, nicht auf den Arzt zu hören und sich von dessen Impfpropaganda nicht beeindrucken zu lassen. An diesem Punkt halte ich es nicht mehr aus. Ich antworte folgendes:
Stephan S. Hallo. Ich gucke mir diese Gruppe hier seit ein paar Tagen an, weil ich mal sehen wollte, was in der Impfgegner-Szene so los ist. Ich muss sagen, ich bin entsetzt, wie leichtsinnig hier mit gefährlichem Unwissen hantiert wird und wie offensichtlich es eigentlich nur darum geht, die eigene Meinung bestätigt zu bekommen und gegenüber der “bösen Medizinverschwörung” abzuschotten. Ich weiss, dass ich jetzt gleich mit Anfeindungen überrollt werde und dass dieser Appell wohl nichts bringen wird, aber ich kann nicht anders als dir, Corinna H., zu sagen: MACH DIE VERDAMMTE TETANUS - IMPFUNG!!! Es stimmt schon, dass die Wahrscheinlichkeit einer Infektion bei ein paar Splittern nicht gross ist (genau deswegen und weil hierzulande niemand eine konkrete Vorstellung der Krankheit hat, ist es aber auch einfach, da leichtfertig zu sein). Aber wenn es passiert, dann bist du schlimmstenfalls am qualvollen Tod deiner Tochter schuld. Das ist nicht ironisch oder überspitzt gemeint, sondern genau so. Im Nachhinein hilft es dir und deiner Tochter dann leider auch nichts mehr, zu merken, dass du falsch lagst. Lies dir doch bitte, bitte wenigstens die relevanten Wikipedia Artikel zum Thema durch. Und versuch dich noch mal zu fragen, warum dein Arzt dir zu dieser Impfung rät, obwohl sie ja angeblich sinnlos ist. Und zwar nicht mit all den fertigen Denkvorlagen, die hier kusieren, sondern von Null – mit eigenen Gedanken. Ich kann dir zu meiner Person sagen: Ich bin kein Arzt und kein Vertreter irgendeiner Branche oder Lobby, die mit Medizin oder Medizinprodukten zu tun hat. Ich bin irgendein Computerfuzzi, der sich für das Denken anderer interessiert, vor allem für Denkfehler. Und ich muss sagen: So viele Denkfehler und noch dazu derart gefährliche wie in dieser Szene habe ich noch nirgends auf einem Haufen gesehen. Es ist wirklich beängstigend. Also noch mal, Corinna H.: bitte, bitte, bitte!!!
Ich komme nicht einmal dazu, mich zu fragen, wie lange es dauern wird, bis der Shitstorm beginnt, denn praktisch in dem Moment in dem ich auf Absenden gedrückt habe, macht Facebook schon “Pling!”.
Boom goes the dynamite
Beatrice O.
Bitte bitte bitte verpiss dich, du hast dich verirrt und bist zudem auch noch verwirrt! Und ich empfehle dir sich mal ausgiebig mit Tetanus zu befassen… Nicht bei lügepedia Gefällt mir · 5
Stephan S.
Bitte erkläre mir, wieso du Informationen auf Wikipedia für nicht glaubhaft hältst. Gefällt mir · 0
Beatrice O.
Erkläre du mal, warum sie glaubhaft sein sollen! Gefällt mir · 2
Silke E.
In Wikipedia kann jeder Hintz und Kuntz reinschreiben. Soviel zum Wahrheitsgehalt.
Ist der Fuß desinfiziert worden, ich vermute, ja?
Und wie soll man gegen Gift impfen können? Gefällt mir · 5
Schon mal ein sehenswerter Auftakt also.
Ich will nun anhand der folgenden Diskussion zwischen mir und anderen Gruppenmitgliedern einige typische Argumentationsmuster der Impfgegner deutlich machen. Ich folge dabei grob, aber nicht unbedingt dem chronologischen Ablauf der Diskussion und hole Beiträge von oben oder unten hinzu, um bestimmte Sicht- und Verhaltensweisen der Impfgegner zu verdeutlichen. In jedem Fall sind sämtliche Beiträge im originalen Wortlaut wiedergegeben – auch wenn das oftmals die Lesbarkeit erheblich erschwert. Lediglich Namen habe ich abgekürzt.
Alles Lügner ausser wir!
Was ist hier also bislang typisch? Zunächst etwas, was unverzichtbar ist für die Aufrechterhaltung des Denkmodells Impfgegnerschaft: Die Delegitimierung etablierten Wissens und etablierter Informationsquellen. Silke E. macht es oben vor. Einerseits hat sie offensichtlich überhaupt keine Vorstellung davon, wie Wikipedia in der Praxis funktioniert: Dass dort zwar tatsächlich prinzipiell jeder etwas “reinschreiben” kann, dass hierfür aber strenge und nachvollziehbare Objektivitäts- und Relevanzkriterien gelten und durchgesetzt werden. Die verkürzte Version “jeder darf da reinschreiben” reicht Silke E. aber vollkommen, um zu begründen, warum Wikipedia nicht glaubhaft ist und sogar lügt. Muss ja auch: Wenn man Ideen vertritt, die in krassem Gegensatz zur etablierten Meinung stehen, dann muss alles, wo etwas anderes drin steht, falsch sein. Wikipedia also schon mal: abgehakt, lügt! Der andere grosse Gegner in Sachen Desinformation sind – na klar – die Medien. Gegen die wird typischerweise so argumentiert:
Ci Ci Ok Stephan du scheinst eine Meinung zu verteten die die Medien etc den Menschen so einflößen wollen.
Es gibt also “die Medien”, die “den Menschen” etwas einflössen wollen. Und zwar das, was der eigentliche Gegner – im Falle der Impfgegner ist das üblicherweise die Pharmaindustrie – wiederum den Medien eingeflösst hat. Das ist ein praktisches Argument weil es a) nicht überprüfbar, somit b) auch nicht widerlegbar ist und c) auf so ziemlich alles, also z.B. auch auf Einzelpersonen angewandt werden kann. Judith R. macht das gleich mal vor, nachdem jemand aus dem Forum meine Beiträge offenbar gar nicht so blöd fand:
Julia G. ich persönlich finde es interessant, was Stephan zu sagen hat. Macht jetzt auf mich keinen doofen Eindruck…
Judith R. ne doof nicht aber gehirngewaschen und dass ist jetzt nicht als beleidigung gemeint
Stephan S. Okay, hast du auch ne Theorie, wie diese “Gehirnwäsche” ausgesehen haben mag, also wer sie durchgeführt hat?
Judith R. weis nicht kenn dich ja nicht deiner eltern dien umfeld die pharma durch werbung etrc.
Und wieder: Fall gelöst! Wikipedia, die Medien und jeder, der uns, den Impfgegnern, widerspricht: Alle doof, manipuliert, gehirngewaschen. Lügner vor dem Herrn. Und wer bleibt übrig? Richtig: wir, die Impfgegner! Und weil wir die Wahrheit kennen, sind freilich Quellen, die unsere Meinung bestätigen, unanfechtbar. Das muss dann auch nicht gross begründet werden:
Liza L. ich möchte dir noch was mit auf den weg geben-lies bücher von dr.loibner wohlgemerkt ein allgemeinmediziner-der dir sehr einfach und logisch-mit quellenangaben vermitteln kann warum impfungen schwachsinn sind..im dem sinne ade..
oder
Tanja M. schau dir Bitte den film ‘wir impfen nicht’ an Oder lies ein buch, zb Martin Hirte ‘impfen pro&contra’ Und wenn du dann nicht mehr zu Den gefährlichen nicht-wissern gehörst bist du gerne eingeladen Fragen zu stellen
Dr. Loibner und Martin Hirte also. Ich google die mal kurz. Der eine, Loibner: ein österreichischer Arzt, Anhänger der Neuen Germanischen Medizin, Opus-Dei Mitglied und zeitweise Inhaber eines Berufsverbots der Steirischen Ärztekammer wegen Verletzung seiner ärztlichen Sorgfaltspflicht. Findet, dass Kinder “durch ausreichend Bewegung, gesunde Ernährung, genügend Schlaf und frische Luft vor Infektionskrankheiten geschützt” sind und meint, Krebs mit Homöopathie heilen zu können. Der andere, Hirte, ebenfalls Arzt und Homöopath und Autor des Buchs “Impfen – Pro & Contra”, das vom rechtsesoterischen Kopp Verlag vertrieben wird. Beide: Esoterische Vollblüter und Subjekt ausführlicher Psiram-Artikel (das, was früher mal Esowatch hiess).
Nun denn. Immerhin wurden hier zumindest so etwas wie Quellen genannt. Aber selbst wenn man gerade keine passenden Autoritäten mit möglichst vielen wissenschaftlichen Titeln parat hat, muss man als Impfgegner noch lange nicht anfangen, die absolutistischen Ansprüche an die Wahrhaftigkeit der eigenen Position herunterzuschrauben. Dann hilft nämlich immer noch das gute alte “ich habe trotzdem recht!”. Ein gewisser Mario demonstriert es gleich mal:
Mario K. Mal zu den Büchern und Wikipedia. Egal was ihr lesen werdet. In den wenigsten Fällen IST es die Wahrheit. Wer liest, liest das was der Staat will das ihr es lest. Das nicht impfen lernt man nicht in einem Buch. Das sollte ein Urinstinkt sein. Und bei den meisten ist das auch so. Und überzeugen könnt ihr eh kein. Entweder man ist bereit den Weg zu gehen oder nicht.
Was hier – neben extremer Selbstbezogenheit – noch durchscheint, ist eine Grundhaltung, die mir der Nährboden für die Verbreitung schlechter Ideen wie Impfgegnerschaft zu sein scheint: Das mulmige Gefühl, dass alles Strukturelle und öffentlich organisierte einem nur Böses will und dass es nichts und niemanden gibt, der im eigenen Sinne handelt: Vertraue niemandem ausser dir selbst! Und denen, die dir möglichst laut mitteilen, dass sie deine Probleme und Sorgen emotional verstanden haben. Und die dir sagen, dass sie wissen, was dagegen zu tun ist. Alle anderen sind Feinde. Sich anhören, was sie in der Sache zu sagen haben? Auf gar keinen Fall! Dann lieber mundtot machen:
Ci Ci Admins!!! Bitte kommen. Hier hat sich eindeutig jemand gewaltig verirrt. Stephan S., was willst du denn bezwecken?? Hier sind unendlich viele saumäßig informierte und belesene Leute. Da gibt es keine Chance für deine Propaganda.
Keine Chance also für meine Propaganda – davon bin ich momentan auch noch überzeugt. Was später passieren wird, kann ich noch nicht erahnen, aber erst mal geht’s munter weiter. Diesmal mit einem weiteren “Argument”, das der Impfgegner an sich offenbar für durchschlagend und valide hält, denn ich habe es in diversen Ausführungen bereits gesehen und es wird im weiteren Verlauf auch noch öfter hervorgebracht. Es geht etwa so:
Judith R. Und sorry ich bin leider geimpft worden habe etliche krankheiten trotz impfung bekommrnnhabe schiefer [Anm. d. Verf: es sind wohl Schiefersplitter gemeint] die ich so nicht rausbekam einfach stecken lassen habe nie etwas desinfiziert und auch nir deswefen zu arzt gegangen man kanns auch übertreiben ach ja mein vater ist übrigens letztes jahr gestorben an ner blutvergiftung mit tetanus und er war uber 50 jahre durchgrimpft … dass nennt man Schicksal
Typisch hier? Es werden Rückschlüsse aus anekdotischen Einzelfällen und der eigenen unstrukturierten Beobachtung gezogen. Judith hatte mal was im Fuss stecken und hat trotzdem kein Tetanus bekommen. Für sie ein klarer Beleg dafür, dass die Tetanusimpfung und Impfungen überhaupt unnötig sind. Ob das wirklich so gemeint ist? Ja, ist es. Logik für Impfgegner!
Was hier aber noch deutlicher durchkommt und was mir erst später so richtig klar wird: Allzu oft haben die Leute wirklich die grundlegendsten Zusammenhänge zum Thema Impfen nicht verstanden. Aus Judiths Beitrag wird bei genauem Lesen deutlich, dass sie nicht verstanden hat, dass Impfungen nur für bestimmte Krankheiten wirken und nicht etwa so eine Art Generalimmunisierung für ein Individuum erzeugen. Anders sind ihre Formulierungen und Folgerungen nicht zu erklären. Im Umkehrschluss dieses Missverständnisses wirkt dann die Tatsache, dass jemand trotz Impfung an irgendetwas erkrankt ist, wie ein valides Argument gegen die Wirksamkeit von Impfungen: Judiths Papa hat eine Blutvergiftung gehabt, da er aber gegen Tetanus geimpft war, muss die Impfung wirkungslos gewesen sein! In ähnlicher Weise argumentiert später eine Mutter, deren eines Kind “geimpft” ist (wogegen auch immer) und das “viel öfter krank” ist, als das andere, nicht geimpfte:
Diana G. Ich hab zwei Kinder, eines z.B. komplett geimpft, das andere komplett ungeimpft. Das erste hatte schlimme Nebenwirkungen und war ständig krank. Das andere durchschnittlich wesentlich weniger.
Das Wortgefecht geht fröhlich weiter, und da nun offenbar auch dem letzten klargeworden ist, dass hier der Feind durch die eigenen Reihen rennt, fallen die letzten Hemmungen, mir verbal einen mitzugeben. Es folgen Kommentare über Grösse und Zustand meines Gehirns, sowie anderer Körperteile, eine Aufforderung, einen Friseur aufzusuchen und die Feststellung, ich sei mit Wissenschaftsgläubigkeit infiziert. Gleichzeitig – und das finde ich interessant – wird deutlich, dass innerhalb der Gruppe Uneinigkeit besteht, wie hart man mich angehen darf. Einige sind unglücklich darüber, dass man mich beleidigt hat und sehen in derart aggressivem Verhalten einen Grund, warum Impfgegner nicht ernst genommen werden.
Silvia D. Also ich muss sagen das es mich unheimlich stört wie beleidigend ihr werden könnt Das is vielleicht auch der Grund warum wir nicht impfer immer belächelt werden und nicht ernst genommen
Andere sehen das anders und stellen klar, worum es ihnen bei der Gruppe geht:
Jürgen F. Hier Ist keine Pro u Contra Gruppe sondern Eine klare Contra Gruppe. Leute Die hier irgend ne ‘arme mutter’ Zur ‘vernunft’ bringen Wollen Sind hier hoffentlich nicht erwüns
Tanja M. Nein, Es Ist Ein weg Den man geht Mit Gleichgesinnten Die einen stärken! Draussen kämpft man Schon genug! Hier Wird Der rücken gestärkt Und beim weg begleitet! Darum Bin Ich begeistert Von dieser Gruppe, Und Von euch allen! Bis auf Den da…
Ich beginne, zu ahnen, wie sehr sich diese Szene von der Umwelt abgekapselt hat. Ich bin hier anscheinend der erste, der mal gegen ihre Linie redet und der Beissreflex der einen erschreckt nun die, die sich in der Gruppe in Gesellschaft von Leuten glaubten, die sich lediglich an ihren geteilten geistigen Errungenschaften erfreuen. Was mir in diesem Zusammenhang ebenfalls auffällt: Es kommen praktisch nur Argumente, die offensichtlich noch nie auch nur mit sanftem Widerspruch konfrontiert wurden. Aus anderen derartigen Debatten weiss ich, dass die Argumente der Gegenseite – so falsch sie in der Sache auch sein mögen – jahrelang in der Brandung der Kritik geschliffen wurden und es schwierig ist, Ansätze zur Gegenargumentation zu finden. Hier bei den Impfgegnern wird teilweise einfach unverhohlenes Unwissen auf die Zeitleiste gepampt – in der offensichtlichen Annahme, dass es niemanden gibt, der widerspricht:
Stefanie M. Hab mal so überlegt…ich hatte nie windpocken habe aber trotzdem des öfteren herpes….eigentlich können sich die Viren doch nur im Körper festsetzen wenn man windpocken hatte oder?kann doch nur vom impfen kommen oder?
Monika A. Die Wahrscheinlichkeit ohne Impfung 100 zu werden ist gering? Wie erklärst du dir dann, dass der Mensch immer jünger stirbt
Lach- und Sachgeschichten
Während der Shitstorm über mich herzieht, stelle ich einfach mal ne Sachfrage:
Stephan S. @Judith R., dann begründe doch bitte mal, worin die Gefahr bei einer Tetanus Impfung besteht.
Judith R. Quecksilber aluminium die impfung an sich tut weh… usw.
Und jetzt wird’s spannend. Da ich die Idee mit dem Aluminium kenne, sage ich: Stimmt, Aluminium ist da drin. Als Wirkverstärker. Sie: “und schädlich ist er auch”. Ich: “Nein, nicht in der Menge”. Judith darauf:
Sagst du ich behaupte das gegenteil aber sorry ins unsrer nahrung und sonstwo ist so viel scheiß drinnen dass ich versuche alles was geht zu vermeiden also auch dass… und langzeitstudien über generationen gibts nicht also kannst du es nict wissen…
Äh… ja. Es hat also irgendwie auch was mit der Nahrung zu tun, mit irgendwelchen Giften, die “überall” sind und… ach, na ja. Vermeidung ist immer gut, und zwar von allem. Einen Aluhut wiederum würde Judith sich vermutlich bedenkenlos aufsetzen, aber das fällt mir erst hinterher ein, sonst hätte ich sie das mal gefragt.
Um das ganze abzurunden, grätscht nun noch Mario dazwischen und meint “Einfach nix mehr antworten, dann wird er müde. Und morgen hat er alles vergessen wegen dem Alu was sie ihm schon reingeschossen”. Und eine Monika gleichen Nachnamens wie Mario empfiehlt mir noch, dringend mal den Film “ die Akte Alu “ zu gucken. Ich entgegne:
Stephan S. Leute, es ist eine Frage der Menge, wie bei allem anderen auch. Es reicht nicht, zu sagen, da ist das und das drin, ihr müsst schon auch begründen, warum das in der Menge ein Problem sein sollte.
Das ruft zunächst wieder Mario auf den Plan:
Mario K. Hast du schon mal Crystal meth geraucht. So ein ganz kleines bissi macht doch nix. Die Menge macht’s. Heroin, nur ein kleinen Schuss….. Solltest du mal tun. Aber nur wenig, dann machst auch nix!
Ich sage: okay, und was willst du mir damit sagen? Hast du schon mal ein 100stel Bier getrunken und was gemerkt? Genauso (das sage ich ihm) ist es auch mit Methamphetamin: ein Hundertstel einer wirksamen Dosis wird höchstwahrscheinlich gar nichts tun. Kannst du nehmen oder auch lassen – es ist einfach egal. Mario denkt nach und antwortet:
Wenn man hier ne Stange hinbaut…… Gibt’s morgen früh ohne Ende Eier. Soviel Hühner gibt’s nicht mal in der Massentierhaltung in einem Käfig??
So langsam wird mir klar: Diese Leute können Dosen nicht einschätzen (nicht die aus Blech, sondern den Plural von Dosis) und wissen offenbar teilweise nicht, was eine Dosis überhaupt ist. Die Vorstellung, dass ein bestimmter Stoff in der einen Menge gesundheitsgefährdend, in einer anderen auf eine bestimmte Weise wirksam ist und in wiederum einer anderen überhaupt keine Wirkung hat, ist ihnen fremd. In ihrer Vorstellung besteht das Fach Chemie aus zwei grossen Listen: Einer mit guten und einer mit schlechten Stoffen, wobei die schlechten auf einer Skala von “eher ungut” bis “diabolisch” sortiert sind. Die Einordnung erfolgt auf Zuruf und tendenziell anhand des Kriteriums “Natürlich” oder “Unnatürlich”. Unnatürliches ist grundsätzlich böse, Natürliches super. Für Mario ist deshalb klar: Wenn man Aluminium (böse) oder eben auch Crystal Meth (diabolisch) zu sich nimmt – egal, auf welchem Weg und in welcher Dosierung – dann ist es zu spät und Tod, bzw. Drogenkarriere sind unabwendbar. Mit diesem pharmakologischen Modell vor Augen reicht dann nachvollziehbarerweise auch die Feststellung, dass in Impfstoffen Aluminium drin ist, um genug Angst für eine generelle Ablehnung von Impfungen zu erzeugen.
Um das klarzustellen: Ich will nicht sagen, dass man Crystal Meth ausprobieren soll oder dass das als Droge harmlos ist. Es geht darum, dass die Art der Wirkung von Stoffen auf Lebewesen IMMER und ENTSCHEIDEND von der aufgenommenen Menge abhängt. Eine Prise Kochsalz macht die Nudeln lecker, hundert Gramm sind tödlich. Tausend Gramm Bier machen heiter, fünf Liter sternhagelvoll und ein Schnapsglas voll tut gar nichts. Und zehn Milligramm Methamphetamin tun, was Crystal Meth eben tut, ein Hundertstel davon – 100 Mikrogramm – sind höchstwahrscheinlich pharmakologisch wirkungslos. All das hindert Vanessa B. aber nicht, noch mal ein Kombiargument aus Anekdoten, Hörensagen und medizinischem Unverständnis rauszutun und noch mal deutlich zu machen, dass Erfahrung und Wissen in der Welt der Impfgegner im Grunde das gleiche sind:
Vanessa B. Viele haben Ihr Wissen leider durch Erfahrungen. Und wenn du dein Kind siehst wie es sich nach der Impfung quält danach immer wieder krank ist usw. ist das alles andere als schön. Ein Amt (habe den Artikel gerade nicht zur Hand) warnt schon vor Alufolie, Alu in Deos usw. Das Alu wird aber nur über Haut usw. aufgenommen. Wie schädlich wird es dann wohl sein wenn es ohne Rücksicht auf Verluste einem Körper gespritzt wird?
Und jemand anderes wirft etwas in den Raum, was wohl ein Sachargument sein soll:
Ci Ci Weil Fakt ist: Impfungen sind Gesundheitsschädlich. Ich kenne in meinem Umfeld mind. 3 Kinder mit impfschaden! Der eine mehr, der andere weniger. Ich habe bisher KEINEN einzigen Menschen mit folgeschäden von Kinderkrankheiten gesehen! Ist das denn Zufall?!??
Wieder ein Erfahrungsbericht als “Beleg” für etwas und zum ersten Mal das Wort “Impfschaden”, auf das ich später noch mal zurück kommen werde. Zunächst aber zu einem der kuriosesten Argumente der Impfgegner: Ci Ci hat also noch keine Menschen mit Folgenschäden von Kinderkrankheiten gesehen und das kann kein Zufall sein.
Ich muss mich zurückhalten, keinen übermässigen Gebrauch von der Shift-Taste zu machen und antworte:
Stephan S. Nein, Ci Ci, dass du noch keine Menschen mit Fol |
will be more single-parent households.
The birth rate among unwed mothers has recently gone down for the first time in decades. But the growing percentage of adults who are cool with people having children outside of marriage (58% of Americans, according to Gallup) indicates that single parenthood might not be as stigmatized as it traditionally has been.
The number of single-parent households has steadily tripled since the 1960s, but more lenient social mores aren't the only thing that have allowed rates of single parenthood to blossom. In-vitro fertilization and other reproductive technologies, which are only becoming more common, will allow more and more people to become parents — with or without a partner.
3) It'll be common to have more than two parents.
Wider acceptance of same-sex couples has helped shake up the American family in several crucial ways, including the ways we understand parenthood. IVF, surrogacy and adoption among same-sex parents. All have contributed to revolutionizing our idea of what a family should look like, and it's no longer unheard of for, say, a child to be raised by two moms and spend weekends with a father who donated sperm. (Hey, in California, kids can legally have up to four parents listed on their birth certificates.)
Pew estimates that fewer than half of American children currently live in "traditional" two-parent families. That can be attributed in part to the rise of single parenthood and same-sex parenting, but also in part to divorce. While it's actually a myth that the divorce rate is on the rise, divorce is still incredibly common, as is remarriage.
4) More kids will have working moms — as well as stay-at-home dads.
The number of women in the workforce has risen dramatically over the past several decades, but those workers aren't checking out once they have kids. Approximately 70% of mothers with children under age 18 make up a significant portion of the labor force, and that number has only increased.
So too has the number of men who stay home once they have kids. Stay-at-home dads have become much more common over the course of millennials' lives, with the number of fathers who serve as primary caretakers increasing by nearly a million from 1989 to 2012. That surge is likely to continue as it becomes increasingly acceptable for women and mothers to act as primary breadwinners while fathers look after the kids.
5) People won't have as many children.
The average American family size has included (approximately) two children for quite some time, but delayed parenthood and changing social norms are pushing the numbers down even further. Millennials are already having fewer kids than previous generations, and people are becoming more comfortable not having them at all. The prevalence of large families will only continue to drop, and by 2050, the percentage of American families with four kids or more is estimated to be close to zero.
6) Families will probably include robots.
For decades, people have speculated that robots will eventually take over the world and render humans obsolete. While those fears are likely unfounded, it's not unlikely artificial intelligence will have made significant headway by 2050. A recent Pew report predicted that robots and artificial intelligence will be included in "wide segments of daily life" by the year 2025, potentially serving as everything from sex partners to babysitters.
While it remains to be seen whether human-robot partnerships make for sustainable families, the machines seem to be doing alright on their own: Robots are already figuring out how to make clones of themselves, so who knows? Maybe by 2050, the American family won't even be human anymore.OSLO, Norway, April 6 (UPI) -- Statoil's huge oil find in the Barents Sea puts the arctic on the map in the hunt for fossil fuels.
The Norwegian state-owned company last week announced the most significant oil discovery off Norway in the past decade at its Skrugard prospect in the western Barents Sea.
Around 108 nautical miles off the Norwegian coast, the field may hold between 250 million barrels and 500 million barrels of recoverable oil, the company said in a statement.
Statoil, which said it hopes to produce oil from Skrugard in 5-10 years, has a 50 percent share in the license. The remainder is held by Italy's Eni (30 percent) and Norway's state-owned oil concession company Petoro (20 percent).
RELATED Pressure grows on arctic oil exploration
"The Skrugard find is significant and a breakthrough for frontier exploration in the Barents Sea," Tim Dodson, executive vice president for exploration at Statoil, said in a statement. "This opens a new oil province that can provide additional resource growth."
Statoil has drilled more than 60 wells in the Barents Sea, often with little success.
"The Barents Sea is large and we cannot say that we have cracked the code for the entire area yet," Dodson said. "But we have confirmed that our exploration model is correct. This is a breakthrough and an important step in understanding how the geology -- and thus the hydrocarbon systems in the Barents Sea -- works."
RELATED Repsol lands North Slope oil deal
The find is good news for Norway, which has seen oil output decline in recent years. It's also expected to increase the exploration activities in the arctic.
Climate change is causing arctic ice sheets to melt, with the oceans in the region possibly ice-free during the summer months. This is opening a new Atlantic-Pacific shipping channel and makes the vast natural resources lying under the seabed more accessible.
Drilling in the icy arctic waters isn't without controversy.
RELATED Putin says BP can help develop arctic oil
Russia and Norway have for the past four decades disagreed over boundaries in the Barents Sea, which is believed to hold vast amounts of oil, gas and precious metals.
Apart from the Russian-Norwegian conflict, the United States and Canada are rowing over a swath of the Beaufort Sea and over the Northwest Passage, which in 2007 for the first time in modern history was free of ice.
Meanwhile, environmental groups are worried that the arctic, one of the world's most pristine natural ecosystems, may be destroyed by reckless industrial activity. Experts say drilling in the arctic is too risky.
Production at Statoil's Snoehvit and Eni's Goliat prospect, two other fields in the Barents Sea, have been delayed because of the harsh conditions in the arctic.The chair of the TTC board and its CEO are heading to Thunder Bay Tuesday to impress upon Bombardier Toronto’s growing impatience with the late delivery of the city’s new $1.25-billion streetcars. But if the high-level meeting isn’t enough to get the cars moving, the TTC is also investigating other options.
The new TTC streetcars were shown off last summer at the Hillcrest yard, but more have been slow to arrive. ( Randy Risling / Toronto Star )
On Monday, the transit agency’s board ordered a report by July that would look at whether Bombardier could be shut out of future TTC bids. Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (open Denzil Minnan-Wong's policard), the deputy mayor and TTC board member who called for the report on potential consequences to Bombardier’s late delivery, said it’s one option if Bombardier doesn’t comply with a schedule. “Typically when we have a bad vendor or a bad contractor in construction we say, ‘You can’t bid. We’re not going to let you bid on future contracts for a certain amount of time.’ My understanding is we may have some future contracts with respect to rolling stock and my understanding is we could tell Bombardier, ‘We don’t want you to bid on these contracts,’ ” he said.
Article Continued Below
Toronto should have 50 of the low-floor, air-conditioned vehicles by now. But there are only six on the street nearly a year after the first car launched. A strike at the Thunder Bay plant, challenges with the design of the wheelchair ramp and a paint issue were originally blamed for the late deliveries. But it turned out that the initial vehicles were so poorly built they were unacceptable. Doors and walls were out of alignment and Bombardier tried to rivet the cars together. Laminate peeled. The draft revised schedule calls for Bombardier to start delivering one vehicle every five days starting at the end of July, said TTC CEO Andy Byford, who will meet with plant workers and corporate officials on Tuesday along with TTC chair Josh Colle (open Josh Colle's policard). Byford said that senior Bombardier officials are adamant they will be able to produce the cars but it will be August before they prove it. “It’s not just the quantity of vehicles, it’s got to be the quality. I’m certainly not going to accept a sudden influx of vehicles. They have to be the right quality,” he said.
Until now Colle and Byford have stressed they’re more interested in seeing streetcars than pursing legal action. Minnan-Wong admitted there could be costs associated with buying from another company.
Article Continued Below
“But if we’re not getting anything from Bombardier, then what are we paying for anyway?” he said. “Given how they’re not being totally co-operative or helpful, one might easily come to the conclusion they’re taking us for granted,” said Minnan-Wong. Mayor John Tory (open John Tory's policard) also said it’s time Bombardier addressed its customer’s concerns. “I certainly think if they want to do business with us going forward, notwithstanding they’re a proud Ontario and Canadian company, that they’re going to have to do better than this and I hope the meeting that happens this week emerges with some answers as to how we can get those vehicles as quickly as possible,” he told reporters on Monday. With files from David Rider
Read more about:Robby Ringnalda, the CEO of Denial Esports, has reportedly been in contact with another esports organization with the proposal of a merger so that he can properly pay his Counter Strike: Global Offensive team what they are owed.
Leaked screenshots of messages being exchanged between Ringnalda and an anonymous CS:GO team sent to Break the Game on Wednesday shows the Denial CEO's desperation for money going as far as to ask for his contact to share an investor. In a later message, Ringnalda proposed the idea for the two teams to “combine [their] efforts” after mentioning how he had lost control of his players due to the substantial amount of money he owed them.
At different points in the history of Denial, Ringnalda's organization once fielded teams in almost every esport title with players in titles such as League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Halo, Vainglory, Rocket League, Overwatch, and H1Z1. One should not be ashamed if they have not heard of this organization before as Denial was never able to break into the upper echelon of any esports scene despite their attempts at various titles. The rate of expansion with different teams was exciting as an esports fan, but also concerning as such a level of diversification is rarely even seen in established organizations such as OpTic, Cloud9, and TSM.
Denial Esports was thrown into the public eye last month after a Slingshot report revealed that the organization was in a state of disarray due to Ringnalda's inability to pay his players and staff who were on the verge of quitting. Ringnalda's approach to player payments was brought into question in 2015 following a statement made to Dot Esports in a report on the Denial Halo division on his tough stance regarding sponsorship activation and player compensation.
“Stop paying players if they stop promoting the brands that make the orgs tick,” stated Ringnalda. “If they have a problem then refer to the contract that was written that says they have to work with the org and promote the sponsors… Without sponsors this industry would be [one-tenth] of its size; they are very important. Every company contract should have a list of deliverables that a player has to follow. It is the org and the players job to make the sponsor happy.”
On Oct. 1, esports journalist Richard Lewis revealed that the organization's CS:GO players were forced to personally pay the rent and utilities of their gaming house which was put under their name instead of that of Ringnalda or Denial themselves.
In August, team H1Z1 had to give up one month's paycheck as Ringnalda was unable to allocate the funds to properly pay his players despite the team's winnings from the $300,000 Fight for the Crown tournament going directly to Denial. Lewis' report confirms the allegations by Pineaqples, a former Denial esports player, who announced the H1Z1 team's departure from the organization with $22,700 in salary and prize winnings still owed to the team.
"We have decided to leave Denial following a significant outstanding amount that is still due to my teammates and I," wrote Pineaqples. "As of posting this we are owed outstanding arrears totaling $22,700, including our Fight for the Crown winnings for the current and past members."
Denial has been tweeting since Sept. 2 that the organization has been working with their players to figure out the payment problems and promised that an official statement would be made once everything has been resolved. A public statement on this matter has still yet to be released, but one must bring into question Ringnalda's commitment to putting this nightmare to an end after it was revealed in a post on his personal Facebook page on Sept. 29, which has since been deleted, that the CEO was taking a vacation in Juno Beach, Florida.
Update: Three days after Lewis' report, Ringnalda released the following Twitlonger statement:I’m not a fan of allowing companies to track every purchasing decision I make, but I’ve sacrificed some of my expectations for privacy in return for convenience. I use my credit card for most purchases, and over the years, credit card issuers could have created a database with my transaction history and could theoretically use that information to predict my future spending habits. In order to receive discounts on groceries, I shop at the supermarket using a loyalty card. Although the card isn’t linked to my address or name, preventing the company from identifying me personally, I’m practically giving away valuable personal data.
Years after these grocery store loyalty card programs started appearing, the amount they allow me to save as a percentage of the non-sale prices have decreased. Stores easily use the programs to lure customers into a false sense of good deals. The best prices are still offered to customers who make the effort to find and clip coupons. If I were to adopt the time-consuming obsessive-compulsive disorder commonly known as extreme couponing, I might be able to save much more money — for the compromise of buying brands I don’t like or much more than I need.
A friend of mine recently shared a photograph on Facebook her first extreme couponing haul: a ton of detergents and shampoo for under twenty dollars, with a retail price of almost $100. I can’t criticize her on the deal, but what would I do with 10 bottles of an expensive brand of shampoo, and where would I store them for the next five years?
So rather than spending my time clipping coupons, trying to find deals on the products I typically buy or accepting brand substitutions, I rely almost completely on scanning my store loyalty card for delivering discounts. This doesn’t pay off as much as it did ten years ago, but I get over the disappointment without dwelling.
Price discrimination sounds bad, but it has always been around. When stores offer coupons through the mail directly to nearby residents or inside newspapers, those who use the coupons get better prices than those who don’t. Shoppers who are willing to give up a small part of their privacy through the use of loyalty programs receive better prices than a stranger walking into the store off the street. Mobile phone applications make it even easier for the store to disseminate better prices to a subset of their customer base.
There should be no surprise now that grocery stores and supermarkets are now testing and implementing individually-targeted sales. While shoppers have accepted price discrimination between the class of those with coupons and those without and between store members with loyalty cards and shoppers without, now there’s concern that stores are crossing the line. Two shoppers with loyalty cards, identical except for their past purchasing habits, might receive two different prices for the same product at the same time.
The purpose of this pricing scheme is to change a shopper’s behavior to be more profitable for the store. If one shopper primarily buys one brand of cleaning product, but the store profits more on a different brand, the store can encourage that one shopper to try the new brand by introducing a personalized coupon. This is great for profit because the store does not need to entice every loyal shopper with the same discount. That one shopper’s next door neighbor might already be a fan of the more profitable brand of cleaning product, so a discount would affect her shopping habit.
These decisions regarding discounts to increase profits have always been made on a geographical basis, but technology is much more sophisticated than it was twenty years ago, and customers like myself have gladly shared their full shopping histories, enabling store managers to mine through an enormous amount of data.
New, highly individualized coupons will continue and increase price discrimination, wherein those drawing the short end of the pricing stick are inevitably those without leverage — families with low household incomes.
Overall, this has been the pattern for at least as long as I’ve been aware of the costs of groceries. Walk into a market in a depressed neighborhood, where the average income is low, most dwellings are rented, and the demographics feature higher numbers of minorities, and prices for basic items are often higher than they are at a massive supermarket in a thriving, mostly-white suburban neighborhood. There are certainly legitimate reasons for price differences, but the result is that poorer families pay more for the same groceries.
Personalized coupons will change that divide. Rather than just a store-to-store or neighborhood-to-neighborhood difference in price, this discrimination can happen within the same store. Again, this is just a continuation of what is already taking place. In the past, those who subscribe to newspapers have been the families graced with the best coupons. Households with smaller incomes have never been represented well in newspapers’ base of subscribers.
Stores primarily selling groceries in bulk also aided price discrimination. Those who could afford the annual fee, could drive to a big warehouse in the suburbs, had two or more refrigerators to store perishable items, and could take advantage of a large house for storage of non-perishables, have been blessed by the benefits of lower prices. Those who need frequent shopping trips to avoid spoilage and because they have less money at any one particular time rather than infrequent shopping trips to buy in bulk suffer the consequences.
At first, loyalty card programs actually leveled the playing field, with everyone who was willing to sign up receiving the same discounts, but once again, price discrimination finds a way to benefit those with more money. As prices for some items will be based on an individual’s spending habits, those with more money to spend will receive the best deals.
Coupons are psychological, and that’s why they succeed so much. They are designed for the store’s benefit in profit, but they achieve this by making the customer feel good about the price they “scored.” Game theory takes hold of consumer behavior, especially with extreme couponing. Feeling good as a result of making a frugal shopping decision is important, whether the shopping trip resulted in actual savings is not as important. The idea that you are getting a better price than someone else is psychologically fulfilling, even if it’s not true. With individualized coupons, we’re allowing stores to use personal transaction data to make us feel good, in an attempt to subtly modify our spending behavior for the store’s profit, with or without actual long-term savings. Is this a trade-off you’re willing to accept?
This article originally appeared on www.http://www.consumerismcommentary.com
Individualized Coupons Aid Price DiscriminationAs the Trump administration looks to deal with democrats on immigration, DACA students at Loyola University are fighting against legislation that would harm friends and family.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) speaks at a news conference about President Donald Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program at the U.S. Capitol on September 6th, 2017, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images)
The day after the Trump administration said it would end a program that protects young undocumented immigrants from deportation, students at one Chicago-area medical school donned their white coats and held a rally to support their undocumented classmates. Their message? #HereToStay.
Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine has 32 undocumented students, the most of any medical program in the country—and nearly half of around 70 such students in medical schools nationwide in the United States. In addition to the routine stress of earning an M.D.—classwork, licensing exams, and applying for residencies—they are stressed about their futures in the country.
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website
Last month, President Donald Trump announced a six-month "wind down" of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program offering two-year renewable permits to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. It has allowed some 800,000 so-called "Dreamers" to get work permits, driver's licenses, loans, and other official documents; the nickname comes from the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act, a failed federal legislative proposal to legalize their status.
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website
ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website
Unless Congress acts to extend or replace the program by March 5th, DACA recipients' permits will expire at a rate of around 1,000 per day, leaving them without benefits and vulnerable to deportation.
Under the terms of the wind-down, those with permits set to expire in the next six months had until October 5th to renew them. After that, the government will no longer accept applications. In recent weeks, tens of thousands of affected DACA recipients rushed to renew, lining up at legal clinics to get help filling out the paperwork.
Loyola Stritch students Belsy Garcia Manrique and Cesar Montelongo, both Dreamers, have anxiously awaited news of DACA's fate since Trump took office. On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to end the program as part of his hard-line platform on illegal immigration. But his tone on DACA seemed to soften in the initial weeks of his presidency, even as he implemented strict immigration enforcement measures elsewhere.
Now that DACA is ending, though, the students are dealing with the uncertainty in very different ways. Manrique, 27, has found an escape through work at a hospital as part of her third-year clinical rotations.
"As a medical student, you have to focus on your studies," Manrique said. "But having this news literally everywhere [can] affect you in such a personal manner, it takes a toll on your studies and concentration."
Meanwhile, Montelongo, 28, has thrown himself into activism in hopes that Congress will pass legislation to replace DACA.
"One of the elements in our favor is all the outrage over DACA ending," said Montelongo, a joint M.D.-Ph.D. candidate. "They're getting rid of our only safety net for no reason. And that really resonates with the mainstream."
Last month, Montelongo traveled to Washington, D.C., to tell his story and ask a group of senators to pass the DREAM Act, which would give Dreamers permanent residency and a pathway to citizenship. He spoke up again when Illinois senator Dick Durbin, who introduced the bill, visited Loyola Stritch to advocate on the students' behalf.
"The timer is counting down,' he added. "And I feel like that is a good thing because it will force Congress to act."
Montelongo was born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a city long plagued by drug gangs and violence. At age 10, he and his family arrived in the U.S. legally on tourist visas, which they overstayed. Though his parents recently obtained family-sponsored green cards after a 10-year wait, by then Montelongo and his sister were too old to qualify as part of the family.
DACA, introduced through executive action by President Barack Obama in 2012, was the siblings' only option for legal status in the U.S. It allowed Montelongo to apply for medical school, his lifelong dream, and to obtain a Social Security number so he could receive loans and a stipend for his Ph.D.
"Growing up undocumented, you lack access to health-care options," Montelongo said. "My dad had diabetes, and he was often in pain. It was very treatable, but there was no one to diagnose it. He was very sick and he lost an eye from diabetes."
The experience, he explained, pushed him toward the medical profession. His research aims to use bioinformatics to predict and treat infections of the bladder.
Dreamers Against the DREAM Act
Whether he'll get a chance to finish his studies, let alone stay in the country he calls home, depends on a sharply divided Congress with a poor record of passing major bills.
Congressional Democrats are preparing to negotiate a deal with Trump to ensure the Dreamers won't face deportation. But some of the biggest opposition comes from the Dreamers themselves.
Many worry that the Democrats, desperate to pass a bill, will make compromises in the DREAM Act or other legislation that will lead to an increased threat of deportation for undocumented parents, friends, and relatives. Trump and many Republicans have demanded more immigration enforcement and a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Dreamers receive the most sympathy of all groups of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., with wide bipartisan support for them to stay in the country. Their parents, however, are often painted as lawbreakers because they illegally crossed borders or overstayed visas.
DACA recipients are wary of being used as bargaining chips. Montelongo said he can't support legislation that saves him but leaves others behind. He and other activists are pushing for a "clean" DREAM Act, one where, he said, "Dreamers get a path to citizenship but it leaves out negative additions that constitute other people getting arrested, detained, and deported."
Manrique echoed Montelongo's concerns. Her parents, undocumented immigrants from Guatemala who live in Georgia, have increasingly been preparing for the possibility of deportation. And each day, Manrique is more fearful that immigration agents will land on their doorstep and tear her family apart.
"The parents of Dreamers are the original Dreamers," Manrique said. "They get put in this bad position because they're not the'special' ones, and that is what worries me. They also have rights, and they need that pathway to citizenship. And at this point, no one is fighting for them."
Still, Montelongo said, given the time pressure, they may have to settle for whatever Congress is able to push through by March 5th.
"I feel conflicted being vocal about something like the DREAM Act if there's no more action for comprehensive immigration reform in the future," he said. "We don't want to set our goal as the ideal and not pass anything at all. So even if we compromise right now, we can't let go of what the ideal is."
DACA was never meant to be a long-term solution. Obama created the program by executive action in 2012 after Congress failed to pass an earlier version of the DREAM Act. DACA's genesis also explains why it was so easy for Trump to undo.
"We Are With You"
The large portion of DACA beneficiaries at Loyola Stritch means their future has become a call to action for the entire school. After the white-coat rally, students organized mass phone calls to lawmakers.
"It was a gut-punch," said bioethics professor Mark Kuczewski, who chairs Loyola Stritch's department of medical education, of Trump's announcement. "But these are the kinds of young people who have lived their entire lives not taking no for an answer. And within 24 hours, we had our entire community saying, 'We are with you.'"
The American Medical Association, for its part, has said the end of DACA would not only leave dozens of medical students in limbo, but would exacerbate the physician shortage in the U.S. The country lacks 8,200 primary care physicians, and the figure could grow to more than 61,700 by 2025, the AMA said.
"DACA students are also more likely to be bilingual, to come from diverse cultural backgrounds, and to understand challenges in certain ethnic communities," it wrote in a September 5th letter to Democratic leaders. "Without these physicians, the AMA is concerned that the quality of care provided in these communities will be negatively impacted and that patient access to care will suffer."
As for Manrique, her DACA status expires in August of 2018. By then, she'll have finished her third-year clinical rotations. But without a post-DACA solution, she won't be able to apply for her medical residency, the prerequisite to becoming a doctor.
"It's got to be baby steps," Manrique said. "I'm thinking, 'Let me finish this week, this rotation, this year.' It's one day at a time. And hopefully I can get my M.D. degree."
This article originally appeared on Refugees Deeply. You can find the original here. For more in-depth coverage of the global refugee crisis sign up for the e-mail newsletter.A woman who had faced arraignment in the deaths of two Boston pedestrians has been released without charges as prosecutors say they are doing more investigation.
Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney, said Tuesday that 26-year-old Ghuzlan Alghazali was released without charges and no complaint was issued against her. She had been scheduled for arraignment on charges including motor vehicle homicide and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
Twenty-eight-year-old John Lanzillotti and 27-year-old Jessica Campbell died Saturday night after police said they were struck by a car that had crashed with another vehicle.
Prosecutors said they are trying to determine who was driving and need to do "further canvassing and evidentiary analysis."
Alghazali's lawyer, John Seed, says his client is "grief stricken" over the loss of lives, but that there are "conflicting reports" about what happened.This weekend, I found myself deeply depressed after attending the Sundance premiere of Racing Extinction, Louis Psihoyos’ newest documentary about the human-made mass extinction that is currently threatening the planet — but not for the obvious reasons. A lot of the material is not news for the average follower of environmental affairs: An unprecedented spike in carbon dioxide, an acidifying ocean that’s slowly ending aquatic life as we know it, and rapidly disappearing species all over the globe. Sad, but pretty much par for the course. What really got me was, instead, found inside of a cardboard box a few hours after the film’s conclusion.
Racing Extinction starts out with Psihoyos explaining that “there’s more than just human perception.” That includes a whole spectrum of sounds and sights that you, the ostensibly normal person, have probably spent a cumulative 45 seconds of your entire life thinking about: whale sighs, bird songs, microscopic plankton. The idea is that the global ecosystem as we know it will collapse should any of these species go silent — as they are, at a rate between 1,000 and 10,000 times faster than that of the background extinction rate.
The thesis of Racing Extinction is that if we can bring the sights and sounds of the natural world to humans who would otherwise never think about them, they might be motivated to alter their habits enough to stave off disastrous degrees of climate change. And sometimes, this actually does seem to work. For example, we learn that fishermen off the Yucatán Peninsula have actually been able to make more money from taking tourists swimming with whale sharks — and getting to know them up close and personal (but not too personal) — than they have from hunting them.
But for those who can’t make it to the Gulf of Mexico themselves, Psihoyos suggests, there’s the option of a virtual experience. At the movie’s climactic moment, the filmmakers project the sounds and images of sea life across New York City skyscrapers as a stunt for the Oceanic Preservation Society — to “bring nature to the city.” It’s lovely, if a little overwrought: Cue shots of New Yorkers weeping quietly as they’re suddenly surrounded by massive projections of whales and turtles and crumbling mollusks, complete with stats on their imminent extinction.
The real heartache didn’t hit me until after leaving the theater. Within a couple hours of leaving the premiere — which concluded with the rare Sundance standing ovation — I wandered into one of the countless corporate-sponsored showcases that permeate the festival. In a very dim, red-lit room, I found dozens of Sundance attendees stumbled around staring upwards into cardboard boxes held over their eyes, not talking to anyone.
“Would you like to try Google Cardboard?” asked a very chipper product rep. It was cheaper (read: free) than the $9 Grey Goose cocktails being offered across the room, and appeared to be a better bet for escaping reality for a few moments.
Google Cardboard, for the happily unaware, is literally a piece of cardboard that you fold into a box, wrap around your smartphone, and use to block out the world around you as you enjoy the virtual reality program of your choice. It is the everyman’s Oculus Rift.
Holding what felt like a stereoscope designed by the USPS over my face, I found myself dropped into a Pacific Northwest mountain scene, complete with tranquil lake, snow-capped peaks, flocks of birds and, inexplicably, fits of swirling colored ribbons.
This went on for a few minutes before I started to feel profoundly sad, and more than a little dizzy. Are we really at a point where people would rather experience nature through a smartphone screen, I thought, which is where the sad majority of us spend our time anyway? Why can’t you just go to a damn lake?
Well, as my brother-in-law thoughtfully reminded me later, what if you can’t get to a damn lake? What if you, like more than half of the world, live in a city? What if you don’t have the time or the money or the means of transportation to spend time in nature?
It’s kind of the ultimate in tragic irony: The fate of the planet rests on the actions of a species that largely does not care about whether other plants or animals live or die, because we are so far removed from them in our day-to-day lives. This distance isn’t necessarily a bad thing in and of itself — the whole “swimming with whales” thing sounds great, but it’s really not feasible for the vast majority of the world and probably wouldn’t be that great for the whales, either. The best hope that they have for survival is for their images to be virtually dangled in front of our eyes: Hello! Here we are! Please don’t let us die!
I don’t disagree with Psihoyos’ evaluation that humans have a difficult time caring about other living things when they aren’t even aware of them, and I don’t think it’s a bad idea at all to try to increase that awareness through film or art or virtual reality. I just don’t know what’s the bleaker fact here: That the best access to nature for most humans might, eventually, have to come by way of yet another screen, or that — without those screens — there’s very little hope that humans will care about it at all.Government watchdog groups have filed a motion in federal court to compel the IRS to reveal how it determines when to initiate “church investigations” after accusing the tax-collecting agency of “stonewalling” efforts to bring to light its procedures.
The motion, filed jointly Friday by the Alliance Defending Freedom and Judicial Watch, came in response to a legal settlement struck in 2014 with an atheist organization, which said the IRS had “resolved the signature authority issue necessary to initiate church examinations.”
“The IRS also has adopted procedures for reviewing, evaluating and determining whether to initiate church investigations,” the Freedom From Religion Foundation said in a press release.
But nobody knows what those “procedures” are for conducting “church investigations,” the watchdog groups said.
“The IRS is not above the law, and Americans deserve to know the truth about the agency’s secret deals with activists,” ADF Legal Counsel Christina Holcomb said in a press release. “The IRS has a legal obligation to explain why it is hiding things or else produce documents. Its ongoing refusal to follow the law is absurd, particularly since much of [what] we are asking for is information that the IRS has already provided voluntarily to Freedom From Religion Foundation.”
The IRS began producing documents in July, months after the ADF and Judicial Watch had sued the agency for failing to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request. But even then the agency withheld more than 10,000 of the 16,000 requested documents, and thousands of the released documents were completely redacted, according to the ADF.
PHOTOS: Best states for concealed carry — ranked worst to first
“The Obama IRS first ignored the ADF FOIA request and is now stonewalling in federal court,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a press release. “The public has a right to know about any new IRS guidelines for investigating the practice of our basic First Amendment freedoms.”
The IRS could not be reached for comment by press time.
In its 2014 lawsuit the atheist group demanded that the IRS enforce the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits tax-exempt organizations from making political endorsements for elected office. It authorizes the IRS to regulate sermons and other speech to ensure churches comply with the provisions of their designations.
Legal scholars have speculated that the tax-exempt status of churches and other religious groups may be vulnerable in light of the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which struck down state laws banning same-sex marriage.
During oral arguments, Associate Justice Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. asked Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. whether religious entities that subscribe to the traditional view of marriage would be at risk of losing their tax-exempt status should the laws banning same-sex marriage be struck down.
“It’s certainly going to be an issue,” Mr. Verrilli said. “I don’t deny that.”
Given the IRS‘ alleged targeting of conservative and tea party groups, some members of Congress have expressed concern about the church investigation procedures.
A 2014 letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen signed by nine members of Congress asked the agency to provide a copy of the rules for investigating churches.
“Our country has a long history of religious leaders speaking freely on matters of public discourse,” the letter reads. “Whether it is Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. leading the charge against segregation, or preachers opposed to the Vietnam War, Americans expect their religious leaders to be able to speak freely to their flock without government oversight. The recent agreement by the IRS seems to impinge on these fundamental rights protected by the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion, speech, and assembly.
“We are deeply troubled by these allegations and would like your assurance that these claims are false.”
|
yl phosphates. A series of projects followed the detection of these phosphonic acids that attempted to connect possible pathways for their formation to origins of phosphorylated biomolecules (19–21). Although the detection of organic phosphonates in meteorites is intriguing, phosphonates make up only a small fraction (0.1%) of the total P in Murchison, and the bulk of the meteoritic material that falls to the Earth today has no phosphonates (6). Nonetheless, the detection of reduced P phases in meteorites encouraged researchers to search for other sources of P available to the early Earth.
Reduced P Geochemistry and Prebiotic Chemistry I suggest here that the geochemistry of P on the early Earth was significantly influenced by siderophile P from extraterrestrial material, namely schreibersite, (Fe,Ni) 3 P, which reacts with water to form reduced P compounds. Many reduced P compounds are significantly more soluble and reactive than orthophosphate, and therefore were superior prebiotic reagents on the early Earth. Extraterrestrial P minerals likely provided the reactive prebiotic P necessary for the origin of phosphorylated biomolecules and would have shaped the chemistry of P in the oceans of the early Earth. The development of life as we know it was contingent on an available early source of P, and reduced P compounds were an excellent source of P. The metabolic pathways in life are also indicative of the geochemistry of P on the early Earth, an argument similar to that used by biogeochemists in describing the metallome (22). Schreibersite is a ubiquitous meteoritic mineral and is especially abundant in iron meteorites, but is also present in interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) (6) and other meteorite types. With growing evidence for a late heavy bombardment period on the early Earth (23, 24) at 3.8–3.9 Ga, extraterrestrial P would have been a significant component of the total P on the Earth's surface. Impacts probably delivered between 1015 and 1018 kg of reduced P during this period. Furthermore, for high-velocity impacts of objects >100 m in diameter, the projectile partially evaporates and is distributed over the adjacent region as fine-grained particles (25). For the largest impacts of the late heavy bombardment, the whole Earth would have been covered by small particles of mafic and metallic particles, the chemistry of which would have been reduced relative to the surface of the Earth (26). In addition to the dispersal of siderophilic P from the impactor during impact, the vapor plume of material that results from a large impact is chemically reducing and could have reduced phosphates in the target material or in the impactor to phosphides. † As evidence for this claim, a majority of the P in Lunar impact melts is in schreibersite (27), indicating both that a substantial fraction of the P delivered during impacts was reduced and that the impact process could reduce phosphate to phosphides (28). Additionally, iron end-member schreibersite may have formed recently during an impact in Puglia, Italy. ‡ Hence, large impacts chemically reduced lithophile P and dispersed fine-grained siderophile P globally to oceans and lakes, providing abundant reduced P to the Earth. Gulick (29) was the first to suggest that the reduced P compounds hypophosphite and phosphite may have been more relevant to the origin of life than orthophosphate, basing his argument on the difference in solubility between these compounds and orthophosphate. However, his argument was dismissed at the time by leaders in the field (30), because he provided no pathways for the reduction of orthophosphate to form these compounds. Later developments suggested that orthophosphate could be reduced through volcanism (31), or through electric discharge in phosphate dust (32), but these pathways only provide local enrichments of reduced P. Conversely, the late heavy bombardment provided an abundant, global source of reduced P compounds to surface of the early Earth. Schreibersite oxidizes in water to completion on relatively short geologic timescales (1–104 years), especially if distributed as fine-grained particles, and forms several P species in aqueous solution (33, 34). These species are mixed oxidation states, and include phosphite (HPO 3 2−), with P3+; orthophosphate (HPO 4 2−), with P5+; hypophosphate (HP 2 O 6 3−), with P4+; and pyrophosphate (HP 2 O 7 3−), with P5+. Under UV, hypophosphite (H 2 PO 2 −), with P1+, forms, and under acidic conditions, phosphine (PH 3 ), with P3−, is produced. Under oxidizing conditions with H 2 O 2, the peroxyphosphates HPO 5 2−, with P7+, and HP 2 O 8 3−, with P6+, form. Thus, at room temperature and with simple aqueous reagents, schreibersite can form P compounds with a multitude of oxidation states. The primary product of schreibersite oxidation by water is phosphite, HPO 3 2−, with >50% of the total aqueous P in this form (33, 34). A majority of these P compounds likely originate through free-radical combination reactions (35). These corrosion products would have been available shortly after impact and the steady-state oceanic concentration would have been between 10−5 and 10−2 moles of reduced P compounds per liter of ocean water. In addition to inorganic P compounds from schreibersite, organic compounds react with some of the schreibersite oxidation products to form organic P compounds at concentrations proportionate to the concentration of organics in solution. Acetate reacts with schreibersite to form C–P compounds like acetylphosphonate and hydroxymethylphosphonate, and potentially some C–O–P compounds including phosphoglycolate. The most likely reaction pathway is through a phosphite radical (•PO 3 2−) reacting with an organic radical, as evidenced although electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and other data (35). Phosphite (HPO 3 2−) is more soluble than orthophosphate by a factor of ≈1,000 times over similar pH and temperatures. Thus, in a hypothetical early Earth ocean in which P chemistry consisted of both orthophosphate and phosphite, the concentration of phosphite would determine the bulk of dissolved P in the ocean. Phosphite is also much more reactive than orthophosphate, capable of forming condensed phosphates, organic C–P compounds, and even C–O–P compounds (35). Despite its increased reactivity over orthophosphate, phosphite is stable in the absence of strong oxidizing agents and could have persisted on the early Earth in excess of a billion years. Phosphite can participate in a large set of reactions because of its relative thermodynamic instability. The interactions of phosphite with organic compounds are much more varied than orthophosphate reactions, and these reactions are used extensively in organophosphorus chemistry. As an example, phosphite readily reacts with aldehydes by the phospho-aldol reaction to form phosphonates (36), and although these conditions should not be considered prebiotic, they point to the reactive possibilities of reduced P. After the discovery of phosphonic acids in Murchison, a series of solutions of phosphite and simple organics (formaldehyde, acetone, and primary alcohols) were exposed to UV light, forming simple phosphonic acids (19, 21, 37). One of these phosphonic acids, phosphonoacetaldehyde, rapidly forms dimers in a process analogous to complex sugar synthesis (38). Several model pathways postulate putative RNA-like structures based on C–P linkages (20), although the chemical stability and formation pathways of these molecules has been called to question (39). A potentially fruitful area for future prebiotic P studies is the prebiotic synthesis of phosphonates like 2-aminoethylphosphonate because of the ubiquity of C–P compounds in biology (see “Biotic Evidence” below), and may highlight a specific role for reduced P in catalysts, or cell membranes and walls. In addition to organic-phosphite compounds, phosphite forms pyrophosphate and triphosphate in solution with H 2 O 2 and Fe2+/Fe3+ in significant yields (5–30% and ≈0.5%, respectively; see Fig. 3) at room temperature. The reaction pathway leading to pyrophosphate from phosphite probably involves a series of radical reactions: Reactions 1 – 3 are all well characterized, and the source of the •OH radicals is the reaction of H 2 O 2 with Fe2+ and Fe3+ and is known as the Fenton reactor (40). Triphosphate is likely formed by a radical reaction between •P 2 O 7 3− and •PO 3 2−. This reaction series is one of the most facile ways of producing pyrophosphate and triphosphate from simple starting components yet described and does not rely on elevated temperatures or energetic condensing agents. Additionally, it does not invoke a dehydration step and occurs rapidly in aqueous solution. The production of condensed phosphates from phosphite would most likely occur in a region with a high production of oxidants, either in a shallow pond or near a tidal zone rich in radioactive material (i.e., a heavy mineral deposit; see ref. 41). In this respect, the oxidation of reduced P could have formed abundant condensed phosphates available for reaction and concentration all across the Earth's surface. Fig. 3. NMR spectrum of Fe2+, H 2 O 2, and HPO 3 2− in solution after 1 day. From left to right, the peaks are orthophosphate (6.5 ppm), phosphite (4 ppm), pyrophosphate (−4 ppm), and triphosphate (small peak at −17.5 ppm). Phosphite is thermodynamically unstable but kinetically stable on the surface of the Earth. Solutions of phosphite show essentially no change over the course of years even when stored under air (42). The rate-limiting step in the oxidation of phosphite is the breaking of the P–H bond, which has a large activation energy (≈370 kJ). The P–H bond is easily broken through a radical exchange reaction such as the reaction of phosphite with an •OH radical to form H 2 O and •PO 3 2−. Thus, the longevity of phosphite in solution is directly proportional to the amount of oxidizing radicals in solution. Phosphite is stabilized by mildly reducing conditions that remove oxidants from solution. For instance, under a reducing atmosphere (P H2 = 0.1 bar), the expected half-life of phosphite in the ocean by UV photolysis is between 108 and 1010 years (Fig. 4). Fig. 4. Oxidative half-life for 1 mM solution of phosphite (HPO 3 2−) vs. atmospheric H 2 content. The top profile is based on the estimate of UV flux under a CO 2 -rich atmosphere, whereas the bottom profile assumes no CO 2 (70).
Biotic Evidence The set of biochemical reactions that occurs in life today varies significantly from simple orthophosphate and organophosphate esters. Several organisms incorporate reduced P into their metabolic reactions, either as phosphonates or as inorganic reduced P compounds. These biochemical pathways strongly suggest the presence of an ancient P redox cycle in life. Phosphonates are compounds with a C–P bond formed through a highly energetic process (43). Phosphonates are a ubiquitous but curious biochemical oddity and are found in many organisms, from bacteria to sea anemones to snail eggs to bovine brain tissue (ref. 44 and references therein). Lipid material and cell membranes are the major reservoir of phosphonates, but they also occur in proteins (45) and polysaccharides (46), but little is known about why they are produced (47, 48). The P–C bond of phosphonates is not susceptible to hydrolysis, thermal decomposition (49), or decomposition by UV light (50), unlike the P–O–C bond of organophosphates; hence, phosphonates are more stable than organophosphates. An estimated 25% of all marine dissolved organic P compounds are phosphonates (51, 52), and 5% of organic soil P compounds are phosphonates (53). Many modern microorganisms use phosphonates as a P source when phosphate abundances are low, but most organisms will preferentially remove phosphates relative to phosphonates. As a result, phosphonates are concentrated in most environments (54). The biosynthetic pathway for the production of phosphonates is a rearrangement of phosphoenolpyruvate to phosphonopyruvate, with subsequent chemical modification of phosphonopyruvate to form aminoethylphosphonate or phosphonoacetate or hydroxymethylphosphonic acid (44). The biodegradation of phosphonates in Escherichia coli proceeds through an inorganic phosphite intermediate and implies a genetic P redox cycle (55). Approximately 1% of bacterial species (56) are capable of using reduced P compounds like phosphite and hypophosphite as sole P sources. Hypophosphite is oxidized by bacteria to phosphite, which is then incorporated into phosphonopyruvate by the pathways discussed above (57). One species of bacteria, Desulfotignum phosphitoxidans, uses phosphite/phosphate as its electron donor and receiver, respectively (58). Additionally, phosphine gas (PH 3 ) is detectable globally in the atmosphere and has been attributed to anaerobic metabolisms (59, 60). These biochemical pathways are highly unusual given the dominance of orthophosphate in terrestrial geology and may be artifacts of ancient metabolic pathways (21). A plausible explanation for these biochemical pathways is that the geochemistry of P at the time these organisms evolved included reduced P compounds, and that the ability to incorporate reduced P through metabolic reactions was thus evolutionarily preferred. These organisms have retained the ability to use reduced P compounds because high-energy events can reduce orthophosphate to phosphite, as shown by the Eh-pH chemistry of free P radicals (Fig. 5). High-energy events like radioactive decay or photolysis could cause orthophosphate to spontaneously cleave to form a phosphite radical, followed by reduction to phosphite. Thus, the persistence of this genetic information may allow for the exploitation of a minor, but fruitful niche. Additionally, the ability to biosynthesize phosphonates and reduced P compounds would enable an organism to store P in forms unusable by many organisms, ensuring a constant source of P. Fig. 5. Eh-pH diagram for radical aqueous P species, 10−6 M, with dashed lines representing the present-day atmosphere (Upper) and lower limit on water stability (Lower).
Potential Geologic Evidence There are no known terrestrial reduced P minerals. However, reduced P minerals may be stable enough for detection in ancient rocks, based on the Murchison phosphonates. The organic C–P compounds in the Murchison meteorite were presumably synthesized early in the history of this meteorite, and remained subsequently unaltered for >4 Ga. Although the geologic history of the Murchison parent body was likely much less complex than the geologic history of the Earth, the stability of these compounds may point to the ability to detect reduced P compounds in ancient rocks on the Earth today, if conditions were amenable to preventing their oxidation. Calcium phosphite (CaHPO 3 ) is stable under air even when heated at 95°C for 2 months. Assuming an activation energy for the oxidation of CaHPO 3 of ≈100 kJ per mole, calcium phosphite should remain essentially unchanged in excess of 105 years. It is unknown what would happen to CaHPO 3 under metamorphic conditions, but I provide two possible means of detecting reduced P compounds in ancient rocks. The detection of small quantities of reduced P oxides (e.g., phosphite and hypophosphate) or reduced C–P compounds in ancient (>2.5 Ga) sedimentary or metasedimentary rocks would provide strong evidence for reduced P in early Earth geochemistry. Phosphates are well known in Archean rocks (61), and revisiting the mineralogy of these rocks coupled with a hunt for reduced P compounds may prove fruitful. Alternatively, if reduced P phases are oxidized over geologic timescales during metamorphism, it may still be possible to track the presence of reduced P by using stable O isotope techniques. The formation of P compounds from extraterrestrial material forms PO 3 groups from O from water. Subsequent oxidation of PO 3 groups to PO 4 could involve O from another isotopic source. The detection of two isotopically distinct phosphate phases in a single metasedimentary layer could indicate the presence of reduced P oxidized during metamorphism. However, the detection of any isotopic anomaly would be difficult because of isotope equilibration, and also because of contamination from biogenic sources (e.g., 62). Conversely, reduced P may present a caveat for Archean phosphate isotopic studies as indicators of biotic activity.
Conclusion The geochemistry of P on the early Earth is proposed to have included reduced P compounds in addition to phosphates. These compounds originated from the oxidation of schreibersite in extraterrestrial material after the late heavy bombardment period ≈3.8 Ga. The oxidation of schreibersite in water forms several potentially prebiotic P species including phosphite, pyrophosphate and triphosphate, and phosphonates. Phosphite is specifically relevant to early Earth geochemistry because it is considerably more soluble than orthophosphate, it forms organic C–P compounds and pyrophosphate, and it is used as a P source by several bacteria. The ability of microorganisms to use inorganic reduced P and to metabolize C–P compounds could be a genetic artifact of an ancient reduced P geochemistry. Reduced P compounds may still be directly detected in Archean sedimentary or metasedimentary deposits, or indirectly detected as an isotopic signature of phosphates.
Materials and Methods Experimental. One gram of NaH 2 PO 3 was added to 25 ml of a solution of H 2 O 2 (0.9 M, from a 30% H 2 O 2 stock from VWR International), bicarbonate (0.5 M as NaHCO 3 ), and Fe2+ (1.4 M, as FeCl 2 powder) to determine the oxidation of phosphite in a Fenton-style reactor. After one week the solution was filtered, neutralized with NaOH, and analyzed by NMR after the addition of an aliquot of D 2 O. Approximately 95% of the phosphite had been oxidized to orthophosphate and condensed P species. Ca(H 2 PO 3 ) 2 and CaHPO 3 were synthesized from a reaction of CaCO 3 (99%, VWR International) with H 3 PO 3 (97%, VWR International) in solution. The reaction was allowed to proceed to completion and dried down. A small portion of each gray-white powder was collected and dissolved in a 0.05 M solution of Na 4 EDTA. An aliquot of the solution was mixed with an equal volume of D 2 O and analyzed by 31P NMR. The powders were then placed in round-bottom flasks, submerged in a hot-oil bath (95°C), and exposed to air. Samples of the powders were dissolved in the EDTA solution and analyzed every few days by NMR. Each solution was analyzed by using 31P NMR on a Varian 300 four-nucleus probe Fourier transform-NMR (FT-NMR spectrometer at 121.43 MHz and 24.5°C for 256–35,000 scans after prior work (33, 35). Spectra were acquired in both 1H-decoupled and coupled modes. Modeling. The flux of reduced P on the early Earth was calculated from the total mass delivered to the Moon during this period [estimated at 5 × 1018 to 5 × 1020 kg (63)], multiplied by a factor of ≈10 to account for differences in between lunar fall rates and terrestrial fall rates. A majority of this material originated from the asteroid belt or was differentiated (23, 64). If this material was differentiated, then there were two early sources of P from extraterrestrial material: lithophile P and siderophile P. The abundance of P in the meteorites as lithophile P is ≈80 ppm, and as siderophile P was ≈3,000 ppm. Thus, the majority (95%) of P that fell to the Earth was siderophile P, as schreibersite and similar phosphides. Corrosion of iron meteorites occurs rapidly in seawater (34), and experiments suggest corrosion rates on the order of 0.1–10% of Fe 3 P corroding per day for powdered schreibersite (33, 35). The concentration of these compounds in the early ocean is determined by dividing the total flux of extraterrestrial reduced P by the mass of the present-day ocean, and assumes complete, rapid corrosion of schreibersite with little oxidative loss, as discussed below. The thermodynamically stable compounds in the Solar System were determined by using methods described in ref. 65, with Solar System abundances and a total pressure of 10−4 bar. The Eh-pH diagrams were constructed from data in HSC chemistry version 5.1 (Outokumpu Research Oy), with the following aqueous species added: H 3 PO 5, H 2 PO 5 −, HPO 5 2−, PO 5 3−, H 4 P 2 O 6, H 3 P 2 O 6 −, H 2 P 2 O 6 2−, HP 2 O 6 3−, P 2 O 6 4− (ref. 42 and references therein) and for aqueous radical species •HPO 3 −, •PO 3 2−, •HPO 2 − (66), •H 2 PO 4, •HPO 4 −, •PO 4 2− (67, 68), and •H 2 PO 5, •HPO 5 −, and •PO 5 2− (69). The stability of phosphite under H 2 was determined by considering the set of reactions described on Table 1. The rate constants for reactions 10 and 11 were calculated by taking the ratio of the reaction equilibrium log 10 K values for these two reactions and dividing by reaction equilibrium log 10 K values for the reactions 12–14 and then multiplying by the rate constants for these three reactions and averaging to get the values on Table 1. Although these four reactions do not detail all of the possible reactions of HPO 3 2−, because reactions with other solutes could play a role in ocean water, the reactions with •OH were likely the major oxidation pathway for HPO 3 2−. Reactions with other solutes should occur at a lower rate, as oxidation by •OH radicals is a very efficient reaction. Table 1. Kinetic and thermodynamic data for reactions considered. The ratio of •OH to H• is influenced primarily by equilibrium reaction 6 with the concentration of H 2 (aq) determined from reaction 7. The photolysis of H 2 O requires UV light (<240 nm), and it is estimated that the amount of water photolyzed reaches a steady-state concentration of ≈10−11–10−12 M for the top centimeters of water averaged globally over the day-night cycle (70). At these concentrations the rate of production of •OH and H• is balanced by the loss through combination reactions producing H 2 O, H 2, and H 2 O 2. The ratio of •OH to H• is determined for specific concentrations of atmospheric H 2 (71), and these values are then used to estimate the longevity of HPO 3 2− in the water column. The set of reactions described on Table 1 is solved for specific time increments, and either the time it takes for 50% of the HPO 3 2− to oxidize to HPO 4 2− or the value dHPO 4 2−/dt is determined at steady state, from which the half-life of HPO 3 2− is estimated in seconds. This value is then multiplied by the time it takes for water to diffuse over the average depth of the ocean (4 km), or where D is the eddy diffusion coefficient for water (72). This transforms the value for the oxidative half-life of HPO 3 2− for a 1-ml volume of water to the oxidative half-life for the whole ocean. Although crude, this method provides a first-order estimate of the time it would take to oxidize reduced P relative to atmospheric composition. This estimate is an underestimate of oxidative half-life compared with experimental results (73), and the actual half-lives are likely a factor of 10–100 times longer, when the inefficiency of UV light in the breakup of water and interactions with other solutes are considered.
Acknowledgments I thank H. J. Melosh for help with revisions and background and D. S. Lauretta and V. D. Pasek for helpful discussions. This work was supported by a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Astrobiology Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship and by NASA Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology Grant NNX07AU08G.
Footnotes *To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mpasek{at}lpl.arizona.edu
Author contributions: M.A.P. designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.
© 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USAMore than $90 million has been spent to turn part of the old Bloomingdale Rail Line into a park that is more than 2.5 miles.On Thursday, ABC7's colleague Colin Hinkle flew a small drone equipped with an HD camera over the new trail that is about to open in Chicago.The Bloomingdale Trail will run from North Ashland to North Ridgeway, right through the heart of four Chicago neighborhoods on the city's Northwest Side.All along this trail where people will run, ride and walk, there were once dozens and dozens of businesses, manufacturers growing in a city that was growing like mad 100 years ago."We think of steel mills and stockyards, but this was everything else," said Jim Peters, a historian.Lincoln Logs were once made here, and Schwinn made excelsior motorcycles. In some of the buildings - which are now condos - fancy furniture was made. So were musical instruments, like Ludwig drums."Ringo played a Ludwig drum manufactured along the trail, and Harmony Guitar. I think George Harrisons first guitar was a Harmony guitar, and you're right, Lincoln logs and candies. Beer. Al Capone's beermaker was along the trail. He didn't make it here on the trail, but this is where he originated, so just an amazing set of stories. And what I think is great is a lot of those buildings are still here," Peters said."For a hundred years this railroad line really served the city as it grew, and now what we're doing in repurposing it, is serving these neighborhoods in a completely different way," said Beth White, Trust for Public Land.The Bloomingdale Trail will open on June 6.A street in downtown Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, filled with rainwater mixed with blood and other urban detritus. (Faysal Amin/ Facebook via Storyful)
What happens when millions of people in a city with poor infrastructure ceremonially sacrifice animals before a torrential monsoon downpour?
Rivers of blood flow through the city.
On Tuesday, Bangladeshis celebrated Eid al-Adha — known in South Asia as "bakri eid" or "goat eid" for the animals most commonly sacrificed as an offering to God, commemorating Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his own son. It is one of the holiest days on the Islamic calendar.
It is customary to divide the meat of the sacrificial animals equally between family, friends and the poor.
[Muslims in Pakistan and across the world prepare to celebrate Eid al-Adha]
Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, is one of the most crowded cities in the world. To avoid the chaos of so many people performing the ritual sacrifice wherever they pleased, the city's municipal corporations set aside 1,000 designated sites. They are also supposed to ensure that drainage systems along the city's roads are clear.
Reports in local media indicate that neither of those precautions were taken too seriously.
So after seasonal rains swept in, Dhaka's residents were accosted with the surreal sight of blood mixed with rain and the detritus of the city rising on its streets.
The infrastructure in the capital city of Bangladesh was no match for a torrential monsoon downpour plus millions of people celebrating Eid al-Adha with ritual animal sacrifices. (YouTube/Jaodat Rahman)
In a city used to waterlogged commutes, residents proceeded to go about their business. But for them, and for the rest of the world, the images of blood in the streets will remain unforgettable.
Read More:
Nigeria’s tanking currency has left its airline industry on the brink of collapse
Kuwait plans to create a huge DNA database of residents and visitors. Scientists are appalled.
In the Philippines, Jim Turner’s heartbroken ‘hobbits’ mourn the loss of their patronOn May 26, 1828, the citizens of Nürnberg (Nuremburg), Germany, received quite a surprise when they found a teenage boy wandering around town, alone and mumbling nonsense. At first, he wouldn’t say much—only that his father was once a cavalry officer, and he wished to be as well.
During a visit to the local police station, the boy wrote his name—Kaspar Hauser—and, over time, was able to explain a little bit about where he came from. He had been held alone in a cell for an unknown amount of time by an unknown person. The captor provided Hauser with bread, water, a wool blanket, and toys: two wooden horses and a dog. Local schoolmaster Georg Daumer took Hauser in and worked with him on various subjects, such as reading, writing, and drawing—the latter of which Hauser showed a natural talent for.
The boy had been in town for a year and a half when his story managed to get even stranger: He was supposedly attacked in Daumer’s home. He claimed the man who had once held him captive returned and slashed him with a razor, saying, “You still have to die ere you leave the city of Nuremburg.” Several months later, Hauser was shot by a pistol that he accidentally discharged. Both incidents happened to come after he had been accused of lying, leading some to believe that he was harming himself on purpose to generate sympathy.
The final incident occurred on December 14, 1833, when Kaspar returned home with a serious chest wound. He said that a stranger had given him a bag, stabbed him in the chest, and fled. The bag contained a note written in mirror writing:
Wikimedia Commons // Onkel X // Public Domain
Translation:
Hauser will be
able to tell you quite precisely how
I look and from where I am.
To save Hauser the effort,
I want to tell you myself from where
I come. _ _.
I come from from _ _ _
the Bavarian border _ _
On the river _ _ _ _ _
I will even
tell you the name: M. L. Ö.)
Hauser died from the stab wound three days later. As with the earlier wounds, people believed the wound may have been self-inflicted, and that Hauser had punctured deeper than he had intended. He may have also written the strange note himself—it was folded in a peculiar triangular shape Hauser was known to use, and the writing itself contained spelling and grammatical errors he commonly made in his own writing.
To this day, Kaspar Hauser’s origins remain a total mystery, though one theory has been debunked: Some speculated that Hauser was the lost hereditary prince of Baden. The real prince, son of Charles, Grand Duke of Baden and Stephanie de Beauharnais, supposedly died in 1812 when he was not quite three weeks old. The theory was that the Countess of Hochberg had the boy hidden away so her own sons could ascend to the throne instead. In 1996, a Hauser blood sample was compared to samples from Baden family descendants. The samples did not match, disproving the “lost prince” theory.
The epitaph on Kaspar’s tombstone in Ansbach, Germany, pretty much sums up his strange, short life: “Here lies Kaspar Hauser, enigma of his time … mysterious his death.”For a politically astute businessman looking to get into the nuclear power industry, a series of contributions to influential legislators could cut some of the inevitable red tape, but a million-dollar gift to Donald Trump’s inauguration might help seal the deal.
As he awaits regulatory approval for a new nuclear power project, Chattanooga, Tennessee, developer Franklin Haney is flexing some serious political muscle by donating $1 million to Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration committee in December through a company he owns.
With nearly $107 million in contributions, the committee almost doubled the previous fundraising record, set by Barack Obama’s inaugural committee in 2009. Trump’s inauguration, like many before it, was financed by a host of corporations with business before the federal government.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer rejected suggestions that inaugural donors might receive favorable treatment from the administration.
“I think funding the Inaugural Committee has pretty much been a nonpartisan activity that is going back every administration,” Spicer told reporters on Wednesday.
Haney’s donation came by way of HFNWA LLC, an Arkansas company that he has used to make just one other federal political contribution: a $1 million donation in 2014 to Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic super PAC.
Haney personally made two other million-dollar contributions during the previous cycle, to Democratic super PACs Priorities USA Action and Majority PAC. He has given more than $2.3 million to Democratic candidates and party organs, according to Federal Election Commission records.
In light of that record, his contribution to the inauguration stuck out. He did not donate to Trump during the presidential campaign, setting him apart from other major inaugural donors such as casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and Chicago Cubs co-owner Marlene Ricketts.
His ongoing private financial activities could be a clue. Haney chipped in for the inauguration only after embarking on a business venture that would require favorable treatment from Trump administration regulators.
Haney’s company did not respond to multiple messages left with its Washington and Chattanooga offices.
A week after the 2016 election, Haney won the right to buy the defunct Bellefonte nuclear power plant in Hollywood, Alabama, from the Tennessee Valley Authority. He paid $22 million up-front and will put up another $89 million upon closing.
His donation to Trump’s inauguration came about a month later, on December 23.
After winning the rights to buy the plant, Haney announced that he and his partners in the project, operating under a Delaware company called Nuclear Development LLC, plan to invest up to $13 billion to get Bellefonte up and running and selling power once again.
But first the project needs sign-off from the TVA. The federally owned utility is currently seeking public comments on aspects of the sale including its likely environmental impact. Bellefonte will also need to renew permits with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
“There will definitely be bureaucracy” at NRC that the company will have to navigate, according to Jessica Lovering, an energy policy expert at the Breakthrough Institute, a nonprofit generally supportive of nuclear energy.
Haney’s company has already received some key support from prominent public figures as he attempts to cut through the red tape that dogs most nuclear power projects. Many of those officials are Republicans, and they happen to be the only Republicans that he has supported financially in recent years.
When Haney’s company purchased the Bellefonte plant, he issued a statement thanking “the entire Alabama and Tennessee congressional delegations—especially Senators Richard Shelby, Jeff Sessions, Lamar Alexander, and Bob Corker, as well as Alabama Governor Robert Bentley—for their continued support of nuclear development throughout this process.”
Since 2012, when Haney incorporated Nuclear Development LLC in Delaware, he has contributed to just three Republican candidates for federal office: Shelby, Alexander, and Corker. He gave them and their leadership PACs $30,000 through the 2016 cycle, and donated another $10,000 to the Tennessee GOP.
One of those contributions, a $5,000 gift to Corker’s leadership PAC on September 20, 2013, came just a week after Corker held a public hearing to nudge TVA towards selling the Bellefonte plant, a move Haney had been pressing for months.
He was also giving heavily to Gov. Bentley. Haney donated about $300,000 to his campaigns through 2016. When TVA solicited public comments on the potential sale of the Bellefonte plant early last year, Bentley lined up to support it, along with Sen. Shelby, another recipient of Haney’s financial largesse.
His donation to the Trump inauguration came as Haney shifted his focus from acquisition to profit. Now that he has a lock on the Bellefonte plant, Haney is looking to expand and exploit federal incentives for nuclear power production.
Two weeks after TVA approved the Bellefonte sale, Nuclear Development LLC hired a pair of high-powered Washington lobbyists: former Clinton White House officials Harold Ickes and Janice Enright. They brought on lobbyists with another firm, Peck Madigan Jones, including the former chief of staff to Sen. Tom Carper, the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee.
Nuclear Development paid the two firms a combined $60,000 through the end of last year to lobby Congress and the Treasury Department on tax incentives for nuclear energy production. One of those tax credits is worth an estimated $6 billion to the nuclear power industry.
With the administration and congressional Republicans eyeing a push for comprehensive tax reform, Nuclear Development’s lobbyists will have a chance to earn their keep as the nuclear industry tries to preserve its federal tax incentives.
For Haney, being in the president’s good graces can only |
the 400-rupee ($7.47) installment plan payments.
And many are transitory, like the migrant construction laborers Arun visited, nervous of investing on land they could be booted from.
When the Pollinate Energy founders arrived from Sydney, they expected urban communities to prep them for rural markets, where far more people lack power. By some accounts, Bangalore was the second Asian city, after Tokyo, to be electrified. According to estimates, only 20,000 slum dwellers here lack electricity.
That figure “is clearly wrong,” says co-founder Jamie Chivers. Of the 100 city slums they work in, only “one or two” are on the grid. A survey of their work area found 3,400 families without power in a six-mile radius. And their urban market is a booming one.
Last week, India’s Ministry of Housing released a “Slum Census” of 2011, the most comprehensive government estimation since 2000. One in six urban Indians, about 64 million people, live in slums — cramped quarters of 20 households or more in “unhygienic conditions.” (The fraction, below earlier projections of 27.5 percent, prompted the housing secretary to issue the bizarre verdict that the data “comes as a pleasant surprise.”)
The report predicted the total Indian slum population would topple 104 million by 2017. Many will clamor to get onto the grid, one India clearly cannot stretch beyond its existing users. The colossal blackout this past summer was followed by persistent shortages in several states.
Slowly, the government has begun pushing alternatives. In the winter, three states unveiled sizable solar installation plans. Rooftop solar, whose unit cost in India has dipped below diesel and natural gas, can grow quickly, from 1,000 megawatts to 12,500 in four years, according to a recent report from the consultancy KPMG.
Experiments are cropping up across the country. In Ahmedabad, a company recently started offering water “ATMs”: stands that dispense drinking water treated with solar power.
Simpa Networks, another Bangalore startup, is trying to replicate the success of India’s mobile revolution. Co-founder Michael MacHarg recalls their first question: “Why has that grown so rapidly?” The answer is the payment model, which allows phone owners to pay as they go, in manageable increments. Since 2011, Simpa has sold over 100 solar PV units to households across the state using a similar system. “We’re looking to be the first electricity that a family has,” explains MacHarg.
While Simpa’s focus is primarily on the unplugged rural, its first customers were a group of eight migrant families in Bangalore who make the small, cheap cricket bats swung in every Indian alley.
Arun has sold units to 13 families in a similar settlement, an established slum, tucked behind railway tracks, that makes bangles. One of the panels, tied to the tarp roof, has a thick rope through its center, blocking the sun. Another has gathered considerable dust.
But most panel owners appeared more prepared to reap the benefits. Standing in the compact home of her family of four, Amruti, an early customer, says the solar light allows her work at night and finish four times as many ornamental goods. She used to rely on squat wax candles for light.
“It’s a nice idea — the poor leap-frogging the rich,” says Chivers of Pollinate Energy. Without prior home energy, slum residents are poised to do what the West envies: kick fossil fuel habits and conserve. “They’re much more resource-efficient than the rest of us,” he says. “That’s where solar works really well.”
This story was produced by Atlantic Cities as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.A car ferry carrying just over 2,400 Syrian refugees arrived on the Greek mainland on Thursday as a wave of migrants fleeing conflict and poverty continued unabated, straining a country which is already in economic crisis.
Many of the Syrians made 'V' for victory signs as they disembarked in the port city of Piraeus from the ship, chartered by the Greek government to ease conditions on islands in the eastern Aegean, where migrants are arriving on inflatable dinghies and small boats from nearby Turkey.
Greece has been found largely unprepared to deal with the migrant crisis in recent weeks, prompting criticism from aid agencies. Arrivals in July totalled 50,000, far outstripping the figure for the whole of 2014.
But many of the Syrians who arrived at Piraeus, which is part of the sprawling Athens conurbation, said they had no intention of staying in Greece as they flee their country's civil war. They plan instead to head almost immediately to the country's northern border via the second city of Thessaloniki, hoping to move on to other European countries.
"Which is the bus to Thessaloniki?" asked 28-year-old Jwan from the Syrian city of Aleppo as he and hundreds of others milled on the Piraeus quayside, before heading into central Athens. Trains and buses depart from there to Thessaloniki, which lies close to the borders of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria.
FYROM is already overwhelmed by migrants trying to get to northern Europe where they hope to find more help, opportunities and jobs.
Apart from buses on hand to take the refugees from the port to the Piraeus metro station, nobody appeared to be available to offer guidance on where to go.
The car ferry Eleftherios Venizelos departed Kos on Wednesday and stopped at several other islands to pick up more Syrians on the voyage to the mainland.
Jwan had travelled with his two sisters from Turkey to Lesbos. "We don't want to stay in Greece, we want to go to Germany," he said.
Tickets to Thessaloniki
Some of the refugees showed tickets for which they had paid 60 euros ($67) for a journey directly to Thessaloniki.
Greek officials had initially said the ship would head there and at one point a bus company told Athens News Agency that it would take the refugees from Thessaloniki to the Greek-FYROM border town of Idomeni.
But then the vessel abruptly changed course for Piraeus. It was unclear why.
Sneaking across into FYROM by foot has become a popular route in recent years for migrants to make their way to richer northern European countries. However, any plan to dump refugees close to another country's border could have left Greece open to criticism that it was effectively shifting the problem on to its neighbors.
"First they told us the ship would go Thessaloniki, then Athens," said Darek Khouja, 18, also from Aleppo. "I want to go to Germany. It has very good universities and I want to continue my studies, get on with my life," Khouja said.
He and his friend Kamel Farezu, 20, both engineering students, travelled together to Greece from Turkey. "The situation in Aleppo is terrible, we had to leave," Khouja said. Both left their parents and family behind.
The number of asylum-seekers and refugees to Germany will quadruple to a record 800,000 this year compared with last, more than twice as many as the 300,000 new arrivals forecast in January, the Berlin government said on Wednesday.
Thousands of other migrants from Asia, Africa and elsewhere in the Middle East are sleeping in abandoned buildings or in the open on some Greek islands, particularly Kos.
Arrivals in Greece last week were equal to almost half the number for all of 2014 and brings the total for this year to 160,000. This has strained an ill-prepared reception system that relies heavily on volunteers. The Syrians received priority in boarding the ferry as they are regarded as refugees from their country's four-year-old civil war.
Arrivals from other countries such as Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, regarded as economic migrants, are camping out in filthy conditions, leading to sporadic clashes and brawls.
[Reuters]We'll always have Ron Hunter.
We'll always have his son, R.J. Hunter, swiping a Baylor inbounds pass in stride, streaking to the rim, slicing into the Bears' lead, unnerving a team that seemed headed for certain victory. We'll always have the image: R.J. burying that deep game-winning 3-pointer, sending his dad -- stool-bound, thanks to an Achilles tear suffered in a postgame celebration just a week before -- tumbling to the floor, helpess with joy.
We'll always have Ron Hunter's emotion: How gleefully he soaked up the rare spotlight. How happily he coasted on his mobility scooter. How openly he wept when the "best week of [his] life" ended Saturday afternoon, when he talked about how much he loved his son.
Karl-Anthony Towns and the Wildcats are the national title favorites, but don't count out the other high-profile teams still around. AP Photo/David Stephenson
We'll always have UAB, the Blazers' William Lee sending a previously unflappable Cyclones squad flapping all the way back to Ames. We'll always have Hampton coach Ed Joyner staking his chances against Kentucky on a direct line to Jesus. We'll always have D'Angelo Russell gliding through VCU; Arkansas and UNC heading off Wofford and Harvard; Cincinnati's Troy Caupain spinning a sports-movie shot in at the buzzer; and Belmont's Craig Bradshaw banking in that 3 against Virginia and racing back down the court telling the crowd, and the cameras, that he called it.
The first weekend of the NCAA tournament is always when the quirky memories are made, when the surprises come in all shapes and sizes -- from Thursday's record-setting breadth of thrillers to Friday's historic chalk.
We'll always have that. But it's over now. Now the real hunt for the national title begins.
When all was said and done, and all that wild fun gave way to results, the 2015 NCAA tournament's first weekend yielded a rather remarkable Sweet 16 -- one packed to the eyeballs with predictable national title contenders, brand-name programs, legendary coaches, tournament-tested insurgents and, above all, just plain good teams.
Five of the seven clear national title contenders -- Kentucky, Wisconsin, Duke, Arizona, and Gonzaga -- are here. (All apologies to Villanova and Virginia, who left the East region with a top-two this weekend.) So is a healthy cadre of next-tier squads that spent most of the season hovering around the top-15: Utah, Wichita State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, North Carolina. As for the rest, no team in the Sweet 16 ranks lower than 32nd in adjusted efficiency. Twelve rank in the top 20. Eight rank in the top 10.
There are no total outliers here, no teams that rode hot weekends into March before summary second-weekend dismissals. Unlike in previous seasons, there are no Daytons or Stanfords (2014), Florida Gulf Coasts (2013), Ohios (2012), Richmonds or Florida States (2011), Cornells or Saint Mary's (2010).
The average seed of this Sweet 16: 4.4.
There are two No. 7-seeds weighing that average ever so slightly. The first happens to be Michigan State, which is making its 13th Sweet 16 appearance in 20 years under Tom Izzo. Here's a fun fact: Izzo has more Final Four appearances (six) than first-weekend exits (five) to his name. It's a startling and yet somehow unsurprising statistic. It explains why every Selection Sunday features so much Spartans-related cliche -- and Michigan State, after knocking off a dominant Virginia team Sunday, will not arrive at this late-March perch unaccustomed to the view.
The other No. 7? Wichita State. Perhaps you've heard of them. Two years ago, the Shockers rode a No. 9 seed past heavily favored Gonzaga and Ohio State en route to the Final Four, where they came two possessions short of stopping Louisville's 2013 national title run in its tracks. The very next year, the Shockers took their first loss of the season -- after a 35-0 start -- in the NCAA tournament. Gregg Marshall's team threw folks off the scent in 2014-15, losing to Utah early, followed by defeats to George Washington, Northern Iowa and Illinois State before the committee sent them to play Indiana and Kansas in Omaha as the No. 7 seed. But as the close observers knew all along -- and everyone else was reminded on Sunday -- this Wichita State is not much different from a year ago. They entered Sunday's matchup with Kansas -- a team the Shockers have desperately tried to schedule in recent years -- not remotely an underdog. Little brothers? Pfft.
Xavier, a No. 6 seed, is making its fifth Sweet 16 appearance in eight years. The No. 8-seed, NC State, is making its second trip in four. The Wolfpack have plenty of their own long-term brand recognition, and plenty of talent to back up that reputation. Trevor Lacey is one of Division I's purest scorers -- few are better in isolation in all of Division I basketball -- playing alongside lightning quick guard Anthony Barber and the stocky, physical front line that dominated dominant, two-loss, top-seeded Villanova.
And there's West Virginia, with coach Bob Huggins, coming in as a No. 5 seed. Look at the Mountaineers, a team that is headed to the Sweet 16 for the fifth time in 10 years.
Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Utah are all programs with varying degrees of historical success coming off great seasons. One, Notre Dame, is breaking through after years of unrewarded solidity under Mike Brey. The Utes and Sooners, meanwhile, are enjoying returns to national prominence.
Wichita State's upset of Kansas paved the way for a potential rematch with Kentucky in the Elite 8 -- if the Shockers can get through Notre Dame. Steven Branscombe/USA TODAY Sports
Oh, and there is one double-digit seed in the mix: No. 11 UCLA. It's a small program with minimal history. The scrappy upstart type. It's OK if you haven't heard of it.
The names involved read like a who's who of the past decade -- or the past several -- in college basketball. Kentucky. Duke. North Carolina. Michigan State. Louisville. Arizona. Wisconsin. Gonzaga. UCLA.
The coaches are a pack of Hall of Famers: Mike Krzyzewski, he of the 1,000-plus wins. Roy Williams, now tied with Dean Smith for all-time tournament wins. Rick Pitino, unparallelled defensive genius. Bo Ryan, synonymous with death and taxes.
Mark Few, who never misses a tournament. Lon Kruger, the only man to take four different programs this deep in the tournament. Sean Miller, the best coach yet to reach the Final Four. Bob Huggins, avatar for windbreaker-clad realism.
Izzo, who is Izzo.
And then there is John Calipari. Kentucky's coach is not only a messaging savant whose unprecedented salesmanship has netted him an unfathomable wealth of talent, but also a deft molder of parts into wholes. In five full seasons at Kentucky, Calipari has not only sent several full NBA rosters worth of talent to the next level; he has also netted three Final Fours, two national title appearances and one national title. His current team is 36-0 and chasing history. And everyone else is chasing them.
Can Kentucky be stopped? If there was any 16-team pool from which to choose, this may well be it. In nearly every way -- from the styles and familiarity of the Wildcats' potential opponents to the sheer number of strong teams standing between UK and the national title -- this is a dream Sweet 16. If UK wants immortality, it will have to earn it. Would you want it any other way?
Of course you wouldn't. The first weekend is always a blast, a four-day rush of thrilling basketball and heartwrenching turns. The first weekend always gives us scrappy underdogs rising above their systemic disadvantages, stories begging to be told. The first weekend always creates unforgettable moments, always freezes those moments in time.
But then the Sweet 16 comes, and the real business begins. Rarely has that been truer than in 2014-15. That first weekend gave us Ron Hunter and UAB and a desperate phone call to Jesus, and we'll always be thankful for that.
Now, though, it's time to say goodbye, and get down to the business of crowning a champion. Now, with this heavyweight Sweet 16 locked in, the tournament truly begins.Last year I wrote a post, Need for Speed, where I shared my workflows and techniques along with the tools involved in the development of my site. Since then my site has gone through another redesign, and although I made various workflow and server-side improvements, I gave front-end performance extra attention. Here’s what I did, why I did it, and the tools I used to optimize front-end performance on my site.
Minimize Requests
Every asset required to render the page (external CSS or JS files, webfonts, images, etc.) as your site loads is an additional HTTP request. The average website makes 93 requests!
My goal was to minimize HTTP requests. One way is to compile or concatenate (combining/merging) CSS and JS into one file each. Automating this process (e.g. using a build tool like Grunt or Gulp) is ideal, but at the very least should be done manually for production.
Third-party scripts are common culprits for making additional requests—many make more than 1 request to grab additional files such as scripts, images or CSS. Your browser’s built-in developer tools can help you sniff out the offenders.
Google Chrome Developer Tools’ Network tab
For example, Facebook’s script makes 3 requests. A test environment with social sharing scripts from a handful of popular social sites shows that they quickly add up:
Site Files Size Google+ 1 15.1KB Facebook 3 73.3KB LinkedIn 2 47.7KB Pinterest 3 12.9KB Tumblr 1 1.5KB Twitter 4 52.7KB Total 14 203.2KB
Source: Responsible Social Share Links
That’s an additional 14 HTTP requests and 203.2KB. Instead, I went with “share-intent” URLs, which are basically links used to pass and construct data into a share and can be used to create social share links using just HTML. It allowed me to strip away the third-party scripts I was using for sharing, which accounted for 7 requests. I wrote more on this matter on Responsible Social Share Links.
Evaluate each third-party script and determine its importance. There may be a way to accomplish what it does without depending on the third-party. You may lose some functionality (e.g. like/tweet/share count) but ask the question: “Is the like count that important?”
Compression/Optimization
Now that I had found ways to minimize requests made, I began looking for ways to cut fat off the meat. The smaller the files, the faster they load. The average page size is 1,950KB. Here’s the content breakdown:
I used these numbers as a reference and starting point to compare and find ways to cut weight where I could. What Does My Site Cost? built by Tim Kadlec, is a wonderful tool to help you test and visualize what it costs to visit your site from around the world based on the weight of your site.
CSS and JavaScript
Compressing/minifying your stylesheets and JavaScript files can noticeably decrease file sizes—I saved up to 56% from one file in compression alone.
Before Compression After Savings CSS 135KB 104KB 23.0% JS 16KB 7KB 56.3%
I write CSS using the BEM (Block, Element, Modifier) methodology, and it can result in long, verbose class names. Refactoring some of my code to be less verbose (“navigation” to “nav”, “introduction” to “intro”) gave me some savings but wasn’t nearly as noticeable as before-vs-after compression, which I expected.
Verbose Classes Less Verbose Savings 104KB 97KB 6.7%
I also re-evaluated the need for jQuery. Of the 135KB of minified JavaScript, about 96KB was the jQuery library alone—71%! There wasn’t a lot that relied on jQuery, so I took the time to refactor my code. I shaved off 122KB by stripping away jQuery and rewriting it in vanilla JavaScript, which cut the file size down to 13KB minified.
jQuery Vanilla JS Savings 135KB 13KB 122KB (90%)
Since then I managed to strip away even more (7KB compressed), and the script rounds out to only 0.365KB when compressed and gzipped.
Images
Images typically make up the bulk of a website. The average site has 1,249KB of images.
I ditched icon fonts and replaced them with inline SVGs. In addition, any images that could be drawn as vectors were placed with inline SVGs as well. One page of the previous version of my site was loading 145KB in icon webfonts alone, and of the hundreds of icons in the webfonts, I was only utilizing a dozen of them. In comparison, one page of the current site loads 10KB of inline SVGs—that’s a 93% difference.
SVG sprites look interesting and seem like they could be a viable solution to replacing common inline SVG icons I use throughout the site.
Use CSS instead of images when possible—there’s so much that can be done with CSS nowadays. However, browser compatibility may be an issue with modern CSS; therefore, make good use of caniuse.com and enhance progressively.
You can also squeeze bytes out of images by optimizing them. There are 2 ways to optimize images:
Lossy—lowers image quality Lossless—doesn’t affect quality
For best results I do both, and the order is important. First, compress images using a lossy method, such as resizing images to sizes no bigger than necessary, then exporting them at a slightly lower quality without compromising too much (e.g. I usually export JPGs at 82–92%)
ImageOptim, an image optimization tool for OS X
Next, run images through a lossless image optimization tool like ImageOptim, which further reduces image file sizes by removing unnecessary information such as metadata or color profiles.
Page Rendering
At this point, after all that work and sweating those details, I thought for sure my Google PageSpeed Insights scores would be in the 90s. To my demise, they weren’t.
PSI scores were 73/100 on mobile while desktop score faired a bit better at 88/100. It suggested that I “eliminate render-blocking JavaScript and CSS.”
Render-blocking files increase the time it takes for the browser to display the content because the files need to first be downloaded and processed. Multiple render-blocking files require the browser to take multiple trips to fetch and process them, further increasing that wait time.
Optimizing JavaScript, CSS and webfont delivery can improve the page’s “time to first render.” To minimize that time, it’s important to understand the “critical rendering path,” which is what happens between when the first byte of the page is received and when the page is first rendered into pixels.
WebPagetest is the best tool out there to help you profile and visualize your site and pages’ performance.
About page WebPagetest results before page-render optimizations
When minimizing the time to first render, we’re giving more attention to the perception of speed by rendering the content as quickly as possible, then allowing the additional presentational “stuff” to be rendered progressively as they’re processed.
CSS
Browsers, by default, treat CSS as render blocking; therefore, when it hits the pipeline, browsers hold off rendering until the CSS has been downloaded and processed. External stylesheets mean more network trips, which increase that wait time, and large stylesheets increase that time as well.
We can improve the page render time by inlining “critical CSS” in the <head> so the browser can quickly render the above-the-fold content of a page without having to wait to download the entire stylesheet, and then loading the full stylesheet in a non-rendering-blocking way.
<head> <style> /* inline critical CSS */ </style> </head>
Determining what CSS is or isn’t critical requires (1) viewing the page on mobile and/or desktop viewport sizes, (2) identifying the elements that are visible within that viewport, and (3) selecting the CSS that accompanies those elements.
This can be a bit tricky, especially when done manually, but fantastic tools are available to help expedite or even automate this process. I used grunt-criticalcss by Filament Group to help generate critical CSS for pages, which I then manually optimize the CSS a bit as well (merging duplicate media queries and removing CSS I deem as unnecessary).
About page with only critical CSS loaded (left) vs entire CSS loaded (right)
Now that the critical CSS is inlined in the <head>, load the rest of the stylesheet asynchronously, which I do with the help of loadCSS.
<head> <style> /* inline critical CSS */ </style> <script> // inline the loadCSS script function loadCSS ( href, before, media, callback ){... } // then load your stylesheet loadCSS ( "/path/to/stylesheet.css" ); </script> <noscript> <link href= "/path/to/stylesheet.css" rel= "stylesheet" > </noscript> </head>
Google also gives an alternate example of loading CSS in a non-render-blocking way.
JavaScript
JavaScript can also be render-blocking; therefore its delivery should also be optimized, which can be done the following ways:
Inlining small scripts. Loading external scripts at the bottom of the document. Deferring the execution of scripts using the defer attribute. Asynchronously loading possible scripts using the async attribute.
<head> <script> // small inline JS </script> </head> <body>... <script src= "/path/to/independent-script.js" async > <script src="/path/to/parent-script.js" defer> <script src="/path/to/dependent-script.js" defer> </body>
defer downloads the script as the HTML is parsed but waits to execute once the page has been rendered. defer support is pretty good; however is reported to be inconsistent and unreliable; therefore is best to both defer and have them at the bottom of the document.
async downloads the script as the HTML is parsed and executes the moment it has been downloaded. This allows for multiple scripts to be downloaded and executed concurrently; however, they’re not guaranteed to load in a specific order. Any scripts that depend on each other may need to be modified to account for these scenarios.
async support is not as great as defer, which is why I chose to use loadJS, a script for asynchronously loading JS files. It supports older browsers and also has a useful feature to conditionally load a script.
<head> <script> // small inline JS </script> </head> <body>... <script> // inline loadJS function loadJS ( src, cb ){.. } // then load your JS loadJS ( "/path/to/script.js" ); </script> <script src= "/path/to/parent-script.js" defer > <script src="/path/to/dependent-script.js" defer> </body>
Webfonts
Webfonts make the content more legible and beautiful but can also have negative side effects to page rendering. When loading a page, especially on mobile connections, you may have noticed text becoming invisible for a period of time. This is known as FOIT (Flash of Invisible Text).
What FOIT looked like on my site
When a browser attempts to download a web font, it hides the text for a period of time until it finishes downloading the font and is ready to display the text. In worst case scenarios, the text becomes and stays invisible indefinitely, making the content completely unreadable.
The way I solved FOIT is by progressively loading fonts by first relying on default, system fonts (e.g. Helvetica and Georgia) to allow the content to be rendered quickly. Web fonts are then loaded asynchronously using loadCSS and rely on font events with the help of the Font Face Observer library to detect when the fonts have been downloaded. Once the fonts are downloaded and available, a class is added to the document which sets the page in the correct font.
<head> <style> body { font-family : Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif ; }.fonts-loaded body { font-family : Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif ; } </style> <script> // inline loadCSS function loadCSS ( href, before, media, callback ){... } // load webfonts loadCSS ( "//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:400,500,700" ); // inline FontFaceObserver ( function (){... } // detect loading of fonts var roboto400 = new FontFaceObserver ( "Roboto", { weight : 400 }); var roboto700 = new FontFaceObserver ( "Roboto", { weight : 700 }); Promise. all ([ roboto400. check (), roboto700. check () ]). then ( function () { document. documentElement. className += " fonts-loaded" ; }); </script> </head>
Progressively loading fonts results in FOUT (Flash of Unstyled Text) and/or FOFT (Flash of Faux Text) depending on how it’s done.
Progressive font loading without FOIT
However, the benefit is that the content comes and stays available without going invisible. I wrote an in-depth post on how I defeated FOIT in Font Loading with Font Events.
Other
Additional methods, such as enabling gzipping and caching, configuring SSL, and serving assets from a Content Delivery Network (CDN) can improve front-end performance but would require some server-side finagling. For the sake of this post, I won’t get into them; however, I do want to stress that I recommend them and they will have an overall, positive impact on the performance of your site.
I will mention that because a healthy percentage of visits on my site are outside of the U.S., and my server is located in NYC, I decided to serve some of my assets onto a CDN. They’re deployed to an Amazon S3 bucket, which is tied to a CloudFront distribution.
Round Up
I’ve been making performance improvements incrementally over the course of a few months, and although it’s been a lot of work, I definitely notice a difference. I occasionally get comments about how fast my site is, and it’s a result of these performance tweaks.
I haven’t done a great job of keeping track of the metrics (especially early on), but let’s look at some comparisons with the numbers we do have.
Average My Site Change Requests 93 19 -87.6% Page size 1950KB 524KB -73.1% HTML 58KB 2.8KB -95.1% Images 1249KB 66.3 -94.7% CSS 60KB 14.6KB -75.7% JS 303KB 6.1KB -98.0% Fonts 87KB 10.2KB -88.3%
That’s an overall 87.5% better than average!—Not bad. Google PageSpeed Insights now gives my site favorable scores as well.
Google PageSpeed Insights results after optimizations
In regards to WebPagetest results, I noticed that although bytes increased on the About page, my start-render and fully-loaded times decreased considerably.
About page WebPagetest results after page-render optimizations
Performance improvements will always be a work-in-progress, and with HTTP/2 on its way, some of this is bound to change—techniques that used to work well may not work as well anymore, while others may become deprecated altogether.
I feel that I’ve made a lot of headway and learned a lot over the past few months. My site is open-sourced on Github, so feel free to take a peek at what’s going on under the hood. I’ve yet to figure it all out, but I hope that my sharing what I’ve done and learned with you gives you some insight. If you have any questions or wanna chat, feel free to hit me up on Twitter @jonsuh or drop me an email.
Resources
Chock full of useful resources to get you neck deep in performance.France and the US are sending help to Japan as part of the battle to contain radiation from a damaged nuclear complex.
Paris is sending two experts from the state-run nuclear sector and the US is sending robots to help examine reactor cores and spent fuel pools.
The French President will also visit Tokyo on Thursday, the first visit to Japan by a foreign leader since the country’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Workers at the Fukushima complex may have to work for weeks or months to restart cooling systems in damaged reactors.
There is alarm over evidence of mounting radiation levels inside and beyond the plant.
Read our news file
Some 70,000 people have already been evacuated from their homes.
The government and the power company that runs the nuclear plants are facing fierce criticism over their handling of the crisis.Both Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps violated the League's mass confrontation policy in the 38th minute of their Sept. 20 game. The Impact are fined $10,000 and Head Coach Marco Schallibaum is fined $2,000 because this is the club's third infraction. Vancouver received an official warning for its first violation of the season.
I still don't understand the adamant behavior towards this press release from fans and colleagues alike. Choosing a sarcastic attitude combined with a conspiracy-theorist mentality, as if Major League Soccer had something against the Montreal Impact and Marco Schallibaum.
If this is true, I would invite Joey Saputo and Nick De Santis to make public statements on this injustice.
But instead of reading the press release, we react on why did the Vancouver Whitecaps not get fined. But the explanation is 100% clear
Vancouver received an official warning for its first violation of the season.
But something that I will not find acceptable is why did Martin Rennie not get fined and suspended for stepping out of his technical zone. 20,006 fans and 40 media members saw that Rennie did not mind getting frequently out of his zone.
This squabble between who gets suspended and who walks away care-free is starting to get old and annoying. If only MLS would behave more consistently and that includes to make sure that the Disciplinary Committee does not miss one infraction.Pool/Getty Images
The fight for power is one that may never end in the NBA. From franchises searching for an elusive championship to individuals fighting for bragging rights, there is no limit to one's desire for the label of "the greatest."
As the 2013 NBA season rapidly approaches, a new name emerges as one of the future elite. This time around, however, it is not just a place amongst the greatest that awaits. It's a seat at the top.
In a day and age in which athleticism trumps all else, the few remaining pure big men continue to make their mark. While Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan are aging and past their prime, they've proven that greatness in the fundamentals can lead to timeless careers.
Something DeMarcus Cousins of the Sacramento Kings has learned quite well.
Although Cousins is not your conventional superstar, he's certainly got the talent and production to warrant the label. As Dwight Howard, Blake Griffin, Andrew Bynum and Kevin Love take over the ranks as the NBA's best in the frontcourt, Cousins has quietly matched them step by step in his young two-year career.
Which is exactly why the man they call DMC is destined to become the best big man in the NBA.
For DeMarcus Cousins, it's all about balance. As we evaluate his cross-state rivals, Blake Griffin and Dwight Howard, there are distinct advantages that Cousins holds due to that underrated quality. For instance, both Griffin and Howard have relatively unpolished low-post games and weak mid-range jump shots.
Cousins, on the other hand, can score over both shoulders and is lethal from 15 to 23 feet. He's also an equally as dominant rebounder by parallel to the stage he's at in his career and a far superior defender to the inept Blake Griffin.
The next comparison, of course, would be to Andrew Bynum, a player who, much like Cousins, has the skill to take over, size to dominate and mindset to let his team down.
Bynum and Cousins counter each other well on both sides of the ball, each scoring, rebounding and defending at similar paces. The difference, and key advantage, is that Cousins is the far more versatile player. Bynum can defend the paint and score from the post, but lacks the mobility to step out on D or take a step back for a mid-range J.
DeMarcus Cousins can do both with consistency.
The final comparison is the one that some would consider to matter most. This, of course, comes as Cousins squares off with the man who has recently been crowned as the game's best power forward: Kevin Love.
Love is known for his dominant rebounding, stretch shooting and tenacity in the paint. DeMarcus Cousins, meanwhile, averaged 11.0 rebounds himself and has the ability to consistently knock down a shot from anywhere out to the three-point line. Throw him in the paint and you'll learn why no one wants to defend this kid.
And then we get to defense.
While Kevin Love may be one of the game's great offensive forces, he is one of the absolute worst defenders in the game. His rebounding ability minimizes these faults, but Love is constantly beat off of the dribble and from the post. He's as dismal a shot blocker as any in the game and is constantly outsmarted in his pursuit of his opponent.
While his effort is always there, Love is almost always exposed as the porous defensive liability that he is.
On the contrary, DeMarcus Cousins happens to be one of the best defenders the NBA has to offer. He can contain any opponent from a stretch 4 to a bruising 5, utilizing his overwhelming strength and deceptive quickness to contain either breed of opponent.
He also capitalizes on the fact that his timing has improved tremendously as a shot blocker, as has the quickness in his hands as he comes up with steals left and right.
In fact, Cousins was one of just six players in the NBA who averaged greater than 1.0 blocks and 1.0 steals per game simultaneously. Amongst the others who qualified were Dwight Howard, Josh Smith and Kevin Durant.
At this point in his career, Cousins is on par with each and every one of the NBA's elite big men. As his game continues to develop, however, DMC will exceed the level of all players listed. That is, if he improves in the one department that holds him back.
His maturity.
Cousins' struggles with his body language are well-documented. The true area of maturity he must focus on improving, though, is his impatience |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.