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In his book Human Universals (1991), Donald Brown defines human universals as comprising "those features of culture, society, language, behavior, and psyche for which there are no known exception", providing a list of hundreds of items he suggests as universal. Among the cultural universals listed by Donald Brown [2] are:
The observation of the same or similar behavior in different cultures does not prove that they are the results of a common underlying psychological mechanism. One possibility is that they may have been invented independently due to a common practical problem.[6]
Since any cultures that have been studied by anthropologists have had contact with at least the anthropologists that studied it, and anthropological research ethics slows the studies down so that other groups unbound by such ethics, often at least locally represented by people of the same skin color as the supposedly isolated tribe but significantly culturally globalized, reach the tribe before the anthropologists do, no truly uncontacted culture has ever been scientifically studied.[7] This allows outside influence to be an explanation for cultural universals as well.[8] This does not preclude multiple independent inventions of civilization and is therefore not the same thing as hyperdiffusionism, it merely means that cultural universals are not proof of innateness.[9] |
Transgender prisoner Jade Follett has been approved to move to a women's prison.
The Department of Corrections has agreed to shift a transgender prisoner to a women's facility.
It came as the prisoner's lawyer has questioned why a person who identified as a woman and was undergoing hormone therapy was put in a men's prison in the first place.
On Thursday Rimutaka Prison director Chris Burns confirmed the request by transgender prisoner Jade Follett had been approved.
Supplied Members of the group No Pride in Prison.
"Corrections has a duty of care to all prisoners. We are very much aware and sympathetic to the particular needs of transgender prisoners including the issues surrounding their placement and safety."
Follett's transfer will be the fifth since the transgender and intersex prisoner policy took effect in February 2014.
On Wednesday transgender activists threatened to go on hunger strike unless Corrections moved Follett from Rimutaka Prison to a women's facility.
READ MORE: * Transgender activists threaten hunger strike over treatment of trans woman prisoner
It comes after reports the prisoner, "a strong woman", had to front up to threats in the men's prison.
About 10 members of the No Pride in Prisons group launched the hunger strike on Karangahape Rd in Auckland on Thursday, spokeswoman Jennifer Shields said.
She said the group had been on the hunger strike for about five hours before hearing that Follett's transfer had been approved.
The group was pleased the request was approved, but it was "only the start", she said.
"Jade shouldn't have been put in a prison in the first place, their policy isn't working. There would be a system at the start that assessed who they are, their gender, their risk, and put them in the right facility right away."
Previously Shields said Follett had requested the move about two months ago but had not heard back from Corrections.
On Wednesday, Burns said Corrections received a request over the weekend from a transgender prisoner to be moved to a prison that accommodated prisoners of their identified gender.
"No other transfer requests of this nature have been made this year."
Burns said Corrections would treat the request "with urgency".
Shields said Follett was a strong woman but had been threatened several times in the prison.
"But people have backed down once she stood up for herself."
She said people who thought Follett should be in a men's prison did not understand her situation.
"These women are super high risk of sexual assault, it's not a safe place for them to be in."
Follett was sentenced to 21 months in prison on July 4 on a charge of injuring with intent, after she stabbed a man aged in his 40s.
Her lawyer Elizabeth Hall said Follett she should never have been put in a men's prison in the first place.
Hall said Follett simply preferred to be called a woman, rather than transgender.
"It was clear she was under hormone therapy, so why does she get put in a men's prison?"
The initial request for a transfer was given by Follett to a Corrections officer on June 29 or 30, Hall said.
Because Follett never heard back about her request, she simply filed a second request, rather than follow up on the first.
This was the request that Corrections mentioned this week, that had been made on the weekend.
Hall said Follett would be shifted to Arohata Prison in Tawa. |
In 1969 Senator Ted Kennedy recognized via the success of Medicare that the only rational solution to our challenges with health care was to offer it as an option for everyone. Indeed, he spent most of his career fighting for Single Payer, which is why I was quite confused when Democrats hailed the passing of Obamacare as the fulfillment of the Senator’s legacy. Obamacare is not single payer. It is not even universal health care. Obamacare is largely an insurance mandate that preserves the status quo and enriches the pockets of insurers and drug companies. More and more people are finding that they can not afford insurance even with the subsidies Obamacare provides and in many cases the plans’ deductibles are so high that the insurance is rendered useless. I bet that if Senator Kennedy were alive today he would be disappointed in Democrats for reaching for so little when they had a presidential mandate and control of both houses of Congress.
Now, buoyed by extreme popularity during the 2016 election cycle and the failure by the GOP to provide an alternative, Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced his Medicare for All bill with a bevy of noteworthy co-sponsors. Nearly all of the Democratic 2020 hopefuls have signed on to co-sponsor the bill and there is a similar bill making its way through the House. And, all of this is great but the fact still remains that Democrats are in the minority in Congress and do not control the White House. Trump has pledged to veto the bill if it were to pass, a myopic pledge considering his recent willingness to do deals with Congressional Democrats. So, he is willing to alienate his base over DACA, the debt ceiling and the budget, but not to fulfill an actual campaign promise of universal health care?
If the Trump administration were to do a little research they would discover that Single Payer is not only wildly popular on our side, but also becoming more popular everyday on his side. I remind you that Vox found in a health care focus group of Trump voters that half of the participants preferred Single Payer- a system like Canada’s as they put it. Various members of the Alt-Right have called for Single Payer, advisors who are supposedly close to Trump have called for Single Payer and most importantly Single Payer would be of huge benefit to the type of voter that Trump claims to love- White, working class citizens left behind by the system. If Trump can somehow avoid Mueller’s wrath, he would be a dangerous incumbent going into 2020 with a DACA deal, debt ceiling deal and Single Payer under his belt.
Sanders has updated his Medicare for All plan from the campaign. During the campaign he said his plan would cost $1.38 trillion a year for the first ten years. This would have been paid for by a tax on employers, a tax on households, taxing capital gains and dividends like income, adjusting the estate tax, etc. Now, he is working with a group of Democrats to devise a plan to fund the bill. However, important aspects of Bernie’s campaign plan remain, which is that under Medicare for All, Medicare would replace the insurance industry (people could still buy premium coverage from insurers), patients would no longer pay copays and patients and doctors would no longer have to argue with insurers and providers over what they believe they should be getting.
Before Obamacare we had two major problems with health care in the US- access and cost. On access, we had far too many people living without insurance and going to the emergency room instead of regular visits with a doctor. On cost, most Americans described the cost of health care as at crisis level. Obamacare addresses access by mandating that everyone buy insurance or be covered under their parents’ plan, a clumsy mechanism that does not take into account the fact that many people can not afford insurance. Obamacare addresses cost by providing subsidies to low income citizens. But, in neither case did Obamacare actually solve the problem. As I wrote previously, even with the subsidies many Americans simply can not afford to buy insurance or get stuck in useless plans with very high deductibles. Include in that equation the fact that Obamacare does not have a cap on premium increases so insurers are free to price gouge. Lastly, Obamacare forced insurers to raise premiums for individuals who buy insurance outside of the markets and do not have employer based insurance. It is an unworkable system. So, Single Payer to the rescue.
Single Payer addresses both access and cost in the best ways possible. On access, everyone can have Medicare under Senator Sanders’ plan. On cost, Single Payer will save us all money. The average American spends twice as much as the average Canadian on health care. With the massive group bargaining power of Medicare for All we would have leverage to negotiate lower prescription prices from drug companies. Also, Single Payer would bring administrative costs associated with health care way down. And lastly, we would probably all be happier paying a little bit more in taxes if we could completely eliminate paying insurance premiums. |
The signs have been changed. The invectives have softened. The products remain, well, unlikely to win any culinary awards.
But after several months and increasingly long lines, the proprietors of two pizza parlors on Avenue of the Americas have agreed to end a price war that saw the cost of their slices plummet to 75 cents each.
All it took, it seems, was a brush with mutually assured destruction and one meeting of questionable legality.
“We make a compromise,” said Pravin Patel, who oversees Bombay Fast Food/6 Ave. Pizza, which sits a few feet south of 2 Bros. Pizza between West 37th Street and West 38th Street. “Both guys agreed. Both guys were losing money.”
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
And so slices returned to $1 about two weeks ago. Two slices and a soda now cost $2.75.
A détente did not appear likely earlier this year. One evening in March, when both stores had been charging $1 per slice, Bombay lowered its rate to 79 cents. The next morning, 2 Bros. moved its price to 75 cents, which its neighbor soon matched. |
On A+
A+ is not that important. But, some people like it. Some people love it. Some people are obsessed with it to the point of being raging idiots.
That being said, here's some simple rules to follow if you enjoy extra cash and happen to enjoy being a good teammate:
RULES OF MAKING YOUR SCOUT/SPY'S LIFE EASIER:
1. When your team is being routed and you currently have an A+, just fall back and regroup. It will keep your killzone cleaner. Killing bots at the very front while your entire team is respawning is asking to lose money. Rottenberg is a prime example of this.
2. If you kill something in a weird place and can't grab the money, tell your Scout/Spy where it is. They are not psychic, and you're wasting their time and weakening your entire team by making them look all over for it.
3. Medics, over-heal your scouts. If the scout is dead near you and you can spare 2 seconds, revive them!
4. A+ is a team effort. If you really want it, HELP PICK UP MONEY.
RULES OF HELPING WITH MONEY:
1. If you kill a robot away from the scout, PICK UP THE CASH
2. If your Scout/Spy/Money-person is dead, PICK UP THE CASH
3. Leave giant piles of easy-to-grab cash for the scout. He needs the overheal.
4. Pick up the little cash piles for the scout unless they're somewhere obvious and convenient. The more you make your scout/spy hustle all over the map over chump change, the less milking/marking and dead giants you get.
5. The closer you get to the end of the wave, the more you should help with money to maintain the A+. In the last 20% of a wave, everyone should be watching the cash situation very closely as not to waste the Scout's efforts.
6. If you have a money Spy, grab all the cash you can. One of the reasons Spy can be so difficult to play is because teammates are braindead about cash.
7. Once the wave ends, don't just run straight back to the upgrade shop if there's still money missing. Help look for it!
So there you go. A few simple things to keep in mind that will help immensely, because I see way too many tour 10+ players making all these mistakes, then turning around and wanting to kick a hard-working scout over $20. |
“If there’s an afterlife, is my place taken? Is heaven full of people who would call me an imposter?”
— Simon Jarrett, upon realizing that he is a digitized copy.
Ever since the turn of the century I’ve had a— well, not a love/hate relationship with video games so much as a love/indifference one. I’ve worked on several game projects that never made it to market, wrote a tie-in novel for a game that did. Occasionally my work has inspired games I’ve had nothing to do with; the creators of Bioshock 2 and Torment: Tides of Numanera cite me as an influence, for example. There’s a vampire in The Witcher 3 named Sarasti. Eclipse Phase, the paper-based open-source role-playing game, names me in their references. And so on.
For one reason or another, I’ve never got around to actually playing any of these games. But a fan recently gifted me with a download of Frictional Games’ SOMA, whose creators also cite me as inspirational (alongside Greg Egan, China Miéville, and Philip K. Dick). And in the course of the occasional egosurf I’ve stumbled across various blogs and forums in which people have commented on the peculiar Wattsiness of this particular title. So what the hell, I figured; I needed something to write about this week, and it was either gonna be SOMA or my first acid trip.
Major Spoilers after the graphic, so stop reading if you’re still saving yourself for your own run at the game. (Although if you’re still doing that a solid year after its release, you’re even further behind the curve than I am.)
In SOMA you play Simon: a regular dude from 2015 Toronto, who— following a brain scan at the notoriously-disreputable York University— suddenly finds himself a hundred years in the future, just after a cometary impact has wiped out all life on the surface of the earth. Simon doesn’t have to worry about that, though— not in the short term, at least— because he’s not on the surface of the Earth. He’s stuck in a complex of derelict undersea habitats near a geothermal vent, where (among other things) he is attacked by giant mutant viperfish and caught up in a story centering around the nature of consciousness. “I’d really like to know who thought sending a Canadian to the bottom of the sea was a good idea,” he blurts out at one point. “I miss Toronto. In Toronto I knew who I was.”
So yeah, I can see a certain Watts influence. Maybe even a bit of homage.
If I was feeling especially egotistical I could really push it. Those subway stations Simon cruises through on his way to York— not that far from where I used to live. His in-game buddy Catherine once mistakenly remarks that he comes from Vancouver, where I lived before that. Hell, if I wanted to pull out all the stops I could even point out that Jesus Christ’s Number Two Man (and the first of the popes) was called Simon Peter. Coincidence?
Yeah, probably. That last thing, anyway. Then again, any game whose major selling point was its Peter Watts references would be shooting for a pretty limited market. Fortunately, SOMA is more substantive. In fact, it may not be so much inspired by my writing (or Dick’s, or Egan’s, or Miéville’s) as we all are inspired by the same scary-cool stuff that underlies human existence. We’re all drinking from the same well, we all lie awake at night haunted by the same existential questions: how can meat possibly wake up? Where does subjective awareness come from? What is it like to be attacked by giant mutant viperfish at four thousand meters?
SOMA’s influences extend beyond the the usual list of authors you’ll find online (or quoted at the top of this post, for that matter). The biocancer that infests and reshapes everything from people to anglerfish seems more than a little reminiscent of the Melding Plague in Alistair Reynolds’ Revelation Space, for example. And while Simon’s belated discovery that he’s basically a digitized brain scan riding a corpse in a suit of armor might seem lifted directly from the Nanosuit in my Crysis 2 tie-in novel, I lifted that idea in turn from Richard Morgan’s game script.
So much for the parts SOMA cannibalized. How does it stitch them together?
For starters, the game is gorgeous to behold and insanely creepy to hear. The murk of the conshelf, the punctuated blackness of the abyss, the clanks and creaks of overstressed hull plating just this side of implosion keep you awestruck and on-edge in equal measure. Of course, these days that’s true for pretty much any game worth reviewing (Alien: Isolation comes to mind— you might almost describe SOMA as an undersea Alien: Isolation with a neurophilosophy filling). SOMA’s technology seems strangely antiquated for the 22nd century — flickering fluorescent light tubes, seventies-era video cameras, desktop computers that look significantly less advanced than the latest offerings down at Staples— but that’s also true for a lot of games these days. (Alien: Isolation gets a pass on that because it was honoring the aesthetic of the movie. The Deus Ex franchise, not so much.)
There’s not much of an interface to interfere with the view, no hit points or health icons cluttering up the edges of your display. You know you’ve been injured when your vision blurs and you can’t run any more. You have no weapons to keep track of. The inventory option is a joke: for 90% of the game, you’re completely empty-handed except for a glorified door-opener to help you get around. It’s way more minimalist than most player interfaces, and the better for it.
Likewise, dialog options are pretty much nonexistent. Now and then you can choose to start a conversation, but from that point on you’re essentially listening to a radio play. I think Frictional made the right choice here, too. All those clunky dialog menus that pop up in Fallout or Mass Effect— those same four or five options offered up time after time, regardless of context (Really? I want to ask Piper about our relationship now?)— offer just enough conversational flexibility to really drive home how little conversational flexibility you have. It’s one of the inherent weaknesses of computer games as an art form— game tech just isn’t advanced enough to improvise decent dialog on the fly.
SOMA cuts the player out of the loop entirely during the talky bits. The cost is that we lose the illusion of control (which is actually kind of meta if you think about it); the benefit is that we get richer dialog, deeper characters, shock and tantrums and emotional investment to go along with the thought experiment. Simon isn’t some empty vessel for the player to pour themselves; he’s a living character in his own right.
I’ll grant that he’s not a very bright one. He mentions at one point that he used to work in a bookstore, but given how long it takes him to catch on to certain things I’m willing to bet that its SF and pop-science sections were pretty crappy. Simon’s a nice guy, and I really felt for him— but if his home town was, in fact, a nod to my own, I can only hope the same cannot be said for his intellect.
On the other hand, who’s to say I’d be any quicker on the draw if I was the dusty photocopy of a long-dead brain, thrown headlong and without warning into Apocalypse? I don’t know if anyone would be firing on all synapses under those conditions; and the languid pace at which Simon clues in does provide a convenient opportunity to hammer home certain philosophical issues to which a lot of players won’t have given much prior thought. The fact that Simon’s sidekick Catherine grows increasingly impatient with his “bullshit”, with the fact that she has to keep repeating herself, suggests that this was a deliberate decision on Frictional’s part.
But if Simon’s a bit slow on the uptake, SOMA isn’t. Even the scenery is smart. Wandering the seabed, at depths ranging from a few hundred meters to four thousand, the fauna just looks right: spider crabs, rattails, tiny bioluminescent squid and tube worms and iridescent, gorgeous ctenophores (ctenophores! How many of you even know what those are?) Inside one of the habitats, a dead scientist’s lab notes remark upon the sighting of a Chauliodus (“viperfish” to you yokels): “Not usually found at this depth— anomaly”. I wet myself a little when I read that. Writing Starfish back in the nineties, I too had to grapple with the fact that viperfish don’t foray into the deep abyss. I had to come up with my own explanation for why they did so at Channer Vent.
Smart or dumb, though, the ocean floor is mere setting: SOMA’s story revolves around issues of consciousness. Frictional did their homework here too. Sure, there’s the usual throwaway stuff— one model of sapience-compatible drone is dubbed “Qualia-class”— but stuff like the Body Transfer and Rubber Hand Illusions aren’t just name-checked; they actively inform vital elements of the plot. People come equipped with “black boxes” in their brains that can be forensically data-mined post-mortem. (This proves useful in figuring out SOMA’s backstory, an ingenious new twist on the usual Let’s find personal diaries lying around everywhere more commonly employed in such games.) Most of the lynchpin events in this story occur not to effect the course of the plot, but to make you think about its underlying themes.
By way of comparison, look to SOMA’s spiritual cousin, Bioshock. For all its explicit in-your-face references to Ayn-Randian ideology, Bioshock fails as analysis. (At best, its analysis amounts to Objectivism is bad because when capitalism runs amok, genetically-engineered nudibranchs will result in widespread insanity and the ability to shoot live bees out of your hands.) Andrew Ryan’s political beliefs serve as mere backdrop to the action, and as wall-paper rationale for the setting; but the events of the story could have just as easily gone down in a failed socialist utopia as a capitalist one. Bioshock was brilliant in the way it used the mechanics of game play to inform one of its themes (I’ve yet to see its equal in that regard), but that particular theme revolved around the existence of free will, with no substantive connection to Objectivist ideology. SOMA, in contrast, actually grapples with the issues it presents; it makes them part of the plot.
In fact, you could argue that SOMA is actually more rumination than game, an extended scenario that systematically builds a case towards an inevitable, nihilistic conclusion (two nihilistic conclusions actually, the second superficially brighter and happier than the first but actually way more depressing if you stop to think about it). If there’s a problem with this game, it’s that the the story is so tight, the rumination so railbound, that it can’t afford to give the player much freedom for fear they’ll screw up the scenario. There’s really only one way to play SOMA. Discoveries and revelations have to happen in a specific order, conversations must proceed in a certain way. The obligatory monsters— justified as failed prototypes, built by an AI trying to create Humanity 2.0— don’t really do anything story-wise. You can’t kill them. You can’t talk to them. You can’t scavenge their carcasses for booty, or fashion a makeshift cannon from local leftovers and blow them away. Your interactive options consist exclusively of run and hide. SOMA’s monsters serve no real purpose except to creep you out, and slow your progress along a narrative monorail.
There are choices to be made— surprisingly affecting ones— but they don’t affect the outcome of the plot. Your reaction to the last surviving human— wasting away in some flickering half-lit locker at the bottom of the sea, IV needle festering in her arm, pictures of her beloved Greenland (gone now, along with everything else) scattered across the deck— who only wants to die. The repeated activation and interrogation of an increasingly panicky being who doesn’t know he’s digitized (although he sure as shit knows something‘s wrong), a being you simply discard once you have what you need from him. The treatment of your own earlier iterations, still inconveniently extant after your transcription into a new host. These powerful moments exist not so much to further the story as to inspire reflection upon a story already decided— and they might be missed entirely by a player with too much freedom, able to go where they will and when. It’s the age-old tension between sandbox and narrative, autonomy and storytelling. Frictional has sacrificed one for the other, so— as immersive as this game is— it’s bound to suck at replay value.
It’s easy enough to justify such creative decisions in principle; in practise, the result sometimes feels like a cheat. I spent half an hour tromping around the seabed looking for a particular item among the wreckage— a computer chip— that would spare me the need to kill a sapient drone for the same vital part. It would have been easy enough for Frictional to give me that option; they’d already littered the seabed with wrecked drones, it wouldn’t have killed them to leave me some usable salvage. But no. The the only way forward was to slaughter an innocent being. It made the point, philosophically, but it felt wrong somehow. Forced.
This would normally be the point at which I bitch and moan about how, for all the “inspiration” game developers attribute to me, it would be really nice if they might someday be inspired to actually hire me instead of just mining my stories. It would be an utterly bullshit whinge— I’ve admitted to gaming gigs in my past on this very post— but I’d make it anyway because, Hey: if one of your inspirations is sitting right there in the corner next to the potted philodendron, why not ask him for a dance? He might just teach you a couple of new steps.[1]
This time, though, I’m going to restrain myself. SOMA could not have been an easy assignment; I could bitch about the monorail gameplay constraints or the intermittent dimness of the protagonist, but given the limitations of the medium I don’t know that I could do any better without compromising mission priorities. SOMA is a game in the straight-up survival-horror mode, but the horror is more existential than visceral. And those conventional mechanics serve the most substantive theme I’ve ever encountered in a video game.
Bottom line, I think they did a damn fine job.
[1] This metaphor is in no way meant to imply that I am any kind of dancer. My most recent memories of dancing involve jumping wildly up and down and slapping my thighs in approximate time to Money for Nothing. |
1 / 6 Radiation Reaching The U.S.
In the weeks after the Fukushima disaster, some feared that radiation emitted from the stricken nuclear plant could reach the United States. At the end of March 2011, Nevada "joined several western states" that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/27/nevada-radiation-japan-nuclear_n_841224.html" target="_hplink">detected "extremely small amounts" of radioactive isotopes</a> from Japan, according to the Associated Press. In April, "trace amounts" of radiation from Fukushima were detected in Denver drinking water, <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_17828984" target="_hplink">reported the <em>Denver Post</em></a>. Officials concluded that radiation levels were "harmless," however. An EPA spokesman said in a statement, "To put this drinking water sample into context, an infant would have to drink nearly 7,000 liters of this water to receive a radiation dose equal to just one day's worth of natural background exposure." Officials in Colorado also <a href="http://denver.cbslocal.com/2011/04/03/colorado-snowpack-sampled-following-japan-nuclear-disaster/" target="_hplink">tested snowpack for traces of radiation</a>.
Getty |
Jaiman Patel reached the Ahmedabad International Airport in a drunken state, barely able to walk.
Highlights Jaiman Patel was heading to Greece with his family for vacation He had an argument with staff of Qatar Airways: airport officials Father Nitin Patel said it was a ploy to defame him
Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel's son was stopped from boarding a Qatar Airways flight early on Monday after he arrived in a "heavily drunken" state and argued with the staff at the airport.Jaiman Patel, who is in his mid-30s, along with his wife Jhalak and daughter Vaishvi were stopped from boarding the plane, which was scheduled to take-off at 4am, official sources told news agency IANS. The family was headed to Greece for a vacation.Mr Patel, who is a land dealer, reached the Ahmedabad International Airport in a drunken state, barely able to walk.He cleared the immigration and other checks in a wheelchair due to his inebriated condition, said airport officials."Jaimin Patel was prevented from boarding the flight. He also had an argument with the staff of the airways," an official said, requesting anonymity.Meanwhile, Nitin Patel told reporters in the evening in Gandhinagar that this was a ploy to defame him. "My son, his wife and daughter were going for a vacation. He was not feeling well.""His wife called up home and then it was decided to return home and not proceed," the 60-year-old minister added. "Our opponents are trying to tarnish our image by spreading false and mischievous information," he said. |
Seventeen major Hollywood movies may have included characters that identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) last year, but there's still work to be done in terms of representing the community fairly and equally, a new report has found.
With many of those 17 films limiting LGBT characters to minor roles or cameos, GLAAD's 2014 Studio Responsibility Index also found that many of these portrayals were "outright defamatory" representations, pointing to movies like "Pain And Gain" and "Riddick," officials said.
The 17 films represented 16.7 percent out of 102 major Hollywood films released over the course of 2013. According to GLAAD's statistics, 83.3 percent of those 102 movies did not feature any LGBT characters.
The report, which maps the "quantity, quality and diversity of images" of LGBT people as seen in movies released by Hollywood's seven largest studios each year, found that the motion picture industry "may be doing more harm than good" when it came to a global understanding of the LGBT community, GLAAD's CEO and President Sarah Kate Ellis said in an email statement.
“These studios have the eyes and ears of millions of audience members, and should reflect the true fabric of our society rather than feed into the hatred and prejudice against LGBT people too often seen around the globe," she added.
None of the seven studios received an "excellent" rating, but Sony Columbia came in on top with a "good" score, thanks to movies like "Mortal Instruments: City of Bones," which also nabbed a GLAAD Media Award nomination. Meanwhile, Universal and Disney were among the studios to receive an "adequate" grade, while both Paramount and Warner Brothers were considered outright failures.
Meanwhile, to assess individual films, GLAAD officials developed the "Vito Russo Test," which examines how multidimensional a LGBT character is, as well as how significant he or she may be to the plot of a specific movie. Seven out of the 17 major studio films featuring LGBT characters passed the test this year, according to the report.
See how the 2014 results compared with last year's Studio Responsibility Index here. |
I found him in the players' lounge, slicing cold cuts. His black hair was combed back and run through with grease. Clenched in his teeth was a soggy cigar. White athletic socks were hiked up to his knees above high-tops that appeared thoroughly worked over with shoe polish. ''What do you want me to do, Nick?'' I asked.
''Stay the hell out of the way,'' he answered without looking up. Two players walked over a second later: Nick, I can't find my spring training bag; old man, I need Nike batting gloves, I can't wear Adidas; Nicky, you have four AA batteries?
I must have looked as lost as I felt. I felt a tap on my shoulder and was suddenly face to face with the man himself. He had his hand extended toward me.
''Hey, I'm Don Mattingly,'' he said. ''You going to be working with us this year?''
I hadn't thought about my new job in these terms: working with the Yankees, in common pursuit of a common goal.
''Uh, I know who you are, Mr. Mattingly,'' I said, stuttering. ''I'm Matt, the new batboy.''
''Nice to meet you, Matt,'' he said with a firm handshake. ''Listen,'' he told me, as if I could have done anything else. ''I've got a job for you. I just unpacked my bats from spring training. I don't know if it was the humidity in Florida or the altitude of the flight or what, but they're all coming up short. I need you to get me a bat stretcher.''
I nodded, trying to project competence. Get a bat stretcher.
I located Nick digging through a trunk of underwear. ''Nick,'' I told him, ''I need a bat stretcher for Don Mattingly.'' I'd barely gotten the words out before Nick hit me with a barrage of expletives. Spittle hit my cheek. I'd never heard such a tirade before, not even in the movies. I scurried away, and confided in Nick's assistant. ''Don Mattingly asked me to get him a bat stretcher,'' I said, ''and Nick, uh, told me not to bother him.''
He put his hand on my shoulder and smiled. ''Try Tartabull, Matty,'' he said.
Danny Tartabull, the Yankees' power-hitting right fielder, was getting dressed on the other side of the clubhouse. He kicked at some baseball spikes at the foot of his locker before turning to face me. ''It's Matt?'' he asked. ''I was using it earlier, Matt, but I must have left it in the manager's office.'' I thanked him and checked my watch. Time was short, and I felt a heavy burden of responsibility. First pitch wasn't more than an hour or two away, and 60,000 fans were coming to see Don Mattingly lead the Yankees against the Red Sox. I didn't need anyone to explain to me that he wouldn't be able to do much against Roger Clemens with a shrunken piece of wood. Mattingly had asked me to help him, and I couldn't fathom what it might mean to let him down.
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Buck Showalter sat behind the manager's desk, surrounded by a half-dozen reporters. I waited patiently until the conversation fell silent. ''I'm, uh, really sorry to interrupt, Mr. Showalter,'' I began. All eyes turned toward me. ''I'm Matt, the new batboy. Don Mattingly needs a bat stretcher because his bats shrunk on the way up from Fort Lauderdale, and Danny Tartabull had it before but, uh, he says he left it in here this morning.'' Showalter scanned the floor at the feet of the beat writers, and peered under his desk. ''In here? It's possible,'' he mused aloud. ''But do you need a right-handed or a left-handed one?''
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Everyone knew Mattingly was one of the best left-handed hitters in baseball. ''Left-handed,'' I answered confidently.
''Well, Tartabull's isn't going to do Mattingly any good then, is it?'' he said. ''You better try down at the Red Sox clubhouse.'' I grinned weakly and excused myself from the room.
I found the Red Sox equipment manager right away, and recounted what I'd been through that morning. Given the traditional enmity between the two teams, I was relieved that he seemed willing to help. He checked his watch. ''You don't have much time,'' he said. ''We didn't bring a bat stretcher with us, but we could use one, too.'' He dug into his pocket and produced a $20 bill. ''Go up to 161st and buy two, a left-handed one for Mattingly and a right-handed one for us.''
By the time I got up to street level, the fans had begun to descend en masse on the Stadium. It took me 10 minutes to fight the human tide and make it to 161st and River Avenue. At the door of Stan's Sporting Goods, a thought crossed my mind. For someone about to pick two up at the store, I didn't even know what a bat stretcher looked like. I'd played baseball my whole life, but before that morning, I was pretty sure, I'd never even heard of a bat stretcher.
If there were bat stretchers to be bought and sold in the sporting goods stores around Yankee Stadium, there could be only one outcome worse than failing to produce one for Don Mattingly in his time of need: rolling back into the clubhouse and telling him, an hour before first pitch, that I was too smart for his line about stretching shrunken bats -- and being wrong.
What if I was wrong? I'd be ostracized at school. I'd be back in the bleachers, permanently. I wasn't sure which prospect was worse. I mulled it over during three full laps around the Stadium before I worked up enough courage to walk back into the clubhouse empty-handed to confront the ballplayers. The room erupted in laughter. Mattingly smirked at me from his corner locker. I tried to smirk back, trying hard to let them know that, yeah, you got me, but that's cool, I can be cool.
The rest of the day flew by. During the national anthem, I stood on the top step of the dugout, right between Frank Howard and Clete Boyer, first base and third base coaches. Joe DiMaggio threw out the first pitch and brushed me coming back through the dugout. Hitting third and using one of his spring training bats, Mattingly went 3 for 4 off Clemens, and the Yankees won my first game in pinstripes.
It's hard to say exactly what changed for me on opening day. I went home that night to the same parents and curfew and chores, to the same bunk bed that I shared with my little brother. I still had homework to do. I was no older, no more self-assured, and not really any wiser for having unwittingly stumbled through Mattingly's pregame game.
But I no longer felt like the fan I'd been before. I'd seen things that no one else I knew was wise to, and I knew I'd see more, as close to the action as if I'd been named to the Yankee roster itself. |
Shortly after making bond on a 2003 drug case, Leonard Gipson filed a complaint with the Chicago Police Department alleging Sgt. Ronald Watts framed him because he'd refused to pay "protection" money.
It was an allegation being made with alarming frequency by those living in the South Side housing projects where Watts and his tactical team regularly patrolled. But like the others, Gipson's complaint went nowhere.
Four months later, with his drug case pending, Gipson was visiting his girlfriend in the Ida B. Wells complex when he again ran into Watts, who had been notified of the complaint against him.
"Let me see if you can bond off on this," Watts said to Gipson before handcuffing and planting 28 grams of heroin on him, Gipson alleged in a court filing. After two years in jail awaiting trial, he pleaded guilty on the advice of his attorney, who noted it was his word against the police.
On Tuesday, a court petition filed on behalf of Gipson and 14 others seeks to overturn their criminal drug convictions, alleging that Watts and his crew framed all of them between 2003 and 2008.
Watts and an officer under his command were sent to federal prison in 2013 for stealing money from a drug courier who'd been working as an FBI informant.
Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune In 2013, former Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts — who had operated for years amid a lengthy police Internal Affairs Division probe as well as investigations by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and FBI — was sentenced to 22 months on relatively minor federal charges. In 2013, former Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts — who had operated for years amid a lengthy police Internal Affairs Division probe as well as investigations by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and FBI — was sentenced to 22 months on relatively minor federal charges. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune)
Since last year, the Chicago Tribune has written several front-page stories detailing the mushrooming scandal over Watts' nearly decadelong run of corruption. Five people have had their convictions thrown out, and two officers who alleged they were blackballed for trying to expose Watts' corruption years ago won a $2 million settlement to their whistleblower lawsuit.
Watts has repeatedly been accused of forcing residents and drug dealers alike to pay a "protection" tax and putting bogus cases on those who refused to play ball.
In case after case, when Watts' targets complained — either to the Police Department or in court —judges, prosecutors, and internal affairs investigators all believed the testimony of Watts and his fellow officers over their accusers, records show.
Tuesday's petition, filed in Cook County criminal court, also highlight a broken system of police discipline that allegedly protects bad officers like Watts and punishes those who tried to blow the whistle on his corruption.
Despite mounting allegations, Watts continued to operate for years amid a lengthy police Internal Affairs Division probe as well as investigations by the Cook County state's attorney's office and FBI, according to court records. When Watts was finally caught, it was on relatively minor federal charges, and he was given a break at sentencing by a federal judge who talked tough but in the end handed him only 22 months behind bars.
Meanwhile, at least seven other officers who were part of Watts' team are still on the force, including one who has since been promoted to sergeant and another who was found by a jury earlier this year to have shot a teen in the back without justification.
Attorney Joshua Tepfer, who filed the petition Tuesday on behalf of the 15 defendants, said all of the convictions rested on the word and credibility of the arresting officers — credibility that has now been destroyed.
"I don't know how anyone can look at this and say they would still be confident putting any of these officers on the stand," Tepfer said. "They lied in court. They lied to police investigators. They fabricated police reports over and over again, backing up Watts and contesting the claims of the petitioners...Why are they still on the street making arrests?"
In an emailed statement, Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi declined to comment specifically on the allegations in the petition but said joint investigations by the FBI and Internal Affairs were conducted and "criminal charges were brought against all individuals who were accused of wrongdoing."
"There is no tolerance for misconduct or criminal activity within the Chicago Police Department," Guglielmi said.
The Cook County state's attorney's office said in an emailed statement Tuesday night that its Conviction Integrity Unit continued to review "Watts-related matters" on a case-by-case basis and appropriate action will be taken "where we have concerns about the quality and sufficiency of the evidence."
Among the petitioners in Tuesday's filing was Lee Rainey, who complained to the police Office of Professional Standards that members of Watts' team had planted heroin on him during an arrest in May 2003.
Records included in the petition show OPS assigned Watts to investigate the complaint even though Rainey had alleged that it was Watts who directed the frame-up. In his reports, Watts claimed that Rainey could not be reached to follow up on the allegations and had "shown no interest" in signing a sworn affidavit. He closed the investigation as unfounded in February 2005, records show.
Another man, Taurus Smith, was 17 years old at the time he claimed Watts had him falsely arrested on a narcotics charge. Shortly after he bonded out, Smith's mother took him to file a complaint with OPS. The next day, Watts and two other officers confronted Smith outside a building at Ida B. Wells, where Watts made it clear that he knew the teen had dared complain, according to Smith's sworn statement in the petition.
"Watts had his service weapon on his waist and another gun in his hand," Smith said in the statement. "He said to me, 'This is grown man s—.' ... He then threatened he would plant the gun on me if I didn't leave it alone."
Smith said he again reported the incident to his mother, who told him they were going to have to move. Weeks later, they packed up and left the Ida B. Wells complex for good, he said.
Another man named in the petition, Phillip Thomas, represented himself in his two-day jury trial on heroin charges in 2007 and confronted several members of Watts' crew on the witness stand, records show.
At one point, he tried to elicit testimony that Watts and another officer, Alvin Jones, had physically abused him during the arrest.
"Did you hear the sound when they slapped me all upside the head, asking me to give people up?" Thomas asked Officer Elsworth Smith, according to a trial transcript.
"No," Smith replied.
Thomas was found guilty after the officers testified they saw him put drugs in a hole in the wall of the housing complex, records show.
Jones, who was investigated by the FBI for his role in Watts' crew but never charged, has since been promoted to sergeant in the Wentworth District, where Watts' tactical team operated, records show. |
Instead of my usual selling of phones after I’m done filming them (yes I buy all the phones you see me use then resell them after since manufacturers don’t send me any), I’m going to give – at least some of them – away to you guys instead.
The first one is my own OnePlus X.
To enter the giveaway simply do the steps listed below in the giveaway widget below (the more you do the better your chances for winning!) and a winner will be chosen at random in a weeks time. The winner will then be announced on my Twitter so make sure to pay attention to it (@theunlockr)!
Good luck everyone and if enough people enter this one, I’ll try and make it a regular thing! Thank you all for all your support!
WINNER ANNOUNCED: Congrats to @rikojhoz! If that’s you you need to email me using the contact link below from the email you used to enter with your shipping details! If you don’t within 24 hours, I’m forced to pick another winner!
http://TheUnlockr.com/contact-us/
Thanks everyone so much! Doing another one this week! So stay tuned for the announcement on my social networks!
OnePlus X Giveaway |
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) expressed concern about billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer's ad campaign calling for President Trump's impeachment, according to a report from Politico.
Pelosi publicly called the ad "great" during an appearance on MSNBC. But in private, she reportedly told lawmakers at a Democratic leadership meeting the ad was a "distraction" and had reached out to Steyer to express her displeasure
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A source close to Steyer said the two have not spoken since the ad's launch.
The Hill has reached out to Pelosi's office for comment.
The report comes after Steyer in October launched a $10-million national ad campaign calling for Trump's impeachment.
In the ad, Steyer criticizes Trump's actions on health care, immigration and the environment, and says a Republican Congress impeached Bill Clinton William (Bill) Jefferson ClintonInviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Howard Schultz must run as a Democrat for chance in 2020 Trump says he never told McCabe his wife was 'a loser' MORE for less.
Trump in turn ripped Steyer in a tweet last week, calling him "wacky" and "totally unhinged."
Wacky & totally unhinged Tom Steyer, who has been fighting me and my Make America Great Again agenda from beginning, never wins elections! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 27, 2017
Steyer, who has been seen as a potential primary challenger to Sen. Dianne Feinstein Dianne Emiel FeinsteinHillicon Valley: Senators urge Trump to bar Huawei products from electric grid | Ex-security officials condemn Trump emergency declaration | New malicious cyber tool found | Facebook faces questions on treatment of moderators Ocasio-Cortez adviser says Sunrise confrontation with 'old-timer' Feinstein 'sad' Key senators say administration should ban Huawei tech in US electric grid MORE (D-Calif.), is not the only Democratic figure calling for Trump's impeachment.
Rep. Al Green Alexander (Al) N. GreenThe Hill's Morning Report - Presented by the American Academy of HIV Medicine - Next 24 hours critical for stalled funding talks Democrat vows to move forward with impeachment, dividing his party Citing Virginia race scandals, Dem vows vote to impeach Trump MORE (D-Texas), who has long talked about pursuing impeachment against the president, unveiled articles of impeachment early last month.
However, when the GOP presiding officer moved to begin the process to consider the resolution within the hour, Green did not show up. The resolution was therefore not offered and is not getting an imminent vote.
Pelosi has called for a different approach to dealing with the president, telling Democrats to focus on policy and on regaining the majority in 2018.
This story was updated at 3:42 p.m. |
As good as Google Maps is for most everyday Android users, many users still clamor for a high quality turn-by-turn GPS solution. Enter TomTom. Having just released an official application for the iPhone platform, TomTom recently announced their interest toward Android and plans to develop an official application for it. According to a VP at TomTom:
"We cannot ignore such a successful platform as Android. HTC is an important partner of ours and Android is becoming increasingly important too."
Though we would obviously prefer a Google Maps turn-by-turn solution, we certainly can't deny a GPS heavyweight like TomTom. We've tested the iPhone TomTom application and in our brief time with it, it truly feels like a standalone TomTom GPS unit. If TomTom can offer the same experience with Android, we'd happily jump on board.
What do you guys think?
[pocket-lint] |
According to Kali, THC-Hydra Tool is a parallelized login cracker which supports numerous protocols to attack. It is very fast and flexible, and new modules are easy to add.
This Tool makes it possible for researchers and security consultants to show how easy it would be to gain unauthorized access to a system remotely.
Also Read : Offline Password Cracking with John the Ripper – Tutorial
THC-Hydra Tool will work in 4 modes:
One username & one password
User-list & One password
One username & Password list
User-list & Password list
Hydra has Various Options:
Target – Settings of various target options
Passwords – Specify password options & wordlists
Tuning – Specify how fast should hydra work. Other timing options are also available.
Specific – For testing on specific targets like a domain, https proxy etc.
Start – Start/Stop & shows the output.
Step 1:
Find the Hydra from kali by searching xHydra.
Here we are setting our Target IP “192.268.0.103”(set your Remote Target) In Target area.
we are using SSH authentication for communicate to remote Target “192.268.0.103”
Target: “192.268.0.103” Protocol : SSH
Bottom of the tool we can see command line which is automatically Create when we set out settings in GUI of THC-Hydra
Step 2:
we Perform wordlist attack by using a wordlist containing most common passwords to break into the root account. you can add “n” number of passwords to your word list.
In Passwords area , we set our username as “root” and specified our wordlist.txt location in password list box(/root/password/txt).
Kali Linux comes with built in word lists.
Search them using the command: locate *.lst in terminal.
command: locate *.lst
Step 3:
In Tuning area , we set the number of task that we are going to perform .
I set 1 tasks for the Attack.
you can set proxy as No Proxy.
Step 4:
we can go ahead and trigger the start attach by Clicking the start button.
you can see clearly the terminal command line in the bottom of the tool which is about the target IP, a protocol that we used and wordlist of dictionary list (password.txt)
Finally, e have got the result about our target system login ID and password
Login ID: root
Password: toor
Also Read: |
Your Allyship Will Not Protect You
Harvey Jeni Blocked Unblock Follow Following Sep 16, 2017
“I’m happy for them to hit her.” The woman is young, defiant, her shoulders squared. She looks defensive, actually. It is 2017 and the violence she is referring to is being meted out in the name of feminism. Feminism, which used to mean a revolutionary political movement dedicated to the liberation of women from male dominance. I don’t know what it means anymore.
What I do know is that on September 13th, about eighty women gathered at Speakers Corner — a significant and historic place of free speech and open debate — in order to attend a talk being given about a proposed act of parliament which will see gender identity replace gender reassignment as a protected characteristic under the law. So instead of requiring a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a medical certificate, and to have lived as your chosen gender for a minimum of two years, an individual will be able to simply declare themselves the opposite sex and sign a statement of intention to live as such, making the process far easier, quicker, and much less intrusive. The act represents a gargantuan table flip in how we understand ourselves as humans: our sexual dimorphism, reproductive biology, and how we organise ourselves in the public and private spheres. When an individuals sex is defined, not by distinct and measurable physical characteristics, but by their subjective internal feelings about gender, what implications does this have for the category of humans who have been oppressed for centuries on the very basis of their biology? That is what the women gathering at Speakers Corner wished to discuss.
The woman whose words are quoted at the beginning of this article formed part of a group wishing to shut down the discussion. To debate the nature of gender hierarchy is to debate the right of transpeople to exist, they say. To even speak of the ways in which natal women and girls might be affected by the new law is tantamount to murder, to genocide. And so in this way, the women at Speakers Corner were redrawn as monsters, as Nazis, as a mortal threat to be crushed.
Except none of it is true. All humans exist with basic rights enshrined in law. I know of no woman who does not support any individuals right to live and present how they wish, and to be treated with respect and allowed to thrive in peace. Everybody must have equal access to opportunity, housing, employment and justice, no matter how they identify; I believe this passionately. The conflict occurs at the point at which gender identification is said to determine someones actual sex. We must be able to discuss the potential issues arising from this conflict in an open and respectful way for the sake of everyone, trans included.
But back to Speakers Corner and the young women there who sought to shut down the gender discussion. Many watched and gave their support as male members of their group attacked a sixty year old woman, punching her repeatedly and leaving bruises on her face and strangulation marks on her neck. More women still rejoiced on Twitter, minimising or defending what had happened, mimicking the well known tactics of abusers and their supporters everywhere when confronted with the reality of their actions. Some women even denied that any such assault had taken place at all, seemingly willing in the face of concrete evidence to risk their credibility, such was their desire to ally themselves with men who had violently attacked a grandmother.
Disbelief and rage can fill me up like a hot balloon, but with deflation comes the bigger picture. There is nothing much new in the world and certainly the response of women to this crisis — and it absolutely is a crisis when women are being beaten in the name of women’s liberation — is ages old. My feminism is clear: male supremacy is, and always has been, the problem. Not women. We don’t make the rules. I have never blamed women for doing what they have to do to survive in a world run by men for men, although when we turn on each other it is painful. It has always been so. Girls in my life had begun to reinforce male supremacy before I had even begun to bleed. We called each other sluts and undermined each others academic achievements. We criticised each others bodies and clothing. During the time of the suffragettes, many women campaigned against their own right to vote. Today we tell other women, many of whom are survivors of male sexual violence, that if they voice any fear around having to share a changing room with a person who has a penis, they are deserving of yet more violence.
The root of this betrayal, then and now, is the same. Women throughout the ages have always feared the loss of male approval, and with good reason, because in order to survive in a patriarchal world, to be deemed worthy of food, shelter, love, social standing, or to get on at work, women depend on it. People with less power look to the support of those with more — we need the ones in charge to like us. And so to be a feminist who loudly and actively challenges male power and entitlement is to immediately put oneself at a disadvantage.
Yet while it may be understandable, there is nothing revolutionary about kowtowing to men. It’s what most of us have been doing for centuries and while it may enable women on an individual level to survive, it improves the situation of women as a class not a jot. Any real progress seen in terms of womens rights has always been forced by women prepared to be unpopular, derided, and rejected. Now even our ability as women to describe ourselves as a distinct class of people, with a distinct set of characteristics, underpinning our distinct oppression is under threat.
For women who support the right of biological males to be accepted as females on the basis of their say so, and who support the use of violence against women who question it, the stakes are high. You are only ever one sceptical eyebrow away from a punch in the head. A woman demonstrating against the discussion at Speakers Corner was violently shoved by a male protestor on her own side for daring to challenge his use of violence. Her acceptance, her time, her activism wasn’t enough, and therein lies the rub. Your capitulation will never be enough as the boundaries constantly change and the goal posts shift. The only question is: where do your limits lie?
Twenty years ago, men who liked to live as women called themselves transsexual and knew perfectly well they were not “real” women. The change in definition to transwoman and the demand to be recognised as real women is in fact very recent. Socially conditioned to want to be supportive and inclusive, women for the most part took up the rallying cry of transwomen are women! But it wasn’t enough. We then had to accept that transwomen had always been women, even if transition had occurred in middle age and the individual had lived as a man, with all the privileges that brings, right up until that point. Now it is against the rules to ever mention any individuals name used prior to transition; their history must effectively be erased. And apparently that is still not enough. Transwomen now say they are biologically female; that biological sex as we understand it is a social construct and that their gender identity is the primary indicator of their biology, not their chromosomes or reproductive systems, thus turning on its head centuries of scientific givens. Going yet further, the idea that transwomen can have periods has become noticeably prevalent lately, with blogs detailing symptoms of PMT and women dutifully supplying sympathy and offers of back rubs.
Do you truly believe that people with penises can have periods? Remember that if you do not, you are akin to a Nazi and deserve to be punched.
The point is, it won’t end. The demands for validation will become ever more preposterous, the mental gymnastics required ever more impossible, because the affirmation needed to give truth to a lie is bottomless. We need to go back to the beginning. Women stand united against male violence. You can stand with me — my hand is outstretched, my arms are open. |
Shining Resonance Re:frain announced for PS4 [Update 2]
Remastered release due out on March 29 in Japan.
The latest issue of Weekly Famitsu reveals Shining Resonance Re:frain for PlayStation 4. It will launch on March 29, 2018 in Japan in standard and “Premium Fan Box” limited editions.
Shining Resonance Re:frain is a remastered version of Shining Resonance, which was released for PlayStation 3 in Japan in December 2014. It will feature various additional elements and enhanced graphics.
Weekly Famitsu has an introduction of the game’s new elements, including a “Refrain Mode” that features a “what if” story.
Thanks, Famitsu.
Update 6:35 a.m.: More information has come in.
The standard edition will cost 5,990 yen. The Premium Fan Box limited edition will cost 9,490 yen, and include a fan book, drama CD, and theme song CD.
Shining Resonance Re:frain will feature all of the more than 150 pieces of downloadable content from the original release packaged into the game, as well as a new theme song and costumes.
In the new “Refrain Mode,” you can enjoy the “what if” story for Excela Noa Aura and Jenius Aeon, who were unable to become party members in the original game.
The last boss of the first chapter is easier to defeat.
If you lose in battle, you can restart from before the event.
Rinna Mayfield’s AI has been made a bit smarter as to refrain from plunging into the enemy.
Request rewards and completed quests have been made easier to understand.
Fromage’s navigation can be switched off.
Dialogue text has been added when moving on the field.
When Shining series producer Tsuyoshi Sawada, the series came to a pause, but Sega’s Makoto Suzuki said “rather, let’s start from here,” and restarted the series.
The resolution has increased and it runs at 60 frames per second.
The main story has not been changed. Images of Refrain Mode will be revealed in the second week. The volume is much greater than dates with the other characters from the original story. New voices have also been recorded.
The limited edition will have more content than the limited edition of Blade Arcus from Shining. Character designer Tony Taka wants to see a Shining revival. He hopes that Re:frain can be seen as the start of it all.
Thanks, Ryokutya2089.
Update 7:20 a.m.: A few more details.
The new theme song is called “Towairo no Aria” and sung by Kirika Towa Alma (voiced by Saori Hayami) and Sonia Blanche (voiced by Asami Seto).
Tony Taka designed two new swimsuit costumes, the “Dark Lotus Swimsuit” and “Crimson Lotus Swimsuit.”
There will be a Sega Store-exclusive pack including a figure of Kirika Towa Alma wearing the new “Dark Lotus Swimsuit.”
Producer Makoto Suzuki says that up until now they have been developing for Asian territories, but that he wants to send it out to the entire world.
Development is currently 90 percent complete.
Thanks, Hachima Kikou. |
MARQUETTE HEIGHTS — Peggy Thomas fulfilled a longstanding expectation when she won $1 million in an Illinois Lottery scratch-off game.
The Marquette Heights resident got the top prize in playing the lotto $300,000,000 Cash Spectacular game recently.
"I have always had a feeling that someday I would win a million dollars, so I really wasn't shocked when it happened," she said in a news release from the Illinois Lottery.
She took the one-time payment on her prize — $600,000, minus tax withholding — and promptly bought new cars for her two sons and her granddaughter, she said, before investing the remainder of her win.
Thomas, a lifelong Tazewell County resident, bought the $10 instant ticket at the Shell station at 700 S. Main St. in Creve Coeur. That facility receives a $10,000 bonus for selling the ticket. Hers is one of 35 such top prizes available in the game. |
New rules aimed at cracking down on the mortgage market will result in 100,000 people failing a stress test of their finances, and about half of them will be blocked from buying a home.
That's one of the major takeaways of a new report published Tuesday from Mortgage Professionals Canada, an industry group that represents 11,500 mortgage brokers, lenders and insurers.
The federal government has moved seven times since 2008 to tighten rules surrounding the real estate market, and practically every time, the market has shrugged off tighter rules around areas like maximum debt loads and amortization periods.
But new rules implemented in October could be different.
Starting January, uninsured borrowers from federally regulated lenders must have their finances "stress tested" to ensure they would be able to pay off their mortgages if rates were higher than they are today. To do that, the lender must run a test assuming rates were two percentage points higher than they are right now, and see if borrowers would be able to pay off the loan.
By the group's estimates based on the market today, "18 per cent of mortgage borrowers who are stress tested, would fail the stress test."
Since there's roughly 700,000 homes sold every year in Canada, and most of them involve some sort of mortgage. That means up to 100,000 buyers would fail the new stress test and be forbidden from buying the home they want at the price they want.
William Dunning on the impact of new mortgage stress tests on Canadian housing markets 6:28 "Perhaps 50,000 to 60,000 per year will be able to make a different purchase, albeit one that is less attractive to them," the group said. But "perhaps 40,000 to 50,000 per year will be entirely removed from homeownership."
The group says it doesn't object to the idea of a stress test in general, just that the current parameters are too rigid. Essentially, the mortgage group says running the numbers with rates that are two percentage points higher than they are today isn't realistic or helpful..
For starters, the majority of new buyers get a five-year fixed rate mortgage, which means if they lock in now. they would be immune from rate hikes until 2022.
Currently, the average mortgage rate in Canada is 2.96 per cent, the report found.
Even assuming rates are higher when they have to renew, the current stress test rules ignore two things: On average, borrowers will have paid off 15 per cent of their principal, five years into their first mortgage, even if they do nothing more than make their monthly payments with no prepayments. Having more equity in their homes makes them better able to handle debt, even at a higher rate.
The stress test rules also ignore that people generally tend to see their incomes increase over time too.
"Based on trends over the past five years, mortgage borrowers will typically have seen their incomes rise by 10 per cent" by the time they renew, the group says.
A better level for the stress test, the group says, would be testing borrowers' finances at an interest rate that's three-quarters of a percentage point higher, not two.
"Using the posted mortgage interest rate today in mortgage stress tests is excessively stringent, and will unnecessarily impair the housing market and therefore the broader economy," the report found.
"And it will unnecessarily [and therefore unfairly] prevent large numbers of Canadians from achieving their reasonable housing goals." |
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
President Obama claims federal budget deficits have not soared out of control during his administration. He has officially jumped the shark.
On Wednesday at a Denver fundraiser, Mr. Obama said he was “running to pay down our debt in a way that’s balanced and responsible.” He claimed that “after inheriting a $1 trillion deficit, I signed $2 trillion of spending cuts into law” and that since he has been president, “federal spending has risen at the lowest pace in nearly 60 years. Think about that.” It doesn’t take much thought to see that this is the most absurd claim in political memory.
Mr. Obama is basing his boast on an already discredited study by journalist Rex Nutting that purported to show that “Obama has been the most fiscally moderate president we’ve had in 60 years.” Among other fatal problems with the study is that it omits all spending that took place during the first nine months of the Obama administration, which were the last nine months of fiscal 2009. Thus, all of the initial spending programs to which the White House points with pride - particularly the failed nearly trillion-dollar economic stimulus program - are George W. Bush’s responsibility so far as Mr. Nutting is concerned.
The “savings” Mr. Obama signed into law were all based on rosy economic projections, none of which has come true. The fiscal 2010 budget, fancifully titled “A New Era of Responsibility,” projected a $1.2 trillion cut in the deficit to $533 billion by 2013. The fiscal 2012 budget, which had no hopeful title, raised this number to $768 billion. Mr. Obama’s September 2011 deficit-reduction proposal further raised the projected 2013 deficit to $912 billion. The fiscal 2010 budget also hopefully projected 6.26 percent economic growth for 2012 rather than the anemic 1 percent to 2 percent growth the country is suffering. Naturally, Mr. Obama would much rather make reference to the imagined future his economists projected than to the grim reality he actually created.
Other simple metrics show the disastrous impact of Mr. Obama on the deficit. The 2009 budget deficit was three times that of 2008. The deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product went from 3.1 percent in 2008 to 9.9 percent in 2009. The deficit for the first month of fiscal 2010 was $176 billion, which was greater than the $161 billion deficit for all of 2007. In his first 986 days in office, up to Oct. 3, 2011, Mr. Obama oversaw a $4.2 trillion increase in the national debt, which was more than the debt accrued by all presidents from George Washington to George H.W. Bush combined.
It’s no wonder why Mr. Obama wants to portray himself as a deficit hawk. The federal budget deficit is the second-most-important issue in the election after jobs, on which Mr. Obama’s record is equally dismal. The White House has never submitted a proposal that has come close to balancing the federal budget, even with 10-year projections to work with. The flawed economic assumptions used to sell Mr. Obama’s programs were a bait-and-switch that left America mired in unsustainable levels of debt. It’s incredible that Mr. Obama believes he can get away with such a big lie. He seems simply to have lost his grip on reality.
The Washington Times
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Mazen Hajjar makes his 961 Beer in Beirut and exports it worldwide. Output is modest, at 200,000 cases last year. (961 BEER)
“I’m the lunatic who makes beer in Lebanon!” announces Mazen Hajjar as he rises to extend his hand.
That’s Lebanon in the Middle East — not Pennsylvania. Hajjar’s brewery, 961 Beer (named after the international dialing code for Lebanon), is a five-minute drive from Beirut.
With his shoulder-length dark hair and full beard, he might be mistaken for a graduate student who wandered into ChurchKey near Logan Circle to down a few drafts after banging out his thesis. But this youthful 39-year-old has a remarkably varied résumé: Before brewing caught his fancy, he worked as a photographer covering the war in Serbia; he spent nine years as an investment banker; and he made an unsuccessful attempt to start the Middle East’s first low-fare airline.
Within minutes we’re clinking glasses of 961 Lebanese Pale Ale, a marriage of European brewing tradition and Levantine cuisine. Hajjar supplements the hops with a melange of Middle Eastern herbs and spices: mint, sumac, anise, chamomile, sage and za’atar. The pale ale is delicate but flavorful, with a dry, herbal, savory flavor that would pair nicely with a skewer of well-seasoned chicken or lamb.
961 Lebanese Pale Ale is available in kegs and 11.2-ounce bottles. Hajjar’s American importer, St. Killian in Kingston, Mass., carries four other 961 varieties in bottles only, all solid interpretations of classic European styles. They are a clean-tasting golden lager; a red ale balancing citrusy American hops with lots of caramel malt; a Belgian-style witbier incorporating wheat from Lebanese farmers; and a roasty porter full of mocha flavors.
Many U.S. craft brewers like to talk about their baptism of fire in a highly competitive industry, but Hajjar literally was under siege when he hatched his grand plan. “I started in 2006,” he says. “Israel and Hezbollah were bombing . . . each other. The electricity was off; I was sitting on my balcony reading the first chapter of “Beer School” by Steve Hindy and Tom Potter. That’s when I thought, ‘Eureka!’ ”
Hajjar took inspiration from Hindy, a former Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press. Like Hajjar, Hindy had to dodge bombs and bullets; he was sitting in the grandstand behind Anwar Sadat in 1981 when the Egyptian leader was assassinated. Like Hajjar, Hindy was led by the region’s lack of decent beer first to take an interest in home-brewing, then to turn pro. (He’s now president of New York’s Brooklyn Brewery.)
“Pretty unremarkable” is how Hindy describes Middle Eastern beer in general. He remembers quaffing Stella, an Egyptian brand that had dubious quality-control standards: “I don’t think I ever got two bottles that ever had the same fill level.” The brewery, according to a persistent rumor, spiked the beer with formaldehyde to perk up the flavor. Hindy couldn’t verify that, but he said, “It did seem to have a kind of numbing effect after a few bottles.”
The quality of Stella improved markedly after 2002, when Heineken took over the brewery, Hindy says. Likewise, Heineken controls Almaza (Arabic for “diamond”), a Lebanese light lager with no particular regional character.
There are a few oases in that bleak beerscape. Israel has sprouted between 20 and 30 microbreweries and brewpubs, beginning with the Dancing Camel in Tel Aviv in 2006. Taybeh Brewing in Palestinian territory predates the Dancing Camel by a decade, brewing golden, amber and dark lagers, plus a non-alcoholic brew for observant Muslims.
961 Beer, however, might be the only Middle Eastern microbrewery that exports worldwide, from Spain to Hong Kong to Australia. Hajjar’s output is modest: 200,000 cases last year, or about 14,500 barrels. But Hajjar ships to 14 countries and 12 American states; you can find it in the District, Maryland and Virginia. His business strategy might reflect his cosmopolitan outlook: “My uncle lived in Chicago for 40 years. My wife grew up in New York. I proposed in Sweden and we got married in Seattle.”
His visit to Washington is part of a brand-promotion tour that includes stops in New York and Philadelphia. “I love coming here. I feel like it’s my second home,” he says. “I feel like a rock star, but without the groupies and drugs.”
Hajjar buys malt from Germany and hops from Europe and the United States. It might not be the most efficient or environmentally friendly way to make beer, importing almost all of his brewing materials and sending his beer abroad in throwaway bottles and one-way disposable barrels called KeyKegs. But Hajjar says he has a goal “one day to be a zero-emission, carbon-neutral brewery.”
He admits that goal is a long way off. In the meantime, he contributes a slice of his profits to the reforestation of Lebanon. (A small drawing of a cedar graces his labels.) He uses local ingredients when possible. He planted an experimental hop plot and used the crop to make a Harvest Lager for the German Embassy in Beirut to celebrate German Reunification Day last Oct. 4. Upcoming releases include a barley wine refermented in cedar with raisins, and a Lebanese-style stout flavored with coffee and cardamom.
Can he keep the pipeline filled? At the time of our meeting, Hajjar seemed concerned about meeting demand, citing that 961 Beer is growing at a clip of 300 percent to 400 percent annually.
Kitsock is the editor of the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. |
Dan Harmon is one those creators who is bound to the work wholeheartedly. Without Harmon, Community isn’t the same. What I mean is, when you watch Season 4 of Community it’s still Community but without its voice. It feels hollow. When he got fired from the show he decided to take his podcast Harmontown on tour, document it, and release it as a film.
If you don’t really know who Dan Harmon is, this documentary gives you the history of the writer. If you don’t know the controversy surrounding him and Chevy Chase, you’ll get that too. You’ll also get a very human side to a creator and that comes with all the dark side as well. This is part of Harmon’s charm. He’s an open book and he doesn’t mind if he may be the kind of book you don’t want to read or may not like. He doesn’t like taking showers, he’s probably an alcoholic, he’s a dick to his girlfriend, and he openly admits he leaves the tour having learned nothing.
That is essentially what I like about him, what his audience likes about him. If you know you can be a bad person, and openly admit your faults that may make you a bad person, does that mean you’re a bad person? Even if I believed deep down that Harmon was a bad person the fact that he doesn’t hide it softens the blow.
We watch him self-destruct and then when he’s done self-destructing he picks up the pieces and moves on. Harmon isn’t a rebel or subversive but openly criticizes the system he works in to make his money. His audience are people who feel like outsiders trying to become Dan Harmon or something like him. They want to work within the systems but feel as if they don’t belong in that system.
“Our mantra would always be make the shows you would want to see, and I think that really affected Dan’s work.” – Rob Schrab, director of The Lego Movie sequel.
That’s where Spencer comes in. Spencer is one of those audience members who stayed true to himself, and Harmon plucked him from the audience to become his dungeon master in live D&D games. Spencer is the hero of the documentary, and Harmon openly admits that.
Harmontown is crude, silly, dark, sad, uplifting, and pretty funny. It’s worth a watch if you’re a writer. It’s worth a watch if you’re a fan of Community. It’s worth a watch if you even if you just like to watch someone implode then try to reconstruct themselves.
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A few weeks ago we reported that Sony was planning to bump up production of its PlayStation VR (PSVR) headset around E3 time. Following that the company confirmed the headset was now readily in stock at retailers and, this week, it’s specifically confirmed it’s making more units.
Simon Benson, Director of Sony’s Immersive Technology Group, recently said as much in an interview with MCV. “It is still very early days, but we have a better feel for the demand for VR gaming and so we are planning to increase production,” Benson said.
He continued, noting that the demand had been a “positive sign for the future of VR gaming” going forward. Following PSVR’s launch in October 2016 some have struggled to find stock but hopefully this increased production cycle will bring about an end to those issues.
Elsewhere, Benson spoke about a different kind of demand, this time from developers wanting to make games for PSVR. “To be honest, we have so many VR developers approaching us that we don’t see [getting more developers to make VR content] as an issue currently,” he said. “In the first few months of PS VR’s life, there are already around 100 VR games and experiences on the store with lots more in the pipeline.”
That news will also come as a relief given that PSVR’s release schedule past May is looking a little empty. As we said, E3 is just around the corner, and we’re hoping for some big reveals at the show, especially given recent rumors surrounding both Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and Marvel Games.
“If people think PS VR gaming is great now, then I think they will be even more amazed in a year’s time by the types of experiences that will be available, and I believe that the social element will be a huge contributor to the value of VR gaming,” Benson concluded. |
Get the Recipe Easy Oven-Cooked Pulled Pork
More Sandwiches Tips and tricks for making the best sandwiches at home.
The easiest way I know of to ruffle the feathers of food-minded folks mounted atop high horses is to refer to some sort of vegetable preparation as "bacon." Second is to speak ill of a regional specialty that ought to stay regional (here's lookin' at you, cheesesteaks).
Coming in a close third? Suggesting that pulled pork can be prepared via any method other than low-and-slow in a smoke-filled barbecue.
I used to count myself among those rankled by that third one. My experience with indoor pulled pork was limited to the extra-wet and extra-sweet variety, braised in a slow cooker like a beer-bellied vacationer who accidentally fell asleep in a hot tub of bottled barbecue sauce. How could it ever compare to the tender and moist—but never wet—texture of real barbecue with a dark crust, a rich and smoky flavor, and a lovingly crafted sauce?
Easy: It can't compare, and it shouldn't compare. Just as it's perfectly possible to love both grilled steaks and pan-seared steaks, or grilled burgers and burgers smashed on a griddle, it's okay to enjoy pork shoulder cooked both outdoors and in-. The two dishes are similar but completely different foods that can both be appreciated on their own merits,* without involving a slight to your man- or womanhood.
* That said, I am working on a method for producing real barbecue-style pulled pork at home, complete with smoke ring and bark, which will show up in the follow-up volume to my first book. Stay tuned!
But, just as there are great burgers and poor, not all indoor pulled pork is created equal. My goal with this recipe was to come up with a technique to produce pulled pork that shreds into large, tender chunks that are moist but not wet, with a flavor that balances sweet molasses, bright vinegar, heat, and just a hint of smoke. Oh, and I wanted it to be darn easy to boot.
Going Dutch
Most simple pulled pork recipes involve dumping a pork shoulder into a slow cooker, adding some bottled barbecue sauce and stock, and letting it cook until the pork falls apart. There were two simple and obvious upgrades that could be made to this method.
First was to ditch the slow cooker and use a Dutch oven placed in the oven instead. A slow cooker heats only from the bottom and, subsequently, cooks only through simmering and steaming. A Dutch oven placed in the oven, on the other hand, heats from all sides, allowing browning to occur on the surface of the stew and around the edges of the pot, leading to far superior flavor. I'll trade the convenience of countertop cooking for more flavor any day, and besides, so long as you're hanging around the house (or are comfortable leaving the oven on), the convenience factor is more or less equal.
The second step was to ditch the bottled barbecue sauce and instead mix up a quick sauce of my own: dark molasses, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, cider vinegar, hot sauce, and a spice blend consisting of black pepper, cayenne pepper, coriander, cumin, paprika, brown sugar, and salt. Seeing as I was already mixing up a spice blend for my barbecue sauce, I let the same blend perform double duty as a dry rub for my pork shoulder.
The browning I was getting around the edges of the Dutch oven was better than nothing, but giving the shoulder a sear at the start of cooking boosted flavor even more. (It goes fast because of the extra sugar in the spice rub.) I also sautéed an onion in the browned bits left behind by the pork.
On a whim, I decided to grab a bottle of bourbon from my liquor cabinet and dump some into the pot. First, I made sure to do this with the burner off in order to prevent accidentally setting it on fire and losing an eyebrow, then I carefully ignited the booze with a long lighter, letting it flambé until the flames died down. It was a good whim to follow, adding complexity to the finished sauce.
(Plus, flambéing gives you an excuse to both play with fire and take a sip of booze while you work. Double win.)
The next issue was sauce quantity. Some recipes call for as much as a full quart of liquid in the pot, perhaps based on the idea that more moisture to start will lead to moister pork in the end. But, as my Ultra-Crisp-Skinned Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder recipe proves, it's perfectly possible to get supremely moist pork even with no added liquid at all. Adding excess sauce during cooking is the prime culprit in the wet-pork issue. We're after pulled pork here, not ragù.
The other interesting factor I noted was that no matter how bright and flavorful my sauce was to begin with, it would lose that brightness over the course of cooking. Sure, it picked up some great pork flavor, but the tanginess was gone. Turned out I could fix both of these problems with one simple solution: Don't add the sauce all at once.
By starting with only half the sauce, along with a small amount of chicken stock, and then adding the remaining half after shredding the pork, I ended up with pork that had better texture and sauce that had brighter flavor. A small splash of good-quality liquid smoke (I like Wright's brand because it contains nothing but real smoke and water) simulates that true smoked flavor.
By the way, just as it's possible to overcook beef in a beef stew, it's quite possible to overcook pulled pork. You want your pork to be pull-apart tender—an indication that the connective tissue binding muscle fibrils together has broken down—but not so cooked that the muscle fibrils themselves start to lose structure and turn to mush.
As soon as the pork pulls apart in easy chunks, you're done.
I'd nailed the moistness of the pork and the flavor of the sauce, but there was still a little something lacking: texture. Whether indoors or out, I like my pulled pork to have a combination of moist meat and crunchy bark. This was another easy fix: Orienting the pork fat (or skin) side up and taking the lid off of the Dutch oven for the last hour of cooking allowed the exposed surface of the pork to brown and crisp into a dark bark.
Subsequently shredding that pork and mixing the bark in with it gave me the texture I was looking for.
At this stage, you could take this pork in any direction you like. Mix it with a vinegary, Eastern North Carolina–style barbecue sauce. Shred it and stuff it into tacos with salsa. Maybe go with a mustard-style sauce.
In this case, I stuck with the sweet-and-tangy, Kansas City–style sauce I'd already started with.
After skimming the excess fat off the surface of the liquid in the Dutch oven and adding the rest of my barbecue sauce to the pot, I folded in the pork, adding a little more vinegar to help brighten up the richness of the meat and stirring it around to try to get some of the great flavor in the browned juices around the side of the pot.
Despite giving away mountains of pulled pork to neighbors, my wife and I and the dogs were on a steady pulled pork sandwich diet for over a week, which helped me to make one last observation: From the moment you mix the shredded pork with the sauce, the pulled pork is on a steady decline. At first, it tastes as it should: moist pork, flavored with a tangy barbecue sauce. After it rests in the sauce and gets reheated the next day, however, it more closely resembles that wet, ragù-style pulled pork I'm used to seeing in slow cookers. The flavor is there, but the texture starts to suffer.
My advice? Keep the sauce and the pulled pork separate, dressing only what you'll eat in one go. (For some of you out there, that may be all of it.)
PS: Cheesesteaks are just swell, but let's take bets on how many feather-ruffled folks jump straight down to the comments section before reading through the article, shall we?
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PARIS (Reuters) - The United States has softened its stance on Syria including the future of President Bashar al-Assad to accommodate Russia, opposition coordinator Riad Hijab said, warning the opposition would face a hard choice on whether to attend peace talks this month.
Riad Hijab, who was chosen by Syrian opposition groups as coordinator of a negotiating body to lead future peace talks attends a news conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, December 18, 2015. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser
Hijab, who was chosen in December as coordinator of the opposition negotiating body to lead future Syria talks, said the opposition still had disagreements with the Syrian government and the United Nations over the talks’ agenda.
“Sadly, there is very clear backtracking, especially from the United States, with regard to the agenda of the negotiations,” Hijab said on Tuesday. “They want the creation of a government whereby the regime would leave us, the opposition, a few ministries.”
He said this U.S. backtracking had enabled the December U.N. resolution, which had a great deal of “holes and ambiguities”.
The U.N. Security Council resolution adopted on Dec. 18 set out a two-year road map for peace talks, but failed to address the issue of Assad’s future.
“The Russians and Americans did not cite Assad (during the negotiations) and did not talk about his departure and that is clear backtracking,” he said. “When (President Barack) Obama said he (Assad) had no legitimacy, Kerry was making concessions.”
It also called for an end to the bombing of civilians and on the parties to allow aid workers unhindered access throughout Syria, particularly in besieged and hard-to-reach areas.
He took specific aim at the U.S. administration and President Obama over his policies, including proposals to create a no-fly zone to protect Syrians and his handling of Assad’s chemical arsenal.
“Obama didn’t want (a no-fly zone) .. (and) with the red lines on chemical weapons, he took out the weapons, but not those who used them. I don’t think history will forgive Obama.”
DIFFICULT CHOICE
The peace talks are scheduled to be held under U.N. auspices in Geneva on Jan. 25.
However, with the continued bombing of civilians, Syrian towns being besieged with some citizens starving to death, and differences on the agenda, the prospects of holding the talks to end the five-year-old war appear complicated.
“The choice is extremely difficult,” Hijab said when asked if the opposition would attend the talks. “If we don’t go to the negotiations they will say we don’t respect the U.N. resolutions, but our people are being bombed and starved.
“If the negotiations are not well prepared they will fail,” he said, warning that failure would mean more refugees heading to Europe and more moderates turning to extremism.
“If we go and they fail, it would be catastrophe for Syrian society and it would be the world that pays the price.”
He said there were still disagreements with the United Nations and the Syrian government over the agenda of the talks, primarily the transitional governing body.
A senior Western diplomat also said the differences among regional and international actors as well as rivalries among opposition groups was playing into Syrian government hands.
“In December 2013 (former negotiator) Lakhdar Brahimi said he was obliged to show something was being done when all sides were not ready for talks. I fear that two years later we will reach the same conclusion. I regret it, but for me I have already seen this happen,” the diplomat said. |
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July 13, 2016, 7:25 PM GMT / Updated July 13, 2016, 7:25 PM GMT By Linda Carroll
Despite dire warnings about the dangers of synthetic cannabinoids, popularly known by names such as K2, Spice, Black Mamba and Kronic, they continue to grow in popularity. Just yesterday, 33 people were rushed to the hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y. with symptoms that suggested an overdose on the drugs, according to an NBC4 New York report. The city’s health department told the station that there have been more than 6,000 K2-related emergency room visits and two confirmed deaths in New York City since 2015. In January, the American Association of Poison Control Centers listed 1,462 exposures.
To get a better understanding of what K2 is and why the drug is so dangerous, NBC News spoke with Marilyn A. Huestis, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore and former chief of chemistry and drug metabolism at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Q: What exactly is K2?
A: These are synthetic compounds that bind to the same receptor in the body and brain as THC, the most psychoactive ingredient in [marijuana]. In fact, they can have really different structures from THC. The first synthetic cannabinoids were actually produced legitimately as tools for us to investigate the pharmacology of the endogenous cannabinoid system. This system is important for critical functions such as temperature control, hunger and reproduction. It also plays very important roles in the brain for executive function, which is what we use to take in information from the environment, evaluate it, and determine a course of action. The researchers who figured out how make these synthetics published their findings in scientific journals and illicit manufacturers learned from those articles.
Q: So, if the drugs just mimic compounds that are not only found in marijuana, but are also naturally occurring in the body, what’s the problem?
A: People are dying all the time from synthetic cannabinoids. They can be up to 100 times as potent as the THC in cannabis. Though this is a natural system in the body, marijuana or cannabinoids basically hijack the system and take over.
Q: Just how dangerous are these compounds — can they actually kill you?
We have learned that they can not only lead to death, but we have seen histories of kidney damage. They can destroy the kidneys so people may die or need to have dialysis and/or transplants. They can cause cardiovascular effects and can bring on heart attacks and strokes in the brain.
Q: What worries you most about these drugs?
A: It’s frightening. I have studied drugs my whole life and what is so frightening is that so many young people are using these compounds. This is already a known problem with cannabis. We know that if you start before age 17 and you use it frequently, not occasionally, it affects the brain in a way in which the nerves in the brain connect during brain development. So it can reduce IQ and can permanently change the brain, which isn’t fully developed until the end of one's 20s. |
The actor, currently playing Shakespeare’s villainous king, says Brexit has brought the play a pertinence that is not lost on audiences
It is a story of vaulting ambition and ruthless scheming which takes a nation very quickly from stability to chaos. Sound familiar?
Richard III review – Ralph Fiennes gets to grips with Shakespeare's ruthless ruler Read more
The parallels between Shakespeare’s Richard III and British politics this summer are striking and it is not being lost on audiences, the actor Ralph Fiennes said on Tuesday.
Fiennes is playing the villainous king at the Almeida theatre in north London, a production that will be filmed and broadcast to cinemas around the world on Thursday.
“Most Shakespeare plays that deal with power, whether they are the history plays or the Roman plays, you can always broadly speaking find a parallel somewhere in the world to what’s going on,” Fiennes said.
“It’s quite rare that you actually are close to a political crisis, political uncertainty. We went into this not knowing what the referendum result was going to be, so when it was as divisive as it was and we saw all these political figures making a play for leadership, Boris Johnson, Michael Gove ... the audience suddenly, it changed.
“Not through our doing but just because of events happening around us. Suddenly it became full of a pertinence that perhaps it hadn’t had before.”
Many people are seeing parallels between the character of Richard III, his brilliant scheming and then apparent reluctance to take the throne, and Tory politicians. “Michael Gove is closest,” said Fiennes. “Because all those protestations about ‘I could never lead, it’s not in my DNA to lead’ – that’s classic Richard.”
Milibands as princes in the tower
The play is directed by the Almeida’s artistic director, Rupert Goold, who said he originally – in 2012 – planned to do a Richard III that riffed on the character of Johnson. “I thought Boris is this figure who is physically strange and yet sexually predatory and potent, inherently comic, outside the rules, of questionable motives, ultimately ambitious. It was going to be very crude ... Milibands as princes in the tower.”
Those ideas were abandoned, particularly when Fiennes became part of the project. But Goold added: “What’s potent about the play is that people are able to read all those parallels without us banging them over the head.”
While there are parallels, Goold hopes politicians will come to the play and see dangers. “Sometimes we people in theatre think we are ‘responding’ to events,” said Goold. “I weirdly feel now, having MPs come to see the production that, without being pretentious about it, potentially the arts have the ability to offer an example as well as respond. It is our job to offer warnings and inspirations.”
Fiennes, who has been attracting strong reviews in the role, called Richard a complex, tormented figure “with different degrees of self-loathing … He is a man who has been without intimacy all his life and I feel there is lots for any actor to mine to find an interior life.”
Fiennes and Goold were speakingbefore Thursday’s broadcast, the first outing for Almeida Theatre Live. It will be in partnership with Picturehouse Entertainment, which is distributing it. |
Here's what you need to know...
Due to harsh laws based on Reefer Madness-like myths, the personal use of steroids for aesthetic purposes can land lifters in prison or get them fined for more money than they probably have. Ironically, steroid usage in sports, which these laws were created to curb, has not decreased. Steroids and other PEDs have been in widespread use in bodybuilding and Olympic lifting since the late 50s. Their usage in baseball, the Ben Johnson debacle, Lyle Alzado's questionable death, the Lance Armstrong farce, and the sad case of Taylor Hooton brought steroids to the forefront. Politicians and those with agendas took full advantage. Although it has many medical uses and is now commonly prescribed to aging males, the illegal use of testosterone puts you into the same criminal category as a heroin addict. And science has never backed up the hysterical claims made by anti-steroid zealots.
"I think it's absolutely disgraceful that our government should be in the position of converting people who are not harming others into criminals, of destroying their lives, putting them in jail." - Milton Friedman
The following account is something I lived through and was a small part of. It is my view of the fascinating history of how steroids emerged as an ergogenic aid in sports and subsequently became an ominous facet of the modern age - becoming criminal while at the same time assaulting the very core of America by representing a proposed danger to our youth and, worse still, sullying the most hollowed of all things American - baseball.
This odd journey, especially the inception, involved numerous colorful characters from all over the globe who together eventually created a culture. Many of you reading this have adopted this culture without perhaps knowing the full extent of what it means to be a steroid-using bodybuilder and how it got that way.
I find it unfortunate that the younger guys embracing our culture today have to adapt to a whole different set of circumstances regarding steroids than my contemporaries did. Today you have to understand that the general public - the people you deal with, work with, live next to - believes that "steroids" cause a plague of maladies, from liver, brain and kidney cancer, to heart attacks and strokes, to psychotic episodes that end in madness, mayhem, murder and death. Given the current state of the public discourse, if your next door neighbor found out you were a juicehead, he'd probably wish you were a heroin addict instead.
Back when I adopted our culture it was perfectly acceptable to drive down to Mexico and buy all the real pharmaceutical gear I wanted, at incredibly low prices, and drive it back to LA with no problema. And no one cared if a bunch of guys down at the gym took steroids. We didn't bother anyone. We were totally under the radar and really not doing anything that wrong, certainly nothing even remotely felonious.
Well, it's not like that today. Not only are steroids listed by the feds in the same class as narcotics - with prison time for possessing, importing or selling them - the media has also driven the "Reefer Madness" hysteria to such a degree that there are families in Kansas who believe Gold's Gym is the incubator for the Zombie Apocalypse. What hatched such two-headed insanity? I'm going to skim over the last 30 years and describe what I believe are the milestones that lead to the concomitant criminalization and vilification of the very sex hormones our bodies produce.
The Perfect Steroidal Storm
The demonization of steroids in America has been perpetuated by three equally reprehensible yet powerful groups: vocal alarmists with agendas who incite hysteria based on fiction, the media who reports it, and the vote-hungry law-makers in Washington who believe they can do something about it.
In the 80-90 years that steroids have been around, they've gone from virtually innocuous, unknown medical compounds to a public menace nearly eclipsing heroin, cocaine, amphetamines and club drugs, with federal penalties for distribution and possession that can put you away for a fairly extended part of your life. How did the media wrap itself around this issue and funnel politicians, athletes and bereaved parents into promoting one of the biggest scams in US pop culture?
I've been around the block a few times, seen a bit of the world with all of the bark off, but I can't for the life of me think of another situation in which a single topic has gotten so misconstrued as that of performance enhancing drugs. With the mega amount of intellect in the demonization camp regarding PEDs, any person of reason would have to ponder... why? Unfortunately, when it comes to this group of drugs, most, if not all, common intellect goes right out of the window.
It was about that very same time 24 years ago that noted economist Milton Friedman uttered the words quoted above, and President George H. W. Bush signed house bill HR 4658 IH "Anabolic Steroids Control Act of 1990" into law, adding anabolic steroids to Schedule III of the DEA's list of controlled substances: the same legal class as amphetamines, methamphetamines, opiates, and morphine. Subsequently, in 2004, the law was amended to add prohormones and other "steroid like" compounds to the category, thus criminalizing anything that even remotely resembles testosterone or its effect. Later, the US Sentencing Commission reconvened to raise steroid penalties.
Today, in America, it is possible to be sentenced to 30 years in prison, and fined up to $5,000,000 for the possession and distribution (or importation) of testosterone, the very same hormone that human males and, to a lesser degree, human females, have been carrying around in our bodies since the early dawn of man. Let that sink in for a minute. Did I just say thirty years and 5 million bucks for testosterone? Yes, I did. We're talking about America here, not North Korea, right? How could such an insane thing happen? Well, let's work backwards.
Muscles, Narcotics, and Prison Time
First let me give you the sentencing guidelines as they stand today to give you the full magnitude of just how far we've come since the dawn of testosterone in the lab - the very same hormone that half of the American male voting public used to produce when they had testicles.
In the wake of the BALCO case, high ranking government agents were incensed over the four month slap on the wrist Victor Conte received after the government spent four years and over 50 million dollars chasing and prosecuting him. On March 27th, 2006, the US Sentencing Commission amended the sentencing guidelines for anabolic steroid cases by changing the way steroid quantities are factored to effectively increase sentences. The Commission's amendment made injectable and oral steroids comparable to other Schedule III drugs in a 1:1 ratio. That means that now, instead of the 50 pills that used to equal one unit, one "unit" of oral steroids is now one pill. One "unit" of injectable steroids goes from a 10 cc bottle down to half a cc.
Naturally, the government's 1:1 ratio is wrought with stupidity, not the least of which being the absence of any language pertaining to the potency of a particular drug. In the eyes of the law, a steroid is a steroid. That means a 5 mg Anavar tab is as equally felonious as a 50 mg tab of Anadrol, or 1 cc of equipoise being equal to a Sustanon 250 preload.
The guideline change also pays no attention to the diametric differences between steroids and other Schedule III drugs. All Schedule III drugs are narcotics that elicit an immediate, mind-altering effect when used for recreation, while steroids actually elicit a beneficial physical effect and no mind-altering effect. Unfortunately, no cogent argument can usurp the law of the land, which under title 21 U.S.C. states that possession of just one tablet of any steroid is now a federal crime punishable by up to one year in jail for a first offense, and up to two years in prison for anyone with a prior drug conviction.
And, if you think that's bad, you really don't want to get caught "distributing" steroids. The following increases apply to possession with intent to distribute, importation and internet sales.
For convictions of a "controlled substance in Schedule III, such person shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not more than 10 years and if death or serious bodily injury results from the use of such substance shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not more than 15 years, a fine not to exceed the greater of that authorized in accordance with the provisions of title 18, United States Code, or $500,000 if the defendant is an individual or $2,500,000 if the defendant is other than an individual, or both."
"If any person commits such a violation after a prior conviction for a felony drug offense has become final, such person shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not more than 20 years and if death or serious bodily injury results from the use of such substance shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not more than 30 years, a fine not to exceed the greater of twice that authorized in accordance with the provisions of title 18, United States Code, or $1,000,000 if the defendant is an individual or $5,000,000 if the defendant is other than an individual, or both."
What could this mean to you? Let's imagine you have a buddy down at the gym who picked up a few bottles of test for you and a few of his other buddies while he was down in Mexico. On his way back to the US he was detained by US Customs and searched, uncovering 30 or 40 bottles of various steroids. Certainly nothing out of the ordinary - for bodybuilders.
He was brought before a federal magistrate and charged with importation and intent to distribute a Schedule III drug. The judge looked at the unit amount of juice and figured he better not kick back to the state the prosecution of such a high-level steroid kingpin and assigned the case to federal court. And he probably won't grant bail because your buddy is considered a flight risk because he's an accused importer with alleged ties to a foreign country. Since the feds tend to feed upstream, they're not too likely to offer your buddy a deal to follow him to your house and wear a wire. But, the possibility does exist, especially if the investigation is being handled by inexperienced agents who, based on the unit amount and country involved, think they're investigating a savage steroid cartel.
If your buddy doesn't have a good lawyer he'll be convicted of steroid importation and possession with intent to distribute, and if it's his second offense, he could be looking at 20 years in prison. If someone gets hurt using the gear he imported then add another 10 years. And then there's the seven-figure fine...
While such sentences rarely ever see the top of the guidelines, the potential still exists, under the law, for a 30 year sentence for what would amount to a few bottles of testosterone you picked up for a few of your buddies along with your own. More down to reality, for a first offence: up to two years just for having it in your possession and up to five if you're importing and distributing anything even remotely considered rich.
The government has made sure there's no such thing anymore as a slap on the wrist for steroid crimes. The shameful truth of today is, if you're a national level bodybuilder and had all the gear you were going to need all year to compete hidden in a small trash bag under your bathroom sink, and your door got kicked in (after you accepted a package from a controlled delivery), the unit amount of all the gear in your house makes you a kingpin dealer and - if you don't have a good lawyer - you're going to pay a hefty fine, lose your house, your car, your job, any licenses you might have, the local media is going to portray you as something just shy of a child molester, you're going to prison for a long time and when you get out you'll have nothing coming; your felony record will haunt you long after you're off paper. Interesting risk that poses to a great many competitors these days.
Any reasonable person who knows anything about these drugs knows this is a tough pill to swallow, especially when you consider how steroids compare to other legal over the counter drugs, not to mention cigarettes and alcohol. To any reasonable person, the government's position on steroids is nothing short of lunacy.
Sports, Congress, and "Protecting the Children"
How was public opinion swayed so far away from the truth? The media drove America into a virtual attack frenzy, concomitantly criminalizing and vilifying a non-narcotic, non-mind altering drug - a hormone naturally occurring in our bodies that can help us be stronger, more muscular, leaner, perform better and add quality to an aging male's life.
It basically boils down to this simple formula: alarmists with an agenda get the attention of the media that misstates facts, exaggerates claims, sensationalizes accounts and assigns blame without cause just to make the story sexy. This vomit lands on the over-coiffed crepe hair of vote-hungry politicians who will stand on their soggy vomit-clogged heads in front of the media and congress to lead another blind crusade against the biggest scam to ever invade politics: "save our children."
As far as steroids go, the most simplified version of what happened is this:
Steroids and other PEDs had been in fairly widespread use in bodybuilding and Olympic lifting during the late 50s and early 60s, especially internationally. While the iron sports kept a pretty low profile, the performance benefits of the drugs started seeping into other, more popular sports such as cycling and track and field. Their use proliferated, particularly in Olympic lifting, cycling, and track as well as other professional sports, particularly football - baseball came way later (at least that's what most people think).
While the NFL and MLB were still decades away from a published drug policy, an uproar was starting to build among top level amateur athletes amid failed drug tests and the marked increase in disqualifications in cycling and Olympic lifting, but nothing made quite enough noise to raise many eyebrows. Then in 1988 at the summer Olympics in Seoul, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson plucked just 9.76 seconds out of the thin air that spanned the entire Olympic games and made them the most talked about sequence of numbers in recorded history next to 666.
It's not so much that Johnson tested positive for Winstrol after the race and ostensibly cheated his way to the world record. It had more to do with the Canadian beating the American favorite, Carl Lewis, by cheating - by using steroids! - in what's considered the most popular of all summer Olympic sports. Among the Walmart crowd, the only way Canada could beat America was to cheat.
But remember, science does not prove negatives. While Johnson's positive test proved he was taking Winny, Lewis's negative test results for banned drugs does not prove he wasn't taking them. It just means the test didn't detect any. Be that as it may, controversy breeds contempt just as well as it breeds headlines, and now steroids had a face: a revered champion of the most hallowed of Olympic sports. Johnson was surely a role model for millions of kids. The proposed message that sends to our youth, combined with growing alarmist reports that high school football players were using steroids, and the politicians had the hors d'oeuvre they needed to get dinner started.
Between Johnson's disqualification in 1988 and into 1990, Congressional hearings were held to determine whether the Controlled Substances Act should be amended to include anabolic steroids along with more serious drugs like Valium, opiates, and amphetamines. Congress was able to call witnesses whose stories would help support criminalization - from the masculinisation of a female Olympic athlete, to a pro football player suggesting (without any medical evidence) that his heart problems were linked to his past steroid use, to the conditioning coach for the Philadelphia 76er's who insisted "steroids must be considered a controlled substance, no different than cocaine."
However, it was an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, a guy named Kenneth Kashin, who spoke, verbatim, the words the politicians wanted to hear. The good doctor testified that "steroid use can cause an addiction with similarities to alcohol, opiate, and cocaine addiction." He talked about "dangerous criminal-like behavior while intoxicated on anabolic steroids" and individuals who have "lost control of their behavior," or "became violent." Yes, this puppet show really went on.
When all was said and done, despite the opposition of the DEA, AMA, the Department of Health and Human Services and the recommendations of the most knowledgeable experts, Congress changed the classification of anabolic steroids to a Schedule III controlled substances under Title 21 of the United States Code, which regulates food and drugs.
This is an incredibly significant milestone in the demonization history of steroids, especially where bodybuilding is concerned. It marks a turning point where a series of very interesting questions were being unanimously answered by American athletes, particularly bodybuilders, not to mention federation officials, judges, promoters, magazine publishers, supplement company executives, basically the entire iron industry. The dawn of the 90's ushered in the era of advanced pharmacology in bodybuilding just in time for the government to make most of it a federal felony.
The unanimous decision everyone ultimately made was to ignore the law. To this day, since the law was passed 24 years ago, the entire bodybuilding industry - among the competitors of all the various disciplines to the cottage industry that feeds off their bodies - there isn't the slightest hint there's a federal law that prohibits steroid use, trafficking, importing, buying it over the internet, possessing it, etc. Any top national bodybuilder and most IFBB pros could walk around with a flashing neon sign over their heads that says "steroid user," "drug dealer," "smuggler," or "internet buyer." It's a wonder they don't get caught, all of them, like yesterday, me included.
But such arrests are not as common as you'd think. Given the multitude of obvious, illegal drug-using bodybuilders out there, at least ten a week, and/or their dealers, should be getting popped all over the country. But they aren't. High profile bodybuilders, and most other athletes for that matter, seem almost immune to the law of the land. So, who is getting caught?
Athletes Walk, Recreational Lifters Do Time
What motivated Congress to ignore the advice of the experts and bulldoze this legislation through? Page after page of congressional testimony focused on just two points. First, the unfair advantage the steroid user has over those who don't use them; and second, Congress was able to leverage the nefariousness of cheating with the unsavory message that steroid use in top-level sports sends to our youth. If nothing else it would take the spotlight off of the pro athletes getting arrested for domestic violence charges, coke busts, sex offences and dog fighting. It's none of that, kids, it's steroids that sully the image of sports for you. Remember, cheating is bad. Especially if baseball is involved.
However, after two decades on the books it wasn't the cheating athletes who were getting caught - they just kept on cheating to the degree that college, and probably high school, football players figured out that it's just a matter of time before steroids come their way. It's a given.
For its intent, the law was a flop. What happened was that thousands of otherwise law-abiding Americans - not athletes, but mature adult males - have been arrested, arraigned, prosecuted, convicted, forfeited property, lost their jobs and their licenses, and sentenced to prison for the personal use of anabolic steroids. Virtually none of them have been top pro bodybuilders, Olympic athletes, NFL players and certainly not baseball players. They're not cheating in sports; they're not even playing sports. But they're the ones being dragged through the system by a law that was never meant for them.
Hundreds of pages of congressional transcript focused on promoting the even playing field in sports. Not a single word was ever paid to the probability that a healthy adult male, running a light cycle of test and deca to enhance the effects of his training, would be arrested and prosecuted. He's no one's role model and he's not cheating any other athletes. He's not bothering anybody. Yet I know for sure that the nation's top steroid law firms' files would support the claim that it is he, not the cheating athlete, being snared.
In light of the number of big-named athletes not appearing in the press on steroid charges, there were, nevertheless, widespread reports of steroid use among athletes using them to cheat. There was not yet any real danger associated with them. Of course there were reports of side effects and overdrawn reports of rage, but nothing to really irk the public in terms of the dangers steroids represent, especially to our precious youth.
Eventually, by direction of the media, the public discourse shifted to become less about cheating role models and more about health. Surely, if Junior is injecting a drug in the same class as heroin, he's going to become a strung-out juicehead and end up hanging himself in his bedroom or die another gruesome death from a degenerative disease such as cancer, or completely go crazy and shoot up his high school.
It was pretty much accepted that athletes are prone to cheating and probably using steroids to do so, but at what cost? Simply passing a law to target the athlete wasn't enough (never mind the fact that it wasn't even working). America needed a stronger message to send our darling children. Cheating isn't just immoral, cheating had to be dangerous because steroids are bad drugs. But, how bad?
Steroids: They'll Kill You Until You're Dead!
A year after the legislation was passed, the most feared man in the NFL, Lyle Alzado, was diagnosed with brain cancer he said was brought on by steroid use. A year after he was diagnosed, he died from it: a frail, weak, quivering shadow of the man he used to be. Now, according to the media, steroids had openly claimed their first victim, a high ranking NFL star who died from steroids. The only problem? It wasn't true.
Of course the truth didn't matter. The health dangers of steroids now officially had a face, and it wasn't pretty. But it was selling like hotcakes on the multi-media machine. Kids looked up to Lyle, then he took steroids and he lied and then he died because he lied and took steroids. Oh, the travesty to our precious youth! Imagine the money the therapists will be making down the road when this trauma surfaces, manifesting mild schizophrenia and issues with trust and intimacy.
This set the stage for what was about to come. Steroid hysteria was in full swing. Any aberrant violent behavior, murder or suicide involving any athlete and Geraldo Rivera would immediately "smell steroids" with that enormous schnozz of his. News reports would abound about how - without any proof - steroids caused or contributed to such shocking behavior while completely ignoring much more relevant factors such as being on mismanaged psychotropic drugs, narcotic pain killers, alcohol or a combination thereof with or without underlying psychosis.
It got to a point in the mid-90s where virtually any unusual aberrant behavior reported in the press had some mention of "steroids." Defense attorneys even invented a "steroid defense" that relied on a convincing argument that "the steroids made their client do it." It worked a few times, but then the judges got wise.
Dirty Cheaters Save Major League Baseball
The ensuing years brought us another pivotal point in the demonization history of steroids: the infamous baseball strike. More to the point, the subsequent resurrection of the game that had all but died during the strike.
The players going back to work wasn't enough to refill the stadiums. Nope, the strike-weary fans still weren't very happy. What baseball needed was some excitement. It needed a homerun race and the Bash Brothers and Roger Maris getting bumped out of the way. They needed McGwire and Sosa and Barry Bonds cracking them out of the park in a seemingly endless volley, racking up homeruns like nobody's business. The fans came screaming back.
MLB had its best year in history: a ten-digit payday at the very height of the steroid scandal, while the players who made it happen - who were told to do "whatever it takes" to make it happen - were getting thrown under the bus. The game was juiced and even Jose Canseco said so. In 2004, during his state of the Union Address, President Bush (former managing partner of the team for which Canseco played and earned the nickname "The Godfather of Steroids") demanded a crackdown on the drugs "because they are dangerous and send a bad message to our youth."
Weeks later, then Attorney General John Ashcroft read the indictment of Victor Conte and three others involved in the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (later to become infamous as "BALCO") on national TV - the scandal that later metastasized and drew Barry Bonds into the fold. All the while Congress convened and reconvened and held hearing after hearing on steroids in baseball to the preposterous degree that it spent more time talking about steroids than it did the economy, the war in Iraq or why the levies broke during hurricane Katrina, combined.
The Taylor Hooton Tragedy
During one of those hearings, testimony was given by a guy named Don Hooton who blamed steroids for his son Taylor's suicide, as well as baseball itself, i.e. Bud Selig, for sending this lethal message to our youth. Hooton's convincing testimony chastising the idols of the great American pastime caught the attention of international news media and within minutes cemented Taylor Hooton's face among Alzado's and Johnson's when he gave teen steroid death a name that became a household word.
A handsome, white, 17 year-old high school baseball player from Texas named Taylor, cut down in the prime of his youth by the evil Schedule III drug that pro ball players use to cheat at America's great pastime... You might as well dress up as Hitler and set fire to the flag on your front lawn on Veteran's Day.
To us, Don Hooton's campaign is a laughing stock replete with sophomoric scare tactics and loads of erroneous suppositions, misinformation and outright lies. To the millions of bodybuilding forum members, Don Hooton is a tool. While that's a sad thing considering he buried his son, the truth is that for over a decade neither he, nor his Taylor Hooton Foundation, have proffered a singe truth when it comes to anabolic steroids. In no other single instance in the history of the steroid debate has the alarmist with the agenda made out as well for himself as Don Hooton, and mislead more people - including congress - doing it.
The ruckus Hooton has made over his son's suicide made Taylor's death a trending topic online for many years and certainly marks another milestone in the demonization of steroids. However, the Hooton case has also festered in the scientific community for over a decade now, calling into play some of the most respected and informed experts in the field. Among them, the widely accepted consensus is that steroids didn't kill Taylor Hooton.
The scene in Bigger Stronger Faster with Dr. Norm Foss pretty much epitomizes the opinion of unbiased experts. If there's a chemical to blame for inciting the ideation to hang himself, Taylor's death is, from a clinical standpoint, far more likely to have been motivated by the prescription anti-depressant drug he was taking: Lexapro, a popular selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). The data is just not there to put the blame on anything else.
And therein lies the rub. The Taylor Hooton suicide has been dissected numerous times over the last decade by numerous clinicians, scientists and healthcare professionals amassing quite a bit of peer reviewed and published data. Here's a brief synopsis of the published material by Dr. Jack Darkes:
"Taylor Hooton reportedly colored his hair and looked twice when he passed a mirror and was always concerned about his looks. In combination with a reported desire to be bigger suggests potential body dissatisfaction which is associated with both AAS use and suicide as a form of 'socially-prescribed perfectionism.' He had low self-esteem, a family history of depression (mother), a suicide attempt (sister) and was taking anti-depressant mediation (Lexapro). His AAS use was allegedly motivated by wanting to excel at baseball, although some sources have suggested it had more to do with personal appearance and status."
To date, there is no published data in the medical literature that suggests steroid use, or cessation of steroid use, by itself, incites suicidal ideation. However, the journals are rife to demonstrate suicidal ideation in adolescent patients treated with SSRIs. So, with so much statistical data against him, why has Hooton been blaming steroids and not SSRIs? Why is he picking on steroids, scientifically the least likely of culprits? Why is he campaigning so hard to demonize them?
Because, with such a vocal steroid attack in the wake of your son's suicide you not only get to testify before Congress during the baseball hearings, but also twice more. You get to start a non-profit foundation in your son's name and guilt guys such as Bud Selig into donating a million dollars on behalf of MLB. Then you name yourself president and decide to pay yourself up to 32% of the millions you take in to run the foundation. You get to go all over the country sounding like an expert and getting your picture in the paper and being named Texas Sports Personality of the Year by the Dallas Morning News. You don't get that going after SSRIs. Steroids made Don Hooton a celebrity. Steroids made Hooton a lot of money. Suing the makers of Lexapro would have gotten him nothing.
Either way, he's not getting his son back. Alzado's son isn't getting his dad back and history isn't taking back Johnson's nine-seven-six. So, rather than rile suburban soccer parents with sensationalistic lies that have the sky falling on our children, why not just tell the truth?
Forget the reality of their widespread use in professional sports, good science has demonstrated a real time and place for steroids among healthy adult males, especially as they age. The absolute garbage being proffered by guys such as Don Hooton is only eclipsed by the money they're making doing it. Proof, I'll reckon, is the fact that since Taylor Hooton's suicide over a decade ago, the scientific community has still not assigned "anabolic steroids" as the cause of one single teen suicide. Yet Hooton is still out there raking in millions preaching that it could still happen because - despite mountains of evidence to the contrary - Don says he knows that his son died from them. I'm sure Hooton is claiming this statistic as his victory. The only thing more revolting than Hooton's mission is the abject moron who supports him. Unfortunately, there are more than a few.
BALCO and Barry Bonds
Shortly after the plea deal was reached with Victor Conte and the name "BALCO" became as much a household word as "Kleenex", the US Sentencing Commission reconvened to raise sentences for steroid cases. The 4 months Conte spent at Club Fed following a 55 million dollar investigation by the federal government was just not enough. The result of those Sentencing Commission hearings were those penalties I described at the beginning of this article.
While the circle seems complete, the story continued on. The federal agent who headed the BALCO investigation, Jeff Novitzky, became sort of a cult anti-hero, carrying the torch onward in his self-appointed fight against steroids. While there was never a formal order ever given to go after BALCO, Novitzky did, and to this day continues to do his best to lock up as many athletes as he can. Novitzky's tactics usually push the limits of legality and ethics, cheating just as much as the athletes he's chasing. The only difference is that he really doesn't ever truly win.
The BALCO case didn't yield much in the form of prison time for any of those snared in his investigation - at least not for steroids anyway - although several promising athletic careers were smashed and Olympic medals were taken back. Gold medal sprinters Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery actually did jail time, but for perjury and writing bad checks, not juice. Nevertheless, when the dust settled, Novitzky still had his claws in homerun king Barry Bonds, at that moment the most famous athlete on earth.
Novitzky's entire impetus for going after BALCO was to get Barry Bonds. Now he had him where he wanted him. Novitzky knew Bonds had taken steroids. He knew that Bonds's trainer, Gregg Anderson, gave/administered them to Bonds. All he had to do was prove it by getting Anderson to testify against Bonds, his childhood friend. Novitzky, the master of getting athletes to roll on each other, couldn't get Anderson to talk no matter how many months he spent locked away on contempt charges for refusing to testify. Ultimately, Anderson got out of jail. Finally, after an appeals court upheld his sentence in 2013, Bonds started serving his whopping two months of house arrest... for obstruction of justice.
Lance Armstrong
Ten full years and tens of millions spent since the BALCO raid that started it all and Novitzky still doesn't have a drug conviction of an athlete. So, what does he do in light of what could only be construed as a black eye for the government? Novitzky spends millions more going after America's favorite son, Lance Armstrong. Seven Tour victories? He must have been on something.
First, Novitzky went after disgraced Tour de France winner Floyd Landis and promised him immunity if he rolled on former teammate, Armstrong. Naturally, Landis agreed and then suddenly the most tested athlete in the world - who never failed a drug test - was being brought down by an "administrative positive." Landis, and an assortment of others, ratted out Lance. Luckily for Lance, the government is easing off on steroid prosecutions and opted not to prosecute him. Novitzky got to the altar a little late.
The Obama administration has openly said that enough time has been spent on steroids; those resources can be used for better things. Lance did have to step down from his philanthropic foundation and give back all his Tour victories as well as the silver medal he won in the Olympics. I'm sure we all sleep better at night now.
Novitzky's star seems to be fading. There's no one really left after Lance. Although he could start going after rappers. LL Cool J looks pretty jacked.
So Where Does This Leave Us?
A closer analysis of current events might look like we've come full circle. While the laws and penalties for steroids are quite unfavorable right now, you have to work a little harder at getting caught. My old friend Dr. Gary Wadler, a former leader of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said, "I don't think this administration has the same vigor as the previous administrations on the [PED] issue. That was clear from the beginning when Barack Obama was running for election [in 2008]."
So, where does that leave us? Well, you can still get 30 years for testosterone, if you get caught. That's a big if. It does however seem to be a bit smaller of an if as it was a few years ago. The hysteria seems to have ebbed. The alarmists have lost much credibility from parent groups calling creatine a steroid and Don Hooton proclaiming that veteran actor Tom Hanks opened a show on Broadway "high on steroids" for having had a cortisone shot in his injured hand. Don sounds a bit desperate.
Steroids are perhaps a bit less vilified today and have in fact been inducted into the modern American lexicon. "On steroids" is a phrase openly accepted even in advertising to depict the deluxe version of just about anything from pick-up trucks to non-stick cookware. Baseball is boring again. And any time any athlete ever does anything noteworthy it will automatically be assumed that he's "on steroids."
Chances are he is and no government willing to enforce laws against it is ever going to stop him. Part of the reason for that is the high degree of chemical engineering going on today that was extremely rare just a few years ago. Designer labs are certainly the new frontier. And the feds know it.
There's a big difference between hunting down high-profile elite athletes and cracking down on the new forms of steroids designed to sneak around the law. While the government might not be chasing big named athletes around with the wild geese, lawmakers are still reaping mileage out of the steroid issue. At the time of this writing, Reps. Joe Pitts (R-Penn.) and Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) have introduced legislation in the House designed to crack down on anabolic steroids masquerading as dietary supplements.
These "designer steroids" come in the wake of what was leaned from the BALCO case. The products are made by reverse engineering illegal steroids and slightly changing their chemical composition. Such reengineering avoids placement on the DEA's list of controlled substances, creating a nice fat loophole for athletes to pee into. Urine tests can only detect known substances. If you're taking something unknown, then you can't fail a drug test.
The House bill is the next step toward full passage of a law that will further empower the DEA with new tools to identify and quickly respond when new designer anabolic steroids are introduced and falsely marketed as dietary supplements. How much of a bearing will this have on us? Very little. The point is just to show that while the steroid issue may have lost its luster in the mainstream, there are lawmakers who still think the platform can buy them some votes.
Just remember, the public stigma against steroids may have relaxed a little and the government may have decided they've had enough congressional hearings on steroids, but that doesn't mean that getting popped for them isn't still a reality, nor that the effect that bust will have on you and your family will be anything less than profound, and it will get worse when your local paper runs the story.
Apparently, this is what's known as "evolution." |
Sales of Platinum Games' Vanquish, Sports Interactive's Football Manager 2011 and Nintendo platforms game Sonic Colours in Europe and North America were "slow", SEGA has said.
In its latest financial report the Japanese company said demand for videogames was "generally weak" in western markets.
Why? Because of "sluggish personal consumption". SEGA sold just under six million game units in Europe, 5.8 million in the US and 1.9 million in Japan and other regions.
According to a Siliconera report, both Vanquish and Football Manager 2011 failed to sell a million units.
Vanquish, which launched in October last year, sold 820,000 copies. Sonic Colours sold 1.85 million. Football Manager 2011 for PC and PSP was the third best-selling game with 690,000 units sold in Europe and North America.
Football Manager 2011 went straight in at the top of the UK all-formats chart last November. SI boss Miles Jacobson said first weekend sales of the PC version beat those of Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 on multiple formats.
Looking to the future, SEGA said it needs to adapt to provide new content geared to social networking services and smartphones. Guess we can expect more Facebook and iPhone games, then.
Despite the doom and gloom, SEGA did well overall as a result of impressive performance from its pachinko and amusement segments. Net sales for the first three quarters of its fiscal year ending 31st March 2011 amounted to ¥310,103 million (£2.3 billion), an increase of 8.7 per cent for the same period in the previous fiscal year. Operating income was ¥62,970 million (£478 million), an increase of 118.2 per cent for the same period. Net income amounted to ¥36,821 million (£279 million), an increase of 117.3 per cent. |
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 1.57 KB __ __ _ ___ _ _ ____ ___ _ ___ | \/ | __ _ _ _ / |( _ )| |_| |__ |___ \ / _ \/ |/ _ \ | |\/| |/ _` | | | | | |/ _ \| __| '_ \ __) | | | | | | | | | | | | (_| | |_| | | | (_) | |_| | | | / __/| |_| | | |_| | |_| |_|\__,_|\__, | |_|\___/ \__|_| |_| |_____|\___/|_|\___/ |___/ May 18, 2010 You left me. It's almost been two years. I'm still alone. I got a tattoo, with your initials in it, two years after our best weekend together on my birthday. Watching the rain from our cabin. Watching the horses in the hay. Spending time together. I couldn't sleep without feeling you next me, a phantom in my lonely nights. Now you are part of me. Forever. Just like the special place in my heart you earned. I don't know if you search for me to see how I'm doing, like I do you. I don't know if you realize how much of my world walked out in 2010. How much of that world I'll never get back. I went from seeing in color back to nothing again. I failed to love you in the ways you needed, you gave yourself what you needed for your birthday -- you left. The last Shark Week left me in tears...memories of your gummy sharks and a candid picture haunting me. The last New Years left me curled in a ball crying. Our second best night together, when you took me back the first time... I don't know if I'll ever get that back but my clock is ticking. And when it chimes, nothing will matter anymore. Your picture will be the last thing I look at as the reaper takes me.
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__ __ _ ___ _ _ ____ ___ _ ___ | \/ | __ _ _ _ / |( _ )| |_| |__ |___ \ / _ \/ |/ _ \ | |\/| |/ _` | | | | | |/ _ \| __| '_ \ __) | | | | | | | | | | | | (_| | |_| | | | (_) | |_| | | | / __/| |_| | | |_| | |_| |_|\__,_|\__, | |_|\___/ \__|_| |_| |_____|\___/|_|\___/ |___/ May 18, 2010 You left me. It's almost been two years. I'm still alone. I got a tattoo, with your initials in it, two years after our best weekend together on my birthday. Watching the rain from our cabin. Watching the horses in the hay. Spending time together. I couldn't sleep without feeling you next me, a phantom in my lonely nights. Now you are part of me. Forever. Just like the special place in my heart you earned. I don't know if you search for me to see how I'm doing, like I do you. I don't know if you realize how much of my world walked out in 2010. How much of that world I'll never get back. I went from seeing in color back to nothing again. I failed to love you in the ways you needed, you gave yourself what you needed for your birthday -- you left. The last Shark Week left me in tears...memories of your gummy sharks and a candid picture haunting me. The last New Years left me curled in a ball crying. Our second best night together, when you took me back the first time... I don't know if I'll ever get that back but my clock is ticking. And when it chimes, nothing will matter anymore. Your picture will be the last thing I look at as the reaper takes me. |
The recent discounts on the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 in the UK could mean that the Surface Book 2 is on its way.
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It's been almost two years since the launch of the Surface Book detachable and its unique design remains one-of-a-kind even to this day. Strangely, Microsoft has yet to announce a second generation of the Surface Book and the series has been "on ice" ever since with only a few minor updates here and there. Initial reviews of the convertible were mixed with many citing the unconventional hinge design and buggy behavior when detaching the display.
Editor Tom Warren from The Verge has now hinted on Twitter that a new Surface Book is in the works. While not explicitly stated, it's assumed that the information comes from his close ties to the Cupertino company. The tease makes no other mention as to when we can expect the new Surface Book to come or what hardware it will be sporting.
In our opinion, an early launch this Fall for the supposed Surface Book 2 would be extremely unlikely since Intel will not launch Coffee Lake until later in the year. Coffee Lake is expected to bring quad-core SKUs to the ULV U-class of processors for the first time for even higher performance in thinner form factors. The launch of Coffee Lake should be vital to the next generation of Surface devices especially since the current Kaby Lake tablets have been found to throttle heavily under load. |
Our society is obsessed with labels. While they are often crude, stereotypical and used to divide individuals from a group, they are integral in our society. The nice things about labels, however, is that we decide what they mean. We can choose how to label ourselves to include ourselves in a group of like-minded people. Outsiders to that group may not like the label, and may even disagree on what the label actually means, but what really matter is what members of that group consider to be their values.
I have made some changes in my life that have made me rethink the groups I am associated with and helped me define the kinds of labels that should define me. I made these decisions a couple of years ago, but was closed about it in public because I was unsure of my personal beliefs. I have had time to decide what it is that I do believe and with which groups and labels I wish to associate myself. Now that I know what I believe and how I want to be known I am coming out and labeling myself publicly for the first time.
There are three labels that I have decided to associate myself with. I will list the labels that I have chosen, the reasons I have chosen them and most importantly, what that label means to me. As I said before, others outside these groups may consider these labels differently, so I will explain what that means from my perspective.
Firstly, I am an atheist. As an atheist I do not believe in a God or Gods. I do not believe in Zeus, Thor, Apollo, Ra, Jesus or God the Father. I do not believe that there is a being who is watching over me, blessing me or judging my behavior. I also do not believe that the universe was created by a consciousness. That is all that being an atheist means. It doesn’t mean that I am a devil worshiper. It doesn’t mean that I immoral. It doesn’t mean that I eat babies. All it means is that I do not believe in any form of a God or Gods.
Second, I am a materialist. A materialist sees reality as the physical matter of which is it composed. Thought, feelings and will can all be defined in terms of matter and physical phenomena. I am a collection of the nerve impulses and synapses in my brain responding to physical stimuli. I do not believe in a soul, a spirit or a part of myself that is not my physical body. I am my body and when I die my brain will no longer send those impulses and I will cease to be.
Third, I am a humanist. A humanist is someone who believes that life is fragile and that it matters. That each individual who is lucky enough to have one has the rights to have a good one. It is amazing that we exist at all and we should go out of our way to help those in need, because this is the only life that we get. Everyone who has one has a fundamental right to have the opportunity of a pleasant one. Those who have enough to survive, or who have excess, should give and donate to those who do not, so that they may experience the basic rights and necessities of life to survive and be happy.
This is who I am and how I choose to define myself. I was not raised with these ideals, but developed them over time after years of observation and thought. I used to be religious. I enjoyed spending time with like-minded individuals who supported my beliefs, but I have left that behind me and found a new identity. One that I love and that makes me happier than I was before.
My goal with this blog is to share my journey from being a Mormon to becoming an atheist, why I changed my ways of thinking and how I feel now. I will be sharing a lot of scientific principles and discoveries that helped me to make my decisions, along with future discoveries that reinforce those beliefs and expand my knowledge of this fascinating universe that we live in.
I will be talking a lot about how atheists are perceived in the U.S. and how I have lost friends because of my decisions. I will criticize religion. I will post anti-religious ideas and images. I do this not to anger those who have those beliefs or to persecute them, but because being critical is part of life and especially science. Any group that says not to doubt, not to seek other sources or think about alternative views is destructive to the human experience. Religion gives answers and says not to doubt them. Science asks questions and doubts the answers until the evidence can be tested, retested, verified and upheld, and can even then be refuted and tossed out when further discoveries are made.
As will become the norm, I will end these blogs with a quote or a comic. I will do both for my first.
“I am not an atheist because I am mad at your god. I am not an atheist because I love sin. I am not an atheist because I don’t want to answer to authority. I am an atheist because I sought the truth about reality. I have accepted nature and my place in the universe. I will live and I will die. I wish to leave this world knowing that I did my best. I hope our descendants inherit a world that can sustain them.” – Mike Autrey
I had to add a second quote to fit in with my last point.
“Truth does not ask to be believed. It asks to be tested. Scientists do not join hands every Saturday or Sunday and sing, ‘Yes. Gravity is real! I know gravity is real! I will have faith! I will be strong! I believe in my heart that what goes up, up, up must come down, down, down. Amen!’ If they did, we would think they were pretty insecure about the concept.” – Dan Barker
Finally, a comic.
Thanks for reading! I hope you are all well.
RJ
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How about four supernovae for the price of one? Using the Hubble Space Telescope, Dr. Patrick Kelly of the University of California-Berkeley along with the GLASS (Grism Lens Amplified Survey from Space) and Hubble Frontier Fields teams, discovered a remote supernova lensed into four copies of itself by the powerful gravity of a foreground galaxy cluster. Dubbed SN Refsdal, the object was discovered in the rich galaxy cluster MACS J1149.6+2223 five billion light years from Earth in the constellation Leo. It’s the first multiply-lensed supernova every discovered and one of nature’s most exotic mirages.
Gravitational lensing grew out of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity wherein he predicted massive objects would bend and warp the fabric of spacetime. The more massive the object, the more severe the bending. We can picture this by imagining a child standing on a trampoline, her weight pressing a dimple into the fabric. Replace the child with a 200-pound adult and the surface of the trampoline sags even more.
Similarly, the massive Sun creates a deep, but invisible dimple in the fabric of spacetime. The planets feel this ‘curvature of space’ and literally roll toward the Sun. Only their sideways motion or angular momentum keeps them from falling straight into the solar inferno.
Curved space created by massive objects also bends light rays. Einstein predicted that light from a star passing near the Sun or other massive object would follow this invisible curved spacescape and be deflected from an otherwise straight path. In effect, the object acts as a lens, bending and refocusing the light from the distant source into either a brighter image or multiple and distorted images. Also known as the deflection of starlight, nowadays we call it gravitational lensing.
Simulation of distorted spacetime around a massive galaxy cluster over time
Turns out there are lots of these gravitational lenses out there in the form of massive clusters of galaxies. They contain regular matter as well as vast quantities of the still-mysterious dark matter that makes up 96% of the material stuff in the universe. Rich galaxy clusters act like telescopes – their enormous mass and powerful gravity magnify and intensify the light of galaxies billions of light years beyond, making visible what would otherwise never be seen.
Let’s return to SN Refsdal, named for Sjur Refsdal, a Norwegian astrophysicist who did early work in the field of gravitational lensing. A massive elliptical galaxy in the MACS J1149 cluster “lenses” the 9.4 billion light year distant supernova and its host spiral galaxy from background obscurity into the limelight. The elliptical’s powerful gravity’s having done a fine job of distorting spacetime to bring the supernova into view also distorts the shape of the host galaxy and splits the supernova into four separate, similarly bright images. To create such neat symmetry, SN Refsdal must be precisely aligned behind the galaxy’s center.
The scenario here bears a striking resemblance to Einstein’s Cross, a gravitationally lensed quasar, where the light of a remote quasar has been broken into four images arranged about the foreground lensing galaxy. The quasar images flicker or change in brightness over time as they’re microlensed by the passage of individual stars within the galaxy. Each star acts as a smaller lens within the main lens.
Detailed color images taken by the GLASS and Hubble Frontier Fields groups show the supernova’s host galaxy is also multiply-imaged by the galaxy cluster’s gravity. According to their recent paper, Kelly and team are still working to obtain spectra of the supernova to determine if it resulted from the uncontrolled burning and explosion of a white dwarf star (Type Ia) or the cataclysmic collapse and rebound of a supergiant star that ran out of fuel (Type II).
The time light takes to travel to the Earth from each of the lensed images is different because each follows a slightly different path around the center of the lensing galaxy. Some paths are shorter, some longer. By timing the brightness variations between the individual images the team hopes to provide constraints not only on the distribution of bright matter vs. dark matter in the lensing galaxy and in the cluster but use that information to determine the expansion rate of the universe.
You can squeeze a lot from a cosmic mirage! |
Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is marking a milestone today. The action film icon is turning 67.
Here are some things you might not have known about Arnie:
He was born in near Graz, Austria and immigrated to the U.S. in 1968.
He won the Mr. Olympia title seven times, and also holds the record for the youngest winner when he won his first title at the age of 23 in 1970.
He has a Golden Globe award. He won in the category for “Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture” in the film “Stay Hungry” in 1977.
He really wants a “Twins” sequel and is excited that “Triplets” is in the works, adding Eddie Murphy into the mix.
Some other celebrities enjoying their birthday today include: “Friends” star Lisa Kudrow (51), “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” actor Terry Crews (46), two-time Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank (40), funnyman Tom Green (43), “The Mentalist” star Simon Baker (45), actor Laurence Fishburne (53) and singer Kate Bush (56). |
In the latest wave of protests in the Asian financial hub, a group of Chinese demonstrators on Thursday unfurled a huge banner on Hong Kong's famous "Lion Rock," which overlooks many poor neighborhoods across the region's harbor.
The stunt came following comments made by Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on Monday when he claimed that full democracy would give the poor too much power.
'Genuine universal suffrage'
The 28-meter-long (30.6-yard-long) yellow banner, emblazoned with the slogan "I want genuine universal suffrage" and a picture of an umbrella, which has become the symbol of pro-democracy protesters, was hung by a climber wearing a Spiderman suit.
"The small circle electoral committee (who voted for Leung in 2012) and the Chief Executive only care about the rich on Tai Ping Shan and not the poor under Lion Rock," said the disguised protester who, according to police, was one of 10 climbers belonging to the group who call themselves "Hong Kong Spidie."
'Umbrella Revolution': Protests have been going on for almost a month
Tai Ping Shan is the local name for Victoria Peak, the famous hill that dominates Hong Kong Island and is home to some of the world's most expensive properties.
'Lion Rock Spirit'
Associated with "Lion Rock" is the concept of "Lion Rock Spirit" - a phrase which has been adopted by Cantonese speakers to encapsulate Hong Kong's reputation as a place where hard work and perseverance meant a brighter future.
However, many among Hong Kong's youth feel that the city's "Lion Rock Spirit" has been stifled by the political elite. Faced with rising inequality and soaring housing costs, many young Hong Kongers are left with little hope of renting, let alone buying, their own home in a city with one of Asia's widest wealth gaps.
One month of protests
On Tuesday talks began again between government officials and leaders of the student protest movement. However, hopes remain low for any breakthrough. Beijing believes it has offered enough concessions to the former British colony in the past and sources say it will not change its position.
Pro-democracy campaigners have now been protesting in Hong Kong for almost a month, where they continue to demand a free choice of candidates to become the city's chief executive in the 2017 election. China's National People's Congress decided in August that any candidates would have to be vetted by Beijing before appearing on the ballot.
ksb/tj (Reuters, AFP) |
A recent USA Today article on the inaugural conference for men’s rights activists asked whether it marked “A kinder, gentler turn to the gender wars.” In short: No, it didn't.
Paul Elam of the men's rights group A Voice for Men
Paul Elam // YouTube
Cross-posted with permission from Political Research Associates.
A recent USA Today article on the inaugural conference for men’s rights activists (MRAs) asked whether it marked “A kinder, gentler turn to the gender wars.” In May, Elliot Rodger killed six people after regularly posting misogynistic rants against the “oppressive feminist system,” and a video warning, “If I can’t have you, girls, I will destroy you.”
In the intervening time, the First Inaugural Conference for Men’s Issues, hosted by A Voice for Men, faced a successful campaign asking Detroit’s Hilton DoubleTree hotel to cancel the event. The petition, which obtained close to 6,000 signatures, pointed out that MRAs were designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2012. It continued, “MRAs are linked to the recent mass shooting in UCSB, wherein a young man declared that he would exact revenge on all the women who had rejected him. MRAs are linked to false rape statistics, further perpetuating the dangerous myth that women, ‘make it up for attention.’ MRAs are linked to threats of rape and murder against women who dare to speak out against them.”
Jaclyn Friedman writes in “A Look Inside The Men’s Rights Movement”: “One of their tactics is to put out a cash bounty for personal information—including home addresses, places of employment, email addresses, and phone numbers—of feminists who upset them. The deluge of hate mail, rape and death threats for those on the receiving end of these witch hunts is hard to describe.”
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After news outlets connected Rodger to groups in the MRA sphere, Paul Elam, founder of A Voice for Men, asserted that his organization is committed to nonviolence and that Rodger was not a member. However, Katie McDonough writes at Salon that “until the moment that he is alleged to have killed six women and men, Elliot Rodger was every bit the same as the other men who are defined by their resentment toward women and their sense of bitter victimization in the world.” While she deems it “irresponsible to lay this violence at the feet of the men’s rights activists with whom Rodger seemed to find support for his rage,” nonetheless it “denies reality to pretend that Rodger’s sense of masculine entitlement and views about women didn’t matter or somehow existed in a vacuum.” In 2009, another man who filled an online journal with misogynistic rants killed three women at a fitness center.
Former Political Research Associates researcher Chip Berlet has written extensively on how toxic rhetoric can feed violence, and the danger in viewing these perpetrators as mentally disturbed lone wolves. As Berlet said following the murder of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, “[Right-wing pundits] are not legally culpable for the assassination of Dr. Tiller, but they must share some portion of moral responsibility for creating a dangerous environment.”
Moral Responsibility
While claiming to be a pacifist, Paul Elam has gloried in the idea of a judge who ruled against fathers being “doused with gasoline and set afire.” He opposes abortion (and, it seems, adoption and motherhood too) and wrote a Mother’s Day article saying, “If you have a vagina, the blood of all those children, who are abused far more at the hands of women than men, has stained your skin and caked around the cuticles of your fingers.” He further argued, “Progress for men will not be gained by debate, reason or typical channels of grievance … The progress we need will only be realized by inflicting enough pain on the agents of hate, in public view, that it literally shocks society out of its current coma.” Would the murders Elliot Rodger committed fit that vision of public shock?
Then there’s Elam’s 2010 post about women who go clubbing, accept drinks, make out, and enter a man’s apartment, who end up “victims” [quotation marks his] of rape. “In the most severe and emphatic terms possible the answer is NO, THEY ARE NOT ASKING TO GET RAPED .. They are freaking begging for it. Damn near demanding it.”
The next paragraph goes on to claim that women get raped because they are stupid, arrogant, and narcissistic. The post was scrubbed from A Voice for Men’s website as of 2014, and Elam claims it was intended as satire on the impossibility of promoting self-protection without being accused of victim-blaming. The scrubbing of the post smacks of an attempt to clean up his image, as the organization attempts to mainstream itself to the public. Yet even the “satirical” message, if we take it as such, is that empty-headed women need to be informed by a man that they face risks and that the solution is for women to smarten up not address what Katie McDonough calls “toxic male entitlement.”
Other scheduled conference speakers have blamed women for the state of the world because they choose “fucking monsters” and “assholes” rather than “nice guys” (which we assume the male MRAs consider themselves); asserted that women are “demanding” desired violence with their behavior—what another speaker calls “consensual violence” (consent would be a negotiated BDSM situation, not domestic abuse); equated paying for dinner and not getting sex to “a male version of date rape”; and argued that when a woman’s “nonverbal ‘yeses’ … conflict with those verbal ‘noes,’ that the man not be put in jail for choosing the ‘yes’ over the ‘no.’”
Visiting A Voice for Men’s website today, the first thing I noticed was a speaker denouncing feminism as never about gender equality, but always about misandry and “blaming men.” According to MSNBC’s coverage, the first day of the conference was attended by over 100 participants, and focused on rants about the “evil empire” of feminism. Barbara Kay, a columnist for Canada’s National Post, claimed that rape on campus is nothing more than “buyer’s remorse” and rape culture a “baseless moral panic.” (Note: men’s rights activists include women; structural patriarchy and misogyny influence the beliefs of everyone.)
This is a kinder, gentler turn?
As Jaclyn Friedman writes, “you’ll find women (and, gasp!, even feminists) in leadership in most of the institutions actually working to make life safer for men. It’s feminists who fought a long and recently successful battle to ensure that male victims are included in the FBI’s definition of rape. … Feminists have ensured that, through the Violence Against Women Act that MRAs oppose, the overall rate of intimate partner violence in the U.S. declined 64 percent between 1994 and 2010, and that decline is distributed evenly between male and female victims.”
I was proud to be among those feminist women who worked on the campaign to improve the FBI definition of rape. In college, as a committed feminist, I took a course titled “The Masculine Mystique,” which analyzed the problems that a patriarchal, homophobic, violent system causes men, especially considering stereotypes against men of color and the disproportionate number of black men in prison (most egregiously for harmless drug offenses). An inclusive gender justice movement is already a part of the feminist sphere, and expanding as women and feminist gain more authority and ability to make change.
The men’s rights movement, with its history and present-day of virulent anti-woman and anti-feminist hate speech, is not the place to look for a “kinder, gentler turn to the gender wars.” Don’t be fooled by a single pragmatic attempt at portraying a more respectable image. |
Sega Is Moving Away From Console Games By William Usher Random Article Blend
According to Sega...
“Voluntary retirement will be solicited in the aforementioned businesses to be withdrawn or consolidated and downsized, while at the same time personnel will be repositioned in digital games and growth areas of Group mainly as development personnel, in order to establish a structure which can constantly generate profits,”
The move comes after the publisher consulted with the Group Structure Reform Division who advised Sega to reduce redundancies and offer early retirement for various employees. It was also the purpose of the division to help restructure Sega for profitability and management efficiency.
“We are under consultation with a limited number of staff in the European publishing business and will be able to confirm decisions regarding any potential redundancies in the coming weeks,"
Sega had long been making a good deal of their revenue from their Japanese arcades or pachinko business. The company staying away from home consoles after the Saturn and
Sega has suffered a string of unfortunate disasters in the home console space on the software front. There have been the numerous Sonic games released that were questionable when it came to content, as well as controversial releases like
Recently, there was Sonic Boom and Sonic: Lost World for the Wii U, both of which scored rather low on the critical front and did just as poorly on the sales front. However, the company did have the recent success of Football Manager series that have done well for the company.
Speaking of
As for the future of the company... there are several new Total War: Arena and Total War Battles: Kingdoms, along with a new Football Manager. More sad news today. Following up on the announcement that Joystiq and its related sites are shutting down, Sega also announced that they, too, are closing an office in San Francisco and downsizing their force as they move to Northern California. Sega is also moving away from major console releases and focusing on portable, mobile and online PC games. MCV UK is reporting that Sega has announced that 300 jobs have been on the chopping block and the company offered early retirement for those about to be unemployed.According to Sega...The move comes after the publisher consulted with the Group Structure Reform Division who advised Sega to reduce redundancies and offer early retirement for various employees. It was also the purpose of the division to help restructure Sega for profitability and management efficiency. Eurogamer also managed to get a quote about part of the restructuring process from the long-running software (and formerly hardware) publisher, who commented about any future reductions in job redundancy, saying...Sega had long been making a good deal of their revenue from their Japanese arcades or pachinko business. The company staying away from home consoles after the Saturn and Dreamcast bit the dust (amongst other consoles) made a lot of sense, but now that they're putting the big AAA business behind them... well, it's a little shocking and yet not all too surprising.Sega has suffered a string of unfortunate disasters in the home console space on the software front. There have been the numerousgames released that were questionable when it came to content, as well as controversial releases like Aliens: Colonial Marines , which caused Sega some issues on the legal.Recently, there wasandfor the Wii U, both of which scored rather low on the critical front and did just as poorly on the sales front. However, the company did have the recent success of Alien: Isolation and theseries that have done well for the company.Speaking of Football Manager and Alien: Isolation ... the Eurogamer article notes that both Sega Sports and Creative Assembly won't be affected much by the restructuring. Whether or not they will focus more on mobile titles and online PC games remains to be seen, but it's at least good that Creative Assembly isn't closing up shop. They did have their own little pow-wow back when Total War: Rome 2 launched and Angry Joe took a bite out of them for it.As for the future of the company... there are several new Total War games on the horizon, including Total War: Attila, and, along with a new Blended From Around The Web Facebook
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Story highlights Ugandan police arrest David Cecil and free him after four days
They accuse the Briton of staging a play about gay challenges without permission
He faces charges of "disobedience of lawful orders"
Ugandan authorities jailed a British producer for staging without permission a play about the challenges facing homosexuals in the African nation.
Homosexual acts are illegal in Uganda, where most gays and lesbians face physical attacks and are treated as social outcasts.
The east African nation has made headlines after a parliamentarian introduced an anti-gay bill that called for death for certain homosexual acts.
David Cecil, the producer, spent four days in detention before he was released on bail, his lawyer said Thursday.
He faces charges of "disobedience of lawful orders" after the nation's media council ordered him not to stage his play in public without authorization. If convicted, he can be imprisoned for two years.
"As I understand, the communique from the media council was he should not stage the play in any public theater in Uganda -- meaning he could do in private," said John Onyango, his lawyer. "That was the interpretation."
Cecil staged the play at two small bars in the capital of Kampala by private invitation, according to the lawyer.
CNN attempts to reach the Ugandan department of public prosecutions were unsuccessful.
The play, "The River and the Mountain," features an all-Ugandan cast, and tells the story of a gay businessman killed by his employees.
It uses the life of its main character -- a young businessman whose friends desert him after his revelation that he's a homosexual -- to highlight the challenges of gays in Uganda.
The character's mother unsuccessfully intervenes to "cure" him of his homosexuality, and his colleagues later kill him.
"The play is about the interaction of politics, religion, sexuality and identity," Cecil said by phone from the capital. "The plot hinges on the betrayal of the hero by his best friend."
Cecil is free on $200 bail. He surrendered his passport and is scheduled to appear in court October 18.
Though he faces imprisonment if found guilty, the producer said the incident does not change his love for the nation.
"I love Uganda, I think it's a fantastic country," he said.
He described the jail he was held as "a clean and sociable" place, saying he was treated well.
"I was very well fed ... It was like a strict boarding school," he said.
In 2009, a parliamentarian introduced an anti-gay bill that imposes a death sentence on those convicted of certain homosexual acts, but lawmakers shelved it this year.
World leaders condemned the proposal, prompting some nations to threaten to withhold aid to Uganda.
The member of parliament backing the legislation has vowed to re-introduce it. |
Some people never leave the house in the morning without coffee. Others can’t walk out the door without first catching the news. And some claim their cell phone as their one necessity item. But for me, it’s breakfast. I cannot leave my house without first figuring out what’s to eat.
I’m a huge fan of breakfast and treat it as a special part of my everyday routine. Weekdays are a bit rushed leaving me little time for elaborate items like pancakes or quiche. But weekends? That’s another story. I find few things more alluring than waking up at a leisurely hour, moseying to the kitchen and making a delicious breakfast to be eaten over coffee in bed.
Although pancakes are my all-time favorite morning item, I’m always up for trying new recipes. So when I saw this idea to crack an egg into an avocado and bake it, I knew I had to try it.
Besides it being incredibly good for you – with healthy fats, nutrients and loads of protein – the process is also quite easy, and would be the perfect ‘egg in a basket’ treat to serve your family this Easter for a laid-back breakfast or brunch.
To prepare the dish, simply preheat your oven to 425 degrees and place a cast-iron or oven-safe skillet on the middle rack. Then, cut a medium-to-large ripe avocado in half, remove the pit, and using a spoon, scoop out a little bit more of the avocado to make more room for the egg. If your base is wobbly, you may want to slice a little of the skin off to stabilize it.
Next, carefully remove the heated pan from the oven and crack a small egg into the hole of the avocado, reserving a small amount of the white if it looks like it will overflow. Then season as desired, place the skillet back in the oven, and cook until the egg white is completely cooked. Depending on how done you prefer your yolk, this should take about 10-15 minutes.
Tip: Covering the skillet with an oven-safe lid would speed the process if you’re low on time.
Once the egg is done, serve it alongside fruit salad, toast or a whole wheat tortilla with salsa for some south-of-the-border flair. I opted to scoop mine out, smear it on my toast and top it with a little more salt and pepper. I found just one half to be incredibly filling and satisfying.
I love this idea and would highly recommend it to other adventurous eaters like myself. Kids would no doubt love the playfulness of this dish. And considering how healthy it is, it would be a great choice to balance out all the chocolate bunnies and malt balls to be found in their candy baskets this Easter.
Enjoy!
Also Read:
Egg in an Avocado Recipe
Best and Worst Easter Basket Candies
Easter Recipes That are in Season |
Worldbuilding
Things pertaining to creating worlds and the people, places, governments, creatures, and everything else within them.
General Culture
Country & Culture-Development Questions
Questions to help you develop your countries and their cultures, whether they're fantastic fairytale kingdoms or futuristic space colonies.
Tips To Create Fictional Philosophies & Value Systems
How to create and develop philosophies and value systems - even ones that are very different from what we're familiar with already.
Moral & Ethical System Development Questions
Things to ask to help you work out the details and implications of your setting's moral and ethical systems.
On Creating Fantasy Alphabets
Just some tips and brain-stretchers I wrote on creating fantasy alphabets.
Tips 'n Stuff To Make Better Science Fiction/Fantasy Slang & Swear Words
Make better, catchier, and more potent SF slang and swears!
"I Need A Name For My Town/City!" - Help Coming Up With Names For Fictional Towns And Cities
At a loss for naming your town or city? Here are some tips and things that might help.
Town & City Development Questions
Things to ask yourself when you're developing your towns and cities.
Holiday Development Questions
Questions to ask yourself to help you develop fictional holidays.
Tips To Create Richer & More Realistic Fantasy & Science Fiction Cultures & Civilizations
If you want your fantasy or science fiction worlds to really feel like something that really could exist somewhere, check this out.
Designing Fictional Fashion: Figuring Out What Your SF Characters Wear
Principles to help you figure out what your science fiction, fantasy, or future characters wear.
A Few Things Writers Need To Know About The Medieval Period
Some essentials to know if you're working on or thinking about working on anything inspired by the Middle Ages.
A Few Things Writers Need To Know About Medieval Feudalism
Many European governments used this system during the Middle Ages, so if you plan to write anything inspired by or set in it, it's crucial to know about it.
Things To Know When Writing Historical Fiction & Fictional History - NEW!
There are some frequent errors people make here, so this article will clear them up.
General Mythology
Human Psychology and its Effect on Myths, Legends, and Superstition
A well-developed world needs myths and legends. Here I explore a bit on how they might be born.
Basic Tips To Create More Believable Sci-Fi & Fantasy Religions & Belief Systems
Create more plausible sci-fi and fantasy religions and the like.
Deity-Development Questions
Questions to help you develop better gods, goddesses, and whatnots.
Creatures & Species
Bad Assumptions Writers Make About Aliens
Some questionable ideas that far too many people take for granted concerning aliens and how they might behave.
Fantasy & Science Fiction Creature Development Questions
Things to ask yourself when creating your SF critters.
Tips to Create Better & More Believable Fantasy & Science Fiction Species
Principles that can be applied to every SF creature, sapient or not.
Points To Remember When Designing SF Creatures & Species
Simple stuff to help you make better science fiction and fantasy creatures.
A Few Things Writers Need To Know About Plants & Herbs
Useful facts and information to know about plants and herbs - whether you're creating and designing your own, or using ones that already exist.
Government & Other Organizations
How To Create Fictional Structured Religions
What to know and do when creating fictional religions, from tiny tribal faiths to massive international religion.
Things To Know When Creating & Developing Fictional Governments
Whether fantasy kingdoms, futuristic countries, or just about anything!
"How Should My Royalty/Nobility Behave?" - How To Answer This For Yourself!
Struggling with trying to figure out how your royals and nobles ought to go about things? Struggle no further! Here's how you can work this out for yourself!
On Designing & Writing Oppressive Governments In Your Fiction
What to know when you're writing an oppressive government - whether it's an evil empire or just one rotten country.
Factors That Contribute To Abusive & Dysfunctional Systems/Institutions
Various factors that often lead to a system or institution becoming dysfunctional or even abusive.
Tips & Ideas To Write More Believable Masquerades
Writing the kind of story or creating an RPG setting where magical or supernatural folks live under the noses of everyday, regular people? This is for you.
Creating & Writing Fictional Organizations
Creating a fictional organization for your world, or writing a story about people who work or have to deal in one? Check this out.
Magical School Development Questions
Things to ask yourself if you're developing a school for magical-type people!
Things Writers Should Know About Big Businesses
An assortment of things writers ought to know if they're going to be working any big businesses into their settings.
World Mechanics
Phlebotinum-Development Questions
Questions to help you better develop and think out the potential effects of everything from mystical artifacts to superpowers to technological breakthroughs.
So You Wanna Mix Science And Magic?
For a start, you have to know how both of them actually work - and 99% of people who try this trope don't.
Keeping Magic From Taking Over Your Story
Magic can be very fun and rewarding to use in a story - but if you're not careful, it can become a deus ex machina for all manner of problems. How can you avoid this?
Spaceships, Airships, & Other Fantastic Crafts: Things To Think Out & Consider
Stuff to think about when you're coming up with science fiction and fantasy crafts.
Setting Rules & Limitations In Your World: Why & How You Need To Do This
This is an absolutely critical part of worldbuilding that often doesn't get half the focus and effort it deserves. Here's why it's so important that you do it, and how you do it properly!
Other Odds 'n Ends
Advice & Tips On Developing Fictional Timelines & Histories
Some things to know and think about when developing a timeline for your world.
Creating Plausibly Functional & Useful Tools, Gadgets, & Weapons For Fiction
Tips and guidelines for coming up with SF tech that looks and feels like stuff people really would develop and would use if they could.
Tips On Taking Inspiration From Real-Life Myth, Lore, Tradition, & Legend Without Looking Pretentious, Ignorant, or Insulting
Taking inspiration from real-life stuff can be great - but there are a few ways it can be done badly! Here are some tips to avoid some of the bigger blunders.
How To Increase The Fun Factor of Your Fiction
Tips to make your fiction more fun overall.
Tips & Ideas To Create More Believable Sword 'n Sorcery Worlds
Make better and more solid fantasy worlds of the variety you tend to find noble knights and magic-waving wizards in.
Tips To Write & Create Better & More Believable Futures
Whether you're writing an original story that happens to be set in the future, or setting a roleplay in the future of your favorite TV show's world.
So You Want An Apocalypse/Cataclysm In Your Plot?
Planning to write a post-apocalyptic world? Or a story where the world as we know it is brought to ruin? Check this out.
Tips To Build Better Post-Apocalyptic And/Or Dystopian Settings
Many post-apocalyptic and dystopian scenarios are poorly thought out and don't really hold up to scrutiny. Find out how you can avoid some common traps and make your own settings of this type more solid.
Points To Remember When Worldbuilding
Some oft-overlooked factors to consider and apply to your world or setting.
Where & How Writers Need To Do The Math
Numbers matter when writing fiction. Here's what you need to know and do.
Worldbuilding-Relevant Generator Index
Browse a list of random generators useful for building worlds and cultures.
Copyable Year Lists (1-5999)
Writing out a chronology? Copy and paste year numbers from this list and fill 'em out accordingly.
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Most Haunted is a British paranormal reality television series. It was first shown on Living TV between May 2002 and July 2010. A new online edition aired on 31 October 2013 with Really taking over broadcast from August 2014. Presented by Yvette Fielding, the programme investigates purported paranormal activity in a range of locations, mainly within the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The series is produced by Antix Productions.
Most Haunted was first aired on Living TV from May 2002 until July 2010, when the network decided to axe the programme.
After 4 years of being off-air, Fielding and Karl Beattie, the producer of the programme, confirmed that following a successful online episode, Most Haunted would be returning to screens in August 2014, aired by Really.
Over 250 episodes of the programme have been broadcast to date, with the 24th series airing in early 2019.[3]
Cancellation and revival [ edit ]
On 12 August 2011, it was announced that Sky Living had officially axed Most Haunted and had returned the rights to the show to Yvette Fielding and Karl Beattie. In 2012, it was revealed that Antix Productions partnered with Lionsgate to redevelop Most Haunted.[4]
As of July 2013, Karl Beattie had recently begun scouting new locations for a new series of Most Haunted.[citation needed]
In April 2014 Yvette Fielding confirmed in an interview with Channel 4's Sunday Brunch that Most Haunted would be returning to television in late 2014; this was later confirmed on 4 June 2014. It was later confirmed that Really would be the new home of Most Haunted.
Production [ edit ]
The Most Haunted team have travelled in the United Kingdom but also Ireland, the Netherlands, Romania, the United States, Italy, and Czech Republic, investigating paranormal activity for 24 hours at a time.
Photography [ edit ]
The photographic style of the series has changed considerably since series 1. In the first series many elaborate shots were set up with an almost "theatrical" style, with illuminated windows and dry ice. Locations were often illuminated outside at night time, with blue and green colours. There was a high emphasis on quality production. From series 1–3 there was extensive use of the steadicam, which provided gliding shots during Yvette's ghostly tales or for general views. In series 8 the team introduced a camera crane or 'jib' system for elaborate aerial shots of both Yvette and the locations. Most of the photography in Most Haunted focuses on 'general views' also known as 'GV's' of a location and its surroundings.
Most Haunted is filmed with both broadcast Sony DSR-570WSP & DSR-PD170P DVCAM cameras and Sony DCR-PC9E miniDV cameras. A thermal imaging camera is also used to detect and highlight cold and warm spots. The style of the series changed somewhat after series five, losing its Most Haunted grungy look as it became more mainstream.
Music [ edit ]
Most Haunted's music was originally composed to picture by Alan Clark, using his own original sounds and samples and including some from the Spectrasonics sample libraries Distorted Reality, Metamorphosis and Biazzare Guitar. As of series 12, Alan Clark's music has been supplemented with additional stock music which was also used on the now defunct Unexplained Channel programme, Rest In Peace. Living TV also released a CD featuring Alan Clark's music remixed and original material written and produced by composer and producer Steve Deakin-Davies (The Official Most Haunted soundtrack Vol 1 The Ambition Company/Solo MH104)[5]
On-screen team [ edit ]
Between series 1 and series 15, Most Haunted featured a main presenter, a historian, a psychic medium and a parapsychologist.
Essentially the latter two are intended to create an even balance between paranormal and scientific explanations for the various phenomena that occur. Any information provided by the medium from claimed interactions with spirits is then analysed by the historian to see if it can be verified. The core investigation team are supported by some of the production crew, who appear in the show and are generally involved with the investigation whilst performing their normal crew role. Most of these on-screen crew members also take part in séances.
From series 16, Antix Productions decided to remove psychic mediums from the format of the show.
Name Role Duration Yvette Fielding Presenter 2002–2011, 2013- Karl Beattie Producer, Director & Cameraman 2002–2011, 2013- Stuart Torevell Rigger & Cameraman 2002–2011, 2013- Fred Batt Demonologist & Historian 2010-2011, 2013- Gregg Smith Cameraman 2015- Glen Hunt Sceptic 2015- Darren Hutchinson Soundman 2014- Mary Beattie Yvette and Karl’s daughter. Paranormal Investigator 2018-
Some episodes have also included at least one celebrity. So far the 'celebrity' episodes have included Vic Reeves, Nancy Sorrell, Gaby Roslin, Scott Mills, Mark Chapman, Simon Gregson, Sue Cleaver, Carol Thatcher, Paul O'Grady and Lee Ryan. For the series 10 episode from Coalhouse Fort the team were joined by Scottish paranormal investigator Ryan O'Neill and series 15 saw Bullet for My Valentine join the team on an investigation.
Former mediums [ edit ]
Between series 1 and series 14, a medium accompanied the team on their investigations. The mediums were as follows:
The show has also featured guest mediums. So far these have been Ian Lawman, Ian Shillito, Israeli-born Uri Geller, Rochford's clairvoyant Kevin Wade, American-born Johnnie Fiori, Barrie John, Liverpool native Billy Roberts and American-born Patrick Mathews.
It was decided for series 15 onwards that psychic mediums would not be used in the format.
Former team members [ edit ]
Name Role Years Jason Karl Parapsychologist 2002 Catherine Howe Hair & Make up Artist 2003–2011 Phil Whyman Paranormal Investigator 2003–2004, 2009-2010 Richard Felix Historian 2003–2006 Dr Ciarán O'Keeffe Parapsychologist 2004–2010 Dr. Matthew Smith Parapsychologist 2002–2005 Chris Burton Director of Photography & Cameraman 2007–2011, 2013-2014 Lesley Smith Historian 2008–2009 Melanie Crump Hair & Make-Up Artist 2013-2014 Dr. John Callow Historian & Sceptic 2014 Leah Walton Hair & Make up Artist 2015 Eamonn Vann-Harris Electronic Researcher 2015-2017
Series [ edit ]
For main article on individual episodes, see: List of Most Haunted episodes
This section outlines changes across the 23 series of Most Haunted, with detailed look at major changes through the programme's original run (series 1-14), broadcast on Living and a brief series overviews and filming location lists if the revival series (15-23), broadcast on Really.
Time slot
Series 1: Tuesdays at 8:30pm on Living
Tuesdays at 8:30pm on Living Series 2–13: Tuesdays at 9:00pm on Living
Tuesdays at 9:00pm on Living Series 14: Wednesdays at 10.00pm on Living
Wednesdays at 10.00pm on Living Series 16-17: Thursdays at 10:00pm on Really
Thursdays at 10:00pm on Really Series 18: Sundays at 10:00pm on Really
Sundays at 10:00pm on Really Series 19: Thursdays at 10:00pm on Really
Thursdays at 10:00pm on Really Series 20-22: Fridays at 10:00pm on Really
Fridays at 10:00pm on Really Series 23: Daily at 10:00pm on Really
Daily at 10:00pm on Really Series 24: Fridays at 9:00pm on Really
Series 1–3 (2002 - 2003) [ edit ]
Known as "Most Haunted with Yvette Fielding and Derek Acorah" (This nickname was used until series 6)
The film crew for the first series, including guest Jason Karl (back, right)
The first series began on 25 May 2002. Each episode had a duration of thirty minutes. However, reruns of these episodes have been re-edited to the full hour and titled Most Haunted Unseen. Added footage in these episodes is shown with a caption in the corner to distinguish it from the original version. The series concluded with an investigation of Michelham Priory on 17 September 2002, which was coincidentally the first episode to be produced. In the eighth series the team revisited this location to mark the 100th episode. During the break in series, the team aired three live investigations, the third of which led into the second series on 8 April 2003. From this point onwards episodes were accompanied by a supplemental Most Haunted Extra. At this point, Extra was available as a ten-minute feature after the main show, accessible to viewers via the red button. For Series two and three, Phil Whyman joined the show as a paranormal investigator, replacing the original investigator Jason Karl of Lancashire as well as guest investigators Portsmouth native David Scanlan and Vicki Purewal who decided not to continue with the team, who left at the end of the first series. The show remained unchanged at this point until Series 4.
Series 4–6 (Derek Acorah Departure and Revamp) [ edit ]
The fourth series commenced on 23 March 2004 with an investigation of Owlpen Manor. Most Haunted Extra became a thirty-minute programme, broadcast for half an hour after the main show on LivingTV. This series was the first series in which guest mediums joined the team during the investigations. This took some of the pressure off Derek Acorah who had been the only medium in the first three series. The main guest mediums involved during this series were Salisbury native Brian Shepherd, David Wells and Scunthorpe's Ian Lawman.
Series five commenced on 14 September 2004. It was preceded by a 3 night Most Haunted Live! investigation advertised as a countdown to the series. Phil Whyman was replaced with (although he recently returned on the Live shows as a studio expert), then semi-regular, Ciarán O'Keeffe. Originally O'Keeffe viewed the footage recorded during the investigations and analysed it, putting forward his own views and opinions, which usually included suggestions as to other possible causes for the phenomena encountered. He shared this role with his colleague Matthew Smith who frequently attended the early Most Haunted Live events. Following the departure of Phil Whyman after Series 4, O'Keeffe began to join the team on location. Yvette's brother Rick Fielding also left the show at the end of Series 4.
At the end of Series 5, Antix Productions began editing the series in-house at their own production offices. Prior to this, post-production had been completed at 422 Manchester. As a result, the series lost its original editor who had worked on Most Haunted since the first episode and all of the vintage film composite effects which resulted in a considerable change to the editing style and look of the programme.
For series six, beginning on 22 March 2005 with an investigation of Bodmin Gaol, David Wells became one of the main mediums alongside Derek Acorah appearing in every episode. This was Derek Acorah's last Most Haunted series owing to the controversy he was involved in during its production which cast doubt on his ability to perform his role.[6] As such he did not appear in the final episode at Sinai House. The number of episodes for Series 6 was originally intended to be eighteen, with the last eleven being part of Series 7. Due to Acorah's departure, the series was extended. This was the first series in which the team conducted 24-hour investigations over in the USA. Acorah didn't return for the show's finale at Sinai House when David Wells was the main medium.
Series 7–9 (Spin-Offs and Cast Changes) [ edit ]
The seventh series began on 1 November 2005 yet only ran for six weeks, shortened from an intended nine. Two of the final three episodes (at Bamburgh Castle and Chambercombe Manor) were broadcast at the end of Series 8 and the last, at Spitbank Fort, was broadcast as special on Boxing Day 2006. Parapsychologist Louie Savva a regular on the Most Haunted Live! events joined the team for a few of the investigations in this series covering shows which O'Keeffe was unable to take part in.
Series eight began on 27 June 2006 with the 100th investigation and a revisit to Michelham Priory. It marked the last appearance of Richard Felix as the resident historian. He was not replaced until the tenth series. This series featured guest mediums Gordon Smith, Ian Lawman, Ian Shillito of Braintree, Essex and Kevin Wade.
An investigation of South Stack Lighthouse began the ninth series on 2 January 2007. Four episodes into the series, new episodes became known as New Most Haunted in television listings and on-screen. This is the last series of Most Haunted where Most Haunted Extra accompanied each episode. After the first few episodes, Extra was moved to Living2. Most Haunted Extra last appeared accompanying Most Haunted: Midsummer Murders. This was the last series to feature David Wells as a regular medium on the show.
Series 10: Midsummer Murders [ edit ]
The 10th series was given the tagline Midsummer Murders and was an eight-part series where Most Haunted investigators attempted to solve murder mysteries in normal English villages. It was hosted by Most Haunted historian Lesley Smith. The series commenced on a weekly broadcast from 19 June 2007 to 31 July 2007 and the team visited (in order of broadcast) Stoney Middleton, Nantwich, Castleton, Pluckley, Ruthin, Tutbury, Tarvin, and Bakewell. An episode, shot in Lymm Village, saw the team investigate a suspect of Jack the Ripper. This episode was not aired on television. Most Haunted: Midsummer Murders was never released on DVD.
Series 11 (The New Investigator Years) [ edit ]
The eleventh series of Most Haunted began on 19 February 2008 and came to a close at the end of April.[7] This series featured three psychic mediums: Johnnie Fiori, Nottingham native Barrie John and Brian Shepherd. Lesley Smith replaced Richard Felix as the resident historian on the recorded shows and travelled with the team to each location. The team were also joined by Scottish paranormal investigator Ryan O'Neill, a guest on episodes 1&2 of series 10 at Coalhouse Fort.[8] In the Coalhouse Fort episodes of the show, an American psychic joined the team and claimed to have encountered the spirits of a bespectacled old man and his "gawky" son in the museum of the fort, who had been responsible for compiling the collection. The team allegedly picked up the voice and moaning from the old man later in the night.[9] The psychic also claimed that there were spirits of animals in the fort, perhaps from horses who had been involved in its construction and claimed to have encountered the spirit of a pilot named Jeff and other air force men around the fort who had been there during World War I.[9] She also claimed that in one area of the fort she picked up macabre images of debauchery and sodomy where sexual favours were performed in return for food and money, also from World War I.[9] The team also apparently picked up countless examples of poltergeist activity in the fort with the unexplained throwing of stones, knocking and the occasional moaning, responses from taunts by the team for the ghosts to make their presence known.[9]
Series 12, 13 (Most Haunted USA) & 14 [ edit ]
Alternating between series 12 and 13, Living broadcast on an episode from series 12 followed the following week with an episode from Season 13 also known as Most Haunted USA.[citation needed] Series 14 aired in 2010 featuring 10 episodes with the opening episode at Speke Hall.[citation needed]
Series 15 (Final Series on Living) [ edit ]
Series 15 started on 12th May 2010, with an investigation into Berkeley Castle and continue to show every Wednesday on Living at 22:00 BST. The series ended on Wednesday 21 July 2010. The series was made up of 10 episodes concluding with a two-parter at Weald & Downland Museum, Singleton, West Sussex.
DVD - Exclusive DVD Episode, 2011 (Stand Alone Investigation) [ edit ]
A new episode of Most Haunted was released exclusively to DVD on 12 December 2011. This investigation was based at The Rifles Museum in Salisbury, England
No New Episodes (2011 - 2014) [ edit ]
Most Haunted ended in 2010, with the showing of repeats by LivingTV ending in 2011. In 2010, Freeview channel Sky 3 (later Pick TV, now Pick) began showing the repeats. This continued until 2016.
Following the initial axing by LivingTV, Karl Beattie began a fan campaign to get the show back on the air. Most Haunted returned with a Christmas DVD special from The Rifles Museum in Salisbury. Later, three episodes from The Royal Court Theatre, Bacup, England produced and aired initially online then sold to Really TV as a single episode.[citation needed].
Series 16 (Revival on Really, New Set Up. 2014) [ edit ]
It was announced on 4 June, that Most Haunted will return to TV in August 2014 with a new 10 part series to air on the Freeview channel, Really. Yvette Fielding returned to the show along with Karl Beattie. Former team members Stuart Torevell and Fred Batt also returned.[10] Welsh heavy metal band Bullet For My Valentine appeared in an episode of the show.
Yvette Fielding was interviewed on the James Whale (radio) Show, discussing the current show and her reasons for not using mediums in the new series of Most Haunted. JWRS Ep. 80 April 2015
Series 16 Episode List
The Royal Court Theatre, Bacup Newton House (Part 1) Newton House (Part 2) The Galleries of Justice Delapre Abbey The National Emergency Services Museum Ye Olde Kings Head, Chester Drakelow Tunnels Saltmarshe Hall (Part 1) Saltmarshe Hall (Part 2)
Series 17 (Mid-2015) [ edit ]
Most Haunted aired its 17th series from June to July 2015. [IMDb 1]
Tivoli Theatre - North Wales Tatton Old Hall - Cheshire Annisons Funeral Parlor - Hull Fort Paull - Yorkshire (Part 1) Fort Paull - Yorkshire (Part 2) Wentworth Woodhouse (Part 1) Wentworth Woodhouse (Part 2) Oakwell House Knottingley Town Hall Capesthorne Hall - Cheshire
Series 18 (Late-2015) [ edit ]
Most Haunted aired its 18th series from October to December 2015. [IMDb 2] The series features Most Haunted's first live broadcast since 2010, as a 3 1⁄ 2 hour Halloween special on 31 October 2015, which took place at 30 East Drive, Pontefract - the home of The Black Monk.[IMDb 3] The Halloween special attracted 543,000 viewers, giving Really its largest audience in the channel's history.[IMDb 4]
30 East Drive (Part 1) 30 East Drive (Part 2) Most Haunted Live - Halloween Special (at 30 East Drive) Thackray Medical Museum Armley Mills Carr House Hill House (Part 1) Hill House (Part 2) Village Church Farm House Old Nick Theatre The Black Country Museum
Series 19 (2016) [ edit ]
Most Haunted aired its 19th series from June to September 2016. [IMDb 5] Series 19 included a "Huge" 3 Part Investigation at a former prison, HMP Shrewsbury; as well as a 2-hour Halloween special which also took place at HMP Shrewsbury and was broadcast on 3 November 2016.
Lyceum Theatre Whittington Castle Halsham House Mansion House Care Home Walton Hall Oak House Middleton Hall HMP Shrewsbury (Part 1) HMP Shrewsbury (Part 2) HMP Shrewsbury (Part 3) Halloween Special (HMP Shrewsbury)
Series 20 (Mid-2017) [ edit ]
Most Haunted aired its 20th Series from 14th April to 16th June 2017. [IMDb 6] During the investigation at Wentworth Woodhose Stables the team capture an "Actual Ghost" On Camera, although it is disputed by some whether there is "foul play" at work.
Abbey House Museum Wentworth Woodhouse Stables The Slaughter House Todmoreden Church Weir Mill Ripon Workhouse Ripon Prison Standon Hall (Part 1) Standon Hall (Part 2) Standon Hall (Part 3)
Series 21 (Halloween Week) [ edit ]
Most Haunted aired its 21st Series from 27th October to 24th November 2017. [IMDb 7]
Rowley's House The Fleece Inn Haden Hill House (Part 1) Haden Hill House (Part 2) Croxteth Hall (Part 1) ('As' Live special) Croxteth Hall (Part 2) The Old House The Keighley Bus Museum The Judges' Lodgings (Part 1) The Judges' Lodgings (Part 2)
Series 22 (Early 2018) [ edit ]
Most Haunted aired its 22nd Series from January to March 2018. The series consists of 4 two-part investigations and 2 single part investigations and an "As Live" special (as part of one of the two-part investigations) [IMDb 8]
Birmingham Central Lock-Up Llanfyllin Workhouse Pt 1 Llanfyllin Workhouse Pt 2 Beaumanor Hall Part 1 Beaumanor Hall Part 2 Dudley Castle Codnor Castle Cottage pt 1 (90 minute "as live" special) Codnor Castle Cottage p2 (45 minute "as live" special) Moat House Part 1 Moat House Part 2
Series 23 (Halloween 2018) [ edit ]
For Halloween 2018, Really TV presented 13 nights of paranormal programming, which included Series 23 of Most Haunted. Instead of airing the series each week, Really TV aired the whole series of ten consecutive nights from Friday 19 October 2018 until Sunday 28th October 2018.[IMDb 9]
Ashwell Prison (As Live) Special Part 1 Ashwell Prison (As Live) Special Part 2 Bate Inn Part 1 Bate Inn Part 2 Ruthin Castle Part 1 Ruthin Castle Part 2 Ancient High House The Leopard Inn Part 1 The Leopard Inn Part 2 The Leopard Inn Part 3
Series 24 (2019) [ edit ]
On Saturday 29 December 2018, Karl Beattie confirmed on Twitter that a new series of Most Haunted will start airing on Friday 11 January 2019 on Really, starting with an "As Live" special from Eden Camp in Yorkshire. Karl also confirmed that a former member of the team will be joining them for an investigation and a new team member will be joining them in this series.[11]
Most Haunted's 24th series began airing on Really on Friday 11 January 2019 and will run for 10 episodes.[IMDb 10] The new series is airing at the earlier time of 9.00pm. Shortly after the premiere on Really, the whole series was made available on the channel's on-demand service, UKTV Play.
Eden Camp Museum (As-Live) Pt. 1 (2-hour special) Eden Camp Museum (As-Live) Pt. 2 Antwerp Mansion Hodroyd Hall Pt. 1 Hodroyd Hall Pt. 2 Hodroyd Hall Pt. 3 Kelham Hall Pt. 1 Kelham Hall Pt. 2 Guys Cliffe House Pt. 1 Guys Cliffe House Pt. 2
Spin Offs [ edit ]
Most Haunted Live! [ edit ]
Most Haunted: Recurring Nightmares [ edit ]
In Most Haunted: Recurring Nightmares, the presenters recall their most frightening visits.
Most Haunted USA [ edit ]
Most Haunted USA was an eight-part mini-series that aired on the American Travel Channel from 12 December 2008 to 30 January 2009. The series has also aired in the UK and includes the team's investigation at the famous Waverly Hills Sanitorium in Kentucky.[citation needed] It aired as part of Series 11 in the UK.
Most Haunted: The Live Series [ edit ]
In January 2010, Most Haunted returned for a spin-off of the live shows. These episodes differed from the previous live shows in that they were more like a series investigation, but broadcast live. The series was broadcast live every Saturday night and ran for 8 weeks, with each episode lasting two hours.
Most Haunted: Top Ten Scariest Moments [ edit ]
Top Ten Scariest Moments is a part-mini series that consists of 10 45-minute episodes, that was broadcast on Really and is still available to watch through UKTV Play, Really's on demand service. The series features Yvette recalling her scariest moments from past series. A slightly shortened edit of the episode from which that moment is from is then shown. Included in the online series is 10 minute discussion featuring Yvette and Glenn Hunt, the resident sceptic, on "the elephant in the room" after the investigation at the Wentworth Woodhouse Stable Block as to whether the footage of the ‘Wentworth Ghost’ was faked.
Controversy [ edit ]
On several occasions the former Spiritualist medium Derek Acorah was supposedly possessed by an entity, sometimes evil or sometimes "lost and confused". Two such cases exposed Acorah. Before the filming, Acorah had been fed misinformation twice about the non-existent ghosts of Kreed Kafer and Rik Eedles by the show parapsychologist Dr. Ciarán O'Keeffe (under instruction from Karl Beattie, according to Bad Psychics website). During the investigations, later broadcast, Acorah presented the information as fact and even behaved as though being possessed by the fictional ghosts. O'Keeffe later revealed in the Daily Mirror that Kreed Kafer and Rik Eedles were anagrams of 'Derek Faker' and 'Derek Lies'.[6] Even though O'Keeffe exposed Acorah, the paper also claimed that O'Keeffe had exposed the rest of the Most Haunted team. O'Keeffe later reported that he had been grossly misquoted and misrepresented in the article, and produced a response outlining his version of the show based on his observations and findings, saying he had exposed Derek Acorah and not the entirety of Most Haunted. The show's presenter, Yvette Fielding, said in an interview that she believes it was a fake possession.[12]
The show was reported in 2005 to Ofcom relating to Derek Acorah. Ofcom described the show as one "where techniques are used which mean the audience is not necessarily in full possession of the facts". Ofcom ruled that this was not fraud because Most Haunted is an entertainment show, not a legitimate investigation into the paranormal, and should not be taken seriously.[13]
Although not mentioned by O'Keeffe, the Mirror article also brought into question unedited footage which appeared to show Yvette Fielding and Karl Beattie faking 'paranormal' occurrences such as ghostly bumps and knocks. Fielding denied these claims; Beattie did not comment.[6]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
IMDb References [ edit ]
NOTE: on the IMDb website, some series' are mis-numbered; as such series 10 onwards in this article is under season 9 on the IMDb. |
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The funnel visualization report is available under Conversions > Goals in your GA view:
In order to truly benefit from funnel visualization reports you must know how this report actually works.
If you create wrong funnels then you won’t be able to map customers’ conversion journey correctly and without correct mapping, there would be no conversion optimization.
Note: You can learn about setting up goals and funnel visualization in Google Analytics from this help article: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1032415?hl=en-GB
Introduction to Funnels in Google Analytics
In Google Analytics, a funnel is a navigation path (series of web pages) which you expect your website users to follow, to achieve website goals.
A funnel is made up of a goal page(s) and one or more funnel pages (also known as the funnel steps).
Through funnels you can determine, where users enter and exit the conversion/sales process.
You can then determine and eliminate bottlenecks in your conversion/sales process in order to improve the website sales.
You can set up to 20 pages as funnel pages in GA. However don’t do that (more about that later).
Types of Google Analytics Funnels
There are 4 types of funnels available in Google Analytics:
#1 Goal funnel – it is a series of web pages which you expect your website users to follow, to complete a non-transactional goal like ‘newsletter signups’, ‘downloads’ etc.
#2 Sales funnel – it is a series of web pages which you expect your website users to follow, to complete a transactional goal like placing an order on the website. Checkout process is a good example of a sales funnel.
#3 Multi channel goal funnel – it is a goal funnel which takes into account, the role played by multiple marketing channels in the conversion path.
#4 Multi channel sales funnel – it is a sales funnel which takes into account, the role played by multiple marketing channels in the conversion path.
In this article, I will explain Goal and Sales funnels in great detail. But I won’t cover multi channel goal/sales funnels.
To learn more about multi channel funnels, read the article: Google Analytics Attribution Modeling – Beginners Guide
In order to get the most out of goals and sales funnel, you need to know three things:
#1 How to correctly set up goals/sales funnel
#2 How to accurately interpret/read the funnel visualization report.
#3 How to optimize the goals/sales funnel to increase sales.
Common Issues while Setting up Funnels in Google Analytics
Following are the most common issues I have discovered while setting up funnels in Google Analytics :
Selecting the wrong conversion path Entering incorrect data while defining goal and funnel pages Using Same Goal page for different funnels Capitalization issues Assigning monetary value to transactional goals Using incorrect REGEX (regular expressions) for Goal and Funnel Pages Not understanding the required first step Not Testing the Funnel Setup
Issue #1: Selecting the Wrong Conversion Path
Create a funnel only when there is a well-defined path you can see/expect your website users to follow, to complete your website goal. If a website goal (like file downloads) can be easily achieved, by following dozens of different paths, then do not define a funnel. If you do, it won’t help you much in understanding how different traffic segments convert. Instead create filtered views (like one view for organic traffic, one for paid search, one for social media etc). I am often asked the question: How do I decide pages for my funnel? The answer is pretty simple, use those pages as funnel pages, which are most frequently viewed prior to goal completions and/or transactions. Use the page value metric to determine such pages. You can also use the ‘Reverse Goal Path’ report (under Conversions > Goals in your GA view) to determine the actual navigation paths that triggered goal conversions, and the number of conversions each navigation path triggered. By default the ‘Reverse goal path’ report, shows the last 3 steps, user took, before viewing the goal page. The navigation path that has triggered maximum number of conversions, should be used as a funnel. You can also apply advanced segments to the ‘reverse goal path’ report. Note: You can only create funnels for URL based goals. So if you want to create funnels for event based goals then you need to use virtual pageviews. You can learn more about virtual pageviews from this article: Event Tracking & Virtual pageviews in Google Analytics – Complete Guide
Issue #2: Entering Incorrect Data while Defining Goal and Funnel Pages
When you set up a goal or funnel page you specify only the Request URI. The Request URI is what that comes after the domain name. For example in the URL: https://www.abc.com/event-education.aspx, the request URI is ‘/event-education.aspx’. Following is an example of incorrect and then correct, goal and funnel set up:
Issue #3: Using the Same Goal Page for Different Funnels If you want to set up different funnels for same goal, then consider using different goal URLs for each individual funnel. For example, let’s say, you want to understand, how people who view the service1 page, convert in comparison to the people, who view the service2 page on your website. Now you need to set up two different goals and two different funnels in your GA view, to understand this conversion behavior. Let us suppose the URI of the goal page for the two funnels is ‘/thank-you/‘. So the first goal and its corresponding funnel setup, could look something like the one below: The second goals and its corresponding funnel setup, could look something like the one below: Now once you start collecting the data for the two goals, you will discover that the goal completions and goal conversion rate for both goals are reported the same, by Google Analytics: This happened because, both goal completions and goal conversion rate is independent of the funnel steps. To fix this problem, you need to use different goal page URL for the two goals: ‘/thank-you-service1/‘ , ‘/thank-you-service2/‘ After such setup, you would see correct number of Goal completions and accurate goal conversion rate for each goal and funnel. Issue #4: Capitalization Issues If you want to make the goal page URI and funnel page URIs to exactly match the capitalization of visited URLs then you need to check the ‘case-sensitive’ check box while setting up a funnel:
There are lot of websites out there which have got URLs in uppercase and/or lowercase letters or in some weird combination of upper and lowercase letters.
So if your goal/funnel pages did not match the capitalisation of visited URLs then you will get incorrect data in your funnel visualization reports.
The capitalisation issue is one of the most overlooked issue, according to my analysis of hundreds of GA accounts.
Issue #5: Assigning a Monetary Value to Transactional Goals You should never specify a goal value for transactional goals, as this can inflate the revenue metrics in Google Analytics reports. Here is what I meant:
You should assign monetary value only to non-transactional goals (like ‘file downloads’, ‘newsletters signups’ etc), so that Google Analytics can calculate the ROI and per session goal value.
Note(1): Goal value is the value of a website goal which is determined by calculating what you will get, when a goal is achieved. For e.g. if you sell leads then revenue per lead can be the value of each goal. Note(2): A non-transactional goal conversion is counted, only once during a session, per user. For example if PDF file download is one of your goal, then Google Analytics will count only one conversion in a single web session (or visit), no matter how many times a user downloads the PDF file.
Issue #6: Using the Incorrect REGEX for Goal and Funnel Pages One of the most common and very difficult issues to resolve, while setting up funnels in GA, is to make sure that correct regular expression (or REGEX) is used for goal and funnel pages. For example, in the funnel visualisation report you may sometimes see, 100% continuation rate from one step to the next:
Like in our case, there is a 100% continuation rate from shopping cart page to check out page and 100% continuation rate from checkout page to the order review page. This usually happens when multiple funnel steps, match same web pages. If you look at the funnel set up above, the first step is the home page (/) which matches with all other funnel pages, as they all contain ‘/’. This is because of the ‘regular expression’ match type, selected for the URL destination goal ( which is /completed-purchase.php) The match type (like ‘Regular Expression’, ‘Begins With’, ‘Equal to’) you select for URL destination goal is continued throughout the funnel set up. So if you select ‘regular expression’ match for the URL destination goal then it will be the same match type for each funnel step. Similarly, if you select ‘Begins with’ match for the URL destination goal then it will be the same match type for each funnel step. Remember funnel steps can accept regular expressions. In order to solve the 100% continuation issue, in the funnel visualization report here, you need to re-write the regex for the goal page and each of the funnel page. Another Example, if the goal URL is /.*/signup\.php Then Google Analytics can match this regex, with signup page in any directory. For example the goal URL will match the following URLs: https://www.abc.com/signup.php
https://www.abc.com/offer1/signup.php
https://www.abc.com/offer2/signup.php?query=jay
https://www.abc.com/offer3/signup.php?query=shoes&id=2013 To learn more about the uses of regular expressions in Universal Analytics, check out this article: Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager Regex (Regular Expressions) Guide Note: You can also use wild cards to define a goal or funnel page. For example, you can use *.pdf to define a goal page. Just like 100% continuation rate, you can also see 100% exit rate in your funnel visualization reports whenever two or more funnel steps match same web pages.
Issue #7: Not Understanding the Required First Step When you mark first step of the funnel as required, the funnel visualization report includes only those conversions that pass through the required step:
That means you funnel conversion rate could be different for the funnel in which the first step is not marked as required.
Here, the order in which the ‘required funnel page’ was viewed during the GA session, which results in conversion, does not matter.
So it is not required that a website user, must first visit the required funnel page before visiting any other funnel page.
The funnel steps 1, 2, 3…. etc are meaningless, unless users can’t proceed to the next step before visiting the previous funnel page.
As long as the required funnel page is viewed in a web session (which results in conversion), regardless of the order in which it is viewed, the conversions will be counted by GA. In our case, the required funnel step is the home page. So the funnel visualisation report would include only those conversions, in which the home page was viewed in a web session, regardless of the order in which it was viewed. Similarly, if you want the funnel visualisation report to include only those conversions, in which one of the product category page was viewed then set product category pages as the required step:
Similarly, if you want the funnel visualization report to include only those conversions, in which one of the product details pages was viewed then you can set product details pages as the required step:
Note: You can create multiple funnels for a single website goal, using the ‘required funnel step’ and can thus get deep insight into, how people are converting on your website.
Issue #8: Not Testing the Funnel Set Up
Viewing an empty funnel even after waiting for weeks, is one of the worst situation to be in. You can’t go back in time, fix the issue and get the historical data. Even if you fix the funnel set up now, the funnel visualization report will only show data going forward. The funnel visualization report can’t show data retroactively. That means you lost weeks of data, in your funnel visualization report for good. Therefore, before you set up any funnel in Google Analytics, always test it via to make sure, that you are going to get the data in funnel visualization report. Testing a funnel means, testing the URI of the Goal and funnel pages. For example, if your regex for finding goal/funnel pages, is incorrect or there are capitalization issues, then you wont see any data or correct data in you funnel visualization report in GA . You can test your regex, using the filters on the reporting interface: You can also test goal page in your funnel, by clicking on the ‘Verify this Goal’ link:
In case of GA standard, it could take up to 24 hours, for the data to populate in your funnel visualization reports.
Whereas, in case of GA Premium, it can take up to 4 hours, to get the funnel data.
Interpreting Funnel Visualization Report Data
One issue that can easily crippled your conversion optimization efforts, is the misinterpretation of funnel visualization report data.
Such misinterpretation could lead to drawing wrong conclusions, which in turn, lead to making wrong marketing decisions.
Many marketers assume that the number 2,037 in the screenshot below, denotes the number of people (users) who completed a goal conversion: But this is not true. The number 2,037 denotes the number of unique pageviews and not users.
A unique pageview is the number of sessions during which a page was viewed once or more times.
A unique pageview is counted only once during a session. So no matter how many times a user navigates to the same page in a given web session (or visit), the number of unique pageviews for the page will remain one.
For example if a person navigates to the home page three times in a given web session then:
the number of pageviews for the home page will be 3
the number of unique pageviews for the home page will be 1
Also, the number of unique pageviews is not equal to number of users.
This is because a user can navigate to the same page multiple times during multiple sessions and thus can generate multiple unique pageviews.
For example, if a person view the home page three times in the first web session and 4 times in the second web session, then the number of unique pageviews for the home page would be 2 but the number of users would still be 1.
#1 Funnel Visualization Report Does Not Show the Actual Conversion Path
Example-1: Let us suppose a user landed on the website via home page. He then navigated to the ‘shopping cart’ page and again visited the home page:
Let us also supposed, all of this happened in a single web session. Now the funnel visualization report will not show the actual order in which these funnel steps were viewed. It would show an entrance to the home page, a continuation to the shopping cart page and an exit from shopping cart page to the home page. This happened because, funnel visualization report does not show ‘loop back’. The ‘loop back’ is the activity of going back to the previous step in a funnel. In our case, the user went back to the home page from the shopping cart page and thus created a loop back.
So, people do not always move through your sales/conversion funnel exactly the way you set it up in Google Analytics.
People can also enter or exit the funnel midway.
Also note the number of unique pageviews for the home page. It is 1 despite the page being visited twice.
This is because the home page has been visited twice in a single web session. Had it been visited in two different web sessions, the number of unique pageviews for the home page would be 2.
Example-2: Consider the following funnel set up:
Here, from the actual conversion path of the user, we can conclude that: User landed on the website via home page. User navigated to the ‘shopping cart’ page. User navigated back to the home page. User refreshed the home page for some reason. All of this happened in a single web session. We can also conclude that two ‘loop backs’ occurred in the actual conversion path. One loop back occurred when the user went back to home page from the shopping cart page. The second loop back occurred when the user refreshed the home page through his browser. Since the funnel visualisation report doesn’t show ‘ loop back’, it would show: an entrance to the home page a continuation to the shopping cart page an exit from shopping cart page to the home page and an exit from the home page to the home page.
Example-3: Consider the following funnel set up:
Here, from the actual conversion path of the user, we can conclude that: the user landed on the website via home page user navigated to the ‘shopping cart’ page user again navigated to the home page user again navigated to the shopping cart page All of this happened in a single web session. We can also conclude that two ‘loop backs’ occurred in the actual conversion path. One loop back occurred when the user went back to home page from the shopping cart page. The second loop back occurred when the user went back to shopping cart page from the home page. Since the funnel visualization report doesn’t show ‘loop back’, It would show: an entrance to the home page a continuation to the shopping cart page an exit from shopping cart page to the home page and an exit from the home page to the shopping cart page.
#2 Funnel Visualization Report Shows Continuation only from the Funnel Pages
Consider the following funnel set up:
Here, from the actual conversion path of the user, we can conclude that:
the user landed on the website via Product-A page. user navigated to the home page. user navigated to the ‘shopping cart’ page user navigated to the contact us page
All of this happened in a single web session.
We can also conclude that no ‘loop back’ occurred in the actual conversion path, as the user did not return to any previous step in the funnel.
The funnel visualisation report would show:
#1 An entrance from the product-A page to the home page. (The report won’t show continuation from the product-A page to the home page. This is because product-A page is not one of the funnel page/step)
#2 A continuation to the shopping cart page from the home page.
#3 An exit from shopping cart page to the ‘contact Us’ page. Since the ‘contact Us’ page is not one of the funnel page, the report won’t show continuation to the contact Us’ page. Instead it will show user exit from the funnel to the ‘contact Us’ page.
#3 Google Analytics Reports the Funnel Pages in the Order They Were Set Up, Not in the Order They Were Viewed Consider the following funnel set up:
Here, from the actual conversion path of the user, we can conclude that: the user landed on the website via Product-A page. user navigated to the ‘shopping cart’ page. user navigated to the home page user navigated to the contact us page. All of this happened in a single web session. We can also conclude that no ‘loop back’ occurred in the actual conversion path, as the user did not return to any previous step in the funnel. The funnel visualization report would show: an entrance from the product-A page to the home page a continuation to the shopping cart page an exit from shopping cart page to the ‘contact Us’ page. Google Analytics simply checks, whether a funnel page was viewed during a web session and if it was, then that is represented in the funnel visualization report in the order in which you set up your funnel, regardless of the order in which the website users actually viewed the funnel pages/steps.
#4 Funnel Visualization Report for a User with Multiple Web Sessions Consider the following funnel set up:
Here, from the actual conversion path of the user, we can conclude that: In the first web session: the user landed on the website via Home page user navigated to the Shopping Cart page. In the second web session: the user landed on the website via Home page user navigated to the Shopping Cart page user navigated to the Checkout page. We can also conclude that no ‘loop back’ occurred, because the user navigated back to the home page and back to the shopping cart page, in a different web session. However since the home page and the shopping cart pages were viewed in two different web sessions, the number of unique pageviews for both home page and shopping cart pages would be 2. Whereas the number of unique pageviews for the checkout page would be 1, as it is viewed in only one web session (or visit).
#5 A User Skipping a Single Funnel Page Consider the following funnel set up:
Here, from the actual conversion path of the user, we can conclude that: the user landed on the website via Home page. user navigated to the Checkout page user navigated to the ‘order review’ page. Note: the user did not navigate to the shopping cart page and thus skipped it. When a user skips one of the steps in a funnel, which comes after the step, at which the user entered the funnel, then the funnel visualization report backfills the skipped step. Here, the shopping cart page is the skipped step, which comes after the home page (the step at which the user entered the funnel) and hence it will be backfilled by the funnel visualization report. So the funnel visualization report would show: an entrance to the home page continuation to the shopping cart page continuation to the checkout page continuation to the order review page.
#6 A User Skipping Multiple Funnel Pages Consider the following funnel set up:
Here, from the actual conversion path of the user, we can conclude that: the user landed on the website via Shopping Cart page user navigated to the Order Review page user navigated to the ‘Completed Purchase’ page (which is the goal page). Note: the user did not navigate to the Home Page and Checkout pages and completed skipped them. Since the home page is the skipped funnel step which comes before the ‘shopping cart’ page (the step at which the user entered the funnel), it will not be backfilled by the funnel visualization report. So number of unique pageviews for the home page would be 0. The checkout page is also the skipped funnel step but it comes after the ‘shopping cart’ page (the step at which the user entered the funnel), therefore it will be backfilled by the funnel visualization report. So number of unique pageviews for the checkout page would be 1. So the funnel visualization report would show: an entrance to the shopping cart page. continuation to the checkout page. continuation to the order review page. continuation to the ‘competed purchase’ page.
#7 A User Repeating the Goal Funnel Consider the following funnel set up:
Here, from the actual conversion path of the user, we can conclude that: the user landed on the website via Home page. user navigated to the about us page. user navigated to the membership page user navigated to the sign up page (which is the goal page). user again navigated back to the home page. user again navigated back to the membership page. user again navigated back to the sign up page but this time on behalf of his wife. So here the user has repeated the funnel twice and completed the goal conversion (signup) twice. But in the funnel visualization report a goal is incremented only once during a session. So no matter how many times the user signup for the membership, in a single web session, you will see only one 1 signup in the funnel visualization report. The goal will be incremented in the funnel visualization report, for the same user, only when he converts again in a different web session.
#8 A User Repeating the Sales Funnel
Consider the following funnel set up:
Here, from the actual conversion path of the user, we can conclude that:
the user landed on the website via the billing page user navigated to the shipping page user navigated to the payment page user navigated to the purchase page (which is the goal page) user again navigated to the billing page user again navigated to the shipping page user again navigated to the payment page user again navigated to the purchase page (which is the goal page)
So here the user has repeated the sales funnel twice and placed the order twice.
If a user place two or more different orders in a single session, then they are counted by GA as unique transactional goals, regardless of whether the order was placed in the same or different session.
So in the case of sales funnel, a transactional goal will be incremented in the funnel visualization report, for the same user, every time he/she places a new order, regardless of whether the order was placed in the same or different web session.
#9 Always Segment the Google Analytics Funnel Data
From the visualisation report below, we can conclude that only 0.47% of 8266 website users (not technically users) proceeded to the shopping cart page:
So if we can make more website users, to reach to the shopping cart page, we can generate more sales.
Now the problem is, we don’t know which website users (whether users from organic search, Paid search, email campaign or social media etc) are exiting the funnel in great numbers.
Without segmenting this funnel, there is no way we can determine the main reason of users’ drop off from the home page to the shopping cart page.
Unfortunately, Google Analytics doesn’t allow segmenting the funnel visualization report on the fly via advanced segments.
When you modify an existing funnel setup in Google Analytics, you won’t be able to see historical data for that funnel.
This is because Funnel visualization report only shows data going forward. It can’t show retroactive data.
In order to understand how different traffic segments convert in Google Analytics, you need to segment the funnels.
Follow the steps below: Step-1: Create filtered views (profiles) for each of the following traffic sources:
Organic Search Traffic Paid Search Traffic Referral Traffic Direct Traffic Social Media Mobile traffic Tablet Traffic Desktop Traffic
Step-2: Set up goals and funnel pages for each filtered view. Step-3: Wait for at least a month, so that enough traffic data populates, into the funnel visualization report of each filtered view. Once the 30 days of data has populated into the funnel visualization reports, you are ready to interpret goals/sales funnel for each traffic source.
Note: When you use the date comparison feature of the funnel visualization report, Google Analytics doesn’t show you the difference for different funnel steps. It only show you the difference in the total conversion rate for the funnel goal.
#10 Never Ignore Data Sampling Issues while Reading Funnel Report If you manage a high traffic website (million of pageviews each month) then you simply can’t afford to ignore data sampling issues. When Google Analytics is sampling your data badly, you can’t blindly rely on the metrics reported by it. Then there is always a strong possibility, that the reported metrics are 10 to 80% off the mark. If your funnel visualization report is based on more than 100k sessions then Google Analytics is going to sample the data, whether or not you use GA Premium. So in order to fix data sampling issues, run the funnel visualization report, for shorter time frame which should include less than 100k sessions. To learn more about data sampling issues in Google Analytics, read the article: Google Analytics Data Sampling – Complete Guide #11 Never Use a Small Time Frame and a Small Data Set for your Funnel Analysis Many marketers take marketing decisions based on small time frame or small data set. You can’t determine the best conversion path used by your website users and then optimize your conversion funnel, just on the basis of few weeks of data or handful of conversions. You need at least one month of data in your funnel visualization report before you can take marketing decisions or even consider funnel optimization. If you have a low traffic website, getting enough conversions in the desired time frame is difficult. Your best bet is, to buy some extra traffic (via PPC or ads on social media) so that you can validate your tests/assumptions faster. Make sure that you always use descriptive names for funnel steps as they show up in your funnel visualization reports. Use a name which describes what the goal /funnel page is all about. Don’t use names like ‘step-1’, ‘step-2’ etc.
#12 The Impact of Funnel Pages/Steps on Conversion Rate and Conversion Volume
There is no impact of the funnel pages / steps you create, either on the conversion rate (both Goal conversion rate and ecommerce conversion rate) or on the conversion volume (like goal completions, number of orders) in your funnel visualization report.
The funnels you define affect only your funnel visualization reports.
The other thing which is worth mentioning is that the Funnel conversion rate is not the same as goal conversion rate or ecommerce conversion rate.
The Funnel conversion rate is the percentage of funnel sessions which result in conversions.
These conversions can be goal conversions or e-commerce transactions.
Funnel Conversion Rate = (Total Conversions/Total Funnel Sessions) * 100
For example:
Here the funnel conversion rate is calculated as:
Total Checkout Completion/Total Funnel Sessions = (26,346/73,333) * 100 = 35.93%
Note: Goal Abandonment Rate = 100-Funnel Conversion Rate
Quick Recap of Tips for Correctly Reading the Funnel Visualization Report in GA
#1 In GA funnel visualization report, the numbers that you see are unique pageviews and not the number of users/visitors
#2 The number of unique pageviews is not equal to number of users.
#3 Funnel Visualization report does not show the actual conversion path followed by a user
#4 A funnel visualization report does not show loop backs (i.e. going back to the previous funnel steps).
#5 A ‘Loop back’ is not counted, if the same funnel page is viewed in two or more different GA sessions.
#6 Funnel Visualization report shows continuation only from the funnel pages.
#7 Google Analytics report the funnel pages, in the order in which they were set up, not in the order, they were viewed.
#8 The order in which you have set up your funnels steps in GA, is the order in which your funnel steps will appear in the funnel visualization report.
#9 Funnel visualization report simply show the funnel pages that were viewed in a web session(s).
#10 GA backfills those skipped funnel steps which come after the funnel step, that was viewed in a web session.
#11 GA does not backfill those skipped funnel steps which come before the funnel step, that was viewed in a web session.
#12 A non-transactional goal is counted only once in a web session no matter how many times a user completes that goal.
#13 The goal will be incremented in the funnel visualization report, for the same user, only when he/she converts again in a different web session.
#14 A transactional goal will be incremented in the funnel visualization report, for the same user, every time he/she places a new order, regardless of whether the order was placed in the same or different web session.
#15 Always segment the Google Analytics Funnel Data.
#16 Never ignore Data Sampling Issues while reading the funnel visualization report.
#17 Never Use small time frame and small data set for your funnel analysis.
#18 There is no impact of the funnel pages / steps you create, either on the conversion rate (both Goal conversion rate and ecommerce conversion rate) or on the conversion volume (like goal completions, number of orders) in your funnel visualization report.
Optimizing Google Analytics Sales Funnels
In order to increase sales you need to make sure that following 2 activities happen on your e-commerce website as often as possible:
Website Users add items to the shopping cart. The users who have added items to their shopping cart make a purchase.
Google Analytics enhanced ecommerce Product performance report provide following metrics through which you can optimize your website sales funnel:
#1 Cart to detail rate – it is the rate at which users add product to the shopping cart after viewing the product details.
#2 Buy to detail rate – it the rate at which users buy products after viewing the product details.
#3 Product Adds to cart – it is the number of times a product was added to shopping cart.
#4 Product Removes from cart – it is the number of times a product was removed from the shopping cart.
#5 Product Checkouts – Number of times a product was included in the checkout process.
Tips to Increase Your ‘Product Adds to Cart’ Rate
You website users will add products to the shopping cart when:
#1 You send highly targeted traffic to the website. This is one of the main requirements.
#2 Your website is visually appealing. Design matters a lot.
#3 Your products are enticing.
#4 Your offers create a sense of urgency. For example: “Order in the next 2 hours and get ……. “.
#5 Your landing pages have got clear call to action.
#6 Your website has got no major usability issues
#7 Your website has got no credibility issues
Focus on improving your ‘Product Adds to cart’ rate to increase the probability of generating more sales.
Note: Make sure that you segment the ‘Product Adds to cart’ rate to its most granular level before you interpret it. All the data in aggregate form is crap.
Tips to Reduce the Checkout Abandonment Rate
Asking people to add items to the shopping cart is the easy bit. Asking them to complete the purchase is hard.
If you want website users who have added items to their shopping cart, to make a purchase then don’t give them nasty surprises during the checkout process.
Following are the top reasons for high checkout abandoment rate and how you can reduce the abandonment:
1. A very loooong checkout process
Each additional funnel step, gives the opportunity to a customer to leave the funnel and not convert. Therefore you should aim to minimize the number of funnel steps.
2. Hidden Charges
Any extra charge/fees during the checkout process, can immediately put off a customer and can cause him to exit the funnel straightaway. Therefore be upfront with your prices as much as possible.
3. Forced Registration
It is one of the best way, to put off a customer from converting. Never force a person to register in order to complete a purchase. Ask him to register only after the sale has been made.
Sometimes people don’t convert just because they don’t want to register. For such people provide a guest checkout option. Your first priority should always be generating the sale.
4. Out of stock Product
The last thing you want your potential client to do, is to add a product to his shopping cart, which is out of stock and he comes to know about it, only during the checkout.
Make sure that the out of stock products can’t be added to shopping cart by any person.
5. Please also buy this and that…
Cross promotion can result in increase sales when done in a moderate amount. But when you try to shove multiple products down a person’s throat, it can put him off from converting.
Godaddy is pretty notorious in cross promoting its products. You try to buy one domain and it will try to shove every product in its catalogue right down your throat. Avoid doing too much upselling.
6. Do not ask same information multiple times
When you ask same information multiple times during the checkout, you are literally telling your customers to exit the funnel right now, or I will haunt you by asking same question over and over again.
Make sure that you do not ask same information again
7. You must collect users email addresses in the first few steps of the checkout process so that you can use the email later, for remarketing purpose, in case the user abandon the shopping cart. Remarketing is proven technique to decrease the checkout abandonment rate.
8. Poor Navigation
Sometimes poor navigation does not allow a person to go back to a funnel step to make some changes. In such case, he can either choose to restart the checkout process or exit the funnel for good. Lot of people choose the later option.
9. Limited Payment Options
The worst thing your customer could experience during checkout, is that, his desired payment option (like Paypal) is not available.
So even when he was ready to pay, he could not pay to you. So provide as many payment options as possible.
10. Website Errors
Any technical error can cause your customer to loose all the filled information on a form. Forcing your customer to retype the information is a fire shot way to loose him for good.
So always make sure that your checkout process is error free.
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Русский English | Deutsch Blog Concepts Studios Milestones Archive 1981 Citroen Xenia (Coggiola) 1981, Citroen, Designed/Built by Coggiola, Frankfurt81, Trevor Fiore Tags: Concepts Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 - Interior Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 - Interior Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 - Interior Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 - Interior Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 Citroen Xenia Concept, 1981 Рисунок А. Захарова - Citroen Xenia, 1981 Images: Concept Car Central; Mario Buonocunto Concept Cars Page Rating: 36 -16 +52 Comments ( )
Trevor Fiore was responsible for the "break monocorps" Xenia.
Fiore envisaged it as a GT for the year 2000.
Unfortunately the concept was not developed any further.
Throughout the eighties, Citroën turned down the idea of a single volume car, notwithstanding the success enjoyed by the Renault Espace.
Indeed, PSA turned down the idea when Matra first showed them the idea, based on a BX platform.
It was not until the launch of Evasion/Synergie that Citroën produced an MPV. The fashion in the early eighties was for motor manufacturers to display scale models of concept cars rather than vehicles that could actually be driven and Citroën was no exception.Trevor Fiore was responsible for the "break monocorps" Xenia.Fiore envisaged it as a GT for the year 2000.Unfortunately the concept was not developed any further.Throughout the eighties, Citroën turned down the idea of a single volume car, notwithstanding the success enjoyed by the Renault Espace.Indeed, PSA turned down the idea when Matra first showed them the idea, based on a BX platform.It was not until the launch of Evasion/Synergie that Citroën produced an MPV.
The four-passenger Xenia was designed for the American market. With clean lines and loads of glass, the Xenia was also safely-designed, with a straight body line set over the car's 168-inch length and 40-inch height. At the rear, the taillights were placed very low on the rear bumper, under the large glass hatch incorporating the car's name in large letters. The windshield was extended down onto the cowl line for increased visibility. Also continuing this theme were side windows continuing downward. At the base of the windshield were solar battery cells which produced energy for the entertainment system and comfort features when the car wasn‘t running. All four pear-shaped seats were divided by a central transmission tunnel. All instruments were in visibility of only the driver, due to curved control panels behind the steering wheel, and concealing the information from all other passengers. Radio and ventilation controls were placed on the central transmission tunnel between the two front seas. The flat dashboard allowed items to be placed neatly. The steering wheel also sat in front of various square buttons in a telephone-like arrangement, controlling the car's entertainment center and vital functions. Rear occupants had use of the entertainment center, which included a video game system on the end of the transmission tunnel, an intercom, and a telephone.
Характерным элементом машины является пластмассовый защитный пояс, органически объединенный с бамперами. Центральная стойка кузова перекрыта боковыми стеклами. Среди других особенностей конструкции заслуживают внимания сильно наклоненное лобовое стекло, поднимающиеся наверх двери шириной 1500 мм. Поскольку стекла дверей зафиксированы (не опускаются), необходимые климатические условия в салоне создает кондиционер, который при неработающем двигателе получает питание от солнечных батарей, встроенных в горизонтальную часть панели приборов. Экспериментальная модель с использованием двигателя и узлов шасси от модели "Ситроен-ЖС" разработана дизайнерами из отдела авангардной стилистики фирмы под руководством Т. Фиоре. Одна из главных целей при создании этого образца, показанного осенью 1981 года во франкфуртском салоне, добиться высоких аэродинамических качеств. Поэтому у машины клиновидная однообъемная форма кузова с задней частью, спроектированной по идеям специалиста-аэродинамика Камма. Гладкое днище, убирающиеся фары, щелевые воздухозаборники системы охлаждения, плоские колпаки колес, стекла, смонтированные заподлицо с поверхностью кузова, и другие решения позволили довести коэффициент лобового сопротивления до 0,25.Характерным элементом машины является пластмассовый защитный пояс, органически объединенный с бамперами. Центральная стойка кузова перекрыта боковыми стеклами. Среди других особенностей конструкции заслуживают внимания сильно наклоненное лобовое стекло, поднимающиеся наверх двери шириной 1500 мм. Поскольку стекла дверей зафиксированы (не опускаются), необходимые климатические условия в салоне создает кондиционер, который при неработающем двигателе получает питание от солнечных батарей, встроенных в горизонтальную часть панели приборов. Source: www.citroenet.org.uk; Concept Car Central; Журнал "За рулем" Coachbuilder: Coggiola Other Citroen |
Holy crap. Hockey is almost here. That means it's time to brush up on who's who when it comes to the Detroit Red Wings. What have we covered so far? The grinders have been checked off the list. Whether you prefer the wingers or centers. We've got you covered. If you're looking to read about the defensmen that we wish weren't here… well then we've got you covered in that department too.
Today, though, it's time to talk about the kids who really aren't kids anymore. While both Danny DeKeyser and Brendan Smith might not be considered kids anymore, they've still got a lot of experience to gain at the NHL level.
Danny DeKeyser #65 / Defenseman / Detroit Red Wings Height: 6-3 Weight: 190 Born: Mar 7, 1990
The Danny that we actually like and want on this team just happens to be the Danny that isn't even signed yet. The 24-year-old is still relatively inexperienced when it comes to the NHL. He has 76 regular season games under his belt and an additional seven in the playoffs. That's just over one full season. There's still a lot of room for DeKeyser to grow.
Strengths: DeKeyser is solid defenseman. He's right up there near Jonathan Ericsson as the biggest d-man on the roster. He sees the ice well. He isn't known for being a top offensive guy, but he's got some skills to put up some points here and there. He's smart on the ice and can play in all situations if called upon.
Weaknesses: I've personally never been a guru by any means when it comes to fancy stats. I'm not anti-fancy stats, but I'll freely admit it's just not something that's my forte. But I know just enough (and have read enough from my talented co-workers on this site) to know that DeKeyser could be better when it comes to zone entries. He dumps the puck in quite a bit. He had the worst rate of any defenseman on the team last season.
Expectations: Sign a damn contract. I think, first and foremost, that has to be the top expectation when it comes to DeKeyser. Ken Holland didn't do himself any favors when he re-signed Kyle Quincey. Now it's just about finding that magic bridge contract that falls somewhere between Quincey and Smith. On the ice, I'd like to see him be a little more physical. Depending on who he's paired with and what his exact role is will determine just what type of game he has to play. Bottom line is that more experience and more ice time is going to make him a better player. Steady improvements in every part of his game is not only possible, but expected.
Brendan Smith #2 / Defenseman / Detroit Red Wings Height: 6-1 Weight: 198 Born: Feb 08, 1989
For me, my relationship with Smith is love-love. For other fans/readers/hockey pundits, it's love-hate. Everyone knows Smith's skills are there, it's just about execution. When Ericsson went down last year, it gave Smith a chance to play a bigger role. He did alright too. Other than almost being murdered by Zdeno Chara, I'd say last year's run towards the playoffs and 1st round debacle against the Bruins was a bright spot for Smith. Now can he build upon it?
Strengths: He's awesome. Smith has all the raw talent and skill you want in a hockey player. While DeKeyser may have struggled with zone entries, Smith excelled. The sentence "All hail Brendan Smith" was actually written in a post by someone other than myself. He must be doing something right. Add that to the fact that he actually made Niklas Kronwall a better player, it's hard to argue that the Red Wings just might have a real solid defenseman on their hands.
Weaknesses: He's cocky. He makes the bonehead Quincey-like mistake every now and then. One shift he'll make a beautiful play and it's like "holy crap Smith. I need to change my pants," but the next shift he does something so dumb and it's like "holy crap Smith. I need to change my pants" (and it makes us all that much more thankful there's still a goalie as the last line of defense). He can get himself into trouble and that causes the coaching staff to have less trust in him. Playing on a pair with Quincey is also a weakness. They bring the worst out of each other.
Expectations: The sun, the moon and the stars. Maybe a Norris too? Hart? Conn Smyth? Is that really too much to expect? Yes, yes it is. But what I do expect is that mythological jump to happen. I want to watch the Red Wings play this season and think to myself, "Hell yes… he finally gets it." Keep him with Kronwall. Trust him more. It's time for Smith to become the player we (I?) all dreamed he could and would become. Maybe it's still too early, but I hope like hell the light bulb turns on for good and it's not just a flash in the pan for a few games. The tools are there. Time to use them properly.
Let's Go Red Wings. |
New Line Cinema has revealed the first two official images from their upcoming The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, starring Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin, James Gandolfini and Jim Carrey.
The film follows superstar magicians Burt Wonderstone (Carell) and Anton Marvelton (Buscemi) who have ruled the Las Vegas strip for years, raking in millions with illusions as big as Burt’s growing ego. But lately the duo’s greatest deception is their public friendship, while secretly they’ve grown to loathe each other. Facing cutthroat competition from guerrilla street magician Steve Gray (Carrey), whose cult following surges with each outrageous stunt, even their show looks stale. But there’s still a chance Burt and Anton can save the actboth onstage and offif Burt can get back in touch with what made him love magic in the first place.
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone hits theaters on March 15, 2013. Check back soon for the film’s trailer, which should be online later this week.
Click the photos for bigger versions! |
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is interested in speaking with Trump before he takes office, according to his spokesman. (ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/Getty Images)
The Mexican government is bracing itself for the possible mass deportations under President-elect Donald Trump, according to a government spokesperson .
Eduardo Sánchez, a spokesman for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, said in a press conference Monday that Peña Nieto was interested in speaking with Trump to discuss deportation and other issues before Trump takes office in January. It would be the second meeting between the two.
"We will have to see how many of those deportations, usually done by the United States government to the countries where the illegal immigrants are from, are for Mexico," he said.
The comments came after Trump's appearance Sunday on "60 Minutes," where he said he planned to deport an estimated 2 to 3 million immigrants in the country illegally who have criminal records. His hardline stance on immigration and his plans to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border were staples of his campaign.
"We're getting them out of our country, they're here illegally," Trump said. "After the border is secured and after everything gets normalized, we're going to make a determination on the people that you're talking about who are terrific people, they're terrific people but we are gonna make a determination at that."
While the majority of those facing deportation would not be Mexican , according to Mexican officials, Sánchez said the Mexican government will have several measures ready to deal with the possible deportations.
"Of course this and other matters will be part of the agenda that Mexico brings to the table during the bilateral meetings that will take place with the government of President-elect Donald Trump," Sánchez said.
Humberto Roque Villanueva, Mexico's deputy interior minister for migration, said Nov. 9, the day after the election, that the deportation process would not happen soon or quickly. He said Mexico was ready to use legal action to try to block Trump's plan to have the southern country pay for the border wall.
"The Mexicans over there are useful to the North American economy and President Trump, the president-elect, will need to recognize the economic effects of such a campaign promise," Villanueva said. |
Two Fort Worth, Texas police officers were shot Friday while responding to a reported suicide attempt.
Police were called to a home at around 8:30 p.m. local time. Fort Worth police spokesman Sgt. Marc Povero said officers arriving at the house found a man unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the head.
Officers were told a witness was in a backyard shed. Povero said officers were fired upon as they approached the shed. Officers returned fire.
After a standoff, police entered the shed and found the suspect dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Police said that one of the officers was shot multiple times in the upper torso and arm and was in recovering from surgery at a local hospital. The second officer, who was wearing a bulletproff vest, received minor injuries and was expected to be released from the hospital.
Friday's shooting occurred a little more than two months after five Dallas police officers were killed by a sniper's ambush during a downtown protest.
Police say there had been at least three previous domestic violence calls between a father and a son at the home.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Click for more from Fox4News.com. |
About
The Wandering Realms takes place in the universe of the Hyperion Empire following the events of The Exile Empire. After the destruction of the old human civilizations before the Phoenix War billions of humans were displaced into unknown space. After the formation of the Empire from the human - illani alliance a fleet of ships were commissioned to seek out survivors of this conflict and return as many as possible to the Empire.
This story follows several exemplary characters as this fleet encounters powerful new enemies and unexpected allies. The Wandering Realms is a story of war, justice, slavery, and trial. This is not a story for the feint of heart, a true heroic war story set in a gritty future full of advanced and powerful weaponry that barely keeps mankind on equal footing with their monstrous enemies.
The funds for this project will go to the artist, who has already been secured, production, and distribution of the comic. Excess will help to ensure the project runs smoothly and is properly marketed. We plan to bring The Wandering Realms to comic conventions and events as money and time allow and the more financial resources we can gather the further it will take us.
We have access to all the talent and production resources we need. All we need at this point is the initial bank roll and we have a project. It is our sincere hope that you will help us turn this dream into a reality and the Wandering Realms into bookstores and comic stands everywhere.
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On this page you will learn about Barclays Premier League tips. You'll learn about odds, bookmaker, best tipster, ranking and fixtures.
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The Premier League is renowned for being a tough league to bet on successfully. This is shown by the number of different title winners in recent years. There are so-called 'surprise' results week in week out. The strength of the division shouldn't be underestimated.
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Formed in 1992, the Premier League has become the most popular football league in world football. It generates more than a staggering £1.6 billion per year in domestic and international television rights.
The League is broadcast in 212 different countries. There is a potential audience of approximately 4.7 billion people. This makes it the most watched league in the world by some distance.
Since its inception in 1992, only six clubs have lifted the coveted Premier League trophy. Manchester United have won it on 13 occasions, all under the guidance of Sir Alex Ferguson. Chelsea have won it on five seperate occasions. London rivals Arsenal have won the title on three occasions, their last coming in the 2003/04 season. Manchester City have also won it three times. Unlikely champions Blackburn and Leicester City have one Premier League title each to their names, Blackburn back in 1995 with Leicester City winning it in 2016.
So, how does the Premier League work? 20 teams face each other twice per season, once at home and once away. The team that finishes with the most points will win the title. They also qualify for the Group Stages of the Champions League. Second and third places will also qualify for the Group Stage. Fourth place earns a spot in the Qualification Rounds.
The three sides that finish in the bottom three places suffer automatic relegation to England's second tier, the Championship. These sides are replaced in the top flight by the top two sides in the Championship, along with the Play-Off winners.
The current Premier League Champions are Manchester City. They broke the mould by earning 100 points.
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Last 10 Barclays Premier League Winners Season Club Goalscorer 2017/18 Manchester City Mohamed Salah (32) 2016/17 Chelsea FC Harry Kane (29) 2015/16 Leicester City Harry Kane (25) 2014/15 Chelsea FC Sergio Aguero (26) 2013/14 Manchester City Luis Suarez (31) 2012/13 Manchester United Robin Van Persie (26) 2011/12 Manchester City Robin van Persie (30) 2010/11 Manchester United Dimitar Berbatov (20) 2009/10 Chelsea FC Didier Drogba (29) 2008/09 Manchester United Nicolas Anelka (19)
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Premier League Tips on favourites 2018-19
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We tested the hypothesis that curcumin supplementation would reverse arterial dysfunction and vascular oxidative stress with aging. Young (Y, 4-6 months) and old (O, 26-28 months) male C57BL6/N mice were given normal or curcumin supplemented (0.2%) chow for 4 weeks (n=5-10/group/measure). Large elastic artery stiffness, assessed by aortic pulse wave velocity (aPWV), was greater in O (448±15 vs. 349±15 cm/s) and associated with greater collagen I and advanced glycation end-products and less elastin (all P<0.05). In O, curcumin restored aPWV (386±15 cm/s), collagen I and AGEs (AGEs) to levels not different vs. Y. Ex vivo carotid artery acetylcholine (ACh)-induced endothelial-dependent dilation (EDD, 79±3 vs. 94±2%), nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability and protein expression of endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) were lower in O (all P<0.05). In O, curcumin restored NO-mediated EDD (92±2%) to levels of Y. Acute ex vivo administration of the superoxide dismutase (SOD) mimetic TEMPOL normalized EDD in O control mice (93±3%), but had no effect in Y control or O curcumin treated animals. O had greater arterial nitrotyrosine abundance, superoxide production and NADPH oxidase p67 subunit expression, and lower manganese SOD (all P<0.05), all of which were reversed with curcumin. Curcumin had no effects on Y. Curcumin supplementation ameliorates age-associated large elastic artery stiffening, NO-mediated vascular endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress and increases in collagen and AGEs in mice. Curcumin may be a novel therapy for treating arterial aging in humans.
Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
By Henri Mamarbachi
RABAT — Some 200 Moroccan women staged an angry protest Saturday outside parliament a week after the suicide of a 16-year-old girl who was forced to marry the man who raped her.
Brandishing signs reading “Martyr Amina,” “The Law Killed Me,” and “We Are All Aminas,” they called for changes to a penal code that allows a rapist to stay out of jail if he marries his victim with the consent of her parents.
The suicide last Saturday of Amina al-Filali, who drank a lethal amount of rat poison, sent shockwaves through Morocco and sparked widespread calls for reform of a law that ostensibly defends family values.
[np-related]
Families of rape victims who are under 18 often agree to such a union because the loss of a woman’s virginity outside of marriage is considered a dishonour to her family.
Amina’s father Lahcen al-Filali said at a protest on Thursday that he opposed the union but his wife insisted. “She said we had to do it so people would stop deriding us, to remove the shame,” he told AFP.
“Can you imagine that a man who has forced a girl to follow him with a knife, and who rapes her, could then want to marry her?”
A giant banner written in Arabic, Amazigh (a Berber language) and French read: “Women’s Dignity. End Sexual Harassment.”
Houda Bouzil of the Democratic Association of the Women of Morocco told AFP: “In 2008, the government introduced a bill, which has since been shelved, to demand an overhaul of the penal code in order to end discrimination and violence.”
Similar legislation is in effect in neighbouring Tunisia and Algeria.
The affair provoked an explosion of outrage in the news media and on the Internet, where an online petition calling for the law to be changed attracted hundreds of signatures within hours.
“I did not know Amina, but I imagine the colossal number of these ’Aminas’ who live, or lived, among us,” the independent newspaper Al Sabah wrote in a lengthy editorial.
“It’s the law, an absurd, grotesque social rule, that tries to remedy an evil — rape — with another even more repugnant one, marrying the rapist. … Whom are we punishing in the end, the victim or her tormentor?” it asked.
The government has pledged to re-examine the law, while police summoned and released the rapist after Amina’s suicide.
Under Moroccan law, rape is punishable by five to 10 years in prison — or between 10 and 20 years if the victim is a minor, which also entails a fine of 200 to 500 dirhams (18-45 euros, $24-60).
If the rapist marries his victim he cannot be pursued legally unless she manages to obtain a divorce.
But under the family code the decision of the judge authorising such a marriage cannot be reversed.
On Thursday, 300 protesters staged a sit-in outside the local court that approved the marriage. |
Donald Trump’s offenses against taste, tolerance and truthfulness are coming so fast that it is hard to pick out individual cases. But let’s linger on his recent foray into Christian theology.
During a speech in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Trump pronounced Ben Carson’s story of conversion from violent troublemaker to Christian to be so much “crap.” “He goes into the bathroom for a couple of hours, and he comes out, and now he’s religious . . . . Give me a break. It doesn’t happen that way,” said Trump.
In Christian history, it has often happened that way. Around A.D. 35, a nasty character named Saul got knocked from (and to) his ass on the road to Damascus and became the utterly transformed Paul. In A.D. 386 , Augustine heard a child’s voice chanting, “Take up and read,” opened a Bible randomly to Paul’s letter to the Romans, was convicted to the core and abandoned the life of a hard-partying pagan. Around 1510, a monk named Martin Luther understood Paul’s letter in a new way — one version locates this revelation in the “cloaca,” or bathroom — and “felt I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.” On May 24, 1738, John Wesley heard someone reading Luther’s Preface to the Epistle of Romans in a meeting on Aldersgate Street in London, and at 8:45 p.m. felt his “heart strangely warmed.”
All of these cases weigh against Trump’s theological claim — which also makes little political sense in the state of Iowa, where the Republican Party is heavy with evangelical Christians, for whom conversion is a common experience.
But this is not really a political matter at all, demonstrated by another conversion. Bob Beckel was, famously, Walter Mondale’s campaign manager in a 49-state loss. He was a trusted fixer at the State Department and White House, then a progressive TV commentator. Through most of this he was also an alcoholic, a drug abuser and a womanizer who kept hitting rock bottom only to find new bottoms beneath.
In a speech delivered on Nov. 12, 2015, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attacked Ben Carson's story of religious conversion. (AP)
We know this from Beckel’s transparent and compulsively readable autobiography, “I Should Be Dead: My Life Surviving Politics, TV, and Addiction.” He gained his survival skills from dealing with an alcoholic and abusive father. “I learned how to wear a mask at all times and reveal my true feelings to no one.” Later on, this led to a bifurcated life: mornings at the White House, evenings in dive bars and brothels. A ferocious political ambition, and a tendency toward self-destruction.
Professionally, Beckel managed an impressive feat: becoming the political dirty trickster for a president, Jimmy Carter, who abhorred dirty tricks. In pursuit of passage of the Panama Canal Treaty, Beckel ran a rogue operation involving opposition research, tilted polling, visits to “Mama’s Health Spa” and political blackmail. Seldom has a boring, respectable objective had a seedier back story.
Beckel was also in and out of Alcoholics Anonymous for years, trying to recover without buying into the “higher power” portion of the 12 steps. When George W. Bush prevailed in the election crisis of 2000, Beckel, by his own account, began losing contact with reality. On the eve of the inauguration, he found himself in a bar, with a woman, then with her jealous husband pointing a .45 at Beckel’s face. The gun misfired. The next day Beckel watched the inaugural parade from a room at the George Washington University Hospital psychiatric ward.
The whole story is really worth reading. But through the intervention of friends (particularly columnist Cal Thomas, to whom the book is dedicated) and after some brutally honest self-examination, something decisively changed.
After resisting a potentially lethal drink, Beckel sat weeping on a rock in the middle of a field. “And I knew,” he writes, “there was a force that had wanted me not to do that, a force that loved me enough to stop me in my tracks and redirect my steps. That loved me? Me? If there is one moment I can point to, a moment when the idea of God’s grace shifted from being some kind of abstract concept to being something flesh and blood, something meaty and rich, something real, that was it.”
Conversion, in the Christian tradition, requires the recognition of sin and failure, which is the only way the offer of grace makes sense. This, to be honest, is a difficult concept for many of us to accept. But voices as diverse as Carson and Beckel promise something encouraging: that any moment, early or late, can mark the beginning of hope.
Read more from Michael Gerson’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook . |
The National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) has been trying to gain a stronger foothold in the Northwest for a few years now. In 2017 there will be six clubs in the NPSL Northwest Conference, the most the league has ever had in our region.
The NPSL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), the governing body of soccer in the United States. The NPSL operates and is managed as a team-run league. The structure of the league allows each team to have one vote. Each team is individually owned and operated, and is responsible for maintaining league minimum standards.
NPSL NW Conference
The NPSL lost 3 of 4 clubs in the Northwest after the 2014 season when Gorge FC (Hood River Oregon) Seattle Sporting FC (Bothell) and Inter United FC (Tukwila) all dropped from the league. In 2015 and 2016 just two clubs made up the Northwest Conference: OSA FC and FCM Portland.
The breakthrough came in the last off-season when the Kitsap Pumas (Kitsap Soccer Club) and Spokane SC Shadow joined. Then, the OSA FC owner Giuseppe Pezzano decided to fund a second squad in the greater Tacoma area, Pierce County FC. Finally, an upstart second club in Portland came on board (PDX FC).
The NPSL Northwest will feature a 10-match season in 2017 with each club playing home and away.
The season kicks off on Saturday May 13 when PDX FC hosts OSA FC and Pierce County FC hosts FCM Portland.
Follow the NPSL NW all season long on goalWA.net in the category “NPSL.”
NPSL Northwest Conference Clubs Online
FCM Portland: Website / Facebook / Twitter
Kitsap Soccer Club: Website / Facebook / Twitter
OSA FC: Website / Facebook / Twitter
PDX FC: Website / Facebook / Twitter
Pierce County FC: Website / Facebook / Twitter
Spokane SC Shadow: Website / Facebook / Twitter |
An employee of a private school in Bengaluru has been accused of molesting children.
Six more cases of child sexual abuse have been filed against Manjunath, the employee of a private school in Bengaluru. The first police case against the 31-year-old was filed last week, after the parents of a child accused him of molesting their child. But now, more and more parents say they have found out why their child did not want to go to school. The children -- girls and boys - are barely more than toddlers."My daughter was crying for three weeks and pleading with us not to send her to the school," said a father. It took them some time to understand the reason. "She said 'Bhaiyya touches me'. We thought she meant other children... small children are playful," he said.The couple was horrified when the child explained that she had pain in her private parts. They stood at the school gates and shared their story. "More than 10, 12 parents came back and said their children were also going through it. And they confirmed it was Manju Bhaiyya," the child's mother said.One father said he was tortured by the thought that he had been forcing his child to go to school and face such abuse.The mother of a two-and-a-half year boy told NDTV, "For nearly a month, he has been complaining of a pain in his bottom. We gave him deworming medicine..."Manjunath has been arrested and charged under POCSO, the law that deals with sexual offences against children. The school administrators have also been charged with not complying with safety regulations.After the agitated parents met the city police chief, Praveen Sood told NDTV that the school had not been complying with the safety regulations ordered by the police department following a series of alleged sexual assaults two years ago. The school is now closed and the arrested administrators are out on bail. The parents, however, are not ready to let the matter drop. They said they were consulting lawyers and want further action against the school. "He has assured us....But only action will give us any kind of hope," said the father of one of the children. |
A recent proposal to change the start of the school day for students in Fairfax County, Va., a suburb of Washington, DC, has caused an uproar.
The plan, designed to give bleary-eyed kids more time to sleep in, has some parents up in arms who say that the change will cause major scheduling headaches, according to the Washington Post and letters written to the Juggle by affected parents.
The proposal, which would affect some 169,000 students and their families, is stressing out many parents, students and teachers who may now have to refigure carefully-calibrated work, commuting and childcare arrangements, as well as after-school jobs and activities. Opponents of the plan are also worried that students who play afterschool sports will end up practicing in the dark, with some sports, such as volleyball, being held as late as 10 PM.
Those who support the later start to the school day say that research has shown that more sleep can lead to healthier, higher-performing and more relaxed students. |
Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo insists he has no need to re-sign with the LaLiga giants as he reminded critics where they could find his goals – on Google.
Ronaldo was on the scoresheet but Madrid slumped to back-to-back defeats for the first time since January, beaten 3-1 by Tottenham in the Champions League on Wednesday.
The Portugal international has scored eight goals in 12 games this season, but just one in six in LaLiga – where Madrid trail Barcelona by eight points.
Ronaldo said there was too much of a focus on scoring, but reminded critics he has done plenty of that.
"I'm super calm. Today, having a good performance doesn't count for you. All it counts is goals, goals, goals," he told reporters.
"My stats, I'm not going to talk about it, you go to Google, 'Cristiano Ronaldo goals' and there they are, all of them. That doesn't concern me at all."
Ronaldo is contracted to Madrid until 2021, but there have been suggestions the 32-year-old would consider a fresh deal.
However, the star forward said: "I'm very well. I don't want to re-sign.
"I still have four years in my contract. I don't want to re-sign." |
In a Reuters Exclusive, John Shiffman and Kristina Cooke reveal that the National Security Agency shares information it gleans from warrantless surveillance of Americans with the Special Operation Division of the Drug Enforcement Agency, which then uses the metadata to develop cases against US citizens. The DEA then routinely lies to the judge and defense attorneys during discovery about how its agents initially came by their suspicions of wrongdoing. But you could imagine a situation where a young woman repeatedly called a boyfriend who was secretly known to the DEA to be a drug dealer, but whose crimes were unknown to her. And you could imagine law enforcement entrapping her into making a small drug buy. And then you could imagine their secretly basing their case against her in part on her phone calls to a known dealer. But this latter information would be denied to her defense attorney and the judge, making it harder to discern the entrapment.
All these stories about the government’s quest for Total Information Awareness about the phone calls, email, internet searches, etc. of 312 million ordinary Americans raise some questions in my mind. There are so many things about these stories that don’t make sense.
1. The government says that they need everyone’s phone records because they want to see who calls known overseas terrorists from the US. But if the NSA had a telephone number of a terrorist abroad and wanted to see if it was called from the US, why couldn’t it just ask the telephone company for the record of everyone who called it? It isn’t true that it would take too much time. It would be instant. Obviously, the government wants the telephone records of millions of Americans for some other reason.
2. If the real reason they are getting our phone records from the phone companies is to check for drug sales and other petty crime inside the US not related to terrorism, and if they are lying to judges about how they initially came to know of these crimes, aren’t the NSA, DEA and other government officials violating the Constitutional guarantee of due process? Are they focusing on drug buys because law enforcement can confiscate the property of drug dealers, whereas busting other kinds of crime actually costs time and money? And, hasn’t their dishonesty and its revelation just put in danger thousands of drug convictions?
3. If the NSA and FBI have all the phone records, bank account information and credit card transactions of everyone, why haven’t they been able to find any bankers or financiers who engaged in illegal activity while they were plunging ordinary Americans into poverty and homelessness with the Depression of 2008-2009? After all, they seem to have been able to discover illegal activity by former New York governor Elliott Spitzer, by illegally spying on his bank accounts. Was Spitzer, who was trying to crack down on Wall Street, the only prominent figure in New York engaged in such activities? Maybe some Masters of the Universe on Wall Street were, too? Surely there are telephone, bank and credit card records showing the guilt of the latter?
4. If the NSA and ATF have the telephone, credit card and internet records of all Americans, why don’t they stop mass shootings? After all, you can’t order numerous guns and massive amounts of ammunition and also Batman costumes on line without generating searchable records? Maybe they aren’t paying attention to people who suddenly develop an interest in having lots of very large drum magazines for semi-automatic weapons.
5. Isn’t there a constitutional crisis if the NSA is spying on phone records of people in Colorado where that state legalized the sale of marijuana, and uses its STASI tactics to finger Coloradans legally buying pot and then hauls those people off to federal prison? Where in the constitution does it say that the Federal government can overrule a state about internal state commerce? Where does it say that the Federal government can subvert the state’s legislative intention by secretly spying on state residents without a warrant and in contravention of state law?
6. Can Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) be impeached for denying other representatives in congress basic information about the NSA domestic spying programs and then misrepresenting the decision as a joint one of the Intelligence Committee, and then insisting that the decision is classified from other members of Congress? Can President Obama be impeached for lying to the American people and saying that all members of Congress have been extensively briefed on the NSA spying?
7. The government has charged Edward Snowden with espionage because it says his revelations about how the US government is spying on the American public without a warrant will harm our ability to fight terrorism. But if the NSA could overhear al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahir telling his lieutenant in Yemen to carry out a terrorist strike on US embassies, then how could it be that Edward Snowden harmed their ability to monitor such communications?
8. If the US drone strikes on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen are working, why is AQAP after all these years able to make us close 19 African and Middle Eastern embassies for a week?
9. Does the FBI actually have the authority to order internet companies to let them install “eavesdropping technology [port readers] deep inside companies’ internal networks to facilitate surveillance efforts”?
10. Why doesn’t one of the telecoms adopt a policy of destroying the records of where its customers have been, and who they called, immediately after each call– keeping only a record of how much the call cost? The government can’t demand information that a company doesn’t have. Wouldn’t millions of consumers immediately switch to that carrier? Would the government allow the company to do this? If not, what happened to our Free Enterprise system? Ronald Reagan used to warn that if we gave the government too much power, one day we might suddenly wake up in the Soviet Union of America. Did we, this morning? |
Mexican Marine officers guard the scene of a July shootout in which eight alleged drug traffickers were shot dead by Mexican Marine officers in Tlahuac, Mexico City. (AFP/Getty Images)
Just a week into his presidency, Donald Trump raised the specter of using U.S. military might to crush “tough hombres”: the Mexican drug cartels bedeviling the country in a historic year of gangland murders.
“We are willing to help you with that big-league. But they have to be knocked out and you have not done a good job of knocking them out,” Trump told Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Jan. 27, according to a transcript published Thursday by The Washington Post.
[Trump urged Mexican president to end his public defiance on border wall, transcript reveals]
“Listen, I know how tough these guys are — our military will knock them out like you never thought of, we will work to help you knock them out because your country does not want that,” Trump said.
But can Trump actually do that?
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump discussed border security at the third and final presidential debate, Oct. 19, in Las Vegas. (The Washington Post)
Can Trump send forces to Mexico?
It is unlikely the Mexican government would allow small elite units, like Green Berets or Navy SEALs, to battle drug cartels in Mexico, or play an active role in advising and assisting Mexican units, said Peter DeShazo, a visiting professor in the Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies program at Dartmouth College.
While Colombian units have long trained alongside the U.S. Army’s 7th Special Forces Group, for instance, internal Mexican politics would likely prohibit that kind of decision.
“This is a not a unilateral issue. Organized crime is an international matter and not a Mexican domestic matter,” he told The Post.
Dispatching U.S. forces in Mexico would require host nation approval, and any military strike must fall within the broad, far-reaching authorization of use of military force powers wielded by the president, though Trump has sought to expand that power to undeclared battlefields like Yemen.
Northern Command did not respond to a question asking whether any U.S. forces are in Mexico beyond embassy duty.
DeShazo said Peña Nieto would be better served focusing on the Merida Initiative, the $2.8 billion State Department program launched in 2008 that aims to overhaul the Mexican justice system and improve Mexico’s troubling human rights record, a high-profile concern since the disappearance of 43 students linked to corrupt police and local officials in the state of Guerrero in 2014. Accusations of violence and abuses have also plagued the military and police force.
But Trump has proposed to slash the kind of foreign aid reflected in the initiative, reversing law enforcement and institutional gains it has produced. With an eye on military brass in his Cabinet and advisers in the White House, Trump appears to value military-minded solutions to problems such as destabilizing Mexico’s drug war, which has claimed at least 100,000 lives since 2006.
[Violence is soaring in the Mexican towns that feed America’s heroin habit]
A fraught history
There has been historical animosity between the United States and Mexico since the Mexican American War of 1846, in which the United States received the vast expanse of land that would become part of the American West. A key battle was immortalized on both sides in vastly different ways.
The first line of the Marine Corps Hymn, “From the Halls of Montezuma,” is a reference to the victory over Mexican troops at the battle for Chapultepec castle in Mexico City in 1847.
Los Niños Héroes, a group of young cadets who fought to the death, are memorialized as martyrs across the country, taking the names of streets and schools, where children learn the name and myth of Juan Escutia — a cadet who wrapped himself in the garrison’s flag and leapt to his death so it would not fall into U.S. hands.
https://instagram.com/p/BXSEgUIF2T7/
Mexicans did not forget, but they did move on, said Iñigo Guevara Moyano, a director at Jane’s Defense and an expert on U.S.-Mexico military relations.
A military partnership was created in the first decade of the 2000s in response to increasing violence over drug smuggling routes to the United States and a tidal wave of arms flowing to the southern border.
The beginning of the partnership was fraught with distrust and suspicion on the Mexican side, particularly from the Army, experts have said. But working together on the common problem of drug cartel violence ravaging the border helped create trust among units.
Now the countries share intelligence over illicit smuggling networks, Mexican officer liaisons share command space at U.S. installations and units conduct a growing number of joint training missions and intelligence swapping to combat drug trafficking together, Moyano told The Washington Post.
“The relationship is closer than ever since World War II,” he said, apparent in far-reaching exercises like Amalgam Eagle, a joint Air Force training operation between the United States and Mexico that has occurred annually since at least 2015.
From 2014 to 2016, the two sides have increased joint programs by 20 percent, from cooperating on drug seizure operations on the seas to U.S. military lawyers instructing their Mexican counterparts over human rights and other legal principles, according to data from U.S. Northern Command, which oversees the partnership.
About $27 million was dedicated for units to train together at ranges and on tasks like hand-to-hand fighting and simulated beach landings. The command also recently facilitated the sale of 25 UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and 2,250 Humvees to Mexico as of January.
[‘This deal will make me look terrible’: Full transcripts of Trump’s calls with Mexico and Australia]
Mexico’s bloody experience
Trump insisting on the United States intervening with military force is “not a nuanced approach of solving the problem,” said Duncan Wood, director of the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank.
“The military is a blunt instrument solution,” Wood told The Post. “You’re not going to knock out criminal gangs with military force. It has to be institutional reform.”
One of Trump’s remarks from the call particularly incensed Wood — that perhaps Mexico’s military is “afraid” of drug traffickers.
“It’s extraordinarily disrespectful to a military that has done this job reluctantly,” Wood said. The military has suffered more than 500 deaths in the drug war since 2006, according to a government report through July, many at the hands of weapons trafficked from the United States that feed the conflict in a country where most gun sales are outlawed.
The Post obtained transcripts of President Trump's January 2017 phone conversations with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. (The Washington Post)
While Washington works through fraught relations, military and defense officials at the lower levels are continuing to build on positive experiences, he said, though that does not mean a relationship built from political decisions will necessarily survive political attacks, Wood said.
There is “definitely a threat” of security cooperation fraying, he said. “But part of the message on the Mexican side is: there is a lot on the line here.”
Read more:
8 jaw-dropping lines from Trump’s phone calls with Mexico and Australia
Trump berated Australia’s prime minister over a refugee policy he barely understood |
Lunch, my leftover meal from the night before…usually. Not this time. I went with a classic soup and salad for lunch. Gumbo soup (which is really where I put the work) and the spring salad (I just bought a bag) to be exact.
I decided to make the gumbo from scratch, so that means peeling some raw shrimp and making a stock first.
Then carefully making a roux and putting it all together. I think the stock really gives it the extra flavor, if you have the time and patience to peel lots of shrimp, I suggest doing it this way.
Bonus I added scallops cause they were on sale, but really, I’m sure you can add whatever seafood you feel like, or the usual chicken and/or andouille sausage.
INGREDIENTS
For Stock shells from 1 1/2 pound shrimp 5 quarts water 4 carrots, sliced 4 onions, quartered 1/2 bunch celery, sliced 2 bay leaves 8 cloves garlic 1 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 tablespoon dried basil 2 teaspoons dried thyme For Gumbo 4 ounces vegetable oil 4 ounces all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons minced garlic 2 cups yellow onions, chopped 1 cup green bell peppers, chopped 1 cup celery, chopped 1 tablespoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 3 bay leaves 1.5 quart stock 1 1/2 pounds raw, whole, head-on medium-sized (31-50 count) shrimp 1 pound lump crabmeat
INSTRUCTIONS
For Stock 1. In an 8-quart pot, combine water, carrots, onions, celery, bay leaves, garlic, parsley, cloves, pepper, basil, thyme and shrimp shells. Bring slowly to a boil. 2. Reduce heat, and cook 5 to 7 hours. Replace water as needed, 2 or 3 times, by pouring more water down the inside of the pot. 3. Remove stock from heat, and strain. Press all liquid from the shells and vegetables, then discard them. Return liquid to heat, and reduce to 2 to 3 quarts, or to taste. For Gumbo 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 2. Place the vegetable oil and flour into a 5 to 6-quart cast iron Dutch oven and whisk together to combine. Place on the middle shelf of the oven, uncovered, and bake for 1 1/2 hours, whisking 2 to 3 times throughout the cooking process. 3. Once the roux is done, carefully remove it from the oven and set over medium-high heat. Gently add the onions, celery, green peppers and garlic and cook, moving constantly for 7 to 8 minutes or until the onions begin to turn translucent. 4. Add the salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and bay leaves and stir to combine. 5. Gradually add the shrimp broth while whisking continually. Decrease the heat to low, cover and cook for 35 minutes. 6. Turn off the heat, add the shrimp and crab meat and stir to combine.
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PLOSBLOGS Editor’s Note: From time to time we feature “first person” blog posts by PLOS journal authors, particularly when their newly published findings provide insights of interest beyond the research discipline they work in, and offer information of potential value to other PLOSBLOGS readers, including clinicians, policymakers, science writers and, in this case, autistic people. [Featured image above: “The Outsider” by Donna Williams CCBY ]
A guest post by Morton Ann Gernsbacher, PhD.
A well-worn adage reminds us that “context is everything.” And for decades psychologists have known that context matters when assessing people’s personality traits. For example, if people are asked on a personality questionnaire if they like to be alone, they’ll respond differently if they think the context for being alone is while they’re working versus while they’re socializing. If people are asked if they have difficulty speaking in front of a group, they’ll respond differently depending on what size group is specified.
In a recent experiment published in PLoS ONE, my collaborators, Jennifer Stevenson and Sebastian Dern, and I demonstrated that context also matters when assessing autistic traits.* Previously, we’d noticed that questionnaires that assess autistic traits often lack context. For example, on one questionnaire, respondents are asked whether they like being around other people, whether they enjoy chatting with people, whether people have to talk them into trying new things, and the like.
But for none of these items is the type of people contextualized. Are they similar to or different from the person being assessed? For example, are the other people the respondent likes to be around other autistic people or other non-autistic people? We know that being around people who are similar to oneself usually makes it easier to socialize, communicate, and be considered more ‘normal.’ We predicted that would also be the case for autistic and non-autistic persons.
Therefore, in our experiment, we manipulated the context of the items on an autistic traits questionnaire (the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire). Rather than presenting each item in its original, un-contextualized form (e.g., “I like being around other people”) we presented each item contextualized as “with autistic people” (e.g., “I like being around other autistic people”) or “with non-autistic people” (e.g., “I like being around other non-autistic people”). We collected data from 124 autistic and 124 non-autistic adult participants who were matched for their age, sex, gender, and parental education.
We predicted, and we found, that autistic participants report having fewer autistic traits (i.e., less difficulty interacting and communicating) when the items are contextualized as “with autistic persons” than when the items are contextualized as “with non-autistic persons.” For non-autistic participants, we predicted and we found just the opposite: They report having more autistic traits (i.e., more difficulty interacting and communicating) when the items are contextualized as “with autistic persons” than when the items are contextualized as “with non-autistic persons” (leading to a statistically significant interaction, F(1,244)=267.5, p<.001, h2 p =.523). Thus, our experiment demonstrates the importance of context when assessing autistic traits.
Reference Group Also Matters
For decades psychologists have also known that, in addition to context, reference group matters when assessing personality traits. In fact, some psychologists argue that we can only appraise our own personality and behavior in the context of a reference group.
For example, men rate themselves as more caring when they rate themselves according to other men than when they rate themselves according to women. Women rate themselves as less caring when they rate themselves according to other women rather than according to men. Canadians rate themselves as less direct in their conversations if the reference group is other Canadians rather than Japanese, and for Japanese it’s the opposite.
However, just like they lack context, most items on autistic trait questionnaires also lack reference groups. For example, on one questionnaire, respondents are asked whether they behave in ways that seem strange or bizarre and whether they’re regarded by others as odd or weird. But according to whom? Who should the respondents consider when they assess whether they’re regarded as odd or weird? Autistic people or non-autistic people? And does it make a difference? Our second experiment answered these questions.
We manipulated the reference group of the items on another autistic traits questionnaire (the Social Responsiveness Scale). We presented each item with an “according to autistic people” reference group, an “according to non-autistic people” reference group, or a self-reference group, “I think.” We collected data from 82 autistic and 82 non-autistic adult participants who were matched for their age, sex, gender, and parental education.
We predicted, and we found, that autistic participants report having fewer autistic traits when the reference group is other autistic people (e.g., “According to autistic people, I behave in ways that seem strange or bizarre”). Autistic participants report having more autistic traits when the reference group is non-autistic people (e.g., “According to non-autistic people, I behave in ways that seem strange or bizarre”), and autistic participants report having a medium amount of autistic traits when the reference group is themselves (“I think that I behave in ways that seem strange or bizarre”).
But non-autistic participants seem impervious to reference group. They report having the same degree of autistic traits regardless of the reference group (leading to a statistically significant interaction, F(2,160)=94.38, p<.001, h2 p =.541, although not the interaction we predicted). One explanation is that the particular autistic trait questionnaire we used in this study (the Social Responsiveness Scale), although frequently administered to non-autistic persons, is couched in such severe phrasing that non-autistic persons’ responses are too bound to the floor to show any effects of our manipulation.
Practical Applications
What are the practical applications of our study? Our data demonstrate that both autistic and non-autistic people’s degree of autistic traits — their difficulty interacting and communicating with other people — are contextually specific. Both groups can more easily interact and communicate with people more like themselves than people less like themselves.
Although this finding is consistent with other social psychological research, it was important for us to demonstrate in the domain of autistic traits. Context matters not only for accurately assessing autistic traits but also for designing environments that enable autistic persons to optimally interact and communicate.
*We purposely use identity-first terms (e.g., “autistic traits” and “autistic participants”) rather than person-first terms (“autism-related traits” and “participants with autism”) because identify-first language is recommended by psychologists, preferred by autistic people, and less prone to stigma.
Dr. Gernsbacher is the Vilas Research and Sir Frederic Bartlett Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her laboratory explores cognitive neuroscience, human communication, and attention. |
Milan Lalkovic has insisted he can show his true colours at Pompey next season.
The former Chelsea man moved to Fratton Park last summer but was sent out on loan to Ross County for the second half of the season.
Blues fans have discussed on Facebook page Portsmouth FC – The News and portsmouth.co.uk if Lalkovic should be given a fair crack of the whip under Kenny Jackett.
Here’s what they had to say...
Barry Taylor
Every player should start with a clean slate. I am fed up with players being shipped out only for them to come back and play well against us, even score goals against us.
There is not enough time given to players to settle in, same goes with managers. Give Jackett at least two seasons to prove himself.
John Fleming
Why was he signed if he’s not a talented lad?
Give him a go, he made a commitment by signing for the club.
We’ve had players that haven’t performed for a season and they get contract extensions!
Neal Dobson
Yes, definitely thought the times he played at start of season he showed some quality and with over 100 appearances in League One, he will flourish next season if given a chance.
blue walter
I thought that Lalkovic deserved a better run last season but was not given a fair chance.
The games I saw him play, I thought he done well. I see him as a direct choice between him and Kyle Bennett. I think Lalkovic is the better in the forward positions and can beat players with trickery and pace.
He gets crosses in quicker than Bennett and is probably the nearest thing to an old-fashioned winger.
STUMPYS4141
Lalkovic has a bit to prove so things should be exciting. By what he is saying and the amount of games he has played in this division, we should be confident of a good season but not over confident.
Rex Ace
He could learn a lot from Bennett. As frustrating as Kyle is running into cul-de-sacs and losing the ball, he puts in the hard yards to get the ball back – something that Lalkovic will have to do as minimum to have even a dogs chance of making the match-day squad. |
[np_storybar title=”Watch NASA animation of the giant ice fracture” link=”#1″]
[/np_storybar]
The ice in Canada’s western Arctic ripped open in a massive “fracturing event” this spring that spread like a wave across 1,000 kilometres of the Beaufort Sea.
Huge leads of water – some more than 500 kilometres long and as much as 70 kilometres across – opened up from Alaska to Canada’s Arctic islands as the massive ice sheet cracked as it was pushed around by strong winds and currents.
“It took just seven days for the fractures to progress across the entire area from west to east,” said Trudy Wohlleben, senior ice forecaster at the Canadian Ice Service.
She said it was “spectacular” to watch from Ottawa, where she and her colleagues track the ice with satellites.
While ice fracturing is common in the Beaufort, few “events” have sprawled across such a large area so quickly or produced cracks as long and wide as those seen this spring, according to NASA Earth’s Observatory, which features the fractures this week.
Wohlleben noted that there was a similar event in last spring, and says both were related to way the ice, which moves in a clock-wise direction in the Beaufort, can suddenly start and stop moving depending on the weather conditions.
This year the ice in the Beaufort Sea had essentially stopped moving for the first three weeks of February, Wohlleben said.
“Rapid ice drift then began in the southwest section of the Beaufort Sea around Feb. 20, initiating the first fractures in that area,” she says. The fracturing “then quickly spread eastward to encompass the entire Beaufort Sea by the end of February.”
She said temperatures are so frigid in the Arctic that the open water began refreezing as soon as the ice stopped moving. But the new ice will be much thinner – about 30 to 70 centimetres thick – than ice that has been growing all winter and is now more than a metre thick. Older multi-year ice can be several metres thick.
Scientists suggests the extensive fracturing this year may be linked to the way the Beaufort was covered almost completely by first-year ice that formed after the record summer Arctic ice melts in 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KXjb6MRj_5U
“This ice is thinner and weaker than the older, multi-year ice, so it responds more readily to winds and is more easily broken up,” said Walt Meier, of the U.S. National Snow & Ice Data Center.
Wohlleben agreed the fact that there is less multi-year ice in the southern Beaufort may have played a role in the rapidness and extent of fracturing this spring. But she cautions that “is still just a theory, not yet a proven fact.”
She said it is will be interesting to see what becomes of the Arctic ice this summer. The 2012 record was widely seen as ominous evidence of the climate change warming the planet.
“Everyone will be wondering if we beat the record again this year,” says Wohlleben. |
Updates:
Wikileaks Film titled The Fifth Estate Is A Propaganda Piece Against the Disclosures of Wikileaks
Wikileaks Film titled MediaStan Is Produced By Julian Assange
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50th Anniversary of the Kennedy Assassination – Zachary Sklar, Screenwriter of the Film: JFK
November 22, 2013 will mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. More than 600 books have been written on this national tragedy and yet the implausible explanations the Warren Commission report put forward remain as the official story. We’re joined today by Zachary Sklar to discuss some of those challenges and his work investigating those involved in the planning and covering up of assassinations.
Zach Sklar:
The Warren Commission was a creature appointed by Lyndon Johnson.
He persuaded Earl Warren to head this commission against his wishes. He was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at the time.
To bolster him on the commission, the one who did most of the work and guided the findings was Alan Dulles, former CIA directory. A man who’d been fired by John Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs invasion.
The other one who was on it was Gerald Ford of course.
So, there was a dissenting group of southern Congress people who really didn’t have much power. Ultimately, the power was with Alan Dulles.
The CIA had overthrown Mossadegh in Iran, Arbenz in Guatemala, not only overthrowing governments but assassinating leaders.
The commission report – that conclusion was decided upon and then they had to come up with some reasons to support it.
The reasons were designed by Arlen Specter. He was a staff lawyer at the time and later a Senator from Pennsylvania. He came up with the Magic Bullet Theory .
. Because the Zapruder film came out with the time frame of 5.62 seconds and there were 3 bullets during that time frame, all the wounds in John Kennedy and John Connelly.
Lee Oswald was given a paraffin test the day of his arrest. It was negative. It had proven he’d not fired a rifle that day.
According to the Marines, Oswald was a mediocre marksman at best.
The rifle that he was supposed to have used. . . if you ask any rifle dealer what the worst rifle, the least accurate rifle you could ever come up with they would tell you its the Mannlicher-Carcano. It’s called the humanitarian rifle by the Italians.
All this should’ve been put to rest in 1979 when the House Select Committee on Assassinations investigated and came up with acoustical evidence from a police dictabelt recording and found that there was a 4th shot.
If there was a 4th shot, there had to have been a second shooter. If there was a second shooter, there had to have been a conspiracy.
Kennedy was well aware that the anti-Communist ideology of the cold warriors was fundamentally flawed. The whole domino theory is fundamentally flawed.
After he was killed, very quickly, his (Kennedy’s) policies were reversed by Lyndon Johnson.
The fact is that 4 days after he was killed Lyndon Johnson issued National Security Action Memorandum 273 which reversed Kennedy’s order and actually ok’s US military operations in Vietnam.
On the very day he was assassinated Kennedy had sent a liaison to Cuba, to negotiate with Fidel Castro.
At the top of the list are the leaders of the CIA.
You have to understand that the Cold War had gone on for a long time, and people made careers, peoples’ livelihoods depended on the Cold War continuing. Big defense contracts depended on it.
A lot of people had the motivation to kill Kennedy.
Guest – Zachary Sklar, Oscar-nominated co-screenwriter of Oliver Stone’s film JFK, and author of the book JFK: The Book of the Film. He’s a journalist, and a professor at the Columbia School of Journalism. He was also a contributor to The Lies of Our Times, a monthly journal dedicated to exposing the truth behind the mainstream media. Zach collaborated with director Oliver Stone on the screenplay of the movie “JFK” and was editor of Jim Garrison’s book “On the Trail of the Assassins.”
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Lawyers You’ll Like: Attorney Bill Schapp
Attorney William Schaap graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1964 and has been a practicing lawyer since. Bill specialized in military law and practiced in Asia and Europe. He later became the editor in chief of the Military Law Reporter in Washington for a number of years. In the 70’s and 80’s he was a staff counsel of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City. In the late 80s, he was an adjunct professor at John J. College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York where he taught courses on propaganda and disinformation.
Attorney William Schapp:
One of first cases at this big Wall Street firm, they had some outside counsel working on it, one of whom was David Lubel, and Dave Lubel who had I think been a recruiter for the Communist Party in his youth, was always good at spotting somebody who was always worth recruiting and he started to tell me there was this convention of this lawyers group.
It was this 1967 Lawyers Guild Convention in New York. He dragged me to one event, I met Bill Kunstler, I met Arthur Kinoy, I met Victor Rabbinowitz. I’d been on Wall Street for a year or two, I said I didn’t know there were lawyers like this.
I joined the same day and met Bernadine Dorhn and a few weeks she called me and said we need your help.
She said you gotta defend a bunch of Columbia students. The next thing I knew the riot started at Columbia and she said you have to go down there and defend them.
I signed up to be staff counsel on the National Lawyers Guild Military Law Project in Okinawa, Japan.
When you work overseas in that kind of a climate with the military you learn a lot fast about American imperialism.
Once you learn that, you learn about the CIA.
That led us to originally working on Counter Spy magazine and then on Covert Action Magazine.
The original purpose was to expose the CIA. We worked with Lou Wolf who is an expert in uncovering CIA agents in US embassies, not through any classified documents but because if you knew how to read the paperwork and State Department things, you could tell who are the “ringers.”
We were so successful that Congress passed a law against us.
Our goal was to make these people ineffective because the only way most CIA could work, particularly the ones that were assigned to an embassy was to have to pretend to be something else.
They were all third assistant political secretaries and those were all phony things. Their job was to finagle their way into various community organizations in whatever foreign capital they were posted to recruit people to turn against their own countries and become traitors to their own countries, to become spies for the U.S.
We thought if we identified these people, it might make their job a little bit harder, which it did.
Of course, the problem with that is the government said we were trying to get them killed which we weren’t trying to do and nobody we did expose ever did get killed.
He (Philip Agee) had been an adviser to Counter Spy. Counter Spy folded when Welch got killed, cause the pressure was too much and started Covert Action Quarterly.
He was not the person discovering who the under cover people were, Lou Wolf was doing that.
Phil wrote articles for us in every issue and we worked very closely with him.
Once you start exposing these things, they really don’t have any defense.
They tried to catch us in something phony. We would get tips that would turn out to be CIA trying to get us to print some story that wasn’t true so they could then discredit us.
We had more interference from the government when we were doing military law work, before Covert Action Quarterly.
They would plant bugs in our attic in Okinawa, things like that.
The Intelligence Identity Protection Act has 2 parts. One makes it a crime for someone in the government who has classified information to reveal someone’s identity. The second part makes it a crime to reveal the identity of someone you did not learn from classified information or you position. (But if you were in the business of exposing these people . . .)
Regarding his newsletter The Lies of Our Times – It was in the 90s, from 1990 to 1995 I think. To a certain extent, the abuses we were crying about got a little bit less over time because that’s sometimes the helpful result of that kind of exposure.
We were just tired of people thinking that if it was in the New York Times it must be true.
The fact is that those people lie all the time.
I think we’ve gotten to a point where people recognize that the government lies to them and that there’s an awful lot that goes on that they don’t know.
Guest – Attorney William Schapp graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1964 and has been a practicing lawyer since. Bill specialized in military law and practiced in Asia and Europe. He later became the editor in chief of the Military Law Reporter in Washington for a number of years. In the 70’s and 80’s he was a staff counsel of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City. In the late 80s, he was an adjunct professor at John J. College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York where he taught courses on propaganda and disinformation.
In addition to being a practicing lawyer, Bill was a journalist, publisher and a writer specializing in intelligence as it relates to media. He was the co-publisher of a magazine called the Covert Action Quarterly for more than 20 years. He also published a magazine on propaganda and disinformation titled Lies Of Our Times. Attorney Bill Schapp has written numerous articles and edited many books on the topic of media and intelligence.
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Kurtis "Kurt" Loder (born May 5, 1945) is an American film critic, author, columnist, and television personality. [1] He served in the 1980s as editor at Rolling Stone , during a tenure that Reason later called "legendary". [2] He has contributed to articles in Reason , Esquire , Details , New York , and Time . [1] He has also made cameos on several films and television series. [1] He is best known for his role at MTV News since the 1980s and for appearing in other MTV-related television specials. [3] He has hosted the SiriusXM radio show True Stories since 2016. [4]
Loder stated that he "just fell into" his field, elaborating that his "entire journalism background is four weeks... That's it. Nothing else. You can learn journalism in four weeks. It's not an overcomplicated thing. It's very, very simple."[6]
Loder lived in Europe for the next several years, doing what he later called "scandal sheet" "yellow journalism."[6] He returned home to New Jersey at the end of 1972 and worked with a local newspaper and then an Ocean City-based magazine run by the sister of the city's famous writer Gay Talese. He left in the summer of 1976 to work with a free Long Island rock weekly called Good Times. He received about $200 a week.[3]
After meeting a fellow "music geek," David Fricke, "the two of us began driving into Manhattan virtually every night to wallow in the flourishing punk rock scene at CBGB's, Max's, etc. This was, fortunately, cool with the wives. I mean, we'd still be sitting upright at four in the morning through fist fights, mass nod-outs, and sets by bands with names like Blinding Headache, played to audiences of three people, of which we'd be two-thirds. I don't think I can quite convey how great days those were".[3]
They both joined Circus in 1978 and moved to Manhattan. Loder went on to become one of its official editors. The staff had a fun, relaxed atmosphere and considered the magazine to be second or third tier. Loder later said that "Whatever was said to be 'happening' in commercial pop music was... on the cover of Circus. Disco? Run with it. Shirtless teen popsters? Put 'em on the cover... a, shall we say, ardent enthusiasm for pix of nubile youths. Metal, of course, was really the mag's meat." He also remarked that "it was a foregone conclusion that writing of any technical ambition, about new acts of any real excitement or interest, would make it in the mag only by the sheerest accident." Loder briefly experimented with inhalant-based drugs at Circus; he stopped after experiencing a "gushing" nosebleed without any feeling left in his face.[3]
Loder started a nine-year run at Rolling Stone in May 1979. RockCritics.com has called him "one of Rolling Stone's most talented and prolific feature writers."[3] Reason has called his tenure "legendary."[2] While at Rolling Stone, Loder co-authored singer Tina Turner's 1986 autobiography I, Tina. He then contributed to the screenplay adaptation for the film What's Love Got to Do with It.[1]
Loder joined MTV in 1987 as the host of their flagship music news program, The Week in Rock.[1] It was later expanded and renamed to MTV News in which he was an anchor and correspondent.[1] Loder was one of the first to break the news of Kurt Cobain's death; he interrupted regular programming to inform viewers that Cobain was found dead.[7] Loder authored a 1990 collection of his Rolling Stone work called Bat Chain Puller.[1]
Loder has guest-starred as himself on Kenan & Kel, The "That 90s Show" episode of The Simpsons, Girlfriends, Duckman, Saturday Night Live, and Portlandia.[1] He has appeared in several films. He was also parodied in the South Park episode "Timmy 2000".[1]
In 2011, St. Martin's Press published Loder's The Good, the Bad and the Godawful: 21st-Century Movie Reviews, which collected his film reviews from MTV.com and Reason.com.
In 2016, Loder began hosting the music-based radio talk show True Stories on SiriusXM.[4] |
A lot of people want a Squirrel Girl movie and they are wrong! WRONG! In my learned, expert opinion, Squirrel Girl wouldn't work as a leading character in a movie - she's best when her unique qualities are being contrasted with others around her, especially more traditional superheroes. Also a movie would necessitate some sort of a big threat, which is not when I think Squirrel Girl is at her best, especially since the character's joke premise is largely that she's literally undefeatable. Seriously, she took out Thanos.
But put Squirrel Girl on a team? And put that team on TV show where the emphasis is on character interactions? And make that show a comedy? You've already sold me.
Now Marvel has to sell a network; they're shopping around a new show called New Warriors, and it stars Squirrel Girl. TV Line, who broke the news, says that it's a half hour comedy. Perfect! TV Line also says that the show is about a 'junior version of The Avengers,' which doesn't quite sound right to me - there is a team called Young Avengers, after all. But maybe TV can't use the Avengers name at all, and so they have to take the Young Avengers and call them The New Warriors? It's hard to say, as TV Line doesn't have the names of the other teenage heroes on the team, and Squirrel Girl was never on either team.
I love both the Young Avengers and The New Warriors, but I really love The New Warriors. I was always a fan of their original leader, Night Thrasher, a rich kid who saw his parents killed before his eyes and went on to become a skateboarding vigilante. Oh, and he just happened to be black, and the idea of a black skateboarding superhero feels pretty current in the world of Odd Future. At one point The New Warriors were on their own reality show (that ended in tragedy when member Speedball blew up a school and killed 600 people. Leave that out of the comedy show), and that would be a pretty good premise for a half hour comedy. Sort of The Office with superheroes.
If it's actually Young Avengers? That book was way more soap operatic than The New Warriors, which never really had a true cohesive focus past the first volume. I would do Young Avengers in the style of a CW show, not as a half hour comedy.
Whatever the case, it looks like TV has the rights to Squirrel Girl, so all your Anna Kendrick fancasting (which is bad fancasting. Read some Squirrel Girl stories and see why Kendrick is so so so so wrong for the role. It's Felicia Day's part to turn down) is out the window. Who will get the show? Nobody knows, but TV Line says it's being shopped to networks AND streaming - could this be the next Amazon pilot? |
Since his election in 2008, many on the right have believed that the news media — with the exceptions of Fox News and The Wall Street Journal — are President Barack Obama’s sycophants.
Since his election in 2008, many on the right have believed that the news media — with the exceptions of Fox News and The Wall Street Journal — are President Barack Obama’s sycophants. Yet the casual observer might have missed that Obama’s relationship with the supposed liberal media often has been rocky.
That’s chiefly because Obama and his national security advisers have reiterated the disdain for reporters that for White House occupants stretches back to Richard Nixon. In The Atlantic in August 2014, Jon Marshall, a journalism professor at Northwestern University, noted, “Nixon’s way of handling the press has prevailed in American politics. Intimidating journalists, avoiding White House reporters, staging events for television — now common presidential practices — were all originally Nixonian tactics.”
We can cite three recent examples of such behavior exhibited by Obama and his staff.
In May 2013, The Associated Press announced that then-Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department had subpoenaed from telecommunications companies the home and cellphone records of 20 AP reporters. The purpose was to learn who leaked information to the AP.
That same month The Washington Post reported that Holder had declared Fox News reporter James Rosen a “criminal co-conspirator” in endorsing search warrants to obtain Rosen’s emails. Holder wanted those, and had ordered the FBI to monitor Rosen’s visits to the State Department, in suspecting a government contractor of having leaked to Rosen classified information.
Finally, in January, the Justice Department announced that it would abandon a six-year crusade, which included threats of prison time, to force James Risen of The New York Times to reveal who conveyed confidential information about a Clinton administration CIA operation targeting Iran that Risen had included in a book he authored in 2006.
Last month it came to light that Defense Secretary Ashton Carter recently issued guidelines that said journalists in war zones, who generally are civilians, also may be “members of the armed forces, persons authorized to accompany the armed forces, or unprivileged belligerents” — which is the term the Obama administration has substituted for what the Bush administration called “unlawful enemy combatants” — that is, terrorists.
Journalism outlets complained that reporters were too easily being lumped in with terrorists. The Pentagon replied that the term was being misunderstood, that they just wanted to inform military commanders that spies or terrorists sometimes can pose as reporters.
As the Committee to Protect Journalists has noted, the term is so loosely defined that military leaders could easily cite it to “detain journalists without charge, and without any apparent need to show evidence or bring a suspect to trial.” The Pentagon’s solution is worse: it suggests reporters could offer their stories to “relevant authorities” for review so as to “not reveal sensitive information to the enemy.” The choice is thus detention with no legal protections, or outright censorship.
We understand the Pentagon’s concern with safeguarding the lives of American soldiers. Yet Obama’s record on dealing with the media is not good, and his desire to plumb leaks, withhold information, or obfuscate might even make Nixon in the afterlife cringe.
We don’t want to see any troops injured or killed by what a journalist reports, but the fog of war too often conceals the truth — which, it has been said, is the first casualty. Carter and the Pentagon hierarchy should revise this language, if not scrap it, to ensure the American people are not denied the fullest picture of combat and to adhere with our constitutional protections of the media. |
Historical information about the Mental Patients Union, formed in London in 1973 to oppose psychiatric oppression, written by Past Tense.
The Mental Patients Union (MPU), in the early 1970s, could probably be seen as the first service user involvement movement. Founder member Andrew Roberts described the Union’s genesis:
“The idea of a Mental Patients Union was first developed by a small group of mental patients and supporters back in December 1972. A pamphlet was produced — which came to be known as the Fish Pamphlet (it had a picture of a fish struggling on a hook on the cover) — that was strongly Marxist in its analysis. Its argument was that psychiatry was a form of social control of the working classes in a capitalist state, and that the psychiatrist was the “high priest” of technological society, exorcising the “devils” of social distress through electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), lobotomy and medication. The thinking was that, in the same way that workers formed trade unions, mental patients also needed a union to fight for their rights against political oppression and social control.
There were six of us involved in setting up the union: Liz Durkin, Brian Douieb, Lesley Mitchell, Eric Irwin, me and my partner Valerie Argent, but only Eric, Valerie and I were mental patients. Valerie and I were mainly focused on forming the union. We didn’t participate in the political analysis, or sign the Fish Pamphlet.
The group planned to hold its first public meeting at Paddington day hospital, where Liz had been a social worker. She had been making contact with the press to promote the cause for a Mental Patients Union. The idea of the union caught the fancy of Radio 4’s Today programme and they asked her to come and talk about it on the programme on the morning of the meeting. Liz realised they were asking her because she was a social worker, but at a “council of war” meeting we decided we wouldn’t take part unless they agreed to interview a patient — and that we wouldn’t give them any information about the patient, whether they were from Broadmoor or whatever. We had this idea that we’d line up in the studio and say: “Spot the loony.” They took three or four hours to ring us and agree to interview a patient. They needed time to think about that.
In the end, I was the only one of the three of us with mental health problems willing to do it. At the studio, it was all very civilised. The interviewer’s main question was: “How could patients possibly form a union – if they were sick, how could they take part in something like that?” In those days it was radical to suggest that people with mental health problems could do things together as an association.
The response after the broadcast was overwhelming. I gave out my home number on air and from the moment the interview went out, the telephone was ringing.
We had only booked a small room at the hospital for the meeting later that evening. More than 100 people turned up and there wasn’t room for us all. It was chaos and they found us a bigger room. Some people picked up the Fish Pamphlet and were asking if, to join the union, they had to share its analysis. We told them no, those were just the views of one small group.
We told them the union was about the dignity of mental patients, about being able to speak for ourselves and not having to talk about “them”, because, in those days, if you were in any group and the subject of mental patients came up, everybody assumed you couldn’t be one — you talked about “them”, not “us”.
Andrew Roberts is a member of the management committee of the Survivor History Group
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Mental Patients Union Demands taken from the Declaration of Intent of April 1973
We Demand
The abolition of compulsory treatment i.e. we demand the effective right of patients to refuse any specific treatment.
The abolition of the right of any authorities to treat patients in the face of opposition of relatives or closest friends unless it is clearly shown that the patient of his own volition desires the treatment.
The abolition of irreversible psychiatric treatments (ECT, brain surgery, specific drugs)
Higher standards in the testing of treatments before use on us.
That patients be told what treatments they are receiving are experimental and should have the effective right to refuse to be experimented on.
That patients be told what treatments they are receiving and what the long-term effects are.
Also the abolition of isolation treatment (seclusion in locked side rooms, padded cells, etc.)
The right of any patient to inspect his case notes and the right to take legal action relating to the contents and consequences of them.
That the authorities should not discharge any patient against his will because they refuse treatment or any other reason.
That all patients should have the right to have any treatment which we believe will help them.
That local authorities should provide housing for patients wishng to leave hospital and that adequate security benefits should be provided. We will support any mental patients or ex-patients in their struggle to get these facilities and any person who is at risk of becoming a mental patient because of inadequate accommodation, financial support, social pressures,etc.
We call for the abolition of compulsory hospitalisation.
An end to the indiscriminate use of the term ‘mental subnormality’. We intend to fight the condemnation of people as ‘mentally subnormal’ in the absence of any real practical work to tackle the problem with active social understanding and help.
The abolition of the concept of ‘psychopath’ as a legal or medical category.
The right of patients to retain their personal clothing in hospitals and to secure their personal possessions without interference by hospital staff.
The abolition of compulsory work in hospitals and outside and the abolition of the right of the hospital to withhold and control patients’ money.
The right of patients to join and participate fully in the trade union of their choice.
That trade union rates are paid to patients for any work done where such rates do not exist.
That patients should have recourse to a room where they can enjoy their own privacy or have privacy with others, of either sex, of their own choosing.
The abolition of censorship by hospital authorities of patients’ communications with society outside the hospital and in particular the abolition of telephone and letter censorship.
We demand the abolition of any power to restrict patients’ visiting rights by the hospital authorities.
22, The right of Mental Patients Union representatives to inspect all areas of hospitals or equivalent institutions.
We deny that there is any such thing as ‘incurable’ mental illness and demand the right to investigate the circumstances of any mental hospital patient who believes he or she is being treated as incurable
We demand that every mental patient or ex-patient should have the right to a free second opinion by a psychiatrist of the patient’s or Mental Patients Union representatives’ choice, if he or she disagrees with the diagnosis and that every patient or ex-patient should have the right to an effective appeal machinery.
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Another early MPU member, Joan Hughes, picks up the history of the group:
“In England, around about 1972, a few groups of psychiatric patients and sympathetic mental health staff began to make political comments on their situation in society. Effectively, many mental patients were without civil rights – For example, even the right to vote used to be removed for a mental patient without any address outside an institution
PADDINGTON DAY HOSPITAL
The first group I heard about was a group of patients attending the Paddington Day Hospital in West London. This was reputed to use enlightened methods of treatment including psychotherapy. National Health Service authorities wanted to close it.
There were meetings and discussions among patients and the protest against closure was successful. The Paddington Day Hospital stayed open.
THE FISH PAMPHLET
One of the patients at Paddington Day Hospital was Eric Irwin. He and three professionals, Liz Durkin, Lesley Mitchell and Brian Douieb, thought there was a need for an organisation of patients. They met together write a booklet called “The Case for a Mental Patients Union”. Later they were joined by two other patients, Andrew and Valerie Roberts.
This group is called the pilot committee for a mental patients union. The booklet is often called “The Fish Pamphlet” because it has a picture of a fish on a hook on the cover. This is to illustrate that the behaviour of someone who is suffering from mental illness may appear mad, but may really be a way of getting over his or her problems.
THE MENTAL PATIENTS UNION
A big meeting to discuss forming a Mental Patients Union was held in the evening of Wednesday 21st March 1973. About 100 people attended this meeting at Paddington Day Hospital. The majority were patients or ex- patients. Most lived in London.
It turned out that this was not the first Mental Patients Union. People came who had previously formed the Scottish Union of Mental Patients. People were present who had tried to form a Union in Oxford and a message was received from another group in Leeds.
The national Mental Patients Union was formed with full membership reserved for patients and ex-patients.
MENTAL PATIENTS UNION DECLARATION OF INTENT
There was a lot of discussion about the content of the Fish Pamphlet. Many patients objected to its use of marxist ideas. It was decided that the Fish Pamphlet could be circulated by The Mental Patients Union, but would not be a MPU publication. The policy of the union would be written independently and voted on at meetings where only patients and ex-patients had a vote. This was called Declaration of Intent of the Mental Patients Union. It begins
“We proclaim the dignity of society’s so-called mental patients. We challenge repressive psychiatric practice and its ill-defined concepts of ‘mental illness'”
DEMANDS
The declaration contained demands.
Some demands were moderate. For example, the right to receive private letters unopened by staff.
Some were long term aims. For example, the eventual abolition of mental hospitals.
Some were impractical. For example, the right to be represented by a member of the Mental Patients Union at mental health tribunals. This was impractical because not enough MPU members were available to be representatives.
The most controversial demands seemed to be the right to refuse certain forms of treatment, such as Electro Convulsive Shock Treatment (ECT) and drugs.
SCOTTISH UNION OF MENTAL PATIENTS
As I have said, when the MPU was formed nationally, it was found out that patients unions had been formed already in different parts of the country.
SUMP, the Scottish Union of Mental Patients, was formed in 1972 by Tommie Ritchie and Robin Farqhuarson. This was the first union of psychiatric patients in the United Kingdom that we have the written records of. Tommy and Robin both helped to form the national MPU in 1973.
FORGOTTEN GROUPS
We know that a lot of history is forgotten or goes unrecorded. One of the aims of a history group should be to trace the activities of patients in different parts of the country before and after the public start of the mental patients movement in 1973.
NATION WIDE
Following 1973, mental patients unions were established in many parts of the country. Hackney MPU acted as a coordinating centre for some years.
Some, like the West London MPU, were very small, others had a substantial membership. Some operated in mental hospitals, other were outside the hospital. Two (Hackney and Manchester) ran houses for members.
Sometimes there was a union in a hospital linked to a union outside. This was the case in Hackney where Hackney Hospital patients established their own union with the support of the Mayola Road MPU. Hackney Hospital MPU may have been the first hospital union to win recognition from the hospital authorities.
A Federation of Mental Patients Unions was formed, at the Manchester Conference, in 1974.
Mental Patients Unions did not all have the same Declaration of Intent. Groups were free to select their own demands from the original declaration, and add others that they wanted.
It needs to be remembered that the main surviving record of the Mental Patients Union are those kept by Hackney for the movement generally.
This means that a lot of local history is still to be recovered – Including the history of MPU groups outside Hackney that carried on after Hackney MPU closed. One group. Dundee MPU is believed to have carried on into the 1990s. Although it changed its name.
HACKNEY MENTAL PATIENTS UNION
In Hackney there were two autonomous MPU’s who worked together. Although I was, at one time, a patient in Hackney Hospital, the group I belonged to was the Mayola Road Mental Patients Union. I lived in Robin Farquharson House and was, at one time, the union treasurer and, at other times, its secretary.
As far as I know, no Mental Patients Union ever received any public funds. Hackney MPU was supported by donations from patients and ex-patients, and some associate members and from the rents that those of us living in the houses paid.
Associate members were people like sympathetic social workers and health service workers. There were very few of these and, whilst I was involved, all the active members were patients or ex-patients. Any patient or ex- patient could attend and vote at our meetings. Before anyone else attended, the full members present had to agree that they could.
Without funding and relying completely on our own resources, we provided services. We ran the Robin Farquharson House in Mayola Road for three years. This was divided into individual rooms that were entirely under resident’s control, but it also had an office which served as a crash pad in emergencies. We often had people staying who were going through a crisis and who were supported by other residents. We also helped and advised people by telephone and letter, and there were any visitors from all over the country as well as from abroad.
We set up two other houses in Woodford to accommodate people and, after a while, these became self managing.
COPE AND WEST LONDON MPU
COPE (Community Organisation for Psychiatric Emergencies) was running in West London at the same time as MPU. Some of its members were patients. others were not. It ran a crisis centre with and published a magazine, and also tried to provide short-term housing. COPE provided a base for Eric Irwin’s “West London MPU”. Many people met him there. One of those people was Julian Barnett, the founder of PROMPT (Protection of the Rights of Mental Patients in Therapy)
PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS
I joined the Mental Patients Union shortly after it started. I took part in many activities but, because of my experience, I was particularly interested in the side effects of psychiatric drugs. In October 1975 I was one of the three people who brought out A Directory of the Side Effects of Psychiatric Drugs.
As an analytical chemist, I was able to help a lot on the scientific side and in reading and understanding reports.
My name at this time was Joan Martin. The other two people were Andrew Roberts and Chris Hill, who typed the directory.
MY EXPERIENCE
Let me tell you something, first about my experience of psychiatric drugs and why it is so important that people who take them are well informed about their effects.
One day in 1969 I visited my G.P. and told her about my depression. She said that she could give me an injection for this and I would soon feel better. She said that the title of the drug was “Modecate”, which I knew nothing about.
I had this injection, walked home and into a cinema to see a film. Midway through the film I felt not sleepy but incredibly depressed. The world was slipping away from me. Everything which was happening around me appeared to be taking place in another world, with which I had no connection.
For the next two years I did not initiate any activities for myself. It was a shadowy world in which I lived and I am not able to describe it. In fact I could observe what people were doing, but not act for myself, except in a desperate way, which soon ended with my entering Rubery Hill Mental Hospital.
I am not against Doctors. It was a doctor who took me off the drugs and restored my health. I entered Goodmayes Hospital on November 1st 1971, having taken an overdose. My drugs were stopped and the first day on which I began to feel better was November 29th, 1971.
Some years later I told a doctor in Hackney Hospital
“I know that drugs do me no good. And the MPU is not against doctors. In Goodmayes Hospital there was someone called Dr Abrahamson. He must have been a good doctor for he stopped giving me drugs, and after two years chronic illness, I suddenly got better.”
SIDE EFFECTS
When MPU was formed, many doctors denied that psychiatric drugs had serious side effects. There are also drugs now considered dangerously addictive that doctors then said were entirely free of problems.
We had been issuing a one-sheet listing the main psychiatric drugs with their side-effects, almost since MPU was first formed. Some people thought this was based on patients reports. But it was based on the official reports of the drugs. We were careful not to be sensational and explained that the side effects only sometimes occurred. The list was so that people would not blame their illness if they suffered the side effect.
We thought this was very reasonable – But many people were very angry about it. Mind re-published it in the first Consumers issue of their magazine, but forgot to include the warning that it was only a list of effects that might happen. This caused a great debate in its correspondence columns.
The side effects directory was eight pages. We researched it carefully, and divided it into different types of drugs, so that people were not confessed by changing names. By this time Mind were frightened to mention side effects, but the Directory was well reviewed by some medical papers. Many drug companies bought copies. We charged them extra.
Orders for the drugs directory soon outpaced the supply and I kept on reprinting it for several years, and even revised it. It is now, of course, hopelessly out of date.
CLOSURE
Hackney MPU closed in 1976. Members who lived in the house moved into two new house. One of these was run by Matthew O’Hara until his death in June 1980. The Matthew O’Hara Committee: for Civil Liberties and Community Care was formed in his memory.
I [Joan Hughes] lived, with other members, in the other house (which still exists). We kept the same telephone line and continued to answer calls to the union and correspond with people who wrote. Visitors from the movement in the United Kingdom, Europe and America frequently stayed with us. One of those who stayed was Judi Chamberlin from America, a patient activist from the United States. When she was invited to the World Congress of Mental Health in Brighton in June 1985, she was shocked to find no United Kingdom activists were invited – But worked with those who came uninvited.
PROMPT
PROMPT (Protection of the Rights of Mental Patients in Therapy) was formed in 1976. It was not a patients group, although several patients and ex- patients joined. Eric Irwin from West London MPU was one of its most active members. The group used the MPU logo and reprinted many MPU publications, with additions of its own.
PROMPT did not try to provide housing or set up groups in hospitals. What id did do was to provide a telephone advice service for patients and ex=patients in difficulties, unsatisfied with their treatment or living conditions. It also gave considerable attention to campaigning on specific issues such as the abolition of Electro-Convulsive Therapy.”
For more information about the Mental Patients Union see:
http://studymore.org.uk/mpu.htm
http://www.ctono.freeserve.co.uk/id90.htm
The Mental Patients Union evolved during the 1970s into PROMPT (People for the Rights of Mental Patients in Treatment), which eventually turned into CAPO (Campaign Against Psychiatric Oppression) in the early 1980s. CAPO went on to issue a seminal manifesto which is still regarded by many as inspirational.
Taken from https://pasttenseblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/today-in-londons-radical-history-mental-patients-union-founded-to-oppose-psychiatric-oppression-1973/ |
For the most part, today's reactions to last night's presidential reaction have been a predictable mix of partisan lunacy and more measured calls for national unity.
But it seems a McDonald's restaurant in Follansbee, West Virginia, is particularly distressed. The fast food eatery was spotted flying the American flag upside down this morning at half-staff -- typically a signal that the flag-bearer is in jeopardy and in dire need of assistance.
An upside-down flag can also be interpreted as a protest. Many saw the flag as an objection to Tuesday night's presidential election results.
According to News9, an employee at the restaurant indicated the flag's position had been set by the owner.
A person representing themselves as the owner of that McDonald's later contacted News9 and told the station that the flag's position and appearance was the result of a mistake.
The flag has since been removed.
In an emailed statement to the Huffington Post, McDonalds' franchisee Karen Mezan reiterated that the flag's position was an ill-timed mistake, and not intended to be a political statement:
Unfortunately, a flag cable broke and during the process of trying the fix the flag, it was inadvertently turned upside down. It wasn't noticed that the flag was upside down until a customer inquired about it. We are working on fixing the flag right now. It’s important to note that this was an accident, not intentional. |
Looks like those skinny Ultrabooks Intel was trying to sell us on at Computex will all be hitting the market at roughly the same time. Despite earlier suggestions that HP would beat ASUS's planned September launch, DigiTimes reports the Palo Alto company's Air competitor may not actually ship until as late as Q1 of 2012, thanks to LCD supply issues. Those problems scoring enough panels are also holding up similar systems from Acer and Dell. To make matters worse, it seems those promised sub $1,000 price points were a bit optimistic. ASUS told the Taipei Times that its UX line would only be able to hit such a price using slower Core i3 chips -- upgrading to a Core i5 and sticking in an SSD would push the price towards the $2,000 mark.[Thanks, Marco] |
CRIMES ACT 1958 - SECT 6 Infanticide
CRIMES ACT 1958 - SECT 6
(1) If a woman carries out conduct that causes the death of her child in circumstances that would constitute murder and, at the time of carrying out the conduct, the balance of her mind was disturbed because of—
(a) her not having fully recovered from the effect of giving birth to that child within the preceding 2 years; or
(b) a disorder consequent on her giving birth to that child within the preceding 2 years—
she is guilty of infanticide, and not of murder, and liable to level 6 imprisonment (5 years maximum).
S. 6(2) amended by No. 68/2009 s. 97(Sch. item 40.1).
(2) On an indictment for murder, a woman found not guilty of murder may be found guilty of infanticide.
Note
See sections 10(3) and 421 for other alternative verdicts.
(3) Nothing in this Act affects the power of the jury on a charge of murder of a child to return a verdict of not guilty because of mental impairment. |
Washington (CNN) -- Republicans have a response to the news Friday morning that U.S. unemployment dropped beneath 6% for the first time since 2008: "We can do better."
"Slow job growth may be good enough for Democrats, but Republicans know we can do better," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. "While we're glad to see some Americans finally finding work, we can't lose sight of the fact that we should have been at this point years ago."
House Speaker John Boehner also sounded off on the jobs report, knocking Democrats for refusing to vote on "dozens of good jobs bills" that Republicans passed in his chamber.
Boehner also accused President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats of presiding "over a new normal of flat wages, higher prices, and too many part-time jobs."
"Every day I hear from people in my district who say no matter how hard they work, they still struggle to make ends meet," Boehner said in a statement. "Instead of trying to convince Americans that things are great, Washington Democrats ought to show they're serious about helping middle-class families get ahead, not just get by."
Unemployment falls below 6% for first time since 2008
While Democrats as well said there was more work to be done, the Obama administration championed the better-than-expected jobs numbers.
Jason Furman, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, said the latest report represents the "longest streak of private-sector job gains on record."
"The data underscore that six years after the Great Recession—thanks to the hard work of the American people and in part to the policies the President has pursued—our economy has bounced back more strongly than most others around the world," Furman said.
Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer pointed out the jobs numbers in a statement and said he was "disappointed" with House Republican obstructionism.
"Congress must take action to ensure this growth continues," Hoyer said in a statement.
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TAGUIG, Philippines – (UPDATED 1-Oct-14 19:33) A video showing Bonifacio Global City guards restraining a Caucasian man at the corner of 5th and 30th Avenue in BGC at 5:24PM on Saturday September 27 has been uploaded to YouTube in what can be considered a classic case ofpolice brutality.The video shows an un-armed Caucasian man wearing a light-colored polo shirt, khaki shorts, and blue sneakers being manhandled by at least seven uniformed officers while another one lay still, just a few meters away. Initially he was being restrained by two Bonifacio Global City guards, and two more quickly join the fray.A marshal wearing only the standard black and orange guard uniform(no reflector) can be seen punching the Caucasian man in the stomach. A few seconds later he is surrounded and being forced onto the floor, his body pink and sore and his clothes all torn.In the confusion, one of the guards can be heard saying “posasan mo!” (cuff him) while the white keeps on saying “I’d like you … I’d like you … yes … it’s okay … it’s okay”.At the end of the video, one of the guards can be seen approaching the cameraman while shouting “hoy! putang ina mo ah! huy bakla!” (hey! you son of a bitch! you faggot!).Bonifacio Global City, Taguig contains a very high presence of expatriates from other countries due to the presence of business establishments and BPO (business process outsourcing) companies.Just two best friends on vacationAccording to our source, the two are English best friends Sam & Chris. Sam is a BGC resident and Chris is staying for vacation.Here’s what happened before this incident:The English men’s names are Sam & Chris, two of the nicest people I’ve known in the city. Sam is a resident of BGC & Chris is his best friend who’s here for vacation. Sam just wished to use his skateboard and have fun that Saturday Afternoon Sept 27. They initially played in front of Banana Republic along fifth avenue, two lady police women approached them and nicely told them that they can’t use the board in that area and they instructed them to play at the park instead, which they did.At the park, a lady marshal the one shown in the video with a proud look at 1:16 stopped them rudely unlike the police women. As per Sam’s sharing, in their country they look up to their police officers as kings, they respected them and honour them, so their words were gold. So between the police women & the marshals, they believed the words of the police. They insisted to the marshal that they were told that it is okey to skate in that area and that’s where the argument began.Marshal called for back-up and two Big Marshals arrived, confiscated the skate board, in Sam’s mind he just want to get the skateboard and run off as he was already scared, which he successfully did. Then new set of reinforcements arrive and this video is what happened next. They got caught.Given, that the marshals’ were right that it is indeed prohibited to skate although ironically, to play IN A PARK, does it have to end this way? Where’s the maximum tolerance ruling? Oh maybe this marshals have a different code. We don’t need to be an investigator to figure out that there is something wrong here, they already got him but still the marshals had a grand time I guess showing off their kickboxing skills.To make it even worse, Sam, with a bruised face and a broken rib and Chris were arrested for being charged with PHYSICAL INJURY by two of this wonderful marshals. Really clever and wise move. They got detained that very night. Our experience with the investigating team made the night evenworse. Few CLOSED DOOR briefings with the complainants (the marshals) and the police happened that night investigator needed to ask what happened, we were waiting for our turn to be asked about our side but it never came. This is where I realized, you are really at a loss if youdon’t know anyone. Even if you are the one being aggravated, they can easily manipulate the situation and make it appear like you were in the wrong. I realized, it is very heavy for someone to be in this situation.For some reason they weren’t allowed to file a counter-charge that very night and we weren’t able to do anything to prevent them from detaining the two. Where in fact, Sam & Chris, were supposed to be the one filing that PHYSICAL INJURY CASE. If there’s any lawyer reading this we would really appreciate your advice sirs and madams.Sam is currently confined in St. Lukes & Chris is being held at Taguig Police Station just beside City hall of Taguig as suspects. |
LAS VEGAS — A federal jury in Nevada found a 64-year-old Marin County man with ties to a Colombian drug cartel guilty of selling the horns of endangered black rhinoceros to an undercover buyer at a Las Vegas hotel.
Edward Levine of Novato was convicted Thursday in Las Vegas of conspiracy to violate the Lacey and Endangered Species acts and violating the Lacey Act prohibiting trade in illegally obtained wildlife, fish and plants.
Prosecutors say Levine and San Francisco art dealer Lumsden Quan delivered the horns and collected $55,000 from the agent in march 2014.
Quan pleaded guilty and was sentenced in December 2015 to about a year in prison.
Levine faces up to five years at sentencing Dec. 15.
Prosecutors say they’ll seek the maximum, due to Levine’s 1995 federal drug trafficking conviction in a 1989 indictment involving Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar and members of the Medellin drug cartel. |
YouTube has taken down Geert Wilders’ video about Mohammed. Here’s the notice sent out today by the PVV:
Today the Party for Freedom (PVV) was notified of YouTube’s decision to remove the Dutch Wilders’ video about the prophet Muhammad because it would be in violation of the User Guidelines. Previously, Twitter already censored the English version of the video in France and Germany. In addition the videos have been watched an unprecedented 1.8 million times through all PVV channels (Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook).
In the video Geert Wilders shows that the Prophet Mohammed should be considered a terrorist, mass murderer and a pedophile, and that it is very dangerous that this man is a role model to one billion Muslims.
Geert Wilders: “It is an outrage that the freedom of speech is sacrificed because of expressing the truth. It must always be permitted to express the truth even when it concerns a deranged prophet. Fortunately the video is still available on Twitter and Facebook.”
Links: |
Kieran Moore – I’m going to start this week’s top 10 rundown with a bold statement: I think that Fraggle Rock might actually be my favorite Henson TV show of all-time. I genuinely think that this show just edges it over The Muppet Show for me. Perhaps it’s the fact that I was 5 when it first aired here in the UK so I was the right age for it, perhaps it’s the fact that it’s totally awesome, who knows? So when I was deciding which Muppet performer to feature this week it occurred to me that I’d been a bit Sesame Street heavy over the last few weeks and I decided it was time to feature my favorite show.
As a kid I always latched on to the artistic, soulful or smart character in whatever show I watched (I guess that’s how I saw myself) so naturally my favorite character was Mokey and as it’s my chart and I get to pick, Kathryn Mullen seemed like the obvious choice to feature this week. I also want to give a brief shout out to my second favorite Kathryn Mullen character, Gaffer from The Muppet Show (I once almost owned a ginger cat with an eye patch, but that’s another story!)
As it happens this whole chart is comprised of Fraggle Rock songs, though it wasn’t on purpose, so without further ado let’s “Dance our cares away” and get on with the countdown!
10. Kick a Stone – Mokey
While Mokey is the queen of the soulful ballad (more on that later) this song has a gentle lilting guitar riff that sets it apart. Kathryn’s breathy tones at the start of the song are perfect. I wish this song was longer, it’s got a great lazy day vibe going on that you just get into when it suddenly ends. It does also lose a few points for using the cliché rhyme “change” and “rearrange.” If I had a penny for every song that features that particular couplet I wouldn’t be here right now…
9. The Joy – Mokey
This is Mokey on familiar territory, singing her thoughts about the world and her place within it. This is a beautiful song, once again cut brutally short. I guess that’s the peril of having to fit several songs into such a short running time each week. Kathryn is doing what she does best here, there is so much emotion in this performance and every word is truly meant.
8. I’m on My Own – Cotterpin Doozer
Kathryn’s other signature character from Fraggle Rock is Cotterpin Doozer. Cotterpin is both different from Mokey and yet similar in many ways. She’s feistier and has a little more spunk, but she is also creative and rebellious and is often the only one of her kind to see the wood for the trees and speak out. They are both also great friends with Red Fraggle. “I’m on My Own” shows Cotterpin’s more adventurous side and this song is classic Fraggle Rock. The lyrics could be sung by Gobo Fraggle to the point that this sounds like it could have originally been written with him in mind. Kathryn is clearly having fun here. Mokey didn’t get a lot of up tempo numbers and this clearly shows that Kathryn was more than capable of performing them.
7. Sunlight and Shadow – Mokey
What’s worse than a sad Fraggle? A sad Fraggle in a cage of course. This wistful ballad really encapsulates Mokey’s ethos for me. Even while she’s sad and thinking of her plight she relating it to the world around her and contemplating the role of others within it. I guess that’s not just the ethos of Mokey as a character, but in part, that of the show itself. This is one of those occasions where a song can be taken from its original setting and still work brilliantly. What can I say about Kathryn’s performance here? Simply sublime just about covers it!
6. Show Me – Mokey
I really like this song. If it weren’t for the quality of what’s to come this song would most definitely be higher on the list. “Show me the light in a butterfly’s eye. And show me the dreams of the Earth and the sky.” are just great lyrics. As Mokey is the most poetic Fraggle I wonder if the lyricists of her songs were given slightly freer rein with what they could have her sing. This song has a Kate Bush vibe to me and that’s never a bad thing. Kathryn’s vocal is light and airy and full of wonder and I love it. It’s also not the first time you’ll hear the word “thimble” on this chart…
5. The Way I’ve Got to Go – Cotterpin Doozer
This is another scandalously short song. If the tune seems familiar it’s because it was used in our number 10 entry “Kick a Stone”. This is a slightly quicker arrangement however to reflect the mood of the singer. As with this tune’s previous entry, it is a great folksy guitar led piece that’s perfect for a lazy afternoon, only this time it’s a lazy Sunday afternoon in the car. This totally reminds me of King of The Road by Muppet Show guest star Roger Miller. How cool is it that Kathryn got to perform both versions of this song and make each sound original and unique? Super-cool, that’s how cool!
4. Why? – Mokey (song starts at 3:33)
I actually feel a bit mean putting this song as low as number 4. It kind of feels like Mokey’s unofficial theme song. It’s thoughtful and introspective, yet as with previous entries when Mokey is thoughtful and introspective it’s mostly with regard to her place in the wider universe. I’ve loved this song for years – I guess on a certain level it speaks to me personally. I think at times we’ve probably all asked these kinds of questions so this isn’t just a beautiful song it’s one that is totally relatable. It hasn’t been mentioned yet in this chart, but it blows my mind that what is essentially a kids show can have such thoughtful, poignant moments that ask such grown up questions. I know the hallmark of the best Jim Henson creations is that they can be enjoyed by all ages, but for me this show falls firmly between The Muppet Show and Sesame Street in terms of core audience age. I love that both Fraggle Rock and Sesame Street aren’t afraid to touch on such big subjects. Unlike some of the songs on the chart this is a proper length song coming in at around 3 minutes and Kathryn sounds amazing for every single second. This is a true tour de force.
3. Beetle Song – Mokey, Red & Gobo
I must admit that when I decided to feature Kathryn in this week’s chart this was the first song I thought of. I’ve loved this song since I first owned the Fraggle Rock Songs video back in the 80’s. I say “first owned” as I was given it again recently as a birthday gift (thanks Mum!). I wish I could persuade someone to sing this with me. I actually don’t know where to begin in my praise for this song. I love the instrumental arrangement, I love the spotlight it gives to the Mokey and Red friendship, I love the fun lyrics (did they really say “dirty otters”?), I love the performances by Kathryn and Karen as Mokey is cool, calm and collected and Red gets more and more flustered, I love Red with her hair down, I love the way it starts slowly and builds…. There’s just one thing I don’t like (and it will come up again) and that’s how Gobo “I’ll finish your song for you” Fraggle decides to pop up and join in for the last couple of lines. Why? It’s not needed and is the only minus this song has in my opinion.
2. Sail Away – Mokey, Gobo & Wembley (AKA Moon Lullaby)
Gobo “I’ll finish your song for you” Fraggle strikes again! At least this time he participates in more of the song, but Kathryn sings this song so beautifully that I feel affronted on her behalf that she doesn’t get to finish it. I guess it’s too late to storm The Henson Company with pitchforks to demand they re-shoot it. Oh well, let’s dwell on the positive instead and what a lot of positive there is. This song was so very, very nearly number 1 on the chart and if there wasn’t an iconic Mokey song to come it probably would have been. Kathryn sings this song to perfection. Her vocal style works brilliantly for a lullaby. The harmonies are lush and full and the song’s arrangement with the flute accompaniment is superb. I haven’t yet mentioned Philip Balsam and Dennis Lee who wrote not just this song, but most likely every Fraggle Rock song you’ve ever found yourself humming in the shower (please say it’s not just me). They totally deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Paul Williams and Joe Raposo as Muppet Music Maestros. When my acapella group were looking for a Fraggle Rock song to sing this was a very strong contender (we ultimately chose Dixie Wailin’).
1. Ragtime Queen – Mokey
Mokey’s Funeral is a classic episode of Fraggle Rock and this song in my opinion is also a Fraggle Rock classic. Kathryn sounds great here – again it’s a beautiful vocal that showcases her higher register fantastically, but unlike most other Mokey ballads her fun side comes to the fore here and this allows for a lighter, less serious delivery. This is as much as great vocal performance as an example of Kathryn’s outstanding acting or puppetry. There’s a real subtlety in this song. I know I’ve name checked her before, but if someone told me that this was a Kate Bush song I would believe them. I wish Fraggle Rock had released a few more singles while it was on air as I could totally imagine this as a standalone release. Aside from the actual song it’s interesting that Mokey calls Rags “pretty” when she was made in her own image. What does this say about Mokey’s ego? We know that she can be introspective from earlier entries, but it’s usually in relation to the wider world. Does this statement show another side to her character? Am I reading too much into it? Is she just having fun? Can Batman and The Boy Wonder escape The Joker’s clutches? I just don’t know.
As is now customary I’d like to end by saying a personal thanks to Kathryn for being a part of one of the most amazing TV shows ever made. You helped me find myself (as a child and an adult), you helped me find the good in everything I see, you helped me find my place in the world and you helped me dream of a better one. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
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A Florida woman who claimed to be a victim of abuse yet was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for allegedly firing a warning shot during a dispute with her husband was granted a new trial Thursday.
The appellate court ruling erased a decision by a jury that took just 12 minutes to convict Marissa Alexander, a mother of three, of aggravated assault.
The conviction of Alexander, who is black, sparked outrage and cries of a racial double standard in light of the exoneration of George Zimmerman, a white Hispanic, for the death of Trayvon Martin, who was black. In particular, outrage aired on social media and among some lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Alexander unsuccessfully tried to invoke Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law as the same prosecutors who unsuccessfully worked to put Zimmerman behind bars told the court that she did not act in self-defense.
In granting the new trial, Judge James H. Daniel also seemed unmoved by the Stand Your Ground defense.
"We reject her contention that the trial court erred in declining to grant her immunity from prosecution under Florida's Stand Your Ground law, but we remand for a new trial because the jury instructions on self-defense were erroneous," wrote Daniel.
Alexander testified that, on Aug. 1, 2010, her then-husband, Rico Gray Sr., questioned her fidelity and the paternity of her 1-week-old child.
She claimed that he broke through a bathroom door that she had locked and grabbed her by the neck. She said she tried to push past him but he shoved her into the door, sparking a struggle that felt like an "eternity."
Afterwards, she claimed that she ran to the garage and tried to leave but was unable to open the garage door, so she retrieved a gun, which she legally owned.
Once inside, she claimed, her husband saw the gun and charged at her "in a rage" saying, "Bitch, I'll kill you." She said she raised the gun and fired a warning shot into the air because it was the "lesser of two evils."
The jury rejected the self-defense claim and Alexander was sentenced under the state's 10-20-life law, sparking outrage over how self-defense laws are applied in the state.
A Florida appellate court ruled today that jury instructions, which unfairly made Alexander prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that she was acting in self-defense, were wrong -- and that there were other incorrect instructions that self-defense only applied if the victim suffered an injury, which Gray had not.
Today, U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., lashed out at Florida State Attorney Angela Corey, who oversaw the failed prosecution of George Zimmerman and the prosecution in this case, saying, "Arresting and prosecuting her when no one was hurt does not make any sense. ... What was certainly absent from the courtroom during Marissa's trial was mercy and justice. Indeed, the three-year plea deal from State Attorney Angela Corey is not mercy, and a mandatory 20-year sentence is not justice."
Corey's office argued that Alexander, who had not been living in the home for two months leading up to the shooting, provoked the incident, and that there was no proof the garage door was broken, Alexander's rationale for not leaving the altercation. Her office offered her a three-year plea deal in the case that was rejected.
Alexander testified about three other alleged incidents of physical abuse by her husband, including one that led to his arrest. Several witnesses claimed to have seen the injuries she allegedly suffered and the final defense witness in the case testified that she met the criteria for "battered person's syndrome."
In a statement, prosecutors wrote, "The defendant's conviction was reversed on a legal technicality. ... We are gratified that the court affirmed the defendant's Stand Your Ground ruling. This means the defendant will not have another Stand Your Ground hearing. The case will be back in the Circuit Court in the Fourth Judicial Circuit at the appropriate time." |
The Milwaukee Bucks will trade the Brooklyn Nets two second-round picks as compensation for the rights to acquire head coach Jason Kidd and add him as the new head coach, reports ESPN's Marc Stein.
The trade will send the the Bucks' 2015 second-round pick and either their 2018 or 2019 second-round pick to Brooklyn, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Charles F. Gardner. The deal also relieves the Nets of Kidd's remaining three years on a contract originally worth $10.5 million over four seasons.
It was originally believed Kidd would join Milwaukee as the president of basketball operations, but it was later reported that he only discussed joining the squad as head coach. That means Bucks general manager John Hammond seems to be safe at his current post, but now coach Larry Drew will be on the way out after just a year on the job.
The Nets had held out hope they could receive a first-round pick to acquire Kidd, but seemed to have settled for two second-rounders.
Kidd is familiar with new Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry, who had stake in the New Jersey Nets when Kidd starred there. Lasry also served as the point guard's financial adviser.
Kidd burned bridges in Brooklyn during his first season on the court, first highlighting a 10-21 start to the year with a $50,000 fine for asking a player to spill his drink on him to earn a free timeout. After demoting assistant coach Lawrence Frank, turning in a midseason turnaround and then pushing Brooklyn to a first-round playoff series victory, Kidd requested more power in the Nets' front office and essentially asked owner Mikhail Prokhorov for hierarchy over general manager Billy King.
The thinking from Kidd reportedly was spurred both by the larger contracts given to inexperienced former players that the Warriors gave to Steve Kerr and Knicks doled out to Derek Fisher. Also adding to Kidd's unhappiness was the power given to head coach Doc Rivers in Los Angeles, where he also serves as president of basketball operations. |
Vermont Beer Makers Bring Back Old-Time Maple Sap Brews
Enlarge this image toggle caption Robert F. Sisson/National Geographic/Getty Images Robert F. Sisson/National Geographic/Getty Images
In Vermont, the last sap in the spring maple sugaring season isn't considered good for much. It's too dark and strong to use for commercial maple syrup — people tend to like the light and clear stuff.
But long ago, that late season sap was used in a potent dark beer that offered some cool relief to farmers when the hay was cut in the heat of summer.
Now some local microbreweries are bringing the historic drink back from extinction.
In the 1970s Vermont musician John Cassel recorded a popular local song about sap beer. But you would have been hard pressed to find any sap beer to drink at the time.
The traditional making of sap beer had already gone the way of obsolete farm traditions — like hand milking — a couple of generations earlier. Folklorist Greg Sharrow says sap beer represents a time when farm families made just about everything they needed from their own land.
In a 1992 interview with the Vermont Folklife Center, the late Edgar Dodge described how sap beer was made on the Vermont farm where he grew up in the Depression Era. It sounds more like fun than work. "You'd take the last run of the sugaring operation, you know what I'm talking about? Get down to where you can taste the leaves in it, that sort of thing," he said.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Vermont Folklife Center Vermont Folklife Center
Dodge said that leafy-tasting sap would be boiled down, about halfway to syrup. Farmers added hops, yeast, a little sugar or maybe some raisins and put it up in a barrel in the cellar.
A glass of sap beer was cool relief after a day of hot farm work. As Dodge remembered, it was brought out of the cellar just about the time the first hay was cut. "And this would be fit to drink about the first of haying, which in those days was the fourth of July. You'd start haying about the fourth of July," he told the Folklife Center. (Hear The Whole Interview)
Now, any amateur brewer knows there's some guesswork and mystery involved in beer making, and that applied in spades to sap beer back then. Dodge said you couldn't be sure until you opened the barrel and tasted it whether the final product would be drinkable or whether it was just "junk."
When it was good, it was strong.
"I don't think the man ever lived that could drink two 8-ounce glasses and walk 10 minutes later. I don't believe so. So, that was sap beer. I doubt if there's a barrel of sap beer in the state of Vermont today," he said back in 1992.
Maybe not then, but now there's been renewed interest in the old refreshment, thanks to a couple of Vermont microbreweries.
Sean Lawson heard about the maple sap beer a few years ago and started researching it. He came up with own version — brewing it in a more controlled environment than "ye olde cellar" — and has been doing it now for five years.
This month, he won a silver ribbon at the prestigious World Beer Cup for the sap beer he bottles under his label, Lawson's Finest Liquids.
Lawson's sap beer is similar to the traditional drink. It's high in alcohol and has a strong maple flavor. He uses barrels once used to age maple liqueur from Saxton's River Distillery, which Lawson says makes it extra maple-y. And it tastes different every year.
"It's a product of both the season and the place and the sugar maker and their trees, so every year my batch is a little bit different and that's part of the fun," Lawson says.
Last year Lawson produced 375 hand-numbered and signed bottles of sap beer. This year's brew is just about ready, but don't expect to find it at your local liquor store. You have to get to Vermont. |
SINGAPORE - Round Two of opposition party talks to discuss constituencies and how to avoid three-cornered contests appeared to fray at the start but party leaders emerged after an hour-long pow-wow with all but three constituencies now likely to see straight fights between the opposition and the ruling People's Action Party.
But the prospects for a resolution did not look all that bright in the beginning as the Worker's Party (WP) was a no-show, and Reform Party (RP) chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam left just 15 minutes after the meeting started.
There was no immediate word on why the WP did not attend, but Mrs Hazel Poa, acting secretary-general of the National Solidarity Party (NSP) - which hosted the all-party talks at its Jalan Besar headquarters - told reporters that WP chairman Sylvia Lim had emailed the party earlier to say it would not be attending.
In the email, Ms Lim said the WP had already made its position clear at the first round of talks on Monday.
On Wednesday night, WP secretary-general Low Thia Khiang had made clear to reporters that the party will not budge from the areas where it had staked a claim, such as in Marine Parade GRC, even as it would do its best to avoid three-cornered fights.
Indeed, two of the three unresolved areas from talks on Thursday night involved the WP and the NSP.
As party leaders adjourned and the media was allowed in to the meeting room, a chart projected on the wall showed that the WP and NSP remain locked in their claims for Marine Parade GRC and the MacPherson single-seat ward.
The other unresolved constituency involves Mr Jeyaretnam's RP and the year-old Singaporeans First (SingFirst) party led by former civil servant Tan Jee Say - who told reporters at the end of the meeting that he would work with the RP to resolve the matter.
Earlier on Thursday evening, Mr Jeyaretnam left the meeting but then returned to speak to reporters to emphasise that he did not walk out - and that bilateral talks would continue. But he noted that the WP did not attend.
He also said his party had shown a great deal of flexibility at the first round of the all-parties talks on Monday as the RP and NSP, for instance, resolved their claims over the Radin Mas and Pioneer single-seat wards. The NSP agreed to give up on Radin Mas and the RP relinquished its claim to Pioneer.
But at Thursday's meeting, the RP then ran into issues with SingFirst, which wanted to contest in West Coast and Ang Mo Kio - both GRCs which the RP already staked claim to.
But at the end of the meeting, the chart showed that West Coast was left to the RP.
Thus it is appeared that it was just their claims over Ang Mo Kio GRC that remain to be resolved.
However, Mr Jeyaretnam disclosed earlier that SingFirst had also approached blogger Roy Ngerng about being a candidate for them in Ang Mo Kio.
This was after Mr Ngerng had said that he was interested in contesting there with the RP. Mr Ngerng has already submitted an application to join the RP.
Mr Tan explained when asked that he has been talking to Mr Ngerng for some time already and having heard that Mr Ngerng had an interest in SingFirst, he was merely asking Mr Ngerng if that was the case.
Thursday's meeting ended just before 9pm, about an hour after it began. At the first gathering on Monday, the parties met for some three hours.
Single-Member Constituencies (SMCs) Party / Parties likely to contest Bukit Batok Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) Bukit Panjang SDP Fengshan Workers' Party (WP) Hong Kah North Singapore People's Party (SPP) Hougang WP MacPherson National Solidarity Party (NSP), WP Mountbatten SPP Pioneer NSP Potong Pasir SPP Punggol East WP Radin Mas Reform Party (RP) Sengkang West WP Yuhua SDP
Four-MP Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs) Party likely to contest Chua Chu Kang People's Power Party (PPP) East Coast WP Holland-Bukit Timah SDP Jalan Besar WP Marsiling-Yew Tee SDP West Coast RP
Five-MP GRCs Party / Parties likely to contest Aljunied WP Bishan-Toa Payoh Joint team from SPP and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Jurong Singaporeans First (SingFirst) Marine Parade NSP, WP Nee Soon WP Sembawang NSP Tampines NSP Tanjong Pagar SingFirst
Six-MP GRCs Party / Parties likely to contest Ang Mo Kio RP, SingFirst Pasir Ris-Punggol Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA)
Earlier in the evening, as parties started to gather, new information emerged that the WP had offered not to contest the MacPherson single-seat ward if the NSP - which is also keen on it - gave up its interest in Marine Parade GRC.
NSP president Sebastian Teo told The Straits Times that WP representatives had made the offer at Monday's meeting.
"(WP) said they will take Marine Parade and give up MacPherson (to us). But if we go to Marine Parade, then they will not give up MacPherson," he said.
At the end of Monday's meeting, which was attended by nine opposition parties, including the WP, 15 out of 29 constituencies appeared to still be headed for three-cornered contests.
The main disagreement involved the WP and NSP's interest in Marine Parade GRC.
WP chief, in his comments to reporters on Wednesday night, said the WP had to contest in Marine Parade following the change in constituency boundaries which will see it absorb the Joo Chiat single-seat ward at the next election.
The WP lost to the PAP in Joo Chiat by a slim margin in the 2011 general election.
The NSP on the other hand, believed it should get first dibs as it contested and did well in Marine Parade in the 2011 election. The party polled 43.4 per cent of valid votes against the PAP's 56.6 per cent.
Mr Teo also told The Straits Times that at Monday's meeting, a vote was taken on whether the WP or NSP should contest in Marine Parade GRC. Both parties involved in the deadlock could not vote.
Of those present and who voted, five supported the NSP and only one supported the WP, he said.
While the vote was not binding, he said that it "shows how the other parties look at things".
Despite these disagreements, the all-parties meeting on Monday was cordial, Mr Teo insisted.
He also dismissed a media report that the NSP threatened to contest in Aljunied GRC, which is currently held by the WP: "That is not correct, we didn't say that."
"During the discussion, someone asked the WP how they would feel if the other opposition parties formed a team and muscled in on Aljunied GRC," he explained.
"It's not quarrelling, it's just a hypothetical example. But (the media) just focused on that."
Asked if the NSP would back down from Marine Parade GRC, Mr Teo said: "From the very beginning, we already said NSP will not initiate three-cornered fights. But it doesn't mean that when people force us into three-cornered fights, we will surely give way." |
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The trials of Kevin Mitnick Mitnick
ALSO: Legendary hacker signs plea bargain to win freedom in one year FULL TEXT: U.S. vs. Kevin D. Mitnick RELATED VIDEO CNN's Sean Callebs reports on Mitnick's capture
(Originally aired: Jan. 16, 1996)
Windows Media 28K 80K MESSAGE BOARD: Internet hackers
By John Christensen
CNN Interactive March 18, 1999
Web posted at: 3:46 p.m. EST (2046 GMT) (CNN) -- Kevin David Mitnick -- once the most wanted computer hacker in the world, the inspiration for two Hollywood movies and a cyberspace cult hero -- had been scheduled to stand trial April 20 in Los Angeles in one of the most celebrated computer-related cases in history. But it was announced Thursday that Mitnick has signed a plea agreement that reportedly will set him free after serving another year in prison. He has been incarcerated since February 1995 on a 25-count indictment that includes charges of wire fraud and illegal possession of computer files stolen from such companies as Motorola and Sun Microsystems. Mitnick was arrested after what Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Painter called "a countrywide hacking spree" that earned Mitnick a spot on the FBI's Most Wanted list. Over a 2 1/2-year period, Mitnick was alleged to have hacked into computers, stolen corporate secrets, scrambled phone networks, broken into the national defense warning system and caused millions of dollars in losses. Shimomura After being tracked down in a dramatic bit of cyber-sleuthing by computer expert Tsutomu Shimomura, Mitnick was arrested by the FBI in a nondescript apartment complex in Raleigh, North Carolina. In a 25-count indictment brought in Los Angeles, Mitnick was charged with computer and wire fraud and had been held without bail since his arrest. He was believed to have been held longer without a trial than any other prisoner in the United States. "He's a danger to the community," said Painter. "We're talking about someone who has consistently and without self-control hacked into systems everywhere. He also was a fugitive and used multiple identities. We think there's a firm basis for holding him, and the courts have agreed." 'Murderers ... have suffered less'
Kevin Mitnick's criminal record
1981
Where: California
Charge: Computer fraud for stealing computer manuals from Pacific Bell
Sentence: One year probation
1987
Where: California
Charge: Computer fraud (no details available)
Sentence: Pleaded guilty, but sentence unknown
1989
Where: California
Charges: Computer fraud and possession of unauthorized access devices for hacking into MCI and Digital Equipment computers
Sentence: One year in low-security prison and three years of supervised release
Time Served: One year, much of it at a halfway house for people with compulsive disorders
1992
Where: California
Charges: Computer fraud and possession of unauthorized access devices for allegedly hacking into state Department of Motor Vehicles computers
Sentence: Charges still pending
1995
Where: North Carolina
Charge: Possession of unauthorized access devices
Sentence: Eight months
Time served: Eight months
Where: California
Charge: Violation of supervised release
Sentence: Fourteen months
Time served: Fourteen months
1996
Where: California
Charges: Computer fraud, wire fraud and possession of unauthorized access devices
Sentence: Subject to terms of plea bargain
But others believed that Mitnick, who had become a kind of cult hero, was being held unfairly and that the government was trying to make an example of him. People claiming to be Mitnick supporters hacked into The New York Times and Yahoo! Web sites, demanding that Mitnick be freed. A bumper sticker that said "Free Kevin" was also widely distributed. Steve Gold, news editor of Secure Computing magazine and a former hacker himself, told The Independent of London: "For all that he's done, there are despots and murderers out there who have suffered less than Kevin." Mitnick, 35, grew up in a blue-collar family in California's San Fernando Valley. His parents divorced when he was 3 and, although shy and overweight, Mitnick demonstrated a genius for beating the system even as an adolescent. At 13, he figured out how to punch bus tickets and get free rides. He graduated to ham radios and then became a phone "phreaker" -- using an electronic device to make free, long-distance calls -- before getting caught stealing computer manuals from Pacific Bell as a juvenile and being put on probation. Aside from that case and the plea bargain, Mitnick has been found guilty in three other cases and sentenced to nearly three years in prison. Still pending are state charges related to Mitnick's alleged hacking into California Department of Motor Vehicles computers in 1992. Inspiration for 'War Games' Mitnick first received national attention in 1982 when he hacked into the North American Defense Command (NORAD), a feat that inspired the 1983 film "War Games." Also during the 1980s, he gained temporary control of three central telephone offices in New York City and all the phone switching centers in California. None of these incidents resulted in criminal charges. But patience with his pranks ran out after he hacked into computers at Digital Equipment Corp. and stole $1 million in proprietary software. Mitnick pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in a low-security prison and three years of probation. But his attorneys convinced U.S. District Court Judge Mariana Pfaelzer that Mitnick had an addiction and she ordered that he serve his sentence in a halfway house for those with compulsive disorders. Mitnick eventually took a job with a computer security firm, but was accused of violating the terms of his probation by hacking into voice mail systems at Pacific Bell in 1991. The federal government got a warrant for his arrest in 1992, and it was then that he became a fugitive. Caging 'The Condor' Mitnick is said to have used the name "Condor," after the Robert Redford character in the movie "Three Days of the Condor," during his time on the run. During that period, he allegedly hacked into computers at Motorola, Nokia Mobile Phones, Fujitsu, Novell, NEC, Sun Microsystems, Colorado SuperNet and the University of Southern California. Painter declined to estimate the damages, but media reports have put them as high as $80 million. His undoing was hacking into computer expert Shimomura's home computer and stealing information from him. "Takedown" documents the pursuit and arrest of Kevin Mitnick Infuriated, Shimomura helped the FBI track Mitnick down using laptop computers and a cell phone direction finder. Shimomura and New York Times reporter John Markoff collaborated on a book about Mitnick's capture, "Takedown." A film version of "Takedown" is in "post-production," according to a spokesman for Miramax Films. No release date has been set. 'He's got a very curious mind' Mitnick's defenders have maintained he was harmless, a hacker for whom the challenge was intellectual and technological. "Mitnick isn't a thief or a terrorist," said his attorney, Donald Randolph. "He's a recreational hacker. He didn't do it for economic gain or damage anything, and there's no allegation that he attempted to damage anything." "He's got a very curious mind," said his grandmother, Reba Vartanian. "He's never destroyed anything. He loves technology, he wouldn't hurt it." But prosecutor Painter said that "in any hacking case, security has been breached. That means you have to take steps to wipe clean and change the paths of the system. That's substantial in itself. And if the victim is in an ongoing business, and they have lost proprietary material they need to maintain a competitive advantage, there may be serious losses attributable to that. "Even if they're doing it for the glory of it, it ignores the point: If someone breaks into your house for the fun of it, you still suffer." Adds Shimomura: "[Mitnick] left a lot of proprietary information where other people could get it. That's like someone breaking into your house, then leaving it unlocked and putting a sign outside." Computer without a modem Randolph said he believed the government was being especially harsh with Mitnick to discourage hackers and cyberterrorists. "If they really had a terrorist who had a name like Mitnick does, and if he was convenient to the government, they would divert their interest," Randolph said. "But he's the best game in town." Despite the non-violent nature of his crimes and the charges in the upcoming case, Mitnick has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, where inmates are often held for violent crimes. His appeals for bail have been turned down by every court they've been sent to, including twice by the U.S. Supreme Court. Mitnick's trial had been delayed several times due its complexity, and often at the request of the defense. Randolph said Mitnick's limited access to a computer has hampered his efforts to assist in his defense. Randolph tried repeatedly to get Mitnick a computer so he could review evidence that reportedly includes witness statements totaling 1,400 pages, 10 gigabytes of electronic evidence and 1,700 exhibits in all. But after one hearing, Randolph told reporters that Judge Pfaelzer "didn't seem to want to hear 'computer' and 'Mitnick' in the same sentence." The court ultimately allowed Mitnick access to a laptop, but it was in a room for attorney-client meetings, and he was always monitored by someone from Randolph's office. And there was no modem or phone line. 'Foolishly paranoid' In the meanwhile, Mitnick has been serving out a 14-month sentence for violating his probation in the Digital break-in and eight months for a 1995 North Carolina charge of possession of an unauthorized access device. "Kevin's problem is that he has been convicted multiple times," said journalist Markoff. "Whatever you think of his crime, he has tripped the relevant federal guidelines. And the judge gave him a break before. Now he's before her again for another series of federal crimes." Vartanian said the government was "foolishly paranoid" about her grandson, who calls her in Las Vegas every day -- collect. "I just feel if they would only permit him to get gainful employment in this field, he would be an asset to the community and to the youth who look up to him," Vartanian said. "I know he's gotten into some difficulties, but never to harm anybody." Randolph said Mitnick has matured "significantly" and "would like somehow to be gainfully employed in computer security issues." As to whether he can be trusted when he is freed, Randolph said, "How can you trust any ex-con? The answer is you have to be satisfied that he's been rehabilitated as to what he did wrong, and then you move on." "He's been in a bad place for rehab the last couple of years," says Markoff. "But he's been such a symbol in society, maybe he'll find a situation where he can re-enter. There are a lot of people who want to support him, and that's a good thing. I hope Kevin gets his life together." Coming March 26 Insurgency on the Internet: An in-depth special on hacking and computer security MESSAGE BOARDS: Internet hackers
RELATED STORIES: Security expert explains New York Times site break in
September 18, 1998
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RELATED SITES: The Security Experts
The Official Kevin Mitnick Site
hackerz.com
International Computer Security Association
Kevin Mitnick article archive
Companion site to "Takedown" by Tsutomo Shimomura
Companion site for "The Fugitive Game" by Jonathan Littman
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NBN, British Telecom and turning back the clock
NBN boss Bill Morrow recently highlighted that the company formerly known as NBN Co has instigated an information sharing scheme with UK’s biggest telco British Telecom (BT).
It’s an informal agreement and while Morrow says it’s all a friendly exchange of knowledge to bolster NBN’s understanding of efficient network rollout and learning from BT’s extraordinarily high rate of fibre to the node (FTTN) deployment, is the path forged by BT really worth following?
Despite its achievements BT’s performance can only be described as second-rate.
Between 2005 and 2010 the telco spent about $20 billion on the 21st Century Network project that upgraded the core network and subsequently led to the commencement of an approximately $15 billion FTTN/VDSL2 rollout around 2010 that lasted until late 2014.
BT is now rolling out “fast, fibre optic broadband to homes and businesses in the UK” and it is difficult to find any mention of anything other than fibre optics and all-fibre access networks on BT’s website.
BT’s move to a focus on an all-fibre access network is unsurprising when you consider what BT has achieved after expending about $35 billion or roughly $10 billion less than what NBN is likely to spend on the Coalition’s multi-technology mix (MTM) National Broadband Network.
The 2014 Ofcom report (PDF) into UK fixed-line broadband performance states that the average UK residential fixed-line broadband speed was 22.8 Mbps at November 2014. What this means is that after spending about $35 billion (excluding OPEX over the period) the average UK residence has a broadband connection speed of less than 25/3 Mbps which is the US FCC’s latest definition of broadband.
Second-rate multi-technology mix
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has on many occasions highlighted BT’s multi-technology mix broadband network as something that Australia should aspire to have. Yet industry analysts have pointed out time and again that BT’s broadband network would not provide the UK with anything other than a ten year stop gap network that would be obsolete before it was finished.
That scenario has subsequently come to pass, with BT now reacting to competition from all-fibre network providers by refocusing on providing all-fibre network solutions.
In 2012 the former BT chief technology officer Peter Cochrane slammed BT’s decision to rollout FTTN/VDSL2 describing it as “one of the biggest mistakes humanity has made” and “imposes huge unreliability risks”.
And BT has been building the UK network since 2005, which means that for Australia to commence rolling out Fibre-to-the-Node (FTTN/VDSL2/vectoring) now the result would put Australia ten years behind the UK and probably further behind countries that have commenced or completed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) rollouts.
Information blackout
One aspect of BT’s broadband rollout that NBN appears to be mimicking is the use of commercial in confidence and non-disclosure agreements to prevent public knowledge of what NBN is doing. Information surrounding the network is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain even though Turnbull has on several occasions stated that “bloggers” are writing about the NBN without the facts that can be obtained by seeking advice from his office or directly from NBN.
Proponents of gigabit broadband are not the only group finding NBN a tough nut to crack when it comes to getting up to date information. Last week Senator Stephen Conroy threatened to subpoena NBN chief technology officer Dennis Steiger if he failed to attend the next hearing of the Senate Select Committee on the National Broadband Network. Steiger has a history of failing to attend Senate hearings and the committee has a valid point when it comes to making a fuss about access to Steiger.
Winding back the clock
Calls for BT to be split into two companies have grown louder recently but the telco is already fighting a rear guard action to head off this possibility, citing the structural separation that it underwent that saw the network infrastructure moved into BT’s Openreach in 2005.
Australia has to look no further than New Zealand to see a successful model of how to deal with an incumbent telco at work. The Kiwi decision to split Telecom New Zealand into Chorus (wholesale) and Spark (retail) is a model that should have occurred here ten years ago.
The recent calls in the UK for BT to be split in two could mean that the UK will adopt the NZ model and Australia will be closer to this model now than it was in 2005 when the Howard government failed to convince Telstra to commence a fixed-network upgrade.
Like a bad dose of déjà vu NBN management, together with the Abbott Coalition government’s blessing, has decided that we should wind the clock back to 2005 and re-enact BT’s second-rate broadband network rollout.
Winding back the clock, now that’s something BT really can help NBN with.
Mark Gregory is a senior lecturer in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at RMIT University.
Setting the agenda for Australia's $150BN agribusiness sector The program for Australia's premier agribusiness conference - The Global Food Forum - is set. Hear from more than 30 industry leaders including PepsiCo's CEO, Danny Celoni, Jayne Hrdlicka, CEO of A2 Milk Company, Barry Irvin, Executive Chairman, Bega Cheese and Costco's Managing Director, Patrick Noone. Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park Book Now |
After a long and thorough selection process, we are now glad to announce the new and renewed Regional Coordinators of:
We wish to thank Gavin Duggan , Kevin Binswanger and Edwin Zhang for all the years they have served as Regional Coordinators. Their contribution has been huge and the whole Judge Program could only benefit by their presence among Regional Coordinators. We’ll miss you guys.
On behalf of all Regional Coordinators we wish to welcome Hans Wang, Jon Goud and David Hibbs in the Regional Coordinators group. They will start their Regional Coordinator role shortly counting on the support and experience of Gavin, Kevin and Edwin who will help in the transition.
The selection process has been very difficult and time consuming for all the candidates and for the selection committee, the candidates had to first evaluate themselves according to the Regional Coordinators requirements then, in step 2, they had to answer very difficult and deep questions demonstrating that they would be able to handle and lead a Region and their judges.
The questions covered most of the Regional Coordinators aspects: deep evaluation of people and ability to provide feedback, understanding of needs, awareness of issues and ability to solve them, handling disputes with diplomacy and fairness, focus and dedication to the Region.
For this reason, Cristiana Dionisio , as leader of the process and on behalf of all the panelists, wishes to thank everyone who applied.
Also, Cristiana wishes to thank the Regional Coordinators who have hugely contributed to the creation of the Regional Coordinator Selection Process: Steven Briggs , Kevin Binswanger , Edwin Zhang , Sergio Pérez , Adrián Estoup , Guillaume Beuzelin and David Lyford-Smith .
And all the panelists who put focus and dedication to this process for many weeks:
Adrián Estoup
Cristiana Dionisio
David de la Iglesia
Eric Levine
Gavin Duggan
Kim Warren
Paul Baranay
Sebastian Pękala
Sergio Pérez
Both projects took a lot of time, communication and commitment, we could never thank them enough.
You can congratulate these Regional Coordinators on the Magic Judges Facebook page. |
A soldier in Borno state as the area is liberated from Boko Haram's grip
The Boko Haram extremist group has been crushed and forced from its last enclave, Nigeria's president has said.
Muhammadu Buhari said Nigeria's army had captured a key Boko Haram camp in the Sambisa forest that was its stronghold.
"The terrorists are on the run and no longer have a place to hide," Mr Buhari said in a statement.
The capture of Camp Zero, deep within the heart of the forest, marks the "final crushing of Boko Haram terrorists in their last enclave", he said.
Despite the announcement, Nigeria is unlikely to see an imminent end to suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks that have been carried out by the group for the past years.
The AP news agency reported that the insurgents may already be regrouping in Taraba and Bauchi states, south of their northeastern stronghold in Borno state.
Image: There was no word on the fate of purported Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau
There, they could be taking advantage of a decades-old conflict in central Nigeria between mainly Muslim nomadic cattle herders and sedentary Christian farmers.
Boko Haram has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during its seven-year insurgency.
The group aims to create an Islamic state governed by a strict interpretation of sharia.
In early 2015, it controlled an area in the northeast around the size of Belgium.
But since then it has been pushed out of most of that territory by Nigeria's army and troops from neighbouring countries - retreating mostly to the Sambisa forest, a former colonial game reserve.
Image: A Boko Haram video purportedly showing some of the schoolgirls captured in Chibok
The Sambisa Forest was where Boko Haram was believed to be holding some of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in April 2014 from a school in the town of Chibok.
The mass abduction brought the Islamic extremists world attention and sparked an international social media campaign #BringBackOurGirls.
"Further efforts should be intensified to locate and free our remaining Chibok girls still in captivity," Mr Buhari said.
Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families. It's time to #BringBackOurGirls. -mo pic.twitter.com/glDKDotJRt — The First Lady (@FLOTUS) May 7, 2014
Some girls have been freed in negotiations, and others escaped. But the majority remain missing, while others are believed to have died in captivity.
Mr Buhari's statement made no mention of the whereabouts of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Boko Haram faction based in the forest. |
Mossdeep City
What have you done now?
- It wasn’t me!
It looks like an ancient seal has been broken. Trust me, I know a thing or two about ancient seals.
- That other Archie is trying to wake up Kyogre.
Then I suggest you do something about it, quickly.
- You’re not going to help?
I would but whenever I pass through the fog surrounding this island I am returned to Sinnoh. But you seem to be able to traverse the fog with impunity.
- Yeah…
I first thought Palkia and Dialga were involved but this feels… different.
- Gotta go!
I rush to the pokémon center, while everyone is getting healed I consult the silver ball in my bag.
I’ve got the next batch of backup for you.
- I’m heading south to stop Archie.
That’s not your mission! Go get the last badge and go to Ever Grande!
- You weren’t here last time, you don’t know. I’m stopping Archie!
I might know more than you think…
Route 128
Riding on Susan’s back we surf as fast as Susan can. Soon enough we arrive at a shallow island, a place I recognise from before. We dive underwater, find a cavern and head inside.
Seafloor Cavern
I emerge near the submarine Archie had stolen, it seems abandoned. I continue deeper into the cavern.
Why did I get stuck with guard duty? I wanted to see Kyogre. It sure is dark in here, I hope nobody sneaks up on me and knocks me out.
I quietly sneak up behind the goon and with a swift blow to the head he’s out cold. I encounter a few other goons patrolling further inside but I give them the slip.
Huh? What was that noise? Hmm…
Hey who’s footprints are these? Oh, they’re mine…
After shoving a few boulders out of my way I reach a large pool, Archie is standing on a ledge above it and Kyogre sleeps below. Maxie and other Maxie are already here but it doesn’t look like things went well for them.
Damn!
I thought for sure if both of us-
Haharr! Ye both brought fire types to a water battle an’ thought ye stood a chance? And now th’ little scamp wants t’ try his luck!
Go Mightyena!
- Go Amber!
- Earthquake!
Scary face!
Mightyena makes an unnerving look at Amber while she triggers an earthquake, sharp stones come bursting from the ground, injuring myghtyena’s paws.
- Earthquake!
Embargo!
Mightyena tries to deny Amber’s use of her item but is pulled underground as the rubble beneath it gives way.
Careful with the earthquaking! We are underground, in case you’d forgotten!
Go Muk!
- Earthquake!
Screech!
Muk makes a sharp screeching noise at Amber who triggers another earthquake, cracks form in the floor and muk can barely hold onto solid ground to stop itself draining away.
What did we just tell you, Caldar!
- Fine! I’ll be more careful!
- Dragonbreath!
Screech!
Muk tries to screech again but can’t quite do it while it’s trying not to seep into the cracks. Amber’s dragon breath somehow loosens up muk’s viscosity enough to make it drain away into the earth despite it’s effort not to.
Go Crobat!
- Rock slide!
Mean look!
Crobat gives Amber a mean look, enraging her into forgetting about the very notion of retreat. Amber strikes the roof of the cavern to make loose rocks tumble down onto crobat.
Triggering falling rocks down here isn’t the best idea either!
- Rock slide!
Acrobatics!
Crobat shows off it’s speed and agility in striking Amber in many different ways before being buried under another rockfall summoned by her.
He’s going to kill us all!
- Shut it!
Go Sharpedo!
- Amber return! Go Delenn!
Show ‘em what we got! Crunch!
Archie grasps his anchor pendant and the two-star keystone lights up, surrounding sharpedo with energy it mega evolves. Wasting no time sharpedo with it’s jaws immediately grabs Delenn as she leaves her pokéball and viciously shakes her around, flinging her into the nearby pool once she stopped struggling.
- Delenn!!
You’ve got your own keystone, Caldar! Try mega evolution!
- I don’t have any mega stones…
- Go Luchenko!
- Rock smash!
Crunch!
Sharpedo latches on and starts chomping Luchenko who, with both hands, thumps sharpedo on the head.
- Rock smash!
Crunch!
Sharpedo chomps down on Luchenko’s arm, with her other arm she grabs sharpedo and drives it’s face into the stony floor.
The battle was fierce enough to make Amber evolve!
Heh! Fine, ye leave me no choice. Kyogre’ll sort ya out!
Stop!
I was wondering when you would turn up.
Archie… th world ye seek t’ create an’ th’ world Kyogre will make are very different things! Trust me, I know…
Ha! Maybe ye didn’t dream bit enough! Awaken! Kyogre!
Archie raises the blue orb above his head, it fills the cavern with a radiant blue light. Kyogre comes to life, roaring so loud it shakes the cavern worse than Amber’s earthquakes. It dives deeper into the pool and disappears into the murk.
Yaharr! Victory!
Damn!
Not again!
Wait fer it…
Archie’s phone starts beeping.
Thar it be! Better answer it.
Yarr! Yar? Of course th’ deluge has begun! What? It be far worse than our worst case scenarios? And Kyogre’s primal reversion hasn’t begun yet?!
- All right, let’s drag him back to the surface and show him what he’s won.
We quickly reach the surface, within a couple of seconds the downpour has completely drenched my clothes. The sky is completely black with stormclouds, momentarily brightened with the flash of lightning.
- Was it this bad last time?
Nope, it be far worse!
Without Groudon with which to do battle, Kyogre has full reign of the weather!
- Maybe I can slow it down. Maggie! Sunny day!
The rain sizzles on Maggie’s skin, she tries to form a fireball but no matter how many times she tries it just fizzles out. I return Maggie to her pokéball before the rain does any damage to her, it must feel like falling broken glass to a fire type.
What have I done…
You’ve doomed us all you stupid pirate!
It’s not over yet, it’s still heading for Sootopolis.
- Why? It only went there last time because Groudon was there.
And why do you think Groudon went there first?
Of course! We set sail for Sootopolis! We’ll rendezvous with ya there, Caldar.
We’ll explain once you get there.
I head directly for Sootopolis, riding on Susan’s back. The storm makes it difficult to keep my bearings but Susan seems to be able to keep us pointed in the right direction. We dive underwater to gain quick entrance to the city, it doesn’t bother me at this point as I can’t get any more soaked if I tried.
Sootopolis City
I surface to see the streets becoming streams, it looks like goons from the magma cult and the aqua alliance are organising a rescue effort and taking citizens to safety. I notice a gathering near some sort of temple on the northern side of the city.
As I approach I see it’s the Archie and Maxie pairs, along with another familiar face.
I see you’ve been keeping busy, Caldar.
- Alder!
Things seem quite dire here so I thought I’d help out, but it seems you have the item needed to stop all this.
- What?
Th’ red orb!
- Oh, I still have it.
With that you should be able to stop Kyogre, though you may have to defeat it in battle first.
- But why did it come here?
It would seem it’s seeking a place of power to facilitate it’s transformation. Behind us is the Cave of Origin, the locals tell me Kyogre and Groudon once did battle here in ancient times until the great jade dragon Rayquaza came and drove them away, forcing them into hiding.
- Right, I’ll just head on in and–
Wait! The red stone will keep you safe from the raw energies in there, but you’ll need something else to protect you from the harsh elements.
Yarr! I brought th’ Aqua Suit fer such a situation. It’ll protect ye from th’ crushing pressures ye’ll experience at such depths.
I don the aqua suit and head inside.
Cave of Origin
The suit is a little heavy and restrictive but I gradually make my way down the cave, stomping away as I go. I eventually reach another subterranean pool where Kyogre is waiting, it’s about to dive so I quickly make the choice to leap onto it’s back…
- Go Bester!
- Thunder punch!
Bester punches Kyogre square on the nose and channels all the electricity he can into it. Kyogre responds with an ice beam which freezes Bester solid on contact.
- Bester return! Go Susan!
Kyogre leaps above the water and body slams onto Susan.
- Confuse ray!
Kyogre body slams Susan again before she shines a psychedelic ray into it’s eyes.
- Surf!
Kyogre smashes into a cavern wall in it’s confusion, Susan summons a wave that washes Kyogre into the opposite wall with considerable force.
- Surf!
Kyogre blasts Susan with it’s origin pulse, smashing susan into the far wall, embedding her deep within it.
- Susan!! No!
- Go Amber!
- Dragon Claw!
Before Kyogre can act Amber slashes it’s face with her mighty claws. Kyogre reels in pain, the pressure of the red orb nearby forces it back into the deep to slumber again.
The cave begins to crumble around me…
Sootopolis City
I end up back outside of the main entrance to the Cave of Origin.
- Nobody told me there was a back door to this place!
Oh… you took the long way down?
- Just take the stupid red orb and put it back where it belongs like last time. And make sure the Archies do the same with the blue orb.
Yarr! Leave it t’ me! |
CBS/AP
(CBS/AP/WSPA) COLUMBIA, S.C. - A South Carolina woman has been charged with killing four family members - her two sons, ex-husband, and stepmother - in an attempt to collect on their insurance policies, police say.
Susan Hendricks was arrested on Monday and was being held without bond for four counts of murder and four counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime, which Sheriff David Stone is calling "a horrendous act of evil." On Friday, Oct. 14, police rushed to the scene after the 48-year-old mother told relatives that her son Matthew had shot himself and three other family members.
Solicitor Walt Wilkins says that the life insurance policies on the victims was most likely the motive. Hendricks was the beneficiary for all four. Though Wilkins cannot say how much the policies totaled, he claims "it's a signifcant amount." He says, "Greed is a powerful motive, but I've never seen greed rise to the level of a quadruple murder."
The family was found dead within two mobile homes on Pinedale Road in Pickens County, S.C.
Hendricks' stepmother was found with shot wound in the abdomen, and next door, her ex-husband and one son were found to have been shot in the chest. It is not clear who was shot first, or how the mother prevented calls for help.
When authorities arrived at Hendricks' Liberty home on Monday, they determined that forensic evidence and the reports of family members did not match her story. The gun found near son Matthew's body led to the conclusion that he could not have shot himself as his mother had said, reports CBS affiliate WSPA. The gun used in Matthew's death was the weapon Hendricks kept in her nightstand.
"We knew from the start he (Matthew) did not do this," says Mark Hendricks' niece, Stephanie Hopkins. "Matthew was a good man."
Wilkins is reviewing the evidence, saying the case is eligible for the death penalty. |
The University of Baltimore is set to offer a film course examining the intricate, interwoven narratives and canny box office strategy behind Marvel Studios' interconnected cinematic universe.
It seems that the phenomenal success of Guardians of the Galaxy -- so far 2014's top-grossing film, although contrary to what the course's website says, not expected to stay that way -- has driven a new level of interest on the part of academics, who now see that the studio doesn't need to "play it safe" with stylistically similar films and recognizable characters (yes, Iron Man was a gamble at that point but even he had already been the subject of animated TV series before).
The course will be taught by Arnold T. Blumberg, an adjunct faculty member in UB's Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences. Blumberg said this critical look will encourage students to better understand the culture's fixation on superheroes, fictional global threats, and other "widescreen" novelistic tales that have pushed the comic book-to-film ethos into new territory. "One thing we'll do is dive into the impact of the Guardians of the Galaxy film, which proved two things: Mainstream movie audiences are not remotely tired of superhero movies; and Marvel Studios can now release a sci-fi adventure that actually features talking trees and raccoons. It's not that they're getting away with it—they've created a universe in which fans completely accept these developments, and they're ready for even more," the professor is quoted as saying.
The professor compares the Marvel films to Star Trek and Star Wars, saying that they embrace theorist Joseph Campbell's insight that mythmaking and storytelling are rooted in a fundamental quest for justice, peace, power, family, and love. "Every generation has a modern media mythology that serves as a framework for entertaining as well as educating about ethics, morality, issues of race, gender, class, and so on," Blumberg said. "For the past several years, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings have served in that role for tens of millions. When I was younger, it was the first Star Wars series, which I saw in the theater. For me, that saga—along with many other science fiction stories—provided that essential exploration of the hero journey, the struggle of good vs. evil, in a mainstream pop culture context." |
It helps to have a thick skin when reporting on the nexus between Chinese money and Vancouver's sky-high property market. It also might help if that skin, like mine, isn't white.
Accusations of racism flow thick and fast whenever an attempt is made to connect wealth-based immigration, primarily by rich Chinese, and housing prices here. Since influential condo marketer Bob Rennie delivered a speech to the Urban Development Institute in May, in which he said "sensational" stories making that link were "bordering on racism," an array of industry figures have lined up to support his proposition.
But now, some in the Chinese community are pushing back. "Guys like Bob Rennie, they are trying to stop full conversation and intelligent conversation by using words like 'racism,'" said long-time Chinatown activist David Wong. "People are afraid to speak when people start throwing that word around."
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Mr. Wong, an architect who has campaigned on behalf of impoverished Chinese immigrants, said it was vital to have a frank discussion about the impact of rich immigrants on greater Vancouver, where average detached house prices top $1.2-million. "Every time people want to talk about this, they get labelled a racist, especially if they are non-Asian," said Wong. "That's nonsense. We've got to talk about it. The politicians are gutless because they are afraid they are going to lose the so-called ethnic vote."
Mr. Rennie's May 15 speech was swiftly followed by a range of commentary that hewed closely to his line. On June 3, pro-development political consultant Bob Ransford warned in The Vancouver Sun that addressing unaffordability by restricting foreign ownership would "tread very close" to the historical discrimination of the anti-Chinese head tax.
Two days later, University of British Columbia professor Tsur Somerville – whose Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate is sponsored by developers Grosvenor and Henderson Development, as well as the Commercial Real Estate Development Association – told CKNW Radio that although ignoring the issue would be "foolish," the debate risked descending into "prejudice, stereotypes and racism." Cameron Muir, chief economist for the B.C. Real Estate Association, meanwhile told The Vancouver Observer on June 5 that linking immigration to property prices "is beginning to sound suspiciously awkward."
The debate is certainly getting awkward, though perhaps not in the way Mr. Muir suggests. Brandon Yan, a Vancouver city planning commissioner, summed it up in a Twitter critique of Mr. Rennie's speech: "Let's leave it to the rich white dudes to decide what's racist, right?"
Mr. Wong, a spokesman for Chinatown's Ming Sun Benevolent Society, said he took particular issue with those comparing possible property market curbs to the head tax, imposed in 1885 to deter Chinese immigration. Such comparisons were "complete bull," said Mr. Wong, who added that Singapore recently imposed restrictions on foreign buyers without being accused of racism. "People over here will say and do whatever they can to stop any efforts that would prevent them from making more money," said Mr. Wong. "It's wrong. They use the term 'head tax' without even understanding the history behind it. It really appalls me."
Messers. Rennie, Ransford, Muir and Somerville have all said that evidence tying Vancouver prices to immigration is anecdotal. But there is a range of statistical support for the case.
UBC's Prof. David Ley, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Geography, has long studied links between international immigration to Vancouver and home prices there. In his 2010 book, Millionaire Migrants, the Oxford-educated researcher found an "unusually decisive" +0.94 correlation between the two factors (in which +1 represents movement in perfect correlation, -1 represents movement in exactly opposite directions, and 0 total randomness). This correlation far exceeded that between prices and interest rates (-0.12), rental vacancies (-0.03), unemployment (0.16) and other conventional correlates.
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Dr. Ley's conclusions are bolstered by a 2011 study by Landcor Data, which pored over sales records in Richmond and Vancouver's Westside to discover that 74 per cent of all luxury purchases in 2010 were made by buyers with purely mainland Chinese names. "What some have underplayed or dismissed as apocryphal 'as told by Realtors,' is underpinned by educated numbers," said Landcor.
The sheer number of millionaire migrants who have poured into Vancouver is also compelling: From 2005 to 2012, 36,973 arrived in B.C. under the now-defunct immigrant investor program, which imposed a wealth benchmark of $1.6-million on applicants. Before being frozen in 2012, the scheme was the world's most popular wealth-migration device, with Chinese immigrants planning to settle in B.C. submitting 65 per cent of all applications in 2011. Chinese domination of wealth migration to Vancouver is a statistical fact that belies widespread belief in other reservoirs of rich newcomers. B.C. admitted 30,013 millionaire migrants from Greater China (including Taiwan and Hong Kong) from 2005 to 2012. In that period, there were 242 from Britain and 160 from the United States.
Thousands of the rich have also moved to Vancouver after first arriving in Quebec under that province's own immigrant investor program. According to Ottawa, 90 per cent of Quebec's millionaire migrants move elsewhere within five years, mostly to Vancouver. That likely adds 20,000 or more millionaire migrants to Vancouver's tally in the 2005-2012 period.
Sid Chow Tan, a founder and director of the Head Tax Families Society of Canada, said "resentment" of the influx of millionaires to Vancouver cuts across racial boundaries. He said previous Chinese immigrants paid "a very much higher price" than investor migrants for their Canadian citizenship "and it was not measured in dollars, either."
Mr. Tan scoffed at real estate figures raising the spectre of the head tax: "I've been engaged in anti-racism work for decades. Conflating the Chinese head tax and exclusion laws and rich immigrants and real estate is absurd, if not somewhat evil."
Mr. Rennie, who warned against repeating discriminatory "patterns of the past" in his speech, told me his views were informed by diversity. "My in-laws come from Japan, my children are half-Japanese, we [Mr. Rennie's headquarters] are in the oldest building in Chinatown," he said.
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He said the subject was a touchy one. "Everybody has to watch when they are talking about racism, that they aren't trying to be opportunistic, and it bends to the answer that they want, whether it is to exclude or include. So it's a very dangerous topic."
On this, Tan agreed, but suggested Mr. Rennie and others in the property industry steer clear of attempting advocacy on behalf of the Chinese community. "Bob Rennie standing up for the Chinese community? What Chinese community? Real estate investors and landowners. That's the community he's standing up for."
Ian Young is the Vancouver correspondent for The South China Morning Post and the author of its Hongcouver blog. |
From incomprehensible bathrooms, to toxic hotel water, to the mass execution of an astonishing number of feral dogs, one might forget that the Russians had seven years to prepare for the Sochi Olympics.
Americans have been quick to ridicule Vladimir Putin and his minions. But we should instead take a lesson. After all, how different are our myriad ObamaCare problems?
After being promised lower premiums, better coverage and greater portability, we actually are ending up with massive cancellations, higher premiums and degraded coverage. The Obama administration didn’t have quite the seven years the Russians had to prepare for the Olympics but it was pretty close. And our ObamaCare fiasco and Russia’s Sochi fiasco are due to the same error: Both of us are using government to solve problems that could have been better solved by markets.
Government runs on a system defined by power and benefit. Politicians seek power and special interests benefit by encouraging them to exercise it at your expense. What results? Wall Street bailouts of corporations deemed “too big to fail,” mountains of regulation that favor established businesses at the expense of potential new competitors and an annual avalanche of legislation that serves only to empower entrenched interests of every stripe.
Markets, on the other hand, run on a system of profit and loss. Entrepreneurs and investors seek profits and customers guide them by paying for good products and refusing to pay for bad products. What results? Smartphones, wonder drugs, home delivery of pizza in 30 minutes or less and countless other things you use every day.
Government is a tool of coercion while markets are tools of cooperation. Society needs both but as we see with Sochi and ObamaCare, the damage caused by using the wrong tool to solve a problem is often worse than the problem itself.
Russia spent more than $50 billion preparing Sochi. And what did visitors and athletes get for all that money? Not nearly enough. This is always the answer when governments decide to do what markets can do better.
Markets are not perfect. They are populated by sometimes selfish, often ignorant, always fallible humans. What the defenders of big government seem to miss is that government is populated by those very same humans. The difference between markets and government isn’t that one is less error-prone than the other; it’s that the market’s profit-and-loss system provides built-in incentives for people to identify and correct errors as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The government’s power and benefit system provides no such incentives. Where incentives for efficiency do exist in government they are merely coincidental, occurring when the people involved happen to be selfless and competent. Those saints exist in markets too, of course. The difference is that markets don’t require saints to function well. Government does.
Antony Davies is associate professor of economics at Duquesne University. James R. Harrigan is a fellow of the Institute of Political Economy at Utah State University. |
To hear the Conservatives tell it, some things that exist actually don’t, and others that don’t actually do. Confused? I’ll explain.
During question period Thursday, New Democrat Murray Rankin rose on a question unrelated to the ongoing scandal surrounding Mike Duffy and the $90,000 payment from Nigel Wright, and harkened back to earlier times, when we were all still talking about the budget.
He told the House the Conservative government is one that denounced an iPod tax, but that “has now introduced its own through the backdoor.” That backdoor is in the shape of the Economic Action Plan 2013, a.k.a. the federal budget, wherein the government decided to raise tariffs, including those on MP3 players.
“In a bizarre twist, we learned just today that the Conservatives have long planned on making this tax retroactive, demanding that retailers pay back-taxes on all the iPods they have sold, and even on some TVs, in the past,” he told the Commons. “Obviously, retailers are simply stunned. Why did the Conservatives not even give industry a warning that these changes were coming?”
Ted Menzies, the minister of state for finance, stood to respond on the other side of the chamber. But rather than offer an explanation, he decided to instead lend an evaluation of Rankin’s query.
“Mr. Speaker, there is no fact in that question. It is all false,” Menzies said. “The only people in the House of Commons who actually want to put a tax on iPods are the New Democrats. They are the only ones who want to increase taxes.”
Over at Canadian Business Thursday, Mike Moffat, an economist at the University of Western Ontario, and the man responsible for uncovering and bringing to light the tariff changes in the budget, noted that a number of importers have written to the government in protest. The group, known as the 9948 Fair Treatment Coalition (named for the tariff number) includes a number of MP3, TV, and computer speaker manufacturers and distributors. He wrote:
The Coalition alleges that “the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has misled dozens of Canadian companies for years by inducing them to import MP3 players and other goods into Canada duty-free, all the while planning to later collect millions of dollars in back-duties on the goods, with interest in penalties.” The release goes on to quote members of the 9948 group, including, Ken Buschlen, VP of Finance for Panasonic Canada Inc. who explains that “[the] CBSA issued us authorization to import products duty-free, but now it appears that CBSA intended to claw back the duties later. That is plainly unfair.”
The Coalition came to this conclusion after it obtained CBSA emails via Access to Information. Moffatt admitted he couldn’t speak for the veracity of the Coalition’s case. However, he said, “This ‘iPod tax’ issue has garnered a lot of attention as a political story. We should not lose sight, however, of the unnecessary burden placed on Canadian businesses.”
It leaves one wondering what parts, specifically, of Rankin’s question were false. Menzies said all of it was. But the tariff on MP3 players does exist, and it was the Conservatives that effectively imposed it. Are the Coalition’s claims false? If so, how? And why not correct the record, if that’s the case?
Rankin’s caucus colleague, Mathieu Ravignat, was up next to allege that because the government is saying one thing and doing another, it has to spent money to convince people of its logic. “This is why they’ve spent $190,000 per minute on ads for a jobs program that doesn’t exist,” he said. He wondered whether the iPod tax was in place to help the Treasury Board president pay for those.
Ravignat was talking about the jobs grant, a program the government is indeed already advertising, but that doesn’t yet exist. The ad, however, doesn’t mention that. Instead, it tells Canadians that with the new grant, the feds will partner with the provinces and territories to get people the skills they need for a new job. “The Canada job grant will result in one important thing,” the announcer says, “a new or better job.”
Pending approval.
Lisa Raitt, the labour minister, fielded – in fact was “delighted to answer” – Ravignat’s question, because “we think it is such a great program,” she said.
“We believe it is important to communicate it to all Canadians so that they can see themselves, or see their own potential, in those commercials,” she continued, more or less explaining only the very basic theory behind advertising as a concept, but offering little by way of an explanation as to why these ads are being run already for a program that doesn’t yet exist.
“I think it is very important that in those ads, we see young women wearing hard hats, an under-represented group in the trades, and we are promoting that and we will continue to,” Raitt finished.
So there you have it: What does exist does not. And what doesn’t exist, does – for purposes of perceived gender equality. |
community,
Wingham Community of Christ in Canget Street, celebrates 80 years since the opening of its church building on May 23, 1937. The cost of the original building, fully furnished, was £550. On Saturday, July 29 there will be an open church with a complimentary sausage sizzle from 11am to 2pm. Cameron Waugh and Kay Lygoe will entertain by playing some of the 600 odd hymns in the award winning ‘Community of Christ Sings’ hymn book on the church keyboard. The Knit and Knatter group, which meets on the first and third Tuesday of the month, will have some of their Wrap with Love rugs on display along with some knits for premmie babies which are donated to the hospital. The church is making up hampers for the Manning Women’s Refuge and donations of any non perishable items would be appreciated. A service of celebration will be held at 1.30pm on Sunday July 30 with Australian Mission president Ben Smith as guest minister. A light lunch will be served at noon prior to the service. All welcome to join in the celebrations. Contact Garry Boyd on 0428 535 504 or Robyn Rankin on 0400 317 420 for further information.
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By Lee Han-soo
A Christian group has blasted South Korean government's decision to scrap the mandatory HIV test for native English teachers, saying the decision was made "without public consent."
"How can this crucial decision be made by some public officials without the consent of the public?"Anti-Homosexuality Christian Solidarity said in a statement. "We demand the Ministry of Justice overturns its decision."
The criticism came two days after the ministry announced it would drop the mandatory HIV test for native English teachers, a controversial regulation that prompted a native English teacher to file a petition with the United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 2012.
The Christian group called the scrapping a "reverse discrimination" against Korean citizens.
"This is clearly a socialist idea and a serious matter that infringes people's right to health and know," said the group.
"It is shocking and unbelievable that the ministry made a decision that jeopardizes the majority rights to protect those of the minority."
The Christian group condemns homosexuality and believes that Christians must unite against homosexuality. |
The Houston Rockets are telling other teams they intend to trade disgruntled center Omer Asik by Dec. 19, according to sources familiar with the team's plans.
Sources told ESPN.com that the Rockets began calling potential trade partners Friday to let them know they intend to deal Asik between Dec. 15 and Dec. 19.
The Rockets tried playing Omer Asik and Dwight Howard together and were initially hesitant to entertain trade offers for the Turkish big man. Scott Halleran/Getty Images
The significance of such a specific window is two-fold. Dec. 15 is the first day players who signed new contracts in the offseason can be plugged into trades, and Dec. 19 is the last day any player acquired by Houston in an Asik deal can be repackaged with other players before the league's Feb. 20 trade deadline.
The calls made by the Rockets on Friday are reminiscent of their approach with Thomas Robinson during the draft in June.
It was an open secret that the Rockets would trade Robinson to help clear salary-cap space for their pursuit of Dwight Howard. Taking this step with Asik is in essence an attempt to persuade potential suitors to put their best offer on the table quickly now that the Rockets have established such an exact time frame for trying to complete a trade.
Asik has wanted a new address from the moment Howard arrived in July and has privately requested a trade numerous times in the months since, sources said.
The Rockets tried playing Howard and Asik together and were initially hesitant to entertain trade offers for the Turkish big man on the premise that the luxury of having either Howard or Asik on the court at all times was too valuable to surrender so quickly.
But Asik's angry reaction last month to being dropped out of the starting lineup by Rockets coach Kevin McHale changed the dynamic.
Team officials are now aggressively trying to find a workable trade that will not only bring back a worthy asset for a player of Asik's caliber as a defensive anchor and a rebounder but one that also happens quickly enough to ensure that Houston -- known as one of the league's most active teams trade-wise -- maintains flexibility to make subsequent moves on deadline day.
Asik has repeatedly declined to comment on his trade request, knowing that any public discussion of the matter would subject him to a fine from the league office.
The 27-year-old started his first 90 games as a Rocket after signing as a free agent in the summer of 2012 before declaring himself unavailable to play the Knicks in New York on Nov. 14 to snap a streak of 239 consecutive games played in the regular season.
Asik was shelved this week by the Rockets with what is listed as a thigh contusion. He's averaging a mere 18.3 minutes per game, down from last season's career high of 30.3, and is averaging just 4.4 points and 6.8 rebounds.
Asik is owed $15 million in salary next season in a balloon payment in the final year of his contract that only counts against the salary cap at $8.4 million but could still dissuade some bidders. |
After the first volume released in 2007, it has been a long journey to the final volume of the Kingdom Hearts II manga. Shiro Amano, the creator of the Kingdom Hearts manga series took a break after volume 5 and adapted Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days in it's entirety. Amano later returned to Kingdom Hearts II after 358/2 Days' completion. Today the 10th and final volume finally premiered in Shonen Gangan via it's June 2015 issue.
Amano took to Twitter to celebrate, you can read his tweet translated into English below thanks to goldpanner.
The June volume of Monthly Shōnen Gangan on sale today! This will be the last time we will have a Kingdom Hearts II colour centrefold! ｡+ﾟ(ﾉД`)ﾟ+ It's thanks to all your support that this series has been able to keep running for nearly 12 years. Thank you so much for everything for such a long time!
Update: The Square Enix Gangan website has updated with an official wallpaper to commemorate the release of the final Kingdom Hearts II volume which can be seen below, in various sizes.
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Happy Monday! Time for another travel post 🙂 Out of all the things we saw and did in Spain, the Palo Alto market in Barcelona was on of our favorites. This wasn’t like any other street market that we’ve ever been too. Other street markets often feel a little repetitive and lack variety and creativity, but this market was nothing like that. The Palo Alto Market is based on the popular concept of a street market, but with a modern and creative twist that makes it unique and fresh. From a vast variety of food, art and products of all kinds there is something for everyone at Palo Alto. Everything was so colorful and the whole place looked like a piece of art. You could really tell the vendors here were passionate and excited about what they were sharing with us. We spent almost 5 hours there shopping, meeting new people and trying all the delicious food that we could get out hands on. This charming little market only happens on the first weekend of every month and we were so lucky to have been in Barcelona at the time to experience it! Click here to find out more about the market. |
CLOSE Ole Miss has received its second, or amended, Notice of Allegations and it presents a Lack of Institutional Control charge against the school as well as alleged violations that boosters paid a recruit. Hugh Kellenberger
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey speaks to media during the head coaches news conference at the Tampa Convention Center. (Photo: Kim Klement, USA TODAY Sports)
BIRMINGHAM — Greg Sankey's role as Southeastern Conference commissioner is the reason why he is recused from the NCAA Committee on Infractions as it relates to the case against Ole Miss.
"I’m fully recused from anything involving any member university," Sankey said Monday during a question-and-answer panel during the Associated Press Sports Editors' Southeast Region meeting.
Sankey is the chairman of the committee of infractions. He said he's previously recused himself in cases involving SEC teams.
The NCAA enforcement staff was allowed to offer immunity to athletes at other schools as part of the Ole Miss investigation, which led to allegations of violations. Sankey said he did not have an opinion he would offer on that, which is handled on a case-by-case basis and only with the granting of the Committee on Infractions.
"I’m not involved in granting immunity around SEC student-athletes," Sankey said. "I’m walled off completely. I don’t talk to colleagues on the committee."
Ole Miss announced it received its second Notice of Allegations in February, and should soon send its response back to the NCAA. The timeline of the case is expected to stretch into the fall. |
The nuclear energy industry in Japan relies on unskilled and uneducated daily workers, and even now the country will not invite foreign experts to help with the Fukushima cleanup due to national pride, Alex Kerr, an expert on Japan, told RT.
RT:There have already been countless reports of toxic leaks and here's a fresh one in a new reactor. Why can’t they get control here?
Alex Kerr: It’s an ongoing story. The real problem is that the government has put so much energy into hiding the information that at this point I can say that nobody knows what’s really going on.
RT:Japan won the right to host the Summer Olympic Games in 2020, but activists worldwide have been raising concerns that it is not the best place to hold them, due to health concerns. Are these worries justified?
AK: I don’t think they are justified in a sense that it is going to impact Tokyo. I think people could really come to the Games and not worry about it. But Fukushima Prefecture and the areas around it are going to be seriously affected for decades, maybe a century. Parts of it will be pretty much unlivable. Not to mention the fears that we have of the radioactivity flowing into the ocean. No one can imagine what the long-term effects are going to be for sea life and many other things.
RT:There were media reports that the containment tanks that have been leaking were built in part by illegal employees, who lacked experience and were forced to rush. Does this suggest there are lots more secrets we don't know about?
AK: Of course. Because the entire system of management of TEPCO, in fact the entire nuclear energy in Japan, has been to rely on unskilled, uneducated, non-specialist daily workers, guys that are picked up from the streets and are paid a daily wage, some of them didn’t even realize they were going to a radioactive area. It’s not professional, it’s a comedy of errors and [there] are just many tanks, many structures that were built hurriedly, without expertise, without consulting international specialists. It’s fair to say that it is a big mess and it will get worse.
RT:Experts say Japan is obviously failing to safely clean up the plant and needs help from outside. Do you agree?
AK: I do agree. I think it’s very difficult for Japan to do that for reasons of national pride and also because as soon as you bring the outsiders it upsets the thing they call a “nuclear village,” that’s a term we use in Japan for the scientists, the academics, the bureaucrats, the politicians and the contractors, operators in these cozy interrelated situations when anyone who comes in from outside and demands some kind of openness and professionalism will upset that nice situation. So it’s very difficult to actually bring them in and make use of them.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT. |
BlackBerry Ltd. has created a new business unit that will combine some of its most innovative technology and patent portfolio as the company focuses away from handheld devices.
The unit, to be called BlackBerry Technology Solutions, will be headed by Sandeep Chennakeshu, the former president of Ericsson Mobile Platforms and former chief technology officer of Sony-Ericsson.
"Combining all these assets into a single business unit led by Sandeep will create operational synergies and new revenue streams, furthering our turnaround strategy," said John Chen, BlackBerry's executive chairman and chief executive officer.
Blackberry turns back on handsets
Under Chen, BlackBerry has stripped out much of its consumer-oriented businesses, sold real estate and laid off employees.
He told employees earlier this month that the Waterloo, Ont.-based company — best known for its smartphones and email services — had completed its downsizing phase and was ready to make acquisitions and do some "modest" hiring in certain areas of the business, such as product development and sales.
Independent technology analyst Carmi Levy said the new unit reinforces the fact that Blackberry's days primarily as a handset vendor are behind it as it moves "very aggressively" toward a different business.
"This is probably the most tangible evidence yet of the company's transition into something very different than it was even a year or two ago," Levy said.
"It suggests they are no longer as dependent on handset-based revenue as they once were and as a result they have both the financial foundation as well as the corporate organizational confidence to more concretely move away from those lines of businesses into areas that are largely based on its intellectual property."
He said the move was positive for Blackberry, noting that it has struggled with its product launches and faced stiff competition from other smartphone makers while it has received little credit for its range of capabilities, especially when it came to software.
"It's fair to say that much of the company's transition over the last couple of years has been judged based on criteria that don't reflect the full breath of the business," he said.
"It is not simply a company that makes smartphones, it is a company that has a rich legacy of creating and marketing intellectual property."
Chennakeshu, who has 73 patents to his name, has 25 years of experience in research, product development, and intellectual property licensing in the wireless, electronics and semiconductor industries.
The unit he'll head includes QNX, the company that BlackBerry acquired and used to develop the operating system that became the platform for its new smartphones, and Certicom, a former independent Toronto-area company with advanced security software.
BTS will also include BlackBerry's Project Ion, which is an application platform focused on machine-to-machine Internet technology, Paratek antenna tuning technology and about 44,000 patents. |
The Galton Institute is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. Its aims are "to promote the public understanding of human heredity and to facilitate informed debate about the ethical issues raised by advances in reproductive technology".[1]
It was founded in 1907 as the Eugenics Education Society, with the aim of promoting the research and understanding of eugenics.[2] It became the Eugenics Society in 1926 (often referred to as the British Eugenics Society to distinguish it from others). From 1909-1968 it published The Eugenics Review. Membership reached its peak during the 1930s.[3]
The Society was based near Brockwell Park, Lambeth in London. It is currently based in Northfields, London, and changed its name to the Galton Institute in 1989.
Prominent members [ edit ]
See also [ edit ] |
The US attack on a Syrian air base came after years of heated debate and deliberation in Washington over intervention in the bloody civil war.
Chemical weapons have killed hundreds of people since the start of the conflict, with the U.N. blaming three attacks on the Syrian government and a fourth on ISIS. One of the worst yet came Tuesday in rebel-held northern Idlib and killed dozens, including women and children.
That attack prompted President Donald Trump, on day 77 of his presidency, to dramatically shift U.S. policy, with the first direct U.S. attack on the Syrian government.
Trump blamed Syrian President Bashar Assad for the attack and called on the international community to join him in trying to end the bloodshed.
A timeline of events in Syria leading up to Tuesday's attack:
March 2011: Protests erupt in the city of Daraa over security forces' detention of a group of boys accused of painting anti-government graffiti on the walls of their school. On March 15, a protest is held in Damascus' Old City. On March 18, security forces open fire on a protest in Daraa, killing four people in what activists regard as the first deaths of the uprising. Demonstrations spread, as does the crackdown by President Bashar Assad's forces.
April 2011: Security forces raid a sit-in in Syria's third-largest city, Homs, where thousands of people tried to create the mood of Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of protests against Egypt's autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Aug. 18, 2011: President Barack Obama calls on Assad to resign and orders Syrian government assets frozen.
Summer 2012: Fighting spreads to Aleppo, Syria's largest city and its former commercial capital.
August 20, 2012: Obama says the use of chemical weapons would be a 'red line' that would change his calculus on intervening in the civil war and have 'enormous consequences.'
March 19, 2013: The Syrian government and opposition trade accusations over a gas attack that killed some 26 people, including more than a dozen government soldiers, in the town of Khan al-Assal in northern Syria. A U.N. investigation later finds that sarin nerve gas was used, but does not identify a culprit.
August 21, 2013: Hundreds of people suffocate in rebel-held suburbs of the Syrian capital, with many suffering from convulsions, pinpoint pupils, and foaming at the mouth. U.N. investigators visit the sites and determine that ground-to-ground missiles loaded with sarin were fired on civilian areas while residents slept. The U.S. and others blame the Syrian government, the only party to the conflict known to have sarin gas.
Aug. 31, 2013: Obama says he will go to Congress for authorization to carry out punitive strikes against the Syrian government, but appears to lack the necessary support in the legislature.
Sept. 27, 2013: The U.N. Security Council orders Syria to account for and destroy its chemical weapons stockpile, following a surprise agreement between Washington and Moscow, averting U.S. strikes. The Security Council threatens to authorize the use of force in the event of non-compliance.
Oct. 14, 2013: Syria becomes a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, prohibiting it from producing, stockpiling or using chemical weapons.
June 23, 2014: The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says it has removed the last of the Syrian government's chemical weapons. Syrian opposition officials maintain that the government's stocks were not fully accounted for, and that it retained supplies.
Sept. 23, 2014: The U.S. launches airstrikes on Islamic State group targets in Syria.
Aug. 7, 2015: The U.N. Security Council authorizes the OPCW and U.N. investigators to probe reports of chemical weapons use in Syria, as reports circulate of repeated chlorine gas attacks by government forces against civilians in opposition-held areas. Chlorine gas, though not as toxic as nerve agents, can be classified as a chemical weapon depending on its use.
Aug. 24, 2016: The joint OPCW-U.N. panel determines the Syrian government twice used helicopters to deploy chlorine gas against its opponents, in civilian areas in the northern Idlib province. A later report holds the government responsible for a third attack. The attacks occurred in 2014 and 2015. The panel also finds that the Islamic State group used mustard gas.
Feb. 28, 2017: Russia, a stalwart ally of the Syrian government, and China veto a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing sanctions against the Syrian government for chemical weapons use.
April 4, 2017: At least 86 people are killed in what doctors say could be a nerve gas attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in the rebel-held Idlib province. Victims show signs of suffocation, convulsions, foaming at the mouth and pupil constriction. Witnesses say the attack was carried out by either Russian or Syrian Sukhoi jets. Moscow and Damascus deny responsibility.
April 4, 2017: President Donald Trump issues a statement saying that the 'heinous' actions of Assad's government are the direct result of Obama administration's 'weakness and irresolution.'
April 5, 2017: Trump says Assad's government has 'crossed a lot of lines' with the suspected chemical attack in Syria.
April 6, 2017: The U.S. fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria in retaliation for the gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians, U.S. officials said. It was the first direct American assault on the Syrian government and Trump's most dramatic military order since becoming president. Trump said strike on Syria in the 'vital national security interest' of the United States. |
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