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I have been working on a recipe this past week. It is an American Pale Ale with a spicy jalepeño kick called Fenrir’s Bite (recipe here). Today I put together a 1 gallon batch using the μMLT and the yeast starter I did yesterday. I picked up a coarse nylon bag to fit inside the μMLT with the hopes it would make cleanup easier, but instead it just made things more difficult. I was never able to set a decent grain bed and after doing roughly a gallon of vorlauf, the wort was still not running clear. It also did nothing to make cleanup easier, so I think I am going to scrap the idea of a bag liner for the mash tun.
Goal OG was 1.060 and actual was 1.063 (15.8° Plato on the refractometer). I ended up doing a 70 minute boil to get the volume down to just under 1 gallon so I could fit 400 mL of the starter yeast in the glass jug with the wort. For now it is sitting in the basement. We’ll see if it takes off. Hopefully it will have a nice kick to it.
I ended up dumping the boiled jalepeños into the fermenter. I am not sure if that is going to negatively impact the pH or not. I may take a pH reading tomorrow (since this is an experiment) just to see how much the peppers are adding to the acidity.
Update: The next morning
The airlock is full of krausen. Apparently fermentation took off like a rocket during the night. I also grabbed a pH strip this morning to check if the peppers in the jug were adversely lowering the pH of the wort. One problem though… I am out of wort range pH strips. I have some 2.8-4.4 range strips for checking the viability of my spray bottled StarSan, but that doesn’t really tell me much useful information about the wort. All I can say for sure is that the pH is greater than 4.4. |
It’s a frequent refrain from young condo-dwellers looking to upsize or start a family without fleeing to the suburbs: Why aren’t there more large units downtown?
A recent report by the City Building Institute (CBI) at Ryerson University and a survey by Environics Research both highlighted the need for three-bedroom units in Toronto, arguing that developers and builders are ignoring the demand for larger units by young professionals and baby boomers.
The axioms of urban economics, however, explain why large condominiums are ill-suited for very dense urban cores.
Like other vibrant downtowns in Manhattan and London, Toronto has a tightly clustered financial district that is also home for some young professionals who are mostly unmarried, without children and rent smaller-sized condominiums.
A key to the development puzzle lies in the gap between the stated preferences of these young renter professionals (“Wouldn’t it be nice to start a family downtown?”) with the revealed preferences of young households with children (“The suburbs it is”).
On a per-square-foot basis, a three-bedroom condominium downtown will always be significantly more expensive than a similar-sized townhouse in a suburb. Why? Land prices.
Downtown land is in huge demand because it is scarce, which leads to high prices and high-rise buildings. Condo sizes are smallest in places with the highest land prices. Contrarily, places with less expensive land attract larger units, as per the first axiom of urban economics: Prices adjust to achieve locational equilibrium.
For economic efficiency, scarce and high-priced land must be used for high-density office and residential land uses. Smaller sized units, and not three-bedroom condos, are a more efficient residential use of scarce land that permits more workers to be near their jobs in the financial core.
So, what to do with the unmet demand for large condos?
Well, if there really were an unmet economic demand, builders would have responded to it. Evidence of actual pent-up demand for owner-occupied three-bedroom condos, it turns out, is rather elusive.
Recent Environics surveys found young professionals complained of a lack of three-bedroom condos (a stated preference), but did not necessarily show an interest in owning large condos themselves. In fact, 81 per cent of respondents said that they did not want a condo at all, with most desiring a detached home. Environics found that young professionals were predominantly renters and that 83 per cent did not have children.
Builders respond to revealed preferences and not stated preferences. They are aware of life-cycle triggers, such as the birth of a first child, which increases the demand for space and pushes young families to the suburbs where cheaper land makes owning larger houses possible.
The suburbs, as a result, have become better equipped to cater to families with children: restaurants there always have plenty of high chairs, but try showing up with three children at an upscale downtown restaurant for dinner and watch the staff scramble. The suburbs also have an abundance of soccer fields, playgrounds, parks, hockey arenas, and parking lots for vehicles stuffed with sporting equipment.
When, by contrast, was the last time you saw a parent travelling with hockey bags and children on a subway?
Renters, and not investors, generate the demand for shelter space in and around downtowns. Investors respond to the demand by providing one and two-bedroom units to renters. As it is, downtown residential rents barely cover the ownership costs of investors who effectively subsidize the renting young professionals.
If three-bedroom condos in the downtown core made more cents for investors, they might make more sense for builders.
In the end, it is all land economics.
Murtaza Haider is an associate professor at Ryerson University. Stephen Moranis is a real estate industry veteran. They can be reached at [email protected]. |
Bernd Lange, the chairman of the European Parliament's important trade committee, has indicated that he now expects the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations will probably fail, following a major leak of confidential documents from the talks.
Greenpeace Netherlands has released half of the entire TTIP draft text as of April 2016, prior to the start of the 13th round of TTIP negotiations between the EU and the US, which reveal US demands in detail for the first time.
Although the EU has improved transparency recently, and routinely publishes its offers for each TTIP chapter, the US has consistently refused to do so. Even MEPs and MPs have faced extreme restrictions on what they are allowed to look at, copy, or even say when it comes to the US position. The new leak by an unknown whistleblower represents a major blow to US attempts to keep its negotiating demands confidential, and provides important information to the both the EU and US public for the first time.
US wants ISDS and regulatory cooperation
The new documents confirm some of the fears expressed by many organisations and commentators regarding two key areas discussed previously here on Ars: the Investment-State Dispute Settlement ( ISDS ) mechanism, and regulatory cooperation
As Ars noted last September, in the face of massive public concerns about ISDS, the European Commission is proposing a modified approach, the Investment Court System (ICS), which it claims addresses the problems of ISDS. However, even though the ICS idea was formally presented to the US last year, one of the TTIP leaks shows that it was not even discussed during the 12th round, something that the European Commission's public report on the negotiations omitted to mention. This confirms earlier indications that the US is not interested in ICS, and will insist on including standard ISDS in TTIP, regardless of EU worries.
A leaked chapter on "Regulatory coherence, transparency and other good regulatory practices" indicates that the US wants all regulations, even those concerning health and safety or environmental issues, to be judged by the yardstick of their effects on trade: "When developing a regulation, a regulatory authority of a Party shall evaluate any information provided in comments by the other Party or a person of the other Party regarding the potential trade effects of the regulation that it receives during the comment period."
In practice, this means that companies will be able to challenge any new EU and US regulations that might have an adverse effect on their profits, as is often the case when new environment regulations are brought in. It is likely to make it much harder to strengthen laws that might disadvantage business but protect public health and safety.
A post on the War on Want site points out that the leaks contain a very clear indication of what the US wants to achieve as a quid pro quo for opening up its markets: "Any export gains for EU car manufacturers will come at a massive cost to European agriculture, with the European Commission sacrificing the small-scale farmers of Europe in order to force open US markets for major European corporations."
The key sentence comes in the particularly sensitive document entitled "Tactical State of Play of the TTIP Negotiations." This is essentially the European Commision's frank evaluation of where things stand in the TTIP talks. Here's what it has to say on the US demand: "progress on motor vehicle-related parts would only be possible if the EU showed progress in the discussion on agricultural tariffs." In other words, if the EU doesn't open up its markets to agricultural products from the US—which means things like beef treated with hormones, and maybe even chlorine chickens—there will be no improved access for EU car manufacturers.
US wants more GMOs in the EU
Perhaps the most problematic demand from the US side is that the Commission should allow foods with GMOs to be approved and sold in the EU more easily. In TTIP documents, GMOs are such a sensitive area that they are called by the euphemism "modern agricultural technology."
At the moment, the approvals process is rather slow in the EU, but the US hopes to change all that, as another leaked chapter makes clear: "Where a Party requires a product of modern agricultural technology to be approved or authorised prior to its importation, use or sale in its territory, the Party shall allow any person to submit an application for approval at any time." Although that sounds harmless enough, it would represent a major change from the present system.
Greenpeace Netherlands naturally singles out some concerns about the environment, and the fact that there is nothing about climate protection in the texts. In its press release it says: "Long standing environmental protection is dropped. The 'General Exceptions' rule, enshrined in the GATT agreement of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), is absent from the text."
Listing image by Greens/EFA |
Royal Mail in Britain issued a postage stamp of Noor Inayat Khan, World War II heroine of Indian origin, on 25 March 2014. She fought fascism and died in the Dachau concentration camp.
The stamp issued was a part of a set of 10 stamps in the Remarkable Lives series which honoured Noor on her centenary year. Royal Mail commemorated Noor with a stamp to ensure that her sacrifice and bravery will not be forgotten. Other honoured in the set include actor Sir Alec Guinness, poet Dylan Thomas, Kenneth Moore, Joe Mercer, Barbara Ward and Joan Littlewood.
About Noor Inayat Khan
• Noor was born in Moscow to an Indian Father, Hazrat Inayat Khan and an American mother, Ora Ray Baker in January 1914. Noor was brought up in Paris and family immigrated to London when Paris was occupied by Germany during the World War II in 1940.
• Noor joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and was later recruited for the Special Operations Executive, a secret organisation started by Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
• She was the first woman radio operator to be flown undercover to Paris under the code name Madeleine.
• Noor, 30, was betrayed, arrested and finally executed in the Dachau concentration camp in Germany.
• Britain awarded George Cross, the highest honour to Noor. Croix de Guerre award was awarded by the France. |
BUFFALO – At 6-foot-2 and 207 pounds with perhaps the broadest shoulders in development camp, Sabres prospect Hudson Fasching looks built for pro hockey at just 19 years old.
But the American, who scored 14 goals as a freshman during the University of Minnesota’s run to the 2014 national championship game, recently announced he will return to the Gophers for his junior season.
Why?
“It was kind of about being an experienced player,” Fasching said Monday inside the First Niagara Center.
The opportunity to develop leadership skills as a veteran enticed him back to college.
“Growing up, I was always the youngest kid on the team,” he said. “I kind of fit into that role. I never really grew to understand leadership and how to really fulfill that. So I think that for me this year’s kind of about growing not only as a player, but also as kind of a person and as a leader.”
Fasching, part of the Brayden McNabb trade with Los Angeles at the 2014 deadline, is one of the country’s top teenage prospects. The Minnesota native has represented Team USA at the last two world junior championships with Sabres prospect Jack Eichel, the second overall pick last month.
Eichel’s many talents have wowed Fasching.
“He does everything well,” Fasching said. “There’s not one thing you can say, ‘You know, he has a weakness.’ I think that’s what makes him so special.”
Fame hasn’t changed Eichel, he said.
“He’s still the same kid,” Fasching said. “Obviously, he’s had to grow up. He’s obviously had a lot of attention. I think because of that he’s matured a little bit more quickly.”
He added: “He’s a little bit of a goofball sometimes. He messes around. But he means well, and when it comes down to it, he works hard.” |
" " The AAP has realized that a " just turn it off" stance is not very realistic in the digital age. Thanasis Zovoilis/Getty
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is changing its mind about "screen time" – or at least bringing its stance into the full-blown digital age.
The impending revision of the AAP's policy statement, announced in October, is driven by an acknowledgment that its current screen-time guidelines, best known for nixing any screen time for children under 2 and limiting older kids and teenagers to two hours a day, are outdated. Some of the current advice predates widespread Internet use.
"The problem is that technology moves faster than science can study it," says Dr. Ari Brown, a practicing pediatrician and chair of the AAP Children, Adolescents and Media Leadership Work Group, via email. "Our previous recommendations were made because we had enough health and developmental concerns about potential risk of TV use to advise parents about it."
With schools eagerly implementing technology wherever funding allows, not to mention grade-school enrichment classes on coding, software that lets kids compose music on computers and strong anecdotal evidence that playing Minecraft can benefit kids with autism, espousing strict minimization ignores the obvious. Today's kids are "digital natives." Technology is in their blood.
The AAP's new view, summarized in "Beyond 'turn it off': How to advise families on media use," sees TVs, computers, gaming systems, smartphones and tablets as mere tools. Time spent with them can be good for kids or bad for kids, depending on how they're used.
The AAP made addressing children and media a top priority starting in 2012, a focus that culminated in the May 2015 "Growing Up Digital" symposium. The conference brought together experts on child development, social science, pediatrics, media, neuroscience and education, and called attention to the growing body of evidence supporting the potential (and potentially significant) benefits of screen time in child and adolescent development.
At the symposium, social scientists presented data showing that when teens connect online, those peer connections can be "significantly meaningful," and sometimes "more supportive than their real life friendships," reports Brown.
The implication, she says, is that "there are some very positive [online] opportunities for acceptance and support as teens develop their identity and self-esteem."
Other insights pointed to possible ways to strengthen digital media's teaching potential. Neuroscientists, she says, presented research showing that 2-year-olds learn novel words as well by video chat as they do by live communication, suggesting it's the two-way interaction that matters most. Technology that facilitates that back-and-forth, then, is more likely to facilitate learning.
But here's the thing: Handing a 2-year-old an iPad and walking away isn't going to cut it, no matter what the software facilitates.
" " This girl watches cartoons online with the iPad tablet while sitting on the sofa at home. Artur Debat/Getty
"All of our experts indicated the importance of co-engagement," Brown says. Parental involvement determines the ultimate nature of screen time. For young children especially, positive outcomes rely on "screen time" also being "together time."
Much of screen time's potential for good, in fact, hinges on the parents, whether the child is 3 or 13. The AAP recommends parents join their kids in the digital world when possible, and familiarize themselves with their kids' media of choice even if they don't share the activity.
Parents should also lay ground rules for when, where and how long kids can engage in screen time, establish "screen-free zones" (hint: dinner table) and, of course, monitor all content. The potential benefits of screen time don't negate the potential (and potentially significant) dangers.
"Parenting has not changed," says Brown. "The same rules apply to every environment your child lives in — school, home, tech ... Set limits, be a good role model, know who your kids' friends are and where they are going."
The AAP's new policy statement on children and media will likely not come out until late this year, but Brown says it will "acknowledge where the research gaps are ... look to optimize the opportunity that the digital age presents, and minimize the risks. It will be practical and broad enough to be more evergreen so the guidance will be able to keep up with the next great tech thing." |
Astronomers have known for decades that turbulent motion mixes and heats the interstellar medium (ISM), the dust and gases between the stars. But until now no one had been able to actually photograph this motion. An article published yesterday in Nature by a team of astronomers not only reveals this turbulent gas, but also that it moves at a low but supersonic velocity.
The images were taken by a group of astronomers led by Bryan Gaensler, and used the Australia Telescope Compact Array. It was focused on a region in the southern galactic plane about 10,000 light-years away, in the constellation Norma.
Turbulent, supersonic gas is characterized mainly by the Reynolds number (the ratio of momentum to viscous forces, which determines when a flow becomes turbulent) and the Mach number (the flow speed divided by the local speed of sound). These quantities have been difficult to measure in the past, since astronomers haven’t been able to get an adequate picture of the gas, but they do know that structures formed by the turbulent motion range from 1,000 km to 100 parsecs (over 1015 km).
Now, describing the ISM as "gas" is a bit of an overstatement, if you’re picturing gas as in our atmosphere. The ISM is extremely low density, ranging from 10-4-106 molecules per cm3 depending on the temperature (for some perspective, the density of air at ocean level on Earth is about 1019 molecules per cm3).
We can’t see the ISM using visible light, so astronomers observe radio waves emitted from the Milky Way and altered by passing through this turbulent region. The gases are ionized, so their swirling, mixing turbulent motion forms electrical and magnetic fields (known as magnetohydrodynamic flow), which in turn affects the polarization of radio waves.
These changes in polarization can be detected by radio telescopes (like the one the team used) and indirectly reveal the direction of flowing gases. The researchers used these measurements to make an image of the region (see above), which shows a complex field of tangled, twisting tendrils (say that three times fast) of gas. These structures are formed by turbulent vortices and intersecting shock waves.
In order to figure out if the gas was moving at subsonic or supersonic speeds, they also performed three-dimensional computer simulations of the ISM, comparing subsonic (Mach number below one), transonic (Mach number around 1), and supersonic (Mach number well above one) models with the real images. The team found that the subsonic and transonic results better matched the network of tendrils seen in the images. Based on this, and prior studies, they concluded that the gas flows at a low Mach number (less than two). Sound moves pretty quickly there, however, so this corresponds to about 70,000 km per hour (even though the density is much lower than in our atmosphere, the temperature and pressure are higher than you'd expect, and the speed of sound depends on the ratio of pressure to density).
Using the same approach, the team plans on studying other properties of this region, and hope to calculate the properties of the ISM more accurately. A better picture of the ISM is important because it will help us better understand the overall motion of galaxies and formation of stars, which occurs in the (relatively) dense regions.
Nature, 2011. DOI: 10.1038/nature10446 (About DOIs) |
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Auburn Gets 3 Injured Starters Back Just In Time For Georgia
Auburn has ran into that part of the season where playing in the SEC really takes a toll on players physically. All too often in November the battle in the SEC becomes a game of attrition. Whoever can stay healthiest has the best chance of finishing strong. Auburn has been battling injuries with some key starters the past few weeks.
The biggest injuries plaguing the Tigers in recent weeks have been the most important positions on the field. Of course outstanding Quarterback Sean White didn’t start last week due to being banged up. But he looked good when he came off the bench for the second half so he wasn’t one Auburn was worried about for the Georgia game. Gus Malzahn announced today he will start this weekend.
The biggest news for the defense is that Tre Williams will be back at linebacker. Not having him on the field last week against Vandy was a big deal. Williams is the quarterback for the defense and while the defense did step up, his absence was definitely noticed. It will be crucial to have him back leading this defense this weekend.
“Those guys are kind of our quarterbacks” on defense, Malzahn said. “Hats off to the linebackers that took their place (vs Vanderbilt). That was really impressive what they did. Quarterbacking, the whole deal. We should have everybody back and ready to go defensively (for Georgia).”
Auburn also gets it’s leading receiver, Tony Stevens, back this week. He has 24 receptions for 408 yards this year. That’s a 17 yard per reception average. With the running backs banged up and Pettway questionable, the Auburn receivers and Sean White may have to step up and carry the load. The crew of Auburn’s young receivers have been outstanding in recent weeks but having Stevens back should give Auburn an edge in the passing game. |
A Marketplace for Truth Telling These laws predictably disenfranchise mostly poor and elderly voters.
TruthMarket, a division of Truth Seal Corp., today announced that a private citizen, Geoff Tranchina, is using the platform to dispute claims that new voter ID laws address a significant problem of voter fraud. If Tranchina is able to crowd-fund $10,000 from other citizens opposing these laws, he will be able to launch a campaign to challenge the claims of Republican legislators promulgating these laws. The first person who can deliver verifiable proof that more than 0.1% votes were fraudulent in any statewide or federal election since 2000 would win a $10,000 bounty.
Stating that voter fraud is, in fact, insignificant, Tranchina’s campaign will maintain that actions to ram through voter fraud laws requiring government-issued photo IDs are a thinly disguised Republican power grab. Even the Bush administration refuted those claims as fraudulent. Tranchina states that, “Since many poor and elderly citizens cannot easily get to government offices or bear the costs in time and money to secure government IDs, these laws predictably disenfranchise mostly poor and elderly voters. Jim Crow laws were used for decades, in a similar way, to keep freed slaves from voting, and other barriers have been put in front of disadvantaged voters ever since.” By barring these voters, who generally favor Democratic candidates, from polling places, the laws are likely to reduce their numbers and influence election results.
To win the $10,000 bounty, a campaign challenger will have to provide verifiable evidence that more than 0.1% votes were fraudulent in any statewide or federal election since 2000.
About TruthMarket
TruthMarket is a division of Truth Seal, a California Corporation. TruthMarket is designed to be a popular online platform that enables everyone to campaign for truth in public dialogue. The primary objective is to increase truth and trust throughout the public information space – online and offline – by publicly exposing false claims and highlighting true claims. TruthMarket’s ultimate goal is to predispose all public dialogue toward truth telling
Trademarks
Marketplace for Truth Telling, TruthMarket and TruthSeal are trademarks of Truth Seal Corp. |
India’s solar power sector is staring at yet another policy intervention that could put the viability of projects in the country under question.
The Narendra Modi government is expected to impose an anti-dumping duty (ADD) on imported solar panels in order to boost sales of locally made ones. This is bound to increase the costs of setting up power plants as 89% of the solar panels used in India are imported, mostly from China, Taiwan, and Malaysia whose products are around 10% cheaper than locally made ones.
“If the anti-dumping duty is imposed—which is likely, very strongly likely—then it will make life easier for domestic producers (of solar panels),” said Amit Kumar, a partner at consulting firm PwC, who focuses on the renewables sector. An ADD of, say, 25% will allow a similar hike in prices of local products, too, bringing down the homegrown firms’ losses, Kumar added.
But that’s bad news for India’s solar power producers.
In the last few months, activity in India’s solar energy sector has stalled. The industry is struggling with rising solar panel prices and flat power demand, while, on its part, the government hasn’t held auctions for solar projects. The sector is lagging India’s target of installing 100 gigawatts (GW, or 1,000 megawatts) of plants by 2022.
The ADD is likely to make projects even less viable. Developers are already being forced to quote low tariffs to win the few available projects, risking low returns, and an increase in costs due to the duties would add even more pressure.
The backstory
In July, the India Solar Manufacturers Association (ISMA), a group of firms that make solar modules, filed a petition with the government to probe solar cell and module imports. Typically, the government takes around a year to act—impose duties if necessary—on such pleas. It may also choose to impose a provisional duty while the probe is on. In the past, such provisional duties have been brought in around seven months after a petition is filed, according to renewable energy consultancy firm Bridge to India (BTI). This year, such an intervention may already be around the corner.
“(There) is a very strong buzz in the industry that a duty announcement is about to come anytime now,” BTI said in a Nov. 15 report (pdf). “The government is under pressure about the poor state of manufacturing…If DGAD (Directorate General of Anti-Dumping & Allied Duty) and the ministry of finance are sympathetic to the case, it is certainly possible that a provisional or anti-dumping duty may be imposed imminently.”
Buyer’s drought
A hefty ADD could potentially leave power producers without enough buyers. “If the duty is very sharp, the tariff will go up very sharply and…the discoms (distribution companies) will not buy the power. Then the solar sector will come down dramatically,” said Sunil Jain, CEO of Hero Future Energies, a renewable power producer with 500 MW of installed capacity. It is unclear whether the discoms have the appetite for expensive power, PwC’s Kumar added.
As of Sept. 30, around 10,842 MW of solar projects were in the pipeline, according to BTI, and they could be jeopardised by the provisional duty or ADD. Even projects yet to be auctioned and assigned to power producers—around 2,655 MW as per BTI’s estimates—could be hit. |
Since the Pi House Generator was posted on Make and some other places today and I’ve been meaning to do it for a while, I’m posting a longer sample of the program’s output. This mp3 is an hour and half randomly selected from a 10 hour recording I made recently (~100MB download).
update: here is a torrent of the full 10 hours, please seed!
update2: I’ve been told the torrent isn’t working. I can’t look into it now, but I’ll try again in a few days.
update3: A bunch of people have emailed asking about getting a copy of the Pi House program. I may release it at some point, but it needs some work to be ready for public release and it currently only supports uncompressed samples, which means the samples take up over a gig.
update4: Because I got dugg I had to temporarily remove the mp3s, I ran out of bandwidth. I’m looking for somebody else to host them…
update5: mp3s back up. |
SEATTLE, WA — (club release) – Seattle Reign FC announced today that the club has acquired U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) defender Meghan Klingenberg from the Houston Dash. In exchange, Reign FC traded the rights to midfielder Amber Brooks and the 5th pick in the first round of the 2016 NWSL College Draft to Houston. In addition to Klingenberg, Seattle will also receive a conditional selection in the 2017 NWSL College Draft.
(Cover photo: Fox Soccer / Youtube)
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Editor’s Note: But is she staying? Equalizer soccer says that Klingenberg is actually on her way to Portland Thorns via Seattle, as part of a complex ripple effect from the recent deal that sent Alex Morgan to the expansion Orlando Pride. Read more about that here.
——————–
Klingenberg, 27, was selected by the Houston Dash in the 2014 Expansion Draft from the Boston Breakers. Through two seasons with the Dash, the Gibsonia, Pa. native appeared in 19 matches (all starts), tallying two assists in 1,653 minutes.
Prior to joining the NWSL, Klingenberg spent two seasons with Swedish club Tyresö FF and also played with the Boston Breakers (WPS), and magicJack (WPS).
The defender played all four years of her college career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, scoring 19 goals and tallying 24 assists. During that time, Klingenberg lead the Tar Heels to two NCAA National Championships.
Klingenberg has amassed 45 caps with the USWNT, scoring three goals. In the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, Klingenberg played every minute of every USWNT match, in a backline that delivered a shutout streak lasting 540 minutes en route to being crowned World Champions. Klingenberg had a standout performance against Sweden during group play of the World Cup, clearing a shot off the line to preserve the USA’s 0-0 draw.
Brooks, 24, was acquired by Seattle from the Western New York Flash in March of 2015 in a trade that sent USWNT forward Sydney Leroux and defender Amanda Frisbie to Rochester. As part of the trade, Reign FC also received the 4th pick in the 2016 College Draft and the rights to USWNT forward Abby Wambach. Brooks tallied one goal in 12 matches (4 starts) for Seattle during its 2015 NWSL Shield-winning season. |
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch chicken farmers have suffered around 33 million euros ($39 million) in damages as a direct result of culls and other measures carried out after their eggs were found this month to be tainted with a toxic chemical.
The estimate, calculated by the University of Wageningen at the request of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, was sent to parliament on Wednesday ahead of a debate on how the affair has been handled.
Investigators in early August detected fipronil, a flea poison, in slightly higher than acceptable levels on Dutch chicken farms, leading quickly to culls, quarantines and other measures to prevent further production of contaminated eggs..
In the following days, millions of Dutch chicken eggs and products containing egg were recalled in countries around Europe and as far away as Asia.
Two Dutch men who ran the cleaning company Chickfriend were arrested and continue to be held in the Netherlands on suspicion of threatening public health for using the chemical on chicken farms.
Belgian authorities are investigating whether the Belgian firm that sold Chickfriend a cleaning product containing fipronil was also aware, complicit or responsible for it entering the food chain.
The university’s calculation of the damages to around 200 Dutch chicken farms did not attempt to measure the probably greater financial damages caused by the international egg recalls.
($1 = 0.8479 euros) |
Bloomberg endorses Obama (Updated)
New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, whose city is still partially submerged, without power and facing a rising death toll from Hurricane Sandy, endorses President Obama, via the Twitters:
And if anyone is wondering what message Bloomberg, who had for months signaled he would stay out of the presidential race, is sending with this endorsement, click here. The endorsement moves climate change front and center in a way that the mayor, who endorses based on specific issues, clearly wants it to be.
Bloomberg has been critical of Obama in the past and declined to have Obama come visit New York — the president went to New Jersey, instead. But as the endorsement makes clear, that was not a diss. And the endorsement of the mayor, a business leader, is one that Obama and Mitt Romney had both sought.
UPDATE: Bloomberg lays out his case here on his political website, in which he argues that Sandy exemplifies the climate change issue:
But we can't do it alone. We need leadership from the White House — and over the past four years, President Barack Obama has taken major steps to reduce our carbon consumption, including setting higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks. His administration also has adopted tighter controls on mercury emissions, which will help to close the dirtiest coal power plants (an effort I have supported through my philanthropy), which are estimated to kill 13,000 Americans a year. Mitt Romney, too, has a history of tackling climate change. As governor of Massachusetts, he signed on to a regional cap-and-trade plan designed to reduce carbon emissions 10 percent below 1990 levels. "The benefits (of that plan) will be long-lasting and enormous — benefits to our health, our economy, our quality of life, our very landscape. These are actions we can and must take now, if we are to have `no regrets' when we transfer our temporary stewardship of this Earth to the next generation," he wrote at the time. He couldn't have been more right. But since then, he has reversed course, abandoning the very cap-and-trade program he once supported. This issue is too important. We need determined leadership at the national level to move the nation and the world forward. I believe Mitt Romney is a good and decent man, and he would bring valuable business experience to the Oval Office. He understands that America was built on the promise of equal opportunity, not equal results. In the past he has also taken sensible positions on immigration, illegal guns, abortion rights and health care. But he has reversed course on all of them, and is even running against the health-care model he signed into law in Massachusetts.
That last point, about Romney having "reversed course on all of" his past "sensible" positions, is at the heart of Obama's argument against Romney right now.
Bloomberg has gotten more engaged in electoral politics in the past few weeks, using his firtune to fund a super PAC that senior adviser and current on-leave Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson is running.
Bloomberg is not a swing-state pull. But coupled with the warm words from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose state was similarly battered by the storm, Obama has had two days in which the cable news focus is going to be on the storm and on testimonials about him.
Maggie Haberman is senior political reporter for Politico. |
November 16, 2015 5 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The idea of mentoring in the workplace is a common one, but the idea of a champion is rarely ever mentioned. In the past several months, I have been invited to speak around the topic of leadership in startups and technology, and when I mention that what we need are more champions and less mentors, people get excited. The energy level in the room suddenly rises. Most people say to me, “I’ve never heard that before. I love that idea -- champion!”
Related: 6 Smart Techniques to Connect With Influential People
Mentors are a dime a dozen.
Mentors are typically loose connections, and there are plenty to go around. Let’s do a quick, very unscientific poll. Based on my network on LinkedIn, I have 308,830 mentors in my network. I did the same search for champion, and I had 40,317 champions.
Mentors are easier to come by these days. Some organizations have formal processes for matching mentors. I’ve only engaged in this type of formal matching once, and I was assigned a Harvard professor who was an expert in nuclear terrorism. Let’s just say that we did not have much in common, but I was very grateful for the time I spent with someone so brilliant.
It is best that you try to seek mentors whose expertise you can leverage. Don’t be shy about reaching out to these people directly without a formal process in place. One way to start is to ask them a question about their own career progression. And do not take it personally if they do not respond. People are busy.
Mentors are usually passive.
Don’t expect your mentor to become your champion. Champions are supposed to be rare. They are rare because in my experience, most people have never heard of a champion. This post aims to change this by making people aware of the concept of a champion.
Think of a champion as a mentor but with a little more skin in the game. They are actively seeing that you get the good projects at work, that you receive the proper recognition for your job, and they provide you with timely feedback so that you are constantly improving. It’s a working partnership where you are essentially groomed for a particular position or role. A champion is your voice when you are not around.
Mentors may give you time, advice and sometimes they are willing to make a few introductions. Don’t get me wrong, this is great, but what distinguishes a mentor and champion is that a champion is willing to take more of a risk on you.
Related: Success Is Likelier When You Make People Happy They Helped You
Champions are earned.
You cannot just waltz into a new job or career and ask for someone to be your champion. When I started my career on Wall Street, I did not know what I was doing. I had a journalism degree, and my first day on the job I had to build a financial model from scratch. My senior associate would have rather worked with anyone else but me.
The reality is that there is no time to train on the job on Wall Street. You have a deliverable in 24 hours, and there is no time to teach someone how to do things. Like a startup -- it’s sink or swim. I was left with only one choice: Forgo sleeping that night and make it happen. I did not allow mistakes and setbacks (not saving my model and having it crash, losing hours of work) mess with my confidence. I finally earned my senior associate’s trust after one year of working 80 hour weeks side-by-side. I eventually became someone he could take into battle with him and deliver. It has been 17 years, and he is one of my greatest champions and was an investor in my first startup.
Be wary of the professional mentor.
Some people mentor to pad their resume. When I see people put it on their LinkedIn bio, I cringe a little. My personal philosophy may not be popular, but I feel a mentor should selflessly help others and not try to gain anything other than serving. I rather have someone else call me their mentor, than call myself a mentor. For me it’s not a job -- it’s a role I play in people’s lives. The same way we don’t add mother, father, son, daughter, public servant to LinkedIn, I don’t add the title mentor to LinkedIn.
So how do you get started finding a champion? You don’t. A champion finds you. They see the fire in your belly and the determination in your eyes. They’ve seen you perform, fail and keep trying. They know they can take a personal risk, because they know you will not let them down. In every single case where I have had a champion, that person believed in me long before I ever believed in myself.
Related: Coaching Makes All the Difference |
In the nineteenth century, the march of progress made it possible for the first time for human science to contemplate and comprehend those phenomena which had long seemed to contravene the laws of nature. Within a matter of decades, concepts that had long been viewed as witchcraft or sorcery were laid bare in the terms of a new and secret science, and governments and organizations around the world began to classify, study, and collect all such anomalies. And, just as artists throughout history have turned a critical eye to the events of the day in their work, so too did the artists of this scientific Renaissance begin to interpret these new discoveries on canvas.
By the 1870s, Paris was the center of the world of anomalous art, and the city stood witness to endless debates about the role of the anomalous in art, or whether such a role existed at all. When in 1874 the famed Salon des Magnifiques refused to allow any "works of a phantasmagorical nature" to be displayed at their grand exhibition, those artists shut out by the committee organized their own counter-exhibition, to be held at the same time across the river. "Sommes-Nous Devenus Magnifiques?", as the show came to be called, was the talk of the Parisian press for months, earning equal amounts of curiosity, dismissal, and outright derision, but the exiled gadflies had made their point - the paranormal, the anomalous, and the bizarre had found a place in the world of art and would not be so easily gotten rid of.
"Sommes-Nous Devenus Magnifiques?" held its exhibitions every ten years thereafter, and as time passed the world of anomalous art grew larger. From its beginnings in Paris, artists from all across France and Europe, and later from the Americas and the Orient as well, began attending the increasingly prestigious - and increasingly bizarre and difficult to keep hidden from the disdainful eyes of a concerned government - exhibition, expressing new and different interpretations of the role of the anomalous in human life. It was at the sixth decennial exhibition in 1924 that the growing rift between the two largest schools of thought - logical vs. emotional, science vs. faith, Old World vs. New - came to a head, for it was at that show that for the first time, the works of the French surrealist Marcel Duchamp would be exhibited alongside those of Ruiz Marcos, the Mexican artist whose themes of magical realism and religious awe intertwined with the viscerally accessible Forteana of our world had set art critics worldwide at war with each other.
Those who saw the two during the days leading up to the opening of the exhibition said they spent nearly the entire time in heated discussion with one another (in English, for neither spoke the other's mother tongue confidently) about everything under the Sun - the importance of the artist in relation to his work, the importance of context, faith, knowledge, law, free will, God, the State, democracy, Marxism, the war, the League of Nations, and the best way to serve a cup of coffee. It seemed that they might continue bickering throughout the entire exhibition, but as the artists prepared to greet the assembled press on the morning of its grand opening, they appeared to have finally come to an understanding.
If there is one image that comes to the mind of any art historian when the 1924 Expo is brought up, it is of that iconic photo of Duchamp and Ruiz posing side by side with their fellow artists in front of the still-closed doors, Marcos seemingly leaning over to whisper something into Duchamp's ear. For decades, many have speculated on what words Marcos had for his colleague during that memorable instant; a question of metaphysics? Or a challenge? An affirmation of their coming to terms? A reminder of the reason why they were there at that moment of time? Perhaps an expression of amazement at the multitudes that had come to see them? According to one reporter who claimed he stood close enough to overhear that whisper amidst the din of the crowd, it was all five at once, expressed in four simple words;
"Are we cool yet?"
- Excerpt from The Coolest War: Memories of a Critic, by Anonymous |
The guy who oversees consumer PC roadmaps for both notebooks and desktops at Dell believes that the gaming PC market will be growing in a big way for at least a couple of years. The two main contributing factors are allegedly eSports and VR gaming. I guess we will be seeing more Alienware and XPS stuff coming their way.
In contrast to shrinking overall PC sales, global demand for gaming PCs is heating up and the boom will continue over the next five years, according to Consumer Product Marketing senior vice president Raymond Wah under Dell Technologies. Electronic sports (e-sports) and VR (virtual reality) are main growth drivers for gaming PCs, Wah said, adding gaming is becoming e-sports and this is a global trend. Continual gaming content updates push hardware developers to upgrade the specifications of gaming PCs, Wah indicated. The number of e-sports fans will increase to 145 million in 2017.
Discussion |
I called it an ugly looking reference machine. So NVIDIA came back and painted it white. It worked for Apple after all, right?
Perhaps eight years ago.
As much as I can appreciate beauty, what truly matters here is what’s on the inside and that’s what NVIDIA gave me the opportunity to do over this past week. If you haven’t already seen it, what I’m talking about is NVIDIA’s Ion reference platform. In a nutshell it’s Intel’s Atom processor paired with NVIDIA’s GeForce 9400M chipset.
I first brought you news of Ion in the middle of December 2008. It was delivered in the ugly box mentioned above. It seemed cool, it worked, but I only spent a few hours with it and wasn’t able to benchmark it.
Our next encounter was at CES. NVIDIA called me up to its hotel room and offered the opportunity to benchmark an overly spec’d Ion box against a standard netbook boasting a much lighter config. That didn’t work out so well.
This time NVIDIA shipped me a system, now in white. And I could do whatever I wanted with it.
It doesn’t take a visionary to see why Ion would be great. Take a standard Atom system and give it a modern chipset with better graphics and you’ve got Ion. Performance goes up, everyone’s happy. Of course it’s nice to be able to quantify the performance advantage which is what I’ll be doing today, but for all intents and purposes we’ve known that Ion is a good thing.
The Need for Ion
Currently most Atom based desktops and notebooks use Intel’s 945G chipset. That’s the chipset before G45 and G35 - heck, even before G965 - released back in 2005. It features Intel’s GMA 950 graphics core, hardly high performance even by Intel’s standards. It’s a two chip solution built on a 130nm process and uses ICH7 for all south bridge/IO functions.
The problem with 945G is that it’s old, it’s slow, and it takes up a lot of space. The aging 945G only supports DDR2-667 and generally only gets a single channel of memory on most netbooks/notebooks/desktops. The chipset’s performance isn’t terrible but it’s a bit bandwidth constrained. The combination of the Atom CPU, 945 GMCH, and ICH7 chips takes up quite a bit of motherboard real estate. While that’s acceptable on a desktop motherboard, it is a bit cramped in a netbook.
Standard ATX motherboard (left) vs. Ion pico-ITX motherboard (right)
Intel offers a more compact alternative in the form of the US15 chipset, but that doesn’t really address the graphics performance issue.
The Ion motherboard
NVIDIA’s Ion comes in as an alternative two-chip solution. The GeForce 9400M is a single chip, the other chip is the Atom, and the two make up Ion. You get a modern memory controller as well, supporting both DDR2 and DDR3 memory (up to DDR3-1066). Graphics performance is better than Intel and you get full HD video decode support.
The Cost of Ion
I point-blank asked NVIDIA what is required for an OEM to develop an Ion based system. NVIDIA responded by saying that the only thing necessary is that the OEM purchase a GeForce 9400M chipset; there are no required platforms or anything like that. The Ion reference PC is nothing more than a reference, and it doesn’t need to be followed.
There are a few dozen Ion reference platforms out in the hands of OEMs and decision makers in the industry. NVIDIA expects Ion to add between $50 and $100 to the cost of a typical Atom machine.
Availability is still slated for sometime in 2009, with some systems slated to arrive this summer.
The Test
Unlike the CES Ion comparison, I leveled the playing field. NVIDIA sent a fully configured Ion reference box with 2GB of DDR3-1066 and a dual-core Intel Atom 330 running at 1.6GHz.
I purchased an Intel 945GCLF2 from Newegg for less than $60 (open box). This is a mini-ITX 945G motherboard with a single DDR2 slot and an on-board Atom 330. I installed a 2GB DIMM in the board and created a comparable machine to the Ion reference platform.
I used an Intel X25-M SSD so you can compare the non-gaming numbers from this review to other CPUs in our benchmark database.
In the gaming tests I used a GeForce 9300 motherboard and paired it up with a Celeron 430 to show what a faster CPU could get you with the same graphics used on an Ion platform. I tested with both single and dual channel DDR2-800 memory configurations here, and overclocked the 9300 to the 9400's GPU speeds. |
(See above for some of our picks from the available collection.)
A Los Angeles Public Library card comes with plenty of perks, but did you know that it also provides access to hundreds of movies from the Criterion Collection?
Criterion has dedicated itself to gathering and publishing the greatest films from around the world since 1984, and its collection is the ultimate cinephile playground. Your LAPL card will give you access to stream 419 (!) different films from Criterion's unparalleled collection, including the work of masters of cinema like Akira Kurosawa, Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergei Eisenstein and many others.
Anyone with a Los Angeles Public Library card can stream the Criterion Collection - free - through Kanopy, which is in many schools too. https://t.co/kEHxPLfrdj — Manohla Dargis (@ManohlaDargis) July 13, 2017
Pull up a chair and stream French New Wave gems like Breathless, The 400 Blows, Jules and Jim, and Vivre Sa Vie, none of which are available for streaming on Netflix. Or delve into the classics of American independent film, and acquaint yourself with the work of Jim Jarmusch and John Cassavetes (also not available for streaming on Netflix). The possibilities are near infinite, or at least approximately 50,280* minutes long.
The movies are made available to LAPL users through a service called Kanopy, and you can watch up to 10 films per month. Once you set up a free account on Kanopy using your library card, you can stream movies through your computer, or on your phone/iPad using the Kanopy app. Kanopy is also compatible with Apple TV and Roku. Anyone with a library card can set up a Kanopy here.
The incredibleness of the collection is perhaps best summed up by a tweet by New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis, who responded to our query for favorites:
What are your favorite movies in the Criterion Collection? — LAist (@LAist) July 13, 2017
Enjoy!
*Four hundred and nineteen titles, multiplied by the average length of a movie (approximately 120 minutes). |
The 352-page Persona 5 Maniax user handbook was released in Japan today, revealing the poll results for a Persona 5 related survey conducted from May 16 to May 26, 2017.
There was a total of more than 1,800 respondents. 51% were female, 49% were male. 20% of respondents were between 10 and 20 years old, 56% were in their 20s, 20% were in their 30s, 3.5% were in their 40s, and 0.5% were in their 50s.
[SPOILER WARNING] INFORMATION BELOW INCLUDES SPOILERS FOR PERSONA 5, READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.
How many times have you played through “Persona 5”?
Cleared the Game 1 Time: 346 votes
346 votes Started a 2nd Playthrough: 511 votes
511 votes Cleared the Game 2 Times: 137 votes
137 votes Started a 3rd Playthrough: 342 votes
342 votes Cleared the Game 3 Times: 72 votes
72 votes Started a 4th Playthrough: 89 votes
89 votes Cleared the Game 4 Times: 33 votes
33 votes Started a 5th Playthrough: 43 votes
43 votes Cleared the Game 5 Times: 11 votes
11 votes Started a 6th Playthrough: 8 votes
8 votes Cleared the Game 6 Times: 2 votes
2 votes Started a 7th Playthrough: 7 votes
7 votes Started a 8th Playthrough: 1 vote
1 vote Cleared the Game 8 Times: 2 votes
2 votes Started a 9th Playthrough: 1 vote
1 vote Cleared the Game 9 Times: 1 votes
1 votes Started a 10th Playthrough: 4 vote
4 vote Cleared the Game 10 Times: 1 vote
1 vote Started a 12th Playthrough: 1 vote
1 vote Started a 13th Playthrough: 1 vote
1 vote Started a 15th Playthrough: 1 vote
Who is your favorite character among the Phantom Thieves?
Protagonist (691 votes) Makoto Niijima (346 votes) Yusuke Kitagawa (244 votes) Futaba Sakura (213 votes) Morgana (135 votes) Haru Okumura (117 votes) Ann Takamaki (70 votes) Ryuji Sakamoto (64 votes)
Who is your favorite Confidant character?
Goro Akechi (350 votes) Tae Takemi (343 votes) Sojiro Sakura (279 votes) Sadayo Kawakami (184 votes) Toranosuke Yoshida (179 votes) Hifumi Togo (150 votes) Munehisa Iwai (81 votes) Sae Niijima (59 votes) Yuuki Mishima (55 votes) Chihaya Mifune (43 votes) Igor (35 votes) Shinya Oda (33 votes) Caroline (31 votes) Justine (27 votes) Ichiko Ohya (2 votes)
Who is your favorite character, excluding the above categories?
Lala Escargot (159 votes) Lavenza (158 votes) Shiho Suzui (146 votes) Masayoshi Shido (80 votes) Newspaper Club Member (79 votes) Suguru Kamoshida (64 votes) Mr. Hiruta (54 votes) Young Rocker (24 votes) Mika (18 votes) Old Man at the Bathhouse (17 votes) President Tanaka (17 votes) Junya Kaneshiro (16 votes) Ichiryusai Madarame (16 votes) Real Igor (15 votes) Scruffy Romantic & Beefy Trendsetter (14 votes)
What is your favorite persona among the Phantom Thieves’ dedicated personas?
Arsene (765 votes) Johanna (369 votes) Goemon (119 votes) Carmen (94 votes) Milady (89 votes) Captain Kidd (71 votes) Necronomicon (55 votes) Zorro (51 votes) Anat (36 votes) Satanael (32 votes) Kamu Susano-o (17 votes) Seiten Taisei (16 votes) Astarte (15 votes) Hecate (13 votes) Prometheus (11 votes) Mercurius (7 votes)
What is your favorite persona among other personas?
Yoshitsune (186 votes) Alice (136 votes) Jack Frost (123 votes) Loki (109 votes) Mara (81 votes) Black Frost (48 votes) Seth (36 votes) Neko Shogun (36 votes) Trumpeter (29 votes) King Frost (26 votes) Thanatos (26 votes) Shiki-Ouji (22 votes) Cu Chulainn (19 votes) Scathach (18 votes) Mothman (18 votes)
What is your favorite scene?
Bargaining with Akechi (138 votes) The Protagonist’s fake death plan (125 votes) Igor’s release (84 votes) Summoning Satanael (84 votes) Futaba’s awakening (82 votes) Makoto’s awakening (71 votes) Yusuke’s awakening (53 votes) Phantom Thieve’s final calling card (52 votes) Phan-site support reaches 100% (38 votes) The opening act of infiltrating Niijima’s palace (32 votes) The protagonist’s awakening (31 votes) Freeing the protagonist after his arrest. (29 votes) Akechi eating the special takoyaki during the school festival. (28 votes) The good ending. (22 votes) The escape from Shido’s collapsing palace. (19 votes) The school trip. (18 votes) Sojiro finding out about the Phantom Thieves. (17 votes) Yusuke’s Confidant link from 4 to 5. (16 votes)
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A ship jointly owned by Swedish, Greek, and Norwegian activists hoping to join a flotilla of activist vessels challenging Israel's economic blockade of Gaza, had its propeller cut while in Athen's harbor today. A spokesman contacted by the Monitor said that the damage was a deliberate act of sabotage.
Israel and its allies have been working hard to head off the planned flotilla, which is hoping to enter the waters off Gaza in the next week. Col. (ret) Ann Wright, who's organizing a US vessel named the Audacity of Hope for the flotilla, says her ship has been detained in Athens on spurious charges that it's not seaworthy. She says that charge was made by an Israeli legal group.
Now the Juliano is held up. Mikael Löfgren, a spokesman for Ship to Gaza Sweden, says the damage was discovered at 6:30 in the evening Athens time today, and that divers probably cut the propeller in the past 24 hours.
"The reports I'm receiving is that it's certain that it was sabotage," says Mr. Löfgren, reached by phone in Sweden. "The propeller and [propeller shaft] has been cut and we have divers that have filmed the damages. Experts have said there’s no doubt" that the damage was deliberate.
He says that repairing the damage will take a few days. As to who is responsible, he declined to speculate. "We simply don't know who did it, but it's obviously a hostile act," says Löfgren.
Israel has been desperate to stop the flotilla from nearing Gaza. Israel raided a similar flotilla in international waters last year, killing nine pro-Palestinian activists in the process, one of them an American citizen. In the wake of that event, and the international outcry against Israel, Israel eased some of the restrictions on the flow of goods into Gaza.
This year, Israel is determined it doesn't get that far. Earlier today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet approve using any means necessary to stop the flotilla from reaching Gaza.
The US has also been putting pressure on the activists to hold back. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton characterized the flotilla as hostile in a comment last week.
"We think that it's not helpful for there to be flotillas that try to provoke action by entering into Israeli waters and creating a situation in which the Israelis have the right to defend themselves," Clinton said.
The flotilla, in fact, says it has no plans to enter Israeli waters, instead planning on transiting through international waters to Gaza's territorial waters. The distinction goes to the heart of their protest. While Israel extends de facto sovereignty over Gaza's coastal waters, penning its fisherman close to shore and preventing any shipping or ferries to run to and from the Strip, it's not their territory under international law.
The activists themselves say they want to make the point that peacefully coming and going from Gaza shouldn't be criminalized, insist that they will practice nonviolence in their attempt, and that they'd be delighted to simply sail through unmolested. |
Crews are working to clear fallen trees and downed power lines in the city and suburbs after heavy storms swept through the area. The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touched down in Lake County. funnel cloud was spotted around 9 p.m. Sunday in Grayslake. NWS said a preliminary survey finds that the EF-1 tornado was on the ground for 7.5 miles. The tornado's track began in Round Lake, continued through Hainesville and Grayslake, and ended in Wildwood. Winds of between 90 to 100 mph were recorded. The maximum width of the tornado's track was around 300 yards.This was the first tornado to hit Lake County since 2002."All of a sudden whish, whish. Then everybody hit the floor," Johnny Scott said.Several roofs were damaged, including that of Grayslake Central High School, where the dugout was blown across the street and field equipment was tossed around. Part of the school's roof landed in the choir teacher's front yard."As you can see, our wonderful tree caught it," Jenny White said. "So I want to keep this tree. I love this tree. I hope we can save it. It saved us."No one was injured in Grayslake, but there was property damage."Everybody was concerned that the tree would fall into the house. But God was merciful, and you saw all the branches that did break," Loretha Scott said. Next door, Jeffrey Goldsmith's vehicles were damaged."Three or four vehicles were dented and wiped out a bunch of trees torn off, thrown over here," Goldsmith said. "It's just terrible."Stuff was flying in the air. A car was very shaken, very badly, trying to hold on to that thing. Barricades from construction were flying in the air. And no sooner had it started than it stopped," Sgt. Scott Heimus, Grayslake Police Department, said."By the time everything was over, I came out, and the tree that was two feet from the sunroom was totally uprooted," Theresa Talbert, resident, said.The storms cut a four to five mile path of destruction and damaged about half a dozen buildings from Round Lake to Wildwood."We've had sirens go off many times before. And you never think it's going to be as bad as it is. This is terrible," Alison Dalton said.A new skate park was also tossed around, landing near the swimming pool across the street."I thought these were really planted in the ground, but apparently they're not. It must have been really strong to move all these big ramps," Michael Knapik said.Despite the damage, the school plans to open on time next week.In nearby Round Lake, a popular restaurant was destroyed and several homes were damaged . But no one was injured.No one was injured in Chicago, but the storms uprooted trees in Rogers Park and Edgewater on the city's North Side."The tree coming down, the damage from that, is moderate to extensive. It'll take a while for them to clean this up," Dick Thomas said.More than 500 calls were made to 911, city officials said, during the storm."We remove the trees from property, meaning it's on your property, on your house, your business. We also clear the streets. Once we do that, we move on to things like this one, that is partially blocking the street," Commissioner Charles Williams, Chicago Streets and Sanitation, said.Hail damage was also reported."I have about six holes about this big in a bunch of my screens from hail ripping through them. I've never had that happen before," Beth Jones said.At the height of the storm, about 120,000 ComEd customers were without power.As of 9 p.m., about 3,600 people remain without power, mainly in Lake County, and will be restored once crews have safely secured the downed trees. ComEd set up a mobile unit in Grayslake to help customers and make sure crews are ready to go to areas as soon as they're given the OK.The final day of Lollapalooza, one of Chicago's biggest music festivals, ended about 30 minutes early because of severe weather. A few of Sunday's final acts, including Florence and the Machine, had to shorten their performances."It's better to be safe than sorry. And they made a call. And they did it appropriately. And the good news is we, obviously, on the 11th year Lollapalooza, and they practice for emergencies, weather-related. And they were prepared," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said. Grant Park was briefly evacuated Sunday afternoon due to approaching storms. Lollapalooza artists returned to the stage around 4 p.m. |
By modeling a circuit board on the human brain, Stanford bioengineers have developed microchips that are 9,000 times faster than a typical PC. Called Neurogrid, these energy-efficient circuits could eventually power autonomous robots and advanced prosthetic limbs.
Bioengineers are smart to take inspiration from the human brain. It's a highly efficient information processor capable of crunching 100 million instructions per second (MIPS). Astoundingly, it only uses about 20 watts to power its 100 billion neurons. Today, our best supercomputers require a million watts to simulate a million neurons in real time (measured in terraflops). A standard desktop computer requires about 40,000 times more power to run and operates about 9,000 times slower.
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The goal, therefore, is to produce information technologies with the power of the human brain. There are several initiatives underway that are working to achieve this goal, including IBM's neurosynaptic chips (and accompanying programming language), the University of Heidelberg's HICANN Chip, and brain-mapping initiatives like the European Human Brain Project.
We can now add another project to the list: Stanford's Neurogrid. But unlike other current efforts, this "neuromorphic" system boasts some incredible energy-saving features.
An Analog State of Mind
The new circuit board, developed by Kwabena Boahen and his colleagues at Stanford, consists of 16 custom-designed "Neurocore" chips working in a tree network configuration. Each of the 16 Neurocores supports 65,536 neurons. Together, these chips can simulate one million neurons and billions of synaptic connections. And incredibly, Neurocore needs just three watts of power to get the job done.
The designers used traditional transistors, but instead of using digital logic, they used them as analog circuits. To mimic the functions of the human brain (albeit on a drastically reduced scale), the researchers emulated all neural elements (except the soma) with shared electronic circuits — a design decision that maximized the number of synaptic connections. To maximize energy efficiency, the researchers used analog circuits. And to maximize throughput, they interconnected the neural arrays in a tree network.
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It's considered the most cost-effective way to simulate neurons. But at $40,000 a piece, the researchers are going to have to figure out a way to drive the costs down.
Miniaturization, Autonomy, Power
Ramped-up and refined versions of this technology could be put to good use. In addition to improving our understanding of how the human brain works, it could be used to interpret signals from the brain and, in real time, use those signals to drive prosthetic limbs for paralyzed people.
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These chips could also be used in robotics. A robot implanted with a Neurocore-like chip wouldn't have to be tethered to a power supply, thus increasing its autonomy.
Read the entire study at Proceedings of the IEEE: "Neurogrid: A Mixed-Analog-Digital Multichip System for Large-Scale Neural Simulations." Supplemental information via Stanford.
Image: Kurt Hickman/Stanford.
Follow me on Twitter: @dvorsky |
In the second season of BoJack Horseman, it’s revealed that the pop culture magazine Manatee Fair (get it?) is owned by a sprawling media conglomerate called AOL–Time Warner–PepsiCo-Viacom-Halliburton-Skynet-Toyota–Trader Joe’s. In the real world, this company goes by a simpler name: Verizon.
The wireless carrier was the winner in the contest to finally put Yahoo out of its misery, acquiring the fading internet giant for $4.8 billion. On the one hand, paying billions of dollars for Yahoo in 2016 sounds about as forward-looking as buying AOL for $4.4 billion (which Verizon also did, but we’ll get to that). The only person who still uses Yahoo email is your mom because you set up an account for her in 2002, right? Yahoo Answers is an elaborate piece of performance art about the amorphous nature of truth in the digital age, right? GeoCities died off two Web-point-0s ago … right?
Actually, for all its failings, Yahoo is still one of the biggest internet companies in the world, a member of the vaunted billion-user club with Facebook and Google (though Yahoo’s billion-user claim is a bit of a cheat as it cobbles together users of a variety of products). Yahoo.com attracts more visitors than Wikipedia, Twitter, and Reddit, according to Alexa. The company also claims 600 million mobile monthly users.
That level of scale is highly enticing to Verizon, which in recent years has made a Bold Pivot to create Compelling Internet Content for the Mobile-First Generation (here is a strange list of properties Verizon now at least partially owns: The Huffington Post, Complex Media, Millennial Media, TechCrunch, Tumblr, AwesomenessTV, Flickr, Rivals.com, Katie Couric). With smartphone adoption reaching a saturation point in the United States and pay-TV growth screeching to a halt, the telco giant is looking for new revenue sources. And there’s pretty much no better way to create the illusion of growth in 2016 than by publishing ungodly amounts of Content.
With Yahoo (theoretically) continuing to attract a massive number of eyeballs, Verizon will make money on those visitors thanks to its purchase of AOL and a soul-crushing invention called “programmatic ad-buying technology.” Basically, AOL gives Verizon the ability to serve lots and lots of targeted ads on lots and lots of web pages. Like Spirited Away’s No-Face, there may be no satiating the telco now that it’s gotten a taste for Content — ’90s Content, in particular. So, what’s Verizon going to snatch up for its Web 1.0 revolution next?
IAC/Interactive Corp
The media company has been collecting early-web flotsam for the better part of a decade. IAC bought the search engine Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com) for $1.85 billion in 2005. Later, it spent $300 million on About.com, the world’s most popular website for halfheartedly researching New Year’s resolutions. Acquiring two stalwart ’90s relics with a single acquisition would be a boon — Verizon would be like the kid who got Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue for Christmas ’98.
In addition to precious Content, this deal would give Verizon ownership of Tinder, OkCupid, and Match.com, which (prepare for disillusionment) are all owned by IAC. It’s not totally clear how much synergy could be built among dating apps and Verizon’s other properties, but where there’s a corporate will, there’s a way — maybe serve up HuffPo dating tips after a user strikes out on a dozen right swipes.
Cost: IAC’s market cap is $4.8 billion, so we’ll round up to a cool $5 billion.
MapQuest
Of the hundreds of companies felled by Google’s ascendance, MapQuest is one of the easiest to root for. The company began as a Chicago-based cartography firm in the 1960s that issued free maps at gas stations, and later launched the free online service MapQuest in 1996. In its heyday, MapQuest was one of the most useful services online, reducing the psychological warfare waged between road trip drivers and navigators by at least half. A modernized, mobile MapQuest could be a useful place for Verizon to sell location-based ads.
Cost: Free! AOL actually bought MapQuest for $1.1 billion in 2000, which means Verizon acquired it during last year’s AOL acquisition. Chances are the service has been relegated to the same junk drawer as AOL’s dial-up internet customers, though, so Verizon could dust the brand off and give a solid go of competing with Google and Apple.
Legacy.com
We all know that the digital world revolves around the coveted 18-to-34 demographic, but there are plenty of other age groups out there waiting to be monetized. Enter Legacy.com. The obituary website attracts 40 million visitors worldwide per month to read dedications for both loved ones and celebrities like Muhammad Ali.
Verizon owning an obituary service is no more or less arbitrary than Verizon now owning Rivals.com. So why not? We here at The Ringer are already prepared to license one timely obit to the website.
Cost: Bloomberg reports Legacy.com’s annual revenue at as much as $100 million, so somewhere north of that.
Neopets
Internet denizens of a certain age have all had this stray thought at some point or another, which they are careful to never probe too deeply: Why the fuck was I so into Neopoets for like two months? The website, launched in 1999, allowed kids to raise virtual pets and earn digital currency by playing ad-heavy Flash games. There wasn’t much of a point to it besides the satisfaction of seeing a make-believe animal on a screen feign happiness. Maybe Neopets is what primed us to get a dopamine rush from Facebook likes.
If Pokémon Go is any indication, millennials are more than willing to grab hold of any nostalgic life raft in a sea of political and social upheaval. Put the Neopets in a catch-’em-all augmented-reality game. Give them a YouTube show. Infiltrate the tween networks on Tumblr and pass the game off as the new, hip thing. The animals are cuddly, addictive, and faintly unsettling, which makes them perfectly primed for a 2016 resurgence.
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What sites send Bing the most traffic? Here’s a surprise. According to Hitwise, Google is Bing’s fourth largest referring source.
Below are the top five sites that drive traffic to Bing, or “upstream” to Bing, as Hitwise calls it:
MSN is by far the top source, the last site visited by 42.7% of Bing users before they went to Bing. That’s not surprising. MSN — Microsoft’s portal — has long been a huge search driver for Microsoft. In fact, the company recently said that half of all Bing queries come from MSN.
Bing is also the default web search engine for Facebook, so Facebook makes sense as the number two referrer, at 4.6% of traffic.
Windows Live Mail — that’s another Microsoft property that ties into Bing search — so it’s another one that makes sense logically. It’s at 4.4% of traffic.
But Google as the fourth largest referring source, at 4.1%? Google, which competes against Bing? How’s that happening? Probably two ways.
First, Bing buys ads on Google, like this:
You can find Bing ads showing up on searches at Google for bing, cashback, search engines, flight comparison and image search, to name some examples. Interestingly, Bing doesn’t appear to be buying ads against its tagline, that it is a decision engine.
Bing also does a lot of TV advertising. TV ads are known to drive search queries. So there’s a good chance that when someone sees a Bing ad, they decide to google Bing and discover what they’ve just seen!
All this also applies to Yahoo, which drives 1.9% of traffic. Bing advertises there, and TV ads probably generate queries on Yahoo for Bing, as well.
It’s clear people do search for Bing by name on Google. Using Google Trends, we can see the growth of this over the last year. Here’s the search volume of those seeking Bing on Google:
Still, that’s nothing compared to the number of searches that happen for Yahoo on Google. Here’s the Bing chart again, this time with searches for Yahoo on Google added in:
Oddest of all, currently more people search on Google for Google than for Yahoo or Bing. Here’s the chart: |
This is part one of a two-article series looking at the legacy of Appalachian culture in Detroit.
The first I heard of the 20th century Appalachian influx into Detroit—the "Hillbilly Highway" migration, as it's often called—was my own move here in 2013. This was an Appalachian migration of sorts, as I was born and raised in West Virginia, though moved to Detroit from Brooklyn.
I was part of a long line, it seemed: between 1940 and 1960, seven million Appalachians left their home. During World War II, men from all across the South came north to work in the war factories, and then, when Appalachian coal jobs decreased due to automation, to booming industrial cities like Chicago and Detroit. I became curious about these Appalachians who'd arrived decades before I had, about what their experiences were like and where they ended up.
The Hillbilly Highway was an out-migration with both push and pull.
They also believed its workers to be "safe," or unlikely to unionize.
It also helped that, according to Thomas Klug, Marygrove College history professor and director of the college's Institute for Detroit Studies, many Southern migrants planned to work up north then move home with their earnings. This plan dovetailed with auto companies' needs for seasonal workers to supplement their core staff of settled Detroiters, a more diverse group of higher-skilled workers and homeowners.
"Employers want a highly mobile force that they can hire and fire, and when you fire them they leave, and when you want them, they come back," says Klug. "It fits in perfectly with the migrant strategy. You work really hard and make a lot of money relative to the sought, you take that money and go back, and maybe you can set up a gas station or buy a piece of land."
In the Midwest as a whole, however—according to "
Some migrants chose to leave Appalachia behind completely. One West Virginia-born couple interviewed in "Appalachian Odyssey"
West Virginia University College of Pharmacy Guests at Parke-Davis Home Laboratories in Detroit (1959) Reading "Appalachian Odyssey" and the media of the time suggests a rough transition. The representation of Appalachia, and the South more generally, in popular media, tended to sketch a freakish "other." In a 1935 Harper's Magazine article, "The Hillbillies Invade Chicago," writer Albert Votaw describes Appalachian migrants as "clannish, proud, disorderly, untamed to urban ways," confounding "all notions of racial, religious and cultural purity."
The same year, an article in The Nation, "The Hill-Billies Come to Detroit," refers to the population as "white trash or a little better." These "hill-billies," writes Louis Adamic, "with their extremely low standard of living and lack of acquaintance with modern plumbing, are looked down upon by all but the most intelligent local workers, both native and foreign born; they are despised also—indeed, mainly—because they take employment away from the old-time automotive workers."
A 1934 Detroit News
Perhaps most shocking is how even professionals in Appalachia itself contributed to the idea that theirs was a lifestyle out of sync with the times. The Council of the Southern Mountains, for example, sponsored speakers to address a group of city professionals "about the 'strangers' entering their communities," and mountain people's "peculiar ways" were explained in workshops in Cincinnati and Chicago.
According to the literature, Appalachians were never welcomed in their new Northern homes. So I expected to hear stories of persecution and slow acceptance from old-timers.
But the reality of Appalachians entering Detroit, as reality tends to be, is more complicated.
A supportive community
Nancy McNiven-Glenn, the former proprietor of North Corktown's Nancy Whiskey bar, and Carole Baker, a lifelong Detroiter who still resides in the Woodbridge neighborhood where she was born, recall a happy time with their Southern neighbors. In Baker's colorful living room, the two friends describe—often while finishing each other's thoughts—a convivial, supportive community.
Nancy McNiven-Glenn "If you talk to most any Detroiter, their grandma and grandpa came from down south during that time," McNiven-Glenn says. "There's a lot of Kentucky ties here. Tennessee, too."
Her father, a North Carolina native, moved the family north to work in the war factories. In the 1950s and '60s, Baker recalls, many Appalachians and Southerners lived in large apartment buildings on Charlotte and Peterboro streets. They were religious and clannish, according to both women, often living in the same large apartment buildings.
Says Baker, "They'd bring cornbread up to the second floor and mama watched the—"
"—young 'uns," McNiven-Glenn says.
"—on the first floor while that one went to work, and that's just the way it was."
McNiven-Glenn laughs remembering the camaraderie she shared with a Kentucky-born bar owner in the neighborhood. "He had some rough customers. There'd be a few thrown downs in there once or twice a week," she says.
One day, he called her up. "He said, 'Nancy!'"—she mimicked a high-pitched Southern twang—"'I'm about starvin' myself and I can't go off and leave this bar. What'd you cook for lunch?' I said, 'I'll be right there with it.'"
"That's the way it was," she adds. "They were right there for you."
After opening Nancy Whiskey in 1987, McNiven-Glenn had Southern customers who liked to fill the bar with Hank Williams, Sr. songs (and, occasionally, spend their social security checks on rounds).
Baker was especially fond of their beans and cornbread, the unofficial dish of Appalachia. "Cornbread dressing was my
Carole Baker
"They were hard workers, unlike what people say," Baker says. "They would always—plumbing problem, or take the plumbing out—"
"—Oh, in a minute. They'd give you a hand there, sure," McNiven-Glenn adds.
"—redo the floors, finish the woodwork. I always used Southern people because I could trust 'em."
Baker also mentions the beautiful conditions of their apartments. I remark that this countered some accounts of their living situations. "No, I can remember them, they were absolutely gorgeous apartments," she says. "The front lawns and everything. [The Southerners] worked at the auto plants and they filled the schools up."
Baker says the area deteriorated after the 1967 riots, in part because of fear narratives similar to those endured by Irish immigrants and the blockbusting endured by African-Americans.
Over time, many of the Appalachians who stayed moved out to middle-class suburbs like Warren, Taylor, and Hazel Park (which still carry derogatory labels like "Taylortucky"). Some of the poorest Southern whites—many from West Virginia, Tennessee and, Kentucky—continued to live in North Corktown well into the late 20th century.
From 1992 to 1994, John Hartigan, Jr. lived in Briggs (as it was then known) and studied its racial dynamics for his book, "
When we speak, Hartigan says that the experience of poor Appalachian whites who remained in Briggs wasn't representative of the larger Appalachian migration. Those who got jobs moved to the suburbs in the 1970s and '80s, he says, but by this point, factory jobs were long gone. Those left behind, often the children of those early migrants, did odd jobs and often struggled with alcohol and drug abuse.
"They didn't have the kind of opportunity the parents had," he said. |
From Marathon Man to Forrest Gump, we complete a circuit of the best running-themed films. What's your favourite? Let us know below
Since the moment Eadweard Muybridge captured a man sprinting in 1887 runners have worn a path across the cinematic landscape. Whether on the pristine oval of an Olympic running track, a dusty patch in a prison rec yard or the damp tarmac of a rural country road, film has documented the sweat and solitude of running in all its pain and glory.
Here are 10 of the best.
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Opening with the sound of Tom Courtenay's feet thudding against a bleak rural lane, Tony Richardson and Alan Sillitoe's 1962 British New Wave classic is one of the most poetic running films in cinematic history. As Colin Smith, a petty delinquent, Courtenay gives a compelling perfomance in this class-conscious commentary on late-50s British society. After being sent to a reformatory for his part in a bakery robbery, Smith turns to long-distance running to escape the drudgery of his confinement. His talent is spotted by the governor who offers the promise of early release if he runs for the reformatory in a race against a public school. In the final, stunning denouement, Smith's freedom and independence are resolved by his race performance in the most unpredictable way.
Marathon Man
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"Is it safe?" Probably not when you have a Nazi war criminal drilling holes in your teeth. Dustin Hoffman plays Columbia grad student and running obsessive Thomas "Babe" Levy, who is hounded by Laurence Olivier's sinister Dr Christian Szell over a briefcase of missing diamonds. An early scene shows Hoffmann pushing himself around Central Park. All that training and his ability to recall the feats of Ethiopian Olympic legend Abebe Bikila winning in Rome and Tokyo give him the endurance to escape his tormentors. Director John Schlesinger intercuts footage of a petrified, bloody Hoffman with the placid Bikila from the Tokyo Olympiad official film to striking effect.
Forrest Gump
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After childhood sweetheart Jenny Curran (Robin Wright) leaves Tom Hanks's sweet Forrest Gump halfway through Robert Zemeckis's Oscar-laden drama, he sets off on an epic run lasting three years, two months, 14 days, and 16 hours. More than your average Sunday morning wheeze-fest. Forrest finally stops running when, after covering 15,248 miles, he has managed to "put his past behind him". The sequence manages to be beautiful and amusing in its exploration of the catharsis of running. Anyone who fancies emulating Forrest can do so with the help of the fastidious people at the Centives economics blog who have created the ultimate MapMyRun style analysis of Forrest's running route.
The Robber
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German director Benjamin Heisenberg's film is based on real-life 80s Austrian bank-robber and gifted marathon runner Johnann Kastenberger. Adapted from the novel by Martin Prinz, the quiet yet kinetic and visually elegant film mixes the robber's getaways with races from his earlier life as a potential marathon runner. Adrenaline and ecstasy at their best and worst are shown in this examination of a man who "only feels truly alive, truly himself, truly free when he is running". Or stealing loads of cash from a Viennese bank.
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These two biopics of maverick American 5000m runner Steve Prefontaine were released a year apart and there is little to separate the two. Chinatown screenwriter Robert Towne's Without Limits perhaps has the edge thanks to a glossier production, but Steve "Hoop Dreams" James's film also has its merits. Both deal with Pre's bolshy frontrunning tactics, spectacular 1972 Munich Olympic disappointment and tragic, fatal car crash at 24. As a sideline, in Without Limits you can also witness the birth of Nike through Donald Sutherland's portrayal of Bill Bowerman, Pre's Oregon running coach and co-founder of the sportswear giant.
Run Fatboy Run
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In perhaps the funniest take on the pain of long-distance running, David Schwimmer casts boyish British Everyman Simon Pegg as an affable loser who decides to run a marathon in an attempt to prove his worth to his ex-fiancee Thandie Newton. Some of the biggest laughs come from the familiar pitfalls of the amateur marathoner – blisters and hitting the wall.
On the Edge
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Showcasing some exemplary sports-movie dialogue – "I'm going to take your bloated carcass and teach you how to be a mountain racer!" – this tale of running redemption casts Bruce Dern as an unfairly disgraced athlete attempting to reclaim the glory he was denied. At the ripe age of 44 he enters a fictional version of the Dipsea Race in Marin County, a gruelling seven-mile slog over hazardous mountain terrain. The sequences of the sinewy Dern, a real life ultramarathon runner, padding along the glorious California coastline are a joy to behold.
The Jericho Mile
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An early breakthrough for Michael Mann, this Emmy-winning made-for-TV movie features Peter Strauss as Larry "Rain" Murphy, a loner sent to prison for murdering his abusive father. After the warden discovers his talent for running, he is given a chance to train for the Olympic trials. Multiple running scenes mixed with a real-life prison backdrop create an upbeat sports drama worthy of the accolades it received.
The Athlete
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As well as inspiring Dustin Hoffman's getaway in the aforementioned Marathon Man, Abebe Bikila has his own movie. Blending biopic, autobiography drama and documentary to create a portrait of the first African to win an Olympic gold medal, the film features stunning canters through the Abyssinian plateau. Juxtaposing those Olympic triumphs with the heartwrenching loss of Bikila's legs in a late-career car accident adds power too.
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You didn't think we'd forget did you? Despite the best efforts of Mr Bean, this British classic is still one of the most exciting running films ever made. Charting the lives of British Olympians Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams in the lead up to their triumph at the 1924 Paris Olympics, Chariots of Fire is the go-to post-run recovery movie. Vangelis and excessive slow motion. What more could you want?
And if that movie marathon doesn't tire you out you can put in some extra miles alongside younger incarnations of Michael Douglas in Running and Brad Pitt in Across the Tracks
Which running films – or films with a great running scene – have we missed? Share your favourites and take outraged issue with this selection below ...
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hero concept
Drek'Thar Frostwolf Chieftain
The elder shaman of the Frostwolf clan, Drek'Thar served as Thrall's tutor many years ago. He found the spirits of the elements to be close companions, so shamanism became his path to might. He now comes to the nexus to show is elemental power.
Trait: Feral Spirits Drek'thar is assisted in combat by 2 Spirit wolves. Each wolf shares the base basic attack damage and attack speed with Drek'Thar. Sprits always attack Drek'Thar's target
Abilities Storm Strike Mana Cost: 60 Cooldown: 6 sec Energizes both your weapons with lightning, dealing 275 (+4% per level) Empower Weaons Mana Cost: 20 Cooldown: 0.5 Swap between Rockbiter and Flametogue weapon enhancements. Rockbiter increases basic attack damage by 80. Flametongue causes your enemy to burn for 20 over 5 seconds. This can stack. Your basic attacks also cleave Spiritwalker grace Mana Cost: 50 Cooldown: 14 sec Remove all roots and slows and increase movement speed by 25% for 2 seconds. |
Q&A Stream #12 - Submit your questions here
BUGS DO NOT GO HERE
Juke spots
Stream is tomorrow @2pm EDT http://twitch.tv/deadbydaylight Please no bug reports, or bug related questions -- bug reports can be posted at the bug report sub forum.This will be one of the first things Devs will discuss----------Hello everyone!The time is upon us once again. They Devs want this to be a great game for everyone and they appreciate the time you take out of your gaming to report the issues and give your thoughts as to how the game can be better.The weekly Q&A Stream has continued to increase in popularity. In order for the Devs to be able to answer as many questions as possible we are going to have this thread where you can ask your questions before hand. It will be locked at 11:30 EST on Thursday so the Devs have time to compile them all.In order to keep things as streamlined as possible, only posts with questions will be allowed in the thread, all other posts will be removed. Any duplicate questions and troll posts will also be removed. Ex: “What don’t you fix your frakkin game?’ The Devs want to be as open as they can be in regards to the game and the things they are working on and the issues at hand. Try to make your questions succinct and understandable.Thanks and see you at the stream tomorrow @2pm EDT |
İzmir presents mosaic city of western region
İZMİR - Anatolia News Agency
Precious mosaics with animal and plant
figures were found in six of the villa complex’s
rooms, unearthed in İzmir’s Kemalpaşa
neighborhood.
An archaeological city dating back 1,700 years has been unearthed during excavations in İzmir’s Kemalpaşa neighborhood, raising officials’ hopes the area will draw tourists’ attention.The Cultural Beings and Museums’ General Director Osman Murat Süslü held a press conference Oct. 21 regarding the discovery of the archaeological city, which Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay has defined as “good news that will draw the world’s attention.”Drilling work had started in the area, which is now categorized as a third degree archaeological site, before the construction of a warehouse company was scheduled to begin. Excavations were begun due to an abundance of signs the area may be a hotspot for archaeological treasures, Süslü said. “Scientific excavations started Oct. 1 and a layer from the 4th Century B.C. has been unearthed,” he said.The newly-unearthed city is believed to date back to around the late Roman or Byzantium period, Süslü said. It was home to a 550-square-meter villa complex with 105-centimeter-thick walls, water channels and 11 rooms.Precious mosaics were found in six of the villa complex’s rooms. “The mosaics are decorated with animal and plant figures that you cannot see anywhere today. They created the Anatolian panther, the Anatolian tiger as well as a partridge and a rabbit [in mosaics]. They are decorated with completely natural stones. You can see various shades of red, blue and green. There is a rich archaeological structuring in the region,” he said.According to Süslü, the historic structure in the city could be defined as the “Zeugma of the West,” but the most sorrowful thing was the illegal excavations. Zeugma is the ancient city known for its rich mosaics in the southeastern province of Gaziantep.Artifacts unearthed during illegal excavations from Zeugma were sold abroad at trifling prices and later major efforts were put underway to bring those artifacts back, Süslü said.Süslü warned those involved in illegal excavations that there would be repercussions to their actions. “These people should know that we pay for artifacts when they inform us [of their discovery]. Citizens should prevent illegal excavations when they see [them happening].”Further, more detailed information about the name and estimated size of the newly-discovered city in İzmir would be given as a result of detailed excavation works, Süslü said. “It is known that there are lost cities in Anatolia. Works will tell us which lost city this is.” |
A small group of Portland residents is offering to raise money to fund the special assistant to the mayor after it was eliminated from the budget by the City Council. But the city manager says that the effort would likely be rebuffed, since the council has already deemed the position to be unnecessary.
Peaks Island resident Timmi Sellers asked the city in a May 18 email how residents could earmark a donation to pay for Jason Shedlock’s salary, which would have been roughly $69,000 next year.
Jason Shedlock, assistant to the mayor, speaks to the council before its vote terminating his position this month. He said that listening to people talk about him was like "watching your own funeral." Staff photo by Derek Davis Related Headlines Portland Mayor Strimling says he may veto budget over council’s vote to cut his assistant
Sellers, who was impressed that Mayor Ethan Strimling and Shedlock recently attended a meeting on Peaks Island to hear concerns about the loss of mainland parking, said in an interview that she was moved to act after watching the emotional debate leading up to the City Council’s May 15 vote.
“I was pretty shocked at the viciousness of the personal attacks on the mayor after he explained very carefully why the position was so important to him,” she said. “I had voted for the mayor’s position and I want it to be successful. I consider one year a short time for this to be evaluated.”
Sellers said she and a few other neighborhood leaders, who she declined to identify, were interested in raising money, but wanted to first check with the city about the legality before launching the effort.
Residents are allowed make donations to the city. According to the City Council’s rules, donations in excess of $5,000 must be accepted and appropriated by the council, which voted 6-3 to eliminate the position, partly because it was unpopular with their constituents.
“The Council’s decision to eliminate the funding for the position was not because the City could not afford it, but because they felt that the position was redundant and no longer necessary in its current capacity,” City Manager Jon Jennings said in an email to Sellers. “Given their decision above, it does not seem likely to me that they would accept a donation for this purpose, and I take my direction from them.”
After receiving the city’s response, Sellers said Wednesday she would be meeting with family, friends and some neighborhood organizations next week to figure out their next steps.
“I think in some format we will be moving forward. In some way we will be trying to assist in the healing of our dysfunctional government,” Sellers said. “I don’t know if raising money and forcing the City Council to look at this again will be helpful and I want to be helpful.”
The elimination of the mayor’s assistant marked what may be a new low in the relationship between the council and Strimling, who said the cut “undermines democracy” by hindering his ability to respond to constituents and draft new city policies, among other tasks.
City Councilor Spencer Thibodeau said the position had prevented Strimling from collaborating with councilors, whose support is needed to enact his initiatives. But Strimling said eliminating the position would only “make it worse.”
The idea of eliminating the position emerged late in the budget process. Strimling considered vetoing the entire $240 million city budget over the position but announced Monday that he would not do so, because it would foster “political maneuvering, grandstanding and infighting and will only serve to further divide our city.”
Instead, Strimling called on the council to form a task force to review the City Charter and offer recommendations about ways to make the mayor’s office more effective. That idea was immediately shot down by some councilors, who noted that the city has had two legal reviews of the charter, including one that cost nearly $22,000, explaining the mayor’s role.
Randy Billings can be reached at 791-6346 or at:
[email protected]
Twitter: @randybillings
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After the first two UFC shows of the year, the talk was about close decisions and controversial judging. After the third show on Saturday night, it was mostly about surprise submissions.
Anthony "Rumble" Johnson's 86-second knockout win over Ryan Bader in the main event, putting him in the front of the line for a future light heavyweight title shot, was neither a surprise nor a submission. It was impressive given how little time it took Johnson to put Bader away. But anytime Johnson fights, the lights can go out on his opponent at a moment's notice.
Josh Barnett losing to Ben Rothwell in a heavyweight showdown was a minor upset, but on its own, wouldn't have been a huge surprise. Barnett losing via submission to Rothwell, well, that's another story.
Similarly, Sage Northcutt losing, while not expected by most, was something bound to happen at some point as it would be with almost fighter in the sport. At the age of 19, writing a fighter off based on one loss is preposterous. But the nature of his submission loss opened up some real questions, and ended up after the fact, being the most talked about story on the show.
With Barnett, in a 19-year MMA career, he had never tapped out to a submission hold. He did submit in a 2004 fight with Mirko Cro Cop, but that wasn't from a submission application, but a shoulder injury that he couldn't continue fighting with. He had tapped out in pure submission competition, but those losses also came in 2000, and his ground game is ridiculously more advanced today than it was at that point. Rothwell had only used a submission maneuver to win one fight in the last eight years, over Matt Mitrione, and had never tapped out someone at Barnett's level.
The main take is that anything can happen in the sport. When someone who is 38 loses, the question is always about whether they should continue. But Barnett was facing someone who now has to be in the discussion for a heavyweight title shot, and was competitive with him the entire way until the shocking finish. There was nothing in the fight that said that if they were rematched, Barnett wouldn't have a good shot of winning.
Barnett won the first round on all three scorecards, and simply left himself open on a takedown attempt. For Northcutt, the situation was very different.
It wasn't the shock of him getting caught, it was of him tapping at the moment he did. Northcutt (7-1), had taken the first round from Bryan Barbarena (11-3), in a fight put together clearly to showcase Northcutt on FOX. Northcutt has been a UFC pet project since Dana White introduced him on his "Lookin' for a Fight" YouTube show in the fall.
This isn't a sport where one loss puts you on the scrap heap. But when Northcutt tapped to an arm triangle while holding half guard, a move that is rarely if ever a submission on the major league stage, and in a fight where he never looked in serious trouble, it opened up real questions.
Every UFC fighter, from Jon Jones on down, is going to face serious adversity during their career. Even the most talented fighters have bad days. The mark of a top fighter is someone who when put in an adverse position, usually gets out of trouble. No matter how talented a fighter is, if they don't have the mentality to do that, they are not going very far in this sport.
It was less than two months ago when UFC was promoted a show around "Sage and Paige," the hot prospects, with hot having a different meaning than one usually uses for it for fighters. There was actually discussion on television and in the media regarding both, including whether either could beat Jon Jones' record for the youngest UFC champion ever. The discussions were premature to begin with, and today those talks seem laughable.
Both lost, and it wasn't because they got caught with a punch, or because of a bad decision. They were both exposed as being nowhere near top level. But with Paige VanZant, her loss was because she didn't have the skill, but in losing, she showed unquestioned heart. She fought through round-after round without an answer for her opponent. She still continued to get out of one bad position after another.
With Northcutt, he seemed the more skilled of the two men in the cage. In his fight with Cody Pfister, there was a hole in his game, that when he is on his back, he doesn't get up so quickly. But he survived and came back to win that fight. When the same thing happened in round two with Barbarena, he once again didn't get up quickly. This time he tapped in a spot nobody expected him to. Already resented by some fighters and fans because of his face, physique, hype and paycheck, the slightest hint of being unable to handle adversity added to his character traits is only going to make him resented even worse.
Northcutt since revealed that he nearly pulled out of the fight with strep throat, and fought while loaded up on antibiotics. Fighting probably wasn't the smartest move in hindsight. He'll have every opportunity to rebound, but discussions and expectations about championships are going to have to be earned in the cage going forward.
Let's look at how Fortunes Changed for Five stars of Saturday night's show at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
ANTHONY JOHNSON - Johnson (21-5) was here right here a year ago. In a bout to determine the next light heavyweight title contender on the January FOX main event, Johnson flattened Alexander Gustafsson in 2:15. He then lost his title bout to Daniel Cormier.
Now, he's likely to face the winner of Jones vs. Cormier II, even if Cormier says otherwise. Cormier's version of the top of the division is he's beating Jones in their rematch, and then facing Jones in the rubber match, and that Johnson will have to wait until 2017.
If Jones wins, there is no question Johnson should be his first opponent. If things go like Cormier says, and Johnson would have to wait a long time, Glover Teixiera (24-4) makes the most sense as the next opponent.
With Johnson's power, whether it's Jones, Cormier or Teixeira, they can't afford a mistake, because one bad position, or being open for one punch can end the night quickly.
RYAN BADER - Bader's five-fight winning streak went down fast. Bader, more and more, is looking like a fighter who can remain high in the division for years, but when matched against the true elite fighters, like Johnson and Jones, he doesn't fare well.
As far as who he should fight next, the best foes would be Alexander Gustafsson (16-4) or Teixeira. With Gustafsson, a win would be the quickest way out of the perception as a contender who can't be champion. It's a logical match at this point. Gustafsson may have lost three of four, but he took both Jones and Cormier to the limit. Bader lost to Teixeira in 2013, in a short fight where both men ended up in trouble right away.
BEN ROTHWELL - Rothwell's win, most notably the matter which he won and the stage he won it on, makes the heavyweight championship picture even more interesting.
Dana White said earlier in the week that Cain Velasquez, who was to get a title shot at Fabricio Werdum this week, would be undergoing back surgery. However, he also said Velasquez would only be out for four weeks. With Werdum also being out due to several injuries, the company is filled with options.
Werdum (20-5-1) could face Velasquez (13-2), as was planned. Velasquez is the biggest name with the most UFC championship and main event history of the four viable contenders. Rothwell (36-9), has won four in a row, including a win over Alistair Overeem. Overeem (40-14, 1 no contest), has three wins in a row, the last two over Roy Nelson and Junior Dos Santos. He's also not under contract at this point, but the UFC does have the right to match any outside offer. Stipe Miocic (14-2), has won five of six, with the loss close against Dos Santos. But his last fight was a 50-second win over Andrei Arlovski, coming off a stoppage of Mark Hunt. When Velasquez went down, Miocic was the person the UFC picked for the title shot.
If the UFC goes with Velasquez as the next contender, then Rothwell vs. Miocic looks the way to go. If they go with Overeem as the contender, the same still goes. If it's Miocic, then Velasquez vs. Overeem looks like a viable direction, leaving Rothwell with Dos Santos (17-4) or Travis Browne (18-3-1).
JOSH BARNETT - Even though he lost, Barnett has no shortage of opponents for a high profile fight. Arlovski (25-11), Junior dos Santos (17-4) and Mark Hunt (11-10-1) could all main event a television show against Barnett or be a strong main card fight on pay-per-view. A win would keep him strong in a division that lacks depth, and a division where age isn't as much of a factor because most of the top 15 are over 35.
WILSON REIS - Reis (20-6) scored a solid decision win over Dustin Ortiz (15-5) in a prelim fight that pitted two ranked flyweights against each other.
Reis put on a dominant takedown and grappling performance to move to 3-1 since debuting as a flyweight. Both Kyoji Horiguchi (16-2) and Louis Smolka (10-1) are awaiting opponents and either fight would be a solid contenders fight. The problem with flyweight is that nobody sees anyone being able to beat Demetrious Johnson, so the movement in the top ten isn't focused on as much as in other weight classes. |
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The Filles du Roi or the King’s Daughters were some 770 women who moved from France to Quebec from 1663 and 1673. The idea was to help populate the French colonies which were mostly male and not as populated as the British Colonies. The girls came with a dowry and were encouraged to marry and give birth to as many children as possible.
There are two constant rumors with the girls.
The first is that the King encouraged the orphans and prostitutes to move in efforts to clear France of that population.
The second is that the prettiest girls got chosen in the first stop of Quebec City, the second prettiest in the second stop of Trois-Rivières and the third prettiest ended in Montreal.
We cannot confirm or deny these rumors. |
Scorpion (born Hanzo Hasashi) is a playable character and occasional boss character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise created by Midway Games. Making his debut as one of the original seven playable characters in Mortal Kombat in 1992, he is an undead ninja specter seeking revenge for his own death at the hands of Sub-Zero, making him an anti-hero which has been his main role throughout the course of the series up until Mortal Kombat X but still remains neutral.
Scorpion has been playable in nearly every Mortal Kombat fighting game, the one exception being the original version of Mortal Kombat 3. He was among the characters representing the series in the crossover games while having guest roles in other games, besides appearing in a variety of official series merchandise and other alternate media. Scorpion is featured on the logo of NetherRealm Studios, the successor of Midway Games.
Appearances [ edit ]
Mortal Kombat games [ edit ]
"Scorpion" is the alias of Hanzo Hasashi, formerly one of the finest warriors of the Shirai Ryu, a Japanese ninja clan.[3] After he was killed by Sub-Zero, a member of a rival clan of Chinese assassins known as the Lin Kuei, Scorpion became a hellspawned revenant residing in hell (later the Netherrealm) and seeking vengeance against those responsible for the destruction of his clan and the death of his family, including his wife and his son. Although essentially neutral in allegiance, Scorpion will join forces with anyone who can assist his plans of revenge. He was once manipulated by Quan Chi, whom he promised his life in exchange for his impressive kombat abilities in order to defeat Sub-Zero.[1]
In his initial backstory, displayed in the first game's attract mode, he is described only as having enmity towards Sub-Zero that was attributed to rivalries between opposing ninja clans. His ending revealed that he was actually an undead specter who had been killed by Sub-Zero and was survived by a wife and child.[4] This was further explored in a tie-in comic book written and illustrated by MK co-creator John Tobias and published by Midway; in a one-page scene, set aboard a junk en route to tournament host Shang Tsung's private island, Scorpion shocks Sub-Zero with his unexpected return exactly two years after his death, declaring that his "demons" had allowed him to return and avenge his demise, while he would not kill Sub-Zero there on the spot and instead wait until the tournament because he was "not a murderer."[5]
After Goro's defeat at the hands of eventual champion Liu Kang, all hell breaks loose on the island, and Scorpion, one of only seven tournament survivors, teams up with Sub-Zero and the thunder god Raiden in holding back Shang Tsung's army, then kills Sub-Zero and disappears.[5] In Mortal Kombat II (1993), Scorpion learns that Sub-Zero has somehow returned, and plans to compete in the second tournament held in the otherworldly dimension of Outworld and hosted by the realm's emperor Shao Kahn. He tracks his nemesis down but notices, in the process, Sub-Zero sparing the life of an opponent in battle. Scorpion realizes that this is not the original Sub-Zero but instead his younger brother, who was sent to complete the elder Sub-Zero's failed mission of assassinating Shang Tsung. As a result, Scorpion vows to serve as the new Sub-Zero's guardian in atonement for killing his older brother.[6]
In the 2005 beat 'em up spin-off Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, set during the events of Mortal Kombat II, Scorpion is a boss character who attempts to kill the game's playable protagonists Liu Kang and Kung Lao. He appears in both masked and unmasked forms (the latter being named "Inferno Scorpion"). Mortal Kombat: Fire & Ice, which would have starred Scorpion and Sub-Zero in cooperative gameplay, was canceled when Paradox Development, the developers of Shaolin Monks, "couldn't do it in time and under budget."[7]
Scorpion, along with all of the game's palette-swapped human ninja characters, was not playable in Mortal Kombat 3, but returned in the 1995 upgrade Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 when Shao Kahn tries to conquer the Netherrealm after his invasion of Earth, and enlists the ninja in his forces. Scorpion's allegiance to Kahn quickly dissolves when he discovers, in a continuance of his MKII storyline, that Sub-Zero was one of Earth's chosen warriors, with whom he sided in their final showdown with Kahn.[1]
Quan Chi is officially introduced into Scorpion's rivalry with Sub-Zero in the main MK storyline, starting with Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero (1997). Scorpion is featured therein as an unplayable boss character, appearing twice throughout the game. Despite playing a minor role, his background was officially expanded in a feature on the game's official website, where his real name and that of his clan were revealed, while his yellow outfit was described as an apparent mockery of the Lin Kuei, after former Lin Kuei member Takeda developed ninjutsu before leaving the clan and forming the rival Shirai Ryu.[3] He is enlisted by Quan Chi to find a map hidden in a Shaolin temple, a task the sorcerer also gives to Sub-Zero in order to engage the two rival ninjas in mortal combat. If the player performs a killer move on Scorpion, he will reappear as another boss later in the game. In Mortal Kombat 4 (1997), Quan Chi tricks Scorpion into believing that Sub-Zero was actually involved in the deaths of his family and clan, resulting in Scorpion allying with him. In Scorpion's ending, he emerges victorious over Sub-Zero, but Quan Chi then appears to reveal the truth about the death of Scorpion's family and clan. When Quan Chi then attempts to banish Scorpion back to the underworld, Scorpion grabs onto Quan Chi just as he is teleported, sending them both into the Netherrealm.[8] A variation of this ending was seen in Sub-Zero's conclusion, when Sub-Zero stands over a fallen Scorpion before being knocked down from behind by Quan Chi, who again reveals his scheme and claims that both ninjas were pawns for the fallen Elder God Shinnok, which results in Scorpion killing Quan Chi and finally declaring Sub-Zero free of his curse.[9]
Scorpion's MK4 ending is carried over into Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002), where he relentlessly hunts down Quan Chi but is attacked by the Oni Drahmin and Moloch, whom the sorcerer had hired as protection, and who later free him from the Netherrealm. In his noncanonical ending, Scorpion is killed when Drahmin and Moloch hurl him into the Soulnado, a magical tornado consisting of tormented souls trapped between Earthrealm and Outworld, but in his biography in Mortal Kombat: Deception, he is depicted as having escaped. He then meets the Elder Gods, which, coupled with his witnessing Raiden's death and the emergence of Onaga, the Dragon King, causes him to accept a new role as the Elder Gods' servant while working to prevent Onaga's merging of the realms.
In the Konquest mode of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (2006), Scorpion cuts a deal with the Elder Gods to serve them in exchange for the resurrection of the Shirai Ryu, along with the resurrection of his wife and son.[1] However, the Elder Gods resurrect them as undead beings. Enraged, Scorpion seeks to destroy the Elder Gods' chance of preventing Armageddon by taking Blaze's power that was meant for Taven or Daegon, but Taven defeats him and Scorpion is later killed by Sub-Zero in the free-for-all battle among the series characters in the game's opening sequence.[10]
In the 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot, an alternative-timeline retelling of the first three titles, Scorpion reprises his role from the first game in seeking vengeance against the elder Sub-Zero, the difference being that he serves Quan Chi from the start, unaware that Quan Chi is the mastermind behind the Lin Kuei clan's murder of his family and clan. Raiden, attempting to alter the timeline of the events of the first three tournaments in hopes of averting Armageddon, talks Scorpion into sparing Sub-Zero's life on the grounds that he would seek to revive the Shirai Ryu in exchange. Scorpion agrees, and indeed when he defeats Sub-Zero in the Netherrealm, he refuses to kill him, but Quan Chi convinces Scorpion otherwise by replaying a graphic vision of the Lin Kuei's slaughter of the Shirai Ryu in addition to Scorpion's wife and child. Scorpion then reappears on the tournament grounds holding Sub-Zero's incinerated skull and spinal column aloft before letting it drop and shatter on the floor.[11] Later in the game, the younger Sub-Zero (formerly Tundra) seeks revenge for his brother's death by demanding a fight with Scorpion in Shao Kahn's arena, and Quan Chi grants the request. Scorpion immediately recognizes that this is not the original Sub-Zero but his younger brother, who defeats Scorpion but is apprehended by his clan before he can finish Scorpion off, and Scorpion teleports away during the confusion.[12] He was last seen when he appears to fight Raiden in the Netherrealm but loses against the Thunder God and disappeared.[13] In his game ending, the Shirai Ryu appear before him as ghostly apparitions and reveal the truth. They aid him in Scorpion's killing Quan Chi for his deception. In Sub-Zero's ending, he learns the truth about his and Scorpion's families and offers Scorpion a chance to join him in his quest for vengeance, with Sub-Zero and Scorpion joining forces to form the new Deadly Alliance.[14]
In Mortal Kombat X, prior to his comic book prequel events, as well as his encounters with Kenshi to assist in his revival as a human and restore the Shirai Ryu as the clan's Grandmaster 25 years earlier, Scorpion still served Quan Chi. He was first seen in Johnny Cage's chapter of the game's story, allied with a now fleshed revenant Sub-Zero, killing most of the Special Force soldiers, except the high rank leaders Johnny, Sonya Blade and Kenshi, who manage to survive their assassination attempts thanks to Johnny's effort on defeating him and Sub-Zero. In story mode it is revealed that Scorpion's soul was restored to the living (along with Sub-Zero and Jax) by Raiden, who combined Quan Chi's magic with his own. Now Hanzo Hasashi once again, he reforms the Shirai Ryu clan and trains Kenshi's son, Takeda, in his fighting style. Hanzo made amends with Sub-Zero as Sub-Zero revealed that Quan Chi was responsible for the murder of Hanzo's family and clan. When the Special Forces capture Quan Chi, Hanzo and the Shirai Ryu subdue them, with Hanzo singlehandedly defeating Johnny Cage and Kenshi. Fueled by revenge, he was oblivious to Quan Chi's true plan, and ignored the Special Forces' hopes to return the other revenants to life. Freeing Quan Chi from imprisonment, Hanzo challenged Quan Chi to a final battle, with Hanzo emerging victorious. Concurrently, D'Vorah appeared after having betrayed Kotal Kahn and ended the Outworld Civil War, taking Shinnok's amulet from the now-dead Mileena. As Hanzo prepared to decapitate Quan Chi, D'Vorah throws the amulet to Quan Chi, who recites a spell to release Shinnok from the amulet. Immediately after the spell's conclusion, Quan Chi is killed, avenging Hanzo's family. However, Shinnok is returned to the physical world instantly, and Scorpion, in surprise, is immediately blasted away and knocked out by Shinnok. He is not seen again for the remainder of the story, leaving his fate, as well as many other characters, unknown.
Other games [ edit ]
Scorpion appears in the 2008 crossover title Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, participating in the war between the two titular franchises. In his ending, the essence of Dark Kahn finds a host in Scorpion's body, making him the most powerful being in the universe.
Scorpion joined the cast of 2013's Injustice: Gods Among Us as a downloadable character. In his single-player battle ending, Scorpion, wondering how he ended up in this world, confronts Trigon, who summoned him out of anger that Scorpion had left his demon army and robbed him the glory of defeating the One-Earth High Councilor (Superman). Scorpion fights and defeats Trigon, and afterwards takes command over his demonic forces, which he plans to use to rule the world.
Scorpion has also featured as a guest/cameo character in four non-fighting Midway Games titles: NBA Jam Tournament Edition (1995),[15] The Grid (2000),[16] MLB Slugfest: Loaded (2004),[17] and Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (2004).[18]
Character design and gameplay [ edit ]
MK] characters that can have the same impact?
A: You can look at other franchises, like the X-Men for example, where there have been tons of new team members, but characters like Storm, Jean Grey, Professor X, MK will always have Scorpion and I don't think that's a bad thing. Q: Do you think it's possible to create new [] characters that can have the same impact?A: You can look at other franchises, like thefor example, where there have been tons of new team members, but characters like Cyclops Magneto , and Wolverine will always be the core of who they are. Can you replace them? Sure, but why? The X-Men will always have Wolverine andwill always have Scorpion and I don't think that's a bad thing. —John Tobias in 2012[19]
Scorpion appeared in the first Mortal Kombat as one of two palette-swapped ninja characters along with Sub-Zero. His early origins were revealed by the series' original chief character designer John Tobias in September 2011 when he posted several pages of old pre-production character sketches and notes on Twitter. Scorpion and Sub-Zero were simply described as "[a] palette swap for 2 ninjas—a hunter and the hunted," while Tobias also considered the concepts of either one of them fleeing their clan, or a "revenge story" involving the then-unnamed characters being part of rival clans.[20] In regards to the game's strict memory limitations, co-creator and programmer Ed Boon recalled: "A lot of attention went into the economics of it, and so we knew that if we could take a character and change their color and use basically the same memory to create two characters, we'd save a lot of money and we'd have two characters." Scorpion was given a yellow palette with the developers deciding that it would symbolize fire as the exact opposite to Sub-Zero's ice blue, which "prompted the story behind them being these opposing ninja-clan-type characters."[21] A third ninja swap, Reptile, was added in the third revision as a hidden character who was outfitted in green and used Scorpion's spear (along with Sub-Zero's freeze) as part of his offensive arsenal; he was devised by Boon as "a cooler version of Scorpion."[22] The original costume was created from a modified ninja-like outfit bought at a Chicago costume shop[21] and was red for filming in the first game, but a different yellow one with a quilted vest and knee-high shin guards was utilized for Mortal Kombat II.[23] This in turn made the other male ninja characters therein—Sub-Zero, Reptile, and hidden characters Smoke and Noob Saibot—palette swaps of Scorpion, with the latter two also using Scorpion's spear when players fought them separately in secret battles. Scorpion and the ninja characters were first played by Daniel Pesina, who was replaced by John Turk for Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and the 1996 compilation Mortal Kombat Trilogy, while Sal Divita played the character in MK: Mythologies.
While his ninja-outfit template from the first generation of games has remained relatively unchanged over time, the software technology of the post-Mortal Kombat 4 three-dimensional releases have allowed more detailed costuming for the characters, and Scorpion's costumes were duly enhanced with objects such as two katana swords strapped to his back and his spear attached to a rope tied to his belt in Deadly Alliance,[24] and a set of ornate shoulder epaulets in Deception, in which his alternate costume was a throwback to the two-dimensional MK titles. Scorpion's MK2011 costume is his most detailed to date and inspired by his namesake, such as the character's abdomen-shaped shoulder pads, the two stinger-handled swords crisscrossed on his back, and the exoskeletal pattern on his hard-shell face mask.[25] Scorpion was included with Sub-Zero, Reptile and Ermac in a bundle of classic costumes from the first Mortal Kombat that was released as downloadable content for the 2011 reboot.[26] For Injustice: Gods Among Us, he received a new costume designed by comic artist Jim Lee.[27] In the original Mortal Kombat's fighter-selection screen, Scorpion had regular human eyes, as his identity as a resurrected specter was meant to be a mystery, but he was given solid yellow or white eyes for every release thereafter starting with MKII,[27] while actors portraying Scorpion in live-action media such as the feature films and the Mortal Kombat: Legacy web series were outfitted with opaque contact lenses in order to achieve this effect.
Scorpion yells one of two taunts at his opponents when he hits them with his spear. They were voiced by Boon in the games and both feature films, but only one of them ("Come here!") was included in the home ports of MK and MKII due to memory constraints. According to Boon, the second of the character's phrases originated because he thought "it would be funny to have him yell out 'Get over here!' when he [threw the spear]," and he was thus encouraged to get behind the studio microphone and record the taunts.[28] As confirmed by Daniel Pesina,[29] that phrase was originally an idea of Kano's actor Richard Divizio, as was Scorpion's skull face, inspired by the classic film Jason and the Argonauts.[30] Twenty years after the first MK game's release, Boon included creating the spear move as well as the character itself among his personal high points of the franchise's history, adding: "I remember people sitting in my office all day just doing this uppercut [on a speared enemy] again and again, like 'Oh my God, that feels so good.' It just became the cornerstone of [the game]."[31] MKII saw the debut of the popular phrase "Toasty!", which was voiced by series sound designer Dan Forden during a variation of Scorpion's "Flaming Skull" Fatality or at random when any of the game's characters landed an uppercut. According to Tobias, it first originated as "You're Toast!", which was a taunt bandied among the designers during game-testing sessions.[32]
Scorpion's signature special move throughout the series has him hurling a harpoon-like spear (described as a kunai) at his opponents, making him the only other character besides Kano to have a physical weapon in the first Mortal Kombat. The spear, attached to a length of rope, impales his opponents through the chest and sets them up for a free hit as Scorpion then jerks on the rope to pull them in to close range. This move was designed by Pesina, who did not like the original lasso move as it reminded him of that of Wonder Woman,[29] and inspired by the ancient Asian weapons known as a rope dart.[30] His other incumbent special throughout the series, save for Deadly Alliance, has been his Teleport Punch, where he flies offscreen during battle and then reappears to strike his opponent from behind. Scorpion additionally gained a new leg-takedown maneuver in MKII that was not well-received (Sega Saturn Magazine called it a "ridiculous" move that "no one ever used").[33] He was considered a lower-tier character by GamePro in their 1993 MKII character rankings, rating him eighth out of the game's twelve playables and describing both him and Sub-Zero as "formerly a top-tier character [who] doesn’t have much of a chance in MKII since all of the male ninjas have some poor matchups," with Scorpion faring the worst against Jax and Mileena.[34] Ed Lomas of Sega Saturn Magazine described the character as having "simple yet effective" special moves in UMK3 that "make him good for beginners, [which] doesn't stop him from being a useful character," while his "trusty" spear was "perfect for setting up combos."[33] GameSpy, in their Deception walkthrough, described the character as "a well-rounded character that has strengths in combos as well as in special and normal moves."[35] They additionally described the spear as "useful as ever" in Armageddon, adding, "Between [that and his] other special moves ... Scorpion pretty much has everything covered."[36] Prima Games' MK2011 strategy guide considered Scorpion to be well-balanced with no distinct weaknesses or advantages, while winning more than half of his fights against the game's other characters.[37] He is also a playable character for both the versus and story modes in Shaolin Monks, where his move sets in this game are largely identical to Liu Kang's with some original techniques.[38]
Scorpion's signature finishing move from the original game up until Mortal Kombat 4 was his "Fire Breath" Fatality, in which he removes his mask to reveal a skull right before immolating his opponent. A variation of this finisher was included in MKII: entering a different button/joystick combination added the spoken "Toasty!" phrase that simultaneously appeared on the screen. While the "Fire Breath" was brought back for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe in 2008, his spear has otherwise served as his primary tool in his Fatalities in the three-dimensional games, from impaling his opponents through the head and then decapitating them in Deadly Alliance, using it to yank off their limbs in Deception, and plunging it into their chest before kicking them through a portal that left nothing but a skinned corpse hanging from the spear's chain in MK2011 ("Nether Gate"). His second Fatality in the reboot, "Split Decision", had Scorpion using one of his back-mounted swords to hack his opponent to pieces.
Scorpion would indirectly play a role in the fabrication of nonexistent character Ermac when Electronic Gaming Monthly published a doctored screenshot of Scorpion from the original game in 1993.a lot of other characters in MK1 like Chameleon uses his template [39] This subsequently spawned false player rumors of a glitch that would turn Scorpion's sprite red with the name "Error Macro" appearing in the energy bar.[40] Ermac became playable in UMK3, in which he was a red palette swap of Scorpion who shared his Teleport Punch.
Other media [ edit ]
Literature [ edit ]
In Jeff Rovin's 1995 non-canon novelization, set before the first game, Scorpion plays a minor role and his backstory deviates from the games, as he is something of a combination of a father and son instead of an individual ninja specter. The father, a former Lin Kuei member turned tolltaker named Yong Park, was killed by Sub-Zero in front of Park's family and his body dumped into a canal. Yong's spirit merges with his young son Tsui's body in order for the latter to seek revenge under the form of Scorpion, during which his costume and armor magically appear on his body. When Scorpion challenges Sub-Zero to battle in hopes of avenging his father's murder, they do nothing more than exchange words before Sub-Zero sets off a smoke bomb and escapes. Scorpion never uses his spear aside from a scene in which he shoots it at a tree as a test shortly after his transformation.[41]
With the exception of the novel, Scorpion has been portrayed in alternate Mortal Kombat media as an antagonist, and his spear was never used in any sort of graphic nature as in the games. In the Mortal Kombat series produced by Malibu Comics, he is simply a specter consumed by revenge against Sub-Zero, and his spear was changed to a weapon resembling a spiked morning star that was attached to a whip-long length of either chain or rope. An altered version of his confrontation with Sub-Zero from the Midway comic was expanded in the first issue of the 1994 Blood & Thunder miniseries, by way of a one-page flashback of their fateful battle that ends with Scorpion being killed off-panel.[42] Scorpion, along with the other series characters from the first game, seeks to solve all the riddles inside Shang Tsung's mystical tome, the Tao the Zhan, in order to gain absolute power (which no one accomplishes). In the third issue, the combatants are all imprisoned inside Shang Tsung's dungeon before Scorpion appears and frees them from their bonds,[43] and in the fourth issue, when the fighters are stranded in Outworld after Raiden frees them from the dungeon, Scorpion kills Hydro, a Lin Kuei companion of Sub-Zero created exclusively for the series. Sub-Zero then destroys Scorpion's mortal form in a quick battle, and Scorpion (now an apparition) is then driven off by Raiden, who then declares that Sub-Zero was now under his protection.[44] Scorpion was additionally featured in a special #0 issue as the centerpiece of a short story titled Kombatants, which was originally published prior to the miniseries and has him facing Sub-Zero once more as the other combatants sing his praises in the background.[45] The first page of the third issue of Blood & Thunder, which showed Scorpion hurling his weapon at an off-panel Sub-Zero, was a near-exact duplicate of Kombatants' title page.[46] During the "Tournament Edition" double-issue conclusion of the miniseries, Scorpion loses a fight to Kitana, who had stopped him beforehand from killing an unconscious Sub-Zero. In the 1995 Battlewave miniseries, Outworld emperor Shao Kahn returns Scorpion to the living world using a mystical gem called the Deathstone, which also allows Kahn to resurrect an army of undead soldiers under his control with Scorpion as his general; his army replaces the mutants that engrossed his ranks. One of the warriors under Scorpion's command was the twin-fighting monk duo Siang, who had been killed by Goro in the Blood & Thunder miniseries and was resurrected but still maintained a mind of his own, and therefore wanted to escape Kahn's control; Scorpion therefore fatally stabs Siang through the heart in a mercy killing before destroying the Deathstone.[47] In a 1995 one-shot featuring Baraka, titled "Babality", Scorpion still possesses the Deathstone and attempts to abduct an Outworld mutant baby who is under Baraka's protection, but he is thwarted by Noob Saibot before Baraka destroys the gem.[48]
Film and television [ edit ]
Mortal Kombat. His initial design had looked "nothing like in the games", but was changed later[49] Chris Casamassa as Scorpion in the 1995 film. His initial design had looked "nothing like in the games", but was changed later
Scorpion was played by Chris Casamassa in the 1995 Mortal Kombat film. His rivalry with Sub-Zero is only mentioned in passing by Shang Tsung in the storyline, which instead had them both serving as his slaves under his command. Scorpion's spear was a living snake-like creature that shot from a slit in his palm and could fly to a limited extent. It is first seen when he engages in a standoff with Johnny Cage on Shang Tsung's ship, and later during his fight in the tournament against Cage that begins in a rubber tree forest, when the spear directly follows Cage until it goes completely taut with Cage just out of reach. Scorpion fires the creature a second time, but Cage dodges it and it fatally smashes into a tree. The fight continues in Scorpion's lair until Cage finally wounds Scorpion with several discarded weapons right after Scorpion performs his "Fire Breath" Fatality as an offensive move, causing Scorpion to burst into flames as he bleeds a glowing lava-like blood before exploding entirely. Scorpion's lair was constructed inside an airplane hangar and was not included in the script nor the movie novelization, in which Cage merely knocks Scorpion out in the forest with his Shadow Kick.
In the 1995 animated film Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins, Scorpion was again depicted as a henchman to Shang Tsung opposite Sub-Zero. On the sorcerer's orders, the duo fight Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, and Sonya Blade and come close to defeating them until Raiden intervenes and puts the fight to a halt. The backstory relationship of Scorpion and Sub-Zero is explored during the course of the film in a computer-animated fight sequence. He was the only character in the film who had no dialogue.
Scorpion made one appearance in the 1996 animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm in the second episode ("Sting of the Scorpion"). His rivalry with Sub-Zero is vaguely explored, as no explicit mention is ever made of Sub-Zero killing him. Scorpion instead serves as an independent entity of evil who is first seen in a flashback sequence being banished to "the realm of lost souls" (designed to resemble his "Lair" stage in UMK3) for having died with dishonor, and has now returned to the land of the living to resurrect the dishonored dead in all realms, especially Shang Tsung. When Sub-Zero and Scorpion finally meet, Sub-Zero threatens to make Scorpion pay for the death of his clan but is defeated by a single kick to the solar plexus. Liu Kang beats Scorpion in Mortal Kombat in Sub-Zero's stead, and Raiden returns Scorpion back to the underworld as his undead army disappears. His spear was again a green snake-like head attached to a length of gold chain, which merely binds Liu Kang instead of impaling him before he breaks free. He was the lone ninja character in the show who never unmasked.
Scorpion briefly returned in the 1997 sequel film Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, where he again worked for a higher power, this time Shao Kahn. Following a failed assassination attempt on Liu Kang and Kitana by Smoke and one of Kahn's extermination squads due to the unexpected interference of the younger Sub-Zero, Scorpion confronts the would-be targets, but ends up dueling Sub-Zero instead. After incapacitating Sub-Zero, he kidnaps Kitana and escapes through a portal. He was portrayed by J.J. Perry, who played Cyrax.
Casamassa reprised his role from the first film in several episodes of the 1998-1999 TV series Mortal Kombat: Conquest with an origin different from that of the games. Scorpion commands his lover, Peron, to murder Sub-Zero's sister, and Sub-Zero kills Peron in retaliation, culminating in a duel which ends in a draw due to the arrival of Kung Lao, Siro, and Taja, who come to Sub-Zero's aid. Both Peron and Sub-Zero's sister were noncanonical characters created exclusively for the show.
In the 2010 live-action short film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, directed by Kevin Tancharoen, Scorpion, addressed therein by his real name, is depicted as a voluntary prisoner being questioned by Deacon City police captain Jackson Briggs regarding an underground tournament hosted by Shang Tsung. Sonya Blade shows up late in the film with a confidential document stating that Scorpion had killed Sub-Zero's brother. Knowing that Sub-Zero will enter Shang Tsung's deadly tournament, Scorpion agrees to participate and leave no one alive. He was played by Ian Anthony Dale and appears as a normal human, though his eyes are completely white and his signature weapon does appear.
Dale reprised his role as Scorpion in both seasons of Tancharoen's Mortal Kombat: Legacy webseries. In a two-part episode in the 2011 first season, his story takes place in feudal Japan, when Hanzo Hasashi is the leader of the Shirai Ryu and a family man training his young son, Jubei, in combat, much to his wife's disapproval. Hanzo is later summoned to a meeting with the shogun, which turns out to be a ruse by Bi-Han (Sub-Zero) of the rival Lin Kuei clan in order to lure Hanzo away from his village and leave it open to attack, which Hanzo realizes after he finds the shogun murdered in the middle of an icy road. After subduing Sub-Zero in battle, he returns to his village to find his family slain before he himself is killed from behind by Sub-Zero. Shang Tsung appears with Sub-Zero, who reveals himself as Quan Chi. Quan Chi resurrects Scorpion as a specter and promises him revenge against Sub-Zero in exchange for his services. The dialogue of Scorpion, his family, and Sub-Zero were in Japanese with English subtitles, and the use of Scorpion's spear is faithful to the games for the first time in any alternate media in that it actually pierces Sub-Zero's chest before Scorpion reels him in for a hit, but no blood is shown.
In the 2013 second season, a flashback shows that Hanzo and Bi-Han were childhood friends but driven apart by the mutual disdain of their clans. Two decades later, the Shirai Ryu and Lin Kuei have made some effort towards reconciliation, but Hasashi, while with his wife and son, encounters Bi-Han's younger brother, Kuai Liang, who provokes a fight and is killed by Hanzo offscreen. Hanzo and Bi-Han later meet to discuss the incident, and both are shown to be honorable men committed to maintaining the truce between their clans. Bi-Han swears that there will be no repercussions against the Shirai Ryu for Kuai's death, but after the events of season one, the resurrected Hanzo (now Scorpion) is convinced of Bi-Han's culpability in his family's and clan's deaths, not knowing that Bi-Han is not responsible and is instead incensed about the attack that he believes was carried out by his own Lin Kuei warriors. In the present day, Bi-Han and Scorpion fight in the Mortal Kombat tournament, during which Scorpion stabs his spear into Bi-Han's ankle. Despite Bi-Han's pleas that he was not involved in the death of his clan and family, Scorpion rips out his spine. This storyline was played out over the seventh and eighth episodes and filmed entirely in English. Dale said that the series "challenge[s] the assumptions that [Scorpion and Sub-Zero] have always been sworn enemies—we have new layers in their story and rivalries."[50]
Promotion and merchandise [ edit ]
Along with the original series characters, Scorpion was highlighted on an individual track from The Immortals' 1994 album Mortal Kombat: The Album. Titled "Lost Soul Bent on Revenge", it features a solo male singer with a falsetto vocal style resembling that of Jimmy Somerville, and the lyrics consist only of the repetition of the song title and voice samples of both spear taunts from the first game.
The character has featured in various types of merchandise during his tenure in the MK series, mostly action figures and sculptures. Hasbro released the first Scorpion figures in 1994: a 3.75" version in which his mask was blue and he was packaged with a plastic scorpion accessory, then a twelve-inch figure whose design and packaged weaponry were more in line with the games. Toy Island distributed a Scorpion figure in 1996 as part of their MK Trilogy collection, which included a pair of hookswords, and Infinite Concepts put out a Scorpion figure in 1999. Jazwares released a 6" Deception figure in 2005, and a 2006 Shaolin Monks figure that was also included as part of a Hot Topic-exclusive two-pack with Sub-Zero,[51][52] in addition to a collection of figures in 2011: a 4" figure from their MK2011 line,[53] a "Klassic" four-incher,[54] and a "Retro" figure that featured an interchangeable skull head and which was packaged with Sub-Zero, Reptile and Smoke in a box set.[55] Syco Collectibles released a host of Scorpion merchandise in 2011-2012: 10" (with glow-in-the-dark eyes) and 18" polystone statues,[56][57] along with two busts—a 1:2 scale with a 15" base and light-up eyes; and a smaller bust with an 11" base that featured a detachable head.[58][59] Pop Culture Shock distributed a life-sized bust in 2011 that featured removable shoulder pads and light-up eyes,[60] as well as a 19" statuette based on his UMK3 design as part of their "Mortal Kombat Klassics" collection.[61] A 16.5" mixed-media statue was released by the company in 2012, in which Scorpion was sculpted in a spear-throwing pose and was outfitted in all black.[62]
Scorpion was one of thirteen MK2011 characters depicted on life-sized standing cardboard cutouts from Advanced Graphics.[63] Funko released a Scorpion bobblehead in 2011,[64] and he was one of twenty characters featured on 2.5" x 3.5" collectible magnets by Ata-Boy Wholesale that year.[65] He appeared along with Kabal, Quan Chi, and Shao Kahn in a collection of 2.5" super-deformed figures released by Jazwares in 2012.[66]
Reception and legacy [ edit ]
Cultural impact [ edit ]
The character has made several cameo appearances in television programs, including in the animated series Drawn Together (2005 episode "The One Wherein There Is a Big Twist: Part 2"), Robot Chicken (2005 episode "S&M Present"), and The Cleveland Show (2010 episode "Another Bad Thanksgiving"). Professional wrestler Cody Rhodes dressed up as Scorpion for Halloween in 2013.[67] Scorpion was featured along with Raiden, Ermac, Jax, and Shang Tsung in Comedy Central's 2014 animated short film parodying Mortal Kombat, in which he was renamed "Iron Shogun" and was to compete in "Yao Zhang's" (Shang Tsung) underground tournament before it is delayed due to the other contestants being no-shows. With Zhang unable to find a replacement, Iron Shogun is declared the tournament victor after he fatally spears a pizza deliveryman who enters the arena.[68]
Critical reception and popularity [ edit ]
Scorpion is often regarded as one of the most popular and iconic characters in the Mortal Kombat franchise, and in the fighting-game genre in general. SuperGamePower gave him and Ryu from Street Fighter a shared award for the best fighter of 1996.[69] Game Informer rated Scorpion the third best fighting game character in 2009,[70] while UGO Networks ranked Scorpion second only to the series' main protagonist Liu Kang in their 2012 list of the top characters in the franchise.[71] Scorpion was rated the third best ninja character in video games by Cheat Code Central in 2011,[72] and PLAY similarly ranked him fourth on their own list in 2013.[73] Lucas Sullivan of GamesRadar ranked him as the seventh best fighting game character in the genre's history, stating, "Scorpion has some tough competition in the MK franchise, but none come close to the sheer coolness of his 'undead antagonist' factor. Despite the fact that he started out as a mere palette swap, Scorpion’s appeal made him a frontrunner in every major MK game to date."[74] Complex featured Scorpion in a whole host of best-of lists: he was ranked the fifth most brutal fighter in the series[75] and the 15th best video game mascot,[76] in addition to the fourth "most dominant" fighting game character,[77] the 23rd "most badass" video game character of all time,[78] and one of video game characters who deserved their own spinoff title: "[W]hether you want to admit it or not, Scorpion runs the [MK] series more than Liu Kang ever has."[79] In 2008, IGN wrote that although Scorpion was initially a palette-swapped character, he "is actually a lot more complicated than these initial appearances let on;"[80] In 2013, he was named runner-up to Kratos as the "most bad-ass" video game character by The Ultimate Gamer.[81] Scorpion was voted the series' greatest character in a 2013 fan poll hosted by Dorkly,[82] and finished third behind Raiden and Smoke in the annual "Supreme Mortal Kombat Champion" fan polls hosted by Mortal Kombat Online in 2013[83] but was eliminated in the lower rounds in 2012 and 2014.[84][85]
As Scorpion is regularly intertwined with Sub-Zero throughout the series, they have often been paired together in regards to critical reception. They tied for second on WatchMojo's 2012 list of the most iconic fighting game characters,[86] placed fourth on their 2013 list of the top ten video-game ninjas,[87] and shared the fifth spot on the top video-game ninja list by PC World in 2009.[88] He tied with Sub-Zero at the top of Game Revolution's 2006 list of the top ten "old school" MK characters,[89] and a 2011 GamesRadar article discussed their evolution across the Mortal Kombat series, citing them as its two most popular characters.[90] Together, Scorpion and Sub-Zero were voted the fifth most iconic characters in the two decades of the PlayStation by readers of PlayStation Official Magazine – UK in 2015.[91] Scorpion also placed third, just behind Sub-Zero, in a 2016 readers poll by Hobby Consolas for the most popular character in all fighting games, with the staff noting him defeating the likes of Kazuya Mishima, Chun-Li, Fulgore and even Goku.[92] GamePro ranked Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and the other ninjas from the series third in their 2009 list of the best palette-swapped video game characters, adding that Midway Games "has turned the art of making new characters from other, different-colored characters into a science."[93] Robert Naytor of Hardcore Gaming 101 considered Ermac to be "a better fit" than Scorpion for appearing in Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, "given how much telekinesis is used throughout the game."[94]
Special moves and Fatalities have been mostly very well received, too. In 2010, IGN listed Scorpion's "Flaming Skull" as the second best MK Fatality without specifying any particular title in the series, due to how the player's perception of the character changes when he removes his mask.[95] They called it an "enduring classic", noting that the finisher was notably unchanged in future games as a result of its connection with the character.[96] His spear attack was ranked by IGN as the 76th top video-game weapon in 2012,[97] and ninth in GameSpot's 2002 list of the top ten fighting-game special moves of all time as the single most powerful yet balanced attack in the original game, as well as for its initial shock value, while deeming it "the definitive Mortal Kombat move."[98] The "Nether Gate" from MK2011 was included by FHM on their list of the game's nine most brutal Fatalities.[99] His MKII Friendship, shared with Sub-Zero and Reptile, placed in Prima Games' 2014 list of the series' top 50 Fatalities, in addition to the "Nether Gate", his stage Fatality from MK2011, and the "Flaming Skull" from the original MK.[100][101][102] We Got This Covered ranked the "Nether Gate" among the reboot's top finishers: "Sub-Zero does another spine rip in this game, but it’s not as repulsive as it was a decade ago. Scorpion, however, has found a new way to use his favorite weapon for maximum damage."[103] Paste rated it the fourth best Fatality from MK2011, in addition to rating the "Flaming Skull" as the third best finisher from the first game.[104] Complex ranked the "Flaming Skull" last in their list of the 20 best MK finishing moves in 2013, calling it "creepy to the max."[105] However, his Animality from UMK3/Trilogy (a penguin that lays an exploding egg) tied with that of Rain as the eighth worst finisher in the series according to GamePro.[106]
Scorpion's catchphrase "Get over here!" was listed in PLAY's joke list of ten best chat-up lines.[107] According to PlayStation Universe in 2011, Scorpion "has spawned one of the most iconic catchphrases in gaming history" and "remains a firm fan favorite nineteen years since his debut."[1] The phrase was a factor in ScrewAttack ranking Scorpion first on their list of the top series characters.[108]
See also [ edit ]
Media related to Scorpion at Wikimedia Commons |
Think of it this way. Let's say the government suspects you are a terrorist and it has access to your Facebook account. If you're an American citizen, it can't do that currently (with certain exceptions)—but for the sake of argument. So all of your friends, that's one hop. Your friends' friends, whether you know them or not—two hops. Your friends' friends' friends, whoever they happen to be, are that third hop. That's a massive group of people that the NSA apparently considers fair game.
For a sense of scale, researchers at the University of Milan found in 2011 that everyone on the Internet was, on average, 4.74 steps away from anyone else. The NSA explores relationships up to three of those steps. (See our conversation with the ACLU's Alex Abdo on this.)
Inglis' admission didn't register among the members of Congress present, but immediately resonated with privacy advocates online.
3 hops! That's a LOT OF DATA as my FISA/surveillance people know. A LOT. — Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) July 17, 2013
Do the math: Your whole contact list. All their contact lists. All THOSE people's contact lists. That's a LOOOT of people. #FISAOvesight — Julian Sanchez (@normative) July 17, 2013
@normative If you don't want to share your contact lists with the government, maybe you just shouldn't know people. — Jon Henke (@JonHenke) July 17, 2013
The hearing was far more critical of the government than previous hearings have been. Members of the House from both political parties had strong words for the agency representatives, often focused on how the letter of the law had been exploited.
Ranking Minority Member John Conyers (MI): "You've already violated the law in my opinion."
Rep. Jerry Nadler (NY): "I believe it's totally unprecedented and goes way beyond the statute."
Rep. Ted Poe (TX): "Do you see a national security exemption in the Fourth Amendment? … We've abused the concept of rights in the name of national security."
The author of the Patriot Act, Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, reminded the government that the act was up for renewal in 2015. The provisions for phone metadata collection, he warned, have "got to be changed … otherwise in a year or year and a half you're not going to have it any more."
Inglis' admission isn't likely to help the effort to convince members of the House that the surveillance programs should be kept as is. Neither will a response offered by DNI counsel Robert Litt. Asked by committee chairman Bob Goodlatte if the government really thought the massive collection of phone records could be kept from the American people, Litt replied, "Well, um, we tried."
The audience chuckled.
Update, 1:10 p.m.: Another bit of news. The longstanding question of whether or not phone metadata collected by NSA includes geolocation data has been answered. "We are not collecting that data," Inglis said, "under this program."
Photo: Inglis is sworn in. (AP)
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire. |
Donald Trump has been having a rough time rounding up support from Wall Street, but one big financier said Wednesday the real estate tycoon
will ride an anti-establishment wave to take the presidency.
"The country is in a desperate desire for change," said Ken Moelis, a major player in the investment banking industry as head of Moelis & Co. "I'm predicting that Donald Trump will win the election."
"We haven't elected a president since George H.W. Bush based on competency," Moelis added during an appearance at a Bloomberg conference.
Moelis didn't say whether he backs Trump.
Though Trump over the course of his career has made plenty of friends in the banking industry, he's failed to capture a lot of high-profile endorsements. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, vulture capitalist Wilbur Ross and former GE CEO Jack Welch lead a small cadre of Wall Street support for the Republican nominee.
The conference has seen several speakers talk politics so far, with economist Glenn Hubbard at Columbia Business School offering some additional Trump support.
"Directionally, he's on the playing field. Mrs. Clinton is not on the playing field if that field is economic growth," said Hubbard, a George W. Bush administration figure tied to controversial tax cuts on dividends.
Hubbard called Trump "a little undisciplined" and said he should better "articulate a general vision for growth."
Wall Street has poured money into Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign but has held off on cutting many big checks for Trump. Clinton has pulled in $58.5 million from the finance industry, while Trump has taken in about $557,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. |
Looking for C++17 - Urbana Proposals from Core, Modules, Networking, Reflection and Undefined Behavior
published at 01.11.2014 12:56 by Jens Weller
The second part of my series about the proposals for Urbana, where the next C++ committee meeting will be held. The papers grand us a first view on a distant future - C++17. I also published last weekend an alternative listing of the proposals by mailing and subgroup. And maybe you also want to read the first part about proposals for concurrency.
This time it will be all subgroups with relative few papers combined, evolution and library then will follow with one or two postings each. I might get interrupted by my conference though...
Core
The core working group deals with the language as it self, so its proposals are really a bit special.
From the paper:
This paper proposes to adjust the wording for exceptions to achieve the following goals: Exception specifications as a semantic concept are separated from the grammar term exception-specification
The description of throw-expression is integrated into clause 5. The changes are intended to be editorial only, not changing semantics. Due to the size of the changes, it seems prudent to have a full CWG review for these instead of leaving the issue to the project editor alone.
Not much more to say. Wording only.
From the paper:
This paper presents the proposed resolution for core issue 330 as reviewed in teleconferences of WG21's Core Working Group, substantially cleaning up the wording around qualification converions. Other than allowing the qualification conversions asked for in the issue, it also changes reinterpret_cast so that it may now cast away constness
So, this is another very detailed paper on a very special issue. I guess most people could ignore it, but it shows to what details the committee works on C++. Standardization is just not about adding new features, it is also about keeping the standard valid in a logical and very detailed way.
String-literals have five encoding-prefixes, while character literals only have 4. u8 is the missing one, which this paper seeks to fix, adding u8 as an encoding prefix for character literals. Again, this paper is mostly the changes in wording for the C++ Standard.
This is a first draft of the technical specification about the needed extensions to C++ for making Concepts a reality. Keypoints which will need to be added to C++ for Concepts is adding and defining the new keywords concept and requires. While technical specifications do define what C++17 will look like, they are also because of this nature very detailed and oriented to the standards sections. This makes them not the best read on most of their topics they are trying to standardize, the proposals are often better for human readers. For concepts, I think the best way to be informed is watching Andrew Suttons talk about them from CppCon.
Modules
This is the current state about the plans for integrating modules in C++. The authors name the current 4 goals of such a system:
componentization
isolation of macros
scalable build
support for modern semantic-aware developer tools
The problem for C++ and modules is, that the from C inherited build system takes a different approach, every file is in this model its own translation unit, which is compiled without the knowledge about dependencies to other translation units, this is later resolved by the linker. This is very effective, but also lowlevel. Also, the authors point out, that this linkage model is 40 years old, and with integrating modules in C++, needs to adapted or replaced.
The module system is designed to coexist with the preprocessor, but will not depend on it.
A central tenet of this proposal is that a module system for C++ has to be an evolution of the conventional compilation model. The immediate consequence is that it has to inter-operate with the existing source file inclusion model while solving the significant problems and minimizing those that can’t be completely solved.
A short overview on the planned features for modules:
module and import are new keywords
import is a replacement for include, the named model then gets imported into this translation unit
module module-name; declares a new module, a module has no scope
for scoping namespaces exist. you can only declare one module per translation unit
a module has to use export for its entry points, which form the modules interface
export toplevel-declaration
macros cannot get imported or exported
This would be really cool to have in C++17, and the current proposal could really show a way how a module system for C++ could look like. Yet it will be very interesting to see how this proposal evolves in the coming year.
Networking / Library
This proposal seeks to add a library derived from boost asio to the C++ Standard. New in this revision is that the code has been updated to C++14, by request of the Library Evolution Working Group. The authors refer to boost::asio as the best introduction, but also include an tcp uppercase echo server as an example how a standard asio version would look like. The library has a synchronous and an asynchronous part, which works with handlers, in the examples those are lambdas.
The goal of this proposal is to add support for
udp and tcp sockets, including support for multicast
client and server applications
scalability to handle many concurrent connections
Protocol independence between IPv4 and IPv6
name resolution
timers
to the C++ Standard, out of scope of this document are:
Protocols such as HTTP, FTP, SMTP, but also ICMP
Encryption (SSL/TLS)
OS specific APIs
Reflection
Some applications are designed to never return, so also main is not returning when they are properly run. To prevent the call to destructors registered with atexit, the authors propose to add an optional[[noreturn]] attribute to main. Implementations then can make use of this hint and implement optimizations based on this. The authors also bring into discussion if for this not new versions of main should be added to the standard: void main() without and with arguments.
It has been proposed to add defaulted comparison operators to C++ (N4114/N4175/N4176) by extending the core language, this paper proposes a different solution, to implement defaulted comparison operators using reflection traits, which are proposed in N4113. The authors propose a type trait generate_comparison<T>, which defaults to true, so that the comparison operators get generated, so that you need to specialize it to false to suppress generation. The authors also discuss the opposite, that the default is false, and that you'd have to specialize to true or derive from with_default_comparisons.
The comparison operator is implemented with a default_tie template which enumerates the members of a class into a std::tie function for comparison:
template<class C> auto default_tie(const C& c) {
constexpr size_t n = std::class_member::list_size_v<C>;
return default_tie_impl(c, std::make_index_sequence<n>()); }
This implementation uses the reflection traits from N4113.
Undefined Behavior
There are some issues with the current specification of universal-character-name (UCN), which this paper tries to address. UCNs were introduced to C and C++ to allow internationalization without depending on source text encoding.
The two main goals of this paper are:
to limit or fully remove undefined behavior from the UCN specification
to handle corner cases, which are yet not defined as undefined behavior
This paper deals with preprocessor and undefined behavior. It also updates the specification for the preprocessor to deal with C++11 lexical extensions (e.g raw-strings, user defined literals and new encoding prefixes). It aims at removing undefined behavior further from the preprocessor and adding missing specifications.
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The Roman Catholic bishop of Kansas City has been indicted by a grand jury on charges that he covered up child abuse, the New York Times reports. Robert Finn is the highest-ranking member of the American church to face criminal charges related to child abuse. Authorities say Finn knew that one of his priests, Rev. Shawn Ratigan, had lewd photos of young girls on his computer, but Finn did not report Ratigan to the authorities for five months.
According to the Kansas City Star, Finn re-assigned Ratigan to live in a mission house in Independence, Mo., after hearing complaints about his inappropriate behavior. Ratigan is accused of trying to take pornographic photos of a 12-year-old girl during his time there.
Finn is affiliated with Opus Dei, a powerful and controversial organization within Catholicism, according to the Times. He pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge.
According to Agence France-Press, the sexual abuse crisis has cost the American branch of the Catholic Church $3 billion since the first allegations surfaced in the 1980s, though few people have been jailed for their crimes. The U.S. Conference of Bishops established a review board that found that "4,392 Catholic priests and deacons sexually abused at least 10,677 American children between 1950 and 2002," the AFP reports.
Only 615 incidents were reported to civil authorities, with 252 clergymen convicted.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the grand jury that indicted Bishop Finn was a federal jury.
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Its atmosphere is stiflingly hot, with temperatures generally hovering around 800 degrees Celsius (1,470 degrees Fahrenheit) -- in the shade. The air is filled with billowing clouds of highly toxic gas.
Anyone setting foot on this faraway planet would die a speedy death. Nevertheless, the recently launched study of HR 8799 c is a breakthrough in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Astronomers unveiled a groundbreaking achievement in the field of metrology last week. By measuring the spectrum of light coming from HR 8799 c, they have managed to determine the chemical composition of its atmosphere. "For the first time, we have directly obtained the spectrum of a planet outside our solar system," says study co-author Wolfgang Brandner of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg.
Nowadays, the discovery of planets outside our solar system has become practically routine. In recent years, scientists have discovered more than 400 of these so-called exoplanets. But in most cases, their existence could only be proven indirectly, for example, by virtue of the fact that they cause a slight weakening in the light emitted by a much brighter star.
Mechanical Ballet
Only with the help of the world's most advanced observatory, and the European-run "Very Large Telescope" (VLT), did it become possible to directly capture the weak light coming from a planet and analyzing it using spectroscopy. The massive telescope is located on a 2,600-meter (8,528-foot) peak in Chile's Atacama Desert.
After nightfall, the robotic eyes come to life on the mountain, known as Cerro Paranal. Four giant domes, as outlandish as the stone sculptures on Easter Island, are silhouetted against the evening sky. The steel giants begin moving almost inaudibly, as the domes, each a 400-ton maze of cables and supports, ladders and steps, perform a mechanical ballet.
Each of the VLT's four main mirrors has a diameter of more than eight meters. They are the most sensitive devices designed to peer at the sky ever built by human hands, so powerful that they could pinpoint the light coming from a car headlight on the moon. One of their most important objectives is the search for a second Earth -- and for extraterrestrial life in space.
"What we are currently experiencing is the emergence of a new conception of the world," says Michael Sterzik, "comparable to the sea change that occurred when Copernicus described how the earth revolves around the sun." The astrophysicist climbs down the steps of the VLT and locks the door from the outside. His presence would only disturb the images. He is the head of operations at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), which operates the VLT as part of a consortium of 14 European countries.
Life in the Universe
The Atacama Desert is one of the driest places on the planet, which makes it ideal for obtaining a clear view into outer space. To avoid disturbing the measurements at the observatory, drivers are required to shut off their headlights and crawl, with only their parking lights turned on, up the serpentine access road, which is lined with nothing but reflectors. In October, planet hunter Brandner spent four nights at the observatory to align the telescopes with HR 8799 c. "It is now possible to control many observations via the Internet," he says, "but our project was so experimental that we had to be on-site all the time."
The late summer heat is currently shimmering above the giant, artificial eye. The telescope mirrors have to be recoated every 18 months because of the abrasive effect of dust storms. There is no sound of birds singing, and the only sign of life comes from the parched-looking desert plants that claw their way through the gravel. The extremely dry air, with humidity levels that are sometimes lower than 4 percent, burns the eyes and causes the skin to crack open.
The reddish, rocky desert around the VLT seems strangely familiar, reminiscent of images taken on Mars, a sterile, desert-like planet. Ironically, it is in this inhospitable place that scientists are searching for life in the universe.
A tunnel leads down to the guesthouse, half of which is buried underground to protect against the brutal desert climate. Tanker trucks deliver 55,000 liters of drinking water every day. The building has the futuristic look of a space station.
Living on Cerro Paranal is everything but glamorous. The staff works at night and sleeps during the day. The nearest city is several hours away, and alcohol is banned at the facility.
Astonishing Results
The planet hunters working with Wolfgang Brandner were initially dogged by bad luck. First the sky was overcast, and then moist layers of air obscured the view. It was only during their last night at Cerro Paranal that the scientists were lucky. For five hours, the telescope mirror followed the faraway planet as it moved across the sky in the constellation Pegasus, invisible to the naked eye.
After a long night of observation, Brandner had accumulated enough data to produce a portrait of the planet. His team packed their bags, flew home and went to work analyzing the data. The results were astonishing.
HR 8799 c is a young, hot giant planet, a cosmic teenager less than 60 million years old and more than 3,000 times as heavy as the Earth. But on Brandner's images, the fiery giant looks more like a tiny, forlorn little dot in space. The planet is 130 light-years away from the Earth, which means that the light being captured today has been traveling since 1880 and has been weakening ever since.
"Capturing an image of it was almost impossible, because the star around which the planet revolves is brighter by several orders of magnitude," says Sterzik. "For every particle of light coming from the planet, there are thousands coming from its central star." The astrophysicist likens the challenge to observing a candle burning next to a 300-watt spotlight two kilometers away.
The chemical analysis of a hot giant using the VLT has been technically possible for several years, but scientists had not found a suitable object worth observing -- until about a year ago, when a competing team from Canada discovered the promising planetary system that includes HR 8799 c.
Evidence of Gas Storms
When the ESO researchers analyzed the chemical fingerprint of the young gas giant, they made a surprising discovery: The methane in the gas shield appears to be combined with unusually high levels of carbon monoxide. "Carbon monoxide is normally found only in lower atmospheric layers and is thus invisible to us," Brandner explains. "The fact that we see it around HR 8799 c could mean that there are violent storms raging on the planet."
The evidence of gas storms on the giant planet would be an important step in the search for extraterrestrial life forms. It would allow scientists to visualize the weather, climate and even seasons of an exoplanet. But the long-term goal is still to study a small planet with pleasant temperatures that resemble our Earth. Only when scientists are able to discover telltale traces of, for example, ozone or water vapor in the atmosphere of a planet will they have found signs of the possible existence of life.
But the smaller and colder a planet is, the more difficult it is to capture its light. Even the VLT is still only capable of detecting hot, giant objects.
To address this need, scientists at ESO headquarters in Garching, near Munich, are already planning a successor to the VLT that would be five times as big and many times as powerful: the "Extremely Large Telescope" (ELT). Negotiations are currently underway with Chile and the ESO member countries.
A nearby mountaintop within view of Cerro Paranal is already being investigated as a possible site for the ELT -- a lifeless, windswept mound of rock that could serve as the starting point for finding life in the vast expanse of the universe. |
This article is about a family of birds. For the ornithological journal, see The Auk . For other meanings, see AUK
"Auklet" redirects here. For the fishery patrol vessel, see MV Auklet
An auk or alcid is a bird of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the murres, guillemots, auklets, puffins, and murrelets.
Apart from the extinct great auk, all auks are notable for their ability to "fly" under water as well as in the air. Although they are excellent swimmers and divers, their walking appears clumsy.
Several species have different common names in Europe and North America. The guillemots of Europe are referred to as murres in North America, if they occur in both continents, and the little auk is referred to as the dovekie.
Description [ edit ]
Auks are superficially similar to penguins having black-and-white colours, upright posture and some of their habits. Nevertheless, they are not closely related to penguins, but rather are believed to be an example of moderate convergent evolution. Auks are monomorphic (males and females are similar in appearance).
Extant auks range in size from the least auklet, at 85 g (3 oz) and 15 cm (5.9 in), to the thick-billed murre, at 1 kg (2.2 lb) and 45 cm (18 in). Due to their short wings, auks have to flap their wings very quickly in order to fly.
Although not to the extent of penguins, auks have largely sacrificed flight, and also mobility on land, in exchange for swimming ability; their wings are a compromise between the best possible design for diving and the bare minimum needed for flying. This varies by subfamily, the Uria guillemots (including the razorbill) and murrelets being the most efficient under the water, whereas the puffins and auklets are better adapted for flying and walking.
Feeding and ecology [ edit ]
The feeding behaviour of auks is often compared to that of penguins; both groups are wing-propelled pursuit divers. In the region where auks live, their only seabird competition are cormorants (which are dive-powered by their strong feet). In areas where the two groups feed on the same prey, the auks tend to feed further offshore. Strong-swimming murres hunt faster schooling fish, whereas auklets take slower-moving krill. Time depth recorders on auks have shown that they can dive as deep as 100 m in the case of Uria guillemots, 40 m for the Cepphus guillemots and 30 m for the auklets.
Breeding and colonies [ edit ]
Auks are pelagic birds, spending the majority of their adult life on the open sea and going ashore only for breeding, although some species — like the common guillemot — spend a great part of the year defending their nesting spot from others.
Auks are monogamous, and tend to form lifelong pairs. They typically lay a single egg, and they are philopatric (they use the nesting site year after year).
Some species, such as the Uria guillemots, nest in large colonies on cliff edges; others, like the Cepphus guillemots, breed in small groups on rocky coasts; and the puffins, auklets and some murrelets nest in burrows. All species except the Brachyramphus murrelets are colonial.
Evolution and distribution [ edit ]
Traditionally, the auks were believed to be one of the earliest distinct charadriiform lineages due to their characteristic morphology. However, genetic analyses have demonstrated that these peculiarities are the product of strong natural selection instead: as opposed to, for example, plovers (a much older charadriiform lineage), auks radically changed from a wading shorebird to a diving seabird lifestyle. Thus, today, the auks are no longer separated in their own suborder ("Alcae"), but are considered part of the Lari suborder which otherwise contains gulls and similar birds. Judging from genetic data, their closest living relatives appear to be the skuas, with these two lineages separating about 30 million years ago (mya).[1][2][3] Alternatively, auks may have split off far earlier from the rest of the Lari and undergone strong morphological, but slow genetic evolution, which would require a very high evolutionary pressure, coupled with a long lifespan and slow reproduction.
The earliest unequivocal fossils of auks are from the late Eocene, some 35 mya.[4] The genus Miocepphus, (from the Miocene, 15 mya) is the earliest known from good specimens. Two very fragmentary fossils are often assigned to the Alcidae, although this may not be correct: Hydrotherikornis (late Eocene) and Petralca (Late Oligocene). Most extant genera are known to exist since the Late Miocene or Early Pliocene (c. 5 mya). Miocene fossils have been found in both California and Maryland, but the greater diversity of fossils and tribes in the Pacific leads most scientists to conclude that it was there they first evolved, and it is in the Miocene Pacific that the first fossils of extant genera are found. Early movement between the Pacific and the Atlantic probably happened to the south (since there was no northern opening to the Atlantic), later movements across the Arctic Ocean.[5] The flightless subfamily Mancallinae, which was apparently restricted to the Pacific coast of southern North America and became extinct in the Early Pleistocene, is sometimes includes in the family Alcidae under some definitions. One species, Miomancalla howardae, is the largest charadriiform of all time.[6]
Razorbills are true auks only found in the Atlantic Ocean
The extant auks (subfamily Alcinae) are broken up into 2 main groups: the usually high-billed puffins (tribe Fraterculini) and auklets (tribe Aethiini), as opposed to the more slender-billed murres and true auks (tribe Alcini), and the murrelets and guillemots (tribes Brachyramphini and Cepphini). The tribal arrangement was originally based on analyses of morphology and ecology.[7] mtDNA cytochrome b sequence and allozyme studies[1][2] confirm these findings except that the Synthliboramphus murrelets should be split into a distinct tribe, as they appear more closely related to the Alcini – in any case, assumption of a closer relationship between the former and the true guillemots was only weakly supported by earlier studies.[7]
Of the genera there are only a few species in each. This is probably a product of the rather small geographic range of the family (the most limited of any seabird family), and the periods of glacial advance and retreat that have kept the populations on the move in a narrow band of subarctic ocean.
Today, as in the past, the auks are restricted to cooler northern waters. Their ability to spread further south is restricted as their prey hunting method, pursuit diving, becomes less efficient in warmer waters. The speed at which small fish (which along with krill are the auk's principal food items) can swim doubles as the temperature increases from 5 to 15 °C (41 to 59 °F), with no corresponding increase in speed for the bird. The southernmost auks, in California and Mexico, can survive there because of cold upwellings. The current paucity of auks in the Atlantic (6 species), compared to the Pacific (19–20 species) is considered to be because of extinctions to the Atlantic auks; the fossil record shows there were many more species in the Atlantic during the Pliocene. Auks also tend to be restricted to continental shelf waters and breed on few oceanic islands.
Hydotherikornis oregonus (Described by Miller in 1931), the oldest purported alcid from the Eocene of California, is actually a petrel (as reviewed by Chandler in 1990) and is reassigned to the tubenoses (Procellariiformes). A 2003 paper entitled "The Earliest North American Record of Auk (Aves: Alcidae) From the Late Eocene of Central Georgia" by Robert M. Chandler and Dennis Parmley of Georgia College and State University reports a Late Eocene, wing-propelled diving, auk from the Priabonain Stage of the Late Eocene. These sediments have been dated through Chandronian NALMA {North American Land Mammal Age}, at an estimate of 34.5 to 35.5 million years on the Eocene time scale for fossil bearing sediments of the Clinchfield Formation, Gordon, Wilkinson County, Georgia. Furthermore, the sediments containing this unabraded portion of a left humerus (43.7 mm long) are tropical or sub-tropical as evidenced by a wealth of warm water shark teeth, palaeophied snake vertebrae and turtles.
Systematics [ edit ]
Biodiversity of auks seems to have been markedly higher during the Pliocene.[5] See the genus accounts for prehistoric species.
See also [ edit ]
Kiviak, a traditional Inuit food from Greenland that is made of auks preserved in seal skin
Tradeoffs for locomotion in air and water
References [ edit ] |
The Ork ‘Decurion’ pieces are starting to come out – Come see the latest formations that fit in the Ork Jig-saw puzzle!
via Captain Citadel, 2-25-2016
via Games Workshop
Here is where these formations will fit in the Ork “decurion” detachment we saw earlier in the week:
via hordrak On dakkadakka
We now have a pretty good picture of how this all fits together. The Waaagh-Band is the new “greentide” replacement and then you take the Council of the Waaagh to get Ghaz and his crew. Sprinkle in some other formations like the Dakkajets or Painboy mob and you’ve got your self a big green wrecking ball.
Digital Edition $32.99
Waaagh Ghazghkull – a Codex: Orks Supplement is your complete guide to Ghazghkull’s crusade. Inside you will find the full background tale of the rise of the greatest Ork Warlord to ever stomp across the galaxy. As well as rules for fielding an army worthy of Ghazghkull in your games of Warhammer 40,000, you will find a lavish showcase demonstrating the impressive range of models, as well as colours and icons of the many units and formations fighting in the warlord’s force. DESCRIPTION
It has long been said that should the disparate Orks ever unify beneath one leader they would crush all of the so-called civilised peoples of the galaxy. That doomsday draws nearer, for the great greenskin Warlord Ghazghkull Thraka has arisen, and Orks from all clans muster to his bellowing warcry. He is not just a mighty warrior, but a master strategist and the living Prophet of Gork and Mork – the brutal greenskin gods. Already star systems burn upon his orders, and more will soon follow. Ghazghkull has called the Great Waaagh!, drawing towards him the most warlike of his savage race. Goff warbands, Speed Freeks, Dread Mobz – all have crossed the stars in their seething multitudes to join the greatest Ork crusade in a millennium. This time, nothing will stop the green tide. In this book you will find:
A comprehensive history of Ghazghkull Thraka, his battle to become supreme amongst the greenskins, and his wars against the Imperium
A showcase of incredible Ork Citadel Miniatures
A brand new detachment with which to build your Ork army: the Great Waaagh!-band
14 formations that can be used in any Ork horde
Special rules, Warlord Traits and Kustom Gubbinz unique to Waaagh! Ghazghkull forces
3 Altar of War missions and 6 Tactical Objectives that provide you with new ways to battle with your Waaagh! Ghazghkull army
Ghazghkull will be back soon, and he’s brining all the ladz with him this time. Drop it in the comments if you’re an Ork expert and can help us figure out what’s new and what’s not!
We’re da best. Think diffrent do ya? Come and have a go then, ya runty little wimp! |
President Lyndon Johnson’s labor secretary, Willard Wirtz, reported that there was substantial discrimination against older workers and that the nation was needlessly denying older people “opportunity for that useful activity which constitutes much of life’s meaning.”
Bolstered by Wirtz’s report, in 1967 Congress passed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. It used parallel language to the 1964 act, which should have guaranteed older Americans comparable rights to other groups. It has not worked out that way.
The courts have repeatedly thrown up barriers to age discrimination suits, long before the Supreme Court’s June decision. In 1993, in one of its most damaging rulings, the court decided that if employers fire workers whose pension costs or salaries are high, they are not discriminating — even if the overwhelming number of people fired are older workers.
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There are several possible reasons that age discrimination is not taken as seriously as other biases. Older workers are generally not victims of animosity, but rather of unfair stereotypes — that they work more slowly or do not adapt well to change.
Many people also seem to agree with the appeals court in the light bulb case: that unlike racism, which is inherently wrong, there is something natural about the old making way for the young. Never mind that with the Social Security retirement age rising, and pensions disappearing, many older Americans have no choice but to work.
As flawed as the Age Discrimination in Employment Act is, older people have fared even worse in constitutional law. The Supreme Court in 1976 rejected an equal protection challenge to Massachusetts’s mandatory retirement age of 50 for state police officers.
The sole dissenter was Justice Thurgood Marshall, who had been a legendary litigator for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Older people, Justice Marshall said, are not in the same category as blacks when it comes to discrimination. They are not “isolated in society,” he noted, and there are even laws according them special benefits.
Nevertheless, he said, older people are “undoubtedly discriminated against,” and when a law “denies them an important benefit” — employment — there must be a better reason for it than Massachusetts was able to offer.
Justice Marshall was right.
To be rejected on account of old age may or may not feel the same as being rejected on the basis of race or sex. But it is clearly unjust and dehumanizing, and the law should take it more seriously than it does. |
In February, 2015, neurologist Oliver Sacks – arguably the world's best-known brain doctor and the greatest physician writer in English, wrote an article in The New York Times called My Own Life, announcing that "my luck has run out."
Dr. Sacks, 81 years old, still wildly productive, clear-headed, feeling robust, and swimming a mile a day, had just found out he had multiple metastases, from an ocular cancer that had been treated nine years before. One-third of his liver was filled with cancer.
No sooner had he shared his ill fortune than did he begin to write of his gratitude for the years he had been granted since his original diagnosis, and his overall feeling of gratitude for having lived as "a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet … "
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Hardly a word more was said about the cancer. For now, face to face with dying, he was not quite done with living. He would restrict himself to essentials, which meant saying goodbye to dear friends and family, and continuing to write as he always had, hoping to die "in harness."
A group of short, extraordinarily affecting essays followed, his farewell to the world, leaving many readers in tears. Dr. Sacks's specialty had been documenting how an individual, trapped in an extreme mental state that altered perception and even identity, retained his humanity. How, one wondered, might Dr. Sacks bear up when facing his own ultimate transformation?
There were surprises, and some revelations, too, in these lyrical meditations, which have been gathered together in a very short book collection – called, fittingly, Gratitude, which appeared on Nov. 24, not long after the release of his memoir, On The Move.
The essays in Gratitude had a spare beauty about them – unusual for a writer who so loved the rich tangent. They were unique among his other, more lush, scientific writings. They had the feel of wisdom literature. Wisdom sifts; a wise man, mindful that he has little time to say what he must, gets to the point.
And the tone was unusual. They were both stoical and poignant. These are two qualities that rarely go together; we tend to think of stoicism as a kind of armour worn against our emotions, and poignancy as the breaking through, into our stream of consciousness, of emotions, even our most tender and delicate feelings. The poignancy and stoicism of the Gratitude essays was heightened by Dr. Sacks's reiteration that he was an atheist. He was, as far as he knew, facing a total erasure of his identity.
Instead of "battling" his illness, the common metaphor of such accounts, he accepted that he was going to die. And his attitude, in Gratitude, is ultimately to see dying – odd as it is to say it – as an opportunity, of sorts. His burgeoning awareness that his life is ending is affording him a vision of it he had not had before. "Over the last few days, I have been able to see my life as from a great altitude, as sort of a landscape, and with a deepening sense of the connection of all its parts."
The final essay concluded: "And now, weak, short of breath, my once-firm muscles melted away by cancer, I find my thoughts, increasingly, not on the supernatural or spiritual but on what is meant by living a good and worthwhile life – achieving a sense of peace within oneself. I find my thoughts drifting to the Sabbath, the day of rest, the seventh day of the week, and perhaps the seventh day of one's life as well, when one can feel that one's work is done, and one may, in good conscience, rest."
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Most readers came to Dr. Sacks far sooner though, through his medical writing, which had always been a literary event as well as a scientific one. W.H. Auden called his second book, Awakenings, a "masterpiece." The prominent literary critic Frank Kermode wrote of it, "This doctor's report … is written in prose of such beauty that you might well look in vain for its equal among living practitioners of belles letters." But he was also a physician's physician, and when he died, the surgeon Atul Gawande wrote in The New Yorker, "No one taught me more about how to be a doctor than Oliver Sacks." This Dr. Gawande gleaned not from working with Dr. Sacks at the bedside, but from reading him.
Dr. Sacks saw himself as a naturalist, cut loose within the world of medicine, and naturalists love to collect, catalogue, describe and discern, in great detail, the manifold variations in nature. Dr. Sacks was wedded to the proposition that we learn best from a close study of the particular. He hated textbooks, with their generalizations and remote language, and science by committee. He wrote to vivify each patient's unique experience, often using their own idiosyncratic speech. He listened not only with a stethoscope, but a poet's ear.
Thus Dr. Sacks's writing required a plentiful prose. He never used just one adjective when he could use many; he loved crisscrossing between case reports written centuries and continents apart; and his footnotes grew like vines from the bottom of the page upward with each subsequent edition. He hid treasures in those footnotes that could be more intriguing than those found in the main text.
Gratitude, such a personal book, might seem but a non-medical footnote to Dr. Sacks's medical career. But that makes sense if we see medicine as only about "cures" – and dying as something it needn't concern itself with. In these final essays Dr. Sacks took as his primary subject the case of Oliver Sacks himself, in the process of dying, to teach us something about how to die.
Oliver Sacks's legacy was to restore a vision of a humane medicine that drew its power not from technological breakthroughs alone, but through the healing power of the doctor-patient relationship. It had roots in a more old-fashioned view that came in part from his general-practitioner father, who had close relationships with his patients and did frequent house calls. It was a form of care that required an almost unheard-of immersion in the lives of his patients by Dr. Sacks, which allowed him to draw portraits of human beings of an incomparable subtlety and sensitivity, while shedding new light on the mysteries of the brain. He also rejuvenated for us the rich tradition of the case history.
Yet Dr. Sacks's triumph did not come immediately or without opposition.
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"[W]ith little encouragement from my colleagues," he wrote, "… I became a storyteller at a time when medical narrative was almost extinct. … It was a lonely but deeply satisfying, almost monkish existence that I was to lead for many years."
It may sound a strange claim, but the detailed case history – which in the 19th century produced some of the finest descriptions of patients ever written – had all but disappeared from the neurology journals when Dr. Sacks started writing, and, even today, it is rare. The great 19th-century neurologists, lacking scans, EEGs, and statistics, perfected their observational skills and the art of talking to patients so as to help them describe how those patients' mental experiences were altered by their brain problems.
With the advent of modern lab and scanning techniques, these observational and communicative skills atrophied. The journals changed, too. Detailed accounts of individual patients increasingly disappeared, replaced by group studies of "subjects," described in more abstract, statistical terms, based on their scans and scores on tests. Instead of reporting what was unique about a patient, studies reported what was average about a population. And averages smear out what is unique about individuals.
And if an individual patient was described, it was often in a several-sentence anecdote – not to be confused with a detailed case history. If anything, the anecdote was intentionally nondescript, suppressing personal details, because it focused not on the person with the disease, but the disease itself. To some tastes, this made the anecdote seem more "scientific." After all, a diagnosis describes a disease, something that is supposed to be fairly invariant from person to person. A diagnosis is what a group of people have in common, not what distinguishes them from each other.
In this frame of mind, the mental life of the person with the illness is a distraction.
One of Oliver Sacks’s many “think boards” from his Awakenings days.
Oliver Sacks's breakthrough book was based on his work at a backward chronic-care hospital, Beth Abraham, in the Bronx. It was the kind of place conventionally ambitious physicians avoided. There he discovered about 80 patients who had suffered an illness called encephalitis lethargica, which left them, after a period of great nervous excitement, with "sleeping sickness," often frozen in fixed postures, like "living statues," mute and unable to move. An earlier physician had described them as "extinct volcanoes." Sometimes, even their thought processes were in a kind of suspended animation. They had been this way for four decades.
To understand these often mute patients, Dr. Sacks totally immersed himself in their lives, moved into the hospital on-call apartment, and took call every night for almost four years, after working his regular 16-hour days. Over time, he began to sort out their individual characters, and noted that they had Parkinson's disease-like symptoms. He eventually discovered they responded to a new drug, L-dopa.
Former "statues" turned into 1920s-era flappers, and danced together. Though many were pushing 70, they felt as if they were in their twenties, and spoke using phrases, affectations and accents of their youth. Their faces seemed to confirm that suspension of time: Immobile and expressionless for so long, they hadn't formed wrinkles.
His first five medical reports, describing their profoundly moving and dramatic "awakenings" on the drug, received very positive responses when published in major medical journals, such as The Lancet and the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Less well known, but a crucial spur to his development as a thinker and clinician, was what happened after. Dr. Sacks reported that, within months, his patients experienced major side effects on L-dopa, and cautioned that maybe these people were sensitive "canaries in the coal mine," and that L-dopa might best be used with caution on more typical Parkinson's patients. He was viciously attacked. Some said he was "off his head," and that no such side effects occurred.
When he tried to publish a systematic study of these "side effects" (which he thought were really "effects" of the drug) in the same medical journals that had published his first findings, and others, he was refused.
Dr. Sacks was struck by how his colleagues, though they thought of themselves as scientists, were using almost religious language, describing L-dopa as a "miracle drug." And so he began to psychoanalyze how yearnings drive longings in doctors and patients alike, and colour our views of medication, treatment, and, indeed, the whole world of illness.
He published his findings in 1973, not in a medical journal, but in a book meant for anyone who was interested: Awakenings. As years passed, and the side effects Dr. Sacks observed were seen by others, the book became a classic with the lay public and neurologists alike, and was adapted into a well-known film, but not before he was fired for daring to question authority, and told by his boss to vacate the on-call apartment at Beth Abraham, depriving him of his home, his job – and, most important, his regular access to his patients.
Dr. Sacks in New York circa 1970.
Awakenings became a success, but it wasn't until 12 years later, when The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat came out, that Dr. Sacks became a bestselling author.
Hat, as his friends came to call it, explains how discrete localized brain problems lead to very specific changes in mental experience. The "man" of the title, Dr. P., a music teacher, had a lesion in a specific visual area of the brain. The most famous scene in the book begins when Dr. P., believing that Dr. Sacks had just finished examining him, "started to look around for his hat. He reached out his hand and took hold of his wife's head, tried to lift it off, to put it on. … His wife looked as if she was used to such things." When Dr. P. was walking in the street he would, somewhat Magoo-like, genially "pat the heads of water-hydrants and parking-meters, taking these to be the heads of children."
If Awakenings was a feverish, tidal book, overwhelming with its stories of living death, resurrection, and living death returned, Hat was a more classical one: multiple, bite-sized clinical tales, written with great charm, about how brain problems lead to losses, or excesses, of mental activity.
Hat's preface included powerful arguments for why case histories are every bit as medically important as studies.
The idea of the case history goes back to ancient Greece, and Hippocrates, who first wrote about diseases having a course, a way of unfolding in time. Doctors began to write "histories" of their patients' illnesses, essentially biographies of disease, but, Dr. Sacks argued, they were really "pathographies" – documentations of the illnesses themselves, in which the human subjects largely disappeared.
Dr. Sacks argued that this convention was no longer sufficient, and wrote, "To restore the human subject at the centre – the suffering, afflicted, fighting human subject – we must deepen a case history to a narrative or tale." These clinical tales, like classical fables, "have archetypal figures – heroes, victims, martyrs, warriors," because "patients are all of these," and more, "travellers to unimaginable lands."
This restoration of the person to the centre was especially, and obviously, necessary for neurology, psychology and psychiatry, Dr. Sacks wrote in Hat, "for here the patient's personhood is essentially involved, and the study of disease and identity cannot be disjoined."
The strongest single influence on Dr. Sacks's idea of how to develop these whimsical-sounding "clinical tales" was the Russian scientist Alexandr Luria (1902-77). It was from Dr. Luria that Dr. Sacks got the inspiration and the model that would allow him to make the case history his major focus.
Dr. Luria, as a very young man, was a major contributor to the development of psychoanalysis in his country, and corresponded about the subject with Sigmund Freud – who was originally a neurologist, and who, according to Dr. Sacks, wrote "matchless case-histories." Dr. Luria was drawn to analysis because it was, as far as he knew, the only branch of psychology that took both materialist science and human subjectivity seriously.
But this was not to last. In the late 1920s, under Joseph Stalin, psychoanalysis was decreed "politically incorrect." One month after giving a sympathetic lecture on Freud's thought, Dr. Luria, fearing for his survival, publicly renounced his ideological "mistake," and abruptly resigned from the Russian Psychoanalytical Society. He went off to medical school, and reinvented himself, pioneering the field of neuropsychology and the study of the higher cortical functions of the brain. He published conventional monographs and treatises.
But in private letters to Dr. Sacks, in 1976, Dr. Luria made clear that he still took psychoanalysis seriously, and in one he offered a psychoanalytic interpretation of one of Dr. Sacks's neurological patients. Though he had disavowed his commitment to analysis, Dr. Luria had been writing up neurological case histories in the detailed manner of Freud, in secret, for decades.
When Dr. Sacks first read one of these book-length cases, Dr. Luria's The Mind of a Mnemonist, in 1968 (about a Russian with an almost perfect memory who made his living performing feats on stage, but who was also deeply tormented because he could not, like most people, automatically forget unimportant events), Dr. Sacks thought it must have been a novel, Dr. Luria had so well described the man's unusual subjective experience.
When he realized it was non-fiction, Dr. Sacks was so filled with admiration that he also became overwhelmed with fear, thinking, "[W]hat place is there for me in the world? Luria has already seen, said, written, and thought anything I can ever say, or write, or think." Dr. Sacks was so upset that he tore the library copy he was reading in two – then, getting a hold of himself, went out and bought one replacement copy for the library, and one for himself.
Verbatim: Oliver Sacks on the art of writing
Dr. Sacks credits that book with altering the course of his life. The next summer, he wrote the first nine case histories of Awakenings. Dr. Luria, to whom the book was dedicated, was delighted, and wrote to Dr. Sacks that the kind of approach taken in Awakenings "is lost now, perhaps because of the basic mistake that mechanical and electrical devices can replace the study of personality."
With "the advent of the new instrumentation," technology was getting between the physician and the patient. "The physicians of our time, having a battery of auxiliary laboratory aids and tests, frequently overlook clinical reality."
This would seem an extreme statement; after all, why must new technological tools lead to a loss of clinical reality? Can we not have both? Can one not enhance the other? And yet, Dr. Luria, according to Dr. Sacks, believed that there was a "conceptual and emotional atmosphere" that came with technology that cast a shadow over the doctor-patient relationship.
This occurs, I would argue, because technology is not simply something we use; it comes part and parcel with a particular medical theory and practice.
Modern scientific medicine has taken a fundamentally materialist approach, and it is "analytical," meaning that it divides wholes into parts. It often proceeds by reducing complex phenomena to their more elementary chemical and physical components: viruses, genes, molecules, and so on. Our technology measures these elements. That is what we do when we determine that a patient has a fever and trouble breathing because her lung is infected with microscopic bacteria.
In psychology, this materialist theory aims to reduce all psychological phenomena to physiological laws of how the brain works. The goal is ultimately to build up abstract models of the brain, based on the observation of its individual elements.
But, Dr. Luria worried, "One outcome of this approach is the reduction of living reality with all its richness of detail to abstract schemas." Dr. Luria wanted to restore the whole patient to scientific papers, and leave aside the abstractions, and even, he confessed, the description of personality with statistics. Can we human beings be understood solely in terms of our elements, our molecules, atoms, our parts, our circuits, our reflexes, even our behaviours? Or must not all of it be understood as part of a whole experience, which would include, of course, the subjective, qualitative mental experiences and intentions that drive behaviour?
This was not a dry debate about how to report science, but about a profound philosophical difference. When Dr. Luria was a young man, he presented his first book, The Nature of Human Conflicts (1932), which aimed to be both objective but also to report on cases in detail, to the pre-eminent Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov, inventor of behaviourism. A day later, when Dr. Luria met him, the old man's eyes were blazing, and he tore the book in half and threw it to the ground, roaring, "You call this science! Science proceeds from elementary parts and builds up; here you are describing behaviour as a whole!" Dr. Luria was declared "un-Pavlovian" and "un-Soviet," and had to keep his extensive case histories in the drawer for about 30 years before daring to publish them, and only after having first published many standard group studies and treatises.
Group studies look at aspects of people: For instance, they select scores on tests, and compare them. One would think that a larger study would always trump a single case study. But group studies, like case histories, have both strengths and weaknesses.
Dr. Sacks wrote that "all sorts of generalizations are made possible by dealing with populations [group studies] – but one needs the concrete, the particular, the personal too, and it is impossible to convey the nature and impact of any neurological condition without entering and describing the lives of individual patients."
Case histories are the only place in the medical literature where we see, if not the whole patient, at least enough to get a picture of a living human being.
Case histories can make hundreds of observations about a few people, and thus may not be representative of the larger population; group studies on the other hand, make a few observations about many people. The question is: Is it possible to understand a person with a brain illness, by describing him or her in bits and pieces – by observing just a few variables?
The assumption underlying the typical group study of a disease is that each participant has the same disease, and that any variation between them – whether they exercise, for instance, or have other genetic risk factors or psychological issues – is relatively insignificant. This assumption of uniformity certainly doesn't hold when talking about the brain, which is so complex, and differs extensively from person to person. As well, no two brain injuries are identical, and usually affect different brain areas.
This tremendous variation between patients is probably one key contributor to a problem that has now been acknowledged as a major one in the life and medical sciences: the replication crisis.
One would have to have lived in a cave within a cave for the last 10 years not to have noticed that many key medical findings from group studies are being reversed, almost monthly – be it studies on the usefulness of mammograms and prostate tests, or the effectiveness of various medications. Many of the finest randomized controlled trials (RCTs), we are now learning, cannot be replicated. Worse, most published group studies in medicine can't be reproduced, leading to what Europe's premier science journal, Nature, now calls "the reproducibility crisis."
A study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association in 2014 showed that 35 per cent of the conclusions of the finest RCTs, assessed by peer review and published in the most respected medical journals, cannot be replicated on reanalysis of their raw data. And the most downloaded article in the history of the journal PLOS Medicine, appearing in 2005 and called Why Most Published Research Findings Are False, showed how bias easily sneaks into data analysis. This has led Nature to call for new methods to try to eliminate bias in medicine and life sciences.
Thus, there is less safety in numbers in these fields than we might wish. (I take no pleasure in this, as one who writes on life sciences.) This is why we need to be open to a range of study methods, both single case studies and group studies.
As for the retort that case histories are not "scientific" because they are not "quantitative" – that confuses statistics, one tool of science, with science itself. Francis Crick, who, after co-discovering DNA, turned his attention to the problem of consciousness, eagerly pored over the Sacks case histories in draft form. He did so knowing, as neurologist and neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran explains: "[I]n neurology, most of the major discoveries that have withstood the test of time were, in fact, based initially on single case studies and demonstrations."
Our views of what constitutes rigour in science depend on the paradigm of the day. A paradigm is a theory – with associated laws, practices, and related technological and analytical tools – about an aspect of the universe.
Statistical paradigms dispense with non-statistical technologies. But changing from one form of technology to another has unintended consequences. True, we don't tend to think of the case-history report as a technology. But I would argue that it is, and that the technology that underlies the case history is not just writing, but language itself – an invented medium that allows us to put our thoughts and subjective experiences into words. And, so far, it is the best medium we have for becoming aware of and conveying private experiences. Language, though ancient, is not less sophisticated for being old, but more, having been refined over millennia. When the subject we are studying is the nature of human experience itself, this is not technology we can dispense with.
The language we use for the doctor-patient encounter affects the nature of that very relationship. The word "patient" comes from the root for "one who suffers" and it goes best with another old-fashioned word: physician or, heaven forbid, healer. But these words – the language of medicine for centuries – are increasingly being swept away by impersonal technological terms, which manage to be bland and hideously undignified at the same time: terms like "medical-system user" and "health-care systems provider."
The language of "user" and provider" masks the fundamental insight in the word "patient." When we are truly sick, we are suffering, dependent, and not wholly ourselves. We require a "healer" (which comes from the old English haelan, which means not simply to "cure" but to "make whole"). We require not just a provider of goods and services but also a relationship we can trust.
Our remote, obfuscating language is a pathetic replacement for a vanishing, highly personal healer-patient relationship, an ancient archetype that is being buried. People can feel stripped of their dignity, autonomy and personhood on entering such user-provider "systems." The logistical demands of those systems, along with the presence of devices such as computers, can directly intrude into the doctor-patient relationship. Physicians, compelled by numerous pressures from the "health-care efficiency experts," must spend as much time looking at their screens during eight-minute visits as at their patients.
Increasingly, clinics and hospitals treat clinicians as interchangeable "service providers." Once we enter such a system, to make up for the loss of my doctor or my nurse, we are assured we now have something better: "the team." Doctors and nurses may come and go, but the team will always be there. But will a team with interchangeable members we may barely know really have our back in a crisis, really care about us, as much as someone with whom we have an ongoing relationship?
All this systems-oriented care – an oxymoron – is not simply the product of underfunding health care. It occurs in nations rich and poor, capitalist and socialist. Rather, it grows out of a paradigm that sees the world of illness and health solely in material, analytical, statistical and technological terms.
Against this, how we long for an old-fashioned, irreplaceable Dr. Sacks, taking call every night, with his two-hour assessments of "his" patients. For in a world in which the doctor is too easily replaced, so too, we sense, is the patient.
Dr. Sacks seeing patients at Beth Abraham, 1988.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1985) was based on the prevailing view of its time, one built up over the 19th and most of the 20th centuries, that the brain was made up of several hundred little "organs," each of which had a genetically preassigned task. The adult brain was fixed. The great triumph of that era of neurology and neuroscience was to begin to map the brain, localizing where each of these areas were.
Hat gave readers a first tour through these little organs, while also describing the human drama of how these patients were affected by their malfunctions and misfortunes. These were stories, as Dr. Sacks saw it, of patients who either lost their identity because of a brain lesion, or who triumphed and found a way to preserve that identity.
In the late 1980s, however, neuroscience underwent a major shift. With the increasing recognition of neuroplasticity – the discovery that even the adult brain's physical structure is adaptable and can change in response to experience – Dr. Sacks realized that Hat was based on a partially outmoded view of the brain.
Clinically, he was beginning to observe that neuroplasticity was at work in people with neurological disease, as they adjusted to their illnesses.
In his book An Anthropologist on Mars (1995), he showed how, owing to "the brain's remarkable plasticity," illness could even "play a paradoxical role, by bringing out latent powers, developments, evolutions, forms of life, that might never be seen, or even be imaginable, in their absence."
To learn of these evolutions, he left his office and spent time with patients as they worked, travelled, and lived their lives. He explored savant-like skills in autistic people; how tumours or strokes might give rise to new ways of seeing the world. No longer was Dr. Sacks seeing his suffering patients as either losing their identity, or preserving it; these were instead all stories of the metamorphosis of identity. In most of the cases, he made sophisticated psychoanalytic observations about how the mental life and the neurological problems interacted, pushing for a more holistic neurology.
Dr. Sacks used his understanding of plasticity not to try to cure, alter or improve the people he was writing about. His purpose was to understand, to appreciate, how the human spirit changed in response to brain changes.
Anthropologist is the book where Dr. Sacks achieves staggering heights, and shows he has no peer. I know of no better, more subtly observed, eye-opening case histories in 20th-century neurology.
Dr. Sacks writing on a car roof.
I met Oliver Dr. Sacks only once, in the spring of 2008.
Zarela Martinez, a dynamic New York restaurateur, was the author of a book on the food and life of her native Oaxaca. Oliver had written Oaxaca Journal, his own exploration of southern Mexico, especially its ferns (he was an amateur pteridologist), and when he learned of Zarela, he showed up at her restaurant one day, asking her to autograph his copy of her book. A friendship ensued.
Some time later Zarela contacted me: Coming across Dr. Sacks's endorsement of my first book, she had bought it, and then got in touch because she was using some of the neuroplasticity principles I described to help minimize the onslaught of her own Parkinson's symptoms.
Upon learning that Oliver and I had never met, Zarela became excited ("Another excuse for a party!") and organized a small dinner at her house. It was intimate, with my wife, Karen; Zarela; her partner, Jamie (a retired adult-film actor); Oliver; James Watson, the Nobel laureate and co-discoverer of DNA; and Dr. Watson's wife, Liz. I had previously dined with Francis Crick, of Watson and Crick, and Dr. Sacks had been close with Dr. Crick, but neither of us had ever met Dr. Watson until that evening. This assortment of guests was typical of a Zarela get-together, and comfortable for Dr. Sacks: His own eclectic circle could bring together an astronaut, a dental hygienist, a fern expert, a car dealer, several Nobel laureates, and the person who scrubbed his floors.
She sat Oliver and me together. I wanted to thank him for what his writings meant to me, and for what he had done for me personally. When the manuscript of my first book was complete, it was sent out to many people for comment. He was the only one to respond, remarkable in a man with so many demands on his time. (I say this as someone who has not always managed to do the same for others myself.)
I expressed my heartfelt gratitude; he was warm, but self-minimizing, in a British way. As we dug into the dinner, and discussed current projects, the naturalist emerged. He discoursed, like a botanist, on our salad, but not all vegetables, I learned, were equal: He had a particular passion for radishes, and he carefully singled them out from the other, leafy things on his plate.
He was, I had been told by a colleague who studied with him as a resident, painfully shy, and I remember, more than anything, the slowly unfolding pace of our conversation. He spoke softly, was attentive, tactful, gentle, and utterly unlike some of the wound-up wordsmiths and intellectuals from the brilliant Oxford set of his university days.
We settled into our orbit, found our range and roster of shared interests, and the conversation proceeded from a mutual interest in Russian literature (he raised Oblomov, the lead character in Ivan Goncherov's novel, about a man who got nothing done), to Dr. Luria and mutual professional challenges, including keeping up with correspondence. Dr. Sacks received thousands of letters. "The worst," he said, with distress, "are those who write hoping for magic."
Toward the end of the evening, he told me, with some pride and tenderness, and in a nod to the fact that I was also a psychoanalyst, that he had to go, because he had an appointment with his own analyst in the morning. "We've been seeing each other for a long time."
Lifting weights as a novice at the Maccabi club in London, 1956.
Oliver Sacks had a good start in life, born in London to a loving, Orthodox Jewish family, immediately followed by a very traumatic childhood, which he wrote about in a first memoir, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood (2001). During the Nazi bombing of London, six-year-old Oliver was evacuated, with his brother, to a boarding school called Braefield, in the Midlands.
The headmaster beat all the boys; he beat Oliver on his bottom till the cane broke, and sent Oliver's parents the bill for the cane. The older boys soon beat the youngest among them. He was often hungry, and survived mostly on turnips and coarse beetroots for cattle, because the matron stole the food parcels his parents sent. His parents, both physicians, busy in London with war duties, could only rarely visit. In the four years he was a student at Braefield, he was allowed to visit home only once. He felt abandoned, betrayed, desolate and hopeless. His belief in God was shaken. "He always said," Kate Edgar, Dr. Sacks's assistant and close friend, told me, "that the exile to boarding school was the major wound in his life."
To survive Braefield, Oliver took refuge in numbers, thinking about them, manipulating them, exploring mathematical relationships. When the war ended, this evolved into an interest in chemistry. He also went from being a well-behaved child to acting out – he came home utterly changed. When he wasn't replicating the major experiments of modern chemistry, he loved making explosions and noxious gases ("bangs and stinks," as he called them). His teacher wrote in his school report, "Sacks will go far, if he doesn't go too far." As an adolescent, he became a serious motorcyclist.
The mild-mannered man I dined with wrote, "I cannot say (nor would anyone who knows me say) that I am a man of mild disposition. On the contrary, I am a man of vehement disposition, and extreme immoderation in all my passions."
Braefield was not the only agony from his youth. When he was 18, Oliver, questioned by his father, acknowledged that he had sexual feelings for boys. "Don't tell Ma," Oliver said, "she won't be able to take it." His father did tell her, though, and when she saw Oliver, she said, "You are an abomination. I wish you had never been born." It was never discussed again.
He later wrote, "My mother, so open and supportive in most ways, was harsh and inflexible in this area." It was, probably, all the more agonizing because his relationship with her remained, until she died, his most important. As he wrote in On the Move, "My mother's death was the most devastating loss of my life – the loss of the deepest and perhaps, in some sense, the realest relation of my life."
Ultimately, he was forgiving. "We are all creatures of our upbringings, our cultures, our times. And I have needed to remind myself, repeatedly, that my mother was born in the 1890s, and had an Orthodox upbringing and that in England in the 1950s homosexual behaviour was treated not only as a perversion but as a criminal offence."
Torn by conflicted feelings, Oliver had to lead a furtive romantic life through his 20s, when he had several love affairs.
Oliver Sacks with his new 250cc Norton motorbike in 1956.
Oliver became a combination of an intellectual and a renegade. He studied medicine in Britain and then made his way to North America, crisscrossing the continent on a motorcycle, and getting into some dangerous accidents. He briefly spent some time hanging out with Hells Angels, biked across Canada, and tried to sign up as a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He later moved to California, where he set a state-wide weightlifting record, and also began a medical residency in neurology.
At the end of work on Friday, he'd exchange his white coat for leathers, and the "Wolf" (his middle name) would come out, wanting speed, adventure, risk and novelty, and he'd ride his motorcycle, sometimes all night, to the Grand Canyon, to catch the sunrise. He'd ride back all Sunday night, for medical rounds Monday morning.
Arriving in the United States, in the 1960s, his deep interest in both chemistry and the mind drew him to try many different kinds of mind-altering drugs. Many of his weightlifting friends used speed and he did, too. Driving his use was deep emotional distress: His drug use escalated after a soured love affair. "I craved some deeper connection – 'meaning' – in my life, and it was the absence of this, I think, that drew me into near-suicidal addiction to amphetamines … "
By this point many of Dr. Sacks's friends had died on amphetamines. He was, often, "half-psychotic" and emaciated. One New Year's Eve, high on the drug, he had a lucid moment: "Oliver, you will not see another New Year's Day, unless you get help."
Dr. Sacks started undergoing psychoanalysis in 1966, "knowing I would not survive without help." Stoned much of the time, he realized Dr. Leonard Shengold, his analyst, could both pierce his defences, and "not be deflected by my glibness." Dr. Shengold got him off drugs, so the real analytic work could begin, and taught him "about paying attention, listening, to what lies beyond consciousness or words." Dr. Sacks wrote of his analysis, "I think it saved my life many times over."
Verbatim: Oliver Sacks on his experience with drug use
One of the most remarkable things about Oliver is that, though he is known as such a deeply sensitive writer and person, it was not always so.
Among his friends was poet Thom Gunn; they often exchanged manuscripts. After praising a draft of Awakenings, Mr. Gunn felt he could now reveal his true feelings about Dr. Sacks's early diary writings, and wrote to him: "I found you so talented, but so deficient in one quality – just the most important quality – call it humanity, or sympathy, or something like that. And, frankly, I despaired of your ever becoming a good writer, because I didn't see how one could be taught such a quality. … Your deficiency of empathy made for a limitation of your observation. … What was deficient in these writings is now the supreme organizer of Awakenings … I wonder if you know what happened."
He had learned to empathize.
Dr. Sacks was thrilled by the letter, and spent a long time pondering how he had changed. Was it that he had fallen in and out of love? Was it his attachment to his patients? Or a drug experience that opened him up to great empathy? He concluded that "psychoanalysis had played a crucial role in allowing me to develop."
People in analysis frequently do develop more empathy for others, by several circuitous routes. Most commonly, they learn which of their own disowned, repudiated or repressed feelings they routinely project onto others. Once these projections are cleared away, they can actually take a far better look at others, and determine what they may be feeling.
As well, people who have undergone long-term, severe traumas survive them by cutting off their own feelings – dissociating them, and becoming numbed – or by forgetting. One thing Dr. Sacks unearthed during his analysis, for instance: His parents did visit him at Braefield, though he had no memories of it.
Dr. Sacks had another unusual problem, one that he believed underlay his shyness, but that may well have affected his ability to empathize: a rare neurological condition called "face-blindness" (technically, congenital prosopagnosia).
It meant that the processor in his brain that normally analyzes differences between faces never developed properly. Throughout his life, he could not recognize acquaintances or friends.
Dr. Sacks's face-blindness was profound. Once, he apologized for bumping into a large, bearded man, only to recognize that the man was himself in a mirror. Another time, he began preening himself in front of a mirror, only to realize that the bearded reflection he was staring at wasn't a mirror image at all, but another, now rather confused man. At times he misinterpreted facial expressions and gestures, sometimes endearingly. Once, when he was lecturing too long, Ms. Edgar, from the wings, repeatedly drew her finger across her throat. He thought she was signalling to him that her chin was bleeding.
Children learn to empathize in large part by recognizing the facial expressions of others. Two areas of the brain, right-hemisphere circuits (which have strong ties to the emotional processors of the brain) and the brain's facial-recognition circuitry, allow us to read people's expressions, and hence their emotions, and even to understand and control our own emotions. We now know that, with various targeted brain exercises, these areas, if compromised, can sometimes be developed with incremental exercise.
I wonder whether face-blindness may well have contributed not only to his shyness, but to the lack of empathy that existed in his earlier life.
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Verbatim: Oliver Sacks on face-blindness
Dr. Sacks, for reasons he does not explain in his memoir, remained celibate for over three decades. But when he was 75 years old, he writes, "I met someone I liked. … Timid and inhibited all my life, I let a friendship and intimacy grow between us, perhaps without fully realizing its depth." He and the writer Billy Hayes fell in love. The relationship was in full bloom when Oliver was 77, a redemptive gift of old age. "It has sometimes seemed to me that I have lived at a certain distance from life. This changed when Billy and I fell in love. … [T]he habits of a lifetime's solitude, and a sort of implicit selfishness and self- absorption, had to change."
Another gift of old age was a form of healing with his family. Though Dr. Sacks had many family members in Israel, who fled there after the Second World War (his cousin Abba Eban was Israel's eloquent deputy prime minister in the mid-sixties), he had not visited since he was 22. Oliver had long felt he would be uncomfortable in a deeply religious society. In an interview, he had once described himself as "an old Jewish atheist," a telling phrase, because one would think that being an atheist would disqualify one from identifying with one's original religion. But with Dr. Sacks, truth lay in the particular, the historical and the evolutionary.
In 2014, he finally returned to Israel, to mark the hundredth birthday of a relative. While there, he visited his cousin Robert John Aumann, with whom he had become close in the 1990s. Dr. Aumann was a powerful, athletic man of great warmth and had a huge white beard that made him "look like an ancient sage." A mathematician and rationalist, he had won the Nobel Prize in economics. He was also an Orthodox Jew, and would take his almost 30 children and grandchildren skiing at once, packing kosher plates for them all. He loved to champion the Sabbath's peace, beauty, and what Dr. Dr. Sacks described as its "remoteness from worldy concerns."
"I had felt a little fearful visiting my Orthodox family with my lover, Billy – my mother's words still echoed in my mind – but Billy, too, was warmly received," Dr. Sacks wrote. "How profoundly attitudes had changed, even among the Orthodox, was made clear by Robert John when he invited Billy and me to join him and his family at their opening Sabbath meal."
Dr. Sacks continued: "The peace of the Sabbath, of a stopped world, a time outside time, was palpable, infused everything, and I found myself drenched with a wistfulness, something akin to nostalgia, wondering what if: What if A and B and C had been different? What sort of person might I have been? What sort of life might I have lived?"
Shortly after that, he completed his memoir, On the Move, glad he had been able "for the first time in my life, to make a full and frank declaration of my sexuality, facing the world openly, with no more guilty secrets locked up inside me."
At Blue Mountain Center, 2010.
The art of dying is not learned on the deathbed.
These things, in Oliver Sacks, it seems to me, are all of a piece: his love, since he was a boy, of the close study of particulars in nature; his joyful wonder, and insatiable curiosity; his fascination for the colours orange and indigo, for cephalopods, cycads, metals and chemicals, numbers, ferns, and radishes, invertebrates, all kinds of brains; his ability to see in destitute patients with bizarre, odd, uncanny, problems, their full humanity; his generosity to other, younger authors and scientists; his ability to begin to love late in life, and forgive those he had long loved; and the gratitude, and serenity, that he was able to express, even as he was dying. They are all manifestations of the appreciative sense.
Gratitude is an alloy: part attitude, part feeling. It is a philosophical emotion, the product of taking stock. When someone gives us something and we are appreciative, we are grateful for it, but also for our relationship with them. There is also some humility in being truly grateful. In expressing our thanks, we acknowledge our incompleteness, by expressing our debt to our benefactor.
But to whom or what does the atheist, if he feels thankful for his life as a whole, feel grateful? This is not easy to answer, if one believes that our lives are a product of chance, and molecules in motion.
Somehow, Dr. Sacks seems never to have believed that the random picture that our science, in its current form, paints of the world, need give rise to a disenchanted, nihilistic picture of life as profane.
I was once struck by an incongruity reading his description of a trip to the Arizona desert with the autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire. They had spent an afternoon in the Canyon de Chelly, with a Navajo artist who showed them "a special sacred vantage point" from which to draw.
Both began drawing, while the Navajo artist told Mr. Wiltshire all the myths of that place. But "Stephen was indifferent to all this," wrote Dr. Sacks. Yet when they were done, Mr. Wiltshire's drawing was far better, and "seemed (even to the Navajo artist) to communicate the strange mystery and sacredness of the place. Stephen himself seems almost devoid of any spiritual feeling; nonetheless he had caught … the physical expression of what we, the rest of us, call the 'sacred.' "
Dr. Sacks could have written that Mr. Wiltshire had captured the "beauty," or what was "precious" in the scene, or even its "wondrous," or "mysterious," "awe-inspiring" nature. But he insisted he caught the sacredness of it, a religious category if ever there was one.
This paradox – the depiction of a sacred world, while feeling oneself devoid of spiritual feeling or conviction – may well have applied to Dr. Sacks himself, and indeed may apply to many of us. We want to believe that the planet, life, nature, our loved ones are sacred, but at the same time we do not accept the mystical premises of religions, which are the sources of ideas of the sacred.
Ransack the theories of modern science, and you will find many categories, but the sacred-profane distinction will not be among them. The universe, we are told, is composed of matter in purposeless motion, governed in large part by chance. The idea that life has a design, and organisms a teleology, or end, became suspect, of course, with Dr. Sacks's hero, Charles Darwin. Evolution is opportunistic, and emerges from a series of chemical accidents producing random mutations; it is not toward some end, as was believed by Aristotle, pre-Darwinian science, and of course many religions.
Yet many of us live with the two, with the scientific and the sacred, both at once. And perhaps one of the reasons Dr. Sacks's work has such a strong appeal is that, despite his being a champion of modern science, he approached his patients' lives, life and nature with a reverence that treats them as almost sacred, and this appeals particularly to those of a modern, secular cast of mind.
It appeals, precisely because the premise that we are nothing but molecules in random motion so disenchants the universe for us, and leaves us feeling longing for more. It is a disenchantment that is hard for even the hardheaded scientist to tolerate; we prefer our nihilism without too deep an abyss. It is not enough to wonder about the mystery; we make it sacred, too.
And we long for thinkers like Dr. Sacks, who remind us that science is about wonder, and who, by so doing, hint that perhaps the idea that we are merely matter in motion is just part of the story, but not the whole story. His emphasis on wonder reminds us that science is about opening, not just closing, questions.
Why is gratitude of such great magnitude so rare?
Perhaps because gratitude does not always go unopposed. Psychoanalysts have often seen gratitude as having an emotional opposite, envy. Sometimes a flash of envy can be a helpful sign, a spur that tells you, "You know, you really want this – try for it." But very often, the envious person sees something wonderful in the world, and instead of appreciating it, attempts to make the envious feeling go away, by devaluing or denying its worth (those grapes were sour, anyway); or he or she may try to spoil or destroy the envied object in reality. If one does this enough, one ends up feeling starved, because one finds oneself living in an emptied world. Envy destroys the possibility of love; confronted by a cherished, idealized object of our affection, envy cannot tolerate the goodness in them, and seeks to destroy them; and envy does so by first undermining any feelings of gratefulness we might have for that person.
The envious have a particularly hard time growing old and dying.
They cannot tolerate the fact that the young, and not they, have their lives before them. They feel pain, and emptiness. We speak of people being consumed with envy – but filled with gratitude. It's paradoxical that, by acknowledging that there are wonderful things in the world, and that we are incomplete, we can feel filled up – even as we bid the world farewell.
Ms. Edgar told me that her atheist friend sometimes liked to be read, of all things, the Bible. When I think of Oliver's last days, I think of a biblical sentence that I've always found instructive in the twofold art of living and dying.
It reads, "And Abraham died … full of years."
Not emptied of them; filled by them.
Norman Doidge, MD, is is the author of The Brain That Changes Itself and of the just-released expanded paperback edition of The Brain's Way of Healing.
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Nevada OSHA has finished its investigation into the death of Sarah Guillot-Guyard, the Cirque du Soleil performer who fell 94 feet during the climactic scene of Ka on June 29 and later died. OSHA determined that accident happened when the wire rope she was suspended from broke. According to the report, the wire rope “was severed due to the rapid ascent of the performer, ultimately causing the rope to be freed from the sheave/pulley and scraping against a shear point.” OSHA officials cited Cirque du Soleil with six proposed citations and more than $25,000 in fines and MGM Grand with three citations and a $7,000 fine. Cirque du Soleil and MGM are appealing the fines.
One of the citations for Cirque du Soleil includes a failure to “protect or prevent ‘Ka’ employees from striking an overhead grid during the ‘Ka’ show at the ‘Ka’ Theater.” Reporting for the Las Vegas Sun, John Katsilometes wrote that “This matches reports from those familiar with the ‘Ka’ staging and fatal incident that Guillot-Guyard did hit the metal grid over the stage as she ascended high above the Final Battle scene, which jarred the rope connecting her to her harness.” Katsilometes also reported that Cirque du Soleil will be appealing the fine:
In a statement that also referenced Cirque’s internal review of the incident, [Cirque du Soleil spokeswoman Rene-Claude Menard] said: “Cirque du Soleil completed an exhaustive review of its safety policies and procedures in the wake of the tragic accident involving Sarah. We have redoubled our efforts to ensure the overall diligence and safety of our performers and crew. We have received and reviewed the OSHA citations. We have initiated the appeal process as part of OSHA’s administrative protocol. Safety always has been the top priority for Cirque du Soleil, its performers and crew members.”
On the KTNV website, Krista Hostetler listed the citations OSHA has proposed. They are:
Summary of Cited Violations
Cirque du Soleil:
- NRS 618.375 (1): A General Duty Citation was issued because the employer did not protect or prevent KA employees from striking an overhead grid during the KA show at the KA Theater. $7,000 proposed penalty.
- The first part of the General Duty Citation was issued because the employer did not provide proper training for the KA Battle Spearman Warrior employee involved in the accident in the use of equipment and tasks used in the Ka show, battle scene at the KA Theater.
- The second part was issued because the employer had a Fall Protection Program with construction requirements that do not apply to theater settings because the KA Theater is regulated by Nevada OSHA general industry standards. $7,000 proposed penalty.
- 29 CFR 1910.132: This citation was issued because the employer did not properly assess the workplace for hazards that required personal protective equipment at the KA Theater, including opensided floors, bloodborne pathogens and other potentially infectious materials, pyrotechnic dust cleanup, and not finalizing a hazard assessment for the performers. $7,000 proposed penalty.
- 29 CFR 1910.132: This citation was issued because the employer did not certify that a workplace hazard assessment had been performed and did not include the date the hazard assessments were conducted. $0 proposed penalty, grouped with the proposed citation above.
29 CFR 1904.32: This citation was issued because the employer did not include on the OSHA Form 300 Log of Injury and Illnesses, the object or substance that directly injured or made a person ill, which prevented a trend analysis and kept the employer from recognizing and conducting employee training involving recurring injuries in accordance with Nevada Revised Statute. $3,300 proposed penalty.
Nevada Revised Statute 618.379: This citation was issued because the employer removed equipment from a fatality site on June 29 before Nevada OSHA authorized the dismantling and removal of the equipment (38 feet of wire rope that was attached to the victim at the time of the accident). $935 proposed penalty.
MGM Grand Hotel & Casino:
- NRS 618.375: This General Duty Citation was issued because MGM Grand employees were exposed to hazards due to deficiencies in the Cirque du Soleil Fall Protection Program with construction requirements that do not apply to theater settings because the KA Theater is regulated by Nevada OSHA general industry standards.
- 29 CFR 1910.132: This citation was issued because MGM Grand employees were exposed to hazards due to the deficiencies in Cirque du Soleil hazard assessments for the KA Theater that included opensided floors, bloodborne pathogens and other potentially infectious materials and pyrotechnic dust cleanup. $7,000 proposed penalty.
- 29 CFR 1910.132: This citation was issued because MGM Grand employees were exposed to hazards due to deficiencies in the Cirque du Soleil hazard assessments because Cirque du Soleil did not certify that a workplace hazard assessment had been performed and did not include the date the hazard assessments were conducted. $0 proposed penalty, grouped with the proposed citation above. |
YEREVAN (Arka)—Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his government would open the sealed border with Armenia on condition that Armenia returns at least one of several regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan, Novosti-Armenia reported citing RIA Novosti.
“If Armenians withdrew from at least one district, the border could be opened,” Davutoglu said at a meeting with the leaders of non-Muslim and non-governmental organizations in Ankara, according to Haber Turk TV.
The statement is a first, considering that Turkey’s preconditions for normalizing relations with Armenia have, up to this point, demanded that Armenia relinquish all seven regions surrounding Artsakh.
He added that Armenians living in Turkey are part of the country and should not suffer because of the strained relations between Ankara and Yerevan. “The Armenian Diaspora is not an enemy to us, it is our Diaspora,” he said.
Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic relations. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of support for its co-ethnic ally, Azerbaijan, when war broke out over Nagorno-Karabakh.
There are several issues complicating the establishment of normal relations between the two countries, particularly, Ankara’s blatant support for Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution process and Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge the mass slaughter of Armenians in the last years of the Ottoman Empire as genocide. |
Moody's affirms Australia's AAA rating
Updated
Moody's credit rating agency has reaffirmed Australia's AAA sovereign debt rating.
Moody's says the rating is based on very high economic resiliency, very high Government financial strength and low susceptibility to risk.
The Australian Government has very low gross debt that is easily affordable, compared to most other nations with that rating, it says.
"As one of the world's most advanced economies, the country has not only a significant natural resource sector - including minerals, hydrocarbons, and agriculture - but also well developed manufacturing and service sectors," the report said.
"It also demonstrates strong governance indicators. In particular, the framework for fiscal policy is transparent and has, until now, consistently kept government debt at low levels."
Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan says it is another resounding endorsement of Australia's sturdy public finances and strong economic fundamentals.
"Once again, this shows that people like Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey who continually talk Australia’s economy down are wrong," Mr Swan said.
"Despite the substantial global headwinds that are hitting our economy, Australians have reason to be confident about our economic strengths that are unmatched by just about any other developed economy.
"We have a solidly growing economy, low unemployment, contained inflation, strong public finances and a record pipeline of investment that is gathering pace."
The report does note that Australia will have to implement policies to deal with its ageing population.
Last month, Fitch Ratings upgraded its assessment of Australia's sovereign debt to AAA, making it the first time Australia has attained the top rating from all three international agencies.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, economic-trends, markets, australia
First posted |
FARMINGTON — A former counselor of the popular Especially For Youth religious seminar has pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a teenage boy he met through the program.
Keldon Severn "KC" Cook, 29, pleaded guilty earlier this week to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor and three counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a 16 or 17 year old. All the charges are third-degree felonies.
Cook was originally charged with four counts of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony; one count each of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of a minor; and one third-degree felony count of dealing in materials harmful to a minor.
Investigators say Cook met the boy, who was 14 at the time, at BYU in 2012 when he was assigned as his counselor during the weeklong program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The two stayed in contact through social media and texting, police say, and began sending "inappropriate" and "disgusting" messages. The boy told investigators the explicit conversations confused him but that he looked up to Cook as a mentor.
Shortly after the boy turned 16, Cook allegedly met with him at the LDS temple in Bountiful to "catch up" and then went to a nearby park.
"(Cook) made advances toward the minor male in the minor male's car," the charges state. "The minor male stated to law enforcement that the defendant persuaded him that the contact they had was acceptable and that it was acceptable because (Cook) was his EFY counselor."
Cook met up with the teen, then 17, twice more in 2014 at the same Davis County park.
Cook and the boy also exchanged explicitly sexual photos with each other during the same time period, the charges state.
"The defendant told the minor male that this was acceptable as he had photos with other 'EFY boys,'" the charges state.
Cook, who was arrested in April, remains in the Davis County Jail. Sentencing has been scheduled for Nov. 30.
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Stewart is realizing that he hasn't wounded Fox News quite as much as he might have liked.
Jon Stewart has orchestrated countless epic takedowns as host of The Daily Show, but was it all for naught?
During his penultimate episode, Stewart showed headlines from articles that had been written about his previous episodes that used words like "eviscerated" to describe the way he would present his views on a controversial topic.
"I feel like what we've built here is a monument to evisceration," reflected Stewart, whose final episode airs Thursday, Aug. 6. "By the way, it wasn't just eviscerating. We 'demolished,' 'crushed' — we 'annihilated' things. I remember one night, even the Hulk was like, 'Dude, slow down.' "
In a segment entitled "The Daily Show: Destroyer of Worlds," Stewart played clips of himself mocking some of his favorite targets, including ISIS, racial tension in the U.S. and, of course, Fox News.
In each of the instances, Stewart lauded himself for taking down the opponent — before then playing news footage that proclaimed each target still to be as strong as ever.
He declared that Fox News' power is now gone, only to then air a clip announcing that the network would moderate this week's Republican presidential-primary debate.
"Did I say Fox News' influence was gone?" asked Stewart. "What I meant was, it's gone all the way to the White House."
This led him to a grim assessment of his 16-year tenure as host of the show. "The world is demonstrably worse than when I started — have I caused this?" he pondered.
Finally, he aired clips of himself berating his beloved New York Mets over the years before a recent news clip declared the Mets in first place, causing Stewart to cheer raucously.
Stewart's guest was longtime friend Louis C.K., who praised Stewart for his time on the show but also for being willing to walk away on top.
"I'm really amazed by what you did here," said C.K. "It's really like one of the great comedy accomplishments of all time that you did."
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @_RyanGajewski |
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Name ? Name of the disc you want to add. Distance ? Distance of the disc you want to add when thrown at its intended speed. HSS ? High Speed Stability(turn) is a value between -100 to 100. LSS ? Low Speed Stability(fade) is a value between -100 to 100. Type ? The Classification of the disc you want to add. Putter Midrange Fairway Driver Distance Driver Copy Add
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Comedian Patton Oswalt has officially had enough with both Republicans and Democrats after the latest political scandal to erupt in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential victory.
Following the release of a CIA report that concluded Russian hackers interfered with the election to help secure the White House for Trump, Oswalt shared a no-holds-barred post on Facebook expressing his disgust at the state of American politics.
“These newest revelations, that Russia hacked the election. Piles of evidence, teetering up to the sky. That Russia ALSO hacked the [Republican National Committee] and are holding them over a barrel because of what they know. Which would be hilarious if it wasn’t so frightening,” he wrote on Saturday.
“And the boiling chaos that’s resulting from it. I’ve got conservative friends actually DEFENDING Russia on this,” Oswalt continued. “I’ve got progressive friends gloating that we’ve finally had done to us what we’ve done to other countries. That Hillary somehow deserves this. That WE somehow deserve this. That infuriating cliche about, ‘It’s actually GOOD if Trump destroys everything it’ll start a revolution BLAH BLAH BLAH F**KING BLAH.’”
On Friday evening, Trump’s transition team dismissed the CIA report as a fabrication in a statement that also described the intelligence agency as “the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.”
“It’s time to move on and ‘Make America great again,’” the statement said.
But Oswalt, for one, is putting his foot down and refusing to normalize the president-elect, whom he likens to a “grope-y, racist uncle who just won $50,000 playing scratch-offs.”
“In the middle of it all is Trump ― bloated, grinning, oblivious, wearing his cheap baseball cap and ruining people’s lives with his Twitter,” Oswalt wrote. “While all around him ― smarter, better, exhausted people scramble around, trying to sweep up a china shop he keeps stumbling through, laughing the whole time at these stupid nerds picking up the broken pieces on the ground.” |
With a Supreme Court decision on healthcare fast approaching, House Republicans are doubling down on efforts to bring attention to President Obama’s signature legislative issue.
The effort, which includes votes on several measures to repeal taxes under the law, is intended to highlight unpopular aspects of the landmark bill as the presidential campaign between Obama and Republican Mitt Romney heats up.
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The House next week will consider measures to repeal taxes imposed on medical devices and over-the-counter medication.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor Eric Ivan CantorPelosi warns GOP: Next president could declare national emergency on guns Ousted GOP lawmaker David Brat named dean at Liberty University business school Trump, GOP seek to shift blame for shutdown to Pelosi MORE (R-Va.) announced the votes late last month, and called the tax on medical devices in particularly “draconian” in a memo sent to GOP lawmakers.
Democrats argue the GOP effort is nakedly political and timed for the Supreme Court decision, which is expected this month. On Friday, Romney criticized Obama’s handling of the economy, arguing the nation would be creating more jobs if Obama had not focused on healthcare in 2009 and 2010.
Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) – a key player in brokering deals within his party to pass the healthcare bill – called the upcoming debate a “waste of time” and said the House should be focus on legislation to create jobs.
“(The timing) is probably not coincidental, I think the Republicans are trying to poison the well before the Court decision,” Andrews said in an interview with The Hill.
House Republicans, who rode a wave of voter outrage into power in 2010 unfurled in part by the healthcare law, dismiss the Democratic arguments.
“Well, I'm glad they are giving us that much credit in planning but obviously the medical tax bill has had a lot of bipartisan support for many weeks,” Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) told The Hill.
Only two Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, Reps. Ron Kind Ronald (Ron) James KindSteel lobby's PR blitz can't paper over damaging effects of tariffs Congress should stop tariff power grab, bring balance to US trade policy Ocasio-Cortez sparks debate with talk of 70 percent marginal rate MORE (Wis.) and Shelly Berkley (Nev.) supported the medical device and over-the-counter drug bills at mark-up.
Debate at Thursday’s lengthy mark-up provided a flavor of what to expect when the measures hit the floor mid-week.
Republicans argued that the tax-repeal bills will create and save jobs in the medical device industry.
Veteran Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Jim McDermott James (Jim) Adelbert McDermottLobbying World Dem lawmaker: Israel's accusations start of 'war on the American government' Dem to Trump on House floor: ‘Stop tweeting’ MORE (Wash.) scoffed at the GOP’s “job creation” argument, calling the idea “nonsense.”
“It is not going to save jobs because you don't know what the impact is in fact, the evidence is that it doesn't lose jobs,” the liberal lawmaker told his colleagues. |
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager If you follow my twitter account or have attended the product address of CodeRage, you now that I've just made a big career change, joining Embarcadero Technologies. If you follow my twitter account or have attended the product address of CodeRage, you now that I've just made a big career change, joining Embarcadero Technologies. I've been working with Borland and Embarcadero products for over two decades, have been writing books on the technologies (well, mostly Delphi), have been a technical partner and my company was (and still remains) a sales partner in Italy. I've been in touch with the R&D team, developer relations, marketing people and product managers. But even recently I won't have envisioned joining the company. I was offered the job to help shape Delphi's future and didn't have to ponder a lot. The position I'm taking is Delphi Product Manager, although there is actually a product management team for RAD Studio, with split and shared responsibilities. I'll be based in Europe (working from home, when not on the road), where there are some of the R&D teams and a large number of Delphi customers. For Delphi developers in Europe this is good news, as it might be easier to reach me at "local" conferences and events. I'll start by attending Be-Delphi in 2 weeks. In case you are wondering, I'll keep doing some of my current activities, like keeping this blog open and active and use my personal twitter account. I'll try to put some of my (limited) free time on books writing, and make sure some of my open source projects have a future. But it is hard to tell, as I have a lot to learn right now. Needless to say I'm open for comments, use my new email address marco.cantu at embarcadero.com (but I'll keep monitoring also my older email accounts). Feel also free to use this blog for posting comments, ideas, constructive criticism... you know what I mean, we need a healthy and more relaxed community around Delphi. So, this is all for now. Stay tuned to this space for news and updates. It's a new adventure, I hope you'll enjoy it with me. Long live Delphi!
40 Comments
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager As I've already tweeted on Twitter, I would like to congratulate you on your new job! I've used Delphi for many years for many things, and as a Delphi developer I feel assured that its future is in safe hands!
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulations to Embarcadero, the Delphi community worldwide and to you Marco! They are very lucky and fortunate to have you! Good luck and have fun! -Lino
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Excellent news Marco. I'm sure you'll be up to this challenge. Lachlan
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulations Marco! All the best
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congrats Marco! I hope you will support a linux compiler soon! Best regards,
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Wow, congratulations, Marco! And good luck! :)
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager I'm really excited by the news, for many reasons but mainly because we needed someone with real love for Delphi. Congratulations and you can be sure that the community is very happy with your new job.
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager All the best for you at Embarcadero.
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager It is great to know that we have a Delphi user voice inside Embarcadero! Congrats from me and the Brazilian MVP team!
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Muchas Felicidades!, Enhorabuena, Congratulations!. Your last words are very important, a relaxed community, Lately we had have a lot of disturbing comments from the community, and personally i understand them, for example this last release came with less so needed features, win8 wasn't a priority, many custumers are waiting for linux or android, ORM, etc. visual livebinding is great, ti be short. Keep an eye on community and upon all keep visible the roadmap, it we'll be your key to succed.
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Muchas felicitaciones Marco, qué buena noticia! Contigo al frente de Delphi, serán muchos los avances por venir! Éxitos! :) Qué afortunados somos!
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Great news Marco, brazilian developers were so happy with the future of delphi now
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager This is excellent news for Delphi and the community! Congratulations, and I wish you great success in your new position!
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulations, Marco.
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulations. Wish you all the best. The wise bunny knows spectacular hops are always preceded by unspectacular preparation.(@bunnybuddhism)
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulation Marco. As Product Manager can you please post some comments on the following EMB -> Delphi -> Non-Technical blog: "If I were the Delphi Product Manager, I would ..." https://forums.embarcadero.com/thread.jspa?threadID=79195 or can you at least tell the community what your plans are, and how much impact you have in EMB to make Delphi again a success story? Currently I am really warried about the future for Delphi.
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulations Marco, I think.... Top of my wish list.... Stability and Quality, not new features and frameworks. How about bug report 104240 for a start. That effectively stops you using 64 bit Delphi for client side applications that make use of with MidasLib. So in a client server environment, you can only make use of the 64 bit on the server side.
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Hi Marco, my congrats, after all your great Delphi support, you earned it !! IMHO, your appointment as the Delphi Product Manager is definitely the best news expected from a while by the Delphi community. Hopefully under your "Mastering wand" and with your great technical and communication skills will bring Delphi back to the developer hearts and minds. Delphi needs fresh blood ...and with the new mobile focus under RAD Mobile Studio umbrella we can expect more developers will look back into (REAL!) RAD. I also blogged about these late announcements: CodeRage 7: Day 1 Highlights - Marco Cantu is the new Delphi Product Manager, RAD Mobile Studio demoed, relevant links http://devstonez.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/coderage-7- day-1-highlights-marco-cantu-is-the-new-delphi- product-manager-rad-mobile-studio-demoed-relevant- links
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulazioni ! Un'ottima notizia per Delphi.
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager MArco... che dire complimentiiiiiiiii Non potevano scegliere uomo migliore per dare un futuro roseo a delphi... grazie per quello che fai (specialmente perchè lo fai bene....)
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congrats! This is a really bold move. What happens to Wintech Italia now though? Will it still exist as a company? Regards, A
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulations!!! It's the best news on a very long time. Although the rumour spread since last Friday, I didn't gave much attention. I hope you can give feedback on Emb to change things and make the (once greatest) RAD tool great again.
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Felicitaciones desde Colombia.
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulation to you marco, hope you can make some changes that all of delphi fans wishes since ages ago. There is one thing i know: - Communication, please be more communicative on what is going on with the community, right now, all delphi user never get any information on what will be planned on the next release until near the release date, well it is impossible to develop delphi only within a month or two before release right? so i'm pretty sure you have a release plan list, right now delphi still have a lot of bugs and IDE stability issues, at least please tell us what bugs is planned to be fixed. it is a start Well sorry for long comment, but i will send you an email if i've gathered more thought. Success to you, delphi and embarcadero Iwan
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulations Marco! Please fix as many bugs as possible and bring the same level of documentation as your books provide. Best Wishes.
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulazioni Marco!!!
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager CONGRATULATIONS Marco!!!!!! I am very happy for you e for this very great news! Best regards and good luck Claudio
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Sei l'anima di Delphi, fantastica notizia. Complimenti!
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulation Marco, this a big gain for the whole Delphi community and gives me more confidence in the future of Delphi! ;-) Regards Niels
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulation Marco, this a big gain for the whole Delphi community and gives me more confidence in the future of Delphi! ;-) Regards Niels
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulations and wish you the best. Another great improvement in the Delphi climb to the top.
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Wish you Lot of Luck & Success in a this new Adventure Marco! Compliments, B.
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulation Marco, I hope this is good news for delphi community.
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulations Marco! You have been a wonderful teacher and resource to the Delphi community for so long, I am glad you will be taking on a more official role :-)
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulation, Marco. I've used Delphi since version 1 but I've not been interested in any staff for Delphi so I didn't know who you are. Recently, I noticed that everything of Delphi is not going well. And I believe that it is time to communicate with the staff like you for the future of Delphi. Once again, all the best and congratulation!
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Felicitaciones !!, Yo he sido usuario de Delphi no solo desde sus comienzos sino incluso desde sus precursores (empecé con Turbo Pascal a mediados de los 80s). Quiero aprovechar la invitación a aportar ideas y crítica constructiva para comentar lo siguiente: Comparto el sentimiento de muchos usuarios de que Delphi ha tomado el rumbo equivocado desde hace años Son varios los aspectos; pero, en mi caso, y pienso que en el de muchos, creo que la mayor falla es el no incluir el valor agregado más importante que, a quienes tenemos versiones empresariales, nos es más significativo : El poder compilar al menos la parte de servidor en Linux. En mi país, y, hasta donde conozco, en Latinoamérica en general, a nivel empresarial, Windows domina casi la totalidad del mercado. Por ello, tener el cliente en una plataforma Linux, no es algo atractivo para el empresario, ya que los usuarios, por la falta de un buen soporte en Linux compatible con MS-Office, requieren siempre Windows y por ello, sin importar lo bueno que hagamos un programa en Linux, no pasarán a Linux. En cambio, tener la parte de servidor Web en Linux representa un ahorro de costos muy significativo para ellos, y es el principal problema que enfrentamos cuando les llevamos nuestra solución Delphi; de hecho, en lo personal, el costo del servidor ha sido argumento para que no me dieran algunos negocios Mi petición como usuario la resumo en una línea : No actualizaré mi Delphi hasta tanto no compile al menos la parte de servidor para Linux
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congratulations, Marco! As someone whose first salary was for Turbo Pascal' 1.0 project, I have deep feelings about (Borland) Pascal and Delphi. I hope you can persuade the folks over there to revive the Turbo Delphi and let younger folks (and older ones like me who do not need $xxxx development product) to keep in touch with Delphi.
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Congrats Marco in your new role at Embarcadero. I have translated below the comment posted in Spanish by Rolando. Cheers Yanniel. "Congratulations!!, I have been a Delphi user not only from its inception but even from the time of its ancestors (I began with Turbo Pascal in the middle of the 80th). I want to take advantage of your invitation in order to provide some thoughts and constructive criticism: I share the feelings of many users about Delphi taking the wrong path since many years ago. There are many aspects; but in my case, and I believe this is also the case for many others, the major failure is not include the added-value of being able to compile to Linux at least the server side code. This is the most significant aspect for those like me having business versions. In my country, and to the best of my knowledge in Latin America, Windows dominates the market in the business area. Because of that, having the client in a Linux box is not very attractive to the entrepreneur; since the users, due to the lack of a good support of MS-Office in Linux, always require Windows. Regardless of how good is our Linux application, those users won’t change to Linux. On the other hand, having the server side (Web) in Linux brings significant savings for the entrepreneurs; that’s the main problem when we offer our Delphi solution to them. As a fact, in my personal case, the server cost was the reason to lose a few business deals. My petition as a user is summarized into one line: I won’t update my Delphi IDE until it is able to compile to Linux at least the server side." Comment by Rolando on November 18, 13:38
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Lo importante es que Delphi vualva a ser el mejor lenguaje de programacion tanto para Win, Mac y Linux y posibilidade de crear apliaciones Web sin mucho esfuerzo sin perder la escencia de Delphi. La verdad estamos a punto de dejar este gran Lenguaje de Programacion que nos dio muy buenas satisfacciones desde la version 2.0 hasta la version 2010. Felicidades !!! esperamos noticias Gustavo Diego Ochoa Paniagua La Paz - Bolivia
Joining Embarcadero as Delphi Product Manager Muchas Felicidades Marco por este nuevo proyecto y esperamos que Delphi nos de grandes sorpresas y este en todos los sistemas operativos. Saludos Juan Rendón Mazatlán México.
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If there's one thing that South-Korea has a lot of, it's coastlines. Offshore wind power is a great fit for the country, which is probably why the government and private companies have decided to invest 9.2 trillion won ($8.2 billion) in offshore wind farms. A 100 MW pilot wind farm is scheduled to come online by 2013, to be followed by a 900 MW one by 2016, and then an additional 1,500 MW of further capacity by 2019, for a total of 2,500 MW and 500 turbines (huge 5 MW ones!).
The new wind farms will be located on the country's West coast.
"The nation joins China, Denmark, the U.S. and other countries in developing offshore wind farms. Global offshore wind power capacity totals 2.9 gigawatts, with 2.6 gigawatts under construction and about 154 gigawatts planned or proposed, according to the ministry." (source)
Via Bloomberg, Techcrunch
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A mum has been charged with raping a four-year-old boy after a vile attack was filmed and broadcast live on Periscope.
India Kirksey was dragged into court after police say she admitting performing the sex act on the young child in Cincinnati, in the USA.
The 20-year-old from West Price Hill was arrested after someone watching the live stream more than 1,000 miles away in Texas called the authorities.
The judge threw Kirksey behind bars at Hamilton County Jail, setting her bail bond at $350,000 (£282,000).
(Image: Hamilton County Sheriff Office)
(Image: WLWT 5)
Kirksey's arrest comes just a week after she posted two videos on YouTube of her twerking to music.
In the videos she is in a bedroom, wearing small denim shorts and a white vest, as she dances for the camera while a child can be heard crying in the background. |
Four months before Christmas, Sarah and Matthieu Scarangelo were in a car crash, of which Sarah and her unborn baby were the only survivors. On Christmas Eve, Sarah stays home alone, where she grieves her husband and prepares to go to the hospital the next morning for the delivery. As night falls, a woman knocks on Sarah's door asking to use the phone. When she refuses, the woman reveals that she knows Sarah and tries to force her way in. Sarah calls the police; they inspect the home and determine the woman has left, but promise to keep watch over Sarah through the night. The woman returns and tries to take Sarah's unborn child, but Sarah locks herself in the bathroom. The strange woman torments Sarah through the night and kills all who try help her. Written by EllenRipley112 |
Business Insider The Ukrainian military has apparently lost three of its trained military attack dolphins in the Black Sea, RIA Novosti reports. Supposedly, the dolphins swam away from their handlers during training exercises earlier this month, though Ukraine’s Defence Ministry denied the reports. The dolphins may have swum off to mate with wild dolphins, former soviet naval officer Yury Plyachenko told RIA Novosti. He said that when this has happened in the past, they’ve come back in about a week. Supposedly, though the Ukraine Defence Ministry denies it, they restarted the military marine mammal program last year. The dolphins are trained to find underwater mines (which has been done in other military programs including Russia and the U.S.) but in the Ukraine, they are supposedly also trained to kill enemy divers with knives and pistols attached to their heads, according to RIA Novosti. Some could also be trained to place explosive devices on enemy ships. Note: there’s a Ukrainian report going around that people claim says that the trained dolphins never existed, and haven’t gotten loose, but we know that the government has denied reports of military trained dolphins in the past. Until we know more, the article stays. There’s no evidence that the dolphins were armed when they escaped their handlers. Here’s a documentary about the Soviet military dolphin program:
The Simpsons already did it! It is pretty amazing that The Simpsons essentially predicted many of the absolutely crazy news stories of today years ago. Were the writers truly prophetic or have the just been on the air for so long cranking out close to 30 episodes a year that they came up with every conceivable idea?
Did the Russian Military get the idea to train dolphins to kill from The Simpsons? |
At 26, Ali Bryant is still scared of the dark. Her brother, Austin Bryant, knew that.
The night before he was killed, he was in her room being the little brother older sisters tend to have: annoying. He’d grab at her feet as she slept to frighten her or put his feet in her face just to mess with her.
Ali smiled at the thought.
Today, her brother’s ashes rest in a red, metallic urn on the dresser across from the foot of her bed as she sleeps.
"Sometimes I feel a breeze of wind blow past me or someone messing with my foot and I know it’s my brother. And I’ll be like, ‘OK, Austin. I get it,’" she said, laughing. "It’s just things like that that let me know (he’s there)."
Sunday marked the one-year since 20-year-old Austin Bryant was shot and killed by the intersection of Military Trail and Purdy Lane near Flashdance, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators say a fight broke out during the early hours of April 16, someone pulled a gun and shot Austin outside the strip club. He was found dead at the scene.
No arrest has been made. Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County is offering a $1,000 reward for information in the case. Those with information are asked to call 800-458-TIPS (8477).
For Ali, a year later means less pain, more anger. Why did they shoot her brother? Why do they get to go home to their family and sleep at night? When does Austin get justice?
"No one deserves to die like that. No one," she said. "Someone knows who did this. They need to come forward."
For Austin’s mother, Kristina Bryant, there’s still a lot of pain.
She misses her son’s calls during they day and still waits for his 6-foot frame to fill the doorway of his grandmother’s home just north of Lake Park where she and her daughter live. She can smile at those thoughts now. But in those first few months after her son was killed, she didn’t stop crying. She lost her job as a nurse and couldn’t go outside most days.
"The loss of a child doesn’t come with a handbook. You just try to do what you think is right," she said. "I brought two kids into this world, and now when I wake up, there’s one. It just doesn’t seem natural. It doesn’t seem right."
In the past few months, she started going through boxes of his things and found a shirt that smelled just like Austin. She couldn’t believe it. There he was with her again.
"Well, he had a smell," her daughter chimes in and they both laugh.
In the past year, Kristina said she’s thankful for her son’s friends who always check in, her daughter to lean on and for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office detective working the case. She said the detective keeps in contact with her constantly, even if new evidence or news comes few and far between. But she still has hope.
"I’ll never forget. She sat in that chair," she said pointing to the leather recliner her daughter sat in by the door, "And said, ‘I promise, no matter what I will not quit working on this case until it’s solved.’ We just keep hoping and praying that some kind of miracle will happen." |
As if Iron Man 3 needed more villains on its roster, Marvel Studios has cast Chinese actor Xueqi Wang to play Chen Lu , who is also known as Radioactive Man in the comic book universe.At the same time, another report says Wang will not be referred to as Radioactive Man in Iron Man 3 and he will only be called Chen Lu. This second report sets up something The Daily SuperHero has heard from our one Hollywood insider.Our insider says there are whispers going around the rumor mill saying Chen Lu will definitelybe called Radioactive Man and he will only be called Chen Lu, in Tony Stark's next big screen adventure. Yet Iron Man 3serve as a platform to set him up as an Ant-Man movie villain instead.In the comics, Radioactive Man and Ant-Man have faced off against each other. And now with a solo movie in the works by writer/director Edgar Wright, it is speculated that a villain is needed in Ant-Man. This could be a solid theory since the origin of Dr. Hank Pym should be the main focus, of his first solo movie, while also setting up his own robotic creation Ultron as a potential future villain for an Avengers sequel.If any of this turns out to be true, there could still be a delay in seeing Radioactive Man on the big screen, since it remains to be seen if the Ant-Man movie is a part of Marvel's Phase Two or if it will come out after The Avengers 2 and be including in Phase Three.Here, we still believe the Ant-Man movie will be the first film after The Avengers 2—with an Ant-Man post-credits scene—and the first film of Phase Three. Stay tuned. |
Kim Jong-un, child god-king of North Korea, has a new haircut intended to connect him to his grandfather, Kim Il-sung.
It’s quite the barber’s trick, some kind of upside-down trapezoid that proudly defies the laws of physics.
High brow: A year apart – Kim Jong Un in early 2014 and now #NorthKorea pic.twitter.com/AOTKrrNiih — Frank Feinśtein (@frankfeinstein) February 19, 2015
That’s not the only new cosmetic upkeep to grace the tyrant’s head—he now sports half-shaved eyebrows. Who knows why? The Guardian calls it “a fine example of fashion’s current love of gender-neutral style.”
Ki Lee, founder and creative director of a London salon called Hurwundekei, told the Guardian that the new ‘do is possible with the tag-teaming efforts of perm and wax. “It’s not too easy to do on Asian hair, but we get a lot of people coming into the salon requesting this sort of volume,” Lee said.
Lee added that the hairstyle will require a new perm every few months, if it’s to be maintained. Of course, in the mean time, the Internet is having a heyday:
(Sorry, this embed was not found.)
Who wore it better? RT @Justin_Ling In other news, Kim Jong Un has a new haircut http://t.co/ZdVEXP3sD1 pic.twitter.com/uxLBkIzsgP — Robyn Urback (@RobynUrback) February 19, 2015
Kim Jong Un has a new haircut and now he looks like Guile from Street Fighter http://t.co/Utnt6ZieLw pic.twitter.com/tlUalqxjhd — Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp) February 19, 2015
Via @reddit: How would Obama look in a Kim Jong-un haircut http://t.co/l8Jp6bwG0d pic.twitter.com/5HhyRsxU0M — Sachin Kalbag (@SachinKalbag) February 20, 2015
Enlarged Meeting of Political Bureau of C.C., WPK Held under Guidance of Kim Jong Un http://t.co/sCLIBL57WG pic.twitter.com/dte6KS012G — KCNA Watch (@KCNAWatch) February 19, 2015
H/T Guardian | Image via @frankfeinstein/Twitter |
Nike Zoom Lebron V – New York Yankees – White/Navy
4.50 / 5 1 VOTES This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. The opinions and information provided on this site are original editorial content of Sneaker News.
Thanks to the good folks over at Kenlu, we now have great pictures of the Nike Zoom Lebron V shoes in the special New York Yankees makeup. We showed you these a few weeks back but these detailed pictures that have just surfaced do a lot more justice to the shoes than the pictures from before. Be prepared to see these at the House of Hoops in Harlem and on Lebron’s feet when he steps into the Garden on March 5, 2008 when the Cavs take on the Knicks. via Kenlu
More photos below… |
Despite media figures from the three broadcast networks asserting that because of the extensive media presence on his trip to the Middle East and Europe, any "mistake," "gaffe," or "misstatement" by Sen. Barack Obama would be amplified and could have vast negative consequences, none of the networks' evening news programs has reported on Sen. John McCain's recent misstatements regarding a nonexistent Iraq-Pakistan border and the timing of the Anbar Awakening.
None of the three broadcast networks' evening news programs -- ABC's World News with Charles Gibson, the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, and NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams -- has reported on Sen. John McCain's recent misstatements regarding a nonexistent Iraq-Pakistan border and the timing of the Anbar Awakening. In contrast with the networks' ignoring McCain's misstatements in their nightly news broadcasts, both of which have been made during Sen. Barack Obama's trip abroad, media figures from each network warned of what they said would be the great impact of any "mistake," "gaffe," or "misstatement" by Obama during his trip.
For instance:
In advance of Obama's trip, ABC News chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos said during the July 18 edition of ABC News' Good Morning America that in his trip Obama has "got to show he can do the job. And above all ... not make any mistakes on this trip. A gaffe could be a killer for Obama." Stephanopoulos went on to say that the "McCain campaign is very frustrated by this" because "[a]ll three evening news anchors going over to -- on this foreign soil with Barack Obama." He added, "I think they will look to take quick hits every day and, of course, pounce on any mistake that Barack Obama makes. That would be the big opening for the McCain campaign."
On the July 18 edition of the CBS Evening News, senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield said that the "saturation coverage" of Obama's trip "has already led the conservative blogosphere to offer blistering critiques of a liberal media slavishly treating Obama as a pop star, but of course, Katie [Couric], the sheer presence of media in no way guarantees favorable coverage. In some ways, it makes the possibility of a misstep that much more dangerous." In response to anchor Katie Couric's question, "What do you think is the biggest potential landmine for him," Greenfield responded: "You know, I think it's everything from an untoward photo opportunity -- [former Democratic presidential candidate Michael] Dukakis in a tank -- to a misstatement that makes it seem to critics that he really does not know the nature of the terrain that he's -- that he's talking about."
NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell said that Obama ran the "risk of making a mistake in a very high-profile trip," during the July 18 broadcast of MSNBC's Morning Joe. David Gregory, NBC News chief White House correspondent and host of MSNBC's Race to the White House, teased a discussion on the July 17 edition of his MSNBC show by stating: "Next up, Obama studying the script for his world stage debut next week. He's expected to stick closely to campaign talking points to avoid a potential gaffe that, as we say, could be heard around the world."
Notwithstanding the importance they attached to any potential "gaffe" by Obama during his trip, the three networks have ignored two missatements by McCain in the same time period. None of the networks has reported during its evening news program that in an interview with Couric, McCain falsely claimed that the 2007 troop surge "began the Anbar Awakening." As Media Matters for America has documented, the Anbar Awakening reportedly began in September 2006, months before the surge was even announced. Indeed, as blogger Jed Lewison noted, in the March-April 2008 issue of Military Review, Col. Sean B. MacFarland -- who McCain said "was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks" -- and Maj. Niel Smith wrote: "The 'Anbar Awakening' of Sunni tribal leaders and their supporters that began in September 2006 near Ramadi seemed to come out of nowhere." President Bush announced the surge on January 10, 2007, asserting in an address that he had "committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq."
In the case of CBS News, rather than airing McCain's falsehood in response to Couric's question on Obama's statements regarding "increased security in Iraq," CBS cut out the falsehood completely and instead aired comments by McCain that were spliced together from three separate statements he gave during the interview, one of which was in response to a different question. Couric gave no indication that these comments had been edited in any manner, nor did she otherwise note McCain's falsehood. In a statement reported in The Washington Post on July 24, CBS News acknowledged it erred, but maintained, falsely, that the video as aired did not misrepresent McCain's comments.
In addition, while being interviewed on the July 21 broadcast of ABC's Good Morning America, McCain referred to "the Iraq-Pakistan border" -- which does not exist -- while discussing the ongoing war in Afghanistan. As Media Matters noted, host Diane Sawyer did not correct McCain's statement or otherwise point out that Iraq and Pakistan do not share a border. The ABC News political newsletter The Note stated of McCain's "Iraq-Pakistan border" comment: "[I]t was McCain who owns the first big gaffe of the trip," referring to Obama's trip to the Middle East and Europe. But none of the three networks -- including ABC -- reported on the misstatement during its evening broadcast.
From July 18 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:
MIKA BRZEZINSKI (co-host): Let's talk about Barack Obama's trip overall. MITCHELL: My pleasure. BRZEZINSKI: What are the risks that he faces politically along the way here? MITCHELL: Well, first of all, the risk of making a mistake in a very high-profile trip. Also, the risk of getting involved in Middle East diplomacy.
From the July 18 edition of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric:
GREENFIELD: The second part of Obama's trip will be a campaign-funded visit to Europe and the Middle East. He'll meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, walking a fragile diplomatic tightrope. JOE TRIPPI (CBS News political analyst) [video clip]: This is a high-stakes game for Obama. He doesn't want to make any mistakes. Certainly if he does make one, make a statement that causes a problem, it'll be a huge one. GREENFIELD: But with voters concerned about the freshman senator's foreign policy and national security experience, Obama has little choice but to take the overseas gamble to shore up his credentials. For its part, the McCain camp was on the attack with a new ad. UNIDENTIFIED MALE [video clip]: He hasn't been to Iraq in years. now Obama is changing to help himself become president. GREENFIELD: There's little question that throughout this trip, Senator Obama will be walking a fine line. TRIPPI [video clip]: You want to look presidential, but you don't want to look like you're president. That could be presumptuous and it could backfire here in -- here with the electorate. GREENFIELD: This saturation coverage has already led the conservative blogosphere to offer blistering critiques of a liberal media slavishly treating Obama as a pop star, but of course, Katie, the sheer presence of media in no way guarantees favorable coverage. In some ways, it makes the possibility of a misstep that much more dangerous. COURIC: Of course, he does, as you mention, have to walk some tightropes. What do you think is the biggest potential landmine for him? GREENFIELD: You know, I think it's everything from a -- an untoward photo opportunity -- Dukakis in a tank -- to a misstatement that makes it seem to critics that he really does not know the nature of the terrain that he's -- that he's talking about. COURIC: And while the political benefits are -- are many, i.e., you know, visuals of him appearing statesmanlike with a variety of world leaders, can a single trip wipe out the perception in the minds of some that he lacks the credentials in foreign policy? GREENFIELD: Well, assuming he doesn't come back with a Mideast peace plan that all -- everybody signs on to, which is unlikely, no, but it can neutralize the fears. He doesn't have to equal McCain in that stature; he just has to make voters seem like he's OK, he knows what he's talking about.
From the July 18 edition of ABC's Good Morning America:
ROBIN ROBERTS (news anchor): Well, how is he going to kind of change the perception out there? Because our latest poll shows that most Americans, even most Democrats, say that Senator John McCain would be a good commander-in-chief of the military. Fewer than half of those polled feel that way about Obama. So, what does he need to do on this trip to change that? STEPHANOPOULOS: He's got to show he can do the job, and above all, Robin, not make any mistakes on this trip. A gaffe could be a killer for Barack Obama. In Iraq, he's got a special problem. As Martha hinted at just a couple of minutes ago, he is going to be talking to commanders who disagree with the timeline he's set out for Iraq. And he -- somehow, he's got to find a way to show that he's listening to the commanders but is not giving up on his principles. That's going to be difficulty number one. Number two, in Israel, he'll face this tricky thicket of -- of questions about the Middle East peace process. Many presidential candidates have made mistakes on -- on that before. He's going to have to avoid that. In Europe, it's slightly different. In Europe, he -- he's -- he's facing a situation where he does have an advantage on foreign policy, improving America's image in the world. And somehow, he's got to express the aspirations for the United States, the aspirations of an Obama policy without appearing to criticize President Bush overseas. ROBERTS: And finally, how does McCain counter all of this attention that Obama is going to be receiving on this trip? STEPHANOPOULOS: The McCain campaign is very frustrated by this, as you know. All three evening news anchors going over to -- on this foreign soil with Barack Obama. They know he's gonna get a lot of attention. I think they will look to take quick hits every day and, of course, pounce on any mistake that Barack Obama makes. That would be the big opening for the McCain campaign. ROBERTS: All right, George, thank you as always for "The Bottom Line," and have a good weekend.
From the July 17 edition of MSNBC's Race for the White House: |
A South African mother of three was stabbed 21 times and had her eyes gouged out in a home invasion robbery that police said was the grisliest crime they’d ever seen, according to published reports.
The nude body of Tanya Wiers, 45, was discovered inside her daughter’s bedroom in Polokwane, about 150 miles north of Pretoria, after her teenage son, Rolf, had returned home from school Feb. 9, the Bosveld Review reported.
She had suffered stab wounds to her neck and under her chin and her eyes had been cut out with a knife, the newspaper said. She also had numerous defensive wounds.
“I went into the house, thinking she might have died from a heart attack. What I saw was like something out of a horror movie,” a family friend later told Bosveld Review.
“She was lying in her youngest daughter’s room covered by a duvet beside the bed. It was clear that there had been a struggle as the bed was not where it used to be in the room,” said the friend, who requested anonymity.
“Tanya’s clothing was lying in front of the closet in her and her husband’s room. The closet doors were still open and it is evident someone had searched through,” the friend said.
One of the suspects, Frans Maela, 25, was arrested later that day and charged with her murder after police found Wiers’ stolen property in his possession. It was unclear what he had taken.
More arrests were expected in the coming days.
“This is the most gruesome thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t think that there will ever be anything worse. It was evident that the victim put up the fight of her life, there was so much blood and her defensive wounds tell their own horrifying story,” a police spokesperson, Brig. Motlafela Mojapelo, told Bosveld Review.
A memorial service for Wiers will be held on Tuesday at AFM Terberna Dei Mother Campus Polokwane. |
The average Australian city is home to 32 threatened species, according to a study recently published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.
“The finding was surprising because we generally write off cities as ‘lost causes’ when it comes to conservation,” says Pia Lentini, a research fellow at the University of Melbourne’s School of Biosciences and a member of the study team. “We tend to imagine that threatened species are only found in far away national parks or remote areas.”
Not so, Lentini and her colleagues found. In fact their study, the first continent-scale analysis of threatened species and cities, suggests that urban areas are disproportionately rich in threatened species compared to non-urban areas.
The researchers compiled data on the distribution of Australia’s 1,643 land-dwelling threatened species, including 1,215 plants and 428 animals. They compared these maps to the locations of Australia’s 99 cities that have more than 10,000 residents.
They found that 503 threatened species, or 30 percent of the total, have distributions that overlap with urban areas. This includes 25 percent of listed plants and 46 percent of listed animals – species like the koala, grey-headed flying fox, swift parrot, Carnaby’s black cockatoo, green and gold bell frog, and lots of orchids.
Some species are heavily dependent on urban habitat, in fact. For 51 of the species, at least 30 percent of their range falls within urban areas. And eight threatened species, all plants, are entirely confined to cities. For example, the Nielsen Park she-oak is found only within metropolitan Sydney, and the fringed spider-orchid only in a rapidly developing part of Melbourne.
Each Australian city contains a different suite of threatened species. About half of the species, or 258, are found in only one city each. But all 99 of the cities are known or likely to be home to at least one threatened animal, and 88 of them are known or likely to harbor threatened plants. Sydney contains the most threatened species, with 124 found there.
Even more striking, the researchers found that acre for acre, urban areas contain more threatened species than do non-urban areas, leading them to dub cities “hotspots” for threatened species.
As an extra test of this finding, the researchers also created “dummy” cities equivalent in area and in the same bioregion as each of the 99 real cities. True cities contain more threatened species than dummy cities, they found.
In some ways this is no surprise. Cities tend to be located in areas of high biodiversity, because humans just like other living things know a promising patch of habitat when they see one. And once urbanization gets going, of course, it tends to put the squeeze on wild plants and animals.
But the findings also suggest that with a little more care and consideration cities could make a major contribution to conservation. Urban areas commonly contain patches of native habitat interspersed with development, after all. Moreover, landscapes planted and maintained by humans can help certain species through lean times of the year.
Even so, policymakers often consider urban habitat degraded and insignificant, the researchers note, and therefore permit development that further erodes habitat for threatened species, bit by little bit. So the assumption that cities don’t matter not only means missed opportunities for conservation, but paradoxically, could itself be a threat to endangered species survival. – Sarah DeWeerdt | January 5, 2016
Source: Ives C.D. et al. “Cities are hotspots for threatened species.” Global Ecology and Biogeography DOI: 10.1111/geb.12404
Header image: Carnaby’s black cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus latirostris), photographed in a suburb of Perth, Australia. The endangered bird relies on an introduced pine plantation in Perth for food. Credit: Ralph Green via Flickr. |
Bask in the cognitive dissonance:
Enjoy the fragile ego:
“Some within the establishment don’t like the fact that I won’t back down to a good-old-boys club. A lot of this has to do with control, power, money.”
Watch the paranoid bonding:
Just two years ago, Tom Tancredo was a veritable outcast of the Republican Party. Karl Rove was screaming at him, John McCain scoffed at him, GOP pollsters viewed him as a saboteur within their midst. Tancredo's one issue--a near-apocalyptic warning about immigrant-driven dilution of American culture--was seen as radioactive among the Republican elite.
Ed Morrissey manages to spin all this as shrewd:
This plays well for Palin. She gets to once again distance herself from the GOP party establishment while also adding to her reputation for political pragmatism. The Republican nominee, Dan Maes, is a disaster for Republicans, and most Republicans have already shifted support from Maes to Tancredo.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected]. |
Berkeley College Republicans, or BCR, held a candlelight vigil for Kate Steinle on Thursday evening, garnering criticism from local activists.
The vigil took place on the steps of Sproul Hall, where participants laid down flowers and candles in memory of Steinle, who was fatally shot in San Francisco in 2015. Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, who was initially charged in connection with Steinle’s death, was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges Nov. 30. BCR held the vigil in light of Garcia Zarate’s acquittal, according to BCR external vice president Naweed Tahmas.
“We were appalled and disappointed by the decision not to charge (Garcia Zarate) with murder or, at the very least, manslaughter,” Tahmas said. “We don’t want her name or memory to be forgotten.”
BCR arranged candles to spell out Steinle’s name and, according to Tahmas, organized a signed poster to send to the district attorney in the hopes that their condolences would reach the Steinle family. BCR organized the event without the family’s coordination, although Tahmas said BCR had tried to reach out to them.
About 20 people attended the vigil, which was met with both support and opposition from local activists. Raphael Kadaris, a member of Refuse Fascism, condemned BCR for politicizing Steinle’s death. He and two other members of the group held banners to demonstrate their support of immigration.
“These people don’t care about Kate Steinle,” Kadaris said. “They are using the tragic death of Kate Steinle to incite hatred and bigotry against immigrants.”
A crowd formed around Kadaris, whose banners accused Republicans of justifying “ethnic cleansing” and called for an end to the Donald Trump-Mike Pence administration. Kadaris also initiated an argument with the Refuse Fascism protesters about fascism. Bay Area resident Jeanne Solnordal, who said she attended the vigil because of the “unfair” verdict, engaged with Kadaris in debate and said she found his presence “disrespectful.”
BCR member Chase Aplin said he believed that the jury’s decision was an “injustice.” Aplin said he also believed “political vindictiveness” against Trump motivated the jury’s decision to release Garcia Zarate.
“Certain deaths should be politicized,” Aplin said. “This is a death that if the policies I support were in play, she would still be alive.”
Cal Berkeley Democrats president Caiden Nason briefly attended the event and expressed disapproval at the organization of the vigil, which he claimed “politicized” Steinle’s death against her family’s will.
Nason alleged that BCR was not hosting the event out of “the kindness of their heart,” but in order to provoke a response.
“I think there are good questions about whether the verdict was right, but this is not an immigration case and shouldn’t be turned into one,” said Nason. “A protest is only going to further politicize this awful thing that happened to this family.”
Contact Sophia Brown-Heidenreich at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @sophiabrownh. |
Suit stems from West Hartford incident caught on video camera
HARTFORD — In a complaint filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut (ACLU-CT) contends that three state police troopers illegally retaliated against a protester by searching and detaining him, confiscating his camera, and charging him with fabricated criminal infractions. On behalf of Connecticut resident Michael Picard, the ACLU-CT alleges that John Barone, Patrick Torneo, and John Jacobi, all employed by the state police division of Connecticut’s Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, violated Picard’s First Amendment rights to free speech and information and Fourth Amendment right against warrantless seizure of his property.
On September 11, 2015, Picard was protesting near a police DUI checkpoint in West Hartford. Barone approached him under the pretext of public complaints and confiscated Picard’s legally-carried pistol and pistol permit. Barone then claimed that filming the police is illegal, and took Picard’s camera. Unbeknownst to the troopers, the camera was recording when Barone brought it to Torneo’s cruiser. With the camera rolling, the officers proceeded to: call a Hartford police officer to see if he or she had any “grudges” against Picard; open an investigation of him in the police database; and discuss a separate protest that he had organized at the state capitol.
After Barone announced “we gotta cover our ass,” either Torneo or Jacobi stated “let’s give him something,” and the three settled on fabricating two criminal infraction tickets that they issued to Picard. Torneo drove away with Picard’s camera on top of his cruiser, upon which the camera fell onto the hood of the car, Torneo stopped, and Jacobi returned the camera to Picard. In July of this year, the criminal charges against Picard were dismissed in the Connecticut Superior Court.
“Police should be focused on public safety, not punishing protesters and those who film public employees working on a public street,” said ACLU-CT legal director Dan Barrett, who is representing Picard in the lawsuit. “As the video shows, these police officers were more concerned with thwarting Mr. Picard’s free speech and covering their tracks than upholding the law.”
“Community members like me have a right to film government officials doing their jobs in public, and we should be able to protest without fearing political retribution from law enforcement,” said Picard. “As an advocate for free speech, I’m deeply disappointed that these police officers ignored my rights, particularly because two of the troopers involved were supervisors who should be setting an example for others. By seeking to hold these three police officers accountable, I hope that I can prevent the same thing from happening to someone else.”
“The evidence clearly shows that these police officers violated Mr. Picard’s rights,” said attorney Joseph R. Sastre, who defended Picard against the criminal charges and is joining Barrett to represent Picard in the civil case. “We are confident that the court will agree, and we hope that it will send a strong message to police and the public alike that enforcing the law means respecting free speech, not trampling on it.”
The complaint filed in U.S. District Court is available below.
For more information about your right to record police in Connecticut, download our pocket guide, included below. |
Reed Noss, Provost’s distinguished research professor at the University of Central Florida and president of the Florida Institute for Conservation Science, is the author of the forthcoming "Forgotten Grasslands of the South: Natural History and Conservation."
Conservation problems take many forms; therefore, so must solutions. That said, because the loss, destruction and degradation of habitat is the major cause of the extinction crisis – driven ultimately by human population growth and over-consumption of resources – the protection and restoration of habitat for native species is the most important thing we must do to save species. Scientific estimates suggest that if we are to reduce extinction rates appreciably, at least half of a typical region must be protected and managed with conservation of biological diversity as a major goal. This scale of protection will not be possible without a large reduction in the human footprint, that is, scaling back our population and consumption.
Many zoos already contribute to habitat conservation, but the scale of these efforts must be expanded.
Do zoos have a role to play in this solution? Certainly. Many zoos already contribute to habitat conservation, but the scale of these efforts must be expanded. Zoos also should better educate the public about proximate and ultimate causes of species loss. With climate change, the role of captive populations in zoos becomes more important. Many species – for example, on islands soon to be inundated by the rising oceans – will soon lose all of their habitat in the wild. We must take these species entirely into captivity, move them to a new habitat (often not a good idea), or freeze samples of their tissues in gene banks. The alternative to these measures is simply to document their extinction in the wild.
Many species in the Florida Keys, like the Key deer (about the same size and attitude as a skinny Labrador retriever), will go extinct in the wild within the next few decades as their habitat disappears under the sea. Educational exhibits with Key deer in zoos will provide a valuable lesson to the public about how human-induced climate change has driven species to the brink of extinction. The alternative to taking Key deer into captivity would be relocating them to Caribbean islands similar to the Florida Keys, but but they would not be native there, so I am not convinced this is a good idea. They might have unanticipated negative effects on native species.
Interestingly, the Key deer evolved as its island habitat became isolated by rising sea level since the last glacial maximum. Only over the last 6,000 years have the Florida Keys been isolated from the mainland, and the Key deer has evolved in genetic isolation from mainland deer populations. Soon these islands will largely disappear, this time under a sea rising because of human activity. That’s a lesson in evolutionary biology as well as in climate change and conservation. |
New patch time is approaching, summoners! And with it comes a new batch of scrumptious content. Here's the deal: Sivir, Annie, and that ever devious master-of-disguise Warwick are getting costume changes. Sivir is going from Battle Mistress to Warrior Princess. Miss Annie will be skipping through the Fields of Justice in her little red hood. And if you look close, you might catch a glimpse of that sly Warwick camouflaged in grandma's nightgown. Warrior Princess Sivir, Red Riding Annie, and Big Bad Warwick will all be yours for the taking in the new patch.
In addition to these new skins, the much-anticipated Might of Demacia is joining the fray. That's right: Garen (http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=93901) is on his way.
Garen Bundles
Not one to be left out of the costume party, Garen has a few wardrobe changes locked away in his armory. If you're down for a darker, crimson look, you can pick up the Sanguine Garen bundle and save 50% on the skin. But if you're really looking to smite your enemies with Demacian Justice in style, you can grab both the Sanguine Garen and Desert Trooper Garen skins for a greatly reduced price.
Sanguine Garen Bundle
Save 50% on the Sanguine Garen skin when you purchase the champion and skin together.
- Garen champion + Sanguine Garen skin (normally 1105 RP) will be only 845 RP!
Garen Double Bundle
Save 40% on both the Desert Trooper Garen skin and the Sanguine Garen skin when you purchase the champion and skins together.
- Garen champion + Desert Trooper Garen skin + Sanguine Garen skin (normally 1625 RP) will be only 1209 RP!
These bundles will be available only until the end of the weekend following the patch, so don't miss out! Click on the Bundles tab in the Store to purchase these Garen bundles before it's too late!
UPDATE: This sale has ended. |
Written by Nastassia Baroni on June 13, 2015
Police have charged a second man in relation to the bashing of transgender woman Stephanie McCarthy, bassist for Sydney band Love Maul, at Newtown’s The Town Hall Hotel on Friday night, 5th June.
Police executed a search warrant at a Balmain home yesterday, Friday 12th June, seizing clothing and other items, including “a small quantity of cannabis”. They arrested a 22-year-old man who has been charged with recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, affray and possessing a prohibited drug.
He is the second person to be arrested and charged in relation to the bashing of bashing of the 43-year-old McCarthy, as she was waiting to perform with her band at Newtown’s The Town Hall Hotel. Earlier this week, police arrested and charged a 23-year-old man in relation to this matter.
Both men will appear before Newtown Local Court on Thursday 9th July 2015.
McCarthy claimed that the incident was an act of transphobia, committed by a group of men at the hotel who had been following her around all night. After the incident, in which she alleges the men pulled her hair and repeatedly punched her in the face, she shared a picture of her bruises and injuries.
She also said Sydney’s lockout laws had contributed to the rise of violence and hate-related assults on the streets of Newtown, which is outside of the lockout zones.
“There are people who are going out here on a Friday or Saturday night that would have never, ever come to Newtown previously,” McCarthy said. “I’m one in a long line of people who’ve been assaulted of late. Everyone has been a target – transgender, gay, lesbian – people who look different. I’ve heard of punks getting assaulted, goths getting assaulted – it’s insane.”
Police investigations into the matter are continuing, and officers are still urging anyone who might have information about the incident to contact Crime Stoppers.
The incident has sparked a massive outcry from the citizens of Newtown, who took to the streets shortly after the incident to voice their support for McCarthy and the trans community, and protest against violence and transphobia.
Watch: Protest Against Violence And Transphobia Outside Town Hall Hotel, Newtown |
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said on Monday that he does not expect the AT&T-Time Warner deal to be subject to his agency’s approval.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Pai said that AT&T's purchase of Time Warner has been structured in a way that would allow it to avoid FCC scrutiny by not transferring any airwave licenses between the two companies.
“That is the regulatory hook for FCC review,” Pai said. “My understanding is that the deal won’t be presented to the commission.”
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In an SEC filing last month, Time Warner revealed that it would not be transferring any of its FCC licenses to AT&T as part of the $85 billion merger.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, the lone Democrat on the panel, has called for the deal to be scrutinized by the FCC.
"To put things in perspective, this transaction is worth $16 billion more than the Comcast/NBC-U and the subsequently abandoned AT&T/T-Mobile deals combined," Clyburn said in a statement. "This Commission has both the authority and responsibility to thoroughly examine this transaction and we should not shrink from our responsibilities under the laws we are responsible for implementing”.
The deal will still have to be cleared by the Justice Department.
President Trump came out against the deal when it was first announced while he was on the campaign trail last year, but he's since indicated that he is open to changing his position.
"I have been on the record in the past of saying it's too big and we have to keep competition,” he told Axios last month. “So, but other than that, I haven't, you know, I haven't seen any of the facts, yet. I'm sure that will be presented to me and to the people within government." |
As there are no wild hedgehogs in Japan, seeing one is quite a treat. To fill this gap in the market with some prickly cuteness, a hedgehog-themed cafe has opened in Roppongi District, Tokyo.
Since February, customers have been queuing at the "Harry" cafe to have the opportunity to pet the hedgehogs. The name "Harry" stems from a wordplay on the Japanese word for hedgehog. For 1,000 yen ($9) on weekdays and 1,300 yen ($11) on holidays, the cafe offers an hour of petting and playing with a selection of hedgehogs. There’s even a “menu” of different colors to choose from.
In case hedgehogs aren’t your thing, the same building also has a rabbit cafe owned by the same people.
Mizuki Murata, who works at the cafe, told Reuters , “We wanted to show people the charm of hedgehogs, which give the impression of being hard to handle. We wanted to get rid of that image by letting people touch them.”
She added, “The cutest thing about hedgehogs is getting them to finally open up and show you their face.”
Although some people have doubted the suitability of petting these shy and nocturnal creatures, hedgehogs can be comfortably kept as pets. In Japan, these prickly beasts are particularly popular as tiny companions. That said, if you see a hedgehog out and about in the wild it’s always best to leave them be. However, if you come across one in your garden, it’s advised you feed them meaty cat or dog food and water – not bread and milk.
A photo posted by eko tjoek (@ekotjoek) on Apr 7, 2016 at 4:32pm PDT |
Last month, we discussed a government report which showed that, much to the chagrin of a few billionaires and a long line of retail investors who bought the proverbial dip, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be destined, by design, by decades of reckless behavior, and by Treasury decree, to be insolvent most of the time. Today, we learned that when it comes to accountability for the executives who helped put the companies in a position whereby receivership became necessary in mid-2008, we can forget about it.
In what was billed as a “high profile” case, the SEC had sought financial and other penalties against three former Freddie Mac executives who allegedly “misled” investors in 2006 by understating the amount of subprime exposure the GSE had on its books while it was simultaneously still sucking up and packaging bad loans. If the SEC allegations are indeed accurate, it’s probably safe to say that using the term “understated” to describe the executives’ misrepresentations is, well, an understatement, because it appears they may have lowballed the figure by a factor of 28. Here’s AP:
According to the SEC, Fannie and Freddie misrepresented their exposure to mortgages for borrowers with weak credit in reports, speeches and congressional testimony. The SEC said Freddie told investors in late 2006 that it held between $2 billion and $6 billion of subprime mortgages on its books — but its actual subprime holdings were actually closer to $141 billion, or 10 percent of its portfolio in 2006, and $244 billion, or 14 percent, by 2008.
But all’s well that ends in a catastrophic housing market meltdown apparently because as WSJ notes, everyone seems to have gotten a pretty good deal considering their actions may have contributed mightily to the worst financial crisis since The Great Depression:
The civil case, filed in 2011, had alleged that three Freddie executives, including former Chief Executive Officer Richard Syron, knowingly misled investors about the volume of risky mortgages the company purchased as the housing boom came to an end. The SEC had sought financial penalties against the executives and an order barring them from serving as officers and directors at other companies. Instead, the executives agreed for a limited time not to sign certain reports required by chief executives or finance chiefs and to pay a total of $310,000 to a fund meant to compensate defrauded investors.
The breakdown of the fees is as follows: Richard Syron, $250,000; Donald Bisenius, $50,000; Patricia Cook, $10,000. As you can see, Ms. Cook got off pretty easy, but then again, they all did because they don’t actually have to pay the fines:
Those amounts will be paid by insurance from Freddie Mac that covered the executives.
And no one had to admit to anything of course:
The pact said both sides agreed to the settlement “without conceding the strengths and weaknesses of their respective claims and defenses.”
Which is just fine with the folks from Freddie who understandably believe it’s not in their best interest for the government to continue to investigate them for fraud and who are pleased to report that in addition to the fact that they will not have to pay anything out of pocket, they will not be limited “in any practical way” by the decision:
Mr. Syron said, “The agreement states that it is not in the interests of justice to continue to litigate this matter, and I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment.” Steven Salky, who represented Ms. Cook, said, they ”are extremely pleased with this resolution.” Mr. Bisenius said, “The undertakings to which I have agreed in order to put this case behind me do not limit me in any practical way.”
So in the end, all three executives were slapped with fines which they don’t have to pay and were reprimanded in a way that doesn’t limit their future activities at all, which the SEC reckons is commensurate with their part in sinking the entire world economy:
“The settlement’s limitations on future activities (ZH: these are the limitations that don’t limit any one in a practical way) and financial payments (ZH: financial payments they don’t have to pay) reflect an appropriate resolution of the matter,” said Andrew Ceresney, the SEC’s enforcement director.
And remember, there's just one month left under Eric Holder's recent ultimatum which may or may not mean that after May...
* * *
Meanwhile, FHFA officials are busy making sure there’s no chance that the two entities will ever get themselves into another situation where their securitization practices are likely to encourage shoddy lending standards. Here’s WSJ from an article that was posted Wednesday afternoon: |
In a very special gesture,President @EPN personally drives @narendramodi to a restaurant for Mexican vegetarian fare pic.twitter.com/fF4WWQvUy2
— Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 9, 2016
Bonding over bean tacos! President @EPN and PM @narendramodi share a meal pic.twitter.com/ckmsmpjWo7
— Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 9, 2016
PM ends by quoting Octavio Paz “I can understand what it means to be Indian, because I am Mexican” Says its true the other way too.
— Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 9, 2016
NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi's cup runneth over in Mexico City today.He got a rapturous welcome from the Indian community in Mexico City. Then, he got President Enrique Peña Nieto's "positive and constructive support" for India's bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).And to top it all, Peña Nieto personally drove PM Modi for a vegetarian dinner to Quintonil , one of the world's top 50 restaurants of 2015.The PM and Peña Nieto "Bonding over bean tacos!" tweeted external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup.Modi is the first Indian PM to go on a state visit to Mexico, since former PM Rajiv Gandhi's trip in 1986.And to be sure, there must have been a lot more than bean tacos on the table. President Peña Nieto certainly picked well for the PM, a strict vegetarian.When theworlds50best.com put the restaurant at number 35 in the world last year, it specifically mentioned its vegetarian fare."Though meat is a feature on the tasting menu, (Chef Jorge) Vallejo aims to highlight the value of fruit and vegetables, as much for their flavour as for their nutritional value. Dishes on the tasting menu include huazontles, a green vegetable that vaguely resembles broccoli, with chiapas cheese and red tomato, and nopal cactus snow," the write-up said.Quintonil has also been lauded for being environmentally conscious. A large part of the reason for India wanting NSG membership is so it can move forward in its effort to stem climate change.The restaurant then was perhaps a perfect venue for Modi and Peña Nieto to chat more about the latter's ''constructive'' NSG support."With a strong commitment to reducing the ecological footprint of its food, Quintonil also sources much of its produce from its own urban orchard. While the majority of food in Mexico travels on average some 2,500 km from origin to plate, at Quintonil much of it is picked on a daily basis and travels just 30 metres."Foodies waiting to see if Swarup would tweet what dessert PM Modi had, would have been disappointed, because Swarup didn't. If one were to guess, Modi might just have opted for something a little familiar from the dessert menu: Chikoo Pannacotta with Sweetened Corn Crumble and Chikoo Ice Cream.After all, Modi did say - in a nod to Mexico's son Octavio Paz - "I can understand what it means to be Mexican, because I am Indian". |
Editor’s Note: This Op-Ed was written and submitted to Breitbart Texas by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
Politics has a nasty habit of trumping good policy. In the case of so-called sanctuary cities, it also manages to overwhelm our otherwise well-honed commitment to the rule of law.
Next year, Travis County will welcome a new sheriff, Sally Hernandez, into office. The sheriff-elect has taken a careless stance on immigration in that she has fervently and publically rebuked her predecessor’s policy of cooperating with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, when it requested that the sheriff’s office hold inmates so that they might be removed from the country.
Were we to take the sheriff-elect’s campaign promises at face value, Austin would be the first Texas municipality to fully qualify as a “sanctuary city.”
The sheriff-elect defends her radical departure of existing law by attempting to wrap immigration enforcement in a swath of social justice causes. She doesn’t think, for instance, that “you solve the criminal justice process by deporting them.” Likewise, she calls ICE’s policies “discriminatory” and has urged for a more “progressive” approach to “treat everybody fairly and equally.”
Never mind that ICE’s current deportation standards originated in the Obama Administration which, at least since 2011, has chiefly focused its enforcement effort at undocumented immigrants convicted of the most violent and heinous crimes.
Popular attacks aside, the government has little interest in breaking up families; nor do they seek to deport victims who bring incidents of misconduct to the attention of authorities.
Hernandez’s reasoning is one of ideology, not facts. It advances a narrative that lauds the appearance of compassion towards immigrants but never truly confronts the policy’s substance or how non-compliance can hurt the very audience that sanctuary cities are said to help.
Had Hernandez done so, she would have realized that sanctuary cities are the policy equivalent of a dead end. Nothing moves forward. Not public safety. Not the rule of law. Certainly not the men, women, and children who thirst for the American Dream but have had the forbearance to pursue it through appropriate means.
Indeed, our nation enjoys a proud history of lawful immigration. You might even call it our country’s cultural backbone. And you would be hard pressed to find a constituency on either side of the political aisle who wants that tradition to stop.
Sanctuary cities, however, implicate different concerns.
Exit polls in the last presidential race showed that President-elect Trump won a higher percentage of the Hispanic vote than the Republican Party’s two previous nominees. He secured that margin even though the experts had anticipated that his rhetoric against sanctuary cities and illegal immigration would hobble him in the Hispanic community.
The results are hardly a surprise when you actually take the time to learn about what matters to voters. According to that same exit poll, voters understood that lawlessness hurts immigrants who seek to enter the country legally since it makes it more difficult, more expensive, and more time-consuming to navigate the process.
The United States is a generous nation, but policymakers are unlikely to widen the entranceway if the halls are already crowded.
In addition, by cutting holes into the federal government’s enforcement fabric, sanctuary cities imperil public safety. Dangerous criminal elements now know that if deported, they have a safe place to land upon reentry—places like Denver, Seattle, New York City, Philadelphia, Austin.
“Kate’s Law,” named for murder victim Kate Steinle, mandates prison terms for those with multiple deportations and is a response to San Francisco’s sanctuary city policies, which fails to provide for the protection of its citizens.
Even here in Texas, where sanctuary cities have yet to gain full traction, residents have suffered from repeat offenders able to exploit holes in our immigration laws. Nicodemo Coria-Gonzalez was deported multiple times, only to return and commit a series of rapes in the Austin area. He’s a prime example of the criminal element which will be emboldened by the sheriff-elect’s renegade policies.
We cannot allow individuals to avoid justice and accountability. We cannot allow sanctuary cities to harbor these criminals. We cannot allow city officials to skirt the law at their whim.
This upcoming session, the Texas Legislature will make ending sanctuary cities a top priority. Already, several bills have been filed to that effect, including S.B. 4, which would allow law enforcement to investigate a suspect’s immigration status as well as demand that municipalities implement immigration laws already on the books.
Governor Greg Abbott has endorsed the sentiment behind these efforts, promising “to sign a law that bans sanctuary cities.” He also tweeted, “I’ve already issued an order cutting funding to sanctuary cities” in the meantime.
Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has echoed with his own support: “No city in Texas should be allowed to ignore the law. We will end this practice once and for all this session.”
Sanctuary cities argue for keeping illegal immigrant families together, yet they ignore that Kate Steinle’s family is forever shattered. Americans overwhelmingly understand that one of our first duties as a nation is to protect our citizens. It is time that the sheriff-elect and other local officials in Texas learn the same lesson. |
Mexico City, Mexico - The UFC® announced today that UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez suffered a right knee injury during training and was forced to withdraw from his championship fight against No.1 contender Fabricio Werdum in Mexico City on November 15.
As a result, No.4 heavyweight Mark Hunt (10-8-1 in professional MMA, fighting out of Auckland, New Zealand), who is coming off a walk-away knockout against the iron-chinned Roy Nelson in Tokyo in September (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGunUlEd50A), will face Werdum (18-5-1, fighting out of Los Angeles via Porto Alegre, Brazil) in the five-round main event for the interim UFC heavyweight title.
“I’m so unbelievably disappointed that this happened,” Velasquez said. “To say I was looking forward to fighting in Mexico for the first time is an understatement. I wanted to fight on that card so bad. Looks like it wasn’t meant to be and it’s not going to happen. I’m going to get my [right] knee fixed and get back to training as soon as I can. I’m sorry to the fans in Mexico who were expecting this fight, and I hope to be able to come down and still be a part of this historic event.”
For Werdum, it was never about Cain, it was always about the title.
“I’m ready for whatever comes. I have been training in Mexico for nearly two months and accept the challenge that is presented to me. I'll continue to prepare and will arrive ready to fight on behalf of all my Latin American fans," said Werdum.
Mark Hunt, never one to shy away from a big opportunity, wasted no time accepting a dream opportunity to fight for UFC gold.
“I feel blessed to have this opportunity to fight for another world title. This is something that doesn’t happen often to people. First K1 and now UFC – how can I say no, even though it’s on short notice? I’m dropping everything and flying to Mexico tomorrow so I can best prepare myself for this fight. I have to get into shape and acclimatize to that environment, which is really important.
“There’s nothing to lose when you’re competing against the best at the top level,” Hunt added.
UFC 180: WERDUM vs. HUNT scheduled for November 15 at the Arena Mexico City, sold-out in only eight hours, and will welcome more than 20,000 fans. Along with the explosive main event, fans will also be treated to six other bouts featuring Latin American contenders.
For more information visit www.ufcnetwork.com. All bouts are live and subject to change.
UFC ticket refund policy
Due to causes beyond our company's control, there has been a change in the main event of UFC 180 and Cain Velasquez will no longer be participating. For customers who wish to request a refund the times to do so will be from October 28th to November 7th 2014, from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. CT.
For purchases made with a credit card and/or debit card, please go to the box office of Arena Ciudad de Mexico with the following documents:
* Card with which the purchase was made. Original and copy
* Official identification. Original and Copy
* Tickets.
Purchases in CASH, OXXO, ELEKTRA, PALACIO DE HIERRO's CARD through Superboletos reimbursements will be made at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico box office only from October 28 to November 7, 2014, please submit:
* Tickets.
* Official identification. Original and Copy
Foreign clients
For customers who are foreign refund dynamic is as follows, you must send your scanned tickets to the following e-mail address: [email protected] with the title "UFC refund", submitting the following:
* Tickets
* Official identification. Copy
* Card with the purchase I make (if applicable, Copy)
Once the documents are sent, the actual tickets must be mailed to our offices in Monterrey, which will provide a reply to the e-mail in which we receive the documents. The dates for this are from October 28th to November 7th, 2014.
If you purchased with cash you must also attach the card to which you want us to make the deposit, if the purchase was made through credit/debit card the refund should appear on your balance from 25 to 30 working days from when the complete paperwork is received. Service charge is not refundable.
###
About the Ultimate Fighting Championship®
Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC®) is the premier mixed martial arts (MMA) organization and largest pay-per-view event provider in the world. Headquartered in Las Vegas with offices in London, Toronto, Singapore and Sao Paulo, UFC produces more than 40 live events annually that consistently sell out some of the most prestigious arenas around the globe. UFC programming is broadcast in 129 countries and territories to nearly 800 million TV households worldwide in 28 different languages. The UFC has a multi-year broadcast agreement with FOX in the U.S., which annually includes four live events broadcast on the FOX network, as well as The Ultimate Fighter® reality television show and thousands of hours of programming on FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports 2. In 2014, UFC launched UFC FIGHT PASS™, a digital subscription service with exclusive live events, thousands of fights on-demand and original content. The UFC organization also licenses over 100 UFC GYM® locations, and owns UFC.TV® (offering live event broadcasts and video on-demand around the world), UFC FIT® (an in-home fitness and nutrition program), UFC Magazine, and has a videogame franchise with EA SPORTS, UFC Fight Club®, UFC Fan Expo®, UFC branded apparel, DVDs and Blu-rays and Topps Trading Cards. For more information, visit UFC.com and follow UFC at Facebook.com/UFC, Twitter and Instagram: @UFC.
Press contact for UFC:
Mary Vincent
+1-703-772-7407
[email protected]
Isabelle McLemore
+1-702-540-0905
[email protected] |
Another Space_Man_Spiff 1990 Chevrolet Tracker post...
Moab Easter Jeep Safari. I did Top Of The World trail, and had a great time. The following pics were taken on an outing which happened to turn out as a mud trip because the road to the trail head was blocked. Meet Jessi's '87 V6 4Runner You import tuners can dream about bringing in a skyline all day but this is what I would have. Somebody convince GM they should produce this. I'll trade the on board hot water & all wheel drive features for a factory locker & low range. This is a pic I put together just for kicks. This is my other car, a Fiber Fab Avenger. It is a kit car made in the '70s. Based on a VW chassis with a '92 Subaru 2.2L H4 It has all the wiring in a box waiting. I have had this since I was 16 (also when this pic was taken)but have yet to put it all together. To complete I will need a whole new front suspension, 4wheel discs new paint, fiberglass work and an interior. Page One MOAB! & Big Air Page Two Random Page Three Dreams Page Four Progress Page Five Things to come |
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York speaks to reporters about his proposal to offer a $1.7 billion property tax credit for homeowners and renters. His was among proposals in several states this year to provide tax relief for property taxpayers. (AP)
With some of the highest median property taxes in the nation, it’s no surprise that relief is at the top of many political agendas in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.
Counties that surround New York City in those three states account for 18 of the 20 highest-taxed counties in the nation, according to a Stateline analysis of the U.S. Census’ 2013 American Community Survey data, which is the latest available.
But they aren’t the only states where homeowners feel pressure from property taxes, which are rising faster than inflation nationally and prompting lawmakers to look for ways to provide relief. Median property taxes rose 57 percent from $1,334 in 2000 to $2,090 in 2013, while inflation was only 35 percent during the period.
(See the map for the latest median property taxes in each state, and the county with the highest median property taxes in each state.)
Texas lawmakers, for instance, are debating as much as a $2.2 billion cut in property taxes. The median tax bill there is about $2,500. That bill, however, is only about a third of the $7,300 for median property tax New Jersey, and a quarter of the tax bill property owners pay in Westchester County, New York, which has the highest median levy of $10,000.
“If a New Yorker heard about a property tax bill in Texas, he would say. ‘You have nothing to complain about,’” said Scott Drenkard, an economist at the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax policy research group. “But Texans complain about property taxes quite a bit. If you ask them what needs to be cut, the average Texan would say it’s property taxes. It’s the tax policymakers hear the most about from their constituents. It’s the most hated tax.”
Although states generally don’t levy property taxes (Arizona did until 1996, and Minnesota taxes some commercial and seasonal property), state lawmakers routinely look for ways to ease them at the local level with caps, subsidies, exemptions, or changes in the balance between commercial and residential tax rates. In addition to New York, Connecticut and Texas, relief proposals have been up for debate in Pennsylvania, Maine and Nebraska this year.
In New York, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo talked of how “middle- and lower-income families (are) struggling under the crushing weigh of property taxes” in January, when he announced a plan for $1.7 billion in tax credits for qualifying homeowners and renters.
The legislature removed Cuomo’s proposed credit from the state budget in March. But Cuomo has said he’s continuing to negotiate it with legislative leaders and a compromise may be possible next month.
The Connecticut Legislature is considering a bill that would provide property tax relief by giving towns more money from state sales tax revenue. The state issued a report last year showing property taxes were the largest component of taxes collected in the state, raising $9.5 billion annually compared to $5.8 billion in income taxes and $3.4 billion in sales taxes.
In New Jersey, budget constraints last year forced the state to postpone scheduled property tax discounts for elderly, disabled and low-income homeowners, but they’re included in tax bills mailed out this month. A report this year by the state League of Municipalities concluded that property taxes would have to drop 35 percent to bring them into line with comparable suburbs of New York City and Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has proposed increases in state income tax and sales taxes to help fund $3.8 billion in property tax relief next year. Lawmakers are continuing to review the proposal.
Maine is considering a plan from Republican Gov. Paul LePage that would remove the property tax exemption that some nonprofits now have starting in 2019. In Nebraska, plans to relieve taxes, for farmers especially, appear dead this year and instead will be studied.
In Texas, lawmakers are still debating property tax breaks. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott proposed spending $2.2 billion in state money to reimburse local schools for lost revenue from property tax relief.
Relief Not Always Relief
Nationwide, about 75 percent of local tax revenue comes from property taxes, according to a report by the Tax Policy Center in conjunction with the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute. The percentages range from 32 percent in the District of Columbia and 43 percent in Alabama, to 99 percent in Maine and New Hampshire.
About half of the $446 billion collected from property taxes annually goes to schools, according to a 2007 estimate by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a think tank focused on land use and taxation, which tracks property tax rates by state and tax relief programs up to 2013. The rest goes to police, fire, streets and other local government operations and services.
Capping or cutting property taxes, while popular, doesn’t always provide taxpayers overall relief, however. Drenkard, the Tax Foundation economist, said many attempts at relieving the burden of property taxes only serve to shift the costs of government to income or other taxes.
Because school taxes are such a high proportion of the total property tax bill, many states have started there, offering some homeowners a state subsidy in the form of tax credits or rebates, lightening the load with more state aid to schools or giving homeowners breaks by raising taxes on commercial property.
A New York state program called School Tax Relief (STAR), has offered some homeowners reduced school taxes through tax credits since 1998, with the lost revenue made up by higher state aid to schools.
A 2010 study by Georgia State University’s Fiscal Research Center noted that most comprehensive efforts to overhaul state taxes, including property taxes, have remained on the drawing board.
“Very few of the changes proposed appear to have been adopted,” the study concluded about efforts during the decade of the 2000s.
New York Has Highest Rates
Although New Jersey has the highest median annual property tax at $7,331, the counties with the highest rates are in New York. Suburban Westchester is the only county in the nation where the median burden is $10,000 or more. Nearby Rockland and Nassau counties are not far behind at $9,667 and $9,522, respectively.
(At the bottom is the state of Alabama, where median property taxes are $532. There are 23 counties, 13 of them in Louisiana, where median taxes are less than $200.)
Property tax relief has always been difficult in the New York City suburbs, said Gregory Holtz, a public administration professor at Pace University in Westchester County. Because wealth is so high and homes cost so much in affluent areas, there may not be enough outrage to fuel changes.
“There’s very little potential for reform in New York state,” Holtz said. “Our taxes haven’t gotten that high yet. We’re going to have to be completely overburdened. When taxes are late or going into default, that’s a true sign of tax revolt or reform, and that’s not happening yet.” |
It’s summer. It’s hot. And all you need right now, man, is a beach.
Feet in the sand, beer in the hand, looking at gams.
It’s an honorable pursuit. And necessary. And you deserve it.
That’s why we’re proud to introduce The Gentleman’s Handbook, Vol. IV: To the Beach!
Inside, we’ve packed a veritable cooler’s worth of keep-it-frosty advice.
To wit:
How to Make the Perfect Beach Cocktail
In Defense of the Lake Beach
The Swim Trunks a Man Needs
Coolers: a Definitive Guide
Plus much more, including our advice on how to comport one’s self on the sand — e.g., please dude, turn your rap-metal and/or Elliott Smith down. The beach thanks you.
Now kick back. Relax.
And enjoy The Gentleman’s Handbook, Vol. IV: To the Beach! |
Tensions between Denmark and Russia were ratcheted up a notch on Saturday.
Russia’s ambassador to Denmark, Mikhail Vanin, wrote in an opinion piece published by Jyllands-Posten that Denmark has made itself a target of a potential nuclear attack by joining Nato’s missile defence system
“I don’t think the Danes fully understand the consequences of what will happen if Denmark joins the American-controlled missile defence. If it happens, Danish war ships will become targets for Russian atomic missiles,” Vanin wrote.
Denmark announced in August that it will will contribute at least one frigate to Nato’s defence system. At the time, Defence Minister Nicolai Wammen said that joining the missile defence system was not a move aimed at Russia.
“That Denmark will join the missile defence system with radar capacity on one or more of our frigates is not an action that is targeted against Russia, but rather to protect us against rogues states, terrorist organisations and others that have the capacity to fire missiles at Europe and the US,” Wammen told Jyllands-Posten in August
Vanin’s op-ed made it clear that Russia doesn’t share that interpretation.
“Denmark will become a part of the threat against Russia. It will be less peaceful and the relationship with Russia will be harmed. It is of course your decision – I want to simply remind you that it will cost you both money and security,” Vanin wrote.
“At the same time, Russia has missiles that are guaranteed to break through future global missile defence systems,” he continued.
Danish Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard called Vanin’s statements “unacceptable”.
“Russia knows fully well that Nato’s missile defence is not aimed at them. We are in disagreement with Russia on a number of important things but it is important that the tone between us does not escalate,” Lidegaard told Jyllands-Posten.
The US ambassador to Denmark, Rufus Gifford, also responded to Vanin's remarks.
"We stand with our staunch Nato ally Denmark in condemning the unacceptable statements made by Russia's Ambassador to Denmark. We have made clear that Nato's ballistic missile defence is not directed at any country, but is meant to defend against missile threats," Gifford wrote on Facebook.
On Twitter, he added that "such statements do not inspire confidence or contribute to peace and stability":
US stands w/ DK in condemning statements made by Russia's Amb to DK. Such statements do not inspire confidence or contrib to peace/stability — Rufus Gifford (@rufusgifford) March 21, 2015
Denmark’s relationship with Russia has been strained by increased Russian airspace activity over and near Denmark.
Vanin is not exactly a stranger to controversial statements. Following the December near-miss with the SAS, he suggested that Swedish authorities may have imagined the whole thing after smoking too much cannabis
"The Swedish authorities also recently said there was a submarine in their waters. There wasn’t. Now they say again that they have seen something. I'm afraid the Swedes visit Pusher Street very often," Vanin told Berlingske, referring to the Christiania neighbourhood in Copenhagen known for its cannabis trade.
“In terms of our territory, we are not worried. We keep our heads calm and the cockpit warm,” she said.
Wammen has also said that Denmark would not hesitate to stand up to Russia telling the Financial Times that “the Russians know we will do what is necessary.” |
Joshua Freeman, CP24.com
A new poll released Thursday appears to show the NDP leading the Conservative and Liberal parties as the federal election campaign continues.
According to the poll released by Forum Research on Thursday, just more than one third of voters (34 per cent) plan to cast a ballot for the NDP in the upcoming election. The poll puts the Conservatives in second place with 28 per cent support and the Liberals just behind them with 27 per cent support.
While the NDP lead, the poll represents a drop for the party compared to another Forum poll released last week that put them at 39 per cent support.
“It appears last week's bump for the NDP wasn’t just giddy exhilaration brought on by the election call,” Forum Research President Lorne Bozinoff said in a news release.
Bozinoff said the fact that so many electors are still planning to vote for the NDP after having had a week to watch the candidates perform shows that the NDP support is not an anomaly.
“Among the signs this isn’t temporary are that Tom Mulcair is equally likely to be seen as the best steward of the economy as the Prime Minister, who has always owned that measure himself,” Bozinoff said.
The poll found that voters feel NDP leader Tom Mulcair would make the best prime minister (28 per cent), slightly ahead of Stephen Harper (25 per cent) and Justin Trudeau (23 per cent).
In terms of who is trusted to handle the economy, Mulcair (29 per cent) and Harper (30 per cent) are roughly tied, while Trudeau lags at 26 per cent.
Harper leads both when it comes to which leader is trusted on national security (35 per cent) compared to Mulcair (26 per cent) and Trudeau (21 per cent).
However Mulcair is most trusted when it comes to the environment (36 per cent), with a massive lead on Harper (15 per cent) and a comfortable lead over Trudeau (25 per cent).
The telephone poll sampled 1,392 randomly selected voters across the country on Aug. 10-11. It is considered accurate to within plus or minus three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
@Josh_F is on Twitter. Remember for instant breaking news follow @cp24 on Twitter. |
Mitt Romney’s advantage among male voters has all but disappeared since the Democratic National Convention.
The pattern will likely spell doom for Romney unless it represents an entirely transient “bump” for President Obama — which it might.
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Several polls released in recent days show Obama displaying new strength among male voters. Romney needs to win the male electorate by a wide margin to overcome the chronic disadvantage the GOP faces with respect to women.
A CNN poll released Monday showed Obama moving into a small lead among men, besting Romney 48 percent to 47. The finding was especially notable because CNN, in a poll conducted about a week prior, had shown Romney holding a 12-point lead among men (55 percent to 43).
On Tuesday, an ABC News/Washington Post poll found Obama enjoying a 3-point edge among men.
In a memo accompanying the poll’s release, its authors, Langer Research Associates, noted that “Obama’s support has reached a new high among men” — higher than at any point during this election cycle.
In addition, a new poll from the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling organization found that Obama has a 1-point lead among men, taking 47 percent to Romney’s 46.
Democrats are delighted with those numbers.
“If that holds, there’s no way Romney can win,” said Bob Shrum, the longtime Democratic strategist who ran Sen. John Kerry John Forbes KerryOvernight Defense: White House eyes budget maneuver to boost defense spending | Trump heads to Hanoi for second summit with Kim | Former national security officials rebuke Trump on emergency declaration 58 ex-national security officials rebuke Trump over emergency declaration Ex-national security officials to issue statement slamming Trump's emergency declaration: WaPo MORE’s (D-Mass.) 2004 bid for the White House.
The Romney campaign has been pushing back hard against the polls in recent days. On Monday, it circulated a memo from its in-house pollster, Neil Newhouse, asserting that no one should “get too worked up about the latest polling” and characterizing the boost Obama is enjoying as a “sugar-high.”
On Tuesday, a Romney campaign aide told The Hill that the shift in male voting intentions was part of the same pattern. “He got a temporary boost that shouldn’t last long,” the aide argued.
Still, even Republicans who think that those predictions will ultimately prove true admit their worries about the current state of play.
“It’s definitely a concern,” said Dan Judy, a vice president at North Star Opinion Research, a GOP firm. “Men, and especially white men, are a core constituency for Republicans, especially in swing states. Romney’s got to run up big, big margins with them.”
One case in point is the 2004 presidential election. Kerry beat President George W. Bush by 3 percentage points among female voters (51 percent to 48), according to exit polls. But Bush prevailed by winning male voters by a whopping 11-point margin (55-44).
In 2008, Obama won the female vote by 13 percentage points (56-43) over his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainGOP lobbyists worry Trump lags in K Street fundraising Mark Kelly kicks off Senate bid: ‘A mission to lift up hardworking Arizonans’ Gabbard hits back at Meghan McCain after fight over Assad MORE (Ariz.). By comparison, he edged McCain by just a single point among men overall (49-48), and lost white men by 16 percentage points.
Reasons for the recent shift are not entirely clear.
Some commentators point to the tone of the Democratic National Convention as, in parts, having particular appeal to men. Democratic strategist James Carville told CNN that Obama’s own speech was “muscular,” perhaps alluding to its sharp attacks on Romney on matters of foreign policy.
Former President Clinton, Vice President Biden and Kerry sought to paint Obama as strong and decisive — and, at times, attacked Romney and the Republicans as effete.
Obama, Biden testified, “has courage in his soul, compassion in his heart and steel in his spine.”
“Ask Osama bin Laden if he is better off now than he was four years ago,” Kerry said during his speech, in which he also said, “It isn’t fair to say that Mitt Romney doesn’t have a position on Afghanistan. He has every position.”
Judy said he was not surprised to see the Democrats trying to seize the national-security mantle “because there are not a whole lot of areas where Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaWith low birth rate, America needs future migrants 4 ways Hillary looms over the 2020 race Obama goes viral after sporting black bomber jacket with '44' on sleeve at basketball game MORE can point to his record. Every time Democrats talk about [the bin Laden operation] is time they don’t have to spend talking about the economy, or ObamaCare, or a lot of other things that are not so popular.”
Judy argued that, once memories of the conventions begin to fade, the electorate will focus again on the economy. This, he asserted, would be to Romney’s benefit.
For the moment, however, Democrats are very happy with where things stand. And one of the more recent attempts for Romney to boost his machismo — the appearance by Clint Eastwood at the Republican convention — only broadened their smiles.
“I thought that was awful,” Shrum said. “It was embarrassing for Eastwood; it ate into Romney’s time. I mean, that just wasn’t serious.” |
Blockchain Embassy Opens for Business in Panama City
A new location for bitcoin and cryptocurrency enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, activists, iconoclasts, connoisseurs, and the general public has opened in Panama. It is called the Blockchain Embassy. It is located in the Balboa Boutiques Strip Mall of Balboa Avenue in Panama City.
Also read: ICO Regulatory Round-Up: UK, Malaysia, and Switzerland’s Crypto Valley Point to Risks
Information on the Blockchain Embassy
The space has crypto clothing and other merchandise for sale. It has a cafeteria, craft beers for sale, hardware wallets on display, a coffee shop, and even a working space.
A press release sent to bitcoin.com, said the embassy will also start giving cryptocurrency workshops and presentations. Everyone is welcome to come and engage with the Panama crypto community. The Embassy press release elaborated on how it accepts payment and provided more information:
The embassy accepts payments in cash and Crypto, and has become an emblematic tourist site in Panama. It receives visitors from all over the world. It is one of the projects created by startup Cryptobuyer.io, known for being the first company in the world to install ATMs in commercial banks, as well as integrating its system Cryptobuyer Pay that allows any commerce to accept payments in Bitcoin and other currencies.
Motivations to Build the Blockchain Embassy in Panama
Bitcoin.com reached out to one of the founders of the Blockchain Embassy (and Cryptobuyer), Jorge Farias, to get some insight on the motivations behind setting up the embassy.
He said, “We created the embassy because we were motivated by the need to educate the people not only of Panama, but also of the world. Panama is a tourist site, and at the same time, a major financial and logistic center. We believe that it is an ideal place to show the power of technology in a real, palpable way.”
Furthermore, he said his company chose the site in Panama City because it is easy to access by car and it allowed his team to integrate all of its amenities. He said besides offering the Crypto ATM, hardware wallets, and all the amenities mentioned, they plan on gradually adding many more things for their customer’s enjoyment.
What do you think about the Blockchain Embassy? Will you visit it? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Blockchain Embassy
At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more. |
“She was asking for it, dressed like that”
It’s a common “rape apologist” statement. The women who are raped are blamed because they dared to present themselves as a sexual being. I think that sex bloggers get a little bit of this mentality from male readers. I present my sexual thoughts or even sexual photos. Once upon a time on this blog I even asked for HNT suggestions for new sexy photos. I don’t do that anymore for various reasons. In fact I’m not all that provocative or sexual, period, on this blog. That is a topic though for another post.
My irritation lies with the readers who “in fun” take what I give and then demand more. In the vein of “it never hurts to ask” they claim they’re being flirtatious or really just paying me a compliment. If I wanted suggestions, I would ask for them. If I wanted to post more (quantity) photos here, then I would. If I wanted to post more revealing photos here, then I would. But the key here is that it’s whatever I want to do. If you don’t like it, if you don’t find it to be “enough”….then please, seek out what you want elsewhere. There are no shortage (thank god) of sexy sex bloggers who are more revealing, more flirtatious, more interactive than I. I’ve been at this 4 years now and perhaps this is a sign to wrap things up but nonetheless I’ll thank you to keep your assumptive asshattery to yourself.
What prompted this mini rant, you ask? Not just yet another guy who thinks it’s ok to ask for more (even when it should be plainly obvious that I have never / not for 3 years posted anything like it) but the utter cheek of a fellow blogger, a fellow female sex blogger (I presume, given her response, I haven’t a clue what her site is) who then takes my response to the guy and makes assumptions about HER. I don’t even know this chick. I didn’t make a derogatory comment about others who might post such photos, I didn’t say “ew gross no”. I said nothing but “I don’t do that”.
My response would have been similar if someone had commented and asked “Hey that’s great, but you really should review breakfast cereal more!” to which I’d say “Um, have you read my blog, does it look like I review breakfast cereal??” Would I be slamming those who review breakfast cereal? Fuck no. Nor am I slamming the women who do post porn with their reviews.
I might have happily acquiesced if he’d caught me circa late 2008 and had bothered to correspond with me and develop a rapport. Might have. But other than a few other irritatingly “cute” comments on Facebook, I don’t know this guy. He’s the equivalent to a stranger spying me wearing a low-cut top and asking, with an arrogant grin, for me to just show off the rest of my tits why don’t I. Ms. Buttinsky there is the equivalent to a stranger in proximity saying “hey, I’m a stripper, I take offense to your offense at baring your tits, what’s wrong with that, I do it all the time you bitch!”. Anyways, I’m getting off track here.
The bottom line is that now I not only have to deal with the “ugh, not this shit again” of unwanted and disrespectful demands for more of me, but I can’t even tell someone off on my own goddamned space of the internet without someone not at all involved thinking she has any damn right to assume and be offended at a perceived slight.
Seriously?
Fuck off. |
Now you can build with LEGO® bricks using
Google Maps as your baseplate
Google Australia and New Zealand is picking up awards for the “Build with Chrome” project, an online interactive campaign bringing together Google Maps, Lego and HTML5 features associated with Google Chrome browser. Connected with the Google Chrome proposition, “The web is what you make of it”, the campaign gives LEGO brick fans of all ages the opportunity to build their own creations and view others published online at buildwithchrome.com.
The campaign was recognised with the David Ogilvy Creative Award at the 2012 ADMA Awards, along with Gold for art direction, Gold for Direct Response Digital, Silver for Apps and New Development, Silver for Creative Use of Technology, Silver for Brand Experience, Silver for Publishing and Entertainment, Bronze for Website. Now the campaign is nominated for a Yellow Pencil for Digital Advertising at the D&AD Awards, and nominated for Best Online Campaign, Best Use of Online Media and Best Visual Design in the 2013 Webby Awards.
Think of it as the world’s biggest LEGO® set. It’s really easy to use:
just click to place a brick.
You can build a dinosaur, a skyscraper, an alien or… pretty much whatever you like. Just choose a plot anywhere in Australia or New Zealand. Build something, publish it on the map, and share it with your friends. This year is the 50th anniversary of the LEGO® brick in Australia and Build joins the celebration of the LEGO® Festival of Play online. |
An Italian researcher with a penchant for retro games — or perhaps just looking for an excuse to play games in the name of science! — has used computational complexity theory to decide, once and for all, just how hard video games are. In a truly epic undertaking, Giovanni Viglietta of the University of Pisa has worked out the theoretical difficulty of 13 old games, including Pac-Man, Doom, Lemmings, Prince of Persia, and Boulder Dash.
To begin with, Viglietta defines a few basic gameplay mechanics and sorts them into categories of complexity theory. Location traversal and single-use paths, ala Pac-Man, is NP-hard. Pressure plates, ala Prince of Persia or Portal, is PSPACE-hard if there are two pressure plates, and NP-hard if only one is required to open a door. In the case of switches, one switch is P-hard, two is NP-hard, and three or more is PSPACE-hard.
Viglietta then uses these characteristics to classify each of the 13 games. Boulder Dash, which involves traversing a map strewn with boulders, is NP-hard. Prince of Persia, thanks to its pressure plates, is PSPACE-complete. Doom, with its multiple switches, is PSPACE-hard (and Viglietta claims that most other FPSes and adventure games are the same).
Lemmings proved to be a bit harder to classify: If you just use Bashers and Miners, it is a traversal problem and NP-hard. Viglietta doesn’t try to tackle the complexity of using other types of lemming. A similar stretch allows him to classify StarCraft as NP-hard, where by each player is trying to produce the right units to allow him to traverse a certain path (to the enemy’s base).
If you’ve never heard of computational complexity theory, the best known example is the traveling salesman problem (TSP), which is NP-hard. In the TSP, you have to devise the most optimal route that visits a list of locations. This can be optimized as the shortest route, the fastest, the path of least resistance, and so on. Variants of the TSP are used to optimize transport systems, CPU designs, computer algorithms, and more. PSPACE represents much more complex problems and puzzles that takes in games like Mahjong, Reversi, or Doom. If you want to know more, hit up Wikipedia — but be warned, complexity theory is a bit of a beast.
Read more at Technology Review, or check out the research paper (which has the best name ever)
[Image credit] |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption "An unnecessary court conflict will ensue"
US Attorney General Eric Holder has been held in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over a set of files on a failed gun-running investigation.
In a 255-67 vote, 17 Democrats joined with the House of Representatives' Republican majority.
Mr Holder is the first sitting attorney general and US presidential cabinet member to be held in contempt.
The White House has refused to hand over files outlining how problems with Fast and Furious emerged.
The operation saw US agents lose track of hundreds of illegal guns sold in Arizona and allowed into Mexico to target dealers.
Two of the weapons were found in December 2010 at the scene of a US border agent's murder. Fast and Furious ended in early 2011.
'Political game'
Mr Holder told reporters that the vote was "misguided" and said lawmakers had been circulating "truly absurd" conspiracy theories.
"It will not distract me from the important tasks that are our responsibility," Mr Holder said.
Image caption Dozens of House Democrats, including leader Nancy Pelosi, walked out
The House also voted 258-95 to ask the courts to force Mr Holder to turn over the documents.
Many Democratic lawmakers, including the Congressional Black Caucus and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, walked out of the chamber in protest on Thursday.
"We don't want to play a part in this political game," Democratic Representative Gregory Meeks said.
The roots of the current Congressional investigation began on 4 February 2011 when the justice department sent lawmakers a letter denying they had sanctioned or otherwise knew about guns illegally ending up Mexico.
The department withdrew the letter 10 months later, acknowledging the operation had allowed guns across the border.
Led by Republican Darrell Issa, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed documents for the 10-month period.
The Department of Justice says it has denied access to the files because they contain information that could affect ongoing criminal investigations.
Demand for answers
Mr Issa did not accept an offer of files and a briefing on the operation, saying the department needed to hand over all the documents requested.
Image caption Eric Holder spoke to a civic group in Florida before the contempt vote
The justice department sent to the House Oversight Committee more than 7,000 documents relating to Fast and Furious, and to a similar operation that took place during the George W Bush administration.
Last week, the White House raised the stakes by announcing it would exert executive privilege to protect the documents in question from subpoena.
The National Rifle Association has told House members that it will include the contempt vote in ratings the lobby group uses to show how lawmakers align with its interests.
Dan Pfeiffer, White House communications director, called the vote a "transparently political stunt" that happened despite justice department efforts to accommodate Congress.
Republican leaders defended the vote. House Speaker John Boehner said during the House debate that "no justice department is above the law".
"A man died serving his country and we have a right to know what the federal government's hand was in that," said Republican lawmaker Rich Nugent. |
A referendum on independence for Iraqi Kurdistan set for September 25 c
omes as the autonomous region faces the worst economic crisis in its short history.
Plunging government income, the challenge of fighting the Islamic State group and the cost of hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees have combined to punch a gaping hole in the Kurdistan Regional Government's budget.
"The KRG's coffers are empty and it's burdened with debts," Ruba Husari, an expert on Iraq's oil industry, told AFP.
The World Bank said in a recent report that the fiscal crisis and the security challenge posed by IS "have had a significant adverse impact on economic growth".
The region has benefitted from an influx of investment since the 2003 fall of dictator Saddam Hussein in a US-led invasion.
It won a measure of autonomy in the 2005 Iraqi constitution and has been seen as an island of stability in a country plunged into anarchy.
Iraqi Kurds take part in an event to urge people to vote in the upcoming independence referendum in Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on September 16, 2017 (photo by: SAFIN HAMED/AFP)
The drowsy regional capital Arbil was transformed as investors built towers, plush buildings, shopping malls and hotels to host foreign executives on business trips.
All that collapsed in 2014 as the price of oil plunged, IS jihadists seized a tranche of northern Iraq abutting the KRG and more than a million displaced Iraqis and Syrian refugees fled to the autonomous region.
That was compounded by Baghdad's decision to suspend payments to the KRG of 17 percent of Iraq's national budget.
The transfers, worth some $12 billion (10 billion euros), made up 80 percent of the region's budget revenues.
Wages, including those of peshmerga fighters, were slashed.
"The fiscal shock is severe," the World Bank said.
It said the regional government has dealt with the cut in revenues by borrowing money, postponing projects, and delaying payments -- including the salaries of government employees.
'Dire economic situation'
The combination of crises slashed GDP growth from eight percent in 2013 to three percent in 2014, the World Bank said in 2015.
A senior KRG official said that by the end of that year, public servants' salaries had been cut by 60 percent.
A building riddled with bullet holes is seen in the mainly Kurdish Iraqi city of Kirkuk on September 18, 2017 (photo by: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP)
For the past two months, the region's 1.2 million civil servants and retirees have not been paid at all, he told AFP.
Fathi al-Mudaress, an adviser to the KRG, said the crisis "stems from the fact that (the region) has made oil revenues its main source of income."
"Two years into the crisis, the autonomous region's government has adopted policies of austerity and income diversification, notably through tourism, agriculture and industry," he told AFP.
Kurdistan on average produces some 600,000 barrels a day, of which 550,000 are exported via Turkey.
That includes some 250,000 from the oil fields of disputed Kirkuk province, seized by Kurdish forces when IS took control of Iraq's second city Mosul.
The KRG sells oil through advance contracts, in effect taking out loans from firms including Swiss commodities giants Vitol and Glencore and repaying its debts with barrels of crude.
The KRG has used this system to borrow more than $3 billion in the past three years.
Recently it borrowed $1 billion from Russia's Rosneft to pay damages to European-Emirati consortium Pearl Petroleum, which is in a dispute with the regional government.
Rosneft will also be paid in barrels of oil.
But with oil prices still depressed, Kurdistan has been unable to pay investors developing its fields, and its debts are growing.
The World Bank warned in 2016 that "arrears in payments to oil companies and contractors create an uncertain business environment".
Husari said the crisis is much more severe than the Kurdistan government admits.
"The obvious 'yes' result of the referendum will not lead automatically to a declaration of an independent state but will open battles on several fronts," she said.
"For B arzani it's a leap forward to stay in power while diverting attention from the dire economic state of the region." |
Buy Photo Civil rights leader Rev. H.K. Matthews. (Photo: John Blackie/[email protected])Buy Photo
In 1974, five men from Atlanta came to Pensacola on a fishing trip and drowned in rough waters.
That's the official summation of the deaths of the "Atlanta Five," and for some people it leaves much to be desired. For family members, civil rights leaders and academics, questions still abound.
Why would five experienced fishermen be in a boat with no gear and without wearing life jackets? If the men were in the water for more than a week before being found, why were their bodies so well preserved? Why do witness statements about the events leading up to the deaths seem inconsistent?
Atlanta-based producer Edward Anderson will be in Pensacola next week attempting to tackle some of those questions. Anderson is filming a documentary about the Atlanta Five for the Storyline Group and SLG Media, and he is hoping his work will help provide five families the answers they've been seeking for the last 41 years.
"They want to make it clear they are not happy with the results of the investigation," Anderson said of the decedents' families. "They would like to publicize what happened to their loved ones in the event someone will come forward with more information."
Anderson said he got involved in the project after meeting Janice Holloway Cameron, the daughter of one of the Atlanta Five. The woman told him the story of how her father disappeared, how officials said he died and what she and many others believe actually happened.
Lee Roy Holloway, Robert Walker, Marvin Walker, John Sterling and Lonnie Merritt, all black men, reportedly left Atlanta around 7:30 p.m., Nov. 29, 1974, for a fishing trip to Pensacola. It was an excursion they had reportedly made several times during a 20-year-span.
At about 10 a.m. the next day, Robert Walker’s son was informed his father’s boat had been found abandoned in the Santa Rosa Sound. Reportedly, the anchor line had been cut, life preservers were in the boat and the key was still in the ignition.
The men’s food, ice, fishing gear and bait were found in a nearby camper.
The U.S. Coast Guard and the Sheriff’s Office performed a search of the area, but the men were not located and the search was discontinued.
Their families requested assistance from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights group founded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and then-SCLC President Ralph Abernathy announced he would travel to Pensacola to look into the disappearances.
Soon after the announcement, “The bodies started washing up mysteriously,” said Rev. H.K. Matthews, an area civil rights leader who headed the local chapter of the SCLC.
Matthews and Abernathy were able to view the bodies, and Abernathy described them as “natural looking,” according to the website atlantafive.com.
“John Sterling, after having been in the water for 12 days, still had his glasses on his face,” Matthews said. “That was something that troubled us.”
The prevailing unofficial theory is that the men were kidnapped in an act of racially-motivated violence, then killed and dumped in the Santa Rosa Sound when it was discovered there would be an outside investigation.
There is a witness account that the Atlanta Five had gotten into a verbal altercation with a local bait shop owner, and he had threatened at least one of the men’s lives.
There is another witness account from a man named Joe Sullivan who said he saw the men preparing to go out on the choppy water and warned them against it. He reportedly said he saw the men on Saturday evening, an apparent conflict with the timeline.
“Our thinking all along was that Mr. Sullivan was being used to cover up what we think was a murder,” Matthews said. “The whole thing was speculative, but there is enough evidence that the speculation is very strong.”
Matthews is just one of many who thinks the five men were victims of foul play.
The Atlanta Five case is being reviewed by Syracuse University College of Law faculty and students as part of The Cold Case Justice Initiative, a project that “seeks justice for racially motivated murders during the Civil Rights era on behalf of the victims, their families, local communities, and society at large.”
The group is delving into hundreds of cases from around the country, and has been assisting Anderson with research for his documentary. The groups are also working to have the case investigated under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, a federal initiative to resolve lingering race-related cases.
Anderson plans to spend three days filming and conducting interviews in Pensacola next week, with the hope that someone out there can finally provide some satisfactory answers.
"These folks are troopers," Anderson said of the Atlanta Five’s families. "They've been vigilant. Over the years their enthusiasm has faded some, but they've never given up. There are too many clues that seem to have been missed."
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Every year, the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup includes a new batch of amateur clubs hoping to be the tournament’s latest Cinderella story. And every year, TheCup.us introduces soccer fans across the country to these teams that have been the heart and soul of this competition for more than a century. This year, we are expanding our annual “Meet the USASA” series to include the USSSA and US Club Soccer. We bring you “Meet the Underdogs.”
For the third year in a row the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup will kick off in the State of Colorado. This year, it will be Boulder-based Harpo’s FC of the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) hosting the Kansas City Athletics of the United States Adult Soccer Assocation (USASA) on April 25. The game will be played at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park Field No. 20, just outside of the home of Major League Soccer’s Colorado Rapids.
Harpo’s FC, which is sponsored by a local bar, Harpo’s Sports Grill, will be making its first-ever appearance in the US Open Cup. Founded in 1997 as a rec-league team, Harpo’s has gradually grown into one of the regional powers in the Colorado Amateur Soccer League (CASL). Just in the last few years they have won the City of Boulder Men’s D-1 title four times, and won three CASL D-1 championships in addition to multiple tournaments, including last year’s state cup.
In 2014, they were 35-2-4 in outdoor games. With their outdoor success, they decided to take their game indoors. They joined the Premier Arena Soccer League (PASL) and their winning ways continued. This past season, under the name Avery Brewing FC, they were Rocky Mountain Division champions (7-1-0) and the Brewers finished as the 2014-15 National Cup runner-up in the second-tier indoor league (behind the Major Arena Soccer League).
Johnny Freeston, the club’s owner and manager, says the team has come a long way since their ‘beer league’ beginnings.
“Admittedly, when the team started it was just a group of guys who just wanted to keep on playing after high school and college,” said Freeston. “In those early days, there was probably more drinking than playing, but could still ball.”
Freeston arrived in Boulder around 2005 and eventually found himself in a leadership role. In 2012, he decided they had enough talent on the roster and in the area to start challenging for trophies. For Freeston, who works in sales and handles all the financial aspects of the club, an appearance in the US Open Cup has been a couple years in the making. After a number of years living up to their rec-league roots, the team started to get older and having families. And with players training on their own and living their own lives, it was about changing the team’s mentality.
“It was all about creating a culture of winning and a brotherhood,” said Freeston. “I think we’ve done that, and it’s shown in the results.”
Harpo’s brotherhood starts with their captain, Dan Campbell. The California native moved to Boulder to work on his MBA after playing soccer and getting a degree from the University of California-Davis. He met a few players and was brought into the fold and over time has become the veteran leader that the team needs in midfield.
One of the main goalscorers is Boulder native Shane Wheeler, who is hoping that playing for Harpo’s and making a run in the US Open Cup could help him earn a pro contract. He has been on trial with a number of pro teams, but has yet to catch on. Freeston describes him as a ‘diamond in the rough’ and has high hopes for his confident number nine who scored two vital free kick goals to help Harpo’s qualify for this year’s tournament.
Another player to watch is Justin Geibel, another outsider who has joined the Harpo’s family. Freeston describes him as the team’s horse who never stops running. Geibel followed an interesting path to end up in Boulder as he grew up in Massachusetts and played college ball at Vermont before ending up in Australia playing for Brisbane Strikers, a lower division pro team. (Brisbane Strikers reached the Round of 16 of Australia’s FFA Cup last season) The 29-year-old brings a veteran work ethic to the midfield, both for the outdoor and indoor teams.
The last few years have seen various amateur teams having trouble securing venues for the tournament, and that was a challenge for Harpo’s as well. They originally planned to play at the University of Colorado’s Pretnup Field, but they learned that the field would be unavailable due to some field maintenance. Luckily for Harpo’s, one of their center midfielders, Sean Sullivan, works in the ticket sales department with the Colorado Rapids. The Kentucky native, who played his college ball at Siena College in New York, was able to help his team find a new home field at Field No. 20 at the Dick’s Sporting Good Park facility in Commerce City, Colo.
On Saturday, they will host the Kansas City Athletics, which will be making its third appearance in the Open Cup (2010, 2012 and 2015) after qualifying through Region II of the USASA. The Overland Park, Kan.-based team has enjoyed relative success in the national tournament, beating Real Colorado Foxes (PDL) 3-1 back in 2012, and giving NSC Minnesota Stars (now Minnesota United in the NASL) all they could handle in a 4-2 loss in the opening round in 2010. The Athletics thought they had qualified in 2013, but they were forced to withdraw after they were ordered to replay their tournament on short notice after the Dearborn Stars filed a protest over the size of Kansas City’s home field.
The matchup is unusual in that these two teams are quite familiar with each other having faced off twice in the USSSA qualifying tournament a month ago. The two sides first met in the opening game of group play where Harpo’s cruised to a 4-1 win over the Athletics behind a free kick goal by Wheeler and a hat-trick by Kyle Luetkehans. Harpo’s ultimately secured their entry into the 2015 US Open Cup after defeating two-time defending champion Colorado Rovers 3-2 in the semifinals thanks to a dramatic free kick from 25 yards out that deflected off the post and into the back of the net.
The win put them into the championship game against Kansas City. However, since the Athletics had already qualified for the Open Cup through the USASA, and were just participating to get game experience ahead of the tournament, Harpo’s was awarded the spot as the last remaining USSSA team. The two clubs would square off in the Final to crown a champion and it was the Athletics getting revenge with a 3-1 win.
“It was very interesting circumstances which saw us play (KC Athletics) twice at the USSSA National Cup and those experiences were valuable with each team earning a win,” said Freeston. “However, it’s all about the here and now. Both sides will be better prepared for this rubber match. We expect a top quality battle and we’re excited for the opportunity to face them again.”
The third meeting will take place on Saturday at 4 p.m. MT with the winner traveling to Provo, Utah to take on the BYU Cougars in the First Round on May 13. The team that emerges from the opening round will earn a road date with the Colorado Springs Switchbacks, a professional team out of USL on May 20.
Harpo’s are the fourth amateur club from Colorado to qualify in the modern era (1995-present), and the previous three were undefeated in their opening game (Boulder Rapids Reserve, Real Colorado Foxes, Colorado Foxes – all PDL). To carry on that tradition, Freeston plans to build on his club’s past successes to make their inaugural cup run a memorable one.
“To be successful we never lose, we either win or learn, and always strive to improve. Our team motto is Brothers, Character and Excellence. Onwards and upwards!”
Robert Wilson also contributed to this article
Josh Hakala is a sports broadcaster and the creator/senior editor of TheCup.us. You can reach him on Twitter @USOpenCup or on his personal account @JoshHakala. Anyone interested in contributing (writing, research, website design), sponsoring TheCup.us, or if you have any questions or have some historical information about the US Open Cup to share, please email him here. |
Got a LOST ALPHA Game problem? Don't post it here or anywhere else on Facebook. Why? The ModDB and FB formats make posts descend to the bottom with each new one and your concerns can easily be lost. Too many pages and posts can make your problems disappear. Where to go? The GSC Forums LOST ALPHA section is designed to post Game problems and to provide answers. In addition the format makes it easy to find previous problems posted where you may not have to ask.
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For all of you that prefer to download via torrent here is the link: gameupdates.org After downloading, please help to seed that beast ;)
All materials are property of GSC Gameworld and dez0wave group. Header image by Jeremiah Humphries.
Have you ever dreamt about playing the old, forgotten S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ?
We were amazed by GSC's work when they released the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. screenshots in 2002. The old design, and atmosphere was stunning and we couldn't believe our eyes. Later in 2005 things has changed. They redesigned almost all old levels. Some of them became smaller, simpler (still nice, but different), and some levels were removed. After the release in 2007 we played the game a lot, and quickly noticed that some areas are missing. We opened forums, and talked countless nights about those for almost a year. Nowdays we could say, we have a full vision about GSC's old levels, due to the collected materials, videos and forgotten screenshots. We decided to remake those stunning areas, maybe they won't be the same, but we will try everything to make them look really nice, as we always wanted to see them. In early 2009, GSC released a build from 2004, which contained many old materials. We used some of the sdk objects for the level remakes, but adjusted (and bugfixed) them for our liking, also we didn't throw out our own levels. So expect to see our own Darkscape, Dead City, Rostok Factory and some more in Lost Alpha :)
Also need to say, Lost Alpha addon is not just about levels and levels. We will try to make a somewhat, but not fully restricted alife, and deliver a lot of new, never seen features, among with some old ones, which many people wanted to see for long. If you are interested in, check the Features menu for FAQ, Interview, Features List, and many more. Also do not forget to check the gallery, and the movies. All comments are welcome, also we are glad to see suggestions too, however at this stage those won't be considered. Thanks for your understanding!
Finally, we would like to thank to the old Stalker Team this wonderful game. Without them, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. wouldn't be a "dream-game". Big respect to: Glory, Karma, Lex, Prof, Rainbow, Frodo, Dach, Koan, Mike, Jip, Jim, Jon, Yuriy, Terazoid, Tuz, Haron, Stohe, alexmx, chugai, Oles, Zmey, Iov, Sidorovich, CyLLlKA, dandy, Descruo, dima, Olga, LeSTAT, MadMax, Man0waR, Chapaev, Cy27-dw, Shyshkin, Narrator, Rolik, Atem, Yava, and many many more :) |
Disney submits plans for an omnimover boat ride
In case you missed it last night, theme park fans' corner of Twitter erupted with the discovery that the US Patent and Trademark Office last month published a patent application from Disney for a omnimover boat ride . (Here's an easier-to-read version of the application , from Google.)
Images from Disney's patent application
Into geekspeak? Here's the abstract of Disney's application:
"A floating omnimover ride with high capacity throughput and enhanced control over speeds of passenger boats. The ride includes a water containment structure with spaced apart sidewalls defining an elongated guide channel that defines a loop-shaped ride path or circuit. The ride includes a volume of liquid contained in the guide channel to a desired depth. The ride also includes a chain of passenger boats floating in the liquid contained in the guide channel. Each of the boats is linked to the two adjacent boats with a connecting link such that the chain of boats is a continuous loop. The chain of boats has a length that is approximately equal to a length of the ride path, and during operation of the ride, the boats in the chain are moved along the loop-shaped ride path at a predefined rate by a pump station moving the liquid in the guide channel."
Translation? Picture Pirates of the Caribbean or It's a Small World with the boats all hooked together, nose to tail, a la the Doombuggies on the Haunted Mansion.
By linking the boats into a continuous chain, Disney would eliminate bumping and slower boats, which can disrupt the flow of guests through a ride. To maximize hourly capacity, the chain wouldn't stop to load and upload riders, so a moving walkway at the load and unload points would be necessary, as on Mansion. But Disney's been thinking about nifty ways to alter the omnimover ride experience. Here's one:
"In addition to the guide channel or trough, the ride system may also include an open bay or free-floating portion or section in which the boats are not guided by and do not contact nearby sidewalls. As long as a sufficient number of the floating vehicles are contained in and guided within the guide channel (or flowing or drive) portion or section of the ride system, other sections of the vehicle chain may be “undriven” by the water in the free-floating section or bay portion of the ride system. In this portion, the water may be relatively still or unflowing, but the boats in the vehicle chain will still follow a path between an exit of the guide channel and an entrance to the guide channel because they are pulled and/or pushed by the boats or vehicles traveling in the guide channel (where water is flowing to push the boats along the path between adjacent sidewalls). In the open bay or free-floating portion, the boats or vehicles may even be caused to traverse over land or out of the water by placing ramps in the path of the boats and providing pads or rollers/wheels on the bottom of the boat hulls/bodies. The pushing and pulling forces provided along the vehicle chain by the boats in the guide channel due to the flowing water will roll the boats in the open bay or free-floating portion over the dry or shallow portion of the ride. By including an open waterway in the ride system, the ride experience is enhanced as the boats appear to be magically guided and propelled through the still water with their boats spaced apart from guiding sidewalls."
The TL;DR? As long as you've got the boats chained together, you can take away the guide channel for a section of the ride, and the boats will continue to follow one another through that section. Heck, you could even move the chain of "boats" onto a land segment for a bit.
So where will we see this new type of omnimover boat ride? The consensus on Twitter seemed to be Shanghai Disneyland. But once a company proves a technology in one park, it's nice to get a return on that tech development expense by spreading the technology to other parks. Of course, if Disney gets this patent, that would block other theme park companies from developing similar rides, so US theme park fans would need to wait for Disney to decide to bring it over here.
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DENVER (AP) - Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is expected to take a key step Monday toward launching a federally funded cleanup of 48 old mining sites in the San Juan Mountains, formally endorsing a Superfund zone that includes a mine that sent wastewater into rivers in three states last August.
The Environmental Protection Agency would oversee the project but won’t proceed without the blessing of the governor and local officials. San Juan County and the town of Silverton endorsed the cleanup last week.
“The governor has always said he would support the wish of local communities, and they reached a consensus on requesting Superfund designation,” Hickenlooper spokeswoman Kathy Green said in an email to The Associated Press on Sunday. “We are working on the final details now.”
The EPA asked for Hickenlooper’s response by Monday. Green said it would come Monday morning.
The EPA inadvertently triggered the release of 3 million gallons of wastewater from the inactive Gold King Mine on Aug. 5 during preliminary cleanup work.
The spill polluted the Animas and San Juan rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah with metals including arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc. Water utilities briefly shut down their intake valves and farmers stopped drawing from the affected rivers.
Hundreds of southwestern Colorado mines have been leaking acid wastewater into rivers for decades. The EPA had proposed a Superfund cleanup before, but the idea attracted little or no support from local residents who feared it would hurt the tourist-dependent economy. They also worried it would drag on for years and depress property values.
After the Gold King spill, many residents concluded that only a Superfund designation would provide the millions of dollars needed for a broad cleanup.
The EPA estimates the 48 sites in the proposed Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund site spill 5.4 million gallons of acid mine waste per day into waterways.
EPA approval of the site could come in a matter of months, but cleanup work could still be years away. The agency would conduct a detailed analysis before developing a plan and starting work.
___
Follow Dan Elliott at https://twitter.com/DanElliottAP. His work can be found at https://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-elliott.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. |
Greutner Fürth got their first taste of Bundesliga victory on Friday when Felix Klaus led his newly promoted team to a 1-0 away victory in the 67th minute.
After being teed up by Illir Azemi, Klaus scored the only goal of the match when his dipping left-foot strike went straight over Christian Wetklo. Like several of his team mates, Klaus had never played in the top division before this season.
Mainz had dominated throughout the match, but failed to make use of their chances. Maxim Choupo-Moting was the main culprit for Mainz, missing several good opportunities.
After going a goal down, Mainz coach Thomas Tuchel brought on Marcel Risse and Eugen Polanski in an attempt to snatch a draw, but the home side could not turn things around.
Up until their debut Bundesliga game at home last week, when they lost 3-0 to Bayern Munich, Fürth had not taken part in top flight football since they participated in the last edition of the old German first division in 1962/1963. The following season they were not among the 16 clubs chosen to take part in the inaugural Bundesliga and were unable to recover.
Friday's performance and a first-match draw in Freiburg have left Mainz with one point from two games. Defending champions Borussia Dortmund play Nuremberg on Saturday, while Bayern Munich are defending their Bundesliga lead at home against VfB Stuttgart on Sunday. |
In 1987, Trump made his goal of Russian collaboration on nuclear power explicit: The Soviet Union and the US should partner to form a nuclear superpower with the intention of intimidating other countries into dropping their own nuclear plans.
“Most of those [pre-nuclear] countries are in one form or another dominated by the US and the Soviet Union,” Trump told journalist Roy Rosenbaum. “Between those two nations you have the power to dominate any of those countries. So we should use our power of economic retaliation and they use their powers of retaliation, and between the two of us we will prevent the problem from happening. It would have been better having done something five years ago. But I believe even a country such as Pakistan would have to do something now. Five years from now they’ll laugh.” |
New Fate/Extella game titled Fate/Extella Link [Update 3]
And it has a new hero named Charlemagne.
The latest issue of Weekly Famitsu has first details on the next Fate/Extella game, which is titled Fate/Extella Link.
Fate/Extella Link will feature a new hero named Charlemagne (voice actor unknown), who is of the Saber class and uses a Noble Phantasm roughly translated to “Joyeuse Ordre: Show Us The Hero! Twelve Radiant Swords That Travel the Wide World.”
Here are some other tidbits:
The super fast action has been powered-up.
Master costumes have been completely redone.
Areas are gorgeous and dazzling.
All 16 characters from the previous game are playable.
Platform(s) are currently unknown.
Unfortunately, that is all the information our source, linked below, has provided at this time. Famitsu usually posts previews of its magazine content on Tuesdays at 5:00 a.m. ET, so we will likely hear more tomorrow. Other than that, an official online reveal is planned for August 30.
(Pictured: Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star.)
Thanks, Ryokutya2089.
Update 9:50 a.m.: Added scan.
Update 08/29/17 at 9:55 a.m.: Here is another scan:
Update 08/29/17 at 10:05 p.m.: Here are some more scans: |
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Neo-Nazi group National Action returned to Liverpool last weekend, and nobody gave them a blind bit of notice.
The far-right fascist group organised a 'White Man March' in August but failed to even make it out of Lime Street station after being cordoned into the left luggage section and pelted with eggs by protesters opposing the event.
However, last weekend they returned to the city unannounced and nobody even noticed until they posted a blog entry a week later, claiming they'd 'smashed' Liverpool.
That time the neo-Nazis returned to Liverpool and nobody even noticed
That time they used a video of the anti-fascists in their own propaganda video
That time they 'stormed' Liverpool's Pierhead (with about 18 members)
Although their blog post claimed there were more than 30 NA 'militants' in the city, eagle-eyed viewers people that can count could see no more than 20.
... when it was 'packed with tourists'
That time they said their slogans 'rang through the streets'
Here they can be seen with a handful of members and one man with a megaphone.
That time they protested outside the Town Hall... and it was closed because it was a Saturday.
Rule number one of planning a neo-Nazi protest: always Google the opening hours.
Remember that time they claim they 'brought a small city to a stand still?'....
.... but it was really that time they got cordoned in the lost property depot.
The original 'White Man March' resulted in a group of NA 'militants' being cordoned into lost luggage at Lime St before getting the train back home... to the 1940s or wherever it is that Nazis live.
Gallery: Last time National Action tried to march in our city |
Update 10/15/16: I have updated the article below to address that this ransomware is not continuously monitoring for files. When the ransomware runs it will target the %Desktop% first and then encrypt other folders. The last folder that is encrypted is the %UserProfile% folder, which also included the Desktop. So it appeared that it was continuously monitoring for new files, when in fact it was just encrypting %UserProfile% again and thus the Desktop got hit twice.
The Exotic Ransomware is a new infection released by a malware developer going by the alias of EvilTwin or Exotic Squad. Discovered on October 12th by MalwareHunterTeam, the Exotic Ransomware will encrypt all files, including executables, in targeted folders on a victim's computer. When finished it will display a Jigsaw Ransomware-like ransom note that demands $50 USD to decrypt the files.
The Exotic ransomware appears to be currently in development mode, with three variants released over the past three days, According to MalwareHunterTeam, the first variant contained an image of Hitler as part of the background to the ransom note, the second included a different picture of Hitler and some text, and the third contains the Jigsaw-like screenlocker shown in the video above.
Hitler Background from Version 2
In general, there is nothing particularly innovative about this ransomware, other than it targets executables as well. This causes not only your data to be encrypted, but your programs to be unusable as well.
Exotic targets Executable Files
Most ransomware infections only target data files and leave the executables alone. With Exotic, when it encrypts a particular folder it will also encrypt the executables in these folders, which makes the programs unusable.
Thankfully, most programs are properly stored in folders that are not targeted by Exotic. On the other hand, if you had downloaded files and stored them under the %UserProfile% folder, such as the Downloads folder, then these files will now be encrypted as well.
The Exotic Ransomware Encryption Process
Thanks to MalwareHunterTeam, I was able to get a copy of the source code for the Exotic Ransomware to see exactly how it works. When the ransomware starts it will scan certain folders for files that have specific extensions. When it encounters a targeted file extension, it will encrypt the file using AES-128 encryption, rename the file, and append the .exotic extension to them. For example, a file called test.jpg could be encrypted as the file name 87as.exotic.
Encrypted Files
As previously mentioned, when Exotic encrypts a computer it is currently only targeting specific folders. These folders are:
%UserProfile%\Desktop %UserProfile%\MyMusic %UserProfile%\Personal %UserProfile%\MyVideos %UserProfile%\Contacts\ %UserProfile%\Downloads\ %UserProfile%\MyPictures /vmware-host/ %UserProfile%
The file types that Exotic will encrypt are:
.txt .exe .text .cur .contact .ani .xls .com .url .ppt .src .cmd .tgz .fon .pl .lib .load .CompositeFont .png .exe .mp3 .mkv .veg .mp4 .lnk .zip .rar .7z .jpg .sln .crdownload .msi .vb .vbs .vbt .config .settings .resx .vbproj .json .jpeg .scss .css .html .hta .ttc .ttf .eot .camproj .m4r .001 .002 .003 .004 .005 .006 .007 .008 .009 .au .aex .8be .8bf .8bi .abr .adf .apk .ai .asd .bin .bat .gif .3dm .3g2 .exe .3gp .aaf .accdb .aep .aepx .aet .ai .aif .arw .as .as3 .asf .asp .asx .avi .bay .bmp .cdr .cer .class .cpp .contact .cr2 .crt .crw .cs .csv .dll .db .dbf .dcr .der .dng .doc .docb .docm .docx .dot .dotm .dotx .dwg .dxf .dxg .efx .eps .erf .fla .flv .iso .idml .iff .ini .sik .indb .indd .indl .indt .ico .inx .jar .jnt .jnt .java .key .kdc .m3u .m3u8 .m4u .max .mdb .mdf .mef .mid .mov .mpa .mpeg .mpg .mrw .msg .nef .nrw .odb .odc .odm .odp .ods .odt .orf .p12 .p7b .p7c .pdb .pdf .pef .pem .pfx .php .plb .pmd .pot .potm .potx .ppam .ppj .pps .ppsm .ppsx .ppt .pptm .pptx .prel .prproj .ps .psd .pst .ptx .r3d .ra .raf .raw .rb .rtf .rw2 .rwl .sdf .sldm .sldx .sql .sr2 .srf .srw .svg .swf .tif .vcf .vob .wav .wb2 .wma .wmv .wpd .wps .x3f .xla .xlam .xlk .xll .xlm .xls .xlsb .xlsm .xlsx .xlt .xltm .xltx .xlw .xml .xqx
The ransomware will then download a background image for the lock screen from http://mitteoderso.de/image.png and save it into the %Temp% folder. The ransomware will then display the lock screen as shown in the video above and the image below.
Exotic Lock Screen
While the program is running it will look for certain processes and terminate them if found. The processes terminated by Exotic are:
taskmgr cmd procexp procexp64 regedit CCleaner64 msconfig
Finally, the ransomware will continue to monitor the folders listed above for new unencrypted files and encrypt them. When the timer reaches 0, Exotic will shutdown the computer.
The ransomware will also copy itself to the %UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\svchost.exe file, but will just become encrypted by the ransomware. Therefore, on reboot the ransomware will no longer be active.
As already stated, this ransomware appears to be currently in development mode, so you should not be seeing it in the wild as of yet. If anyone does encounter it, please let us know in the comments. |
This HTML version of is provided for convenience, but it is not the best format for the book. In particular, some of the symbols are not rendered correctly. You might prefer to read the PDF version. You can buy this book at Amazon.com Chapter 7 Prediction 7.1 The Boston Bruins problem In the 2010-11 National Hockey League (NHL) Finals, my beloved Boston Bruins played a best-of-seven championship series against the despised Vancouver Canucks. Boston lost the first two games 0-1 and 2-3, then won the next two games 8-1 and 4-0. At this point in the series, what is the probability that Boston will win the next game, and what is their probability of winning the championship? As always, to answer a question like this, we need to make some assumptions. First, it is reasonable to believe that goal scoring in hockey is at least approximately a Poisson process, which means that it is equally likely for a goal to be scored at any time during a game. Second, we can assume that against a particular opponent, each team has some long-term average goals per game, denoted λ. Given these assumptions, my strategy for answering this question is Use statistics from previous games to choose a prior distribution for λ. Use the score from the first four games to estimate λ for each team. Use the posterior distributions of λ to compute distribution of goals for each team, the distribution of the goal differential, and the probability that each team wins the next game. Compute the probability that each team wins the series. To choose a prior distribution, I got some statistics from http://www.nhl.com, specifically the average goals per game for each team in the 2010-11 season. The distribution is roughly Gaussian with mean 2.8 and standard deviation 0.3. The Gaussian distribution is continuous, but we’ll approximate it with a discrete Pmf. thinkbayes provides MakeGaussianPmf to do exactly that: def MakeGaussianPmf(mu, sigma, num_sigmas, n=101): pmf = Pmf() low = mu - num_sigmas*sigma high = mu + num_sigmas*sigma for x in numpy.linspace(low, high, n): p = scipy.stats.norm.pdf(x, mu, sigma) pmf.Set(x, p) pmf.Normalize() return pmf mu and sigma are the mean and standard deviation of the Gaussian distribution. num_sigmas is the number of standard deviations above and below the mean that the Pmf will span, and n is the number of values in the Pmf. Again we use numpy.linspace to make an array of n equally spaced values between low and high, including both. norm.pdf evaluates the Gaussian probability density function (PDF). Getting back to the hockey problem, here’s the definition for a suite of hypotheses about the value of λ. class Hockey(thinkbayes.Suite): def __init__(self): pmf = thinkbayes.MakeGaussianPmf(2.7, 0.3, 4) thinkbayes.Suite.__init__(self, pmf) So the prior distribution is Gaussian with mean 2.7, standard deviation 0.3, and it spans 4 sigmas above and below the mean. As always, we have to decide how to represent each hypothesis; in this case I represent the hypothesis that λ=x with the floating-point value x. 7.2 Poisson processes In mathematical statistics, a process is a stochastic model of a physical system (“stochastic” means that the model has some kind of randomness in it). For example, a Bernoulli process is a model of a sequence of events, called trials, in which each trial has two possible outcomes, like success and failure. So a Bernoulli process is a natural model for a series of coin flips, or a series of shots on goal. A Poisson process is the continuous version of a Bernoulli process, where an event can occur at any point in time with equal probability. Poisson processes can be used to model customers arriving in a store, buses arriving at a bus stop, or goals scored in a hockey game. In many real systems the probability of an event changes over time. Customers are more likely to go to a store at certain times of day, buses are supposed to arrive at fixed intervals, and goals are more or less likely at different times during a game. But all models are based on simplifications, and in this case modeling a hockey game with a Poisson process is a reasonable choice. Heuer, Müller and Rubner (2010) analyze scoring in a German soccer league and come to the same conclusion; see http://www.cimat.mx/Eventos/vpec10/img/poisson.pdf. The benefit of using this model is that we can compute the distribution of goals per game efficiently, as well as the distribution of time between goals. Specifically, if the average number of goals in a game is lam, the distribution of goals per game is given by the Poisson PMF: def EvalPoissonPmf(k, lam): return (lam)**k * math.exp(-lam) / math.factorial(k) And the distribution of time between goals is given by the exponential PDF: def EvalExponentialPdf(x, lam): return lam * math.exp(-lam * x) I use the variable lam because lambda is a reserved keyword in Python. Both of these functions are in thinkbayes.py . 7.3 The posteriors Now we can compute the likelihood that a team with a hypothetical value of lam scores k goals in a game: # class Hockey def Likelihood(self, data, hypo): lam = hypo k = data like = thinkbayes.EvalPoissonPmf(k, lam) return like Each hypothesis is a possible value of λ; data is the observed number of goals, k. With the likelihood function in place, we can make a suite for each team and update them with the scores from the first four games. suite1 = Hockey('bruins') suite1.UpdateSet([0, 2, 8, 4]) suite2 = Hockey('canucks') suite2.UpdateSet([1, 3, 1, 0]) Figure 7.1 shows the resulting posterior distributions for lam. Based on the first four games, the most likely values for lam are 2.6 for the Canucks and 2.9 for the Bruins. 7.4 The distribution of goals To compute the probability that each team wins the next game, we need to compute the distribution of goals for each team. If we knew the value of lam exactly, we could use the Poisson distribution again. thinkbayes provides a method that computes a truncated approximation of a Poisson distribution: def MakePoissonPmf(lam, high): pmf = Pmf() for k in xrange(0, high+1): p = EvalPoissonPmf(k, lam) pmf.Set(k, p) pmf.Normalize() return pmf The range of values in the computed Pmf is from 0 to high. So if the value of lam were exactly 3.4, we would compute: lam = 3.4 goal_dist = thinkbayes.MakePoissonPmf(lam, 10) I chose the upper bound, 10, because the probability of scoring more than 10 goals in a game is quite low. That’s simple enough so far; the problem is that we don’t know the value of lam exactly. Instead, we have a distribution of possible values for lam. For each value of lam, the distribution of goals is Poisson. So the overall distribution of goals is a mixture of these Poisson distributions, weighted according to the probabilities in the distribution of lam. Given the posterior distribution of lam, here’s the code that makes the distribution of goals: def MakeGoalPmf(suite): metapmf = thinkbayes.Pmf() for lam, prob in suite.Items(): pmf = thinkbayes.MakePoissonPmf(lam, 10) metapmf.Set(pmf, prob) mix = thinkbayes.MakeMixture(metapmf) return mix For each value of lam we make a Poisson Pmf and add it to the meta-Pmf. I call it a meta-Pmf because it is a Pmf that contains Pmfs as its values. Then we use MakeMixture to compute the mixture (we saw MakeMixture in Section 5.6). Figure 7.2 shows the resulting distribution of goals for the Bruins and Canucks. The Bruins are less likely to score 3 goals or fewer in the next game, and more likely to score 4 or more. 7.5 The probability of winning To get the probability of winning, first we compute the distribution of the goal differential: goal_dist1 = MakeGoalPmf(suite1) goal_dist2 = MakeGoalPmf(suite2) diff = goal_dist1 - goal_dist2 The subtraction operator invokes Pmf.__sub__ , which enumerates pairs of values and computes the difference. Subtracting two distributions is almost the same as adding, which we saw in Section 5.4. If the goal differential is positive, the Bruins win; if negative, the Canucks win; if 0, it’s a tie: p_win = diff.ProbGreater(0) p_loss = diff.ProbLess(0) p_tie = diff.Prob(0) With the distributions from the previous section, p_win is 46%, p_loss is 37%, and p_tie is 17%. In the event of a tie at the end of “regulation play,” the teams play overtime periods until one team scores. Since the game ends immediately when the first goal is scored, this overtime format is known as “sudden death.” 7.6 Sudden death To compute the probability of winning in a sudden death overtime, the important statistic is not goals per game, but time until the first goal. The assumption that goal-scoring is a Poisson process implies that the time between goals is exponentially distributed. Given lam, we can compute the time between goals like this: lam = 3.4 time_dist = thinkbayes.MakeExponentialPmf(lam, high=2, n=101) high is the upper bound of the distribution. In this case I chose 2, because the probability of going more than two games without scoring is small. n is the number of values in the Pmf. If we know lam exactly, that’s all there is to it. But we don’t; instead we have a posterior distribution of possible values. So as we did with the distribution of goals, we make a meta-Pmf and compute a mixture of Pmfs. def MakeGoalTimePmf(suite): metapmf = thinkbayes.Pmf() for lam, prob in suite.Items(): pmf = thinkbayes.MakeExponentialPmf(lam, high=2, n=2001) metapmf.Set(pmf, prob) mix = thinkbayes.MakeMixture(metapmf) return mix Figure 7.3 shows the resulting distributions. For time values less than one period (one third of a game), the Bruins are more likely to score. The time until the Canucks score is more likely to be longer. I set the number of values, n, fairly high in order to minimize the number of ties, since it is not possible for both teams to score simultaneously. Now we compute the probability that the Bruins score first: time_dist1 = MakeGoalTimePmf(suite1) time_dist2 = MakeGoalTimePmf(suite2) p_overtime = thinkbayes.PmfProbLess(time_dist1, time_dist2) For the Bruins, the probability of winning in overtime is 52%. Finally, the total probability of winning is the chance of winning at the end of regulation play plus the probability of winning in overtime. p_tie = diff.Prob(0) p_overtime = thinkbayes.PmfProbLess(time_dist1, time_dist2) p_win = diff.ProbGreater(0) + p_tie * p_overtime For the Bruins, the overall chance of winning the next game is 55%. To win the series, the Bruins can either win the next two games or split the next two and win the third. Again, we can compute the total probability: # win the next two p_series = p_win**2 # split the next two, win the third p_series += 2 * p_win * (1-p_win) * p_win The Bruins chance of winning the series is 57%. And in 2011, they did. 7.7 Discussion As always, the analysis in this chapter is based on modeling decisions, and modeling is almost always an iterative process. In general, you want to start with something simple that yields an approximate answer, identify likely sources of error, and look for opportunities for improvement. In this example, I would consider these options: I chose a prior based on the average goals per game for each team. But this statistic is averaged across all opponents. Against a particular opponent, we might expect more variability. For example, if the team with the best offense plays the team with the worst defense, the expected goals per game might be several standard deviations above the mean.
For data I used only the first four games of the championship series. If the same teams played each other during the regular season, I could use the results from those games as well. One complication is that the composition of teams changes during the season due to trades and injuries. So it might be best to give more weight to recent games.
To take advantage of all available information, we could use results from all regular season games to estimate each team’s goal scoring rate, possibly adjusted by estimating an additional factor for each pairwise match-up. This approach would be more complicated, but it is still feasible. For the first option, we could use the results from the regular season to estimate the variability across all pairwise match-ups. Thanks to Dirk Hoag at http://forechecker.blogspot.com/, I was able to get the number of goals scored during regulation play (not overtime) for each game in the regular season. Teams in different conferences only play each other one or two times in the regular season, so I focused on pairs that played each other 4–6 times. For each pair, I computed the average goals per game, which is an estimate of λ, then plotted the distribution of these estimates. The mean of these estimates is 2.8, again, but the standard deviation is 0.85, substantially higher than what we got computing one estimate for each team. If we run the analysis again with the higher-variance prior, the probability that the Bruins win the series is 80%, substantially higher than the result with the low-variance prior, 57%. So it turns out that the results are sensitive to the prior, which makes sense considering how little data we have to work with. Based on the difference between the low-variance model and the high-variable model, it seems worthwhile to put some effort into getting the prior right. The code and data for this chapter are available from http://thinkbayes.com/hockey.py and http://thinkbayes.com/hockey_data.csv. For more information see Section 0.3. 7.8 Exercises Exercise 1 If buses arrive at a bus stop every 20 minutes, and you arrive at the bus stop at a random time, your wait time until the bus arrives is uniformly distributed from 0 to 20 minutes. But in reality, there is variability in the time between buses. Suppose you are waiting for a bus, and you know the historical distribution of time between buses. Compute your distribution of wait times. Hint: Suppose that the time between buses is either 5 or 10 minutes with equal probability. What is the probability that you arrive during one of the 10 minute intervals? I solve a version of this problem in the next chapter. Exercise 2 Suppose that passengers arriving at the bus stop are well-modeled by a Poisson process with parameter λ. If you arrive at the stop and find 3 people waiting, what is your posterior distribution for the time since the last bus arrived. I solve a version of this problem in the next chapter. Exercise 3 Suppose that you are an ecologist sampling the insect population in a new environment. You deploy 100 traps in a test area and come back the next day to check on them. You find that 37 traps have been triggered, trapping an insect inside. Once a trap triggers, it cannot trap another insect until it has been reset. If you reset the traps and come back in two days, how many traps do you expect to find triggered? Compute a posterior predictive distribution for the number of traps. Exercise 4 Suppose you are the manager of an apartment building with 100 light bulbs in common areas. It is your responsibility to replace light bulbs when they break. On January 1, all 100 bulbs are working. When you inspect them on February 1, you find 3 light bulbs out. If you come back on April 1, how many light bulbs do you expect to find broken? In the previous exercise, you could reasonably assume that an event is equally likely at any time. For light bulbs, the likelihood of failure depends on the age of the bulb. Specifically, old bulbs have an increasing failure rate due to evaporation of the filament. This problem is more open-ended than some; you will have to make modeling decisions. You might want to read about the Weibull distribution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weibull_distribution). Or you might want to look around for information about light bulb survival curves. |
Many plastic products contain hazardous chemicals that can leach to the surroundings. In studies conducted at the University of Gothenburg, a third of the tested plastic products released toxic substances, including 5 out of 13 products intended for children.
"Considering how common plastic products are, how quickly the production of plastic has increased and the amount of chemicals that humans and the environment are exposed to, it is important to replace the most hazardous substances in plastic products with less hazardous alternatives," says Delilah Lithner of the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of Gothenburg.
Plastics exist in many different chemical compositions and are widespread in the society and the environment. Global annual production of plastics has doubled over the past 15 years, to 245 million tonnes in 2008. The plastic polymers are not regarded as toxic, but there may be toxic residual chemicals, chemical additives and degradation products in the plastic products that can leach out as they are not bound to the plastic polymer. Plastics also cause many waste problems.
In her research, Lithner studied the toxicity of 83 randomly selected plastic products and synthetic textiles. The newly purchased products were leached in pure (deionised) water for 1-3 days. The acute toxicity of the water was then tested using water fleas (Daphnia magna).
"A third of all the 83 plastic products and synthetic chemicals that were tested released substances that were acutely toxic to the water fleas, despite the leaching being mild. Five out of 13 products that were intended for children were toxic, for example bath toys and buoyancy aids such as inflatable armbands," says Delilah Lithner.
The products that resulted in toxic water were soft to semi-soft products made from plasticised PVC or polyurethane, as well as epoxy products and textiles made from various plastic fibres. The toxicity was mainly caused by fat-soluble organic substances.
Lithner also studied the chemicals used to make around 50 different plastic polymers and has identified the plastic polymers for which the most hazardous chemicals are used. They were then ranked on the basis of the environmental and health hazard classifications that exist for the chemicals. Examples of plastic polymers made from the most hazardous chemicals are certain polyurethanes, polyacrylonitriles, PVC, epoxy and certain styrene copolymers. The results are of great benefit for further assessing environmental and health risks associated with plastic materials.
The thesis Environmental and health hazards of chemicals in plastic polymers and products was successfully defended in public on 6th May 2011. |
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