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The police may use deadly force to shoot and kill a motorist who leads them on a reckless, high-speed chase, even if the suspect's car is temporarily cornered, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
In a unanimous decision, the justices threw out an "excessive force" claim brought against Arkansas police officers who chased a speeding car across the bridge into Memphis and shot the driver when he refused to give up.
In the past, the court had said police may use force to stop a fleeing motorist because he represents a danger to the public. But the law has been unclear on whether "deadly force" can be used against the occupants of a stopped car.
In the case decided Tuesday, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said the officers were justified in shooting the motorist because he continued to maneuver his car after he had been temporarily stopped by a squad car. As the motorist, Donald Rickard, tried to drive away, police fired 15 shots in all, killing him and a passenger.
Alito also said officers deserve the benefit of the doubt when they are engaged in a high-speed pursuit. "We analyze this question from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight," he wrote in Plumhoff v. Rickard.
The case began on a summer night in 2004 when officers in West Memphis, Ark., pulled over a white Honda because the car had only one headlight. When an officer sought to question the driver, he sped away.
The chase reached 100 miles per hour when Rickard crossed the bridge into Memphis. Sgt. Vance Plumhoff led the pursuit and collided with the fleeing vehicle, sending it spinning into a parking lot.
Though Rickard's car was cornered, he put it into reverse and spun the wheels. When Rickard refused to surrender, Plumhoff fired three shots into the vehicle. The car then spun away, and officers fired more shots, killing the driver and his passenger.
Rickard's daughter sued, alleging the officers violated the 4th Amendment by using "excessive force" to make an arrest. A federal judge and the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the suit to proceed on the theory that a jury should decide whether the shooting was excessive.
But the Supreme Court decided there was no constitutional violation. "It is beyond serious dispute that Rickard's flight posed a grave public safety risk, and here the police acted reasonably in using deadly force to end that risk," Alito wrote. It would be "a different case," he added, if the initial shots "had clearly incapacitated Rickard" or "if Rickard had clearly given himself up."
"But that is not what happened," he concluded. |
From Republican presidential candidates to hard-core Corbyn supporters , we’re used to hearing extreme views from all over the political spectrum and beyond. Why?
As a British person with liberal leanings, the ongoing coverage of the US Republican race to select a presidential candidate is often baffling. Much of this is due to Donald Trump, of course. Donald Trump, the ungodly offspring of a retired golfer and a beligerent tangerine. Donald Trump, a man who once heard the word “unspeakable” and thought “challenge accepted!” Just when you think he couldn’t possibly be more openly offensive towards large groups of people, he reliably proves you wrong a few days later.
Despite this, it seems a large number of people still think he’s the best person to be President, where he can bring about nuclear Armageddon by openly mocking Vladimir Putin’s height at some international summit.
Or is it because of these deeply controversial statements that Trump is doing so well? He’s hardly alone in adopting extreme and controversial positions in an effort to secure the presidential candidate nomination.
This isn’t to suggest we in the UK are above such behaviour. Far from it. While the mainstream media is constantly (and tediously) focusing on the divisions in the Labour party, you can’t miss constant complaints about “Corbynites”, supposedly dedicated followers of Jeremy Corbyn who aggressively defend him and tell you to join the bloody Conservatives if you express any views that are less left wing than those of Lenin himself.
It’s not just politics either; from lefties to libertarians, gamers to gay rights activism, feminism to fandom, if you publicly share an opinion on an issue that many people care about enough to form groups around, you’re bound to get flak from the more “extreme” elements of said groups.
Why, though? Why do groups of otherwise normal people regularly end up producing an enraged fringe element with a hair trigger? If you have a group of friends who like to socialise together and it transpires that one member of the group has a habit of screaming abuse at strangers and picking fights on everyone else’s behalf, said person won’t be invited to the pub as much from then on.
But surprisingly, this doesn’t often happen with large, organised groups. Evidence suggests they tend to make people more extreme than if those people were left to think issues through themselves. This phenomenon is known as Group Polarisation, where rather than conforming to the “average” view of the disparate opinions held by group members, putting them all together in one place pushes people’s views towards the extremes.
There are numerous psychological processes believed to be at work here, and they mostly boil down to the unavoidable fact that other people have big influence over what we think and do, and there’s a growing body of neuroscientific evidence that suggests the brain processes perception of self and membership of groups in very similar ways, meaning the groups we identify with are a big part of our identity.
One consequence of this is explained by the Social Comparison Theory. This is where we judge our own worth by comparison to those we identify with. On top of this, there’s informational influence. The people we engage and interact with, those whose opinions and judgement we value, they are a powerful source of information. Their views, opinions, prejudices, they all impact on our own knowledge and beliefs. So for example, if you really like Star Wars so surround yourself and have discussions with people who also like Star Wars, you’re going to end up liking Star Wars even more, both to make your new community like you and because you’ve heard all their different reasons for why Star Wars is great.
Being accepted by a specific group is fine, but we want to be liked by this group. Social rejection is a genuine fear for us humans, so we instinctively want to make the people we like like us in turn. We also judge our own status and self-worth by how we compare to them. As a result, if there’s one thing everyone in your group agrees on, you tend to agree with it “more”. So if you’re in the “I like Star Wars” community, you obtain approval and improve your status by demonstrating you like Star Wars the most. You learn the most obscure trivia, argue its merits more passionately than others. And so, your original views of “I quite like Star Wars” gradually become more extreme, by dint of being part of a like-minded group.
Unfortunately, one consequence of being a group having such influence over our identities is that any threat to the group is often perceived as a threat to ourselves. People regularly prioritise group harmony above anything else. As such, anything that threatens the group harmony or consensus is viewed extremely negatively. And what threatens your group more than a different group that doesn’t agree with your group consensus, or actually disputes it?
If you’re an enthusiastic member of the Star Wars-loving community, then someone wanders in and says “Actually, Star Trek is much better”, this person will not get an easy time of it from you. They’re challenging the whole reason for the group’s existence, and the group must be defended, so attacking this challenging view is now a major priority. As well as this, there is now an ideal opportunity to impress other group members and improve your standing, by being the most intense and aggressive with your attacking of this insolent intruder. Calm and reasoned debate doesn’t get much of a look in.
If you’ve ever been part of a discussion that quickly descended into a vicious exchange of abuse then you’ve probably experienced this phenomenon.
So our overly-keen brains mean we have several factors, namely identifying with a group, wanting to be part of the group, to be liked by the group, to impress the group and to defend the group. All of these combine to make people more extreme in their views when part of a group, not less.
Studies have shown this can happen readily on the internet (particularly Twitter) , hence a lot of online discourse can quickly descend into raw hostility.
And sadly, whereas you’d hope calm heads and objective opinion would be prioritised for things that truly matter, Group Polarisation has been shown to be no less a problem for really important things, like politics. It’s even more potent if anything, as it’s not a trivial matter anymore, ergo the beliefs of you and your group must be defended even more vigorously.
Add to this the way that psychological mechanisms mean that in politics spin and personality regularly trump (pun intended) logic and reason. As a result the most confident outspoken candidate is seen as better than the calm rational ones, and thus we get candidates who confidently express the most extreme opinions about other groups of people, and those who relate to them support them, rather than disown them.
There’s obviously more to it than this, with countless influences and variables determining people’s views and beliefs regarding others. However, it’s difficult to deny that, thanks to the workings of the brain, identifying as part of a cohesive group can make you more extreme.
Best to play it safe and have no friends or social circles to speak of, like I do. That is definitely a conscious choice on my part.
Shut up, it is!
Dean Burnett is on Twitter but tries to avoid talking to anyone on there, just to be safe. @garwboy |
Bitcoin Price Soars to New Record High at $1425
The price of bitcoin is at record highs on May 1, reaching $1425 on the Bitstamp exchange, after breaking the previous all-time high at $1350. A move above the peak reached in the market mayhem accompanying the SEC’s ETF decision indicates that a long-term target for bulls has been validated at $1719.97.
The monthly timeframe is shown below, with April’s candlestick displaying bullish dominance with a Marubozu, suggesting that it may be an optimal time to enter into a long position on bitcoin. After see-sawing around $1163 in February and March, a clear break of the $1163.00 handle has been achieved in April, pointing to a move toward $1829.20 over the remainder of 2017.
Also, notice that the Ichimoku cloud and converison line (blue) are moving higher as compared to the previous month, suggesting that the market will continue to trend higher for May.
Week on week volume has been growing for the past 21 days, pointing to further gains ahead, as shown by the chart below. The next target for buyers will lie at the 161.8 percent Fibonacci extension level at $1719.97. Also, notice that the Awesome Oscillator is following the price, establishing a breakout this week from the previous peak of the Oscillator at 346.25 during the week beginning March 13. This confirms the breakout will lead to further gains and gives a strong probability the market will reach $1719.97 over the long term.
The daily chart for BTC-USD is shown below. Notice the sharp graident of the conversion line, which is almost vertical, suggesting strong bullish momentum. Also, we see that the Market Facilitation Index is green, suggesting that traders should follow the market momentum and try to buy in into the ongoing uptrend.
However, we may see some short-term correction. For example, the market has almost reached the Fibonacci extension level at $1432.44 and may turn back down to support at $1321.12. However, a break above $1432.44 will open up resistance at $1543.76.
Bitcoin has been rising recently as the SEC announced it will reconsider the ETF decision for the cryptocurrency. Bats exchange submitted an appeal on March 23, asking the regulator to revert its position. If the decision is reversed and a bitcoin ETF is given the go ahead, this would bring fresh capital into the cryptocurrency and consequently push its value much higher, so the market may be pricing in a U-turn on the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF.
Also, an accomodative stance toward the cryptocurrency in Japan has also favored bulls in the market, with bitcoin given legal payment status on April 1. Adoption has increased as a result, pushing demand higher and perhaps one major factor behind the recent price increase. Also, as Nikkei reported on May 1, ten major Japanese companies are planning to launch exchanges for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and the regulatory guidelines in place since April have contributed to an increase in confidence in the sector, where bitcoin’s image was tarnished in the country as a result of the Mt. Gox scandal.
“We didn’t even have minimum guidelines” back in 2014, when the bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox collapsed, “so users will now feel more secure,” an SBI Virtual Currencies representative said. GMO Internet group plans to expand the breadth of cryptocurrencies on offer based on demand. The Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association reckons that approximately 18 companies are in the process of planning to apply for a license. By July 2017, Japan’s consumption tax will no longer apply to cryptocurrency, which could boost adoption and trading volume in the country even further. |
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Five men arrested in north Queensland with a tinnie after travelling from Melbourne in an alleged bid to engage join radical fighters in Syria
Five Australian men who police say attempted to take a tinnie, or small dinghy, to Indonesia in an alleged bid to engage in foreign incursions in Syria have been arrested in north Queensland.
Rapid radicalisation: the case of Numan Haider shocks family and experts alike Read more
The Australian federal police arrested and detained the five men in a car north of Cairns on Tuesday. They had travelled from Melbourne to Queensland by car, towing a seven-metre long vessel with them which they intended to sail overseas from “the top of Australia”, police said.
The men, aged between 21 and 33, have not been charged.
Deputy commissioner of Victoria police, Shane Patton, told a media conference in Melbourne that all of the men were from the city. He also said the seriousness of the case should not be downplayed.
“I want to be perfectly clear,” he said. “This is a serious attempt by five men who are of security interest to us, who have had their passports cancelled, attempting to exit Australia so that they can make their way by boat.
“Ultimately we’re investigating the intention to possibly end up in Syria to fight.”
He said Australia had a responsibility to stop the men.
“I’m sure there’ll be people sitting at home saying ‘why didn’t you simply just let them go and take their chance in the waves and Syria? We can’t do that. We can’t let Australians leave Australia and support terrorism anywhere.
“If they had made it to Syria and managed to return to Australia, they could have come back with increased knowledge of explosives and weaponry, and may have become more radicalised,” he said.
The men were “very committed” to getting to Syria, he added.
“They’ve gone all the way from Melbourne, all the way to far north Queensland, these people were absolutely committed in their attempt to leave the country.”
Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Neil Gaughan said the men had been under investigation for “a number of weeks”.
“They were in a boat that was seven metres long. They were committed, obviously very committed,” Gaughan said in Melbourne.
The men remained in custody in Queensland and would be interviewed on Wednesday.
Alex Jones, a solicitor acting for one of the men, said on Wednesday afternoon that he was not aware of any charges laid against his client. Investigators had applied for an extension on Wednesday morning to detain the men further without charge while investigating possible foreign incursions offences. It was understood police were applying for a further extension.
Eight search warrants had also been executed since the arrests, Gaughan said. |
Michelle enjoys her first Deathgasm.
If there is one thing that New Zealand does right (other than Lord of the Rings and Flight of the Conchords) it's hilarious and gory horror flicks. Deathgasm follows in the footsteps of such films as Dead Alive,The Frighteners and Black Sheep as it continues the tradition of 'effed up yet funny as hell splatterfests. Jason Lei Howden makes his directorial debut with Deathgasm and it was an audience favorite at Austin's South by Southwest film festival.
"Sweet Force lightning, bro."
The film follows the adventures of a couple of high school metal heads who are trying to start a death metal band. They inadvertently summon demons (pretty damn brutal, I would say) and have to figure out a way to stop the monsters before they destroy the small town they reside in. Truth be told, the storyline isn't that complex or subtle though it moves briskly. The writing is snarky with lots of black humor thrown around in between (and sometimes during) the horror scenes. Overall, I would say the story is above average compared to the majority of horror films and for the most part it's entertaining.
What sets this film apart from other indie horror movies is the heavy metal music motif. Both of the main characters Brodie (Milo Cawthorn) and Zakk (James Blake) embody all of the common metal clichés: long hair, studded leather jackets, combat boots, denim vests with patches on them--the works. Luckily, it doesn't come off as contrived though a couple of the references fall flat. The music is spot on with lots of bands contributing songs to the soundtrack. If you are a fan of heavy metal you will definitely enjoy the tune-age in this film.
"This ice cream tastes like death."
Now here comes the best part of Deathgasm: lots and lots of blood and guts! Once the demons are unleashed, all hell breaks loose...literally! Demons vomit blood all over their victims, gouge out eyeballs, tear out intestines and all sorts of other ghastly things. It's awesome! Almost all of it is done with practical effects and props too--this is seriously some outstanding work in this movie. The term "splatstick" has been coined to describe the type of disturbing and funny mayhem that New Zealand horror films are famous for. Gorehounds will be incredibly pleased with the gore in this movie.
What stands out the most to me about this film is the obvious love that went into making it. The director has stated that he was an outcast metal head growing up, so that experience influenced the direction he took
. It harkens back to '80s horror films that didn't take themselves so seriously and weren't afraid to throw in a joke every once in awhile. I predict that this film will become a cult classic in a decade or so.
Score
-Michelle Kisner
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Deathgasm |
Somehow, however, this seems rather difficult for some people to understand. There are scores of commentators on the Left who think that both candidates are the same, or at least equally bad, and at the end of day it doesn’t matter who comes to power anyway. Some even say that people should abstain from voting altogether in order to not take part in a fundamentally oppressive and rigged system.
Not voting is not an option because Trump must not win.
One star intellectual on the Left, Slavoj Žižek, recently went so far as to say that it would be better to have Trump in the White House because, as the dialectical process would seamlessly have it, a psychopath running the most powerful nation on earth will finally jolt people into action against the system.
This kind of puritanical approach is the preserve of those who are detached from reality and live lives ensconced in privilege — those who think it’s possible to be morally impeccable when it comes to making consequential, real life decisions. But real life decisions come with all sorts of contradictory pressures and demands — and often for the better. Voting for Hillary Clinton is the only right choice.
The Green Party’s Jill Stein is not a viable option. If you’re in a “safe state,” one that Trump can’t possibly win, then by all means vote for Stein. But if you’re in a swing state, vote Hillary. Not voting is not an option because Trump must not win.
Credit will go to those who come out and vote for Hillary, realizing the need to do so given the danger that Trump poses. Those who think they’re too pure to get involved in matters of society will have to answer for their inaction if Trump wins.
Refusing to vote is also an insult to those who fought and gave their lives to win the right to vote. The women’s movement and the civil rights movement were epic battles that included demands for the franchise to be extended to the oppressed and marginalized. The right-wing has always been about voter suppression.
In Trump, you have a candidate who has incited all kinds of hatred against the very people whose ancestors gave so much to be able to vote. “Make America great again” is his unsubtle call to reverse historic gains, as legendary performer and activist Harry Belafonte noted in a recent New York Times op-ed. But here we have some leftists, these so-called social justice activists, who think it’s better not to cast a ballot.
Such self-centeredness is something a capitalist or a libertarian could only envy. Right wingers will be thrilled if some leftists pay no regard to the social struggle of the past that won many people the right to vote.
Creating fantasy scenarios is the work of demagogues, and no one on the Left seems to have lost hold of reality more than this particular Slovenian intellectual with his “after Trump, us” nonsense. His hallucination that Trump coming to power would trigger an awakening against the system reminds me of another set of ideologues.
When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, some Iranian clerics and leaders welcomed it since in some obscure Shiite text it’s written that when the army of the Rum (Romans or Christians in Arabic) enter Iraq, the Messiah will reappear to save the world. One would have to ignore the countless lives lost in the Iraqi conflict to have cheered on the apparent fulfilling of this prophecy. One would also have to suspend reality and ignore all the dangers of Trump to nod in agreement with the Slovenian ideologue who thinks along the same lines.
There is an awakening against Trump — and the ones who are woke are those voting against him today, such as the Latinos who are reportedly coming out in record numbers. They know what’s at stake.
The push to make Bernie Sanders the Democratic Party's candidate was also a progressive push against the system, a hopeful sign that millions of young people in particular are waking up politically.
But while Sanders campaigns tirelessly to defeat Trump, others on the Left remain asleep. Let’s hope it’ll take something less tragic than Trump coming to power to wake them from their slumber. |
The Role of ICE Detainers Under Bush and Obama Over the years, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers, often called "immigration holds," were thought to be a primary tool that ICE needed to apprehend the suspects it was seeking to deport. However, as data has emerged tracing ICE's actual use of detainers , whether they ever played such a necessary or primary role has been called into question. This report extends the body of evidence now available and documents how surprisingly low the number of individuals deported as a result of the use of detainers actually appears to have been. Large-scale use of ICE detainers is a relatively recent phenomenon. Detainers were infrequently used during the first five and half years of former President George W. Bush's Administration. However, during the last two years under Bush, detainer usage increased rapidly and continued to grow when President Barack Obama assumed office. Examining what detainers actually achieved and did not achieve during the Obama and Bush years is important because under the Trump Administration's recent flurry of immigration executive orders it appears that the use of detainers is likely to surge . It also should be observed that very recent changes in the agency's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) policies indicate that transparency about this and other ICE activities has been sharply reduced. The data indicate that the growth in the use of detainers under Bush and Obama was surprisingly short lived. The preparation of ICE detainers peaked in August 2011 when 27,755 were recorded. And the number of these detainers that were followed by ICE taking the individual into custody peaked even earlier, during March 2010. In that month 16,713 of the detainers, according to ICE records, were followed by the individual being taken into custody. This peak in March of 2010 was barely a year after President Obama assumed office. Detainer usage fell off after this. Just because a person was taken into ICE custody also didn't automatically mean the individual was ordered deported and removed from the country. Newly available government records suggest that a surprisingly small proportion of those taken into custody ultimately were deported. Figure 1 compares detainer-connected removals to the volume of detainers issued. Note that actual removals are relatively few as compared with the number of ICE detainers.
Figure 1. Comparing ICE Detainers to Detainer-Connected Removals Figure 1. Comparing ICE Detainers to Detainer-Connected Removals These new findings are based on a detailed analysis by the Transactional Access Records Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University of recently released ICE case-by-case records on removals following the issuance of a detainer. These data were obtained as a result of TRAC's multi-year Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) campaign that included hundreds of FOIA requests, appeals, and a successful lawsuit. Another way to examine the evidence is to assess just what proportion of removals were of individuals who were previously targeted with a detainer. ICE case-by-case removal records show that during the first three months of FY 2016, only 5 percent of ICE removals from the interior of the U.S. (1,100 cases) were associated with a previously issued detainer. On an annual basis, this means the detainer- connected removals were recently running only 4,400 a year . Here, both ICE detainers, as well as ICE-issued notices, are included in these counts. When compared against the total of interior and border ICE removals, detainer-connected removals represented only 1.8 percent. And if deportations by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are added to ICE removals, the percentage is even smaller. It is true that these numbers are down sharply from the 10,702 detainer connected removals during the first three months of FY 2013 (October-December 2012). But even this higher number is surprisingly modest. Even back then, this represented only around a quarter (28%) of ICE removals from the interior, and less than 12 percent of all ICE removals. See Figures 2 and 3. Figure 2 plots the proportion of ICE removals from the interior of the United States that followed the issuance of a detainer, while Figure 3 shows these same numbers as a percentage of total ICE removals including those from both the border and the interior.
Figure 2. ICE Deportations from Interior and Detainer Usage Figure 2. ICE Deportations from Interior and Detainer Usage A free user query tool accompanying this report allows the public access to underlying data behind these TRAC findings, along with additional useful information on ICE removals over an even longer period of time.
Figure 3. All ICE Deportations and Detainer Usage Figure 3. All ICE Deportations and Detainer Usage Detainer-Connected Removals: from SCOMM through PEP Detainer usage not only peaked early in the Obama years, but also was highest when only a relatively small proportion of jurisdictions were covered by Secure Communities (SCOMM). It was only later that most local and state law enforcement agencies had fingerprint records they submitted to the FBI automatically shared with ICE through the SCOMM program. See TRAC April 2014 report. Even though detainer usage peaked early during the Obama years, removals resulting from detainers would not necessarily see a parallel decline. This is true for several reasons. For some individuals subject to a detainer, it could take many months or even years—given the Immigration Court's backlog—to work their way through civil proceedings and actually be ordered deported. For others, deportation might be delayed until individuals finished serving their prison sentence if they were convicted of committing a serious crime. Further, the expanded coverage of SCOMM gave ICE a greatly increased volume of fingerprint records to review, allowing it to refine and perhaps better target how and when detainers were used. This might lead to a higher proportion that resulted in an actual deportation. A more detailed comparison - month-by-month—covering October 2012 through December 2015—highlights the role of detainers starting when SCOMM became fully functional in nearly all communities, and ending thirteen months after the announcement that the SCOMM program was being replaced by Homeland Security's Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) . See Figures 4 and 5. Figure 4 plots the actual number of removals, while Figure 5 shows these trends as a proportion of ICE removals from the interior of the country. As before, both detainers and notices are included in these plots.
Figure 4. ICE Deportations With Prior Detainer by Month Figure 4. ICE Deportations With Prior Detainer by Month Both graphs show a similar pattern of decline, with a modest temporary upsurge starting the month before the official announcement of SCOMM's replacement by PEP. After this upsurge, however, the plots show that once the new priorities PEP ushered in became fully operational, these declines resumed again.
Figure 5. Percent of ICE Interior Deportations With Prior Detainer by Month Figure 5. Percent of ICE Interior Deportations With Prior Detainer by Month Improvements in ICE Transparency Needed Despite TRAC's new findings, additional unanswered questions remain. First, these findings focus on trends at the national level. There is no geographic breakdown because ICE did not release the needed geographic data. Further, with President Trump's new executive orders, an even wider range of information is now needed to monitor how these policies will be implemented. However, the outlook for public access to the information required to monitor the detainer program is not promising. A recent and dramatic change in ICE FOIA policies occurred in the waning months of the Obama Administration. These changes in FOIA policies appear to be designed to drastically restrict the already limited flow of data the agency releases to the public. Fields of information that ICE had routinely provided to TRAC in response to its regular monthly FOIA requests recently started getting left off the files TRAC received without explanation. More and more fields disappeared as new ICE responses arrived. For example, TRAC received 15 separate shipments from ICE one week in January and each of these shipments in response to individual FOIA requests were largely unusable because ICE had stopped providing so many key fields of information. Omitted, for example, from the files were the year of birth of individuals, details on criminal convictions, whether the agency actually took custody of individuals it had asked state and local law enforcement officials to detain, or what actions ICE took to deport individuals once they were in ICE custody, along with many other data fields. All of this information the agency had previously been releasing to TRAC in response to its monthly FOIA requests, and are essential to the public's understanding of what the agency is actually doing to enforce immigration laws. Thus far, administrative appeals within the agency have been unavailing. In response to one of TRAC's appeals, the ICE appellate office notified us that many fields the agency previously provided would no longer be provided. ICE claimed that these past releases were discretionary. However, the agency does not claim that this information is any way exempt from disclosure, only that it requires them to carry out "analyses" they are not required to undertake. TRAC, however, does not ask the agency to compile any statistics, it only requests the release of actual copies of their case-by-case records that obviously do exist and contain the information we are seeking. This is a very troubling development. Litigation appears to be needed to challenge these new unlawful practices. The Inherent Challenge of Connecting ICE Detainers with Actual Removals There is a further problem which casts doubt on how effective a greatly expanded use of detainers will actually be, under the announced reinstatement of Secure Communities by the Trump Administration. Even these reported figures on detainer-related removals implicitly assume that ICE actually has a reliable system for tracking what happens to cases after a detainer is prepared. Without reliable data, agency managers are without the information they need to effectively administer any detainer program. By a reliable system, TRAC means one that both records subsequent events that occur after the detainer is prepared, and then allows these events to be linked so that the number of individuals ultimately deported as a result of the use of ICE detainers can be accurately monitored. However, these assumed linkages are particularly problematic. For example, ICE contends that it only knows when a detainer is prepared and does not track whether it was actually issued. Further, when ICE later assumes custody of an individual we only know that custody occurs after the detainer was prepared. ICE contends it does not track whether ICE assumed custody from the law enforcement agency that issued the detainer. It could have arisen from entirely separate ICE initiatives. Likewise, we do not know that the use of the detainer actually led to the removal, or whether the removal was the result of other unconnected enforcement efforts. Again ICE contends its data systems do not allow it to track this. Thus, these limitations in the available data may actually over-estimate the actual impact of detainers on removals since enforcement initiatives wholly apart from the preparation of a detainer could have been what led to some of these deportations. On the other hand, to the extent there are other types of data quality problems, these could interfere with ICE's ability to connect the issuance of a detainer to the later deportation even where the detainer was a key factor in securing the individual's removal. This would lead to under counting removals resulting from detainers. Either way, if ICE contentions on the limitations of its data systems are correct, ICE managers currently lack the information they need to effectively administer this program. Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Presidents Bush or Obama published annual statistics on its detainer program. While the department used to publish monthly statistics under its Secure Communities program, these statistics did not contain any information on the agency's actual use of detainers as part of SCOMM. Nor to our knowledge has the agency released any systematic studies of the reliability of the agency's records that are used by managers to monitor detainer usage and to track cases so that they can determine the effectiveness of its use of detainers in meeting the agency's goals. Such studies are critically needed. Footnotes See side bar for links to earlier reports TRAC has issued tracking detainer usage. See, for example, Executive Order 13768 of January 25, 2017 on "Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States." This executive order reinstates the Secure Communities program, and seeks to withdraw federal funds from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions. It also terminates Obama's Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) that placed a number of restrictions on the use of ICE detainers, and sets a target, subject to the availability of appropriations, of hiring 10,000 additional ICE officers. Figures on detainers and those on which ICE assumes custody are based upon the month the detainer was prepared, while figures on detainer-connected removals are based upon the month the removal occurred. Note that it is important to distinguish between detainer-connected removals shown here, and removals connected to automatic fingerprint matching. Many removals credited to the Secure Communities program did not involve the use of detainers, and detainer usage was never restricted to Secure Communities. A forthcoming TRAC report will examine the use of detainers within the Secure Communities program. As discussed later in this report, ICE has recently started withholding the data that would allow extending these results to the rest of 2016 and the beginning of FY 2017. See Department of Homeland Security's Secretary Jeh Johnson's November 20, 2014 directive on "Secure Communities." In replacing SCOMM with PEP, the justifications included citations to a long series of court decisions finding ICE detainers did not comply with probable cause requirements, placing state and local law enforcement agencies in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The undermining of community trust in local law enforcement as a result of the close cooperation called for in SCOMM was also cited. As the memorandum explained, these twin concerns had led to growing resistance to honoring ICE detainers by governors, mayors, and state and local law enforcement officials from around the country, as well as to the passage of more and more legislation restricting such cooperation. |
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Philly a 'sanctuary' again for undocumented immigrants, new mayor says
Mayor Jim Kenney recently signed a law reverting Philadelphia to a sanctuary city, which would benefit immigrants and refugees. (Courtesy of Rob Shenk | Creative Commons)
On Jan. 4th, Mayor Jim Kenney signed a law that no longer allows Philadelphia law enforcement and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to cooperate, reverting Philadelphia back to a “sanctuary city.”
Before the executive order, ICE could ask city police to hold onto undocumented immigrants who would have been released while awaiting trial. The undocumented immigrants would then be kept in police custody until ICE picked them up and faced potential deportation. Previous mayor, 1979 Wharton graduate Michael Nutter, made Philadelphia a sanctuary city before reversing his own decision in late 2015.
Penn Democrats Communications Director and College junior Luke Hoban supports Mayor Kenney's plan and believes that Philadelphia needs to have some role in helping immigrants and refugees.
“Whatever measures that need to be taken should be implemented to make sure immigrants are not forced back to regions of the world that they are fleeing and giving up their lives in many cases, in hope of resettling here to provide a better life for themselves and their children," Hoban said.
United States Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who promotes a program called "Priority Enforcement” that has been decried by immigrant advocacy groups as overly aggressive, has worked with Kenney to switch programs. Until these discussions take place, Kenney told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Philadelphia will not force cops to cooperate with the ICE.
Other sanctuary cities in the United States include New York City, Baltimore and Washington D.C.. However, the Brookings Institution found in 2014 that Philadelphia is one of the "re-emerging gateways" in America due to a resurgence in the amount of immigrants entering the city each year.
Proponents of Philadelphia as a sanctuary city say that it improves relations between the community and the police. For example if an undocumented immigrant is a witness of crime, they will be able to report the crime without fear of deportation. Proponents also reason that being a sanctuary city encourages immigration to cities, which can benefit the city's economy.
A 2012 study by the Partnership for a New American Economy found that immigrants start 28 percent of small businesses even though they make up only 12.9 percent of the United States population.
Opponents of sanctuary cities noted the fact that there have been instances in which undocumented immigrants have committed serious crimes. For example, many Republican presidential candidates, such as 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump, called to crack down on sanctuary cities after the death in July of Kathryn Steinle, a woman in San Francisco who was shot by an undocumented immigrant who had been released from jail.
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For other opponents, their criticism of sanctuary cities stems from the problem it poses for law enforcement and public policy officials.
“Sanctuary cities reduce federal immigration law to optional pieces of policy and impede the prospects of more meaningful and effective reforms that our country desperately needs," College Republicans President and Wharton and College junior Jennifer Knesbach said.
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Hulu has reached a distribution deal with Pluto TV, a startup whose service repackages online video into a TV-like programming grid, covering nearly all of Hulu’s free television and movie content.
Under the pact, Pluto TV has access to everything Hulu makes available on its free, ad-supported website. That includes current-season broadcast fare from ABC, NBC and Fox such as episodes of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (pictured above), “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “Saturday Night Live”; older TV shows like “Seinfeld,” “Cheers,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Happy Days”; and anime and cartoon shows.
Just as Hulu makes free content available only on the Web — with only subscribers to its $7.99-per-month service having access to content on other connected devices — Pluto TV will make Hulu’s free content available only via its website. Pluto TV’s other channels are available on multiple platforms, including iOS and Android mobile devices, Amazon’s Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Android TV devices, Google’s Chromecast, to Apple TV via Apple AirPlay and Samsung Smart TVs.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Pluto TV CEO Tom Ryan said Hulu will be serving up the ads for the content.
Related Hulu CMO Kelly Campbell Discusses Viewer Engagement Hulu Appoints Barbara Fiorentino as Head of Talent and Casting
In addition to Hulu, Pluto TV has recently struck deals with a half-dozen other content partners to distribute their programming: Shout! Factory, Jukin Media, Devin SuperTramp, Multicom, Around the World in 4K and Amazing Places on Our Planet. Previously announced partners include AOL and Endemol.
For Hulu and Pluto TV’s other content suppliers, the pacts promise to broaden their reach — but it’s not clear exactly by how much. Ryan declined to reveal how many people are actively using the startup’s video service, except to say that the company is delivering “millions of video views” per day.
The idea behind Pluto TV, which last year launched the service with more than 100 curated channels, is to present Internet video in a menu that looks like a traditional cable TV guide. With many of its “linear” channels, Pluto strings together video segments presented in a continuous, TV-like stream — the theory being that it gives users interested, say, ’70s TV shows, latenight television or “cats 24/7” a familiar way to discover and watch new content.
With Hulu, Pluto TV is launching more than a dozen dedicated channels. Those include Late Night Catch-Up (full episodes and clips from “Tonight Show,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “The Daily Show,” “The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore”); ’90s TV Shows (“90210,” “Twin Peaks,” “7th Heaven”); ’80s TV Shows (“Cheers,” “Alf,” “Quantum Leap”); ’70s TV Shows (“Happy Days,” “The Brady Bunch,” “Mork & Mindy,” “Taxi”); or Joss Whedon Shows (“Buffy,” “Angel” and “Firefly”).
In addition, Pluto has channels with select episodes of “SNL,” “South Park,” “Seinfeld,” “I Love Lucy” and “The Twilight Zone.”
See More: Pluto TV Inks Video-Distribution Deals with Endemol, AOL
With Jukin Media, Pluto TV has added channel for “FailArmy,” which has some 7.8 million fans on YouTube, featuring pranks and “fails of the week.” The startup’s new Classic TV channel includes shows supplied by Shout! Factory, Multicom and others, including “Father Knows Best,” “Dennis the Menace,” “Route 66” and “The Saint.”
Pluto also launched a 4K TV channel with content from YouTube daredevil Devin SuperTramp, Around the World in 4K and Amazing Places on Our Planet.
“These partners allow our team of curators even more traditional TV shows, movies and digital-video favorites to deepen the entertainment experience across the platform,” Ryan said. “Entertainment happens when you make all of this content play seamlessly in the living room, at your fingertips and on the go.”
Founded in 2013, the L.A.-based company has raised about $13 million from U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), UTA, Sky (formerly BSkyB), Chicago Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Luminari Capital, Terry Semel’s Windsor Media, Pritzker Group and angel investors.
Hulu is owned by Disney, 21st Century Fox and Comcast’s NBCUniversal.
Correction: Hulu and Pluto TV previously said episodes of “Star Trek” were available to Pluto TV under the pact; in fact, Hulu does not have rights to distribute the series through partners. |
Amazon’s first attempt at its own mobile wallet application, designed for use at the point-of-sale, has made a quiet debut on the Amazon Appstore and on Google Play. However, the current implementation of the new “Amazon Wallet” application is fairly barebones – it doesn’t yet support mobile payments or the ability to store credit cards or debit cards. Instead, the wallet only offers the ability to store and organize your gift cards and other store and loyalty cards.
According to the app’s description, Amazon Wallet lets you either scan or type in your gift card, loyalty card and membership card’s information to “reduce the clutter in your leather wallet or purse.” The cards are then available in a digital format as a barcode, QR code, text or image. For dozens of supported merchants, consumers are also able to check the balance of their stored gift cards.
In addition to the mobile application, Amazon has also has a website for its Amazon Wallet service at www.amazon.com/wallet where you can log in and then add other gift cards to your account to have them appear in the mobile app. Here, you can manage your other payment methods – including credit cards, debit cards, and checking accounts – which can be used while shopping on Amazon.com, though not at point-of-sale.
Though these additional payment methods aren’t available in the current implementation of the Amazon Wallet application, the company is known to have broader ambitions aimed at establishing itself as a payments competitor to the likes of PayPal or Google Wallet – especially in terms of peer-to-peer (person-to-person) payments, as well as an alternative to Square and others, where the Kindle tablet would serve as a merchant’s point-of-sale.
Amazon Wallet, as a consumer-facing piece to this larger puzzle, is only in its early stages. It is a hint of what’s to come, if not the finalized product.
The new Amazon Wallet app is currently listed as being in “beta,” and is also one of the apps that ships pre-installed on Amazon’s new Fire Phone devices. The wallet actually appeared on both app stores on July 17th, but has only recently been spotted by a number of Android fan blogs, including Android Police, Android Central, and TalkAndroid, to name a few.
Those who have added commentary alongside the news of the app’s existence say it’s a pale competitor to the current wallet alternatives on the market. Some also find it odd that Amazon would be trying to move into the offline world when so much of their business is centered on the web.
But as noted above, Amazon’s payments plans have for a long time included targeting its merchant customer base, including when they engage in offline, local commerce. These plans stretch back several years, in fact, though we haven’t yet seen Amazon take those final steps into the world of offline commerce. But with its new Fire Phone, which can scan and identify physical products and match them up with online inventory, the company is now taking steps to connect its web-based and mobile services to the products – and apparently, soon, the payments – in the real world.
When asked for more information about Wallet, Amazon declined to share any further information about the product roadmap, saying “in addition to being pre-installed on Fire Phone, we are offering a beta version of the Amazon Wallet app for Android phones in the Amazon Appstore and on Google Play. We look forward to getting customer feedback on the beta app.” |
Only injury or attitude can stop Dele Alli's sensational rise, says Graeme Souness
Dele Alli celebrates scoring Tottenham's opener against Watford with Jan Vertonghen and Eric Dier
Graeme Souness believes only injury or a lapse in attitude can halt Dele Alli's unrelenting progression to the top of world football.
The England international underlined his claim as one of the brightest young talents in the game with a starring role in Tottenham's 4-0 victory over Watford on Saturday.
After the Hornets had held Spurs in a frustrating opening half hour at White Hart Lane, the 20-year-old, three days before his 21st birthday, opened the scoring in emphatic style with a curling effort from range.
His 16th goal of the season laid the foundations for a resounding win as Spurs moved to within four points of league leaders Chelsea.
On a personal note, Alli's strike was the 40th Premier League goal he has played a hand in, more than Frank Lampard (15), Steven Gerrard (13) and David Beckham (12) had managed by the same point of their illustrious careers combined.
40 - Dele Alli (40) has had a hand in as many PL goals before turning 21 as Lampard (15), Gerrard (13) & Beckham (12) combined. Star. pic.twitter.com/fWzi2Crd2Y — OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 8, 2017
And, after another eye-catching performance, Souness was left in no doubt Alli was destined for the top.
"At 20-years-old, Dele Alli has the world at his feet," Souness told Sky Sports.
"He doesn't look out of place as a star of the Premier League - a league regarded as the hardest to play in with some of world's great players.
Dele Alli is destined for the pinnacle of world football, according to Souness
"How far can he go? Two things will determine how far he can go.
"If he's unlucky, injuries could play a part, or if he stops turning up every game wanting to learn.
.@Dele_Alli scores his 16th PL goal this season and his 7th goal in his last 8 PL apps at White Hart Lane #PL pic.twitter.com/u8yDEV3HeP — Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) April 8, 2017
"But he strikes me as someone whose feet are on the ground with the determination to get to the very top.
"This performance against Watford only makes me think even more that he has a real chance of achieving that."
2:59 Highlights: Tottenham 4-0 Watford Highlights: Tottenham 4-0 Watford
Fellow Sky Sports pundit Niall Quinn was similarly complimentary, labelling Alli's sensational strike as "different class".
"It was a wonderful take from Alli," he added. "He controlled, moved the ball to one side, set the ball outside the post before bringing it down under the bar. It was different class."
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Perhaps now we can finally relegate The Hunting Ground—a misleading documentary about the campus rape crisis—to the ash heap of history.
The film failed to secure the “Best Original Song” award at the 2016 Oscars, the sole category in which it was nominated. The loss came moments after Lady Gage performed the song—“Until It Happens to You”—which featured survivors of sexual assault taking the stage.
Lady Gaga was introduced by none other than Vice President Joe Biden, who stressed the need for bystanders to intervene in situations where it seems a sexual assault is about to occur: the message of the White House-sponsored “It’s On Us” campaign.
There’s nothing wrong with educating people—particularly young people—about the importance of consent. It’s also not wrong to ask people to intervene in dangerous situations.
But The Hunting Ground’s approach has been to scare people into believing that colleges are uniquely dangerous places for women—that serial sexual predators are roaming campuses and attacking them. The scientific support for this notion has gradually collapsed, and the specific details of the cases the film highlights are now in serious dispute. But no development could persuade the film’s activist producers that they had gotten the story very, very wrong. In fact, they have accused their critics of defending “white male power,” even though many of the students railroaded off campuses by these activists are black.
Given such willful ignorance of the truth, perhaps it’s simply time to start ignoring The Hunting Ground. The Academy deserves credit for doing the same. |
One of the first homes to get the Tesla Powerwall is running. It's part of a one-of-a-kind partnership between Green Mountain Power and Tesla on an energy-storage project. We first told you about it back in May.
Here's a reminder of how the technology works. Large Tesla batteries are stationed outside and smaller ones are inside the homes of some Vermonters. During peak times of the day, when lots of people are using electricity, power is pulled from the batteries and sent across the state.
GMP representatives say that means they won't need to turn on costly generators, which saves customers money. The battery inside someone's home also acts as an energy-efficient generator when the power goes out. It's already helped one Vermonter keep the lights on as our Alexandra Montgomery found out.
"The Powerwalls are over here," Andy McMahan said. "This is it right here. There's two of them here, there's the back one and the front one."
It's a modern piece of technology running inside a Vermont log home.
McMahan is one of 102 Vermonters who have a Tesla Powerwall already up and running. I'm told 1,200 others are on a waiting list.
"I feel like a guinea pig, to a little point," McMahan said. "But someone's got to do it, right?"
McMahan says just days after her Powerwalls were installed, a wind storm knocked out power for thousands of Vermonters, including her.
"This went on, went off, went on, went off and we're like, 'oh boy,'" she said.
McMahan says after a call to Tesla's customer service and a few flipped switches...
"Boom! All the lights came on and we were golden after that," she said.
Despite the hiccup the first time around, she says the next time she lost power, she didn't even know.
"The seamlessness is just, you know, you don't have to go out and start a generator. It just-- it's quiet, doesn't use fuel, it's what it is-- it's powered by the sun," McMahan said.
McMahan has solar panels to recharge her Powerwall after GMP pulls power during peak times. But GMP reps say she isn't left uncharged if a sunny day isn't in the forecast.
"We're always making sure we're always looking at things like the weather, make sure that in those cases we would be ensuring that the storage devices are fully charged and ready for the customer to use," GMP CEO Mary Powell explained.
It's something Powell says is common sense and will be even easier to accommodate once more Powerwalls are installed. But the walls currently running are already making a difference.
"Having those 100 signed up is like virtually disconnecting, like taking 500 homes completely off the grid. That's the equivalent," Powell said. "So you can only imagine when we get up to 2,000 and when we go further."
Back in McMahan's home, she signed up for two Powerwalls and pays $15 a month for each through the program. Normally, it costs $7,000 to $8,000 to order one from Tesla's website.
"If these continue as good as they are, if there wasn't a lease agreement, I would buy one," McMahan said. "I seriously would."
People who use the Powerwalls have an app on their phone that shows them when their Powerwall is being used and how charged it is. |
Steven McCloskey, co-founder of a new virtual reality startup, manipulates objects in an immersive environment.
Virtual reality (VR) headsets such as the Oculus Rift will line store shelves this holiday season, and UC San Diego alumni startup Nanome, Inc. plans to capitalize on that by creating VR apps for the consumer market, the classroom, and beyond.
Nanome co-founder Steven McCloskey was part of the first graduating class of NanoEngineering at UC San Diego when he received his bachelor’s degree in 2015. Frustrated by the lack of tools available to nanoengineers for complex 3D modeling and simulation at the nanoscale, he set out to try and rectify the problem. He and colleagues built the first molecular visualization, modeling and simulation tool for today’s VR platforms called nano-one. The application allows users to build molecules with carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen atoms.
“Our goal is to provide the tools necessary to help people build new proteins and molecules and eventually also simulate their interactions,” said McCloskey. “You can see how the world works at this fundamental level, and re-make it.”
Why VR? Everything is made out of atoms—cosmetics, computer hardware, everything. Take a chair, for example. A chair can’t just look like a chair, it has to act like one. If you’re going to be manipulating things in 3D, you also need to be able to change the material properties of an object, which is dictated by structures at the nanoscale level.
McCloskey said he believes nanoscale virtual reality represents the future of engineering.
“UC San Diego is where this has to happen—we have a NanoEngineering department, VR experts, Protein Databank, interdisciplinary researchers, and we’re located in Biotech Beach,” he said.
Nano-one is now being tested in the UC San Diego Chemistry Department and in the consumer market for workflow integration, modeling precision, and optimal pattern-recognition and discovery.
As nano-one was being developed, McCloskey and his colleagues had an idea for another VR tool that would help engineers with math.
“When I was in Vector Calculus as a NanoEngineering major, I wanted better 3D graphics to go along with the instruction,” said McCloskey.
Nanome co-founders Steven McCloskey and Keita Funakawa
The team piloted a VR 3D-graphing calculator in Math20E over the summer. The calculator, called Calcflow, features intuitive ways for students to learn the foundations of vector calculus.
“When you put on the headset, you can manipulate vectors with your hands, and explore vector addition and cross product,” said Nanome co-founder Keita Funakawa, who received a bachelor’s degree from UC San Diego in Management Science in 2016. “You can see and feel a double integral of a sinusoidal graph in 3D, a mobius strip and its normal, and spherical coordinates—even create your own parametrized function and vector field!”
If all of this sounds like another language to you, the calculator also features presets and sample problems, and allows users to take notes within the program.
Nano-one and Calcflow launched in the STEAM store (VR equivalent of an app story) Nov. 10, and are finalists for CONNECT’s Most Innovative New Product Awards in December.
The Making of a Company
At first, McCloskey thought about creating a video game to help nanoengineers visualize their research, but then he came across the Oculus Rift.
“A lightbulb went off in my head,” he said. “I knew that the immersive environment VR creates was the future of nanoengineering.”
At the same time as McCloskey was toying around with the idea of VR as a tool for nanoengineering, Funakawa was innovating in another field.
The company plans on staying device agnostic with software supporting the HTC Vive, Oculus touch, and mobile platforms.
“Film is my passion,” said Funakawa. “Like Steven, I knew that my work was limited by the tools that are available in my field.”
Funakawa and McCloskey found this common ground in April of 2015 at a film festival put on by UC San Diego’s ArtPower, where McCloskey was demonstrating an early stage prototype of a virtual lab that he built with a few of his classmates.
“Once I saw Steven’s VR demo, I was hooked,” said Funakawa.
Nanome incorporated in August of 2016 and has grown to a team of three developers and nine interns. The founding team consists of Steven McCloskey, Keita Funakawa, Edgardo Leija and Kai Wang. Now, they are looking to customize their tools for industry.
Nanome’s Use of UC San Diego’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
Nanome co-founders Keita Funakawa and Steven McCloskey would take advantage of many of the resources available to entrepreneurs at UC San Diego, such as programs at the Jacobs School of Engineering von Liebig Entrepreneurism Center, which is now part of the Institute for the Global Entrepreneur, and The Basement. They also joined the Calit2 Innovation Space and Pepperhouse Incubator, and won the Entrepreneur Challenge, as well as Triton Entrepreneur Night earlier this year.
During this time, McCloskey was taking classes through UC San Diego Extension, where he met Visual Arts Professor Benjamin Bratton. Bratton was impressed with the project, and offered the team space in his Design and Geopolitics Lab, where they continue to develop their products today. |
One of the most iconic symbols of American freedom and independence is the Liberty Bell. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the bell is currently housed in the Liberty Bell Center in Independence National Historical Park and remains a symbol of the nation in the modern era. Today, the 1 oz Liberty Bell Stackable Silver Round is available to purchase from JM Bullion.
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Liberty Bell image on the obverse.
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The Liberty Bell, a symbol of America, was actually commissioned by the British in 1752. In a biblical references to the Book of Leviticus, the bell was commissioned to feature lettering that read Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. When the bell first arrived in Philadelphia and was run for the very first time, it suffered a crack.
Twice, the Liberty Bell was recast in Philadelphia by local workmen John Pass and John Stow, whose last names still appear on the bell today. The Liberty Bell was originally used to summon lawmakers to legislative sessions in the city and alert citizens to meetings and proclamations.
Each 1 oz Liberty Bell Silver Round available here today is a stackable product from SilverTowne. The rounds have alternating raised and lowered ridges along the outer rim which makes it possible to stack your Liberty Bell Stackable Silver Rounds with ease, ensuring a safe and secure stack.
On the obverse of the 1 oz Liberty Bell Stackable Silver Round is the image of the Liberty Bell itself, which is rumored to have been rung when the Second Continental Congress announced a vote for American independence on July 4, 1776. In reality, the bell was likely rung to celebrate the call for independence on July 8, 1776 along with many other bells throughout the colonies to announce the American movement for independence.
All 1 oz Liberty Bell Stackable Silver Rounds are a product of SilverTowne. A private minting facility located in Indiana, it is one of the largest and most well respected private facilities in the United States. The mint originally started business in 1949 as a coin dealer with a small location.
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The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in Florida has identified the 2 women shot and killed Saturday night in a Jackson County mobile home. Investigators say 61-year-old Mary Reed and 33-year-old Kassi Henderson were friends living together when they were fatally shot by
75-year-old William Hawk.
Hawk was shot by a deputy early Sunday morning when the sheriff's office says he returned to the crime scene where he apparently killed the two women.
Hawk of Fountain, Florida is charged with 2 counts of murder and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer after deputies found Reed and Henderson dead in a home in the Rocky Creek community. He was shot by a deputy, taken to the hospital, and then booked into jail Sunday morning.
The Jackson County Sheriff's Office says about 8:45 p.m. Saturday night someone called from the home on Crystal Lane saying there was someone in the house with a gun. A deputy responded and found 2 women with fatal gunshot wounds.
A BOLO (be on the lookout) bulletin was sent out nationwide for Hawk. Contact was also made with the Bay County Sheriff's Office since Hawk lives in Fountain.
The sheriff's office says about 2:00 a.m. Hawk pulled up to the crime scene in his truck, told deputies he was the man they were looking for, and admitted to the shooting. Deputies say they asked Hawk to show his hands, and he had a gun. The sheriff's office says Hawk did not comply with orders to drop the gun, and he was shot by a deputy. Hawk was wounded, treated at the hospital, and then released to the Jackson County Sheriff's Office.
The deputy who shot Hawk has been placed on administrative leave which is standard procedure.
A Jackson County Sheriff's Office press release said Sheriff Louis Roberts III would like to thank all the Florida law enforcement agencies involved as well as the Houston County Sheriff's Office in Alabama. |
Superior Court: Insurance company off the hook for 'ball tap' injury
The "ball tap" Hearn delivered as his friend Clayton Russell played a video game in his basement rendered Russell infertile, possibly for the rest of his life.
When Brandon Hearn sneaked up behind his teenage friend and delivered a playful tap to the testicles, he likely had no idea it would touch off an eight-year court fight.
But because Hearn's forearm blow to Russell's groin was intentional, Hearn's parents' insurance company is off the hook for Russell's injuries, a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled this week.
The teens were playing "Dance, Dance Revolution" in Russell's parents' basement when Hearn decided to give Russell a physical rebuke for playing what he considered a "little kid's game," according to the Superior Court opinion.
"In our little group, if you were doing something, like, kind of stupid, that's what you — you would get a ball tap," Hearn testified.
According to Hearn, then 18, he crept up behind Russell and made a motion as if he was going to strike him in the testicles, but had second thoughts. A third friend, identified only as Greg, egged him on, nodding yes. At that point Hearn struck Russell in the groin with his forearm, the opinion says.
Clayton was immediately in pain, which intensified during the night. His mother took him to hospital the next day, where he was diagnosed with testicular torsion and underwent emergency surgery. Tests revealed Russell may be permanently infertile as a result of the injury, according to the opinion.
Hearn visited Russell in the hospital because he felt bad about the injury, he testified.
"I never meant to hurt him like that. I meant for him to be in pain for about five seconds," Hearn said, according to the opinion.
Russell's mother Stacey Marshall sued Hearn in Montgomery County Court, and the American National Property and Casualty Companies asked the court to rule that Hearn's actions were not covered by the policy because it excluded coverage for injuries caused by intentional acts.
In a decision upholding a ruling in favor of the insurance company, the Superior Court found Hearn's actions were clearly intentional.
And although Hearn testified he intended only to cause momentary discomfort to Russell, the policy excludes coverage for bodily injury caused by intentional acts, "even if the actual injury or damage is different than expected or intended."
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After stinging criticism from media watchdogs, cable news network CNN says in the future it will mention the fact that one of its contributors, Alex Castellanos, works for a firm that buys ad time for AHIP, the organization currently running a massive ad campaign against health care reform.
But the network “did not explain why it had not done so in the past,” notes the New York Times. The network had generally described Castellanos as a Republican strategist. AHIP’s ads are running on CNN.
The controversy erupted on Wednesday when media watchdog MediaMatters reported it had obtained evidence that the company Castellanos works for, National Media, is the ad buyer for AHIP, short for America’s Health Insurance Plans, an umbrella group of insurers who are working to prevent health care reform from passing Congress.
MediaMatters wrote:
According to the detailed ad buy information obtained by Media Matters, Castellanos is responsible for placing, beginning October 11, more than $1 million of AHIP advertising in five states. Castellanos last appeared on CNN September 30; during a debate with Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) on The Situation Room, Castellanos defended Republican health care proposals. If Castellanos returns to CNN’s airwaves to discuss health care, it shouldn’t be as a Republican strategist and CNN contributor, but as what he is – an industry spokesman.
On Thursday, blogger Greg Sargent at The Plum Line pointed out that Castellanos “is best known for producing the racially-charged ‘Hands’ ad” for the 1990 North Carolina Senate campaign, when incumbent Jesse Helms was trailing his Democratic challenger.
The ad featured a pair of hands crumpling up a letter as the narrator stated, “You needed that job, but they had to give it to a minority.”
Helms won the election, and some observers say the ad helped push Helms over the top.
CNN is now defending itself against claims the network has blurred the line between news and advertising — long considered a cardinal sin among journalists.
“Alex Castellanos has not been on CNN since AHIP began its recent advertising campaign, this week, which is when CNN learned of Alex’s relationship with AHIP,” the Times quoted CNN as stating. “When Alex Castellanos returns from his vacation and next appears on CNN, we will clearly disclose to our viewers relevant information including his firm’s relationship with AHIP.”
As CNN itself reported, the health care industry has spent $263 million this year on ad campaigns relating to health care reform. According to blogger Jim White’s calculations at FireDogLake, that amount of money would be enough to purchase individual health care plans for 55,000 uninsured individuals.
AHIP was also the organization behind this week’s health care study that asserted premiums would rise 40 percent over four years if the health care plan being debated in the Senate were to pass. As a talking point against health care reform, that study is widely seen as having backfired. Democrats on the Hill say it only proves the need for a public health care option.
“It’s unclear how much dust this will kick up,” Sargent wrote of the Castellanos controversy Thursday. “As black eyes go, it’s nowhere near as bad as AHIP’s ‘study’ on the reform proposals — but it does provide Dems with a convenient attack line linking the industry and the Republican Party.” |
Image caption The body was found in a chimney at Moody and Woolley Solicitors
A suspected burglar whose body was found in the chimney of a law firm has been named by police as Kevin Gough.
The 42-year-old is thought to have been in the chimney at Moody and Woolley Solicitors, in Derby, for several weeks.
His body was discovered at about noon on Wednesday after staff raised concerns about flies and a smell at the office in St Mary's Gate.
An inquest is due to open at Derby Coroners Court later.
'Very sad'
Martina Longworth, a partner at the firm, said: "It must have been quite a terrible way to die for the poor man and it must be very distressing for his family.
"We would be most concerned for them. It's very sad."
Damage to the building was first noticed six weeks ago when builders believed there had been an attempted break-in.
The builders called in by the firm found a hole in the roof.
Staff claimed the buildings on the street have been targeted by lead thieves in the past.
Police said Mr Gough had no fixed address and they are not treating his death as suspicious. |
Years from the next presidential election and more than 14 months removed from the 2018 midterms, liberals and leftists are locked in battle over which Democratic candidates—if any—deserve their support.
Everyone involved in this debate is opposed to Donald Trump and the Republican Party; everyone favors far more progressive policies than this administration's. One question is whether leftist critiques of black politicians like Kamala Harris and Cory Booker are a cover for prejudice—or at least disregard for people of color.
That argument turned especially bitter last week, with major Democratic figures accusing the left of singling out Harris in particular because of her race and leftists arguing that their concerns were about policy. Writ large, this can be seen as a struggle between the Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton wings of the Democratic Party: the former emphasizing economic redistribution, the latter speaking more specifically to injustices faced by black people, women, immigrants, and others marginalized under Trump, without emphasizing the basic distribution of wealth.
The centrist critiques of the left as white- and male-dominated stretch back years; today, leftist arguments against prominent Democrats of color are often painted as thinly veiled bigotry. The central charge is that socialism reflects the worldviews of white men at the expense of women, people of color, immigrants, and queer communities: hence pejoratives like "Bernie Bro" and "alt-left."
But the American left's organizing, scholarship, and activism on the ground has historically been led by women and people of color. For more than a century, the "radical left" banner has signified socialism—but it's also meant radical women's movements, queer political action, and black liberation.
To explore the intersections of race, gender, and the left, I asked four leftists of color—organizers, activists, and elected officials—about their work and what it had taught them. Here's what they told me:
Mariame Kaba
Mariame Kaba is a New York City–based organizer and educator. Her work focuses on ending violence, dismantling the prison industrial complex, transformative justice, and supporting youth leadership development.
This is a white supremacist, racist, patriarchal, transphobic country. In that context, everything that exists in the world is seen in its center as a white, male, cisgender, straight narrative. Everything gets processed through that idea.
It's not surprising to me that when people talk about the left, they're talking about white men who are straight. And I don't see myself as someone who feels like they need to argue that in any sort of way. My energy is better spent doing organizing that I think matters.
But I think it matters that we are radically inclusive in how we think about the left in this country. We have to include race and gender and sexuality and class as markers that facilitate or impede your participation in anything. If you are a poor, black, a lesbian or trans mother, it would be very, very hard for you to spend a whole lot of your time doing organizing. And that is why a lot of people who can afford to spend a lot of their time organizing are people who have more advantages. That's a big thing that we have to get real about. And if we want people to organize and have the ability to organize, we have to shift a lot of things in order to be able to meet people's needs in a way that allows them to do so.
White folks have been organizing forever in this country. White men have been organizing. I don't see this as a new wave in the least. It may be something that some people are talking about in a different way, or more. It's going to take time to see how that plays out and whether there's anything to it. I'm not sure what I think about the way that that's framed—these folks who are very loud on social media, what are they organizing for?
Brandy Brooks
Brandy H.M. Brooks is a candidate for Montgomery County Council in the 2018 elections and the leadership development organizer for Progressive Maryland.
Our whole society is still oriented toward being white, male-centric. In progressive circles, we have to make sure that we are acutely aware of that tendency of the society that we live in, and that we are constantly countering it.
I think the way we treat these things is that when a white man says them, they suddenly become important. All of a sudden, economic justice becomes a white, progressive narrative, as opposed to, "Hey, we're finally catching on to something that's been going on for decades in these communities!"
In expanding who's talking about economic or environmental justice, one of the dangers is that we forget who's been talking about this. I remember going to an event and hearing someone say, "Gosh, it was so surprising to hear communities of color are on the forefront of climate change work."
Of course these communities are on the forefront of this! They are the most affected communities, having to fight back against this every day! This isn't some intellectual idea. This is about survival!
We operate out of this place where we assume it's a zero-sum game—where if a policy helps, say, Latina women, no one else is going to get anything out of that. That's part of the framework of capitalism. We end up fighting over table scraps as opposed to taking the meal.
I'll speak as an African American woman. The way that people assume my vote has incensed me for a long time. My entire voting life has been the lesser of two evils. That is not an OK argument for me anymore—mostly because it's not getting things for our communities. African Americans go out and vote in droves for Democrats who incarcerate us. There has got to be something beyond that.
If we realized how much power we have, we would flip this table! The power that currently controls both parties is not going to turn over that power to progressives, it's not going to turn over that power to immigrants, it's not going to turn over that power to women of all colors and kinds, without a demand. It's not going to yield itself up without us organizing and requiring that it listens to us.
Jovanka Beckles
Photo by Fletcher Oakes Photography
Jovanka Beckles is vice mayor of Richmond, California, and sits on the Richmond City Council.
We, now, can't afford to be moderate, I'm afraid. The opposite approach to the radical right has to be a radical left. We can't sit in the middle. The right is not sitting in the middle. We have to be further to the left than we are, because we have to create radical policies
We can no longer compromise on the ways that the criminal justice system unfairly targets people of color. We can no longer compromise around our healthcare. These are things that we have to take radical positions on if we're going to turn around our society around to make it more equitable.
We're not talking about things that are impossible to achieve. It's absolutely possible to achieve, through people power, for example, healthy, fully functioning, fully funded schools. If that's considered radical, then that's what that is.
When you think about economic and environmental justice, it isn't a white issue. Look at Richmond, where we have a big oil industry polluting our air, creating a high asthma rate. You don't see these industries established in affluent communities. They're established in communities of color.
So this is absolutely an issue that affects communities of color far more. When we are fighting for economic and environmental justice, we are fighting for people everywhere. When we pass rent control, that has everything to do with economic justice. By creating policies that level that playing field, we're beginning to see thriving, healthier communities.
We see that movement being led by women, and in particular women of color. Look at the leadership of the Black Lives Matter movement: women of color. Look at the socialist movement: It's young people and people of color.
I'm a black woman, I'm Latin American, I'm queer, I'm a mother and grandmother. I'm proud to be one of those women of color who is part of this movement for justice.
Zenaida Huerta
Zenaida Huerta, 19, is a healthcare activist, California Democratic Party delegate, and student at Claremont McKenna College. She was one of the youngest Democratic National Convention delegates in the nation in 2016.
I came from an organizing family: My father was also a DNC delegate, and my grandfather organized for the United Farm Workers. People who are driving social movements are, historically, the radicals. You don't have anyone who says, "Oh, I'm a radical centrist" striving for liberation. It's false to say everybody who supported Bernie Sanders is, say, an intersectional feminist, but people seem more willing to be educated on these issues of racism and sexism in the progressive wing of the movement than in the center.
The California Democratic Party is very polarized over the chair race between Eric Bauman and Kimberly Ellis, a black progressive woman. Her campaign showed me a lot of the anti-blackness in the party: White women called her damaged goods—someone who was trying to make money, an evil, divisive, and hateful person.
That revealed, for me, how leftist women of color's outrage is often delegitimized by the Establishment, and how pro-status-quo outrage is often justified. I found that representative of the whole dynamic of the party. I've experienced that myself.
Identity politics is important. It's important to get black and brown representation in the community. But they're weaponizing that for political gain. When [the Democratic Party] appoints millennials to parity committees, and to different leadership positions, they appoint millennials who are often white members of the Establishment, and who aren't going to challenge the status quo—as opposed to black and brown youth who are not complacent, and who are actively challenging the status quo. Because someone who's actively challenging the status quo is going to be causing trouble for that establishment.
Of people in the Democratic Establishment, I think Kamala Harris has one of the least questionable records. But I think to say that questioning her stances on issues that actively perpetuated criminalization of black and brown communities—to say that's racist and sexist is doublespeak. We should question everyone. Challenge Bernie Sanders's record. Challenge every Democrat's record. The Democratic Party's in internal battle right now, and they're doing anything they can to silence dissent.
These interviews have been edited for length and clarity. |
In college football, more than probably any other sport, a coaching legend's legacy never goes away. Even if that legend has been gone for a generation or two, a current coach will still live in that shadow.
Darrell Royal is the dominant figure in Texas football, and may always be. Mack Brown didn't just accept that fact when he became the Longhorns' coach, he embraced it. In fact, "embracing" might be understating Brown's affection for Royal.
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When Royal passed away, Brown released a statement saying Royal and Royal's wife Edith were among the best friends of he and his wife. He said Royal filled a void in his life after his father died. He called Royal his hero.
Brown announced on Twitter that Texas will wear a "DKR" helmet decal, and the Longhorns will line up on their first play Saturday in the wishbone formation to honor Royal, who is credited with bringing the wishbone to college football in 1968. It's a perfect and touching tribute from Brown to his late mentor.
That will be a wonderful moment at the start of Saturday's game.
It's a callback to when the NFL's Redskins lined up with 10 men on the field for their first play against Buffalo to honor safety Sean Taylor, who was killed a few days before the game. Whether Texas scores a touchdown on that first play or loses yards, it won't matter. It will be a great moment. Credit Brown for realizing that.
[Related: Mack Brown says the 'horns down' gesture is disrespectful]
The tribute Saturday will also be a beautiful way to connect Texas' past and its present, something that Brown obviously values. Here is Brown's full statement about Royal's passing, which is a window into the relationship between the two Texas coaches:
Story continues
"Today is a very sad day. I lost a wonderful friend, a mentor, a confidant and my hero. College football lost maybe its best ever and the world lost a great man. I can hardly put in words how much Coach Royal means to me and all that he has done for me and my family. I wouldn't even be at Texas without Coach. His counsel and friendship meant a lot to me before I came to Texas, but it's been my guiding light for my 15 years here. "Coach gave so much more to the State of Texas and college football than he took away. He forgot more football than most of us will ever know, including me. His impact on the game, the coaches and players, the community and the millions of lives he touched, is insurmountable. He will be missed in so many ways. "I lost my Dad when I was 54, and Coach filled a real void in my life and treated me like family. Sally and I gained a lot coming to Texas and being a part of this tremendous program but no more than our relationship with Coach and Edith. They were our closest of friends. Our heart pours out to Edith and the family and our thoughts and prayers are with her and the family. We will always be there to lend any and all support that we can as she and Coach always did for us."
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Dean & Britta is a musical duo consisting of Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, both former members of Luna. Wareham had formed Luna in 1991 after leaving his first band, Galaxie 500. Phillips joined Luna in 2000, replacing bassist Justin Harwood.
History [ edit ]
Their first album started out as a Wareham solo project, but when he heard Phillips' demos, he asked her to join him. "L'Avventura" was produced by Tony Visconti and was released on Jetset Records in 2003 under the name "Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham." After hearing the album, Peter Kember (a.k.a. Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3, Spectrum, & E.A.R.) fell in love with it and did a remix mini LP entitled "Sonic Souvenirs" (also on Jetset Records).
After Luna broke up in 2005, Dean & Britta spent the next year working on film scores (most notably Noah Baumbach's movie, The Squid and the Whale), and promoting the documentary film of Luna's farewell tour Tell Me Do You Miss Me. They were married during the recording of their album Back Numbers (also produced by Tony Visconti), and simplified their name to "Dean & Britta". Back Numbers was released on Rounder Records in February 2007 followed by a limited edition EP, "Words You Used To Say". In 2006 Dean and Britta did a Take-Away Show video session shot by Vincent Moon.[1]
In 2008, Dean & Britta covered The Cure's "Friday I'm In Love" for American Laundromat Records tribute compilation "Just Like Heaven - a tribute to The Cure".
Discography [ edit ]
Albums [ edit ]
EPs [ edit ]
Sonic Souvenirs (2004)
(2004) Words You Used to Say (2006)
(2006) Variations (2008)
Soundtracks [ edit ] |
SINGAPORE - Love cheats on the Internet fooled their victims into parting with $24 million last year, although the overall crime rate went down by 2.6 per cent.
In 2016, crimes in seven categories, such as violent or serious property crimes, housebreaking and related crimes, and theft and related crimes, registered a 30-year low, said the police at an annual crime briefing on Friday (Feb 10) morning.
The number of violent or serious property crimes fell from 299 in 2015 to 248 in 2016, a decrease of 17.1 per cent, while housebreaking and related crimes saw 285 cases, a 16.2 per cent decrease from 340 in 2015.
There was a 9.5 per cent fall in theft and related crimes, to 14,127 in 2016 compared to 15,615 the previous year.
Overall crime in 2016 decreased by 2.6%; lowest crime rate in Singapore in the last three years. pic.twitter.com/16S8208VzV — SingaporePoliceForce (@SingaporePolice) February 10, 2017
While commercial crimes decreased by 0.6 per cent thanks to anti-scam efforts, public education, as well as international cooperation with foreign law enforcement agencies, police said there are still three areas of concern - e-commerce cheating, Internet love scams and China officials impersonation scams.
There were 636 Internet love scams cases last year, up from 385 in 2015. The total amount cheated in 2016 stood at $24 million.
Commercial crime rates fall but online cheating is still a concern. The public is advised to be vigilant and avoid falling victims to scams. pic.twitter.com/IZoiecH2vT — SingaporePoliceForce (@SingaporePolice) February 10, 2017
In most cases, offenders befriended victims on social media or online chat apps and charmed their way into their lives, then cheat them of their money.
Cheating involving e-commerce saw a drop of 134 cases with 2,105 cases last year where victims lost $1.5 million. There were 2,239 such cases in 2015.
The China officials impersonation scams, where victims were duped into remitting money by offenders who claimed to be Chinese authorities, were first uncovered in April last year. In eight months, there were 487 such cases that saw victims hand over $23 million.
Credit-for-sex scams, which were among the crimes that caused a spike in 2015's crime figures, also fell 33.8 per cent last year.
Police added that 2016 saw 135 days free from crimes such as snatch theft, housebreaking and robbery. This is 31 days more than the previous year's figure. |
Erin Corwin, who turned 20 on July 15, 2014, has been missing from her home at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms Marine since June 28.
Erin Corwin, who has been missing from the Twentynine Palms area since June 28. (Provided) (Photo11: Provided photo) Story Highlights Corwin has been missing since June 28
The search encompasses more than 200 square miles
Corwin recently learned she was pregnant
Police: Disappearance 'not voluntary'
Published July 15, 2014.
Erin Corwin is 20 years old today.
Corwin has been missing from her home at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms since June 28. So far, a massive search covering at least 200 square miles of treacherous high desert terrain has turned up no clues about where she went and why she hasn't been in touch.
Corwin's husband, Lance Cpl. Jonathan Corwin, reported her missing on June 29, 24 hours after he says he last saw her leave the couple's house, get in her car and drive in the direction of Joshua Tree National Park. She was heading to the desert preserve, said her husband, to scout locations for picture-taking during an upcoming visit from her mom. According to police, Corwin's disappearance is "not voluntary."
On Facebook, the Locate Erin page has amassed more than 17,000 followers since her disappearance with concern and support for her family coming from as far away as Thailand and Australia.
A message posted this morning to mark Erin's birthday has already drawn close to 100 comments and more continue to pour in.
"I don't know her personally but have been praying for her, her husband and her family everyday," writes one commenter. "Let today be the day that she is found safe and sound and returned to her loved ones. Prayers from GA."
"HBD, Beautiful ♡," writes another. "Praying you are found unharmed and returned to your family."
On Monday evening, Marines and their families gathered at Twentynine Palms to share their grief -- and fears -- about the missing friend and neighbor.
Anyone with information about Erin Corwin is urged to contact the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Specialized Investigation Division at (909) 387-3589 or sheriff's dispatch at (909)387-8313. Anonymous tips can be called in to the WeTip Hotline at (800) 78-CRIME (27463) or at www.wetip.com
Corwin is described as white, 5-foot-2, weighing 120 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes.
CLOSE Two days after 19-year-old Erin Corwin went missing, the Twentynine Palms woman's car was found near the back entrance of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center. (July 13, 2014)
Read or Share this story: http://desert.sn/1mehJLC |
Take-Two CEO Explains How Disappointing Games like Battleborn and Evolve Don’t Represent 2K’s Quality
Giuseppe Nelva November 17, 2016 12:56:50 PM EST
Like all publishers, 2K Games releases some great games, and some that aren’t as successful, like the recent Battleborn and Evolve. During the MKM Partners Entertainment, Leisure and Internet Conference, Take-Two Interactive Software Chief Executive Officer Strauss Zelnick explained how they aren’t representative of the overall quality of the label.
“Listen, I think 2K is doing great. I think when you put out a lot of titles, not everything is gonna work as well as one would like, and Battleborn is an example of that.
Evolve is a little bit different. Tat was bought out of a THQ bankrupcy, and it was developed by an external studio with oversight from 2K, so it’s a totally different situation. We knew it was a very unusual title, and it was a bet on an unusual title. It didn’t surprise us that consumers had mixed feelings about it. Battleborn was a disappointment. We’ve said so publicly, but I don’t think that’s systemic, because 2K is a company that brings you Civilization, with incredibly high score in the nineties, the company that brings you basketball which scores in the nineties, XCOM 2 and the like where we’re known for having very high scores.”
Zelnick continued by mentioning that not every game is going to be perfect, and while the company has the brand and marketing power to still do well even if something goes wrong, the goal is always to drive quality:
“We’re an entertainment business, not everything is gonna go right all the time. We aspire to have the highest quality products, and we continue to push the envelope internally to do that, but we do not always get it right. Luckily, we have a very powerful marketing system, so even if we don’t get it perfectly right, we can market through that. Luckily we have really powerful franchises, even if we don’t get it right we can power thorough that. For instance we had one year when the WWE scores were less than we wanted, and we still sold a lot of WWE.” So, we are in a position where even if we don’t get it exactly right, we can still do well, but make no mistake, our goal is to continue to get it right and to drive quality through the organization. Some times we don’t succeed as well as we would like.”
Earlier during the conference, Zelnick clarified his previous statement, in which he pointed at anomalies within the current reviews system, while mentioning that Metacritic is less important than it used to it, but it’s still very relevant. |
Pokémon Go, Nintendo's first mobile-based Pokémon title, is officially out worldwide, and that means thousands of budding trainers will be hitting the streets looking for wild Pokémon.
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It also means thousands of people will be walking around cities and towns looking intently at their phones disregarding all manner of hazards in the quest to be the best like no one ever was. But how to play Pokémon Go safely is another post.
Here's how to catch your first Pokémon, then catch more rare Pokémon and finally power them up so you can capture gyms for your team.
The Most Important Thing You Need To Do Is Walk
" The point of Pokémon Go is to travel around, exploring different geographic areas to find appropriate Pokémon. In a small town, expect to find a lot of normal- and grass-types. Going near water will attract water Pokémon. Playing at night brings out more nocturnal creatures, like Clefairy and Gastly."
[Polygon]
As we've explored New York City, we've found plenty of Pokémon that you'd expect to live in urban areas like Pidgeys, Nidorans, Meowths, and Eevees. But to catch a wider variety of Pokémon, you're going to have to travel.
If you look on your map in the game though, you'll also notice patches of rustling grass (similar to the original Pokémon games). As you probably guessed, these patches contain wild Pokémon, and walking towards them increase your chances of encountering them. We've noticed that these patches are more commonly found in parks and wooded areas, so if there are any of those near you, try heading there first. You can also try looking for Pokémon near sources of water.
The Pokémon Intro Recreated In GTA V Is Both Beautiful And Horrible
No Pokémon popping up? If you tap the lower right hand bar on the main screen (which usually has a Pokémon greyed out) you'll open a "nearby" menu that will show you which Pokémon are in your area.
See the footprints beneath each Pokémon? They indicate how close each is to you at your current location. The more footprints there are, the further away the Pokémon. No footprints? It's right next to you! Three footprints? You might have to walk around a bit (three footprints could mean a Pokémon is as far as 150 meters away!). As you walk towards or away from Pokémon on the map, the footprints will change to reflect your distance, so you'll know if you're walking in the right direction.
Once you're within range of a wild Pokémon, it should pop up on your map, and by simply tapping on it, you'll be able to enter a "battle" with it. (Your phone should also vibrate or provide a notification sound when a Pokémon is in range).
One problem, however, is that the game doesn't seem to be able to send you push notifications while the app is inactive, so you'll have to walk around with your phone out and be paying close attention should you want to play.
Related: A Minecraft Genius Built A Working Game Boy Advance That Plays 'Pokémon'
It's All About Taps And Timing
So you've finally entered a battle with a wild Pokémon! Dope, let's catch that little fucker so we can force it to fight for us.
The basic action necessary to capture the little guy (or gal) is to swipe up with your finger to "throw" the Pokéball at it. It does require a bit of skill with Pokémon like Zubat who flutter around and jump, so you'll want to aim carefully.
But before you start slinging Pokéballs out left and right, pay attention to the white ring around the Pokémon. Tap and hold on a Pokéball and that ring will start to contract and turn green. Waiting until that ring shrinks to its smallest size will maximize your chance of a successful catch.
Here, Kotaku explains in-depth:
If you want the highest chance of catching a Pokemon, you need to wait until the ring inside the circle is at it’s smallest. That’s the advice straight from the developers. W hen you start seeing orange and red rings, you’ll maximize your chances of success as much as you can — especially once you start trying to capture Pokemon with Great and Master Balls. Once you get to a higher level you can also start to pick up berries at Pokestops. Berries can be fed to wild Pokemon to increase your chances of capturing them.
[Kotaku]
And there are more tips to be had too from iDigitalTimes:
The Pokémon’s CP level, the type of Poké Ball you used, your throwing technique, and other factors come into play when determining whether the Pokémon can be successfully caught. Other Pokémon will simply run away so be sure to be quick. Your throwing technique is probably the one thing you’ll want to master. Your angle and force behind your throwing (which is a simple flick on the touchscreen) is a big factor. And, of course, you’ll want to hit the Pokémon with the Poke Ball.
[iDigitalTimes]
Finally, some digging through the Pokémon Go website reveals that if you "Drag and rapidly spin the Poké Ball in a circular motion before you release it" you could receive a "curveball bonus." Anecdotally, a successfully thrown curveball seems to improve your chances of catching a wild Pokémon, and it does grant a small XP bonus.
Use Your Items My Dude
As you travel around the game, you'll pick up lots of different items (usually from Pokéstops, which are tied to real life landmarks like statues, subway stations or public art installations). An important note about Pokéstops from Recombu:
Not all Pokéstops are created equal. Whilst this isn’t an absolute guarantee, a rule of thumb is that the bigger and more well known the landmark is, the greater the loot you’ll receive when you visit it. Most run-of-the-mill Pokéstops will dole out two or three Pokéballs and, on occasion, the odd potion, but head to a more significant P.O.I and you’ll likely land more than three items or at least more useful/powerful items in a single visit.
[Recombu]
Items from Pokéstops will help you attract and catch Pokémon in a variety of ways. Let's just list a few of them for simplicity's sake.
Incense: Incense attracts wild Pokémon to your location with its aromatic scent.
Lure Module: You can attract wild Pokémon to a PokéStop for a limited time with a Lure Module.
Razz Berry: During an encounter, you can feed this item to a wild Pokémon to make it easier to catch.
Lucky Egg: These eggs don't hatch, but rather grant double XP when in effect. More XP means you'll level up more quickly, and be able to catch stronger Pokémon.
Having trouble placing a Lure Module? It's okay. It's a little confusing, and the game doesn't really offer any help to explain how. Tap on a nearby Pokéstop and look for the little white cylinder about the spinning disc. Tap there to bring up your Lure Modules, and then tap the Module itself to insert it.
And remember, the coolest thing about Lure Modules is that other trainers can take advantage of them too! Someone dropped a Lure Module near the Digg office in Chinatown, and as we headed towards it, we ran into about 20-30 trainers in the area, all playing Pokémon Go (just look for people with their noses in their phones).
Hatch, Evolve And Power Up Your Pocket Monsters
Outside of catching them in the wild, another way to get new Pokémon is by hatching eggs, which can be found at Pokéstops. Place your eggs in an incubator, and then walk, walk, walk, walk. This function is tied to your pedometer, and when you hit a certain number of steps, your egg will hatch!
You start off with one incubator with infinite uses, but you can hatch more than one egg at one time by purchasing more. To place an egg in an incubator, tap the Pokéball menu at the bottom of the screen, then select the "Pokémon" menu (with the Pikachu icon). From there, you'll have to select the "eggs" tab at the top of your screen, and select an egg and an incubator.
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Once you've caught a bunch of Pokémon, you're going to want to make them stronger. First, so you can battle them and knock the shit out of people who control gyms near youSecond, so you can eventually evolve your Pokémon, thus filling out your Pokédex, and eventually catching them all.
The main way you're going to power up your Pokémon is through Stardust and Candy. Stardust is acquired by catching Pokémon, hatching eggs and earning the Defender bonus (this relates your ability to defend gyms you hold from attacking Pokémon) and is used for all Pokémon.
Candy are specific to Pokémon OR their evolution chains (this is important). For instance: You want to power up your Squirtle? You're going to need Squirtle candies. The way to get more Squirtle candies is by catching more Squirtles, and transferring the extra Squirtles you catch back to Professor Willow. You can hold on to more than one of the same Pokémon, but just know that you're missing out on candies. BUT you can also power up your Wartortle or Blastoise using by Squirtle candies. So make sure to plan how to use your candies carefully.
Before transferring Pokémon, check their moveset, weight, size and HP. These will differ from Pokémon to Pokémon — so in some instances, you may want to hold onto a Pokémon with lower CP and better moves, and slowly power it up instead of transferring it simply because it has lower CP. You can always increase CP with Stardust and Candy, but you can't change moves.
To transfer Pokémon back to Willow, select the Pokéball menu from the bottom of the screen, then select the "Pokémon" menu (with the Pikachu icon). From there, pick the Pokémon you want to transfer and scroll all the way to the bottom of its information card (past the map that denotes where you caught it). Then hit transfer!
You'll need to spend Candies and Stardust together to power up your Pokémon. By powering them up, you can increase your Pokémon's "command points" (CP) which in turn increases their health and strength of their attacks.
Similar to powering up Pokémon, you can evolve them into their more powerful forms using species-specific candies. Evolving Pokémon is a surefire way to get more powerful and more rare creatures for collecting and battling.
Hopefully these tips will help you fill out your Pokédex faster than your friends and get yourself a strong team to battle gyms with. CNET has a good explainer on how gym battles work, consult that for more information. Good luck!
More good Pokémon stuff:
The Pokémon Intro Recreated In GTA V Is Both Beautiful And Horrible
Using Your Pets To Recreate Pokémon Games Is A Bad Idea
The Evolution Of Pokémon Games Over The Past 20 Years |
There will be no new investigation or prosecution in the explosion of a hand grenade in a Dutch army vehicle in Afghanistan in 2010, the Public Prosecutor announced. An analysis by the Koninklijke Marechaussee - a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military - did not reveal any new facts, the Telegraaf reports.
The case involves a hand grenade exploding in a Bushmaster vehicle at Camp Coyote in Uruzgan. At the time two Dutch soldiers were suspected of setting of the grenade. One of them was Admilson R., who was sentenced to 30 years in prison and institutionalized psychiatric care in November 2015 for three robberies-turned-murders in Drenthe. The appeal on this case is currently ongoing. The other was a soldier who narrowly survived the explosion.
The Marechaussee re-analyzed the case at the request of the Public Prosecutor after the second soldier, who narrowly survived the blast, pressed charges against R. According to the second soldier, R. was the one who set off the grenade in the vehicle. The Marechaussee investigation showed that one of the two soldiers must have caused the explosion, but as there was no one else there and both deny doing so, it is impossible to say who was responsible. It is clear that R. verbally warned his colleague shortly before the explosion.
The veteran's lawyer, Sebas Diekstra, called the decision not to launch a new criminal investigation disappointing, but added that he is satisfied with the "thoroughly done investigation" by the Marechaussee. |
Minnesota’s best hop bomb is hitting store shelves this week. The four packs are certainly not going to be cheap but Todd The Axe man will warrant its price with heavy doses of palate-wrecking Citra and Mosaic hops.
This beer was originally brewed in collaboration with Amager Bryghus in Denmark and was named by Amager to honor the six string skills that Surly brewer Todd Haug possesses. For those who don’t know, Haug is a cat loving metal guitarist most famous for his shredding ability with the band Powermad — who have seen a great deal of success within the metal community since their humble beginnings in the mid 1980s.
Join Surly at Pat’s Tap tonight in Minneapolis for the official release which will begin today at 3 p.m. The event features $7 Surly cans plus brand-new Axe Man swag. The beer itself won’t always be available so you’ll want to get your hands on some while you can.
Cheers! |
I bought a Christmas CD yesterday. It was the first CD I’ve purchased in legit 3 years. Of course it is filled with Christmas tunes from one of my favourite guilty pleasure TV shows, Nashville. With only a few weeks left until the holidays, I figured I should get into the spirit. Also, the most recent Christmas CD I had was Justin Bieber’s, so it was definitely time for an update.
As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I love when we receive recipe requests. Especially for Ukrainian dishes. A few months ago, we posted Ukrainian Cabbage Buns and they were a huge hit. Ever since that post, we have received a ton of emails and comments asking for a meat-filled version. Well friends, here it is. The ultimate recipe for Ukrainian beef-filled buns, or ‘Pyrizhky’. I would also like to note that because there are so many different crossovers in food and culture between Ukraine, Poland and Russia, that these may be called by a different name depending on where you are from/grew up. In Russia and other places, these are sometimes referred to as ‘Pirozhki‘ or ‘Piroshki’. Regardless, they are beef-filled baked buns that are beyond amazing. The dough is flaky, buttery and soft. Perfect little bite-sized pieces of heaven if you ask me.
You can definitely make your own fillings as well to go with this dough recipe. You can incorporate mushrooms, ground pork, mashed potato…the options are endless. Not to mention, this recipe is super easy to make.
You will need:
1 cup full fat sour cream
2 egg yolks
2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 tsp. white sugar
1 lb. extra lean ground beef
1 white onion, finely diced
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 egg whites
In a medium bowl, mix together your egg yolks and sour cream.
Add in your melted butter.
Then add your flour.
Finally, add your sugar.
Mix together until all ingredients are incorporated.
Place dough onto counter and knead into a ball.
Knead with hands until the dough is soft and elastic, about 3-5 minutes.
Place dough in an airtight container and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Add your ground beef , chopped onion, salt and pepper.
Cook meat until browned and onions are soft and translucent.
Set aside to cool completely.
Once your meat filling is cooled, roll out your dough.
Place dough on a floured piece of parchment paper on the counter.
Your dough will be a little hard and sticky. That is good. It is easier to roll out this way.
Roll out your dough until it is 1/4 inch thick.
Should look like so.
Using a round cookie cutter or cylinder, cut out 2-inch wide circles.
You can make them larger, but we prefer them to be bite-sized in our family.
Stretch dough a little with your fingers and place in the palm of your hand.
Spoon a teaspoon amount of meat filling into the center of the dough.
Be careful not to have any touch the edges as they will not seal properly.
Fold dough over in half and pinch the edges.
You will have a bit of a crescent shape to start.
Round the edges into a oval shape.
Place dough buns onto a parchment lined baking sheet approximately 1 inch apart.
Brush tops of the buns with your unbeaten egg whites.
Bake in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for approximately 25 minutes, or until the buns are golden brown.
Allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
These beauties can also be baked and then frozen for a later date. All you need to do is heat them up!
If you are going to freeze them without baking, ensure you are freezing them in one layer on a plastic wrapped baking sheet.
These buns are so delicious. The dough is flaky and tender.
Perfect holiday comfort food in my books.
Enjoy!
Ukrainian Beef-Filled Pyrizhky 2014-11-25 07:42:58 Yields 40 Delicious Ukrainian beef-filled mini buns. The perfect dish for the holidays. Write a review Save Recipe Print Prep Time 8 hr Cook Time 25 min Total Time 8 hr 25 min Prep Time 8 hr Cook Time 25 min Total Time 8 hr 25 min Ingredients 1 cup full fat sour cream 2 eggs, separated into yolks and whites 2 cups all purpose flour 1/2 cup melted butter 1/2 tsp sugar 1 lb. extra lean ground beef 1 white onion, diced Salt and pepper, to taste 2 tbsp canola oil Instructions In a medium sized bowl mix together sour cream and egg yolks. Add in melted butter, then flour and sugar. Mix well. Spread dough on the counter and knead until soft and elastic, about 5 minutes. Form dough into a ball and place in an airtight container. Refrigerate for at least 8 hour or overnight. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add in ground beef and onions. Add salt and pepper. Brown beef until it is no longer pink and the onions are soft and translucent. Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely. Roll your dough out onto a well floured piece of parchment paper to 1/4-inch thickness. Dough will be a little hard and sticky. This is what you want as it's easier to roll out. Cut out 2-inch circles using a cookie cutter or cylinder. You can cut out larger circles but we prefer bite-sized buns. Spoon 1 teaspoon of the meat filling into the center of the dough circle. Be careful not to get any meat on the edges of the dough as it won't seal properly. Fold dough in half over the filling and pinch the edges to seal. You should have a crescent shape. Smooth edges over into an oval shape. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet approximately 1 inch apart. Brush tops of the dough buns with unbeaten egg whites. Bake in a 350 degree Fahrehneit oven for approximately 25 minutes, or until the buns are golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes or until ready to serve. Transfer to a wire rack to either cool completely if you are freezing for later. Notes These buns freeze very well. After baking and cooling, transfer to a freezer bag and place in the freezer. All you need to do in the future is heat them up in the oven or microwave. You can also freeze unbaked in a single layer on a baking sheet wrapped with plastic wrap. By Claudia's Cookbook Claudia's Cookbook http://www.claudiascookbook.com/ |
SUNRISE, Fla. – By splitting the first two games against the Florida Panthers, the Devils gained the home ice advantage.
At least that’s the way they chose to view their wasted opportunity to take control of the best-of-seven conference quarterfinal series.
“I think we would’ve taken a split coming down here,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “There are no easy matchups in the NHL playoffs. I don’t think anyone expected anyone ewas going to beat anybody in four. Now that we got a split we have to take care of business at home.”
David Clarkson said he expects the Devils to bounce back in Game 3 tomorrow night at the Prudential Center.
“Our fans have been unbelievable all season,” he said. “They’ve supported us through everything. That place is going to be rocking and we’re going to have to come out right away and play the way we finished (Game 2).”
* * *
DeBoer started the third period Sunday night with rookie Adam Henrique back between Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk. Travis Zajac was moved to the third line with Alexei Ponikarovsky and Clarkson.
The moves produced two quick goals that got the Devils back in the game, but DeBoer switched back before the game was over.
“We mixed things up and got a boost,” DeBoer explained. “I don’t have an answer why we went back.”
* * *
Stephen Weiss scored Florida’s first two goals, both on power plays.
“He’s a little bit of the identity of our team, a guy that has been here the longest and a little bit of the face of the franchise from a player’s perspective,” coach Kevin Dineen said of Weiss. “I think he wasn’t happy with Game 1 with the way it went for him and instead of chirping about it he went out and did something about it.”
Weiss said: “That’s huge, especially after losing the first game. There was a lot of pressure on us to make sure we got that win and we were able to that and that’s huge going into their building.” |
Quote of the Day: “Opposing the status quo generates a cloak of media invisibility regardless of party or ideology.” – Steve Dasbach, co-founder, DownsizeDC.org
Lately, we’ve gotten a lot of messages accusing us of being mean-spirited Republicans. Let me be blunt in response . . .
We don’t like political parties. We believe that partisanship…
And we believe our job is to afflict the comfortable leadership of both parties – to speak truth to whichever POWER needs to hear it.
Of course, those criticizing us might be suggesting we have some sympathies with the GOP. Well, I ask you…
What leading Republicans do you know who would post ALL of the following new ACTION ITEMS on their blog? Frankly, the GOP is part of the problem in every one of these instances…
1. Now Playing At Security Theater: The Sting
Did you know that most terrorist plots are concocted by the FBI? Want to see the proof, and then do something about it?
Retweet: http://twitter.com/#!/DDCDispatch/status/108629637835403265
2. I rage against cuts that don’t cut
The Republican-controlled House and Democrat-run Senate haven’t really “cut” anything. One party is lying about false accomplishments, while the other is hysterical about something that doesn’t even exist. Do you want real cuts?
Retweet: http://twitter.com/#!/DDCDispatch/status/108630458501312512
3. Statism means always having to pay other people’s bills
Did the politicians steal $103 million from you so that other people could get broadband cable? Tell them to stop robbing Peter to pay Paul, and robbing you to pay both of them!
Retweet: http://twitter.com/#!/DDCDispatch/status/108631061394755584
4. Patriot Act Deployed Against Wikileaks
Even we know this is a HERESY! You might disagree. The State hates those who expose wrongdoing, and seeks to silence, even punish them. But what Republican leader would say this? Heck, what Democrat leader is defending the free press in this instance? We think the politicians need to hear from you about this. We hope you agree.
Retweet: http://twitter.com/#!/DDCDispatch/status/108631725927702528
And, to the people who’ve written us, or thought of writing us, saying we’re in the Koch brother’s pockets…
Downsize DC has never solicited Koch help
The brothers have never given Downsize DC a dime
And, borrowing from the list above, you’ve suspended deep thought, lack imagination, and bear a closed mind
We’re doing what we’ve done from day one: We’re turning to everyday people like you who will stand with us because we’ll speak the hard truth, even when it’s inconvenient.
Taking a stand for the right thing is not easy, and our ability to keep doing it requires your help. The truth is, the stands we take often cost us support. So please help us finish off this month with your financial endorsement.
Oh, and if the Koch brothers want to send us a check, we’ll gladly cash it and keep doing the work we’re doing — just more of it.
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
comments |
Ted Cruz does not like the Iran deal.
That’s an understatement.
In front of a crowd of religious voters on Friday morning, Senator Ted Cruz had some pretty extreme things to say about the Iran nuclear deal, namely, he threatened to kill Iran’s leader if he didn’t give up plans for a nuclear program.
“If the ayatollah doesn’t understand that, we may have to help introduce him to the 72 virgins,” Cruz said at the annual Values Voters summit, adding that he would rip the Iran nuclear deal “to shreds” on his first day in office.
The controversial pact reached in July was conceived by the P5+1—the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, Russian and Germany—and the European Union to prevent Iran from securing nuclear weapons while allowing the country to have an exclusively peaceful nuclear program going forward.
Earlier in the speech, Cruz referred to President Obama as “the world’s most powerful communist” and that he should be incarcerated. He also suggested the Democratic debates be held at the Leavenworth prison, which has recently been scouted as a potential transfer point for those detained at Guantanamo.
“If they can project a rainbow on the White House, maybe they can put bars on the windows,” Cruz said.
Among Cruz’s other vows: rescinding whatever he considered to be illegal and unconstitutional executive actions, including a compete repeal of ObamaCare, demanding the Department of Justice investigate Planned Parenthood, and telling the Department of Education, which he says “should be abolished,” that Common Core, which details what students should know at the end of each grade, ends immediately.
The crowd cheered throughout. |
It’s the app that launched a thousand jokes about breaking the first rule of Fight Club.
Last Friday, November 6, tech blog Venture Beat posted a story about a new app that’s currently in development called Rumblr. Basically a Tinder-style service for aggro assholes who are looking for street fighting partners, “Rumblr is an app for recreational fighters to find, meet, and fight other brawl enthusiasts nearby,” according to their official site.
Promising “Casualty-free casual fighting for free” (which is their actual slogan, no matter how silly and impossible to guarantee that is), Rumblr will allow anyone looking for a fight to match up with similarly-minded individuals “who want to throw down,” arrange and schedule fights (or “Pussy Out,” Rumblr’s charming answer to swiping left), and even prepare for your opponents by checking out the detailed tale of the tape-style statistics in their profile. Because god forbid you go into an unsanctioned public melee ill-prepared. Fight options appear to be separated into three sections: Rumblr, RumblrHER, and RumblrGROUP, for the poly-aggro-ish amongst us.
If you just like to watch or you really, really miss the salad days of Bum Fighting or that time Logan paid indigent people to fight on Veronica Mars, though, Rumblr has you covered as well. “You don’t need to fight to use Rumblr. With Rumblr Explore, anyone can browse and attend fights close by that other Rumblr users have arranged – all for free!”
Rumblings about Rumblr quickly spread over the internet, attracting attention from outlets as wide-ranging as Complex, Dangerous Minds, The Bleacher Report, The New York Daily News, and The Daily Mail (which you could call the Rumblr of newspapers in the sense that it is ill-conceived, unnecessarily antagonistic, lowest common-denominator-appealing, and of questionably veracity).
The attention attracted a number of casual warrior hopefuls, who signed up for the chance to be given access to a beta version of the app on the Rumblr site. “More than 78,000 people have signed up for beta access, an email sent out to the lucky early-bird brawlers showed,” The New York Daily News reported yesterday. “The email also claimed to be giving away ten pairs of golden brass knuckles to ten people who tweet about the app.”
The team behind Rumblr also told the paper that they were working with the iOS store “to hash out legal issues preventing Rumblr’s approval.” They still plan to launch the beta today, November 9, at 5pm EST, though.
Whether this launch will actually be able to happen due to legal issues remains to be seen. Whether or not this is real, a Peeple-style clusterfuck, or an flat out hoax also remains to be seen. Business Insider remains dubious in their coverage, pointing out the general absurdity of the idea, the potential legal ramifications, and some of the inconsistencies in what we’ve seen from the developers so far. For example, the official site features a number of (perversely amusing) photos that claim to be from their Instagram profile, but no actual Rumblr account seems to exist. They did, however, manage to set up an official Twitter account.
We’ll find out one way or another at 5pm EST tonight. In the meantime, you can always hit up Reddit for some fascinating speculation on the subject as the world gets ready to (maybe) Rumblr.
[UPDATE: It was all just a hoax! Read about what turned out to be a creative marketing gimmick here.]
Check out these related stories:
Jack Slack: Street Fighting Roos
Someone Built a Computer Made of Punching Bags
HBO Patents Technology to Measure Punching Power and Speed During Fights |
Throughout 2012, The Caucus will occasionally pose five questions to individuals from across the political spectrum who have special insight into government, policy making and political combat. If there is someone you think should be interviewed, let us know in the comment section below, or send me an e-mail at [email protected].
This week’s subject is Jill Stein, a candidate for the Green Party’s presidential nomination. Ms. Stein, a former physician and teacher of internal medicine, writes and speaks about the connections between the environment and health. She ran for governor of Massachusetts in 2002 against Mitt Romney.
Q. Why are you running for president?
Michael Manning/Associated Press
A. We are in crisis and people are losing their jobs and their homes and their health care and affordable higher education and civil liberties. You name it, they are losing it. We have got a 1 percent that’s rolling in dough as much as ever and the political establishment is not fixing it. The establishment got us into this mess, in both parties. And that’s clear as day. Over 10 years, I have been a recalcitrant political challenger, a recurrent alternative that would not go away.
Q. Is your campaign trying to tap into the Occupy movement?
A. Occupy is very much a part of a broader move for democracy and economic and social justice. That is alive and well around the world. Just look at what is going on in Wisconsin which is directly linked to Occupy. It doesn’t have the name of Occupy, but they slept for three weeks in the statehouse. If that’s not Occupy, what is? The Occupy movement, beneath the surface, represents a political coming of age of a younger generation who have been on the receiving end of a generally exploitative economy. One of those groups to exploit has been young people. They have been exploited in education. The unemployment crisis hits them the hardest. They are bearing the burden for the climate disruptions that are coming down the pike.
Q. Does President Obama deserve credit for health care and other accomplishments?
A. Small time, sure. There are minor improvements. But on the other hand, he took single-payer off the table. He absolutely took a public option off the table. As we found on issue after issue — the war, reappointing George Bush’s secretary of defense, sticking to George Bush’s timeline on Iraq, expanding the war, expanding the drone wars all over the place. And how about bringing Wall Street in, the guys who created the problem, among his first appointments. It was pretty clear right then that this was going to be business as usual on steroids. We’re certainly not more secure, more equitable, more healthy or safer internationally, with what Obama has brought.
Q. What do you think of Mitt Romney?
A. He responds to his electorate. When he’s running in Salt Lake, he’s anti-abortion. When he’s running in Massachusetts, he’s pro-abortion. He responds to his electorate, broadly, except that he remains basically pro-business in a very narrow sense of the word — that is a pro-one-percent big, corporate multinational business. You know what, that’s not so different from the way Larry Summers and Tim Geithner are running the country under Barack Obama. When our governorship changed from Mitt Romney and it went directly to Deval Patrick, who is another poster child for progressive Democrats, no difference. Nothing detectable. Nothing changed in Massachusetts whatsoever.
Q. Is there a difference between the Democratic and Republican Parties?
A. You might look at one party as a rapidly sinking ship and say we’re going to vote for the other guy because the ship’s not going down so fast. We don’t like him but he’s not sinking the ship so fast. But the real question is, if both of those ships are heading for the bottom of the ocean, do you want to be on either of them? No. There’s no question about where those ships are heading if you are looking at the economy.
This interview has been edited and condensed. |
Metal or plastic? Ultrapixels or lasers? QHD or 1080p? It's time to choose between two of the hottest Android phones out there This is one of the big questions we find ourselves being asked by smartphone buyers — which is better, the LG G3 or the HTC One M8? Both of these high-end Android phones have captured the imagination of enthusiasts and technology fans since their announcement, and now both are widely available to buy in the U.S. So there's no avoiding the issue any longer — the Android Central editors are going to have to choose between the G3 and the M8. Join us as we break things down and make our decisions ...
Physical hardware and build quality Q: Both of these devices are physically remarkable. The G3's sheer size lets it pack a 5.5-inch screen, but the HTC One M8 boasts the boasts a uniquely premium metal frame. Superficially speaking, whose design do you prefer? Alex Dobie: LG's done a fantastic job creating a 5.5-inch phone that's just as holdable and pocketable as its 5-inch competitors. But it's really tough to beat the curved metal unibody of the M8, tall and slippery though it may be. While LG's content imitating premium materials with its "metallic," rear, HTC has the real deal, and the in-hand feels is unlike any other smartphone. There are disadvantages, of course. You're never going to get wireless charging in a metal-backed phone, and HTC's solid unibody precludes any possibility of swapping your battery. But the M8's fantastic metal exterior more than makes up for this. This is almost like having to pick a favorite child. Phil Nickinson: This is almost like having to pick a favorite child. (And to sleep at night, I'd need to throw the Moto X into the mix.) For a phone of its size, the LG G3 wins out on in-hand feel. I've got small hands, so big phones have never really been my thing. But the difference between the G3 and the M8 is completely obvious. The G3 simply is easier and more comfortable hold. The M8 might look a little nicer — and I'm not convinced most civilians would be able to tell the difference between the M8's aluminum and the G3's plastic metal at a glance — but the G3 simply is easier to hang onto, full stop. The buttons on the back are still (surprisingly) easy to use. (Though HTC was right to "borrow" the Knock-On feature. The One M8 looks fantastic when sitting on a table, but the rounded body presents usability issues. Andrew Martonik: While the One M8 looks pretty — okay, absolutely — fantastic when it's sitting on a table, usability suffers somewhat with how smooth and rounded the entire body of the phone is. There's not a whole lot to grip onto, and when you add in the fact that the M8 is notably taller than the M7 and the power button is still on the top, it's a recipe for unfortunate drops. LG has done it again with the G3 when it comes to packing a gigantic screen into a phone that doesn't feel that big. Make no mistake though, this is still a huge phone. The metal-looking plastic treatment is in a different class compared to the glossy stuff covering the G2, which looks better and definitely helps you hold onto the thing. I still haven't gotten over the back buttons from a usability standpoint, but I think the G3 has the advantage here in terms of all-things-considered user experience and looks. Jerry Hildenbrand: Am I allowed to prefer the HTC One M7? I am going to have to pick the G3 here. Both phones look very similar from the back, but once in your hand the G3 just feels better. It's not the size, because both phones are a little "long-feeling" but it's the shape — especially at the very edge of the phone. There seems to be more meat to grab onto there, and I don't get the feeling that I'm going to drop the G3 like I have whenever I hold the M8. I don't think the G3 has the "perfect" design. I would have preferred a good soft-touch plastic over the faux metal thing LG has going on, and I wish the speaker placement was different, because the way I hold my phone covers the cutout on the back of the phone. But since I have to choose, I'll have to choose the G3 in this one.
Display and audio Q: The LG G3 is famed for being among the first "Quad HD" handsets to hit the market, while the M8 sticks to a 1080p display resolution. What are your thoughts on 1440p smartphone displays? Is it worth it on the G3? Or does HTC's BoomSound setup contribute to a more immersive experience? The G3's display size, not it's resolution, is what makes it great. Alex: I've said before that the G3's display size, not it's resolution, is what makes it great in my opinion. Though the 5.5-inch 1440p panel is impressive, and in some instances you can tell the difference compared to 1080p, I can't help thinking the G3 might've been a better phone overall with a lower-res screen. The occasional frame rate hiccups I'm seeing likely wouldn't affect a 1080p device, and battery life would surely be improved too. Then there's the fact that the G3's colors aren't quite as vibrant as many 1080p IPS LCDs, including the HTC One M8. The M8's screen, on the other hand, seems less compromised. It's plenty big at 5 inches, it displays colors that are bright and vivid but not excessively over-saturated, and runs just fine on a Snapdragon 801. I guess what' I'm really after is this kind of quality in something that's as easy to hold as the G3. Phil: Ask me whether I want more pixels than my eye can actually discern, or whether I want sound to sound better, I'll give you the same answer every time. Nothing beats BoomSound. It changes the way you experience videos and games on a device. I'd gladly trade pixel density — especially if the alternative means going back to a mere 1080p display — if that made it possible to sneak in those excellent front-facing speakers. The trick would be in not increasing the overall footprint of the phone. But physical limitations are what they are, at least if you want the sound quality HTC was seeking in this current iteration. Andrew: The LG G3's screen looks great, but I never found the 1080p displays in other devices (including the G2) to be lacking in any way. I notice the occasional slowdown on the G3, and it has to be at least partially related to the immense number of pixels the GPU is pushing around. I think LG could've stuck to 1080p and still offered a fantastic viewing experience, while at the same time keeping performance up. I think if the choice is between a crazy-high-density display and high-end front-facing speakers, the speakers have to win out … but then I would ask you whether or not taking up the real estate with those speakers is worth it, either. A QHD display at 5.5-inches is amazing for reading. Jerry: Most of the time, I don't see a lot of difference between a good 1080p display and the QHD display on the G3. Of course, every eye is different but it's my opinion that 1080p smartphone displays aren't ready to be put out to pasture just yet. There is one area where I see a big — and meaningful — difference. A QHD display at 5.5-inches is amazing for reading. I've not experienced any of the "sharpening" issues some complain about, and when I snuggle under the covers each night and crack open whichever eBook I'm reading at the moment (I'm trying to get through Finnegan's Wake again at the moment) that QHD display just does it for me. A 1080p display is great for reading. The G3's QHD display is downright incredible.
Buttons ... Q: The G3 and M8 have wildly different button layouts. Do you like yours on the top and the side, or on the back? Alex: When I first saw the LG G2's rear buttons, my initial reaction was to assume it was a gimmick, and that LG was being different for the sake of being different. I didn't spend much time with the G2, but within an hour of using its successor, the G3, something just clicked, and back buttons started making sense. They're easy to reach, located in a natural place for left and right-handed users, and they free up space on the sides of the device. It's one of those features that sounds crazy until you try it. Within an hour of using the LG G3, back buttons just made sense. I'm not opposed to more traditional button layouts, but the power button on the M8, situated way up on the top edge of the device, is one of the more difficult to reach. Fortunately both the G3 and the M8 have ways of powering themselves on without the use of a power button. HTC calls it Motion Launch; on the G3 it's KnockOn. Phil: It's insane. It'll never work. Buttons on the back of the phone? But you know what? It works. And it works very well. Part of that is because of LG's Knock On (and Knock Code), which means you don't have to use the power button nearly as often. And, in fact, tapping the display to wake it will spoil you for just about every other device afterward. Moving the volume rocker back there along with it works fine, too. And it's important to remember that there's some added functionality — they serve as shortcuts to Q Memo and the camera. KnockOn is good, but it'll never work 100 percent of the time. Andrew: I may be forever scarred from trying to use the horribly-designed Verizon LG G2 back buttons, but I still don't get the appeal here. Sure, it lets LG make the bezels on the G3 just that much slimmer, but I still find it to be an unnecessary usability hinderance. Put the power and volume buttons on the side, make the screen 5.3-inches instead, and you'll never have a single hassle turning the phone on and off. KnockOn is good, but it'll never work 100 percent of the time. KnockOff is even more bothersome since you need a blank spot on your homescreen or to reach up to the status bar. LG, please put the buttons back where they belong. (And get off my lawn while you're at it.) Jerry: I said it with the G2, and the LG Flex, and I'll say it again — buttons on the back are tha bomb. They take a bit of getting used to, but once your brain and muscle memory is dialed in everything seems much more natural. My index finger feels at home perched on the buttons, which means adjusting the volume or using the quick shortcuts is easy for me. Having said that, when using a more traditional button placement scheme, I still prefer the power button up top. When i want to turn the screen on or off, I know where to do it from and being waaay up there on the M8 means I'm not always bumping it like I do when they are placed on the side.
Cameras and image quality Q: Let's talk about lasers and Ultrapixels. These are two handsets with very different approaches to smartphone photography. (And different Gallery and sharing experiences backing them up.) Which one have you preferred to use? The G3's camera isn't perfect, but in my view it's more balanced than the M8's. Alex: The M8's camera excels at fast exposures, as well as low-light and indoor photography. In daylight, however, that 4-megapixel ceiling starts to become an issue, as does the M8's relatively narrow dynamic range, and its tendency to capture more visible noise than I'd like. The G3's camera isn't perfect, but in my view it is much more balanced. It's great in daylight, with an auto HDR mode which engages in shots with very bright areas. And the laser-assisted autofocus and OIS+ stabilization means it also delivers good-looking low-light shots, and is quicker to focus than just about any phone camera I've used. HTC has an excellent software suite backing up its cameras — Zoe and video highlights are polished and well-executed. But until the image quality improves, I'm inclined to leave the M8 behind if I know I'm going to be taking photos. Phil: I like to think I can get a decent shot out of most smartphone cameras. And I've mostly been happy with the result of the HTC One M8, provided that I've taken the time (or had the time) to compose the shot. And that's not always possible. And I still love the idea of Zoes, though HTC managed to make a mess out of them in Sense 6, first by sticking the Zoe toggle an extra level down, and then by making them more confusing by making them even more like traditional video. (Which they always were, but whatever.) And HTC never managed to easily explain video highlights. (And where the hell is the Zoe app?) I'm just more consistent with the LG G3 camera. The app isn't the prettiest in the world, but it's plenty functional. (Odd that Photo Spheres — er, VR Panorama — disappeared, though.) And a higher resolution just gives options that a 4MP image doesn't. Andrew: The One M8 has a great camera on its own, and most people who pick one up and snap a few pics will be happy. That is, until they try the G3 and compare the photos. The G3 has all the resolution you'll need, along with OIS+ and laser autofocus. The One M8 over-processes the crap out of pictures to make up for its lack of pixels and dynamic range, still has trouble managing exposure and really falls behind in daylight situations compared to its competitors. The G3 has all the resolution you'll need, along with OIS, and while the camera app takes a little getting used to it's perfectly functional. Jerry: The G3 has a better camera, both on paper and during real-world use. But it's not the better camera for me. The M8 takes pictures faster, and the shots in dim light are better. They aren't perfect, but chances are you'll be able to whip out the M8 and grab a "good enough" picture in a dark room. I spend most of my daylight hours inside working, and spend my playtime in places like restaurants or bars or clubs where the light is low. The G3 does a better job in these conditions than most other phones, but it's not nearly as good at it as the M8 is.
Performance Q: We're dealing with two of the fastest Android phones out there right now, both running Snapdragon 801 processors with plenty of RAM. Which have you found the fastest in day-to-day use? And perhaps more importantly, how have the G3 and M8 fared in terms of battery life? Alex: The HTC One M8 is pretty much the quickest smartphone I've used to date. HTC has done an amazing job not just smoothing out animations and screen transitions, but delivering lightning-fast touch responses — a big part of what makes a phone feel fast. Over on the G3, things aren't quite so buttery. Though apps load quickly, and certain animations are as fast as on any Android phone, there's a tendency to drop frames here and there that you just don't see on the M8. LG's flagship isn't slow by any means, but it's clear the HTC One is the speedier device. As far as battery life goes, I've gotten about the same from both phones — around 16 hours of moderate-to-heavy use, hopping between Wifi and LTE. The M8 seems to give me a little more screen-on time than the G3 — though this is hard to judge as Sense has no way to directly track this stuff. For me, though, convenience factors like the removable battery and wireless charging probably make the G3 a winner on battery life, even though the performance isn't perfect all-round. The HTC One M8 is simply faster than the LG G3. Period. Phil: I don't care why. I don't care how. I don't care what runtime is being used, or whether one's on a slightly different base version of Android than another. I don't care that one has nearly a full 3 gigabytes of RAM. The HTC One M8 is simply faster than the LG G3. Period. Maybe it's because the M8 is pushing fewer pixels. Maybe the software is just better. All I know is it's faster. And at the end of the day, that's all that matters. Andrew: When it comes to software and app performance on a daily basis, nothing can seem to top the One M8 right now — the thing just flies. Whether you're jumping between a few recent apps, playing a game or just browsing the web, you're really hard pressed to find a slowdown on the M8. Battery life seems strong — and most importantly, consistent — to get me an entire day's use without hitting the 15 percent mark when I go to bed. The G3 is plenty smooth, but when you compare it to the M8 you can see there's some catching up to do. The G3, on the other hand, tends to struggle more regularly. On my Sprint G3 I notice sluggishness particularly when closing and switching apps, as I assume the system and software just can't keep up with pushing that 1440p display. Most of the experience is plenty smooth, and I think a lot of people will be happy with it, but when you compare it to the M8 you can see that the G3 has catching up to do. I also haven't had the greatest luck with battery life on the G3 as it seems to be inconsistent from day-to-day, but I have a feeling using this Sprint model and bumping between 3G and LTE so often isn't helping. Jerry: The M8 is faster. But then again, the M8 is faster than most every other KitKat phone. As much as I dislike the design choices in the exterior of the M8, the software optimization that was done just blows the rest away when it comes to raw speed while navigating through your homescreens or opening applications. The G3 isn't slow, but it has a stutter every now and then, and it clearly doesn't open applications as fast as the M8. I'm in the midst of torture-testing my G3 battery, but so far I have nothing to complain about. Once I get past 12 hours on a charge, I know the battery life is good enough for me.
Software experience Q: HTC Sense 6 and the G3's LG UI couldn't be further apart in terms of visual style, and the two software suites offer a divergent array of features, too. Who has done the best job when it comes to smartphone software? Alex: LG has made huge advances since the G2, a device which shipped with a schizophrenic, multicolored UI less than a year ago. On the G3 the whole interface seems just a little better thought-out, with greater internal consistency and a less cartoonish appearance. That said, there's still work to be done, and parts that don't quite fit into the flattened, geometric whole. HTC Sense is clearly the product of a company with design in its DNA. HTC Sense, on the other hand, is clearly the product of a company with design in its DNA. Not only is it fast, but all the individual limbs feel like they're part of a cohesive whole. Whether it's the BlinkFeed home screen reader, more basic applications like the dialer and messages apps, or the feature-packed Gallery app, everything is consistently well-designed. And for that reason I'm giving this one to HTC. Phil: LG's come a long way in the years I've been using its phones. But Sense is still better. That said, I use a third-party launcher on all my phones, so that's a wash. But Sense has a more cohesive design. It feels more natural. And, yes, it's just faster to use. LG made a point of having a sleeker and more unified software experience on the G3, and the results definitely show. Andrew: I think LG made a point to have a sleeker and more unified software experience on the G3, and the results definitely show. Not only did it ditch the on-screen menu key and some of the crazy flashy animations, but it also gave everything a clean coat of paint. Sadly there are still far too many useless features here that just keep popping up and getting in my way, and LG still needs to exercise some more restraint on its devices going forward. When it comes to non-Nexus devices, HTC still takes the cake in terms of its software experience. Not only is performance fantastic (as we talked about above), but everything looks consistent and acts just the way you expect it to. This feels like a real operating system, not just something tacked on top of AOSP, and it just keeps getting better with each iteration. Jerry: Hey LG! You know how you pared things way back for this version of your OS? Keep doing that for the next one. I've been using LG phones since LG started selling Android phones. Their UI was the worst, and it's not just me that thinks so. What they delivered on the G3 is fine, and the consumer side of me thinks it's decent. That same consumer side of me thinks that Sense 6 is better.
The bottom line Q: Here's the big question: If you could use only one of these phones for the next year, which would it be? And what's the deciding factor? Alex: This is a really tough call, but I have to fall back on the device I think provides the most enjoyable experience out of the box, and that's the HTC One M8. HTC has the best software, the fastest performance, a great-looking screen and unmatched audio capabilities. Is it a little slippery? Sure, but that's something you adjust to with time, and silver and gold variants are a little less slick than the smoother gunmetal grey M8. Beyond that, the Ultrapixel camera is this phone's only real area of weakness. It's probably the least impressive camera of the current crop of flagships, but the fact that I'm willing to put up with that should underscore how awesome the rest of the experience is. In my view it's the better of the two despite its camera, not because of it. On the LG side of the fence, the occasional software stutters are the G3's main weakness — one the manufacturer could have solved by using a standard 1080p panel, or waiting on the more powerful Snapdragon 805 processor, which is better equipped to handle a QHD display. (In fact, an S805-powered G3 is available in Korea right now, but LG says it won't release this model internationally.) I'm a big fan of the G3, and I think it's very nearly the best Android phone out there; for the moment, HTC pips it to the post. Both are really, really good phones, each with its particular flaws. But I have to pick one ... Phil: And that's the question, isn't it? Which phone. The LG G3, or the HTC One M8? Both are really, really good phones, each with its particular flaws. But I have to pick one. For me, I'd stick with the HTC One M8. And a big reason for that is one that we haven't really mentioned here yet, in addition to the ones we did discuss. HTC has come a long way in regards to software updates. We can argue all day that full-blown system updates aren't as important as they once were (and that's true). But if we had to chose between a phone that has a relatively quick — and also important, transparent — update process and one that, well, doesn't, HTC's going to win every time. And so it wins for me here. I'd go with the M8. Andrew: I think I have to go with the G3 here. The G3's performance skips are annoying sometimes but can be overcome, and the display and camera are both top notch. The software improvements coming from the G2 make this no issue at all to use on a daily basis, and its shape and materials make it easy to hold and use. As much as I love the look of the M8 and its software, the shape and style of the phone just make it too difficult to hold onto and use every day. The camera also comes up short for me, which is really a disappointment for someone who takes as many pictures as I do. Jerry: No question, the G3. I don't have to feel like I'm going to drop it every time I take it out of my pocket, which is important but not the deciding factor for me. That would be those bezels. If I have to use a phone this big, I want as much of it to be screen as possible. What I want is a phone the size of the Moto X, with a screen as good as the G3, and BoomSound like the M7 and M8. But I can settle for just the 5.5-inch screen in the 5-inch body. |
Akmal, brother of Kamran Akmal, was reportedly seen at a dance party in Hyderabad. ARY correspondent reported that Akmal was suspected to have misbehaved with some women during a dance party.
On the other hand, some media reports suggest that the cricketer was found at an ‘objectionable place’ instead of the dance bar. The board, however, did not specify the details.
The PCB said the act of Akmal had brought disrepute to the country and the board.
The latest violation of PCB’s code of conduct has cost Akmal his place in the T20 squad for England series in Dubai.
The PCB has sought reply from the player within two weeks.
Umar Akmal had also previously been found violating the PCB code.
The cricketer was embroiled in a controversy when he was apprehended on February 1, 2014 after police charged him for violating a traffic signal in Lahore’s Firdous market area and later brawled with a traffic warden.
Akmal was detained the same day and released a day later on a bail order issued by a local court against a surety bond of Rs100,000. However, he denied the charges, claiming he had been assaulted by the traffic warden first.
Following is the T20 squad announced by the PCB for three-match England series.
Shahid Afridi (C), Sarfraz Ahmed, Ahmed Shehzad, Sohaib Maqsood,Wahab Riaz, Shoaib Malik, RaffatUllah Mehmand, Imad Wasim, Aamir Yamin, Imran Khan Jr., Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Irfan, Anwar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Iftikhar Ahmed.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump will ensure American veterans have convenient access to top quality health care services, indicated Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), a former commander at the fabled Navy SEAL Team Six during an interview with Breitbart News Saturday host Matt Boyle on Sirius XM Patriot Radio Channel 125.
Medical centers operated by President Barack Obama’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have come under fire in the last year for keeping long wait lists of veterans in need of essential care. Some veterans died while waiting for care.
Congress’s only Navy SEAL veteran, who spent 23 years of his life defending the United States, recently came out in support of Trump, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee.
“I strongly endorse Donald Trump because we need a president that will put our veterans in front of the line rather than watch them die while in line,” declared Zinke on Breitbart News Saturday. “There’s a difference and the VA is broke.”
“We need a businessman [like Trump] who’s not going to accept business as usual in Washington,” added the Montana Republican.
The problem with the Veterans Health Administration hospitals is “layers of bureaucracy getting into a system” that treats veterans “as a number” rather than human beings, pointed out Zinke, adding, “Not every veteran clinic is bad.”
In October, Trump unveiled a plan to reform the veterans health care system.
“We’re going to take care of those wounded warriors and we’re going to take care of our vets better than anybody,” proclaimed the Republican candidate when announcing his proposal in Norfolk, VA, home to a sizable military population.
“The plan will ensure our veterans get the care they need, wherever and whenever they need it,” he added.
Early this week, VA Secretary Robert McDonald drew sharp rebukes from Democrats and Republicans alike for downplaying the fatal impact of the wait times at VA medical centers by comparing them to lines at Disney theme parks.
Trump condemned McDonald for making those comments.
“I don’t agree with 100 percent of what Donald Trump says, but I agree…100 percent [that] we need to shake it up,” said Rep. Zinke, who served as deputy and acting commander of U.S. Special Forces in Iraq. “The status quo is not working and I believe that Donald Trump is going to be a phenomenal president.”
Republicans “had 17 candidates [at the beginning of the presidential election] and they were quality candidates,” the congressman added. “Every one of those candidates was capable of assuming the responsibility of being the president and at the end of the day… the candidate who won is the shake-it-up candidate.”
Individual freedoms and the U.S. Constitution are in danger of being trampled, warned Zinke.
“We could lose this country,” he told Breitbart News Saturday.
However, he added that Trump can steer the country in the right direction, noting that the problems facing the U.S. are “fixable.”
“Let me give you some good news, the next president is still going to inherit the strongest military ever assembled in the history of mankind,” Zinke said.
“We’re battered. We’re bruised. We’re not where we should be, but we’re still by far the strongest military. We have more natural resources — coal, oil, wind — across the board not only to be energy independent but to be a leading exporter,” he added. “If you get the government off our back, there’s no economy in the world that can create more jobs in the long-term for everybody.”
The time has come to take back America, declared Zinke.
Breitbart News Saturday airs weekly on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern Time. |
Hundreds of students crowd Sanders Theatre for the first meeting of CS 50: “Introduction to Computer Science I.”
UPDATED: September 11, 2014, at 9:45 p.m.
Nearly 12 percent of Harvard College is enrolled in a single course, according to data released by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Registrar’s Office on Wednesday.
The course, Computer Science 50: “Introduction to Computer Science I,” attracted a record-breaking 818 undergraduates this semester, marking the largest number in the course’s 30-year history and the largest class offered at the College in the last five years, according to the Registrar’s website. Including non-College students, the enrollment number totals 875.
Last fall, about 700 students enrolled in the course, placing it second only to Economics 10a: “Principles of Economics,” which drew 764 students. This fall, Economics 10a is the second largest course, enrolling 711 total students.
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CS50 instructor, David J. Malan ’99, and other computer science professors said that the boost in enrollment stems from increasing Harvard-wide and nation-wide interest in computer science.
“Harvard students are smart people,” said Harry R. Lewis ’68, former dean of the College and current director of undergraduate studies for Computer Science. “They have figured out that in pretty much every area of study, computational methods and computational thinking are going to be important to the future.”
Lewis postulated that his course this semester, Computer Science 121: “Introduction to the Theory of Computation,” enrolled more students than it ever had before: 153. The number of Computer Science concentrators at the College has increased each year for the past five years, from 86 in 2008 to 153 in 2013.
Malan also said that “it is possible” that the decision to exempt CS50 from the new restrictions on enrollment in courses occurring at the same time helped bolster its enrollment numbers. Last month, Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris sent an email to course instructors notifying them of tighter controls on simultaneous enrollment for all courses except CS50.
Malan said that simultaneous enrollment data will not be available until he surveys his students later this week, but that the course typically attracts around 100 students who enroll in another course that meets at an overlapping time.
Computer Science associate professor Eddie Kohler said CS50’s increasing popularity also speaks to the structure and accessibility of the course.
“It’s an experience, it’s not even a course exactly,” Kohler said. “That’s part of what [Malan’s] goal was, to bring the content to as many people as possible.”
Ninety-one students enrolled in CS50 this semester opted to take the course sat/unsat, similar to last fall. The sat/unsat option, an alternative to taking a course pass/fail, allows students to earn either a grade of “Satisfactory,” for letter grades from A to C-, or a grade of “Unsatisfactory,” which is considered a failing grade.
While one less student than in 2013 opted to take CS50 sat/unsat by the time study cards were due on Tuesday, Malan said he would “be thrilled” if more students chose to take CS50 sat/unsat.
“I think for as long as I can remember there’s never really been a culture at Harvard of taking courses pass/fail and exploring unfamiliar fields,” Malan said. “I think that’s unfortunate.” |
Due to a delay in the visa process, Brazilian/American metallers SEPULTURA have had to cancel their previously announced North American tour with UNEARTH, KATAKLYSM, DARK SERMON and ANCIIENTS. Attempts to make new arrangements for this time frame were not fruitful and the camp has determined to reschedule the tour for May 2014. All tickets will be refunded.
SEPULTURA's new album, "The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart", was released on October 25 via Nuclear Blast Records.
Although it was inspired by Fritz Lang's classic 1927 movie "Metropolis", "The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart" is not a concept album or a soundtrack like its precedessors "Dante XXI" (based on "The Divine Comedy") and "A-Lex" (based on "A Clockwork Orange").
"The Mediator Between The Head And Hands Must Be The Heart" was tracked over a 40-day period at producer Ross Robinson's (KORN, LIMP BIZKIT, SLIPKNOT) studio in Venice, California and was mixed and mastered by co-producer Steve Evetts, who previously worked with SEPULTURA on the "Nation" (2001), "Revolusongs" (2002) and "Roorback" (2003) albums, in addition to having collaborated with Ross on a number of other projects in the past. |
“In the prudish ‘90s and early aughts, including a scene of a man going down on a woman would earn you an ugly NC-17 rating. Now, thankfully, the MPAA has loosened up… a bit.
In the past, a scene like that—depicting a woman well on her way to achieving orgasm—would have earned the film a big, ugly NC-17 rating from the relentless prudes at the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), a shadowy trade organization that’s long deemed any degree of corporal violence as far more acceptable than female sexual pleasure, and has done more to shame male-to-female oral sex than Michael Douglas. But recently, the MPAA has loosened the stick in its collective ass and allowed women to go there whilst maintaining an R rating.”
Read more from The Daily Beast here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/04/oral-sex-comes-of-age-in-hollywood-gone-girl-the-latest-film-to-showcase-female-pleasure.html
Cenk Uygur (http://www.twitter.com/cenkuygur) and Ana Kasparian (http://www.twitter.com/anakasparian) of The Young Turks discuss. Did you see ‘Gone Girl?’ Tell us what you think in the comment section below. |
Trump calls out SNL for trying to alter the public’s perceptions of him:
Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me.Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election!
Even Vanity Fair calls it what it is:
Saturday Night Live caught a lot of flak last season for inviting NBC star and presidential hopeful Donald Trump to host an episode. But we’ve come a long way since last November and while NBC continues to get scrutiny for pandering to the former Apprentice boss, S.N.L. itself has made a big effort this season to distance itself from cozying up to Trump. And, three weeks into the season, Trump has finally taken notice. Processing his thoughts on Twitter early Sunday morning, Trump formalized his disapproval of Alec Baldwin’s pouting impression… Baldwin’s popular Trump impression isn’t the only way the show is trying to put some distance between itself and Trump.
In other words, this is free political advertising for Hillary Clinton – and it should be illegal. I hope Trump remembers when he takes office. There are all sorts of ways the governmental machinery can be used to exact punishments for citizens, without actually needing any official legal reason to do so. Obama has made the new guidelines into “whatever you can get away with,” and I think we should go with those.
It is obvious that Alec Baldwin was substituted for Darryl Hammond for a reason.
When the cameras cut to Trump and Hillary in the first debate, before either said a word, Trump made what I would call the Trump-face. It is a squinty eyes with puckered lips, looking out of the corners of his eyes to the side. Nicole Wallace on NBC after the debate commented that none of Trump’s people must have coached him to realize that he was being filmed even when he wasn’t talking, because when the first shots of the candidates were put up, Trump almost looked like, in her words, “a Saturday Night Live skit.”
I think Trump knew exactly what he was doing, and I think he was purposely impersonating Darryl Hammond doing an impersonation of Donald Trump. The instant I saw that expression on Trump, almost like a reflex, I laughed, and entered a cognitive mode where I was prepared to be entertained. It was a positive, amused, ready to laugh state, all because I felt like I was watching Daryl Hammond about to pretend to be Donald Trump on Jeopardy, and be funny as hell doing it. I think Donald actually made people feel good about him, by evoking the neural pathways laid down by Darryl Hammond on Saturday Night Live.
Since that debate, Hammond, who was genuinely hilarious with his ebullient, indefatigable, perpetually-upbeat-even-in-the-most-ridiculous-circumstances, version of Trump was replaced with Alec Baldwin, whose Trump is a sort of dark, ominous, ugly, ogre-like version of the character.
That is not by accident, and I think it is a measure of how thoroughly the cognitive scientists behind the scenes have gotten a grip on the entirely of the media machinery, all to manipulate the perceptions which the populace holds of Donald Trump.
Trump knows all of this, of course. I just hope when Trump takes office, he holds a grudge, and doesn’t try to be a magnanimous deal maker. These people are out to destroy him, and I hope he sees that he should not leave so much a the faintest trace of wreckage in his wake. From Alec Baldwin, to Robert Cialdini, Obama changed the rules, and now we have the tools to go after them with the full force of the federal government – and it is just how the business of the Presidency is done now.
Raze everything and destroy everyone who is in the way. It is the only way forward. |
According to the Director of Medical Ethics at New York University, Donald Trump is “dangerous”, “a race baiting, evil, proto-Hitlerite”, and is “on the Hitler flightpath.”
Dr. Arthur Caplan, a Bioethics professor and the Director of Medical Ethics at New York University, coauthored an article for the Poynter Institute on Monday in which he criticized the media for giving GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump “permission to spew hate.”
"[T]hey fuel a race baiting, evil, proto-Hitlerite by treating him as buffoon."
As Caplan tells it: “[i]t seems unlikely [that Trump can win]...Of course that is what the media said about a funny-looking spewer of hate with an odd mustache who was dismissed as an awful public speaker and not a serious candidate in Germany in the 1930s.”
According to Caplan, Donald Trump’s recent comments about illegal immigrants, which Caplan characterizes as “racist rhetoric,” “should be viewed in the repugnant tradition of Hitler.”
Caplan does not limit his criticism to Trump. The sixteen Republicans vying for the party’s nomination, he says, are laying the groundwork for a Trump victory much like the thirty-seven political parties in the 1932 Reichstag elections enabled Hitler’s rise to power.
“In the Reichstag elections of November 1932, held months before Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, there were 37 different political parties competing in a melee that bears some resemblance to today’s Republican primary. Given a long time to spread racist drivel to a public nervous about preserving their national identity from ‘non-Germans,’ Adolf Hitler won,” Caplan writes.
What’s more, Dr. Caplan—who, according to his faculty page, was named a 2001 USA Today Person of the year—continued his criticism on Twitter after the article went up.
Folks Trump is rite on the Hitler flightpath. Blames minorities, racist, won't apologize, attracts disaffected, runs against establishment — Arthur Caplan (@ArthurCaplan) July 21, 2015 All trump is missing are brownshirts. He has all the rest. Dismiss him as a buffoon or a joke at the nation's peril. — Arthur Caplan (@ArthurCaplan) July 21, 2015 Media Is FuelingTrump http://t.co/wvs4FMCf76 via @nbcnews they fuel a race baiting, evil, proto-Hitlerite by treating him as buffoon — Arthur Caplan (@ArthurCaplan) July 21, 2015
To stop the “dangerous” Donald Trump from becoming President, Caplan says the media needs to begin taking Mr. Trump seriously and “hold him and the Republican Party accountable for the damage he does.”
In an email to Campus Reform, Caplan explained his fear of what a Trump Presidency might look like.
“The greatest danger is that a man willing to use racism to gain political support gets elected and then shapes his policies on poverty, immigration, criminal justice and jobs on the basis of his blatantly and dangerous racist views,” Caplan said.
Dr. Caplan isn’t the first college professor to liken a Republican presidential candidate to Adolf Hitler. Last week, University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Sara Goldrick-Rab made headlines over comments she made comparing Wisconsin Governor and presidential candidate Scott Walker (R) to the mustachioed dictator.
The Trump campaign did not respond to Campus Reform’s request for comment.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @peterjhasson |
Gundam Extreme VS Force Is Getting Plasma-Blasted By Amazon Reviews In Japan
By Sato . December 23, 2015 . 4:30am
Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS Force released today in Japan, and Japanese fans have been expressing their dissatisfaction with the game by plasma-blasting Amazon Japan with exceptionally low review scores. [Thanks, Hachima.]
While Japanese reviews on Amazon are known for being a bit more harsh than their western counterparts, an average score of 1.4 stars is still pretty low for any title, let alone a Mobile Suit Gundam game, which usually gets at least 3 or 4 stars on average.
The below is a few lines of criticism shared by users who purchased the game:
“It’s a different game that simply used the name of the “Gundam VS” series. It’s pretty much a Gundam Musou game that doesn’t let you “Musou.” [Basically saying that it plays like a Musou game without its charm or hundreds of enemies to take on.]”
“No free battle or online versus, and a drastic reduction of the number of mechs available, I don’t get what’s the point of this game.”
“The worst content of all Gundam games as of late.”
“While it’s okay to release [a game] as a standalone version with the premise of solo-play, the degree of completeness is way too low, even for a single player game.”
“The stress that comes from its bad camera angles is just horrible.”
“The retail version can be sold as a used game, but for those who purchased the download version, it’s like they threw 7,000 yen down the gutters.”
“If they can’t put in a free battle mode, then I wish they’d at least have an arcade mode.”
“Gundam fans are being looked down upon by Bandai Namco, who probably think they can cut corners for a game and still have it sell.”
Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS Force will release in the west in 2016 for PlayStation Vita. |
Loren Schmidt managed to garner critical acclaim and recognition as a talented up-and-coming indie developer with his pixelated platformer, Star Guard. I found out just what makes Loren tick.
Age?
28
Location?
Oakland, California
Development tool(s) of choice?
I’ve used AS3, Java, and Processing, and I’m currently limping along in C++.
For art and sound, I use used GIMP and sfxr. I’m hoping to become increasingly familiar with making sound effects, because I don’t know a lot about it and it seems like a lot of fun.
How did game development come into your life?
My parents were somewhat anti-media, and I didn’t have a lot of exposure to television or games at home. I was introduced to games through fleeting encounters with arcade machines and visits to friends’ houses.
While I would have loved learning to make games as a young child, we didn’t have a computer when I was young. I didn’t have an opportunity to start until much later in life. Looking back, though, there were a lot of indications of where I was headed. I used to draw a lot. I made mazes with my friends, built castles out of blocks and spent countless hours building things with Lego. I was fascinated with interactivity. I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books. I made up a lot of board games, many of which imitated video games in some way. I distinctly recall making up a broken turn based version of Space Invaders on a checkerboard. Bad tuning!
What are your goals as an indie developer?
One of my favorite things is seeing a project where all the parts come together and fit perfectly. Solo development is very appealing to me, because that happens so naturally. The same is true of making games with a small team.
Like a lot of other people I know, in the past I’ve had trouble with taking on too many projects and not bringing any of them to fruition. Right now one of my goals is to get better about finishing things.
Do you have any plans to collaborate with any other developers at some point in the future? Is there anyone in particular that you feel is on a similar wavelength to yourself?
I really enjoy collaborations. Though none of them have been released, I have done a few projects with other developers. I made a little maze game with Oryx earlier this year. It’s called Famaze. We really should finish that…
I think I’m happiest when I’m making things in close proximity to other people. I do solo projects a lot, though, so try to satisfy that need by actively staying in touch with a few friends who have similar interests. We regularly share our progress with each other and send builds and screen shots back and forth. I draw a lot of inspiration from that. There are a lot of people with whom I’d love to collaborate, though I don’t currently have any plans. For instance I really like Anna Anthropy’s stuff. I’d love to do a little collaborative project with her at some point…
What were your primary influences in creating Star Guard?
The biggest influences were Flywrench, first person shooters, and shmups. Esthetically, I’m drawn toward games which feature tiny living things moving around in a little world. There’s something magical about that. A game like Lode Runner is a bit like a dollhouse or an ant farm. The Pit (Centuri, 1982) has a similar magical feel. It’s not a good game, but it appeals to me strongly in that way and had a big effect on the feel of the game.
What did you learn about game development from the development and subsequent critical success of Star Guard?
Initially, development went well. The game came together steadily, and I was excited about it and eager to see it completed. However, that phase didn’t last forever. Star Guard is one of many projects which was hurt by my lack of follow through. I never stopped liking the game or believing in it, but in the latter half of development my productivity plummeted. I got into the habit of getting very little done and I didn’t feel good about it. I had some trouble with depression during this period, and that affected things as well.
I’ve fallen in love with a lot of projects and then seen myself fail to complete them. That hurts a lot, so I’ve put a lot of effort into figuring out why that happened. I’m still learning, but my current project is going a lot more smoothly. One thing I’ve changed is that I’m structuring things a bit more. I’m writing down short term goals for myself, and dividing each goal into bite sized pieces. That helps a lot. I can’t think about it all at once, that’s daunting! Another thing I’m trying to do is get enough sleep. On autopilot I have a tendency do wise things like stay up until 3 AM playing Doom. While I enjoy that, I find myself feeling a lot better and being more productive when I get up early after a good night’s rest and start making things immediately.
One thing that went very well during the development of Star Guard is testing. A bunch of people kindly volunteered to help test. It was really time consuming, but I learned a lot. Because I didn’t have the facilities to do proper testing, I asked people to record video of themselves playing. That turned out to be very helpful, particularly in improving the level design and the feel of the controls. I’m very thankful to everyone who helped test the game at various stages, and I try to make it up to them by helping test other people’s games whenever I can.
At what point did you switch to c++ and how did you find the learning curve?
I was initially a visual artist, but I wanted to be able to make games. With that intent, I’ve been learning to program over the past five years or so.
I’ve done a little bit of C++ stuff in the past, but I never really became familiar with it. I picked it back up recently because it’s a good fit for my current project. Over the last few months I’ve been industriously creating memory leaks, getting confused by syntax and committing stylistic blasphemy. Bit by bit I’m getting a more comfortable with the language. All things considered, I think it’s been treating me well.
How do you approach the planning of a game and the development process itself?
I usually begin with a fuzzy idea of what the game will feel like and a few core design ideas. At some point early in the project, I decide on what sorts of technology and which platform to use. Sometimes that takes me a while to decide.
I’ve noticed that in the past I’ve had trouble with projects which require a large amount of setup. If I spend months and months making an engine and building an editor, it can feel like I’m not getting anything done. I’m learning that long preparation periods are dangerous. To offset that, I’m ordering things a bit differently now. I’m trying to prioritize in such a way that I have something playable as quickly as possible- if I have to postpone some editor and engine features, that’s fine. I just need to be able to run around in the game world, to actually have something that feels like a game. I’m also spicing up that initial setup period with fun things like drawing and writing bits of story, so it’s not all code.
Space Ninja from Alillm really seems very similar to Star Guard in more ways then one. Do you see a game such as this as a compliment or does it annoy you that someone styled their game so closely to Star Guard?
My reaction to the game was positive. It seemed like it had a decent amount of effort put into it. In general I don’t really believe in ownership of ideas.
Where do you draw the line between a loving homage and a blantant rip-off?
Well, where it really gets sticky is when two commercial products are stepping on each other’s toes. Then it’s not just a matter of cave man politics. As an example, the iPhone version of Desktop Dungeons was beaten to release by a game which borrowed from it rather heavily. Fortunately the competitor was withdrawn from the app store, but it sounds as though it was a really ugly experience for the developers involved.
What motivates you to keep developing?
There are simply a lot of games that should exist and don’t. While I’m making a game, I have a picture in my head of how I imagine it to be. The urge to actually be able to play it is a huge motivator. I also get a lot of enjoyment from the process. It’s so much fun seeing things come to life. I find that very satisfying.
What are your thoughts on the indie scene and what it has become over the last couple of years?
I’ve been too much of a hermit over the past few six months or so! The community is great. I’m constantly amazed at how friendly and open people are. That’s wonderful for current developers, and it’s also important because it makes it easier for new developers to learn how to make games in the first place.
If you are trying to figure something out, sometimes people point you at Google. Search engines are a great resource, but I feel that needs to come with a qualifier. Google is a terrible teacher. People, on the other hand, can understand what you know and don’t know, and intuitively grasp what you need next in order to learn most effectively. I’m increasingly of the opinion that the best way to pick up a new skill is from another person.
Though it’s easier than it ever has been to make games, the bar for entry is still too high. You shouldn’t need to be technically minded to make a game. Today making a game is a bit like sitting down with a reel of paper and punching out music for a player piano. It’s a meticulous, technical task. Making games should be more like playing a piano.
How high do you set the bar for yourself? Are you a perfectionist? Does a game have to fit together perfectly before you release it?
I’m definitely a perfectionist, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. I enjoy doing detailing and polish, which is definitely a plus. But sometimes, by which I mean usually, I make things more complicated than they need to be by doing things the hard way. One way this affects my process is that I tend to iterate a lot. For instance, when I was making Star Guard I spent a lot of time shuffling around the order of the rooms within the levels, playing with the pacing. I’m never going to make anything perfect, but yes- my habits definitely affect my ability to complete a project and get it out the door. When I can see so many glaring flaws in something I’m making, it’s hard to do the sensible thing and just release it.
After release, do you enjoy playing your own games (or does the urge to play drop off)?
I do enjoy playing things once I’ve completed them. I went back and played through Star Guard earlier this month. It was fun, and also interesting- I’d spent enough time away from it that it seemed almost like someone else had made it. It was a weird dual sensation.
You entered Star Guard into Independent Games Festival (IGF) in 2010, for which it was nominated as a finalist in the Excellence in Design category. What expectations did you have in entering it and would you have rathered it be a finalist for any other category?
I think comparing games is a bit like comparing cats and cuttlefish. I mean, clearly they’re both wonderful, and they’re so different that it seems odd to pick a winner. Due to the size of the event, I entered without high expectations. There are so many entrants every year! Design seemed like the best fit, but I wasn’t expecting anything.
Did you receive any constructive feedback from the judges and do you think the process of judgement was fair?
In general I felt that the feedback I received was too brief and overly vague.
I was really happy with the other design finalists that year. I really like Miegakure and Monaco, and when it came down to it I didn’t have any preference about which got the award. I had mixed feelings about some of the other categories, though. It seemed like the judging process was a bit too random.
My main complaint was with the numerical rating system. That kind of approach biases results in favor of mass appeal and competency instead of focus and inspiration. Actually I’m very happy with the process they used this year. I was glad to see them shift to a fuzzier, numbers-free approach with more emphasis on the final panel of judges.
What does IGF mean to you and what would winning mean to you? |
A journey is best measured in friends, rather than in miles – Tim Cahill
We had met in Delhi after a gap of 25 years on the occasion of silver jubilee of passing out of college. It was then that four of my classmates and I had decided to go on an all women’s trip to relive our old camaraderie in a new place, in a different city, maybe in a different country.
Thus, began the search for a tour company and we got in touch with SOTC holidays for their World Tour Packages.
For us Indians, Russia generally does not come across as a top destination of choice for tourism as it is perceived as a cold and distant place, off the radar. But, that was precisely the reason why we chose Russia.
As Aldous Huxley has said –
To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.
SOTC Holidays suggested a customized tour package for us to two Russian cities – Moscow and St Petersburg. We decided to grab this opportunity to see the present capital and the past capital of Russia. It took us about a month of planning and coordination to finalize the tour and finally in the 3rd week of August, we set off on a five day trip to St Petersburg and Moscow. Our itinerary included 3 days of stay in St. Petersburg and 2 days in Moscow, with guided city tours scheduled on the 2nd and 5th day of the trip.
Delhi was the starting point of our group tour (three of my friends stay in Delhi). Boarding the early morning flight from Delhi, we landed in Moscow. From there we got onto the flight for St. Petersburg. Strangely, we had to check out our luggage at Moscow and after completing the immigration, check in again on the flight to St Petersburg. It was a short flight. In one and a half hours, we were in St. Petersburg, the city known for its art, splendid architecture, beautiful gardens, magnificent cathedrals and the largest museum in Europe,
Arrival at St Petersburg
A young lady named Jane received us at the airport at St Petersburg and accompanied us to our hotel in the van. On the way, she briefed us a little on the city. The driver spoke only Russian though. The weather was pleasantly warm. We reached hotel Marco Polo by 1.30 pm and checked into the two rooms that were booked for the five of us. By 4.00 pm, we were all set to go out and explore the port city, which is sometimes referred to as the Venice of the North.
The hotel was of old construction. It did not have a lift, but the staff arranged for our luggage to be carried up to our rooms. The lady at the concierge spoke English. She kindly offered to take us around to a currency exchange counter, where we exchanged USD for Rubles. She also booked a taxi for us that took us to the Hermitage, one of the world’s best and largest museums — considered at par with Louvre in Paris.
Hermitage Museum
With the tickets that we had booked online, we entered the Winter Palace of the museum, which had for long served as the official residence of the Russian monarchs. The palace, with its enormous halls, famous marble staircase (Jordan Staircase), gilded wall mouldings, dazzling white marble statues is an epitome of elegance and luxury. Parts of the palace still retain the original 18th-century style. It gave us a glimpse of the ostentatious lifestyle of the Tsars.
After the museum closed down at 6 pm, we strolled around in the Palace Square. While I was admiring the enormous curved façade of the museum, I heard two of my friends discussing the design of rainwater pipes. Civil engineers never miss a chance to talk about drainage! We took a taxi back to the hotel. The next day was marked for the guided city tour.
Guided City Tour of St Petersburg
“Dobroe utro!” greeted our tour guide when we met him at the hotel reception on the next morning. At 10 AM, we set out for our city tour in a minivan. Our guide briefed us on the historic significance of the various places that we crossed, stopping at the spots from where we could get the most picturesque views of the city.
Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood and Kazan Cathedral
After a couple of clicks by the side of River Neva, we proceeded to Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. The tour included a view from outside, but after seeing the beautiful medieval Russian architecture on the exterior of the cathedral we were tempted to purchase the tickets and have a look inside. I was glad that we did so, for the entire interior is covered in beautiful mosaics depicting many scenes from the bible. Out of the Cathedral, we walked through the cobblestone street with open shops on one side selling souvenirs and the canal flowing on the other. On a footbridge, we clicked some pictures with characters in costumes.
Just across the road was the impressive Kazan Cathedral, built in a distinctive European style. The entrance to the Cathedral is free. Here, too, we got to see some fabulous interiors, with numerous sculptures and icons created by the best Russian artists of the times.
St. Issac’s Cathedral
The next stop was at St. Issac’s Cathedral, which is the largest Russian Orthodox cathedral in the city. Our guide purchased the tickets and took us inside. That was a sight to behold! In the grand hall were several brightly coloured mosaic pictures covering every inch of the walls and ceiling of the cathedral. Tall green and blue columns of Malachite and Lapiz Lazuli framed the iconostasis.
After the visit to the cathedral, while the rest of the group went for shopping at the Nevsky Prospekt, I along with one friend decided to stay back and go to the top of the Colonnade. A climb of about 300 spiral steps leads to a landing. From there, a straight staircase with transparent sides goes up to the top. From the midway of the last flight, when I looked down, I did feel a little jittery but the climb was definitely worth the view.
After the city tour, four of my friends decided to go for the circus, while I went back to the Hermitage to see the General Staff Building and Menshikov Palace.
Peterhof Palace, Russian Folklore Show
On the third day, we were on our own. We ventured out to Peterhof Palace, which is situated some 25 km west of St. Petersburg. Taking the Metro, we changed lines and managed to reach the place without the slightest knowledge of Russian. The huge palace garden decorated with fountains and statues was extremely soothing to the senses. Suddenly, the weather cooled down a lot and it started raining. After some time, we made a retreat.
In the evening, the clouds had cleared. We went to see a Russian folklore show at Nikolaevsky Palace.
City tour of Moscow
Early next morning, we were driven down to the station. Taking the SAPSAN train at 7 AM, we reached Moscow in four hours. With its modern steel and glass buildings, Moscow appeared to be starkly different. But after we went to the Old Arbat Street in the evening, we got a flavour of the old Moscow, with its historical buildings, outdoor cafes, souvenir stores, and street performers.
Red Square and Kremlin
The guided city tour on the next day included a visit to the famous Red Square and Kremlin Territory+ Cathedrals including Bell tower of Ivan, Tsar Bell, Tsar Canon. The first spot where we stopped during the guided city tour was the Red Square, Kremlin area. Our guide Nataliya told us that the name Red Square is derived from the word ‘Krasnaya’, which means ‘beautiful’, and ‘red’ in Russian. She purchased the tickets and we went into the adjacent Kremlin Territory, where we saw the Tsar Bell, the Tsar Canon and four Cathedrals.
We walked over to the legendary St Basil’s Cathedral, which is one of the most photographed sights in Moscow, after which we entered the GUM mall, the largest shopping mall in Moscow. Check out the details in the post below.
Read: Red Square Kremlin – A walk through the heritage sites in Moscow
Metro Stations in Moscow
Taking the Metro, we went to Arabat Street where our van was waiting. Moscow has some of the most beautiful metro stations in the world that are a must see for any tourist. With its chandeliered ceilings and Baroque-style decor, Mayakovskaya station resembles a grand ballroom, while Kiyevskaya station is decorated with classical paintings. Then we drove down to Poklonnaya Hill and stopped at the Moscow State University.
The guided tour concluded at 6 pm and we got down at a restaurant for dinner. All of a sudden it started pouring so heavily that by the time we reached the hotel we were completely drenched.
On the third day, we went around and explored the neighbouring areas before taking the flight back.
Since our stay was of a very limited duration, the customised package worked well for us. The guided city tour ensured the efficient use of time, while the free days gave us the chance to explore on our own. The choice of hotel in St Petersburg was good and in Moscow was excellent. The guides and the girls who accompanied from airport to the hotel and back were very friendly, enthusiastic and helpful. Overall, it was a wonderful experience to explore new places with old friends and create new memories while reliving the old ones.
“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”
To plan your holiday trips with SOTC Holidays, find their Vacation Packages here.
Travel tips:
It is advisable to book the tickets for Hermitage Museum and the folklore or ballet shows online to avoid the long queue.
Booking taxi from the hotel is recommended. Uber taxis are also available. For other taxis, it is best to negotiate the price before getting into the taxi.
It helps to carry a Matrix Card from India for making local and international calls.
If you want pictures with characters dressed in costumes, negotiate the price per picture before clicking.
Sturdy walking shoes and umbrella are a must along with hat, cap, scarves or mufflers and appropriate woollens for the season.
Euro and USD can easily be exchanged for Ruble. Try not to exchange much of your money in and around the airport. Better exchange rates can be obtained from banks or from currency exchange counters.
A universal adapter comes in handy for charging the electronic devices. If you need one, just scroll down to get it on Amazon.
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By: Somali K Chakrabarti Hi there! Welcome to Scribble and Scrawl! Here, we delve into themes related to positive lifestyle, explore facets of art and culture, share travel experiences, and highlight inspiring stories. Hope you enjoy reading the posts. |
Fetch is the native AJAX API to replace jQuery.get()
As a term AJAX has been around for over a decade now. While many still relate to it as rich and fluid interfaces, the real deal is the possibility of making asynchronous requests to the server from the browser.
As browsers evolved the XMLHttpRequest API used for AJAX did not not evolve. This is why many developers still rely on including the whole jQuery library just to abstract asynchronous HTTP Request. jQuery has a great and simple to use API for many things, but including it just for AJAX is overkill.
Finally the Web API has a new native alternative available. This is known as the Fetch API and offers a very simple way of getting content from the server with JavaScript in the browser. The API is a high level one that has a generic definition of HTTP Request and Response objects.
To anyone used to working with the HTTP, the concepts are immediately familiar:
GlobalFetch : Contains the fetch() method used to fetch a resource.
: Contains the fetch() method used to fetch a resource. Headers : Represents response/request headers, allowing you to query them and take different actions depending on the results.
: Represents response/request headers, allowing you to query them and take different actions depending on the results. Request : Represents a resource request.
: Represents a resource request. Response: Represents the response to a request.
In addition to standard features developers would expect, the Fetch API definition handles closely related concepts such as CORS (Cross-origin resource sharing) and HTTP origin headers. The fetch resouce is available in the browser's standard window object and has only a single mandatory argument - the request URL.
The fetch method returns a JavaScript promise that makes it convenient to work with the asynchronous nature of HTTP requests in the browser context. Once the response is received, there are a number of methods available in the object.
Browser support for the Fetch API is very good with evergreen browsers such as Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Opera already supporting the feature. Internet Explorer does not support the API, but there is a fetch API polyfill that can be used for it. |
Over the past few days, I've been talking to multiple sources about Star Wars: First Assault, the troubled multiplayer shooter that could be LucasArts's downloadable take on Battlefield and Call of Duty.
Today Kotaku can reveal gameplay footage from the Star Wars shooter, which has not been announced and may never actually make it out of the studio, even though it's almost finished.
Star Wars: First Assault was meant to be a "predecessor" to Battlefront III, we learned this week. LucasArts planned to release it this spring as a downloadable game, but Disney's acquisition of the company put all games on freeze as executives try to figure out what to do with the Star Wars property.
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We've got two clips of First Assault, both cut from a trailer that was designed for internal use at LucasArts back in October/November. This is footage from an older version of the game, and may not be a perfect reflection of what First Assault looks like today, but given that LucasArts won't talk about the game, this is all we've got.
"The trailer contains all in-game footage, including known bugs and incomplete art," said a source. "In the time since it was made, many improvements have been made in performance, completeness, and quality."
The first clip is the pre-rendered intro to the trailer. It gives you a look through the eyes of a Stormtrooper putting on his helmet:
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UPDATE: Following a takedown request sent from Lucasfilm's legal department to our parent company, Gawker Media, we have removed both videos. Lucasfilm claims copyright on them and has also been pulling down versions of these clips that were ripped onto other sites on the Internet. We can assume that the next time you'll see the game—if you see it again—will be when Lucasfilm wants you to.
The second clip contains gameplay footage from Star Wars: First Assault. In this clip, you can see stormtroopers and rebels battling across various Star Wars locales, like the desert planet Tatooine. It's very reminiscent of multiplayer mode in a first-person shooter like Call of Duty or Battlefield or Lucas's own Star Wars: Battlefront.
The video shows action in both first- and third-person. We don't know if that's a third-person mode or just clips from a replay (or footage designed specifically for this trailer). You can also see some of the game's guns, attacks, and special abilities:
It's still unclear exactly what will wind up happening with Star Wars: First Assault in the coming weeks and months. We'll continue to dig around and update you as we hear more about the new Star Wars shooter and the troubled state of LucasArts today. |
In a free market, consumer goods are remarkably heterogeneous. We don’t just buy ketchup, we have to choose between regular, organic, reduced sugar, low sodium, and umpteen other variations. Just as importantly, we have to choose between Heinz, Hunts, Great Value, and other brands. It was John Henry Heinz, in fact, who became the first person to associate his name with the unadulterated processed foods he produced, allowing his product to be distinguished from competitors.
By: Chris Calton
This article first appeared at Mises.org
The Economic Function of Branding
Economically, though, name brands serve an important function. In Basic Economics, Thomas Sowell explains that brand names “are a way of economizing on scarce knowledge, and forcing producers to compete in quality as well as price.” There may be no physical difference between Heinz and Great Value, and a consumer who believes this is the case will purchase the cheaper product. But if a consumer is not familiar with the latter brand, they have to weigh the cost benefit of a cheaper brand against the risk of getting an inferior product; with the brand name product, the quality is more certain.
This has important implications on the black market. In the Soviet Union, for example, brands were done away with to reduce the heterogeneity of products. Soviet citizens circumvented this by learning to read barcodes to identify which products were produced in the superior factories.
Branding has particularly important implications in the area of narcotics. When goods are made illegal, smugglers will continue to trade them, but the ability to establish brand consistency is suppressed. It would require a producer to survive the illicit trade long enough to establish this reputation, a means of conveying the information in the absence of open and legitimate advertisement, and some enforcement mechanism for distributors to prevent the alteration of the product.
Attempts to economize on knowledge have been made in the black market, though. During the Vietnam War, Laotian General Ouana Rattikone ran a successful international opium ring. He produced “No. 3 heroin,” which has three processing phases and normally has a purity of between 20-40 percent. His heroin, though, was consistently near 50 percent pure. Because this was a consistent, higher quality good, Rattikone established the trademark “999” for his heroin (taken from the 99.9 gold standard). Although his actual heroin was not 99.9 percent pure, the brand name was still associated with a specific quality of heroin that buyers were able to trust.
Source: US Department of Justice.
The competitive response to this was to start producing higher-purity heroin. “No. 4 heroin” requires an additional processing phase that is dangerous and needs more skilled drug chemists to produce, but it yields heroin with purity levels of above 80 percent. As long as Rattikone maintained his established business practice, his 999 brand would eventually be seen as the identifier of low-quality heroin in a market of the higher-purity No. 4.
Rattikone did adapt successfully, though. He established his own refineries for No. 4 heroin, and by the early 1970s, he owned the largest No. 4 refinery in Indo-China. With this new product, he established the brand “Double UOGlobe” or, “Double Lion Earth Brand” for the Chinese. Under the brand labels were warnings for consumers to “Beware of Counterfeits” and advertising 100 percent purity.
At this point, critics of a free market may see this as an argument against the competition and branding of dangerous products. This would, however, be a hasty critique.
Partially as a result of the Vietnam War, heroin became a popular drug in the United States in the 1970s. Smugglers began mass export of this high-grade heroin to the United States so that by the mid-1970s, the Golden Triangle of Indo-China was responsible for 70 percent of the world’s opium supply.
Black-Market Drugs Are More Dangerous
In The Economics of Prohibition, Mark Thornton explains in detail why prohibited substances see higher degrees of potency than licit substances. According to what was later termed “The Iron Law of Prohibition,” making an intoxicant illegal will obviously not do away with the product, but it will incentivize the supply of only the most powerful forms of the substance. During alcohol prohibition, for example, strong liquors became relatively more common compared to beer, and the trend reversed after the repeal of the 18th amendment.
Two important reasons for this phenomenon is that the relative cost of the higher grade of a drug is lower when there is a uniform increase in cost applied to all grades. This may be something like an excise tax or transportation costs. As a result, consumers in this area will demand more of the higher-grade item. Second, when smuggling, anything with a higher value-to-weight ratio will be more profitable for smugglers, which clearly applies to higher-potency drugs.
The real danger in this is that these phenomena apply to the transaction between the smuggler and the domestic distributor of the drugs, rather than the consumer. In a country in which heroin is illegal, such as the United States, the domestic distributor is the person who will purchase the high-potency drugs. Before they sell them to consumers, though, they “cut” the drugs with other substances to dilute them and increase profit margins.
Where prohibition enforcement is higher, it is increasingly difficult to establish brand consistency. This may happen in the case of a trusted dealer (think of the scene from Pulp Fiction in which John Travolta’s character is negotiating a heroin trade). But when a consumer has to obtain their product from a new dealer, the product knowledge from the first dealer is necessarily obsolete. This is something unseen when a consumer shifts from purchasing Heinz ketchup at Kroger to purchasing it at Wal-Mart, where brands can be established and maintained.
The logical result of this practice of distributors importing high-potency heroin and then diluting it before resale is that consumers have no way of knowing what consistency of heroin they are purchasing; they are unable to economize on brand knowledge. This has a significantly negative impact on the rate of overdose.
It is a common misconception that heroin addicts will inject higher and higher amounts of heroin, chasing their high, until they eventually overdose. The reality that has been observed since countries like Portugal and Switzerland have decriminalized narcotics is that heroin addicts will increase consumption up to a certain point at which their usage stabilizes and then eventually they typically (contrary to popular perception) reduce their own consumption voluntarily.
The real cause of overdose is the fact that heroin addicts in an illegal market have to use guesswork regarding their dosage. When they purchase heroin with an unknown consistency, they occasionally come into possession of higher-purity heroin than they’re accustomed to. As a result, they inject more of the drug than they desire and unwittingly overdose. It is government suppression of the market for narcotics that so significantly increases the dangers of the very substances they claim to be keeping people safe from.
The Iron Law of Prohibition illustrates why narcotics would likely decrease in potency following legalization. Even assuming this were not the case, though, a legal environment would allow for the establishment of brand names with consistent qualities of the substance. While this would not eliminate the dangers of heroin use, it would serve to significantly reduce the possibility of overdose because users would have better knowledge of what they are injecting. Even in the case of something as dangerous as drugs, a free market is the policy that will produce the most positive outcome.
Chris Calton is a Mises University alumnus and an economic historian. See his YouTube channel here.
This article first appeared at Mises.org |
Our society tends to think about business as the enemy of the environment and of trees. It's no wonder, given the things businesses have done. It's very easy to blame them for all the things wrong with the world. It happens because most of the time we use business to make as much money as we can, forgetting about the damages they do to the planet and to people. However, we should remember that businesses do what people make them do. If you want to solve people's problems, businesses can help you do that too.
Ah, but the profit motive is the key to driving people towards that route, we hear you say. This is why we've created a new kind of business model called "social business." It is a kind of business that has taken out of the picture the motive of personal financial profit, because we think there are other incentives in life besides personal financial gain. So it is a business that does make a profit, but as profit that either goes to the investor to pay back only his investment money, or as profit that is recycled into expanding the business or into activities that benefit the local community and environment. When the entrepreneurs commit to this in the Articles of Association, they are making it clear that solving social problems is their primary objective.
Over the years, we have created many social businesses in Bangladesh and abroad. We have learned that social businesses can achieve a lot of things, including providing nutrition to children (Grameen Danone), providing access to solar energy (Grameen Shakti) and healthcare (Grameen GC Eye Care Hospitals).
Today, we want to talk to you about a very special social business in Haiti, Kreyòl Essence. Haiti is affected by the worst deforestation any country has experienced, which is currently at 98.5 percent. As it is, people in Haiti are affected by severe poverty, which forces them to cut down trees for fuel for cooking. Over time, this deforestation leads to soil erosion and degrades agricultural lands. It becomes a vicious cycle.
Kreyòl Essence's business model recognizes that people in Haiti need jobs and stable income before they can worry about planting trees. Haiti has over 40 percent unemployment and one of the lowest income levels in the Western Hemisphere.
The first tranche of our investment capital was raised on Kiva.org, an innovative platform that allows anyone around the world lend to entrepreneurs from developing countries. Loans can be as small as $25. We posted the loan around midnight on June 16, 2014. Incredibly, in less than three days, we raised $100,000 from just under 3,000 borrowers from around the world. It was the biggest loan ever to be raised on Kiva, and in record time. We could not believe our eyes. It demonstrated that ordinary people were willing to put their money behind a great social business idea. Businesses that solve social problems is not only a viable, but extremely popular investment proposition! |
Manuel Pellegrini signed a one-year contract extension with Manchester City on Friday and insisted if the club wanted Pep Guardiola they would have told him.
Pellegrini’s new deal ties him to the club until 2017, with his previous contract having been due to expire at the end of this season. City are long-term admirers of Guardiola, the Bayern Munich coach. Their sporting director, Txiki Begiristain, and chief executive, Ferran Soriano, worked with him at Barcelona.
Although Pellegrini admitted Guardiola would be favoured by any club, he is confident of his own position. “[I’m] not talking about Pep Guardiola, he is a manager that every team will want to manage because he is a great manager,” he said.
“Maybe he is more linked with this team because of the relationship with Txiki and Ferran and I trust in them and I am sure if they want to bring in him, they will tell me. I have no problem with my relations inside the club. I know exactly how the owners think.” Of his fresh terms Pellegrini said: “What it means for me – it is very important for the club to trust in our work. I am very happy here also at Manchester City so if both parties are happy to continue [then good].”
Pellegrini admitted there is a possibility he could still be sacked as results are still vital to any manager’s job prospects. “I was used last season to the speculation. [Carlo] Ancelotti had a contract signed [with Real Madrid] and Jürgen Klopp had also a contract [at Borussia Dortmund],” he said. “You know in this profession you need the results so it is very important for me to have a good season and good results. In football you never know how long are the contracts.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Manuel Pellegrini backs Raheem Sterling ahead of Premier League start. Link to video.
Pellegrini would be open to staying at City beyond 2017. “You can sign for 10 years and four months after you are sacked but I think that when the two parties are happy with how you are working, of course you can extend your contract, not just for one year or two years. For me, the owners are happy with the way I am working. Me, I am also happy at this club. It is impossible to know about the future.”
David Silva, Sergio Agüero and Samir Nasri have each recovered from stomach bugs that troubled them in the week so should be available for Monday evening’s trip to West Bromwich Albion.
“The only player that will not be fit for Monday is [Gaël] Clichy,” said Pellegrini. “He has a problem in his ankle in the last week and I don’t think he will be 100% fit to be in the squad list. Fabian Delph also is not ready. He has his hamstring injury in the pre-season. All the other players I think will be fit. Agüero, Silva, Nasri they are working hard. Agüero is 100%, Silva also. Nasri is returning from his fitness.”
Last season City let in 38 goals, the most by any of the top four clubs. Vincent Kompany, the captain, had an uneven campaign. But Pellegrini has no concerns over the defender’s ability going into the new season. “I trust a lot in Vincent,” he said. “It is always important to analyse why we concede 38 goals. More than 35% were from set pieces. It is important to concentrate on the second balls and not to concede so many free-kicks or corners.
I don’t think defending comes from just one player. It comes from the team. Last season was also a good experience for Vincent and I am sure we will see the player we saw playing so well two years ago.”
Pellegrini stated that if City do not claim a trophy, the season will be seen as a failure. “For me a good season with a big team is that you must win a title,” he said.
“You cannot say it is a very good season if you win nothing. After that also it is very important in the way you win a title.
“Maybe you can win a title and I am not happy the way we play for me it is not a good season. For me both things: first of all win because you must win titles and second play the way I think we must play.”Regarding Delph’s injury, Pellegrini said: “I think he needs 15 days more. That will be a month from the injury he got in pre-season. He played just 17 minutes but you saw in those 17 minutes that he will be an important player for this club.”
The manager is also hopeful that this season some of the club’s young prospects can progress.”One of the important things that happened in pre season was to see three or four young players, the way they play. I’m talking about Kelechi [Iheanacho], Manu García, Roberts, important players who will do well in our squad,” he said. |
Arcade Fire, Rick Ross, the Black Keys, Fiona Apple Make Oscars Best Original Song Shortlist
Published Dec 11, 2012
Following those recent Grammy nominations , we now have some more high-profile award givers rolling out a list of possible winners. The shortlist for Best Original Song has been revealed for the 2013 Academy Awards, naming off 75 possible contenders for the prize.Among all those songs in question, you'll find Arcade Fire's "Abraham's Daughter" (), Fiona Apple's "Dull Tool" (), the Black Keys' "Baddest Man Alive" (), Karen O's "Strange Love" (), Rick Ross' "100 Black Coffins" (), Mumford and Sons' "Learn Me Right" () and, yes, Adele'stheme.You can see the full list of songs over here The official nominees will be revealed on January 10, and the 85th Annual Academy Awards will take place on February 24. |
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: President Bush has named Solicitor General Paul Clement to serve as acting attorney general. Meanwhile, there has been much speculation about who Bush will nominate to replace Gonzales. Names mentioned in the press include Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former Solicitor General Theodore Olsen, Homeland Security Adviser Frances Fragos Townsend, and former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson.
Jesselyn Radack joins us now from Washington, D.C. She’s a former attorney in the ethics department of the Justice Department. She worked at the Justice Department after the September 11 attacks and dealt with the John Walker Lindh case. At the time, Michael Chertoff headed the Criminal Division of the Justice Department. Two years ago, Jesselyn Radack was a vocal critic of Chertoff’s nomination as homeland security director.
Jesselyn Radack, take us through what happened with John Walker Lindh, right through Michael Chertoff’s involvement.
JESSELYN RADACK: Michael Chertoff was involved from the get-go. I had been the ethics adviser at the Justice Department in the case of the so-called American Taliban, John Walker Lindh. And I had basically advised not to interrogate him without counsel.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain again who John Walker Lindh was.
JESSELYN RADACK: John Walker Lindh was an American citizen who was caught fighting alongside the Taliban, along with Yaser Hamdi, another U.S. citizen, who was recently released to Saudi Arabia. And we prosecuted him. He was one of the first people tagged with the dubious “enemy combatant” label by the Bush administration.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, tell us what happened, and your role, and then Michael Chertoff’s.
JESSELYN RADACK: Basically, the Justice Department disregarded the advice of the ethics unit not to interrogate him without a lawyer, went ahead, interrogated him and, by the pictures we’ve seen worldwide, tortured him, and then went ahead to prosecute him.
Basically, Judge Ellis, who was overseeing the prosecution, ordered that all Justice Department correspondence related to the Lindh interrogation be turned over to the court. That order was concealed from me. I found out about it inadvertently from the prosecutor. And when I went to comply with the order, my emails with the advice not to interrogate him without counsel and the fact that the FBI had committed an ethics violation in doing so were missing from the file. I resurrected those emails from my computer archives and tried to get them to the prosecutor, and when that failed, I turned them over to the media.
As punishment — again, this was all under Michael Chertoff, who at that time was the assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division — under Chertoff, I was placed under criminal investigation. For what, I was never told. I was forced out of the Justice Department, fired from my next job at the government’s behest, referred to the state bars in which I’m licensed as an attorney, based on a secret report to which I did not have access, and put on the no-fly list. And all of that occurred on Michael Chertoff’s watch. So, to the extent that President Bush seeks to rehabilitate the beleaguered Justice Department, I think Chertoff is a very odd choice for that.
AMY GOODMAN: Michael Chertoff was asked about the John Walker Lindh case when he was being confirmed as secretary of homeland security, and you also testified against him. Can you explain what happened there?
JESSELYN RADACK: Well, in his — Chertoff — I’ve been a stumbling block to two of his promotions, because unfortunately that seems to be the Bush credo, to mess up, cover up, lie and get promoted. But during those confirmation hearings, Chertoff said unambiguously that the ethics unit had never given an opinion about the interrogation of John Walker Lindh. And that was contradicted by the public record, by both articles in Newsweek and in The New Yorker. Yet Chertoff kept repeating that assertion two or three times, including in written statements. That was during his confirmation to become a federal judge.
And he was eventually confirmed to be a federal judge, but again this issue of lying came up during his confirmation hearing to be director of the Department of Homeland Security. And again, Chertoff is just as much of a perjurer as Alberto Gonzales. I just think that his time at the Justice Department has been largely forgotten or overlooked, because it’s been so eclipsed by his abysmal performance at the Department of Homeland Security.
AMY GOODMAN: Scott Horton, I’m looking at an email that involves Michael Chertoff. Explain what this is, involving whether Michael Chertoff lied to Congress about Guantanamo.
SCOTT HORTON: Well, it’s yet another incident, I think, along with Jesselyn Radack’s, which to me is a very, very troubling one. He was asked about the development of torture policy and his role in it, whether he knew about abuses that had gone on at Guantanamo that had been reported by FBI agents to his office. He testified that he knew nothing about this and that he had not been involved in the formulation of a torture policy, nor that he had given much advice. He acknowledged that he knew about the torture memorandum, by the way, the so-called Bybee memorandum. But I think things —
AMY GOODMAN: Explain what it said.
SCOTT HORTON: The Bybee memorandum is the memorandum that was actually authored by John Yoo that authorized torture, basically, saying that if the president authorized it, whatever he authorized was fine, and it would not be considered to be torture under American criminal law, as long as it had presidential authorization. So they included things like waterboarding.
Well, after his testimony — in fact, around the time of it, some of the documents came out, but subsequently much more information came out really calling into question the veracity of Chertoff’s testimony here. And I think that email that you’re holding up is one of the key documents. So that email reflects a number of FBI agents briefing Chertoff’s chief of staff and his counsel about highly abusive conduct that was going on at Guantanamo, recounting that they protested about it, they raised questions about it with Major General Miller and others, all to no avail. The Department of Defense continued with the use of these highly abusive techniques.
We know subsequently that the CIA came to Chertoff and to his deputy, Alice Fisher, who now heads the Criminal Division, trying to get clarification based on the torture memorandum. They wanted him to say, as the head of the Criminal Division, that as long as these techniques, these torture techniques, were used by CIA agents, their contractors and their personnel were not going to face criminal prosecution. He has denied repeatedly that he gave any such assurances. I’m being told that he did and that that was a major part of his consultation in connection with the torture memorandum.
AMY GOODMAN: Scott Horton, I also want to ask about Paul Clement, who President Bush has tapped as acting attorney general. In 2004, he represented the Bush administration before the Supreme Court in the case, Donald Rumsfeld v. Jose Padilla. In this exchange with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, he insisted the U.S. does not torture.
JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG: If the law is what the executive says it is, whatever is necessary and appropriate in the executive’s judgment — that’s the resolution you gave us that Congress passed — and it leaves it up to the executive, unchecked by the judiciary. So what is it that would be a check against torture?
PAUL CLEMENT: Well, first of all, there are treaty obligations, but the primary check is that, just as in every other war, if a U.S. military person commits a war crime by creating some atrocity on a harmless, you know, detained enemy combatant or a prisoner of war, that violates our own conception of what’s a war crime, and we’ll put that U.S. military officer on trial in a court-martial. So I think there are plenty of internal reasons —
JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG: Suppose the executive says, “Mild torture, we think, will help get this information.” It’s not a soldier who does something against the Code of Military Justice, but it’s an executive command. Some systems do that to get information.
PAUL CLEMENT: Well, our executive doesn’t, and I think, I mean —
JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG: But what’s constraining, and that’s the point, is it just up to the goodwill of the executive? Is there any judicial check?
PAUL CLEMENT: Well, this is a situation where there is jurisdiction in the habeas courts. So, if necessary, they remain open, but I think it’s very important. I mean, the court in Ludecke v. Watkins made clear that the fact that executive discretion in a war situation can be abused is not a good and sufficient reason for judicial micromanagement and overseeing of that authority. You have to recognize that in situations where there is a war — where the government is on a war footing, that you have to trust the executive.
AMY GOODMAN: That was U.S. Deputy Solicitor General Paul Clement, now the acting attorney general once Alberto Gonzales leaves. Scott Horton, this argument he’s making before the Supreme Court?
SCOTT HORTON: Well, I think first we’ve got to note that the fact that the president has to go down the line to the number four figure in the Department of Justice to find an acting attorney general shows the depth of the problem in that institution right now, its effective decapitation and loss of leadership.
That being said, I think Paul Clement is amongst the leading figures in the Department of Justice, the one who’s the most highly respected, but I think this clip you’ve just played reflects some of the troubles that some people have with Paul. You know, I think he is very ideologically oriented. He was a member of the Federalist Society. And I think he has gone out on a ledge to support the administration several times. I think the passage you just played — two things — I mean, he’s denying that there were torture practices there. I think the facts really undercut what he said. And secondly, he’s also saying, “Don’t worry. Habeas corpus will be available to provide review.” And, of course, it wasn’t. In fact, he worked very hard to avoid it.
AMY GOODMAN: By the way, the date of that was April 28, 2004, the argument before the Supreme Court where he’s being questioned by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A few hours later, if that long, the Abu Ghraib photos were released.
SCOTT HORTON: But certainly people in the administration knew about that several weeks beforehand. So, you know, he was closing his eyes if he didn’t know about it.
AMY GOODMAN: Jesselyn Radack, as we wrap up with you, in one of your writings, now, as Michael Chertoff’s name comes up as the possible attorney general, you start off by saying, yes, there is the case that I can talk about — my own case, John Walker Lindh — but wouldn’t Katrina be enough?
JESSELYN RADACK: Well, one would think that Katrina would be enough, and his spectacular failure in heading the Department of Homeland Security should be enough to caution against him serving as attorney general. But, again, I ask people to reflect back on the fact that Michael Chertoff had been at the Justice Department before in a leadership role shortly after 9/11. He had been the head of the Criminal Division, he had been at the Justice Department before. And on his watch, a lot of atrocious things occurred, including, as Scott Horton mentioned, torture.
And, again, while most people may not remember my case, I’ve written about it in my book, Canary in the Coalmine. It’s out there. I’ve detailed Chertoff’s perjury during his previous confirmation hearings to other positions of power. And while, yes, his performance at the Department of Homeland Security should be enough to preclude any consideration of him for the nation’s top law enforcement position, I think one could also easily look to his record when he was, in fact, at the Department of Justice.
AMY GOODMAN: Jesselyn Radack, I want to thank you for being with us.
JESSELYN RADACK: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Yes, former attorney in the ethics department at the Justice Department. Her book, The Canary in the Coalmine: Blowing the Whistle in the Case of “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh.
Scott Horton, your final comment, as we look at Alberto Gonzales resigning, the possibility of Michael Chertoff replacing him, and Paul Clement as the acting attorney general right now.
SCOTT HORTON: Well, I’ll just follow up on the comment that was just made about Chertoff’s tenure at the Criminal Division. I think that’s right. If we look, he ran that division. He also appointed one of his closest protégés, Noel Hillman, as the head of the Public Integrity Unit. So it is while he was running that division and his protégé was running Public Integrity that we had prosecutions at the ratio of seven-to-one of elected Democrats against Republicans, including the Siegelman matter beginning. So this —
AMY GOODMAN: Siegelman, the Alabama governor who’s now in prison.
SCOTT HORTON: Precisely. And so, I think this entire process of politicization of the prosecutorial process is going on under Michael Chertoff’s watch. So if we want a new attorney general who’s going to come in and straighten things out and restore the integrity and reputation of the Department of Justice, Michael Chertoff is an awfully odd choice for that.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Michael Chertoff has not been announced. If they were announcing him this week, it would be on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Do you think right now they’re floating that name, as has been done before, to see what the public’s response would be?
SCOTT HORTON: That’s precisely what’s going on. I think it’s clear that there’s a list of a half-dozen names. He’s the number one name on the list, because he’s been reconfirmed three times for offices in the last five years. So I think people in the White House think he is confirmable. They’ve floated the name now to see what sort of problems he’s going to face, and I think they may have underestimated the problems.
AMY GOODMAN: Scott Horton, thanks for joining us, Columbia Law professor, contributor to Harper’s magazine, writes the blog, ” No Comment.” |
If there’s one consolation that summer’s almost over, it’s that the best books of the year are on their way. Take a look at this year’s dazzlingly rich fall novels, stuffed with works from Elena Ferrante, Jonathan Franzen, Margaret Atwood, and John Irving, to name just a few.
The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante
Ferrante’s final Neapolitan novel follows Lila and Elena as they wrestle with their fraught, decades-long friendship. (Sept. 1)
Purity, Jonathan Franzen
In Franzen’s long-awaited doorstop of a novel, a girl named Purity embarks on a journey through South America to find herself. (Sept. 1)
Did You Ever Have a Family, Bill Clegg
He may be better known as a literary agent and memoirist, but Clegg’s debut novel—about a woman named June who loses her entire family in one fell swoop—has been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. (Sept. 8)
Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff
In Groff’s stunning novel, one seemingly perfect marriage (and its secrets) is shown from both sides over 24 years. (Sept. 15)
The Heart Goes Last, Margaret Atwood
Atwood trains her oft-twisted eye on a down-on-their-luck married couple who stumble upon a town where residents can be comfortably unemployed…but there’s a catch. (Sept. 29)
Gold Fame Citrus, Claire Vaye Watkins
As a drought cripples Southern California, some people are sent to internment camps while others scavenge to survive. (Sept. 29)
City on Fire, Garth Risk Hallberg
It’s hard to believe this layered, 944-page 1970s New York epic is a debut: The glitter and grime of the city’s punk heyday are captured in gorgeous detail as multiple stories converge. (Oct. 13)
Welcome to Night Vale, Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor
From the creators of the podcast comes this novel about a Southwestern town full of ghosts, aliens, and shape-shifters. (Oct. 20)
The Mark and the Void, Paul Murray
The financial crisis is drenched in humor in this tale about a banker whose life becomes more interesting when a downtrodden author starts fictionalizing it. (Oct. 20)
The Japanese Lover, Isabel Allende
The global best-seller’s latest saga traces the love story between a Japanese gardener and a Polish refugee in World War II-era San Francisco. (Nov. 3)
The Mare, Mary Gaitskill
When a young girl from Brooklyn stays with a wealthy upstate New York couple through the Fresh Air Fund, she learns to ride horses, and a new world unfolds. (Nov. 3)
Twain & Stanley Enter Paradise, Oscar Hijuelos
This fictional account of the friendship between Mark Twain and explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley is a brilliant posthumous capstone to the Pulitzer Prize winner’s legacy. (Nov. 3)
Avenue of Mysteries, John Irving
Lupe, at 13, can read minds, though she sees the past more clearly than the future. Years later, her brother reflects on their childhood in Mexico and the memories that haunt him. (Nov. 3)
For the rest of our Fall Books Preview, pick up the issue of Entertainment Weekly, or subscribe online at ew.com/allaccess.
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President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday Iran's position in the Middle East had never been stronger but that the regime was at risk unless infighting between political factions was curbed.
"The greatness of the nation of Iran in the region is more than at any other time," Rouhani said in a speech in Tehran, carried by the state broadcaster.
"In Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, northern Africa, in the Persian Gulf region -- where can action be taken without Iran?"
Rouhani did not directly respond to comments on Sunday by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who called on Iran-backed militias fighting jihadists in Iraq to "go home".
Tillerson's remarks were condemned by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, however, who accused the US diplomat of interfereing of internal affairs and said the milita fighters are Iraqis.
Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants have been been fighting in Syria alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s regime forces, with Israel expressing concern that Tehran is using the Lebanese group's involvement in the war to stake out a permanent military presence in the region.
But despite its powerful position in the region, Rouhani said Iran's regime was under threat from fierce infighting between conservatives and moderates at home.
"We should not think that damaging one part of the system will strengthen the other part. No, the whole system will collapse," he said.
There has been renewed criticism from hardliners over the nuclear deal Rouhani's administration signed with world powers.
On Sunday, state television read out in its entirety a letter by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from 2015 in which he warned against trusting the United States and other signatories to the deal.
Although the accord was explicitly endorsed by the supreme leader, hardliners have consistently lambasted Rouhani for going too far in his efforts to rebuild ties with the West.
Those criticisms have become more pointed in recent days as US President Donald Trump has thrown the nuclear deal's future into doubt, calling for renewed sanctions to rein in Iran's build-up of influence, particularly in Iraq and Syria.
But Rouhani said his US counterpart was failing in his efforts to undermine the deal.
"Every day (Trump) says this agreement is the worst deal in history. As he put it, it is shameful for America. But still he hasn't been able to do anything with this agreement," Rouhani said. |
Naked Snake
If there is one singular thing that has stood out to me in all the early trailers and details for Metal Gear Solid V, it's that the game's protagonist, Big Boss, is much too clothed. It's hot in the desert, man! As all True Fans of Metal Gear Solid know, the only way to play Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is with the Naked Snake camo.
But even that doesn't go far enough, only leaving Big Boss shirtless. I appreciate seeing the man's well-built core -- these aren't showy, flashy abdominals here, no sir -- and sneaking tender nip glimpses through the strategically placed suspenders, but his codename is "Naked Snake," damn it. I'm a leg man. Why can't I see his bare, sculpted, sinewy thighs inch him along the ground like the dirty little bottom feeder he is? Heck, Metal Gear Solid 4 gave me a more pert and salacious behind to look at with its Snake, and he was fully clothed.
Thankfully, DeviantArt user ZombieSandwich is providing where Kojima has failed us, offering some fan art of what damn sure should be an alternative (or, really, the main) costume in Metal Gear Solid V. The design is appropriately erotic; or, rather, sexy in its elegance. Those ripped fishnets even go well with Big Boss's new code name, "Punished Snake." I bet he likes it.
My only qualm is that I imagined his package -- Snake's snake, if you will -- to be a bit larger. Hopefully Kojima addresses this when he wisely decides to add this costume into the game. I'd also like to know what equipment/positioning gives the best view. I'm assuming prone, crawling backwards into the camera, but I'll await official confirmation.
Metal Gear Solid V: Big Quiet Boss XD [DeviantArt]
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Here’s an offer for you: $38,004 per year, tax free.No work required.Apply at your local welfare office.
The federal government funds 126 separate programs targeted towards low-income people, 72 of which provide either cash or in-kind benefits to individuals. (The rest fund community-wide programs for low-income neighborhoods, with no direct benefits to individuals.) State and local governments operate more welfare programs.Of course, no individual or family gets benefits from all 72 programs, but many do get aid from a number of them at any point in time.
Today, the Cato institute is releasing a new study looking at the state-by-state value of welfare for a mother with two children. In the Empire State, a family receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Medicaid, food stamps, WIC, public housing, utility assistance and free commodities (like milk and cheese) would have a package of benefits worth $38,004, the seventh-highest in the nation.
While that might not sound overly generous, remember that welfare benefits aren’t taxed, while wages are. So someone in New York would have to earn more than $21 per hour to be better off than they would be on welfare.That’s more than the average statewide entry-level salary for a teacher.
Plus, going to work means added costs such as paying for child care, transportation and clothing.Not to mention that, even if it’s not a money-loser, a person moving from welfare to work will see some form of loss — namely, less time for leisure as opposed to work.
Is it any wonder, then, that, despite the work requirements included in the 1996 welfare reform, only 27.6 percent of adult welfare recipients in New York are working in unsubsidized jobs?(Another 13 percent are involved in the more broadly defined “work participation,” which includes job search, training and other things.)
Welfare is slightly more generous in Connecticut, where benefits are worth $38,761; a person leaving welfare for work would have to earn $21.33 per hour to be better off.And in New Jersey, a worker would have to make $20.89 to beat welfare.
Nationwide, our study found that the wage-equivalent value of benefits for a mother and two children ranged from a high of $60,590 in Hawaii to a low of $11,150 in Idaho. In 33 states and the District of Columbia, welfare pays more than an $8-an-hour job. In 12 states and DC, the welfare package is more generous than a $15-an-hour job.
Of course, not everyone on welfare gets all seven of the benefits in our study. But, for many recipients — particularly the “long-term” dependents — welfare clearly pays substantially more than an entry-level job.
To be clear: There is no evidence that people on welfare are lazy. Indeed, surveys of them consistently show their desire for a job. But they’re also not stupid. If you pay them more not to work than they can earn by working, many will choose not to work.
While this makes sense for them in the short term, it may actually hurt them over the long term. One of the most important steps toward avoiding or getting out of poverty is a job.Only 2.6 percent of full-time workers are poor, vs. 23.9 percent of adults who don’t work. And, while many anti-poverty activists decry low-wage jobs, even starting at a minimum-wage job can be a springboard out of poverty.
Thus, by providing such generous welfare payments, we may actually not be helping recipients.
There should be a public-policy preference for work over welfare. And while it would be nice to raise the wages of entry-level service workers, government has no ability to do so. (Studies have shown that attempts to mandate wage increases, such as minimum-wage hikes, primarily result in higher unemployment for the lowest-skilled workers.)
If Congress and state legislatures are serious about reducing welfare dependence and rewarding work, they should consider strengthening work requirements in welfare programs, removing exemptions and narrowing the definition of work.
In New York, lawmakers should consider ways to shrink the gap between the value of welfare and work by reducing current benefit levels and tightening eligibility requirements.
Michael Tanner is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of “Leviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution.” |
Novel batteries for storing solar and wind energy have gotten a lot of attention from researchers and investors, but they can’t do their job without software that tells them when and how much energy to charge and discharge. A startup called Growing Energy Labs Inc. is developing an operating system that will give a battery system the brain to perform its tasks, and the company plans to launch a beta version of the software in a few weeks.
An operating system to manage batteries would work much like an operating system for your computer or cell phone: it coordinates the communications between the hardware and the apps to make sure the various programs, such as those for taking photos and browsing the Internet in the case of cell phones, are running well and do not interfere with each other.
“It’s like a computer for energy or energy computer,” said Ryan Wartena, founder and CEO of Growing Energy Labs (which he also refers to as GELI), about his company’s technology.
Wartena started GELI in 2010 to tackle the emerging markets of storing renewable energy such as solar power and for managing electric car charging. The idea is to come up with ways to put networking and communication technologies, including the use of Internet, into running a battery system. GELI would make money from licensing the software.
Over half of the states now require their utilities to buy an increasing amount of renewable energy, but wind and solar power plants in particular don’t generate electricity steadily around the clock like coal or natural gas power plants can. As a result, utilities have to figure out how to balance the supply with the demand when the supply might fall short or exceed the need at any given time of the day.
Using batteries to bank solar and wind energy and releasing it when there is demand for it seem to be a good answer. A good battery system needs an operating system to manage the communications between the battery and the inverter and to respond to a utility’s command for when, how fast and how much to dispatch the energy stored in the battery. An inverter converts the direct current from the battery into the alternating current for feeding the grid.
Utilities aren’t alone in considering batteries for energy storage. Consumers and businesses who have solar panels on their rooftops might want batteries to provide backup power or to sell excess electricity to utilities.
Currently, a battery system typically includes the cells for storing energy, as well as the electronics and software for monitoring the cells’ temperature and performance to make sure they don’t overheat or otherwise malfunction. Another layer of software is needed to tell the battery what to do. Because the use of batteries for renewable energy storage is relatively new, the software used to run them could find its source in software that was originally designed to run other types of industrial equipment, such as the computer system to run a utility’s power generation and distribution operations. The software also tends to limit the battery to perform one or only a few tasks, Wartena said.
GELI, on the other hand, is building the operating software specifically for running energy storage equipment, and the operating system will enable batteries to perform many more tasks, Wartena said.
“The real insight that we are building an energy operating system around is that you want to use the batteries for multiple things,” he said.
In fact, a battery system can perform more than a dozen tasks, from sending short bursts of power to stabilize the electric grid to releasing a steady supply of electricity over a longer period of time when there is a lot of demand for power.
The company also plans to make the core language of its operating system available this summer to developers who can then use it to design new applications, much in the same way that companies like Apple have cultivated a community of app developers around their gadgets. GELI would oversee the project and pay developers whose applications GELI could incorporate into its software.
Wartena is looking to raise $750,000 to get the beta version of the operating system to battery makers who are willing to test it and see if they would incorporate into their products. He then wants to raise another $3 million in early 2013 to release an improved version of the operating system. The company is one of the five startups who recently graduated from an incubator program called Greenstart. Greenstart provided each startup $115,000 and coaching from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.
GELI has lined up some battery makers, such as Korea-based Kokam, that are willing to test its operating system and see if the software is a good fit for their batteries. The beta version of its operating system will be used in several battery systems in Korea, Washington, D.C., and Canada in the coming weeks for field testing. These battery systems are small and meant for storing renewable energy from equipment designed for homes and businesses.
The company is marketing its technology to battery makers who have been supplying their products largely for consumer electronics and don’t have the expertise to design software to run their batteries as renewable energy storage systems.
Some battery developers do design their own operating systems. Texas-based Xtreme Power, for example, considers the software that controls its battery systems its core technology. Xtreme has been building and running battery systems for solar and wind power projects in several states. Maryland-based Greensmith, on the other hand, focuses on developing energy storage operating software.
Virginia-based AES Energy Storage, which buys battery systems to build and operate energy storage projects, relies on its in-house software development team to create an operating system. There aren’t many choices on the market that are available for licensing or good enough to run the battery systems the way AES wants to in order to sell its services to power producers and utilities, said John Zahurancik, vice president of operations and deployment at AES Energy Storage. The company has completed projects that included a 32-megawatt (8 megawatt-hour) battery system, located next to a wind farm in West Virginia, that can deliver electricity in 15-minute increments.
“We are in the market early, and we saw a need for that layer of customization of what the customers want,” Zahurancik said. “As the energy storage market grows, the need for software control will also grow.” |
The Obama-era Office for Civil Rights lowered standards for convicting college students of sexual assault. We need to protect all students' rights.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on July 13, 2017. (Photo11: Alex Brandon, AP)
In a series of meetings this month, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos signaled strong disagreement with the Obama administration’s aggressive erosion of due process protections for college students accused of sexual assault. While deploring the horrors of the offense, DeVos added that “a system without due process protections … serves no one.”
This was a welcome change from the decrees issued by the Obama-era Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which had told colleges to avoid any due process safeguards that would “restrict or unnecessarily delay the protections provided by Title IX” to accusers.
Surveying the damage to fundamental fairness from the Obama-era policies, a recent study by UCLA professor John Villasenor concluded that an innocent student has as much as a one-in-three chance of being found guilty by today’s campus sexual assault tribunals.
The Obama policy proceeded from the counterfactual claim that sex crimes — which are no doubt a serious problem — were sweeping through the nation’s campuses like an epidemic. (In fact the number declined dramatically between 1994 and 2010.) With vocal support from President Obama and Vice President Biden, OCR used this myth to reinterpret the Title IX, the statute barring sex discrimination at schools that receive federal funds. The Obama-era OCR ordered universities to use the lowest possible standard of proof (preponderance of evidence, or 50.01%) and allow accusers to appeal not-guilty findings. It also discouraged colleges from allowing cross-examination of accusing students, and urged institutions to deny accused students any right to a hearing by giving all power to a single bureaucrat to act as investigator, prosecutor, judge and jury.
During DeVos’ meetings, the accusers’ rights organization Know Your IX organized a protest outside the Department of Education, demanding a blanket retention of Obama’s policies. The group was joined by the leading congressional foe of campus due process, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. She maintained that “if Secretary DeVos rolls back these protections” — each of which had placed a thumb on the scale to increase, sometimes dramatically, the chance of a guilty finding — “justice will not be possible.” This from a senator who had publicly described former Columbia student Paul Nungesser as a “rapist” even after he was cleared by both the university and police.
Ironically, as Gillibrand was protesting outside the Education Department, a New York appellate court upheld a lawsuit by an accused student against Skidmore College, located in the upstate New York congressional district that the senator had once represented. In October 2015, the Skidmore accuser told college officials (not the police) that a male student had forced her to perform oral sex 21 months previously. As at most colleges since implementation of the Obama-era policies, Skidmore’s adjudication process was geared toward a guilty finding. The accused student had no right to cross-examine his accuser, and he wasn't told the specifics of the allegations against him. The five-judge New York appellate panel also faulted the college for giving weight to “little more than gossip” about the accused student. The judges ordered Skidmore to re-admit him and expunge his disciplinary record.
Skidmore was the 53rd college or university to find itself on the losing end of a court decision in a lawsuit filed by an accused student in the past four years. This remarkable body of law — virtually ignored by the news media — is especially striking given the traditional reluctance of courts to second-guess college disciplinary actions.
A system in which a wrongly accused student’s best chance of vindication comes after his college improperly brands him a rapist, and only if he can afford an expensive and protracted lawsuit, is a travesty of justice. Moreover, despite some suggestions by defenders of Obama policies that colleges have responded to these court decisions by creating fairer procedures for accused students, the reverse has been far more typical. Amidst legal challenges, schools, including Brown and Swarthmore, adjusted their policies to make it harder for innocent students to win vindication, by scaling back the rights promised to accused students.
Reflecting this mindset, the National Association of College and University Attorneys published a May 2016 research note urging colleges and universities to “promptly destroy” documents such as “emails … staff notes … notes of hearing participants during a disciplinary hearing, drafts of hearing outcome reports, and other such working papers,” all of which “might actually prove very useful to a plaintiff’s lawyer” in a subsequent lawsuit.
POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media
In a March 2016 ruling against Brandeis University, U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor wrote, “If a college student is to be marked for life as a sexual predator, it is reasonable to require that he be provided a fair opportunity to defend himself and an impartial arbiter to make that decision. Put simply, a fair determination of the facts requires a fair process, not tilted to favor a particular outcome, and a fair and neutral fact-finder, not predisposed to reach a particular conclusion.”
The past six years have shown that furious condemnations will greet any effort to establish a fairer campus system, one that will protect the rights of innocent accused students as well as of victims. But fairness is what we need. And while a shift in federal policy will not, alone, restore justice on campus, it’s a necessary first step.
KC Johnson, a professor of history at Brooklyn College, and Stuart Taylor Jr., a contributing editor at National Journal, co-authored Campus Rape Frenzy: The Attack on Due Process at America’s Universities.
You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @USATOpinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to [email protected].
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Jony Ive's iconic industrial designs--from the original fruit-colored iMacs to the iPhone and iPad--have redefined the look and feel of computing devices several times. That's all good.
But computers and phones aren't simply designer bling, but tools that users depend upon for important work. They need to work reliably, which means investing in their underlying technologies to handle changing needs.
In the last 10 years, disk capacities have grown 100x and many users have tens of thousands of multi-megabyte image, music, and video files. For example, Mac OS X is still relying on the much-patched 1980s file system technology of HFS+--something it planned to replace years ago.
Many Mac fans have discounted my concerns, but now Lloyd Chambers of diglloyd.com, a former software engineer and long-time Mac user and fan, has weighed in with a multi-page indictment of Mac core rot.
What he documents are not theoretical problems, but problems he has personally experienced. Not just with HFS+, but with several other key Mac software products.
The whole piece is worth a serious read, but several of his points stood out for me, and I quote his bullet points:
OS X Finder — damages the system, can't copy files reliably, can't do useful things it ought to do at all, hides key files, rife with bugs
Disk utility — under some conditions, destroys arbitrary numbers of volumes, no real upgrade for years, took two minor releases to fix RAID support
iCloud — a organization-destroying bug-ridden unreliable disaster
File system — continued use of HFS Plus instead of robust ZFS.
Chambers is an exceptional and demanding user. Yet if pro users are seeing these problems today, we know that in less than five years many less-demanding users will too.
The Storage Bits take
I used to hang with industrial designers, and I appreciate the creativity and deep knowledge of industrial technology that the best of them have. But they aren't software engineers.
Apple has plenty of money and expertise to fix these problems, but it will take sustained effort and attention from top management--including Ive--to fix these problems on OS X and iOS. Ive is particularly important because he's been given significant software responsibility by Tim Cook.
I include iOS because in 10 years it too will be handling workloads 100x greater than it does today. Fix OS X and then migrate that technology to iOS as needed.
Mac software engineering knew ZFS was a good thing seven years ago, but has since stuck with HFS+. OS X is overdue for a fundamental overhaul and a re-commitment to excellence in software engineering.
Let's hope it comes soon.
Comments welcome, of course. Industrial design trivia question: Who was the first industrial designer in a major Hollywood movie? Eva Marie Saint's cool blonde in Hitchcock's great North By Northwest. |
It is easy to lose sight of the wood for the trees in a warzone like Kashmir's, and the state police appear to have done just that over the funeral of Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Abu Qasim on Thursday. He was killed earlier that day in an operation led by the Rashtriya Rifles.
Senior police officers said this one killing had broken the back of militancy but seemed oblivious to how vividly the funeral demonstrated mass alienation. Those who attended the funeral or were in the vicinity spoke of their shock at the level of mass hatred against India which they witnessed.
Some estimates put the number of mourners at 20,000. Many young people drove from Pulwama and Shopian districts to the funeral site in Kulgam district. Observers noted an almost murderous zest in their emotions. Militants joined the boisterous crowd and fired volleys as a salute when Qasim was buried. Funeral prayers were read twice at different locations and people from the three districts argued over where the body would be buried.
After the funeral, the police’s handling of the highly strung public smacked of a counterproductive ego battle. They damaged a large number of returning cars and locked up scores of boisterous young men. This sort of robotically repressive response tends to turn a battle victory between militants and counterinsurgency forces into a mass uprising that could change the contours of the war – to the forces’ disadvantage.
A senior police officer was quoted as saying that, after Qasim had killed `super-cop’ sub-inspector Mohammed Altaf Dar earlier this month, it had become not just a professional duty but a personal one to kill Qasim. Taking umbrage at this remark, Hilal, an angry resident of Shopian, asked why it had not been the police’s duty to kill Qasim as long as his targets were army or para-military soldiers. He added bitterly that the police force was so incensed over Altaf’s killing because his successes used to bring them large amounts in reward.
Such high-pitched support for a slain militant has been uncommon since about 1991, particularly for a Pakistani. Until relatively recently, people by and large did not quite identify with ‘guest militants’, and were wary of Lashkar’s blinkered religio-militant zeal. About a decade ago, people generally avoided sheltering or aiding them.
Several factors have come together to change things so much. They need to be taken seriously, for this is a dangerous trend.
One, Qasim assumed a larger-than-life heroic image after he ambushed and killed S-I Altaf. Senior police officers’ projection of that killing was directly responsible. Instead of quietly looking after the interests of his family, they made public the achievements of the slain covert operative, whose skill at applying data-processing dealt severe blows to militancy. That publicity not only put his family in harm’s way, it caused a lot of young people to take high-pitched posthumous sides as if Altaf and Qasim had been gladiators at a Roman spectacle.
Two factors that have been strongly at play in recent weeks helped to push public empathy towards a show of almost hysterical support for Qasim. One, Kashmiris have been appalled at the targeting of Muslims, Dalits and other minorities across various parts of India. Those trends have roused deep-seated fears about Kashmir’s association with India.
Two, disappointment with the Mufti-led coalition government has risen to dangerous levels. People initially focused on the lack of flood relief and other ‘packages’, which the PDP had cited as their reason for allying with the party in power at the Centre. But, in light of Hindutva-oriented trends across the country, people now bitterly accuse the Muftis of betraying an essentially anti-BJP mandate. Subliminally, the post-mortem hero-worship of Qasim – and the implied acceptance of Lashkar’s ultra-Islamist ideology – reflects resentment against Hindutva.
Such is the mood in Kashmir today that the prime minister’s monetary ‘package’ for the state, which is being touted again, would most likely be received with contempt even if it does materialise. As a measure to win hearts and minds, it is not only too late, it will not even begin to heal the damage that the beef-related violence, including the Dadri lynching and the burning to death of a Kashmiri truck cleaner at Udhampur, have done.
In combination, the two factors have popularised the idea in Kashmir that Mohammed Ali Jinnah was right to have posited the Two-Nation Theory and to have warned Muslims before the Partition about the dangers of accepting composite nationhood in a Hindu-majority India.
(David Devadas, an expert on political and international affairs, is the author of In Search of a Future: the Story of Kashmir)
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Robbins v.
Lower Merion School District U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Full case name Blake J. Robbins, Michael E. Robbins and Holly S. Robbins, individually, and on behalf of all similarly situated persons v. Lower Merion School District, the Board of Directors of the Lower Merion School District, and Christopher W. McGinley, Superintendent of Lower Merion School District Date decided Settled October 2010 ($610,000)[1] Docket nos. 10-cv-0665 Judge sitting Senior U.S. District Judge
Jan E. DuBois Case history Related actions Hasan v. Lower Merion School District (filed July 27, 2010)
Robbins v. Lower Merion School District is a federal class action lawsuit,[2] brought in February 2010 on behalf of students of two high schools in Lower Merion Township, a suburb of Philadelphia.[3] In October 2010, the school district agreed to pay $610,000 to settle the Robbins and parallel Hasan lawsuits against it.[1]
The suit alleged that, in what was dubbed the "WebcamGate" scandal, the schools secretly spied on the students while they were in the privacy of their homes.[4][5] School authorities surreptitiously and remotely activated webcams embedded in school-issued laptops the students were using at home.[6][7] After the suit was brought, the school district, of which the two high schools are part, revealed that it had secretly taken more than 66,000 images.[8][9] The suit charged that in doing so the district infringed on its students' privacy rights.[6][10][11] A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction, ordering the school district to stop its secret webcam monitoring, and ordered the district to pay the plaintiffs' attorney fees.[12][13][14]
The lawsuit was filed after 15-year-old high school sophomore (second year student) Blake Robbins was disciplined at school for his behavior in his home.[6][14] The school based its decision to discipline Robbins on a photograph that had been secretly taken of him in his bedroom, via the webcam in his school-issued laptop. Without telling its students, the schools remotely accessed their school-issued laptops to secretly take pictures of students in their own homes, their chat logs, and records of the websites they visited. The school then transmitted the images to servers at the school, where school authorities reviewed them and shared the snapshots with others.[15] In one widely published photo, the school had photographed Robbins in his bed.[16] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Attorney's Office, and Montgomery County District Attorney all initiated criminal investigations of the matter, which they combined and then closed because they did not find evidence "that would establish beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone involved had criminal intent". In addition, a U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee held hearings on the issues raised by the schools' secret surveillance, and Senator Arlen Specter introduced draft legislation in the Senate to protect against it in the future. Parents, media, and academics criticized the schools, and the matter was cited as a cautionary example of how modern technology can be used to infringe on personal privacy.[17]
In July 2010, another student, Jalil Hasan, filed a parallel second suit. It related to 1,000+ images that the school took surreptitiously via his computer over a two-month period, including shots of him in his bedroom. The district had deactivated its surveillance of the student in February 2010, after the Robbins lawsuit was filed. Five months later—pursuant to a court order in the Robbins case—it informed Hasan for the first time that it had secretly taken the photographs.[18] The district was put on notice of a third parallel suit that a third student intended to bring against the district, for "improper surveillance of the Lower Merion High School student on his school issued laptop", which included taking over 700 webcam shots and screenshots between December 2009 and February 2010.[19]
Complaint [ edit ]
The lawsuit Robbins v. Lower Merion School District was filed on February 11, 2010, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, by plaintiffs' lead lawyer, Mark S. Haltzman of Silverang, Donohoe, Rosenzweig & Haltzman LLC.[20] It was filed on behalf of Blake J. Robbins, and other high school students from the school district, by Robbins' parents.[20][21]
The complaint alleged that after the high schools issued MacBook laptops with built-in iSight webcams to the students, school staff remotely activated the laptops' webcams covertly while the students were off school property, thereby invading the students' privacy.[20][21] The plaintiffs said they had not consented to the spying.[20]
The defendants were the Lower Merion School District (LMSD) in Pennsylvania (of which the two high schools are part), its nine-member Board of Directors, and its Superintendent (Christopher McGinley).[22] Henry E. Hockeimer, Jr., of Ballard Spahr LLP was lead counsel for the defendants.
Laptops with covert cameras [ edit ]
Program [ edit ]
At the beginning of the 2009–10 school year, the school district issued individual Apple MacBook laptop computers to each of its 2,306 high school students.[6][18][23] The laptops were for both in-school and at-home use.[3][24]
It was part of the school district's One-to-One initiative. The program was piloted in September 2008 at Harriton High School and expanded in September 2009 to Lower Merion High School. It cost $2.6 million, less than a third of which was covered by grants.[23][25]
Covert surveillance capability [ edit ]
The school loaded each student's computer with LANrev's remote activation and tracking software. This included the now-discontinued "TheftTrack".[18][26][27][28] While TheftTrack was not enabled by default on the software, the program allowed the school district to elect to activate it, and to enable whichever of TheftTrack's surveillance options the school desired.[9]
The school elected to enable TheftTrack to allow school district employees to secretly and remotely activate the standard webcam featured in all Apple laptops since 2006.[18][26][27][28] That allowed school officials to secretly take photographs through the webcam, of whatever was in front of it and in its line of sight, and send the photographs to the school's server.[9][18] The system took and sent a new photograph every 15 minutes when the laptop was on, and TheftTrack was activated, though school employees could adjust the timeframe to as low as one-minute intervals.[9][29][30] LANrev disabled the webcams for all other uses (e.g., students were unable to use Photo Booth or video chat), so most students mistakenly believed that their webcams did not work at all.[31]
In addition, TheftTrack allowed school officials to take screenshots, and send them to the school's server.[9][18] Furthermore, a locating device would record the laptop's Internet (IP) address, enabling district technicians to discover which city the laptop was located in and its internet service provider. (A subpoena to the provider would be required to pinpoint the exact location.)[30] In addition, LANrev allowed school officials to take snapshots of instant messages, web browsing, music playlists, and written compositions.[18][32]
After sending the image to the school's server, the laptop was programmed to erase the "sent" file created on the laptop. That way, there would not be any trace by which students might realize that they were being watched and photographed.[33] The forwarded photos, screenshots, and IP addresses were stored on the school's server, until they were purged by a school employee.[23] It is not clear who in the schools had access to the photos and other images.[33] Further, LANrev could be programmed to capture webcam pictures and screen captures automatically, and store them on the laptop's hard disk for later retrieval in areas of the computer's storage that were not accessible by the student, and which could be deleted remotely.[34]
Fred Cate, Director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University, said: "This is the classic definition of spyware. It's as bad as you can imagine."[35] Eileen Lake of Wynnewood, whose three children attend district schools, said: "If there's a concern that laptops are misplaced or stolen, they should install a chip to locate them instead. There shouldn't be a reason to use webcams for that purpose."[36] Marc Rotenberg, Georgetown University Law School information privacy professor and President and Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), said: "There are less intrusive ways to track stolen laptops, no question about it."[37]
Purchase [ edit ]
The type of MacBook involved
Commenting on the now-discontinued TheftTrack, Carol Cafiero (school district Information Systems Coordinator, and supervisor of 16 technicians and administrative assistants) wrote to her boss Virginia DiMedio (district Director of Technology for a number of years, until June 2009, and a member of the district Superintendent's five-person Cabinet) that district Network Technician Mike Perbix "loves it, and I agree it is a great product".[33][38] Perbix also raved about the spying capabilities of TheftTrack in a May 2008 LANrev promotional webcast, saying he "really, really" liked it.[23][23][35][39]
DiMedio considered Perbix and Cafiero's recommendations that the district purchase the software, including a memo in which Cafiero noted that "we can mark [a student's laptop as] stolen on the LANrev server, and then the laptop will take screenshots and pictures of the user with the built-in camera, and transmit that information back to our server."[23] DiMedio then approved the purchase and installation of the $156,000 surveillance software.[33][40]
Concealment of surveillance [ edit ]
The school district intentionally did not publicize the existence of the surveillance technology. It also actively sought to conceal it.[23][41]
The district did not inform students or their parents, in any of its communications with them (including the district's promotion of the laptop program, guidelines about the laptops, and the individual contracts that it gave students to sign), that the laptops gave the district the ability to secretly take photographs of whatever was in the line of sight of the student-issued laptop webcams, and to take screenshots;[23][26] nor did it inform them that the district would avail itself of those capabilities.[23] The district also did not adopt policies regarding the use of TheftTrack by district employees.[23]
DiMedio said "the district did not widely publicize the feature 'for obvious reasons.'"[23] She reportedly declined to tell students about TheftTrack because doing so could "defeat its purpose".[23]
Perbix said that when "you're controlling someone's machine, you don't want them to know what you're doing".[33][34][42][42][43] He praised TheftTrack in a YouTube video he produced, saying: "It's ... just a fantastic feature ... especially when you're in a school environment".[44] Perbix maintained a personal blog in which he discussed computer oversight techniques, including how to cloak remote monitoring so it is invisible to the user.[45]
Concerns raised by student intern [ edit ]
On August 11, 2008, weeks before the district handed the laptops out to students, a Harriton High School student interning in the school's IT Department sent an email to DiMedio, with the subject line: "1:1 concern (Important)". He said that he had recently learned of the district's purchase of LANrev, and had researched the software. He had made the "somewhat startling" discovery that it would allow school employees to monitor students' laptops remotely.[23][40][46] He wrote:
I would not find this a problem if students were informed that this was possible, for privacy's sake. However, what was appalling was that not only did the District not inform parents and students of this fact ... [W]hile you may feel that you can say that this access will not be abused, I feel that this is not enough to ensure the integrity of students, and that even if it was no one would have any way of knowing (especially end-users). I feel it would be best that students and parents are informed of this before they receive their computers. ... I could see not informing parents and students of this fact causing a huge uproar.[23]
DiMedio responded:
[T]here is absolutely no way that the District Tech people are going to monitor students at home. ... If we were going to monitor student use at home, we would have stated so. Think about it—why would we do that? There is no purpose. We are not a police state. ... There is no way that I would approve or advocate for the monitoring of students at home. I suggest you take a breath and relax.[23][40][46]
DiMedio then forwarded the e-mails to District Network Technician Perbix, who suggested a further response to the student intern. With DiMedio's approval, Perbix e-mailed the student intern, also dismissing the student's concern:
[T]his feature is only used to track equipment ... reported as stolen or missing. The only information that this feature captures is IP and DNS info from the network it is connected to, and occasional screen/camera shots of the computer being operated. ... The tracking feature does NOT do things like record web browsing, chatting, email, or any other type of "spyware" features that you might be thinking of. Being a student intern with us means that you are privy to some things that others rarely get to see, and some things that might even work against us. I assure you that we in no way, shape, or form employ any Big Brother tactics, ESPECIALLY with computers off the network.[23][46][47]
Principal Kline [ edit ]
In addition, two members of the Harriton High School student council twice privately confronted their Principal, Steven Kline, more than a year prior to the suit. They were concerned "that the school could covertly photograph students using the laptops' cameras".[23][33] Students were particularly troubled by the momentary flickering of their webcams' green activation lights, which several students reported would periodically turn on when the camera was not in use, signaling that the webcam had been turned on.[9][23][25][48] Student Katerina Perech recalled: "It was just really creepy."[25] Some school officials reportedly denied that it was anything other than a technical glitch, and offered to have the laptops examined if students were concerned. Kline admitted the school could covertly photograph students using the laptops' cameras.[42] The students told him they were worried about privacy rights, asked whether the school system read the saved files on their computers, and suggested that at minimum the student body should be warned formally of possible surveillance.[42] No such action was taken.[42]
Robbins lawsuit [ edit ]
Covert surveillance [ edit ]
On October 20, 2009, school district officials knew Blake J. Robbins, a sophomore at Harriton High School, was in possession of his laptop and had taken it home.[49] On that day, they nevertheless decided to begin capturing webcam photos and screenshots from his school-issued MacBook, by activating its camera covertly.[49] Building-Level Technician Kyle O'Brien testified later, at his deposition, that Harriton High School Assistant Vice Principal Lindy Matsko directed O'Brien to activate the tracking. O'Brien complied, by e-mailing District Network Technician Perbix, and directing him to initiate the TheftTrack.[23] At her deposition, Matsko denied authorizing the tracking.[23]
Two hours later on October 20, Perbix e-mailed O'Brien to let him know that TheftTrack was running on Robbins' computer, and that Perbix had determined Robbins' location.[49] Perbix wrote: "Now currently online at home."[49] The next day, Perbix asked O'Brien whether he should continue tracking the laptop, and O'Brien responded "yes".[23]
Over the next 15 days, the school district captured at least 210 webcam photos and 218 screenshots. They included photos inside his home of Robbins sleeping and of him partially undressed, as well as photos of his father.[49] The district also snapped images of Robbins' instant messages and video chats with his friends, and sent them to its servers.[49] Those 429 images, however, only reflected the number of images later recovered—during the ensuing litigation the district conceded it had been unable to recover a week's worth of images that it had taken.[35]
On October 26, Perbix observed one of the screenshots of Robbins, taken in his bedroom.[46] Four days later Perbix showed it to his boss, district Director of Information Systems George Frazier.[46] After discussing it with Frazier, Perbix shared the images captured from Robbins' webcam and screenshots with Harriton High School Principal Kline and with Matsko.[50] In early November, a number of Harriton High School administrators, including Kline, Matsko, and Assistant Principal Lauren Marcuson, met to discuss the images.[46] According to Matsko, Kline advised her that unless there was additional evidence giving them a contextual basis for doing so, they should not discuss the images with Robbins or his parents, because they involved off-school-campus activities. However, Matsko ultimately decided to discuss certain images with Robbins or his parents.[23]
Matsko called Robbins into her office on November 11, 2009. She showed him a photograph taken with the webcam embedded in his school-issued laptop, as he was in his bedroom in his Penn Valley home. Matsko indicated that she thought it was "proof", and initially disciplined him for "improper behavior" (drug use and sales).[6][10][14][18][30][51][52][53][54] His parents were contacted, and they told school officials that the officials were mistaken. Ultimately, Robbins was not disciplined.
Robbins said that Matsko told him that the district was able to activate the webcam embedded in a student's laptop remotely at any time, and view and capture whatever image was visible—without the knowledge or consent of anyone in the webcam's line of sight.[55][56] After a district counselor told them that an account of the incident had been placed in Blake's personal school file, however, the family decided to bring suit.[57]
Complaint [ edit ]
The plaintiffs alleged that:
many of the images captured and intercepted may consist of images of minors and their parents or friends in compromising or embarrassing positions, including ... various stages of dress or undress.[22]
In a widely published photograph, Robbins was shown sleeping in his bed.[16] The hundreds of photos taken of the 15-year-old also included him standing shirtless after getting out of the shower, as well as photos of his father and friends.[29][35] Not included in what was turned over to the family was one week's worth of images that the school district said it had not been able to recover.[35]
The lawsuit claimed that the district's use of the webcams violated the United States Constitution's guarantees of privacy of the students and their families and friends at home, as well as Pennsylvania common law (expectation of privacy) and Section 1983 of the U.S. Civil Rights Act (right to privacy).[6]
It also accused officials of spying through "indiscriminate use of an ability to remotely activate the webcams incorporated into each laptop", and thereby violating the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution (right to privacy) and a number of electronic communications laws: the U.S. Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA; intentional intercepts of electronic communications), the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA; intentional access of a computer that exceeds authorization to obtain information), the Stored Communications Act (SCA; unauthorized acquisition of stored electronic communications), and the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act (PWESA; intentional intercept of electronic communications).[6][20]
Initial response [ edit ]
"We will prevail," said school district spokesman Doug Young, announcing that the school district intended to contest the lawsuit.[58] Henry E. Hockeimer, Jr., and four Ballard Spahr attorneys represented the district.[52][59]
On February 18, 2010, the day the case was made public, the school district posted an initial reply on its website asserting that: "The tracking-security feature was limited to taking a still image of the operator and the operator's screen", and that it "has only been used for the limited purpose of locating a lost, stolen, or missing laptop."[9][60][61] On 19 February the district said in a further statement to parents that "this includes tracking down a loaner computer that, against regulations, might be taken off campus."[62] The complaint had not indicated whether Robbins' laptop had been reported lost or stolen, and Young said the district could not disclose that fact.[17] Young asserted that the district never violated its policy of only using the remote-activation software to find missing laptops. "Infer what you want," Young said.[17][17]
That same day, the district turned off TheftTrack on tracked laptops, and deleted pictures from LANrev, as noted on the 16th page of a subsequent forensics review.[9] The district also denied that the school administrator had ever used a photo taken by a school-issued laptop to discipline a student.[63] The vice principal reiterated the statement in a video distributed to national media on February 24, 2010.[64]
On February 20, 2010, Haltzman, Robbins' counsel, told MSNBC Live that Robbins had been sitting in his home eating "Mike and Ike" candy in front of his school-issued laptop.[14] The attorney said that the vice-principal had accused Robbins of taking illegal pills after seeing him eating the candy in a webcam image.[18] Michael Smerconish, a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist who reviewed the photo, said that it did in fact appear to be the same size and shape as Mike and Ike candy.[28] Haltzman said that his client's laptop had not been reported stolen or lost. The lawyer also raised questions as to who in the school system decided when to activate each student's webcam, and for what reasons.[52][59]
In a statement to the press on February 24, 2010, Robbins emphasized that the case was about the undisclosed spying capabilities which the district covertly maintained.[65]
Admissions, and further instances [ edit ]
The school district later admitted to "serious mistakes" and "misguided actions". It also acknowledged that its monitoring system was flawed, and was "not handled appropriately". The district's Superintendent admitted that students and parents were not informed of the secret spying feature, and the district said that "notice should have been given" to the students and parents, and that the district's failure to do so "was a significant mistake".[8][18][25][36][66][67][68] School Board President David Ebby said: "It's a big, big horrible error in judgment."[69]
The school district eventually acknowledged that it had taken more than half the images after missing laptops were recovered.[8] A computer forensics study commissioned by the defendants recovered 66,503 images produced by LANrev, though it was not able to recover all that had been deleted by district employees.[9] The district asserted that it did not have any evidence that individual students had been specifically targeted.[8] Haltzman said: "I wish the school district [had] come clean earlier, as soon as they had this information ... not waiting until something was filed in court revealing the extent of the spying".[70]
Christopher Null, technology writer for Yahoo! News, observed: "It's a little difficult to believe that none of the material captured is scandalous".[71]
The district also admitted that in Robbins' case the remote surveillance was activated and left running for two weeks, even though school officials knew the laptop was at Robbins' home.[4] It also admitted that its technology staff activated the camera on his computer, and gave images it covertly took to two Harriton High School principals.[72]
Six days after the initiation of the lawsuit, and after a district review of its privacy policies, the school district disabled its ability to activate students' webcams remotely.[6][9] Lillie Coney of the Electronic Privacy Information Center said: "If they thought it was right, they wouldn't have stopped."[73]
On February 24, the district suspended and put on paid administrative leave its two staffers who were authorized to activate the remote monitoring, district 12-year veterans Information Systems Coordinator Cafiero and Network Technician Perbix.[8][23][46][52][53] The district indicated that it had done so as a precautionary measure, in light of their roles in activating TheftTrack, and the ensuing investigation.[23]
In a motion seeking to examine Cafiero's computer, excerpts of emails between her and Amanda Wuest, District Desktop Technician, about the surreptitious webcams were cited in which the technician emailed Cafiero: "This is awesome. It's like a little LMSD soap opera", and Cafiero replied, "I know, I love it".[23][74][75] Her lawyer, Charles Mandracchia of the law firm Mandracchia & McWhirk LLC, said she had only turned the webcam system on when requested to do so by school officials.[43][74]
When Haltzman sought to depose Cafiero, she fought his effort to ask her questions at a deposition.[76][77] However, U.S. District Judge Jan DuBois refused to quash Haltzman's subpoena, ruling in April 2010 that Cafiero may have information relevant to the case.[76] In her first deposition, Cafiero declined to answer questions, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. However, after she was interviewed by the FBI in April 2010, in a later deposition she answered questions under oath.[78] Others deposed included Matsko, Perbix, and O'Brien.[23][23][79]
In June and July 2010, in accordance with an order from the federal judge, dozens of other high school students were notified by counsel for the schools that they too had been secretly photographed by school authorities via their webcams.[53] The school district said that more than 58,000 photos had been taken from November 2008 through February 2010 and recovered on school servers, but that the exact number was not known as a number of the photos had been deleted by the district.[9][46][78] The students and their parents were invited to privately review the photos that had been taken, and a federal judge oversaw the review process.[53][75] In about 15 cases, the school said it had no answer as to who ordered the surreptitious webcam activation, or why.[29][70]
Student reactions [ edit ]
Tom Halpern, a 15-year-old sophomore who attends the high school, told CBS News, "Everybody's pretty disgusted. ... I think it's pretty despicable."[80] Many students said they mostly used their laptops in their bedrooms, and rarely turned them off.[76][81] Karen Gotlieb, whose daughter attends the school, said, "I just received an e-mail from my daughter, who is very upset, saying, 'Mom, I have my laptop open in my room all the time, even when I'm changing.'"[80] Savanna Williams, a sophomore at Harriton, said she always keeps her computer open, its webcam exposed, when she's changing in her bedroom, and in the bathroom when she's taking a shower. She said: "I was like, 'Mom, I have this open all the time. ... This is disturbing.'"[80] Her mother said: "the possibility of this being true is a complete violation of her privacy, of our entire home—not just Savanna. They have the option to watch [me], my husband, my other child. They violated our trust."[80]
Mother Candace Chacona said she was "flabbergasted" by the allegations: "My first thought was that my daughter has her computer open almost around the clock in her bedroom. Has she been spied on?"[82] Chuck Barsh, an insurance broker whose son is in high school, called the district's actions a "gross invasion" of student privacy, and supported the lawsuit, saying: "These people were able to look at our kids in our house".[25] Mike Salmonson, father of an elementary school student, said the matter was "part of ... institutional arrogance—a lack of full disclosure and honesty" on the part of district administrators.[83]
Reactions of legal experts and computer experts [ edit ]
John Palfrey, Harvard Law School professor and Vice Dean, and Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society cyberspace research center, said: "If the facts are as they appear to be in the claims by the student, it's shocking."[84] David Kairys, a Temple University Law School professor who specializes in civil rights and constitutional law and is author of Philadelphia Freedom, Memoir of a Civil Rights Lawyer, described the school district's policy as "Orwellian". He said that it appeared to be a "very clear civil-rights violation", continuing: "It's pretty outrageous. It's sort of beyond belief that they wouldn't say, 'This is going too far.'"[85] Susan Friewald, University of San Francisco Law School professor and expert in electronic privacy law, said: "they had to get consent to take photos ... [I]f the school districts are going to use [laptops] to spy on students, we should certainly be concerned."[86]
Witold "Vic" Walczak, the Legal Director of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (not a party in the lawsuit), commented:
This is an age where kids explore their sexuality, so there's a lot of that going on in the room. This is fodder for child porn.[87][88][89]
Joseph Daly, who retired in 2009 as Lower Merion Police Superintendent, when told about the pictures snapped from students' laptops, said: "That's illegal as hell."[33]
Lillie Coney, Associate Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (a civil liberties public interest research center), said: "This definitely was not ... a rational thing for the school to be engaged in", and called it "an outrageous invasion of individual privacy".[80][82] Ari Schwartz, Vice President and COO at the Center for Democracy and Technology (a civil liberties public interest organization), said: "What about the [potential] abuse of power from higher-ups, trying to find out more information about the head of the PTA [Parent-Teacher Association]? If you don't think about the privacy and security consequences of using this kind of technology, you run into problems."[88][89]
Kevin Bankston, senior staff attorney specializing in privacy law with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (an international digital rights advocacy and legal organization), said: "I've never heard of anything this egregious. Nobody would have imagined that schools would peer into students' private homes, and even bedrooms, without any kind of justification."[81] He continued: "This is utterly shocking, and a blatant violation of [the students' Fourth Amendment] constitutional rights. The school district would have no more right to [use the laptop's webcam] than to install secret listening devices in the textbooks that they issued students."[58] He suggested that students tape over the lens of their laptop's camera.[58] Parry Aftab, an internet privacy lawyer and executive director of WiredSafety.org, said the district committed a clear violation of several laws including the Fourth Amendment.[90]
Dan Tynan, Executive Editor of PC World and author of Computer Privacy Annoyances (2005), said: "This is extremely creepy, and way beyond the purview of the school. ... There's really no need to try to take a picture of someone—in fact, how can you prove the person in front of the laptop was the one who stole it? ... And to install this stuff on anyone's computer and not notify them about, it is just begging for a world of pain."[91] Robert Richardson, Director of the Computer Security Institute, said: "It's incredible that they didn't realize they were playing with fire."[35] Technology journalist Robert X. Cringely wrote in InfoWorld:
Is there any reason why you'd need to take two weeks' worth of photos to locate a missing laptop, especially when you already have other ways of tracking it? I don't think so. ... Cafiero issued ... the rather interesting statement that the 15-year-old Robbins had "no reasonable expectation of privacy" in his own home, because ... his family hadn't paid the $55 insurance fee required by the school for home loaners. In other words: If you don't pay your dues, we can watch you while you sleep. Did I say "creepy" already?[92]
LANrev, the manufacturer of the software—which was acquired by Absolute Software, and rebranded as "Absolute Manage" in February 2010—denounced the use of its software for any illegal purpose, emphasized that theft-recovery should be left to law enforcement professionals, and criticized vigilantism.[31][93] The company denied any knowledge of, or complicity in, either Perbix's or the district's actions. Absolute Software then permanently disabled TheftTrack in its next LANrev update.[27][35]
Media reactions [ edit ]
The Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney wrote:
School district techies peering into private homes, even for a moment, under the guise of locating a lost laptop? Even in this "surveillance society", it's almost beyond comprehension.[73]
The newspaper, in an editorial, called the school's decision to use the remote-camera feature "misguided", and wrote "families had every right to be shocked. As an anti-theft strategy, the webcam tracking was overkill—and not even as useful as other means. Then failing to disclose the webcam use was a huge gaffe, compounded by a lack of policies safeguarding students' privacy."[94] Talk radio host and The Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Michael Smerconish added:
[M]ost shocking were the [images] showing the faces or ... postings of [classmates, friends, family members, and parents] with whom Robbins was communicating. What gave Lower Merion the right to invade the privacy of these people? Their images represent a gross violation of privacy, akin to listening in on a private telephone communication between two individuals, at least one of whom has absolutely no idea of the presence of an interloper. That's the real outrage ... it was inexcusable for the school district to invade the privacy of third parties en route to violating that of Blake Robbins.[28]
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote in an editorial: "Schools have no business or jurisdiction in the homes of students. The ... District ... should never have been in the business of surveillance in the first place. Tough laws are needed to prevent Lower Merion or other school districts from going down this path again."[95] The New York Times, in an editorial, said: "Conducting video surveillance of students in their homes is an enormous invasion of their privacy. If the district was really worried about losing the laptops, it could have used GPS devices to track their whereabouts ... Whatever it did, the school had a responsibility to inform students that if they accepted the laptops, they would also accept monitoring."[96]
Technology writer Dan Gillmor, writing in Salon, said: "The case also reminds us that civil lawsuits play a vital role in our society. ... sometimes, as in this case, they are the last line of defense when powerful institutions beat up on individuals. We forget that at our peril."[97]
Motions; injunction and legal fees granted [ edit ]
Haltzman filed an emergency motion seeking an injunction to prevent the school district from reactivating what he referred to as its "peeping-tom technology".[85] The Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) submitted an amicus brief in support of the student, arguing that the photo amounted to an illegal search.[98][99] Citing case law regarding privacy and unconstitutional searches, the ACLU's brief stated: "While the act of placing the camera inside students' laptops may not implicate the Fourth Amendment, once the camera is used a search has occurred that, absent a warrant or consent, violates the Fourth Amendment (see United States v. Karo)."[100] Witold "Vic" J. Walczak, the ACLU of Pennsylvania Legal Director, said:
No government official, be it police officer or school principal, can enter a private home, physically or electronically, without an invitation or warrant. In this case, the officials are not just entering the foyer, but a child's bedroom. Assuming the allegations are true, this is an egregious invasion of privacy.[98][101]
U.S. District Court Judge Jan DuBois granted Haltzman's request on February 23, 2010, ordering the district to stop remotely activating the web cameras and taking screenshots from the students' school-issued laptops, and to preserve all relevant electronic data.[21][23] While remote activation of the webcam was deactivated, the LANrev software was not removed. Untrusting students at the two high schools took to taping over their laptops' webcams, even though school officials insisted they had stopped the practice.[99] In May, after it was revealed that the school had secretly captured tens of thousands of webcam images and screenshots, the judge made the ban on the school's secret webcam monitoring permanent.[102][102]
In addition, the court issued a gag order, prohibiting district officials from discussing the case with students and parents without first clearing their communications with the plaintiffs' attorney.[21][103][104][105]
The class-action lawsuit sought class status on the grounds that individual compensation may be small, and therefore multiple parties would need to share in covering the legal fees.[106] On July 7, 2010, Judge DuBois issued an order granting the district its second extension of time to respond to plaintiffs' request for class action certification.[107]
The judge issued an order in April 2010 granting Haltzman's motion requiring Caliero to let Haltzman make copies of the hard drives of her two personal computers, to determine whether Caliero had used the software to spy on students, and transferred images to her own computers.[46] The judge issued an order in May, requiring school officials to arrange for 40 high school students and their parents to see the images secretly taken from their laptops.[102] Judge DuBois in June 2010 ordered the district to share with a consultant for Robbins some of its computer evidence, gathered in an investigation conducted by lawyers and computer experts hired by the defendants.[78]
The district suggested that Robbins had a loaner laptop, because he had not paid a $55 insurance fee which would have permitted him to use a regular computer. In a 2009 letter to parents, Harriton High School Principal Kline said that "no uninsured laptops are permitted off campus", and said that students who had not paid the insurance fee could use a loaner. Asked if Robbins took a loaner computer home without authorization, Young declined to comment.[108] Haltzman denied that Robbins was ever notified that his computer use was a problem, and said that Robbins had taken his computer home "every single day" for a month.[103] He also pointed out that while Robbins was one of about 20 students who had not paid the $55 insurance fee, he was the only one tracked.[109]
On August 31, 2010, Judge DuBois ordered the school district, as the losing party, to pay plaintiffs' attorney his legal fees related to his bringing the action that led to the preliminary injunction against the school district's secret webcam monitoring, inasmuch as plaintiffs were the successful "prevailing party" in a civil rights case.[110][111][112]
School district litigation with its insurance company [ edit ]
The school district and its insurance company, Graphic Arts Mutual Insurance Company, filed federal lawsuits against each other in April 2010. They argued over who should pay any settlements by the district, and the district's related bills.[113] Ballard Spahr also represented the district in the insurance litigation.[113]
Graphic Arts asked for a declaratory judgment, so it would not have to pay the district's legal bills.[113] The insurance company contended that none of Robbins' claims amounted to "personal injury", as defined and covered in the district's $1 million liability policy.[35][69][114][115][116] The district and the insurance company also accused each other of breaching their contract.[53]
The district, on Philadelphia's Main Line, is one of Pennsylvania's richest school systems. It had a $193 million budget and spent $21,600 per student in 2008–09, the most in the Philadelphia region.[69][117]
The district had been billed $953,000 in legal fees by May 2010 by Ballard Spahr's four attorneys.[69][113] In addition, L-3 Communications, its computer consultant, had billed the district $240,000 through May 2010 for forensically analyzing the district's computers. Furthermore, by June 30, software company SunGard had billed the district $32,000 to help it revise its policies on school-issued laptops.[113][118] The district was also paying the aggregate $200,000 salary of its two employees whom it had suspended.[53] If the judge were to side fully with the insurance company, the district would have also been responsible for paying all of the costs of its litigation with the insurer.[118]
Ultimately, the insurance company agreed to cover $1.2 million of the district's costs.[119]
Defendants' report [ edit ]
Conclusions [ edit ]
The defendants commissioned a 69-page report, which was prepared by lawyers from Ballard Spahr, the same law firm that the school district had hired to defend it in the Robbins lawsuit.[78] The defendants' counsel nevertheless entitled their May 3, 2010, report: "Independent Investigation".[78]
The report cited the district for inconsistent policies, shoddy recordkeeping, misstep after misstep, and "overzealous" use of technology "without any apparent regard for privacy considerations".[23][120] As to some of the secret surveillance, the report remarked: "the wisdom and propriety of activating image tracking in these circumstances are questionable at best."[23]
The report said that to the extent that district Board members, its Superintendent (who learned of TheftTrack at a meeting of his Cabinet in 2008), and its principals were aware of TheftTrack's capabilities, they "did not appreciate the potential of that ability to raise serious privacy concerns, and they should have sought more information ... or advice" from the district lawyer.[23] The report also said that school Board members and school administrators who knew that tracking was in place failed to ask the right questions regarding privacy issues, district lawyers did not probe the legal considerations of handing out computers, and administrators did not talk about the ramifications.[23][78] It noted that Harriton High School Principal Kline, for example, learned about TheftTrack monitoring in September 2008, and said he asked DiMedio whether the district should advise students and parents about it. But he never revisited the subject after DiMedio opined that the district should not because doing so would undermine TheftTrack's effectiveness.[23] The report faulted district administrators and staffers for failing to disclose and mismanaging the surveillance system, and for failing to establish strict policies to protect "unsuspecting" students' privacy.[78]
The report also found that district officials knew that Robbins had taken his laptop home, but still decided to activate the covert surveillance that secretly captured hundreds of webcam photos and screenshots—included pictures of Robbins sleeping and partially undressed, a photo of his father, and images of instant messages and photos of friends with whom Robbins was video-chatting.[121] After the program was activated on Robbins' computer, one district employee had emailed another: "Now currently online at home".[121]
The report acknowledged that investigators were unable to find explanations for a number of the tracking activations, and for why the district failed to consider privacy implications.[41] It noted conflicting accounts from district employees, that there were gaps in data, and said evidence was still being gathered.[122] The report said the covert cameras were used both for missing computers and for unknown purposes, and that the district left such webcams activated for long periods in cases "in which there was no longer any possible legitimate reason" for capturing images.[123]
Images recovered [ edit ]
The report attached an L-3 computer forensics study indicating it had recovered 66,503 images produced by LANrev from those instances in which the school chose to activate the covert webcam snapshot and screenshot feature, though the investigators were not able to recover all images as a number had been deleted by district employees.[9] Of those images that were recovered, the report indicated that 30,564 webcam photos and 27,428 screenshots were recovered from the LANrev server itself.[23] The report noted that images that had been covertly taken were deleted from the district server intermittently from March 2009 on.[23] Many of the photographs were of students, their family members, and others in their homes and elsewhere.[23] The secret photos included "a number of photographs of males without shirts, and other content that the individuals appearing in the photographs might consider to be of a similarly personal nature".[23]
Looking at the information available to it, the report found evidence of TheftTrack being triggered on 177 laptops in the 2008–2010 time period.[23] In 57% of the cases, the school chose to activate only the IP-address-tracking feature, and not to activate the feature that triggered the capture of secret webcam snapshots and screenshots.[23] Based on the available evidence, the report found that Cafiero activated TheftTrack 3 times on student laptops, and Perbix activated it 161 times.[23] The report noted that in a number of instances TheftTrack was left on, taking photos and screenshots for extended periods of time even when a laptop was not considered missing or stolen.[23]
In addition, there were 13 activations on student laptops for which investigators were unable to determine who activated TheftTrack, as well as 10 activations for which investigators were unable to determine why tracking was initiated. Together, they resulted in thousands of photos and screenshots.[23] Of the 10 unexplained activations, in 7 cases the investigators were unable to recover any images at all from the remaining district record.[23]
It was not only students who had their laptops' covert surveillance mechanism turned on. The school also activated surveillance through the laptops of six high school teachers. Investigators were unable to determine why the teachers' secret surveillance had been initiated or, in half the cases, who had made the surveillance request.[23]
Investigators were not able to determine how often the images were viewed by school personnel.[23] A total of 18 members of the district's systems staff had LANrev administrator permissions during the 2008–2010 school years, and 16 of them had access to data stored on the LANrev server.[23] Furthermore, those with access to the photos and screenshots could, and in some circumstances did, forward the photos and screenshots to others.[23]
IT staff [ edit ]
The report also criticized the district information systems personnel.[23] The district's top technology administrator since July 2009, George Frazier, told investigators that he considered the systems department the "Wild West", "because there were few official policies, and no manuals of procedures, and personnel were not regularly evaluated".[78][124] The report said former information systems Director DiMedio and her staffers "were not forthcoming" about the tracking technology; DiMedio declined to be interviewed unless the district reimbursed her for the cost of her retaining an attorney, which the district declined to do.[23][41] DiMedio's lawyer criticized the report for faulting DiMedio's role in the district's use of web cameras.[41] He criticized the cover-page description of the investigators' work as an "independent" probe, saying: "It was not an independent investigation. What flows from that [report] is a clear attempt to insulate and protect the current [district] board at the expense of the IT [information technology] department and employees like Ginny ... to throw her under the bus."[41] He said DiMedio never hid the software's tracking features from administrators or board members.[41] He also noted that DiMedio had been gone for months when the assistant principal confronted Robbins with the photo taken by his laptop webcam in his home.[41]
The report criticized Perbix for reacting negatively on September 11, 2009, when Frazier told him a teacher had requested that his webcam be disabled, with Perbix writing to Frazier: "teachers should not even be allowed to cover the cameras as they do now ... theft track ... does not record video, only a snapshot every 15 minutes. Is someone afraid that we are spying on them?"[23] Jason Hilt, district Supervisor of Instructional Technology, when he learned that TheftTrack could be activated without police involvement, taped over his camera and shared his concern about remote webcam activation with Frazier and Director of Curriculum Services Steve Barbato.[23]
Changes in policy [ edit ]
The school district did not have any official policies or procedures for the use of TheftTrack. Neither its Board, administrators, school administrators, nor the heads of its IT Department imposed any official restrictions on the use of the software's covert surveillance features.[23]
In May 2010, Judge DuBois ordered the district to adopt a policy relating to its surveillance through students' laptops.[125][126] The district now promises never to look at a student's laptop files, unless: a) the laptop has been returned to the school; b) there is "reasonable suspicion" that the student is violating law, school rules, or district policies; or c) a student has signed a consent form.[18][126] Following criticism of the district's training requirements and computer responsibility standards, the district is considering new written policies in those areas as well.[127] On August 16, 2010, the Board banned the district from conducting webcam surveillance through students' laptops, in response to the Robbins lawsuit.[128]
Opposition [ edit ]
In opposition to the lawsuit, some parents formed the Lower Merion Parents committee. The parents on the one hand were angry about the school district's secret use of webcams to view students and their friends and families in their homes. On the other hand, however, the parents were concerned that they themselves would have to bear a financial cost in paying for the district's litigation, and possible settlement or court-ordered penalty.[129]
The group was concerned that the Robbins lawsuit would be costly, attract negative attention to the district while harming its "civic tone" and distracting from its educational mission, and take a long time to resolve. Particular attention was given to the fact that payment for the members of the class in the class action suit would effectively come from the district's taxpayers, if not its insurer. Lower Merion Parents did not, however, oppose a full investigation of the district's technological capabilities and of any abuses the district committed.
On March 2, 2010, more than 100 parents met in Narberth, Pennsylvania, to discuss the issues.[130][131] Robbins' attorney Mark Haltzman requested an opportunity to speak to the group to update the parents, but was denied.[132] The meeting focused on whether the parents wanted the Robbins family to represent them, how to lift the court's "gag order" agreement that district officials and school board members not talk about the case without first consulting the Robbinses and their lawyer, and how to learn what actually happened with the laptops and webcams. One option opposing parents have is to file a motion to intervene, which is an agreement to be parties in the case, but with different interests than the plaintiff.[133] A similar group called Parents in Support of the Lower Merion School District collected over 750 signatures by March 3 in an online petition. Philadelphia Weekly noted that "Paradoxically, this group of Lower Merion parents are going to try to stop the gratuitous litigation by getting more lawyers involved."[134]
Criminal investigations [ edit ]
The FBI, U.S. Attorney, and Montgomery County District Attorney all investigated whether the school district had violated criminal laws. On August 17, 2010, U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger announced he would not file charges against district officials, because: "We have not found evidence that would establish beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone involved had criminal intent".[135]
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia had initiated a criminal probe, and in February 2010 issued a grand jury subpoena, asking the district for a broad range of records.[36][52] The Office took the unusual step of announcing on February 22 that it would be investigating the matter, and said that: "Our focus will only be on whether anyone committed any crimes."[23][37] In April, the Office sought access to the photos of a number of children, some of which may include nude or partially clothed shots, inasmuch as taking nude images of children could be criminal conduct.[136]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated whether federal criminal laws, including wiretap, computer-intrusion, and privacy laws, were violated.[85][88][94] The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office said in a joint statement in July 2010: "[The U.S. Attorneys Office] intend[s] to work as a team with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office, Montgomery County detectives, and the Lower Merion Police Department to determine if any crimes were committed".[98] FBI agents reviewed the school district's computers and thousands of images secretly captured from students' computers, interviewed district employees, and reviewed district records.[67][75]
The Montgomery County District Attorney and Lower Merion detectives had also launched an investigation to see if any criminal laws were broken, including wiretap and privacy laws.[29][36] District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said: "we were inundated with calls from members of the community asking about this. It became clear to me that we needed to look at this further."[36][85]
The civil lawsuit had a much lower burden of proof, and was unaffected by the decision.[137] Lower Merion Police Superintendent Michael McGrath said: "This would appear to be a matter to be resolved in civil court."[138]
U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing [ edit ]
Arlen Specter, U.S. senator (D-PA) and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, held a hearing on March 29, 2010, investigating the use of computers to spy on students.[139] Specter said: "The issue is one of surreptitious eavesdropping. Unbeknownst to people, their movements and activities were under surveillance."[139]
Specter said existing wiretap and video-voyeurism statutes do not address today's widespread use of cellphone, laptop, and surveillance cameras.[140] After hearing testimony at the hearing from Blake Robbins and others, Specter said that new federal legislation was needed to regulate electronic privacy.[140][141][142]
Specter introduced legislation to clarify that it is illegal to capture silent visual images inside a person's home. Specter said: "... a very significant invasion of privacy with these webcams ..."[35][143]
... us expect to ... video surveillance when we leave our homes and go out each day—at the ATM, at traffic lights, or in stores ... we do not expect is ... surveillance in our homes, in our bedrooms ... we do not expect it for our children in our homes.[30]
Other ramifications [ edit ]
An "LMSD is Watching You" Facebook page was started, and within days had hundreds of members.[85] At the same time, parody T-shirts were already being sold on the net, including one featuring the ominous red camera eye of HAL 9000 from the science fiction movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, inside the school district's circular logo.[85]
Both The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times reported that: "With a mop of brown hair and clad in a black T-shirt and jeans, Blake Robbins smiled when told the suit had earned him a Wikipedia page."[144][145][146]
The litigation also prompted a "What's Wrong With People?" segment on the Dr. Phil show.[35][146][147] The British news organization The Register reported that: "The U.K. agency in charge of IT in UK schools has insisted there is no chance of the government's free laptops program exposing the bedroom activities of British students."[48]
The litigation also prompted new legislation in New Jersey, sponsored by New Jersey State Senator Donald Norcross.[148] "Big Brother has no place in our schools. It's the administration's job to educate, not monitor their students," said Norcross.[148] New Jersey's "Anti-Big Brother Act" (S-2057) was signed into law by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on April 15, 2013.[148][149] The law requires New Jersey school districts to notify students (and their parents) who receive electronic devices from their school that their activities may be monitored or recorded.[148][150] It subjects a school district that fails to comply with the law's requirements to a fine of $250 per student, per incident.[150]
Hasan lawsuit [ edit ]
On July 27, 2010, a second high school student, Jalil Hasan, and his mother filed a civil suit for invasion of privacy against the school district. The suit was over the school's surveillance of Jalil at his home, via his school-issued computer, without the high school student's or his parents' knowledge or consent.[16][18] Hasan was 17 years old at the time.[151] The suit also named as defendants the district's Board of Directors and Superintendent, as well as Perbix, Charles Gintner (a district IS Department employee), and "John Does 1–5" (district employees who requested, authorized, activated, or viewed the images, or allowed the surveillance to continue).[151] Mark Haltzman also represented the Hasans.[8]
Lower Merion school administrators had informed the Hasans by letter that the schools had secretly monitored Jalil by the webcam embedded in his school-issued laptop for two months, while he was a senior at Lower Merion High School.[16][50] The letter was one of 40 that the district sent out to comply with a May 2010 court order by U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Thomas Rueter. Rueter had ordered the district to send out letters to all relevant high school students indicating the dates of the schools' activations of their webcams, and the number of photographs and screenshots taken by each affected student's computer.[115][152]
Hasan had misplaced his laptop at his high school on Friday, December 18, 2009. The complaint states that day a teacher found the laptop, and turned it in to the IS Department, from which Hasan retrieved it on Monday, December 21, 2009.[18][151] However, the complaint alleges that it is believed that on the day Hasan retrieved the laptop from information systems, Gitner, Perbix, and others covertly activated the TheftTrack surveillance software on Hasan's school-issued laptop.[151] They allegedly continued to run the surveillance for the nearly two months after returning the laptop to Hasan. They only deactivated the surveillance in the wake of the publicity surrounding the Robbins lawsuit that broke on February 18, 2010.[16][16][18][50][151][153][154]
Over 1,000 images were surreptitiously taken by the district through Hasan's school-issued laptop—consisting of 469 photographs taken via the laptop's webcam and 543 screenshots. They included shots of him in his bedroom in his Ardmore, Pennsylvania, home, and of other family members and friends.[4][16] The school district did not inform Hasan and his family of this until July 8, 2010, when a lawyer for the district (Hank Hockeimer) notified them of the existence of the photographs.[18] The complaint said: "In fact, had the Robbins class action lawsuit not been filed, arguably Jalil's laptop would have continued whirring away snapping photographs and grabbing screenshots each time it was powered up.[151]
The lawsuit was brought on the basis of defendants' invasion of Hasan's privacy without his knowledge or authorization, referring to the same laws cited in the Robbins lawsuit.[151] It charged the district with:
gross negligence, reckless indifference and wanton abandonment of all responsibility to train, supervise, control, monitor, and discipline the employees of the school district acting in the course and scope of their employment, and with actual or tacit approval of the School District in the activities and behavior of its ... employees which were, by all moral, legal, ethical, and rational standards ... outrageous.[151]
"When I saw these pictures, it really freaked me out," said Jalil Hasan.[16] His mother said: "Right now I feel very violated ... When I'm looking at these pictures, and I'm looking at these snapshots, I'm feeling, 'Where did I send my child?'"[8][50]
The district was put on notice of a third parallel suit that a third student intended to bring against the district, for "improper surveillance of the Lower Merion High School student on his school issued laptop", which included taking 729 webcam shots and screenshots between December 14, 2009, and February 18, 2010.[19] The third student also learned about the school's surveillance of him when he received a letter from the district that the judge had ordered the district send to all students who had been subjected to webcam surveillance.[19] Sources told Main Line Media News that the student never reported the computer missing.[19]
Settlement of $610,000 [ edit ]
In October 2010, the school district agreed to pay $610,000 to settle the Robbins and Hasan lawsuits against it.[1] The settlement must be approved by Judge DuBois, who could also make his injunction barring the district from secretly tracking students permanent.[119] The settlement also includes $175,000 that will be placed in a trust for Robbins and $10,000 for Hasan. The attorneys for Robbins and Hasan get $425,000.[155]
See also [ edit ] |
After two decades of obscurity, all it took was a few choice roles to get noticed—a Nazi infiltrator here, an X-Men villain there, plus one unforgettable turn in Shame that made him a full-frontal phenomenon. His rapid rise continues this month with Ridley Scott's Alien prequel, Prometheus. But as Chris Heath discovers, Michael Fassbender is more than the sum of his parts
If he’s going to take me home with him, Michael Fassbender first needs a moment alone. That’s the one thing he asks. We’ve been walking and talking for a while in a local park, but he didn’t even mention that we were close by his apartment until the increasingly heavy rain triggered his sense of hospitality. "Just give me two seconds to do a little bit of a sort of tidy-up," he requests. "My mother wouldn’t be happy."
I wait in the stairwell, glad just to be getting no wetter, until he swings open the door.
"Okay!" he beams. "Welcome to my flat!"
Perhaps the hillside mansions, penthouse duples, lakeside haciendas, and beachfront idylls will follow in the traditional movie-star way, but for now these three rooms—this big one we are in, a small bedroom at the back with bedding on the verge of tumbling out the open door, and an unseen bathroom—are the only ones in the world Michael Fassbender can call his own. "For one person, it’s perfect, really," he says. Although some areas of East London have become hyperfashionable in recent years, this is not one of them. He moved to this apartment in 2006, at the end of his twenties, when he was just one more actor getting enough work to live off but still wondering whether that chance would ever come to show the world what he could really do. Since his recent breathless ascent, he has had neither the time nor the inclination to move. "I always liked the energy round here. Traditionally more of a working-class area. A bit of an edginess to it, as well. And the parks are everywhere here. I always just felt like this was the right spot for me."
Fassbender directs me to a perch near a small raised tabletop—"nice little congregation spot"—and offers me a choice of drinks: champagne, beer, tea. It’s the early afternoon, and this is the first time we’ve met, so tea seems most prudent. He opens the fridge. "The milk is just on the edge," he cheerily announces, as though every kind of luck is with us.
He points out the stains and bubbling paint on the ceiling where he’s had serious water leakage, only recently fid, and the similarly buckled floor below. Soon he’ll have it all redecorated, move a wall at the same time. "As you can see," he says, "I need storage space."
I can see. Large areas of the floor are covered: bos, suitcases, clothes, two guitars, one electric with its amplifier. Suits lie and hang everywhere, evidence of an actor promoting three films simultaneously (Shame, A Dangerous Method, and Haywire)—part of a manic two-year flurry of work which also included his role as Magneto in X-Men: First Class, a remake of Jane Eyre, and the forthcoming Ridley Scott science fiction extravaganza, Prometheus—someone sometimes only home for a few hours before having to head out to the next premiere, film festival, or awards ceremony.
Though perhaps it has always looked like this. Fassbender mentions the time during the Shame shoot when the director, Steve McQueen, visited his temporary New York home. "It’s incredible," he remembers McQueen saying. "It’s exactly the same mess pattern." Fassbender tells me that when he was young, and his parents were busy running a hotel, he was responsible for lots of the cleaning at home. That was how he got pocket money. "My mother was very particular about checking," he says, and mimes running a finger across a surface to check for dust. "No shortcuts allowed." I’m not sure whether he’s telling me this to explain why things aren’t cleaner or why they aren’t messier.
In the middle of the room is a mini Ping-Pong table, borrowed from his British agent, who lives nearby. "Now that it’s here," says Fassbender, "it’s not going. This table has been the best contribution for fun I’ve had in a long time. This table has seen some action..." He pauses, laughs. "That sounds wrong."
But has it? I say, gently pushing.
"Just the paddles," he deflects, and of course he then realizes that this sounds wrong, too, in exactly the same way.
No matter. Just an inconsequential bit of innuendo. Except that right now, and ever since the release of Shame, I’m not sure that in the life of Michael Fassbender there is such a thing as an inconsequential bit of innuendo. For every person who actually saw the movie, and Fassbender’s monumental, unflinching portrayal of a man lost in the abyss of his unappeasable sexual appetite, there are dozens more who only know it as the movie in which he shows absolutely everything. And so, for the past few months Fassbender has been cast adrift in a shoreless ocean of innuendo. It has been relentless. He has been required to smile through endless hilarious penis-joke interviews. (Here’s a representative example, from the prime-time British boys-and-cars TV show Top Gear: "You had to do, let’s be honest, a full-frontal nude scene—was it hard?" Next, the pithy follow-up remark: "I mean, this was an impressive sausage....") He has been required to grin appreciatively at playful public mockery from his peers. (Most notably, George Clooney’s speech at this year’s Golden Globes: "Michael, honestly, you can play golf...with your hands behind your back.") And he has been required—this really happened—to identify a series of screen shots of famous penises in the movies. (Twice. Both times on MTV. The second time while standing on an awards-show red carpet.)
All of this he has done with apparent good humor, at least if you don’t try to read too much into his body language or the way his eyes shift or the flickering edges of his smile. Next to all that, what’s a gentle double entendre about sex on a very small Ping-Pong table? Go with it.
"Paddles," he repeats. "And balls."
And he grins, exactly as you would grin if you found this funny, though it’s easy to understand why he also says, "So it starts."
In his midteens what Michael Fassbender wanted most of all was to be a heavy-metal guitarist. With glee he talks about his youthful favorites: Metallica’s "Orion," Sepultura’s "Beneath the Remains," anything off Slayer’s Reign in Blood. He fetches his iPad and searches for his favorite Slayer songs on YouTube. When "Seasons in the Abyss" begins, he talks about how sensational the drummer is—"This bit here, I love this bit!"—until the riffage kicks in and he begins to play frantic air guitar, grinning. He shows me his book of Alice in Chains sheet music and tells me how hard it was to learn Megadeth’s "Rust in Peace." "Dave Mustaine, he seemed to really pick difficult timings. I think he sometimes made things a bit more complicated than they needed to be."
Back then, Fassbender looked the part. "I had long hair, down to here..." he says, holding his hand level with his chest, "...ten-hole Doc Martens, and combat shorts cut at the knee." He and his friend Mike had a band, but they could never find a drummer or a bass player, and their only concert, in a local pub at the middle of the day, was just the two of them. It wasn’t a triumph. They kept being asked to turn down the volume, lower and lower. "Nobody wants to hear Metallica at lunchtime," he says.
It took him a while to realize that he would never be good enough. He needed a new plan. "As a teenager, you’re searching for something that fits for you. I was pretty average at most things. I was just looking for something that I could relate to and perhaps excel in myself." That turned out to be acting.
Fassbender’s first TV job was in a British comedy called Hearts & Bones—he played a boyfriend known as Herman the German who liked to carry around a snorkel. (Fassbender was born in Germany and has a German father, though from the age of 2 he grew up in Ireland, his mother’s homeland.) Sometimes, when you see future movie stars in their first small roles, the glow of what they will become dazzles you. But this isn’t like that. The young Michael Fassbender seems significantly more inconsequential and less attractive than the famous one. It’s totally plausible on-screen when he makes a case to a girl that they should be together because "neither of us are aggressively good-looking."
A year out of drama school, he got what seemed like his big break when he was cast in the HBO World War II series Band of Brothers. He spent nine months on-set only to discover the cruel difference between being on-camera day after day and being visible in the finished work. "Blink," he says, "and you’ll miss me." Several months in Los Angeles brought more rejection. "I wasn’t blowing them away in the audition room, that’s for sure," he says. "I just didn’t feel settled or comfortable or confident." He retreated to London and spent much of the next few years on British TV, and though the roles got bigger over time, and he always seemed to occupy them with élan, he still didn’t radiate anything remarkable.
But Fassbender says that when 2007 arrived, he somehow knew. "There was something funny about that year," he says. "I realized that year somebody left the door open. I’m kind of superstitious—I was born in 1977, it was 2007. I just felt something in my bones."
Nonetheless, the opportunity of Fassbender’s life nearly slipped him by. He was asked to meet with the English artist Steve McQueen, who was planning to make his first film, Hunger, about the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, who starved himself to death in 1981 as a protest against the British authorities. Fassbender and McQueen didn’t hit it off. Fassbender was wary about how anyone would handle such an important and emotive episode in Irish history. McQueen simply didn’t like the man he met. He thought Fassbender was cocky.
McQueen’s casting director persuaded him to meet Fassbender a second time, and they both saw what they had previously missed. "I was like, This guy is what I’ve been looking for for so long," says Fassbender. "You’re looking for that guy or woman who’s really going to elevate you and push you in the right ways and really get something out of you that you wouldn’t be able to achieve yourself."
There is a tendency, as with Shame, to reduce what Fassbender did in Hunger to one specific physical feat, in this case starving himself so that he could act out the final scenes weighing only 128 pounds. Dropping the weight required daunting commitment and self-control, and the result of these efforts is terrifying, bleak, and heartbreaking: a man forcing his own body to wither so far that soon there will no longer be room for a person inside it. But what Fassbender does in Hunger far transcends that. For the first time, he marshals the union of otherworldly intensity, naturalism, and serene command that he has brought to a wildly diverse range of roles since. At one point there is a single uninterrupted camera shot that lasts for over seventeen minutes—a scene where he debates the path ahead with a skeptical priest, just two men talking—but if I hadn’t read that it was a single shot, I don’t think I would have noticed anything but what they said.*
Whether it was more that Hunger sparked something within Fassbender, or whether it simply alerted the film world that here was an actor who could do so much more than had yet been asked of him, after that one role everything seemed different. He could be equally entrancing as a weak-willed charmer in a low-budget British domestic drama (in the very fine Fish Tank) or as an iconic comic-book character in a blockbuster (in X-Men: First Class, with his sinister humanization of the young Magneto). Perhaps best of all was his brief, majestic turn in Tarantino’s_ Inglourious Basterds,_ where Fassbender made it seem as though it had always been the case that he could drop into a movie for less than half an hour and deliver a performance of such precision and charisma that no one would forget it.
Though it was well-reviewed and much discussed, Shame was not a widely watched box-office hit. And despite its raw subject matter, it is not in the least a titillating film. Also, while Fassbender is very visibly naked in the movie, he is, of course, far from the first male actor to appear this way. So why has his nudity inspired such attention, so much blinkered focus and giggly merriment?
I’d suggest that the main reason, if we’re being honest, is a simple one, and relates to the surreal, feverish totemization of penis size in our culture: People feel free to harp on about someone’s penis as though this is not insulting or inappropriate because, if that penis is sufficiently large,_ any_ reference to it is, by default, flattering. (Were he possessed of "an unimpressive sausage," so to speak, far less would have been said.) This is why each time Fassbender’s role in Shame is reduced to a simple act of undressing, no one seems to worry that it’s an insult to everything else he did in the movie: He has a big dick, so he’s got nothing to be unhappy about and every reason to smile at anything we might say on the subject. I think it really may be that idiotic.
* _ Incidentally, Fassbender was just as naked in Hunger as he would be in Shame, if only fleetingly. No one ever seems to mention that. I suppose that when a prisoner in the last few months of his life is being forcibly stripped and hosed down, dick jokes don’t seem quite so funny_
Maybe there’s also something in Fassbender’s manner—the happy-go-lucky Irish charmer—that has reassured people that it’s okay. One of the things I will find myself wondering as I spend time with Fassbender is how true this is: whether his easygoing, chuckling demeanor at moments like this reflects a similar easygoingness inside—or whether, buried deep behind those sparkly eyes, there’s actually a whirlpool of fury and disdain and hurt at how it feels when you give your all for the type of performance that might define a career only to find it routinely reduced to a series of jokes about your genitalia, jokes that you are not only expected to tolerate but to laugh along with, and not only that but also to congratulate each new joker for his or her epic wit.
"It’s fun to a point," he says of these situations he has been facing, "and after a certain point you worry that it kind of detracts from the movie. But there’s nothing I can do. I just have to laugh it off. I can. Pretty much. Because I take my work seriously but I can’t take myself too seriously. I’m in such a crazy privileged position—shit, this is the pinnacle of the dream when I was 17.... Nobody wants to hear really how difficult it is."
Let’s consider a remarkable interview with him in The Sunday Times, a British newspaper known for a reasonably high tone and sturdy standards. Much of the article is about Fassbender’s anatomy, sex life, and sexual history, and in the published version he is depicted as someone willingly engaged in the back-and-forth. At one point he is quoted as blurting out, unexpectedly, "When in doubt, fuck." It also includes a statement near the end from the interviewer, Camilla Long, that I believe is without precedent even in the giddy history of the celebrity profile:
I...feel quite certain that he would willingly show me his penis, given slightly different circumstances and a bucket of champagne.
"Wow," says Fassbender when I recite this to him. "No, I haven’t read that one. Just as well, really." But he does remember the interview. "The first thing she said to me was, ’So, what does it feel like to have a big cock?’ That was her opening question."
And as for her bold assertion about what he might’ve done?
"I don’t think I would touch her with a barge pole."
A blunt answer. Though, I wince to point out, one with its own phallic innuendo. That’s the trouble. As schoolboys of a certain age know, once it’s on your mind there’s barely a sentence that can break free of it.
Setting aside the totality of what Fassbender does in Shame, there is one moment where I thought: "I’m not sure I’ve ever sat in the cinema and watched someone do that." It is not where he is facing toward the camera, naked. It is when you see him actually piss.
"I know," he says. Usually for movie pissing the liquid you see is actually coming from a hidden tube, but he was nude. For the first two takes, he wasn’t able to do anything, but he announced on-set before the third that it would happen, and it did. "Actually pretty proud," he says. And then he laughs and says—more blurts out, really—"That peeing cost me an Oscar."
He is not entirely serious. Nor will he endorse Steve McQueen’s slightly broader stated view: "In America they’re too scared of sex, that’s why he wasn’t nominated." "I don’t know—I don’t think so," says Fassbender. "Steve is a passionate man. There’s not much filtering with Steve, and I love him for that." But he’s starkly honest in acknowledging that there was a concerted campaign to get him nominated—"They promised me paradise!" he blares—and how his expectations were raised.
"At the beginning people [say], ’You’re going to be going to the Oscars,’ and you’re like, ’Whatever, doesn’t matter, don’t think so.’ But after a while it does penetrate. After a while you’re like, ’Anyway, so I’m going to the Oscars...’ " He laughs. "And you start to believe it. And I did. I thought I was going. And then I found out I wasn’t and I was upset. I was very upset by it. The first reaction was ’What the fuck...?’ " He sounds frustrated that he had let himself get sucked in. "It’s a vanity thing. It does become important to you. And it shouldn’t." On reflection, he decided that he had learned something about misplaced priorities. "A good little lesson."
Ridley Scott first noticed Fassbender in Hunger and Fish Tank. "Probably one of the best three or four actors out there," says Scott. "He holds the screen." Fassbender plays an android in Prometheus, and when the two met to discuss how he might approach the role, Scott asked him to look at three movies. Most superficially The Man Who Fell to Earth, in which David Bowie plays an alien visitor whose lack of belonging eats away at him. More important were Lawrence of Arabia and the wonderful 1963 film The Servant, in which Dirk Bogarde plays a manservant to a rich, aimless Englishman. Scott says that Fassbender phoned him shortly after watching The Servant and said, "I get it, I get it—I’m the butler." Though I will see an impressive dozen or so minutes of Prometheus, mostly taken from early on in the movie, details about the film are closely guarded; anyone prone to speculation, however, might find it significant that The Servant is a masterful depiction of hiring someone to control the little details of your life only to discover one day that one of the things your employee is controlling is you.
Peter O’Toole’s depiction of Lawrence of Arabia is also a background influence on how the android David might behave. "He’s an outsider as well," says Fassbender. "In the end, [Lawrence is] neither British nor Arab. There’s something in that, I think—the robot not being accepted by any of the humans." More unusually, the film itself—Lawrence of Arabia—also became an actual part of this new movie. Scott and Damon Lindelof, the movie’s screenwriter (and previously one of the minds behind Lost), had been discussing what an android might do in the empty years on a spaceship traveling huge distances while the human crew slept. Teach himself every skill, no doubt. "I reckon he can probably speak sixteen languages...play violin...piano..." says Scott. Watch every movie, too.
But then it struck them that maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he would find one movie that he liked more than all the others, and fixate upon it. "We were talking about how young children, 4- or 5-year-olds, will watch the same movie over and over again," says Lindelof. "And you’ll say to them, ’There are other movies...’ And they say, ’No, I want this one.’ " What if this android watched Lawrence of Arabia over and over? What if he even decided to style his appearance on O’Toole’s? What if he even sometimes used borrowed dialogue? (Cinephiles quickly spotted that a line of David’s which momentously closes the Prometheus trailer—"Big things have small beginnings"—comes from Lawrence of Arabia.)
Fassbender embraced this fully. "I had Lawrence of Arabia on a loop in my room throughout filming," he says. "Jesus, I watched it so many times." Obsessive repetition is an integral part of his working method. When he is preparing for a movie, he will read the script over and over, day after day, until he has read it around three hundred times. This is often no more fun than it sounds—"It’s fucking boring!" he clarifies—but it helps him to the place where, ironically, once the camera is rolling, he feels liberated to go wherever his instinct takes him.
Fassbender also dutifully adopted the Peter O’Toole-esque hairstyle required, albeit with less enthusiasm. "Perfect for the character," he notes, but as Michael Fassbender he hated it. "I don’t think peroxide-blond hair is a beneficial look for me," he says. "I just looked at myself and I was like, ’Five-pound rent boy.’ " (Or, translated into American: $8 male prostitute.)
Lindelof says that once Fassbender had been cast as David, the script-in-progress actually evolved with that in mind: "There’s an element of danger to him, and an element of secrecy. Everything I’ve seen him do, no matter how loving and sweet and romantic he can be, there is just this compelling sense of: This guy has something to hide. Fundamental empathy is the actor’s greatest tool, to make the person in the audience say, ’I am that person.’ Michael Fassbender does not always do that. He is okay with, and comfortable with, and confident with saying, ’I will not allow you to feel empathy with me. There is a part of me that I am going to keep to myself. And if you try to get close you will find my hand in your face.’ "
A few weeks after our London afternoon, we meet for lunch in New York. In the meantime, Fassbender has appeared at a comic-book convention in Anaheim, California, to promote Prometheus, and met with the scriptwriter for the next X-Men movie in Los Angeles to discuss what is in store for Magneto, and he has flown up to Sacramento, where his sister now lives, to surprise his parents. It was a joint early birthday party for his father and for him—his thirty-fifth.
In New York, he orders a double espresso and puzzles over unfamiliar pastas on the menu. What he wants—what he most loves to eat after waking up—is oysters. Think of this not as the newly acquired fancy-pants tastes of the international film star, but as those of a boy with a chef father who grew up with access to private areas of a fine restaurant. Oysters are not on the menu here but he is not deterred. "Any good kitchen," he confidently announces, "should be stocked up in oysters, shouldn’t they?"
He asks the waitress whether they have any oysters. They do not.
He renews his study of the menu. He orders the shaved-porchetta sandwich and announces that we will share some pasta first. "I’ll play mama," he says when it arrives, and divides it up. He mentions that he has recently started cooking again. "If there’s friends around, I’ll cook. Or if I have a girlfriend. But on my own I kind of fell out of the habit of it, and it’s a shame really because I know it’s good for me. It’s something quite therapeutic."
During an earlier stop in New York, he was photographed walking the streets of SoHo hand in hand with his Shame co-star Nicole Beharie. Fassbender has tended to keep quiet about his romantic life, though not long ago he briefly reflected on the discovery that his new fame comes with "a buffet of choice." After the photos of Beharie and him appeared, the global gossip media anointed her as his girlfriend.
In this instance their assumptions are accurate. "I’m seeing Nicole, we’re trying to see each other as often as possible," he acknowledges. "That’s kind of difficult when she lives [in New York] and I live in England." He says they got together during the film’s promotion. "Nothing happened while we were filming. We started talking more on the promotion thing. So, yeah, it just sort of unfolded like that." Presumably that’s why he’s now back in New York for a couple of days, though he doesn’t say so.
What he does express is just how much, during our meal, he is increasingly frustrated by the overattentiveness of the waiters. Repeatedly he has to explain that no, thank you, he would not like his plate taken yet. This seems to disturb them as much as their actions are disturbing him. "What’s going on, man?" he eventually exclaims to a man loitering anxiously a few feet away. "You make me nervous when you hover around like that." Fassbender rails to me about this newly fashionable habit of taking away anyone’s plates before everyone has finished. "One of my pet hates," he says. Without reading too much into a moment or two’s irritation, not even unjustified, it may be a pointer. Fassbender presents himself as breezily carefree and upbeat—David Cronenberg’s description to me of his demeanor on-set while filming A Dangerous Method is as "annoyingly cheerful"—but my sense is that there is also another Fassbender, one much more tightly wound, whose frustrations and ambitions and insecurity bubble away in darkness, biding their time.
Today, though, the charmer is mostly in command. He’s funny talking about his successes, and funnier still talking about the moments that have not gone as planned. When he mentions Centurion, a disastrous sub-Gladiator misfire, he mutters "that Criterion classic." In this spirit, just before he leaves I ask him about a cameo that I read he’d filmed in a Woody Allen movie, Cassandra’s Dream. As he describes the experience, he mentions he’s never seen the movie. It’s only then that I realize he doesn’t know he was cut out of it, and that I’m about to break the news. "Oh shit," he says equitably. He tells an embarrassing story about how he wanted to say good-bye to Allen at the end of his single day’s shoot, and how he headed after the departing director calling out "Woody! Woody!" But Allen disappeared without turning around, leaving Fassbender with nothing to do but redirect to the craft table, pour a cup of coffee, and try to pretend that’s what he had been planning to do all along. "A really sad moment," he says.
Last summer, after Prometheus wrapped, at the end of twelve months of back-to-back filmmaking, Fassbender took a six-week motorcycle trip through Europe: he and an old school friend on one bike, his father, Josef, on another, a trip that had been talked about for over ten years. Three bike bos from the trip remain stacked up in the living room of his London apartment. To Fassbender the bos are not just a reminder of a happy time, they also represent a simpler way of being: "When I came back I was ’I need to live my life out of three bos. It’s perfect. It’s all I need.’ "
After they got home, Fassbender’s mother, Adele, called him. "What have you done to your father?" she asked. He was grumpy. Not the same.
"I miss the road," his father told him. "I miss the action. I’m cleaning out the gutters at the moment."
One of his father’s replacement activities, so it seems, is to follow his son’s mushrooming fame via Google Alert. That is how Fassbender learns much of what is being said about him. A call will come in. Sometimes there are important issues that need addressing. As Fassbender tells me when we meet in New York, "My dad was like, "What’s this about some fan vomiting on your shoes?’ "
In a sane and stable world, this would be a hypothetical example but, surreally, it is not. Since we first met in London, a story had appeared that a starstruck woman was so overcome by meeting Fassbender in a pub near his home that she threw up all over his shoes. A "source" was quoted in one of the British tabloids saying, "He was a bit bemused by his latest encounter and brushed off the vomit and played it cool. He used to be a barman so he’s no stranger to mopping up some sick." Fassbender was particularly surprised by this story (when it was published, friends were sending him texts saying things like "vomit?") for a very specific reason. "I wasn’t there for it," he says. "It just didn’t happen. What are you going to do?"
It was also reported that he got thrown out of his own party following the British premiere of A Dangerous Method. "Another lie," he says. At least he really was there, but he insists that he left of his own accord at 9:45 p.m. "I left early! I suppose ’Michael Fassbender leaves party early’ isn’t as good." In this instance, he seems to take the story as an insult to the times when he has actually succeeded in being ejected: "I have been thrown out of parties, and it’s a different scene than what was photographed that night, I can tell you."
And then there was the biggest Fassbender story of the past few weeks, the joke that never stops, coming round one more time. It was the evening after the comic-book convention in Anaheim, and as usual, his father got in touch: "I see there’s some stuff on the Internet..."
On this occasion the instigator was his Prometheus co-star Charlize Theron. That very afternoon she had spoken to me about him in terms loaded with respect: "The bottom line is, Michael Fassbender is probably the most talented actor that I’ve ever been around, and I think the most talented actor of this time right now.... I cannot talk about Shame because I sound like a fucking freak, but it’s a film that stayed with me for three weeks. His performance haunted me. I watched it twice, and when I look at the nuance, the delicacy, the tenderness, there was nothing heavy-handed about him. He knows what the balance is. He knows real life, he doesn’t know pretend life.... The bottom line is that he should have an Oscar on his mantel right now."
The same evening, Fassbender introduced Theron at a Human Rights Campaign gala in downtown Los Angeles, where she was accepting an award for her humanitarian work. He kept it simple: After a quick apology for being underdressed (jeans, white shirt, leather jacket) and a "Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everybody!" (he came onstage with a tumbler of what appeared to be whiskey), he knelt on one knee to present her with her award. He then retreated to the back of the stage and she took the lectern.
Faced with a restless crowd to entertain and the knowledge that an attractive movie actress talking the right kind of dirty rarely fails—and with the eternal modern alibi that it was all for a very good cause—Theron took the low road with impressive verve. Some words of thanks to her presenter segued into an appreciation of Shame. "As an actor," she started, "I have to say I was truly impressed that you chose to play it big. [laughter] I mean, most other actors would have gone small, trust me. [more laughter] No, I know, because I’ve worked with most of them... [more laughter] No, seriously_ [a nice fake so that the audience now expects sincere human-rights chatter]_...your penis was a revelation. I am available to work with it anytime."
He tells me that from where he was standing he could hear the laughter but couldn’t really hear the words. "I should have known, to be honest," he reflects. "You know, she’s pretty mischievous, and she’s got a pretty filthy mouth. Yeah, I should have been prepared, really. I wasn’t, stupidly enough."
Afterward, Theron said to him, "I hope you don’t mind me making a joke about your penis."
Fassbender told her it was fine. I have no doubt he sort of meant it. |
OCEAN CITY, N.J., June 30 (UPI) -- A New Jersey woman who met actor Bradley Cooper while they were in a play together at Villanova University has started living her life with a cardboard cutout of the popular Hollywood star.
Danielle Davies launched a website called "My Life With Bradley Cooper" and also has an accompanying Instagram account.
Why?
"Because, friends, this is America. So why not?" the 39-year-old wrote on her site. "The fact is, while most of us don't actually live our lives with movie stars, many of us wish we did. If I want a life with Bradley Cooper, well, then...I'll just make one up."
Davies is married to "possibly the most patient husband in the world" and also has a son and daughter.
She reflected about the different directions that her and Cooper's lives have taken since college.
"Since then, he's become startlingly famous and I ... not so much," Davies told TODAY. "(The pictures are) a way for me to poke fun at how I ended up, where I am and how/why my one-time stage equal has gone on to become an Academy Award nominee."
Davies plans to turn her project into a book.
"Sometimes, people just stare and then totally avert their eyes," Davies said. "That's definitely the weirdest ... maybe they don't get that it's a joke? I don't know, but they are clearly uncomfortable!" |
Jump aboard a swift and trusty steed from FINAL FANTASY XV for an unforgettable free ride around downtown Seattle!
To celebrate the game’s upcoming release on November 29, we’ve teamed up with Square Enix to offer FREE chocobo rides around downtown Seattle from Friday, September 2 to Sunday, September 4 from 10am – 6pm.
Get ready to enter the world of ultimate fantasy adventure and experience the Emerald City like you never have before.
HOW TO REQUEST
Open the Uber app in downtown Seattle and request the FFXV option.
If available, a chocobo may appear to whisk you away. Traveling with comrades? These birds can accommodate up to 3 people.
Trips must begin and end in downtown Seattle. These chocobos love the city and we’ve promised them the opportunity to explore downtown.
Fresh out of Gil? No worries, these birds only require your smiles for payment.
These birds aren’t camera shy, so make sure to snap your photos and tag @uber_sea + #FFXV to show off your chocobo ride. |
NEW DELHI: Despite voluntary organizations receiving over Rs 11,500 crore in foreign funds annually, only 2% of the 20 lakh-odd NGOs operating in the country file annual returns with the government, raising eyebrows in the home ministry According to a home ministry report, although there is no centralized database on the number of NGOs in the country and the quantum of finance involved in their operations, unofficial figures indicate that there are over 20 lakh NGOs registered under Societies Registration Act, Trusts Act etc. However, the number of NGOs registered under Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act would be less than 2% of the total number of NGOs.“Though the number of associations reporting receipt and utilization of foreign contribution is increasing, it is a matter of concern that a large number of registered associations still do not submit their statutory annual returns mandated by the law,” the home ministry report on receipt and utilization of foreign contribution by voluntary associations said.A total of 43,527 NGOs were registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act up to March 31, 2012. During 2011-2012, 22,702 NGOs reported receipt of foreign contribution amounting to Rs 11,546.29 crore. In all, 9,509 NGOs have reported no receipt of foreign contribution while many have not filed returns. Among all states and UTs, NGOs in Delhi received highest amount of foreign contributions — Rs 2,285.75 crore— in 2011-12. |
Australian businesses have copped a bad deal in Australia’s free trade agreement with China, according to the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network.
Analysis by the AFTINET published last week shows the Australian government made “huge concessions” on temporary labour and investor rights in its “desperation” to complete the deal.
While the FTA was signed last year further details were only released last week.
The details of the FTA show the Australian government has increased temporary labour mobility.
It has also agreed Chinese investors will be able to sue Australian governments if they can claim a change in law or policy “harms” their investment, known as Investor-State Disputes or ISDS, but those provisions are unfinished and ambiguous.
A Memorandum of Understanding separate from the text of the trade agreement gives Chinese investors in projects valued over $150 million additional rights to bring in temporary migrant workers.
There is no equivalent provision for Australian firms to bring in Australians.
Labour market testing of the local labour market to see if local labour is available is optional, not mandatory for the Chinese businesses.
They can negotiate the numbers, occupations to be covered, English language requirements, qualifications and experience, and calculation of the terms and conditions of the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold.
“This means that the minimum wage to be paid to the temporary migrant workers will be the subject of negotiation between the project company and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection,” the AFTINET report says.
“The minimum wages and conditions are meant to conform to Australian industrial law, but may be below the actual market rates paid to Australian workers in the industry.”
But Russell Wilkinson, national head of customs and international trade at Crowe Horwath, told SmartCompany while there may be issues with the FTA it is also a win for Australian businesses.
“It depends which way you look at it,” he says.
Wilkinson says the agreement will allow for better market access to the Chinese economy, improve Australia’s competitive position in a rapidly growing market, promote two-way investment and reduce import costs.
“There is no one way winner. Everybody has to make some sacrifices, but at the end of the day, I think on balance it looks fair,” he says.
“I think, for SMEs, it’s about access into a fairly substantial market and in particular for regional small businesses. For farmers and people on the land, it’s a good outcome it’s going to give them more access.” |
When I arrive on the set of Wong Fu Productions’ first feature film in Pasadena, CA, they’re in the middle of shooting one of the most emotional scenes in the movie.
Everyone, from the production crew to the hair and makeup artists, is speaking in hushed tones — even though the action is taking place in a separate room.
That’s because we’re actually shooting in the Wong Fu Productions office, where a corner of the space (which, on a normal day, looks like a typical workspace with desks and computers) has been transformed into a mock college dorm room, complete with actual walls, a microwave, a bed, and other furnishings. The door to the room has been propped open to leave room for the camera, and also to prevent the set from becoming too hot.
“The way we do things is pretty unconventional,” says Philip Wang, who cofounded Wong Fu with college friends Wesley Chan and Ted Fu. “I like to say it’s resourceful.”
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For Wong Fu, which got its start in 2003 and quickly gained a strong following with the growing popularity of its YouTube channel (which now has over 2 million subscribers), a long day of shooting is nothing new. What’s different this time around is the length of time spent on one particular project.
“Now, we just kind of have this mentality of like, ‘Hey, it’s just like we’re just making 20 shorts, all in a row,’” Wang says. “We do that anyways throughout a year. Now it’s just condensing it all into one.”
Wong Fu is in a unique position as an independent production company for a few reasons: The trio had already begun to make popular videos before YouTube came along — videos were passed around through download links on their website and fans’ instant messenger profiles — and were able to take advantage of the viral potential afforded them by the new platform. Notably, they also feature a primarily Asian-American cast in their shorts; they attribute much of their success to a largely Asian-American viewership eager to see themselves represented in the media. Wong Fu produces character-based short films, which Wang believes is distinct from the typical viral videos that attract views through shock value or cuteness.
In March, Wong Fu raised $358,308 on Indiegogo for their movie, making their project currently the fourth-best funded film on the crowd-funding website.
The film’s plot focuses on two couples at different stages of their relationships, set in a world where “all relationship activity is documented and monitored by the Department of Emotional Integrity (DEI)” and is assigned a number like a credit score.
The young couple featured in the video above is played by Victoria Park and Brandon Soo Hoo. (The rest of the principal cast includes a mix of familiar names and new faces: Randall Park, Ki Hong Lee, Chris Riedell, Aaron Yoo, Joanna Sotomura and Brittany Ishibashi.)
The scene I witness is a tense moment because, for the first time in their relationship, the two have to learn to deal with the challenges of a long distance relationship.
“No one was wrong in that argument,” says Chan, who co-directed the movie with Wang. “We want you to side with both of the characters. That’s one of the real life, relatable elements we wanted to include — that a lot of times, when we argue, there’s no right or wrong.”
Shooting officially wrapped last week, and the movie will be in post-production for the next three to four months. What happens from there isn’t set in stone yet, but Wong Fu plans to submit the film to various festivals as they work out the details of a release plan.
In the meantime, it’s also worth keeping an eye out for a possible upcoming engagement video — according to the movie’s Indiegogo page, one lucky donor claimed a Wong Fu wedding video package for $8,000.
Write to Diane Tsai at [email protected]. |
This is a little embarassing, but here’s the story:
I was on my way out of town in search of adventure when a dragon roared above. I see him flying towards town so I head back. I make short work of it with some help of the town’s guards and I take my leave. Back on the road, just a short distance outside of town, I get ambushed by a bear. But this wasn’t just any bear! This was Bearacles, great king of the frozen north! After receiving a swift and merciless beating, I run back to town as fast as I can and the guards kill the bear for me.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 16th, 2011 at 12:00 am and is filed under Comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |
Green River Killer Gary Ridgway's victims in photos
A decade after striking a plea deal in the Green River killings, Gary Ridgway has been convicted in 49 slayings of women and girls who disappeared in the 1980s and 1990s. Ridgway and investigators agree he has killed far more, though the truthfulness of his confessions -- offered to avoid execution -- remains suspect. Ridgway has not been convicted or accused in any murders outside King County; authorities elsewhere could still seek a death sentence against the serial killer. less A decade after striking a plea deal in the Green River killings, Gary Ridgway has been convicted in 49 slayings of women and girls who disappeared in the 1980s and 1990s. Ridgway and investigators agree he has ... more Photo: Green River Taskforce Photos From Seattle P-I Archives Photo: Green River Taskforce Photos From Seattle P-I Archives Image 1 of / 67 Caption Close Green River Killer Gary Ridgway's victims in photos 1 / 67 Back to Gallery
No one knows how many girls and women Gary Ridgway killed.
Captured Nov. 30, 2001, Ridgway – better known as the Green River Killer – cut a plea deal on Nov. 5, 2003, meant to give some of his victims’ families solace.
While Ridgway admitted to more than 70 killings in King County, it is suspected he killed women elsewhere. Ridgway said he’d killed too many women to recall each slaying.
Only the King County killings were included in the 2003 plea agreement, which saw Ridgway sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. When the deal was struck, prosecutors believed they could prove Ridgway had killed seven women, and that most of the other killings would go unsolved.
Ridgway could still face a death sentence if he were to be convicted elsewhere or charged in King County killings to which he hasn’t admitted. No other charges have been brought against him.
Above is a slideshow with photos of each of the identified women Ridgway has been convicted of killing. They range in age from 15 to 38 – most of Ridgway’s victims were teens – and their deaths span at least 16 years. He was also convicted of killing three women whose remains have not been identified.
Check the Seattle 911 crime blog for more Seattle crime news. Visit seattlepi.com's home page for more Seattle news.
Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or [email protected]. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk. |
FDA approves deadly drug … even after debating its ‘effectiveness’
It is often difficult to understand why government bureaucracies do some of the things they do, and obviously that includes the Food and Drug Administration, the agency responsible for approving some of the most dangerous drugs ever marketed.
In fact, the agency may just have done so again.
As reported by medical website STAT, the FDA’s chief, Dr. Robert Califf, wants a study about a Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug called eteplirsen retracted because he believes it was misleading. The problem is, the drug has already been approved.
Developed by Sarepta Therapeutics, the drug is the first to be approved for the rare genetic disease which leads to a steady erosion and wasting of muscles that eventually consigns boys to wheelchairs and an early grave. STAT reports that Duchenne was approved in spite of often rancorous disagreement out of the limelight among top FDA officials regarding the extent that the drug actually helps patients.
Central to the infighting was a 2013 study into whether the drug was able to produce levels of a protein called dystrophin in sufficient amounts. Without that protein, muscle fibers deteriorate and voluntary movement disappears.
The study, which of course was funded by the drug maker and co-authored by four of the pharmaceutical’s employees, found that the medicine produced enough dystrophin and allowed affected boys some ability to walk.
But Califf sided with a pair of FDA officials who also believe that the study, which was published in the journal Annals of Neurology, should be pulled.
“The publication, now known to be misleading, should probably be retracted by its authors,” Califf wrote in a memo, in which he touched on the internal dispute within his agency.
“In view of the scientific deficiencies identified in this analysis, I believe it would be appropriate to initiate a dialogue that would lead to a formal correction or retraction (as appropriate) of the published report,” the agency chief added in a footnote.
The disagreement was initiated in large part by various moves made by Dr. Janet Woodcock, the controversial manager of the FDA’s drug review division, who pushed hard for the approval of the Sarepta drug.
Though she reportedly had concerns about the study, she also argued with other agency officials who did not agree with her decision to approve the drug, as well the manner in which she advocated on behalf of the drug’s approval.
The trouble is, it’s unclear where the situation goes from here. Dr. Clifford Saper, editor of the Annals of Neurology, said that getting a paper retracted is no quick or easy thing.
“It takes more than a call by a politician for retraction of a paper. It takes actual evidence,” he told STAT. He added that if Califf has evidence that there are errors in the paper, he should produce it.
Meanwhile, another drug that is likely ineffective and perhaps even expensive will be permitted to remain on the market and in use.
Sources:
STATNews.com
FDA.gov [PDF] |
Eschker isn’t the only person doing scholarly work on the ramifications of cannabis legalization. Students and professors across the country are looking beyond the question of “Should cannabis be legal?” toward the more complex economic, sociological, and legal questions raised by legalizing the drug. These higher-ed classes have become a place for students to explore the uncertainties created by the unfolding cannabis story: for example, how to draft legislation for a legal industry, what can be learned from alcohol prohibition, and how dispensaries affect communities.
Finding answers to these questions is becoming increasingly urgent, as more states are lifting restrictions on cannabis use. Residents in Colorado and Washington voted in favor of personal-use legalization in November 2012. On New Year’s Day 2014, Coloradoans made their first state-legal purchases. In addition, 20 states and Washington, D.C. have laws that permit cannabis for medical use.
Before and after California’s legalization attempt, medical cannabis shops popped up all over the state, particularly in Los Angeles. Their rapid growth led to a citywide backlash to shut down some of the storefronts. In this debate, Steve Graves, a professor of geography at California State University, Northridge, saw an opportunity.
“I recognized this was a really rich visual display created on the landscape. And I was worried that if they all disappeared and they all have to go out of business that there might not be a visual record of what they looked like,” said Graves.
So Graves came up with a creative way to get his students, who live all over the greater Los Angeles area, to help document the changing landscape: If they spotted a dispensary while driving or walking, they could snap a picture for a little extra credit.
He received a sizeable pile of images from his students and matched them with a dispensary database created by the Los Angeles Times. Graves eventually noticed patterns. For example, dispensaries, like casinos and liquor stores, lined up along a border of a municipality where they were banned.
“[Students] said, ‘Oh my god I didn’t realize there were so many until I started actively looking for them,’” Graves said. “Students dig that. And then they say, ‘Guess what else I noticed?’ which excites me as a teacher.”
Many of the dispensaries stayed open, leading to a debate about their effect on communities. Bridget Freisthler, an associate professor at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, had examined the effect of liquor stores on neighborhoods and thought a similar approach could be taken to dispensaries. In late 2011, Freisthler was approved by the National Institute on Drug Abuse for five years’ worth of research into the impact of dispensaries on their communities.
Her students are visiting dispensaries and conducting operational surveys, which ask about the condition of the dispensary, the patients that enter, and the types of products the stores sell. At the project’s halfway point, about 10 students have worked with Freisthler, and they have had different reactions to working on a still controversial subject. |
Damon Lindelof, writer of Star Trek Into Darkness (and co-creator of Lost), has apologized on Twitter for what he called a “gratuitous” scene in the movie, in which the actor Alice Eve is shown in her bra and knickers as she attempts to pull on a torpedo-deactivating outfit. After hordes of offended fans tweeted Lindelof about the scene, the writer tweeted the following:
I copped to the fact that we should have done a better job of not being gratuitous in our representation of a barely clothed actress. — Damon Lindelof (@DamonLindelof) May 20, 2013
We also had Kirk shirtless in underpants in both movies.Do not want to make light of something that some construe as mysogenistic. — Damon Lindelof (@DamonLindelof) May 20, 2013
We also had Kirk shirtless in underpants in both movies.Do not want to make light of something that some construe as mysogenistic. — Damon Lindelof (@DamonLindelof) May 20, 2013
What I’m saying is I hear you, I take responsibility and will be more mindful in the future. — Damon Lindelof (@DamonLindelof) May 20, 2013
Also, I need to learn how to spell “misogynistic.” — Damon Lindelof (@DamonLindelof) May 20, 2013
[via Guardian] |
Earlier this year, Apple made several changes to the App Store to address complaints that apps with nothing other than a prurient purpose had infiltrated the App Store. Part of the problem was that kids could still access screenshots for "racy" apps. Apple also began removing a number of these apps after it received complaints from the Parents Television Council. Though the group thinks Apple has some room for improvement, it will be focusing its future efforts on other platforms that are growing in popularity, such as Android, which currently lack Parental Controls.
Parents Television Council is notorious for complaining to the FCC about the sexual or violent nature of TV shows, griping about foul-mouthed YouTube comments, and campaigning against kids being able to buy M-rated video games. The group targeted the App Store earlier this year because Apple's devices—particularly the iPod touch—are so popular with kids and teens. The watchdog group had concerns that some apps could be accessible to children, that App Store pages had Web links that led to yet more objectionable content, and that in the case where Parental Controls were activated, kids could still browse and preview these apps.
Apple ultimately responded by cleaning out a number of these contentious apps and started blocking screenshots in iTunes in addition to the blocks already present in the on-device App Store app. "Whenever we receive customer complaints about objectionable content we review them," Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller told Ars at the time. "If we find these apps contain inappropriate material we remove them and request the developer make any necessary changes in order to be distributed by Apple."
PTC applauded Apple's actions. "Apple has taken a positive first step towards eliminating kids' access to sexually explicit and pornographic content on its product lineup and we applaud the company’s efforts," the group's president, Tim Winter, said in a statement.
PTC does think there's more that Apple could do. In particular, the group is concerned that there is no filtering options for Mobile Safari as there are for desktop browsers. This is even more important on a mobile device, PTC's national grassroots director Gavin McKiernan told Ars, because parents can't sit with the child and monitor their browsing as they could on a desktop PC.
"We're not up in arms against Apple, though," McKiernan said. "We think there's room for improvement, but we are definitely pleased with their response to our complaints."
PTC also thinks other mobile platforms need to take similar measures.
Steve Jobs recently dinged the Android platform as being a "porn phone" during Apple's iPhone OS 4.0 unveiling, partly by virtue of its ability to run any app from any source. "You know, there's a porn store on Android and it has nothing but porn apps," Jobs told journalists during a Q&A session. "You can download them; your kids can download them."
PTC agrees with Jobs that this is a problem, as no other smartphone platform offers a system like Parental Controls. "We plan to draw attention to other platforms, such as Android, or Verizon's Vcast service, that aren't really doing anything," McKiernan told Ars." We definitely want to see progress from some of the other handheld devices."
Despite PTC's singular "think of the children" focus, the group insists it isn't interested in wholesale censorship, as some of its previous campaigns might lead one to believe. "Our goal is on limiting children's access to objectionable content" and ensuring parents have the ability to limit this access when deemed necessary, McKiernan told Ars. "We take no stance on the ability of adults to access legal images, movies, or whatever the case may be." |
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Re: Nightly Labor Update
From:[email protected] To: [email protected] CC: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Date: 2015-07-21 10:06 Subject: Re: Nightly Labor Update
I'll give you thoughts on that in tonight's report. I think diving into executive boards of unions needs to be done very strategically so we don't create more headache. I'll work on options for tonight. Sent from my iPhone On Jul 21, 2015, at 6:52 AM, Robby Mook <[email protected]> wrote: I agree we should push to keep those other unions neutral. Any word on their boards and if we can lobby members individually to block a vote? On Jul 20, 2015, at 11:28 PM, Marlon Marshall <[email protected]> wrote: Thanks Nikki 1. Flagging the Stu comments for Huma given that he just talked to HRC 2. Great letter from AFSCME 3. Awesome on Bricklayers! 4. Nice work with Building Trades Looking forward to chatting with AFT tmrw MM On Jul 20, 2015, at 11:23 PM, Nikki Budzinski <[email protected]> wrote: Good evening This afternoon the AFL-CIO convened the Political Committee (usually chaired by AFSCME President Lee Saunders but because of a health issue, Trumka chaired). Interesting intel from this meeting to pass along. *Political Committee Discussion Points today:* 1. Stuart Appelbaum pushed back on the AFT at the meeting regarding their early endorsement process. He stated that he understood there to be a 60 day notification to affiliated unions by an endorsing union. Trumka clarified that that was incorrect. He engaged in debate with Randi Weingarten's Executive Assistant Michelle Ringuette about their process and Trumka cut off debate. Appelbaum also urged no early endorsement by the AFL-CIO in the Presidential primary. Randi personally called today to mention this exchange with Stuart along with the importance of prep for the Executive Council meeting and reconnecting on policy. She stated that she will be directly following up with Appelbaum and was very shocked by his comments at the meeting. Randi is in Canada or would have been there in person. I am attaching a letter from Lee Saunders in the response to attacks Randi has received over the past week, FYI. 2. The Political Committee decided that there would not be a President endorsement recommendation coming off of the Executive Committee meeting by July 30th. This is not news for us but it was formally voted on. This still allows them to move in the future, internally I have heard a lot of talk that they know they need to endorse and would be looking to before February 2016 (how it looks today, we'll see). 3. The Bricklayer Unions (HRC spoke with President Boland on 6/10/15 and he also attended the Podesta's reception) announced that they will be making a endorsement recommendation at their Convention on 9/14-17/15. I will follow up with them tomorrow, but this is good news for us. BAC was a 2007 HRC endorsers. 4. Write off APWU and the Flight Attendants (affiliated with CWA)-Both Presidents publicly stated their support for Sanders in the Political Committee meeting today. I think our work is to keep them neutral. *Preparation for the Executive Council Meeting:* Randi mentioned today she very much wants to be on the offense going into the July 30th Executive Council meeting. She is going to be asking for a point of privilege at the meeting to emphasize the importance of her early endorsement. She has already lined support in the room among AFSCME, Trade Unions and IAM. She wants HRC to go into the room on offense too. I flag this because I think it could be helpful to have a strategy session around the July 30th meeting for the Secretary. Randi also raised the Cadillac Tax issue with me today. Randi is really an amazing HRC champion. *Other Follow Up Items:* AFT will be in the HQ tomorrow in department meetings from 11-4pm. *Flag for you, UTU President Mike Mulgrew will be attending the Policy meeting from 1-2pm. This was at the request of Randi. We will be meeting in the Nevada room if anyone would like to stop by. I am reviewing tonight/tomorrow the research on ATU/APWU/CWA and will circle back. I am setting up meetings with Suzie Ballentine this week and have a meeting with Heather and Erin next week. I'm going to only be asking Suzie for her insights on the CWA and ATU, but not asking for assistance beyond her thoughts. FYI. Thank you! September 9th is locked in for the Building Trades Council Meeting. Great news. -- Nikki Budzinski Labor Outreach Director Hillary for America 646-854-1442 (direct) <AFSCME EC Letter.pdf> |
There was dismay this week in the 8 Out of 10 Cats writing room. Usually, when a bunch of TV writers express genuine, heartfelt horror it's because a runner has presented them with a plate of the wrong flavour muffins. But this time it was about something serious, or almost as serious: the jailing of Matthew Woods. Nineteen years old, and doing three months for making "grossly offensive" comments about an abducted child. On his own Facebook page.
As you might imagine, seeing someone getting a custodial sentence for making jokes, however disgusting and unimaginative they are, didn't exactly play well among people whose job it is to make jokes. As my fellow writer on 10 O'Clock Live, Alan Connor, put it: "If we've really criminalised attempts to gross out your peers with horrible jokes, then every comedy writer in the UK is, for better or worse, going to be in prison before they take their second sip of coffee tomorrow morning."
Everyone I spoke to about Matthew Woods and his beery late-night Facebook posts asked versions of the same question: since when did making sick jokes become a crime? "It seems uncomfortably like an obscenity conviction," said the comic Frankie Boyle. "Millions of horrendous things are said on Twitter every day, how do you police it? Perhaps a better idea would be to police things like direct threats of violence."
In this case, the only actual threats of violence were directed at Woods. As Charlie Brooker said, "Presumably Matthew Woods learned a powerful lesson about the potential consequences of tasteless humour when a 50-strong mob turned up at his house and the police had to arrest him for his own safety. Jailing him on top of that is insane. Sick jokes can upset and offend. Hurriedly formed vigilante mobs can kill. If the state earnestly believes that the former pose a greater threat to social order than the latter, the state is nuts."
The scariest thing about this nutty judgment is its mob logic. The court deemed Woods's jokes a crime under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, which outlaws "grossly offensive" messages. The chairman of the bench at Chorley magistrates court, Bill Hudson, explained why this resulted in a custodial sentence: "The reason for the sentence is the seriousness of the offence, the public outrage that has been caused."
In other words, the "public outrage" is evidence of the gross offensiveness (which constitutes the crime). The offence caused is proof of the offence. So in a weird way, the people who decide what's grossly offensive (and therefore criminal) are outraged folks such as knee-jerk journalists and the baying vigilante mob.
What's more, according to the Communications Act 2003, those who are grossly offended by the message "need not be the recipients". Just so long as somebody gets to be outraged.
It's a rationale praised by comedy writers the Dawson Bros: "If a joke has offended even one solitary person," they say, "the perpetrator should be jailed without trial. A sketch about a dead parrot will not be funny to someone mourning the passing of a beloved bird. Jail the Monty Python six. A skit about gardening implements will sicken anyone whose relative was impaled on a fork handle. Jail Corbett and send Barker's gravestone to landfill. And a man falling through an open bar hatch will deeply offend the countless people who've lost loved ones to lethal pub mishaps. Jail David Jason. And while you're there, lock up Trigger as an accomplice."
Personally, I find the public declarations of Chairman Hudson, which have been published online, to be "grossly offensive" – does that mean I can press charges under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003? Surely the problem here lies in this dragnet of a term, "grossly offensive".
This is the sort of dangerously vague legislation that the comedian Liam Mullone describes as "fluffy-headed fascism", which, he says, is, "largely the legacy of Blair's tenure. In a few short years our government doubled the statute books with a slew of ill thought-out, open-ended, catch-all laws which had relatively little to do with protecting the people and more to do with Blair's penchant for social engineering. They seemed to disregard everything we've learned about the sanctity of individual liberty."
Never mind liberty, where does it leave comedy? Says Mullone: "It's going to be impossible to do or say anything remotely interesting in a climate where the mob mentality – 'it upsets me so don't say it' – is backed by policemen in the wings."
Part of anyone's job who works in comedy is to scratch about on the fringes of bad taste. It's no wonder comedians are getting nervous.
No one I spoke to about Matthew Woods was in a mad rush to defend him as a person – "he's obviously a massive prick" as one producer put it – but everyone thought it bizarre that this massive prick was behind bars as a result of the things he wrote. Things like: "Who in their right mind would abduct a ginger kid?" and the frankly baffling: "Could have just started the greatest Facebook argument ever. April Fools, Who Wants Maddie?"
No one is defending him on the grounds that he's funny. He's not. But he deserves our support just as much as Paul Chambers, whose notorious airport-bomb quip was met with a great chorus of righteous retweets from furious defenders of free speech. That chorus seems to have gone a bit quiet, now that it comes to rallying behind "comments of a sexually explicit nature" regarding a missing five-year-old.
The writer and broadcaster Victoria Coren warns: "It's easy for us peaceable western liberals to make a fuss when a likeable musician or poet is censored in a faraway country. But when it's a revolting moron being offensive in our own country, the point is still the same: you can't start sending people to prison for saying something you don't like."
Turns out, in Chorley at least, you can. |
The Labrador Retriever is officially Britain's top dog – while the Chinese Crested, various Bulldogs and the Poodle rank among the least loved
As many people own dogs as own cats in Britain (25% each), but when you add in all the people without pets they're easily the most loved animal in the country. Of the 60,000 YouGov members that have contributed data on the 215 (and growing) animals in YouGov Profiles, 16% have given a positive rating to dogs, ahead of tigers and elephants (tied at 13%) and dolphins and cats (tied at 12%).
Not only do we collect data on animals, we go down to even finer detail, with data on 356 dog breeds and 64 cat breeds overall. A new YouGov Profiles analysis of over 44,000 YouGov members who've contributed data on dog breeds reveals the nation's most and least loved breeds.
The top dog is the Labrador Retriever, known for short as the Labrador, or by colour as the black, yellow or chocolate Lab. It's positivity score (the strength of positive sentiment among those who have rated it) is two points higher than the classic British herding breed, the Border Collie, and the Golden Retriever, famed for its friendliness (both scoring 67).
The top ranking dogs are mainly mid-sized working or herding dogs, often originating in Britain. The Alaskan Husky is the only real exception, known for its efficiency as a sled dog in North America; the other being the Golden Retriever, a gun dog but still hailing from Britain and Europe.
The dogs with the least positivity (in fact all ten at the very bottom of the 356 breeds are in negative territory) tend to be smaller dogs, either of the toy variety or notorious for their bad temper.
The least liked, by a long way, is the Chinese Crested, a breed that comes either hairless with a kind of mullet or in the "Powder Puff" (with fur) variety. It scores -30, well below the Bullboxer Pit with -21 positivity.
Along with the Bullboxer Pit, the Pit Bull, Miniature Bull Terrier and Bullboxer Staff are all relatively disliked, perhaps due to negative press for causing injury.
In terms of actual ownership, YouGov Profiles data shows the Labrador as the most widely-owned, followed by the Alsatian, Border Collie and Jack Russell Terrier. |
MILWAUKIE, Ore. — Two weeks ago, Mykayla Comstock was an ordinary 7-year-old girl living through an extraordinary ordeal. She’s been battling leukemia since June, when a basketball-size tumor was discovered in her chest.
Now Mykayla is in the middle of another battle—and in the national spotlight—over whether children should be able to use marijuana to mitigate the crippling effects of chemotherapy. A newly registered member of the state’s Medical Marijuana Program, she has consumed a daily gram of cannabis oil, encapsulated in a pill, since shortly after her diagnosis. The leukemia quickly went into remission, say Mykayla’s unapologetic parents, and in the months that followed she has been able to cope with the debilitating symptoms associated with her traditional cancer treatments.
She also likes the way cannabis makes her laugh.
“It’s like everything’s funny to me,” she tells The Daily Beast.
Mykayla’s controversial but perfectly legal cannabis use rose to national attention late last month when an Oregonian reporter wrote a piece on her after discovering her Facebook page. The story quickly went viral, and Mykayla’s mother, Erin Purchase, says she’s since fielded phone calls from producers from Dr. Phil and Anderson Cooper. Local television reporters also bang incessantly on the family’s door in Gladstone, Ore., she says.
Purchase says she never sought or anticipated this kind of attention. She and her boyfriend, Brandon Krenzler, whom Mykayla calls “daddy,” always knew they would obtain a medical marijuana card if their daughter needed one, she says. When oncologists diagnosed the 7-year-old with an aggressive form of cancer known as T-cell leukemia earlier this summer, Purchase and Krenzler drove Mykayla to The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation clinic in Southeast Portland and got her enrolled in the state program.
Purchase and Krenzler tell The Daily Beast they aren’t the least bit embarrassed or ashamed of their actions. They’re convinced the cannabis oil their daughter now ingests in two pills each day not only has mitigated the effects of her chemotherapy but also perhaps knocked her leukemia into remission. But they made sure those early visits to the clinic where Mykayla gets her medicine were “discreet,” through a side entrance, they say. They did not tell the girl’s biological father, who they say has been out of touch for most of the child’s life. They kept it quiet, to themselves.
Now they’re famous. And they’re being attacked, they say, by people who don’t understand the power of marijuana as medicine, who call them lousy parents, who’ve seized on the comment Jesse Comstock, the girl’s biological father, made in that first newspaper article—that he visited in August and found his daughter “stoned out of her mind.”
Comstock couldn’t be reached for comment for this story, but he’s not the only one nonplussed that each month little Mykayla consumes the distilled equivalent of a pound of marijuana, which remains classified by the federal government as a Schedule 1 narcotic, right up there with LSD and heroin. Purchase and Krenzler say the oncologist who was treating Mykayla “blew up on us” when she found out about the cannabis use and that the doctor-patient relationship became so strained they asked for a new provider. (Neither the girl’s new oncologist nor her previous doctor returned phone calls from The Daily Beast.) The couple—he a handyman in between “technical” jobs, she a hemp jewelry maker—also say they’ve received vile emails from people declaring them not just unfit parents but also deserving of jail time.
“I hope they never have to be who I am,” Purchase says. “I hope they never have to feel what I’m having to feel, what she’s having to feel. I’m not drugging my child. I use this for her medicine. It’s amazing, and I think people should know that.”
But the two have discovered something else about being in the national spotlight: an overwhelming show of support, from all over the country. The number of “likes” on Mykayla’s Facebook page has tripled in the past few weeks, to 5,000. A call for donations to help the couple replace their broken-down car hit $2,000 last week, only a few days after the “Fairy Godparent Car Rally” began.
One of Mykayla’s roommates also gives her $1 every time she muscles down a shot of “cannabis juice,” a liquid derived from the plant that has no intoxicating effects—because it isn’t heated—but is unpalatable. Mykayla says she’s saving those dollars for a “Build-A-Bear” she’s making for her 17-month-old sister, Ryleigh.
Those who support Mykayla’s cannabis use do so either because they’ve long believed in the plant’s healing powers or because they’re hip to mounting medical evidence that shows marijuana’s “cannabinoids” don’t just help with generalized pain, nausea, and diminished appetite but have been shown to slow cancer growth, inhibiting the formation of new blood cells that feed tumors. Some of Purchase and Krenzler’s critics are upset that they don’t treat the girl exclusively with cannabis, he says, but the couple isn’t willing to go that far.
The trouble is, there’s also research that shows marijuana use can have negative effects, especially among those who begin using the drug before they turn 18. “Persistent cannabis use” among young people was associated with “neuropsychological decline,” a Duke University survey of more than 1,000 individuals at various ages found.
Purchase and Krenzler are unbowed, though. They say their daughter is not addicted to cannabis and that she’ll only use it as long it’s necessary, as long as she’s undergoing chemo treatment or suffers from some other qualifying medical condition. They never would have given her the drug in the first place, they say, were it not authorized by the state program, as that would be illegal and could threaten Purchase’s custody agreement. Keith Comstock called police and state social workers after his August visit, but because the girl was a medical-marijuana patient, the agencies just conducted a welfare check.
Mykayla’s parents tell their critics to consider the alternatives for pain management: highly addictive prescription drugs, including oxycodone and hydrocodone. She’s been offered both, they said, for symptoms as mild as a stomachache. Thanks to her cannabis oil, Mykayla can battle occasional nausea with little more than a ginger chew, Purchase says.
“I don’t think there’s anything left to argue,” Krenzler says. “Cannabis helps cancer. Even if it doesn’t fight cancer, it fights the symptoms.”
These days, Mykayla hardly remembers what it was like that first week of chemo blasts, other than the night sweats and being “really, really bored.” |
It’s hard to anticipate every health problem that might occur on a trip to Mars, which could span years. But NASA is trying. It has a list of 100 conditions or events that are most likely to happen during spaceflight, including pancreatitis, lumbar spine fracture and lost fingernails due to ill-fitting spacesuit gloves.
And the agency has highlighted 23 particular health risks of long-duration space travel that require further work to mitigate before a crewed spacecraft takes off for Mars in the 2030s (NASA’s schedule) or sooner (Elon Musk’s schedule). But nine of these risks are currently considered “red,” i.e., they have both a high likelihood of happening — defined as greater than a 1 percent chance of occurring, and high stakes (i.e., death, permanent disability or long-term health impact) if they do: space radiation, visual impairment, cognitive or behavioral conditions, the long-term storage of medications, inadequate food and nutrition, team performance issues, in-flight medical conditions, user issues with onboard technology and bone fracture. These are high priority and “really have to get worked out” before we go to Mars, said William Paloski, director of NASA’s Human Research Program, though he adds that space exploration is inherently risky and volunteers will have to be aware of all known risks, red or not.
Radiation is a biggie. There are two types that are worrisome. Solar particles from the sun can deliver high doses of radiation unless people are shielded by a spacecraft, other sturdy shelter or sufficient water, said Dorit Donoviel, deputy chief scientist of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, a NASA-funded consortium of research institutions led by Baylor College of Medicine.
These solar particle events can also be predicted, but sometimes only about 20 minutes in advance. The problem is, if you’re on the surface of Mars in a spacesuit or land vehicle, that may not be enough time to get to shelter. And if you’re exposed to one of these events, you could experience the kind of acute symptoms people suffered near the nuclear blast zone in Hiroshima, including severe nausea. “You are dead if you vomit in a spacesuit” because the fluid and particles glom up the air supply, Donoviel said. Even if that initial hit is survivable, the radiation wipes out blood cells, leaving you vulnerable to deadly infections. Better prediction tools would help give people more warning of a solar particle event and more time to reach shelter, she said.
If barfing to death in a spacesuit isn’t bad enough, consider galactic cosmic rays, which come from events such as exploding stars. “Imagine every element on the periodic table is highly charged and radioactive, and traveling at the speed of light,” Donoviel said. These particles consist of higher-energy protons and heavy ion nuclei. Because of their energy and speed, they can penetrate “far, fast and hard,” she said, making a more robust shield necessary. And if shields contain materials — like lead — that can interact with heavy ion nuclei and split the radiation into even more particles, they can actually make things worse. A magnetic field could potentially protect against galactic cosmic rays, but there are technical issues there, too; particles might get into the field and become trapped, negating the benefit, she said.
The rays damage and could kill cells, raising the risk of cataracts, exacerbation of underlying disease and of developing cancer over the long term. But on a shorter timeline, they can destroy or severely damage enough brain cells to reduce cognitive function. “Very, very low doses can cause memory loss and a reduction in the ability to make new memories,” Donoviel said. “Making mistakes because you’re not thinking right could be life-threatening.”
There’s no easy fix for galactic cosmic rays. NASA is working on different shielding materials. Another strategy is to develop radioprotective medications or superfoods that could boost the immune system, Donoviel said, but that’s further in the future. Right now, NASA is still trying to understand the full effects of the heavy particles on health, but will begin testing countermeasures “in the near future,” Paloski said.
Another pressing risk is permanent vision problems, known as visual impairment and intracranial pressure. These issues, which involve damage to the optic nerve, didn’t start showing up in astronauts until missions lasted six months or more, and the causes are still not totally clear, Paloski said. At first the culprit was thought to be solely the delayed effects of vascular fluid moving up into the head while a person is experiencing microgravity, but something else seems to be going on, he said. “We’re now looking at alternative hypotheses,” including whether cerebrospinal fluid (which surrounds the brain and spinal cord) or increased carbon dioxide plays a role, he said.
Among the other currently “red” risks, how to adequately stock a spacecraft with enough food and medications to keep astronauts healthy is a particularly thorny issue. You need nutritious foods and a variety of medications that will have a stable shelf life for a multiyear mission — none of which could take up too much space or weight. One solution may be the budding technology of 3-D printing, which could take the building blocks of medications or meals and create them as needed, Paloski said.
Medical care in general is tough in space. “We’re trying to figure out what’s in the black bag you need to send,” Paloski said. And the bag’s contents are limited by what could be used by a non-medical professional with minimal training or on-the-fly automated instruction, what can fit into a spacecraft and what can function in microgravity. (Even a simple blood test to, say, determine whether an infection is viral or bacterial in nature currently can’t be done in zero gravity, Donoviel said.) One imaging tool that already travels to space is increasingly sophisticated handheld ultrasound, which can provide imaging of different parts of the body. Beyond that, NASA has funded a study at the University of Washington to use a handheld ultrasound probe not only to diagnose kidney stones, but to push kidney stones to a less dangerous place in the organ and possibly even break them up.
You might notice that conditions that stem from microgravity, including reduced muscle mass and strength and reduced aerobic capacity, aren’t on that “red” list. “The countermeasure program for those changes has been improving,” with more effective exercise routines and better devices, said Jay Buckey, a physician and professor of medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and an astronaut. The Advanced Resistive Exercise Device, currently used on the International Space Station, can work all the major muscle groups.
But there are still questions: At the University of Calgary, biomedical engineer Steven Boyd is looking at whether bone that weakens during spaceflight fully regains strength after astronauts return to Earth. Loss of bone density can be reversed, but he is studying whether the struts and rods, or bone microarchitecture, which give bone its strength, are similarly recovered.
Data for all these issues is still coming in. Information gathered from a two-astronaut, yearlong mission that ended in March 2016 will provide some answers, but NASA will also rely on data on 10 to 12 more astronauts on future ISS missions to fill in research gaps and provide confidence that they’re on the right track, Paloski said. He is all too aware that, as the experience with vision problems shows, simply extrapolating the results of shorter missions may not be enough to flush out all the potential health problems of a lengthy Mars voyage. “Are there other boogeymen out there?” he wondered. |
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – Netflix and Amazon are adding so much streaming content in May we're not sure the month's 31 days is enough time to sift through it all. You can kick off your movie and TV bingeing with "Adventures in Babysitting," which is now available on Netflix. Hide Caption 1 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Forrest Gump" (1994) -- Life is like a box of ... . This film stars Tom Hanks as a child-like man who stumbles into some of the biggest moments in history. (Netflix) Hide Caption 2 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Boys Don't Cry" (1999) -- The film based on the tragic story of Brandon Teena won Hilary Swank an Academy Award for best actress. (Netflix) Hide Caption 3 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Hook" (1991) -- Robin Williams is a the now grown-up Peter Pan who must save his children from his arch-enemy Captain Hook in this fantasy film. (Netflix) Hide Caption 4 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Gladiator" (2000) -- Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix star in this Ridley Scott-directed film about a Roman general who is enslaved and forced to fight as a gladiator. (Netflix) Hide Caption 5 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Broadway Idiot" (2013) -- It's not every musician that can go from being a platinum-selling punk rocker to Broadway star. This documentary about Green Day front man Billie Armstrong tells the story of his journey. (Netflix) Hide Caption 6 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Kill Bill" Volumes 1 and 2 (2003, 2004) -- The body count is high in these Quentin Tarantino movies as Uma Thurman's character The Bride seeks her revenge in the martial arts flicks. (Netflix) Hide Caption 7 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Kiss the Girls " (1997) -- Based on the James Patterson novel, this thriller stars Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. (Netflix) Hide Caption 8 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "La Bamba" (1987) -- The story of teenage Chicano rock star Ritchie Valens who died with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper in a 1959 plane crash made Lou Diamond Phillips a star. (Netflix) Hide Caption 9 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Legend of Bagger Vance" (2000) -- Will Smith stars as a caddy to Matt Damon's golfer who is in need of some help with his game. (Netflix) Hide Caption 10 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939) -- This film starring James Stewart is both a political film and a comedy. It is directed by Frank Capra who also teamed up with Steward for the classic Christmas film "It's a Wonderful Life." Hide Caption 11 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "The Big Chill" (1983) -- Come for the movie, stay for the soundtrack. An all-star ensemble including Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum and William Hurt come together for this drama about a group of Baby Boomers who reunite for a trip after the suicide of a friend. (Netflix) Hide Caption 12 of 31
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Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – James Bond movies: The 1963 James Bond movie "From Russia With Love" (1963) is just one of many Bond flicks now available on Netflix. A few other selections include 1973's "Live and Let Die," 1983's "Never Say Never Again" and 1964's "Goldfinger." Hide Caption 14 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – Godzilla movies: "Godzilla" will be in theaters starting May 16, but you can find even more of the monster on Netflix. The streaming service has four Godzilla movies from the mid '50s and '60s now available. Hide Caption 15 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – HBO programming: Amazon is your new favorite place to watch HBO shows (other than HBO, obvs). The website has lined up full and partial seasons of lots of original HBO programming, including "Flight of the Conchords." Hide Caption 16 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "The Spectacular Now" (2013) -- Miles Teller and "Divergent" star Shailene Woodley navigate teen love in this drama. (Amazon) Hide Caption 17 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Much Ado About Nothing" (2012) -- Joss Whedon directs this modern retelling of the Shakespeare classic starring Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof. (Netflix and Amazon) Hide Caption 18 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Pain and Gain" (2013) -- Crime, comedy and weightlifting come together in this based-on-a-real-life story about a kidnapping gone awry starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Anthony Mackie. Michael Bay directs. (Netflix and Amazon) Hide Caption 19 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Eddie Murphy: Delirious" (1983) -- Five words for you: "Uncle Gus and Aunt Bunny." Before he was the voice of Donkey in "Shrek" Murphy was a red leather clad comic stalking the stage in this stand-up film. (Netflix) Hide Caption 20 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Star Trek Into Darkness" (2013) -- Trekkies rejoice! JJ Abrams directs the latest of this franchise which stars Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana and Benedict Cumberbatch. (Netflix and Amazon) Hide Caption 21 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Scandal" Season 3 (2013) -- Fans of the ABC series will find this season memorable, if for no other reason than watching how hard they worked to hide star Kerry Washington's pregnancy. (Netflix) Hide Caption 22 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Machete Kills" (2013) -- This sequel to the 2010 "Machete" stars Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba and Michelle Rodriguez. Lady Gaga shows up too. (Netflix) Hide Caption 23 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Leviathan" (2012) -- You kind of just have to watch this documentary about the fishing industry to get it. It engages the senses. (Netflix) Hide Caption 24 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Vanishing of the Bees" (2009) -- This documentary looks into the dwindling population of honey bees around the world. (Netflix) Hide Caption 25 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Escape from Tomorrow" (2013) -- Disneyland was not happy with the unauthorized scenes in this film about a man unraveling while on family vacation to the Happiest Place on Earth. (Netflix) Hide Caption 26 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Brave Miss World" (2013) -- Linor Abargil was an Israeli beauty pageant contestant who was raped right before she went on to win Miss World. The documentary explores the case. (Netflix) Hide Caption 27 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "These Birds Walk: (2013) -- The documentary follows the lives of philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi and a young Pakistani runaway. (Netflix) Hide Caption 28 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Derek" Season 2 (2014) -- Ricky Gervais stars in this British comedy television series. (Netflix) Hide Caption 29 of 31
Photos: Netflix, Amazon Prime: What's streaming in May New movies for May – "Wicker Park" (2004) -- Josh Hartnett, Rose Byrne and Diane Kruger star in this psychological thriller. (Netflix) Hide Caption 30 of 31 |
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Feb. 25, 2015, 2:29 PM GMT / Updated Feb. 25, 2015, 7:09 PM GMT
FOUNTAIN HILLS, Ariz. — If words like UFO, extraterrestrial, crops circles and abductee have ever piqued your paranormal interest, do yourself a favor and head to the International UFO Congress.
The annual conference—which holds the Guinness record for being the largest convention dedicated to unidentified flying objects—takes place in the picturesque desert town of Fountain Hills, and this year it ran from Feb. 18 to 22. It’s worth noting that Arizona is known as a hotbed of activity when it comes to sightings. Thousands flock to the annual event, which is produced by Open Minds, a paranormal research organization.
Each attendee has his or her own reason for being there. My goal was to find out if modern science and technology have changed the game when it comes to UFO sightings and evidence gathering.
“A lot of people think, go to a UFO convention, it’s going to be tinfoil hats, but that’s not what this is. We have NASA astrobiologists speak, scientists, high-ranking military officials, the works. I mean, there’s a lot of really credible people covering this subject,” said UFO Congress co-organizer and paranormal journalist Maureen Elsberry.
When attending a UFO conference, the best approach is to come in with an open mind, ask lots of questions and talk with people about why they are there. Everyone has a story, from the speakers to the attendees, and even the vendors (some of whom double as ufologists).
The highlight of this year's conference was undeniably the speaker series, and it was standing room only to see one man, Bob Lazar. Lazar first spoke out in 1989, claiming that he’d worked as a government scientist at a secret mountainside facility south of Area 51’s main site, where he saw remarkably advanced UFO technology. Critics have sought to discredit Lazar, questioning his employment record and educational credentials.
During the conference, George Knapp, an investigative TV reporter in Las Vegas who broke the Lazar story in '89, led an onstage question-and-answer session with Lazar, who discussed the work he did at a place called S4. Lazar spoke in detail about the alien UFO hangars and UFO propulsion systems he was allegedly asked to reverse engineer, and even loosely sketched them out for the audience.
“All the science fiction had become reality,” said Lazar, who was noticeably uncomfortable and clearly surprised by the fact that, decades later, he remains such a draw.
You never know whom you'll bump into at the Congress. In the vendor hall, I met sculptor Alan Groves, who traveled all the way from Australia to peddle his “true to scale” Zetan alien figurines. I wondered if his side gig was lucrative, only to realize he was selling the figures like hotcakes. Then we talked about his day job, and he told me he’s worked on special and creature effects for films such as "Star Wars," "Alien," "Labyrinth" and "Jurassic Park."
Many of the attendees told me that hard evidence is a requirement for ufologists and paranormal field experts. Derrel Sims, also known as Alien Hunter, told me he spent two years in the CIA, and also has served as a police officer and licensed private investigator. He said his first alien encounter happened at age 4, and others in his family have also seen aliens. In 38-plus years of alien research, Sims has learned this: “If you look, the evidence is there.” To date, he said, more than 4,000 pieces of that evidence exist.
Sims is adamant about only working with evidence-based methods, using DNA tests and collecting samples as well as relying on ultraviolet, infrared and x-ray tools in his research. He said that, in 1992, he discovered aliens leave their own kind of fluorescent fingerprint, and he continues to test for these clues. He added that if you have had an alien encounter, it’s important to react quickly to gather evidence: “fluorescence” stays on the skin for only 24 hours. He said that other marks aliens leave include “scoop” marks, which are an identifying thread some abductees have in common.
Another commonality he’s discovered is heritage. He said that, in his research, he has found 45 percent of all abductions happen to Native Americans, Irish and Celtic people, and he said that women also have a higher chance of being abducted.
When it comes to filming hard-to-explain phenomena, Patty Greer, who makes documentaries about crop circles, said that quadcopters — a.k.a. drones — have added production value to her films. Lynne Kitei, who covered a mass UFO sighting in her book and in the documentary The Phoenix Lights, said that even low-tech tools, like the 35mm film she used, are still a reliable way to gather proof of inexplicable flying craft, especially because they offer something an iPhone doesn't: negatives.
Night vision also offers added opportunities for UFO researchers, according to Ben Hansen, who was the host and lead investigator of SyFy channel's "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files." He's now the owner of Night Vision Ops, an online store that sells night-vision technology. Hansen said that the consumer accessibility of new military-grade technologies in thermal and light amplification scopes are upping the game for the everyday UFO enthusiast.
To close out an intense few days on site at the Congress, Hansen’s team invited me to a night watch near Arizona’s Superstition Mountains. It was fascinating to see the latest optics add incredible clarity to the night sky, amplifying available light up to 50,000 times beyond what the unaided eye can see. Using the right technology, we were also able to see that a certain flying object, which made everyone nearby jump, wasn’t a UFO after all. It was a bat.
I was surrounded by some serious tech all weekend, and it was eye-opening to see the ways that UFO hunters are gathering scientific evidence to learn more about the paranormal world. But I have to say, the gadget that was the most useful to me at the conference was my iPhone, which I used to download a free nightlight app for kids. For the few hours I managed to sleep, it was with the soothing illumination provided by “Kiwi the Green Koala.” In short, I was officially freaked out.
You can follow tech contributor Katie Linendoll on Twitter and Facebook. |
80% Cut the Cord Because Cable TV is Simply Too Expensive A new report by TiVO (pdf) on cord cutting indicates that nearly half of current pay TV subscribers are considering cutting the cord this year, and nearly 80% of those considering the shift will do so because their current pay TV service is simply too expensive. The survey of more than 3,000 consumers found that only 51.1% of those polled were seriously considering sticking with their traditional pay TV provider, an ominous sign for an industry that's expecting the second quarter to potentially see the highest volume of cord cutting on record.
"37.1% of respondents spent at least $101 per month -- with some spending more than $150 per month -- on pay-TV services alone," notes the report, which indicates that this is a percentage of users that increased 2.3% quarter over quarter. With a growing number of streaming alternatives emerging, and companies like Charter now blindly imposing rate hikes in utter tone-deafness to what should be obvious industry trends, there's every indication this pattern (both cable TV price hikes, and the subsequent defections by frustrated consumers) will only accelerate. After price, the survey found that use of streaming alternatives (57.6%) and use of over the air antennas (32.5%) were the most common reasons given by users that cut the cord. Broken down further, the study found that among those "unsatisfied" with their current cable TV provider, 81.4% say they're mostly annoyed because of high prices. Though 32.9% say they're frustrated by "poor customer service," and 29.9% say they're bothered by the quality of the pay TV service they receive from their telco, cable, or satellite TV provider. "When the increase in monthly bills is coupled with the fact that 81.4% of unsatisfied respondents selected “Too expensive/increase fees for cable/satellite service,” it becomes evident that something must be done about this group," notes the survey. "With more options than ever for TV in 2017, consumers continue to get smarter about their TV options, and many have discovered ways to access TV for far less than $100 a month. Skinny buddle offerings have increased, too, and options include Dish Networks’ SlingTV, DIRECTV NOW and Sony’s PlayStation Vue." There's more detail on Tivo's latest study over at the company's There's more detail on Tivo's latest study over at the company's blog . The full report itself can be found here (pdf).
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Most recommended from 60 comments
Walter Dnes
join:2008-01-27
Thornhill, ON 14.9 8.2
27 recommendations Walter Dnes Member The " Wall Street Disease" I'm moderately conservative/right, and what I'm typing now scares even me. Years ago, shareholders were happy with a company that made a steady profit. Things slowly evolved (devolved?) to the point where shareholders demand constantly increasing profits (and dividends) per share, year-over-year. How do you get that, you ask? Simple, keep raising prices.
• the various sports leagues keep asking for higher rights fees from ESPN/NBCSports/FoxSports/etc
• ESPN hikes their monthly rates to pay for the above, and includes a rising profit for themselves
• OTA stations keep raising the "retransmission fees" they demand from cablecos
• Various cable-only channels keep raising their monthly prices
• the cablecos hike fees to pay for all of the above, and extra, to give themselves a growing profit
Unfortunately, the average person's paycheque has not kept pace. It came down to paying rent or mortgage payments and buying groceries and clothes, versus having cable TV. Cable TV you can do without. Food/shelter/clothing are necessities. adam1991
join:2012-06-16
united state 12 recommendations adam1991 Member Value, not price "...will do so because their current pay TV service is simply too expensive."
No. People are happy to pay lots of money for something.
What they're finding, though, is it's too expensive for what you get. That's the value equation.
They're paying A LOT, but getting little in return.
In a mobile, cellphone-infused world that includes Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon for $30/month, who cares about having cable TV.
I would like to see how many of these numbers include people who move frequently, or who are young and moving out on their own for the first time and are seeing monthly bills for the first time on their Applebee's waiter paycheck.
You can't get blood from a stone.
nycnetwork
join:2000-11-12
Brooklyn, NY 6 recommendations nycnetwork Member Taxes + Fees It's the broadcaster fees, sports network fees, cable box rental fees, taxes, etc that is becoming absurd.
The $79.99 FiOS triple play deal in NYC comes up to $115, after all the taxes and fees. It's laughable. tim92078
join:2010-07-15
San Marcos, CA 5 recommendations tim92078 Member Internet only, thanks TV provider prices are utterly insane. Use other streaming alternatives exclusively now.
ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium Member
join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT 4 recommendations ptrowski Premium Member We did it.... Almost a year ago dumped DirecTv and went with Playstation Vue. Bill went from $130 ish to $35.
ctaranto
join:2011-12-14
MA 3 recommendations ctaranto Member Agreed We dropped cable in Feb 2014. Was paying ~$250/month for cable/internet/phone (VZ FiOS). Never used phone, but was cheaper than not getting it. Had Netflix and Amazon Prime already as well as separate VoIP service.
Bill dropped to $65/month for just internet (still VZ FiOS).
Replaced with high end antenna in attic, MythTV on a Linux server, HDHomeRun, and nVidia Shield/Kodi boxes around the house. Easily passes the WAF. WhatNow
Premium Member
join:2009-05-06
Charlotte, NC 3 recommendations WhatNow Premium Member Bad Programming I had TWC at over $170 for 15 meg internet and TV no VoIP with 200 channels no HBO types and it got to the point at least 2 night I could not find anything I wanted to watch that was not a repeat. The content side keep pushing the price up on channels I never watch. A a carte might not lower the price but it would push a lot of channels of the air when no one is willing to choose and pay for them. |
In the late 12th century, the father of teenage Leonardo Fibonacci takes him off the North African streets and sets him at the feet of gruff Arab tutors. They can’t help it — they like the kid, who they can tell is going to be a nightmare until they agree to teach him the Art of Nine Symbols. Back in Pisa, Fibonacci discovers an axiomatic sequence in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21). The corresponding ratio describes the pleasing spiral he’s been staring at all day — it just looks right. Eight hundred years later, a creative-writing student drafting a story is told it might help to draw its plot. And there it is. (See figure A.)
Structure
Here come the metaphors. John McPhee compares writing a story to prepping a meal, and to the gathering — crystallizing — of salt underground. His essay, “Structure,” traces the Continental Divide, pulls on “chronological drawstrings,” and knits the presumed narrative scarf from the “threads” everyone keeps talking about. McPhee encourages students to diagram a story as “a horizontal line with loops above and below it to represent the tangents along the storyline, a circle with lines shooting out of it that denote narrative pathways…” (See Figure B.) The rhetorical free-for-all disguises the wide influence of the gist — the anatomy of storytelling. Speaking of stories, “the shape of the curve is what matters,” says Kurt Vonnegut. Whereas Gustav Freytag’s muse was, sadly, a triangle, the sign and symbol of Fibonacci-McPhee is more like a map. But they’re manifestations of the same idea: of stories seeking, building, bending like a river, or anyways conceived of less as an appeal to a reader than as science-ish fieldwork. This definition of structure — indeed any definition of it — begs the question: What if structure is not that geometric or quite so cosmic or even, according to an au courant diagnosis, “televisual?” What if structure consists of questions themselves and not strictly the objects of those questions with which plotting is synonymous: A dead body. An excess of suitors. “A fully armed and operational battle station.”
Stories posit a teller in the service of the told, who are now able to, if they must, rate that service with a fractional number of stars. But the novel especially is a kind of hopeless democracy of two. An author and a reader staring at the same machine — the same story — not sure if and when it worked. Two privileged children — serialized TV and narrative nonfiction — have done so well for themselves that they should have laid the framework bare. But an erudite incoherence about structure is the rule. One thing for sure is that structure’s an anxiety, about a better way to tell a story, and surer proof of our discernment — that we get it. And so the idea of order in nature settles the nerves. The golden spiral is in the leaves, in shells — in stories?
The Fibonacci-McPhee Sequence
Early on in Garth Risk Hallberg’s City on Fire there’s a transition in point of view, from William — scion, dilettante, and ex-singer in a punk band — to a blank-slate teen, Charlie, as he removes from its sleeve “the first Ex Post Facto LP from ’74.” This raised my hackles — though perhaps I should admit to having the quick-trigger hackles of someone with too many bookmarks in too many novels, not to mention paused places in the middle of episode three of season two, etc. Along with the ambitious size of the book, the coincidences of City on Fire have been well scrutinized: “…overstuffed with characters, and the lines of action uniting them fray to the point of breaking;” “overuse of chance discoveries of buried evidence.” There’s a wariness about what exactly the novel’s up to, despite the fact that just a little later it more or less tells you. In what is either a cool nod to, or a hearty embrace of, genre convention, Charlie’s crush, Samantha Cicciaro, is mysteriously shot. But thereafter the book occupies itself less with whodunit than with the shots’ sound waves ringing out into the night, washing over 10 other characters and, in a quantum-mechanical whisper, telling them that no one is alone.
City on Fire is a needle threaded between conventional plotting and ambitious “structure.” It finds itself among contemporary novels exhibiting an inflated sense of connection — storytelling in a kind of horoscopic style. It’s always been an odd thing to chalk up to a matter of belief: that one reader’s definition of a story is to another not a story at all. In a twist you would have never seen coming, “narrative architecture” becomes our term for what’s not necessarily there.
In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it.
— Jorge Luis Borges, “On Exactitude in Science”
We have no idea what we’re talking about when we talk about structure. The following terms were used to describe the structure of narratives bearing the mark of horoscopic style (David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, City on Fire, and David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’s TV adaptation Game of Thrones): “stereoscopic,” “televisual,” “kaleidoscopic,” “unfilmable” — at least before the film. These structures were “non-linear,” “multi-head,” “multi-thread,” “rhizomatic,” “fragmented” — this last appearing so often that I had to wonder just what constitutes whole, homogeneous storytelling. What was it about these structures that was so “innovative” and “experimental?” Or, for that matter, “soap operatic” and “ruthless?”
To wit, Cloud Atlas is defined by “mapping” and “maplessness.” Its structure is “cool.” Here’s what happens: The novel’s five story lines culminate palindromically in one central section before the stories pick up in reverse order in the second half of the book (A, B, C, D, E, F, E, D, C, B, A). But that’s not what’s happening. Circumstantially, the story lines are connected by a birthmark, and, thematically, by music. The Five Narratives are also connected by the fact that Mitchell wrote them impeccably and, in accordance with genre, faithfully. It is said that the author pulled it off by “immersing himself in the different narratives one at a time, even keeping them in different ‘folders.’” Here is structure conflated with something more like process — the scout’s knot tying oneself to a chair. The story is a function of the author’s method of organizing for himself. McPhee describes his own use of Nabokovian note cards: “Then I move the cards around to see where I’m going to find a good structure, a legitimate structure.” It seems fair to ask: Who’s immersing whom here? Shall we perhaps hold each part of the story and think about whether or not it brings us joy?
These are the perils of “world-building.” A Game of Thrones episode marks time by cutting to each of its story lines, from Winterfell to Meereen, ne’er betraying a particular imperative to move the story in any direction but between. There’s a similar call-sheet structure to A Visit from the Goon Squad (the aforementioned rhizome); in her review, Sarah Churchwell sums up horoscopic style quite nicely:
Egan’s vision of history and time is also decidedly, and perhaps reassuringly, cyclical: the impacts these characters have upon each other are engineered not by coincidence but by connectedness itself, as the people we bump against and bang into become the story of our lives.
Not coincidentally, here is how Hallberg describes his intrepid journalist character: “A receiver. A connector. A machine made exactly for this.” Let us remember our Borges: that absolutely accurate “Map of the Empire” is torn to faded shreds, except, perhaps, where it showed us those places we’d put down our novels. Granted, these books are in almost every way excellent; Egan, Mitchell, and Hallberg are genius naturalists. Capable of invoking anything — any clipper ship or anxiety or rhododendron. But that kind of genius can be difficult to distinguish from a painterly need to get into the corners of the frame. Structure should be instrumental to a thing’s use; a handle for the writer’s talent. And yet the imperial cartographer’s exactitude somehow became a suitable answer for how to keep a reader in thrall. These novels have been praised for, among other things, ambition, inventiveness, and that they are, but what connects them more than anything else is that they’re romantic about structure.
The least we could do is to stop insisting that we’re all referring to the same thing. Which is, generally, convention. Structure is nearly synonymous with aiming for the cheap seats of genre, where the detective and the wizard and the submissive sit together and watch the game. We’ve come to regard suspense as a market force — an outline in chalk with which to take ingenious exception. And so we’re flush with cool hybrids. MacArthur fellows take on zombies; Ursula K. Le Guin gatekeeping Kazuo Ishiguro; a market for post-apocalypse in full bloom. But whenever much attention is paid to exceptions to the rule, one can only assume the rules are very clear. I’m speaking of genre, but also rent. Writing to market or furiously curating a social media platform are seen as considerations on the level of food on the table. A cottage industry in semi-pro writing has met popular — and extremely earnest — demand. In this sense, horoscopic style is both product and allergy to the “tools” of the craft industry; links to a “weak verb converter;” intensive three-day seminars for the low, low price of $995 for tuition and Final Draft software.
If our entertainments were piles of San Andrean rubble, wouldn’t we know? Perhaps, but structure has a way of passing itself off as an answer to the very question it presents — it’s what works. “You can build a structure in such a way that it causes people to want to keep turning pages,” McPhee writes. And the other way?
“Listeners, we are currently fielding numerous reports that books have stopped working.”
— Welcome to Night Vale, “Station Management”
“Fiction is the posing of narrative questions,” is actually something the writer David Lipsky has said aloud on multiple occasions. Lipsky teaches a class of singular usefulness, from which I basically repeat back lessons in a dazed monotone. Men call him Lipsky, and women call him David. We were of one mind to get a good seat, and another to duck and scribble. In class, Lipsky calls on people, a barbaric pedagogic practice literally frowned upon by most of us, and what’s more, there was a preponderance of correct answers — never a drawing. The idea was that story — or, synonymously — structure, is no more and no less than to ask the reader leading questions in the hopes of interesting them. Of a given character — will she or won’t she be fired, loved, caught, absolved? In the end, the class was approximately half Immunes, with the other half wearing white smocks sporting one of David’s terms of art printed in bold: withheld data.
No one likes to be asked what the story’s about. But Lipsky was never referring to the about of the abstract painting or the period of the historical novel. Nothing was an allegory of post-whatsit America. He meant: a girl is trying to fit in at a private school. Or: those letters were forged. And once the story’s little knife is stowed, and a quorum had nodded or squinted or furrowed, he would say ask us to make an annotation in the margin: If a particular story, once begun, should find itself resolved, another story has to take the baton.
Now and then I’ll read a novel by a writer who seems to have bought in. Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies is a novel in two — the technical term here would be “parts.” Groff sets up the reader for any number of things — matriarchs withholding approval; a million-dollar bet on the marriage of an implausibly successful playwright to an “Ice queen from nowhere.” Readers will note the use of brackets. Nowhere-ian royalty Mathilde is “pretending to be faithful. [perhaps not].” Groff has referred to these bracketed asides as a “Greek chorus,” but what they are really is an efficient method of opening up dramatic-ironic gaps — questions. “She couldn’t know, he thought. [She did!]”
Ironically it’s the alternatives to “narrative architecture” that can seem a little bloodless and technical. Structure, to George Saunders, consists of “tools with which to make your audience feel more deeply.” These being tools at anyone’s disposal, no matter how inconveniently literary. After all, there are high stakes in life as it is ordinarily lived, which is to say, pitched anxiously between desire and embarrassment. A story that works makes room for the possibility that it won’t. “It wouldn’t have to be good,” says the imperious, soon-wedded older sister in Rebecca Curtis’s “The Toast.” It just “needs to be appropriate.” And yet there are some of us who wouldn’t be caught dead using a “tool.” We might keep it in the drawer by the bed, but what writer told to tell their story, find their own voice — “in order to live” — would want to feed it through “clunky machinery.”
Who Cares? Case Studies
About Star Wars: The Force Awakens, critics had 8, 10, 11, 18, 32, 43, and 77 “questions,” 6 of which were of the “big” variety, 11 of which were size “huge.” And 7, 15, 17, and 25 questions had gone exasperatingly “Unanswered.” Question in this context means “plot hole,” of which 5, 9, 40 (and “20 more” on top of that) were “unforgivable.” Admittedly, some of the enumerated are more like inconsistencies — does one need a map to reach coordinates in space? — but many of these questions are entirely intentional plot devices. Where is Luke Skywalker? gets you the movie. Rey’s parentage gets you all three. To be clear, the notable equivalence here is between functional storytelling and the galling lack thereof. It’s hard to say just how this happens, but there might be a clue on the white smock, a variation on the lover’s quarrel: What’s the difference between not telling and a lie?
One more case study from the relevant world: Serial. When it became clear that a radio documentary had become a blockbuster, that people loved this murder, Sarah Koenig, it seems, felt herself painted into an ethical corner. Here she is, bristling at the notion of enacting “suspense,” with the NYT Magazine’s question in bold:
But the podcast is a hybrid of journalism and entertainment. You have a lot of information, and it seems you’ve structured it for maximum suspense. I don’t think that’s fair…To us, it didn’t feel that different from a really long magazine story or — you know, any story that you would take care in structuring.
In the very first episode, Koenig describes Adnan Syed ’s mild manner — he doesn’t seem like a vicious psychopath. “I know, I’m an idiot,” says Koenig, her tone pitched to effective self-deprecation. Koenig knows that 12 podcast episodes won’t decide whether in fact evil is human or inhuman. (Not even Janet Malcolm knows: “The concept of the psychopath is, in fact, an admission of failure to solve the mystery of evil — it is merely a restatement of the mystery.”)
If not “suspense,” Koenig admits to “structuring.” But this distinction doesn’t hold up to scrutiny — not that I question whatsoever Koenig’s integrity. Actually, Serial is too good, and too intelligently structured for her to have a leg to stand on. “I’m an idiot” is a play for identification. (“Silly me.” — Season Two.) This line — about looking into Adnan’s big brown eyes — is right there in the script where, perhaps, there could have been a breakdown of cell-phone tower data (and after a useful delay of an episode or two, a questioning of its accuracy). I have little doubt about which was the better choice. When David Remnick asks Koenig about her method, she says, “I think I’m trying to convey that you can trust me because I’ve done my homework.” And in this sentiment, she sounds a lot like David Lipsky (“Bond with your reader. Tell them honest things.”). This trust is also a kind of structuring — I know, I’m an idiot. But there are a lot of stories out there, and we tend to pick the one that looks us in the eye and asks, maybe a little preposterously, Can I tell you a secret?
Koenig is then asked about decisions she made with Serial’s decidedly unpatented voice. Co-producer Julie Snyder levels with her after an unsatisfying cut:
Edit after edit after edit…“It’s not working…It’s not good. I need to know what you — Sarah Koenig — make of all this. Otherwise I don’t care. I don’t know why you’re telling me all this…You need to make me care.” I was quite uncomfortable with that initially, but then I realized…That’s the thing that’s going to make you listen to the stuff I think is important.
If that sounds a lot like “Keep your eye on the ball,” you’re not wrong. But rest assured that our culture-making class hadn’t even thought of the ball much less kept an eye on it. (See: testaments to their confidence approximately everywhere you look.) Koenig’s discomforted by the idea that making someone else care is indistinguishable from selling it to them. To name just a few of the principled stands against Caring What Anyone Else Thinks: morning pages and the art-therapy discipline; The Compulsive’s Way — simply not being able to stop; “Dance Like Nobody’s Watching,” or art as vocation (“I have gained a space of my own, a space that is free, where I feel active and present.” — Elena Ferrante, not on Twitter). This has to do with one’s basic orientation as an author: Is art a means to cultivate or to reach? And if you must insist on writing, I have to ask — just how acutely do you feel the need to be borne witness to? Because a singular question harries stories at every turn, echoing the unminced words at the Serial editing bay: What is any of this for? Inevitably, the answer occurs somewhat too late: Making someone else care is the highest commandment of structure.
Which is why, after the remedial instruction, almost all of what David Lipsky does is prose tips. The theory being that thinking unapologetically in terms of setting things up and paying them off frees the writer to devote themselves otherwise to sentence-making. The syllabus, with few exceptions, is composed of those writers who can really launch ships prose-wise: David Foster Wallace, Lorrie Moore, Vladimir Nabokov, Zadie Smith. In fact, the “system” — would that it were my own batch of Kool-Aid — kinda dead-ends at despairingly scintillating talent.
But generally speaking that talent is not responsible for America’s mass-market mysteries on short flights; or that which manages to hit her dull and chipped funny bone; or sate her great appetite for vanilla S&M and truer detectives. A working fallacy results. Tent poles such as Game of Thrones, The Marvel Universe — they have a kind of ideological monopoly on What happens next? But the more we accept the premise that what succeeds in the market works, the easier it is to convince ourselves that the market itself strives to give us the culture we need. [It doesn’t.] The challenge for lit is the same for our culture at large from here on: distinguishing the market’s products from actual voices.
“Implausibility is part of the design.”
— Louis Menand, “The Time of Broken Windows”
It’s not that Hallberg commits the ordinary fictional sin of superimposing a false meaning on his novel, which is ultimately just as believable as a line drawn to connect any one thing to another. City on Fire may be elaborately plotted, and a story richly told, but it is not given, not structured for us. Though, we can easily exaggerate the author’s sacrifice. It’s not quite walking in front of a tank; maybe more like picking up a shift. A sense of the uncanny, of a kind of empathic genius at work, is as essential an aspect of reading as structure, but most readers, I think, experience design as unforeseen plausibility.
Some things do work every time. For example, I go to the physical bookstore and get the “ambitious” book over and over, like Charlie Brown when Lucy promises to hold the football but instead of a football it’s that thing when The Times runs a review by Michiko Kakutani in the daily and then another on Sunday. Tour de force in hand, I go home and read the first chapter with a sheepish sense of my own demography. Along those lines, I can imagine how refining the concept of narrative structure must seem a split-hair, just another narcissistically small difference. Dirty tomatoes and organic stories at $26/lb — not those factory-farm stories wrapped in pink blood on a bed of Styrofoam. But in the bathwater of authenticity are plenty of real distinctions — I’m looking at you, Texas barbecue, starting a band, and the notion of a high literature that tells “honest things.” Whenever I hear that triumphalism — lines grayed, blurred away! — I find myself fondly missing the clarity of differences.
If you divide ten thousand by forty-one, you get two hundred and forty-three, which is Cascadia’s recurrence interval…That timespan is dangerous both because it is too long — long enough for us to unwittingly build an entire civilization on top of our continent’s worst fault line — and because it is not long enough.
— Kathryn Schulz, “The Really Big One”
This is where it seems as if I should offer some kind of agnostic politesse. Endorse a descriptivism of storytelling — all structures are “legitimate.” Any structure that makes you happy. “You don’t choose it so much as it chooses you,” says Carmine Cicciaro, Samantha’s father. It’s always tempting to side with anti-dogmatism. But I can’t do that. Because, what if there is a moral to this story?
Structure abides. Ex Machina’s key cards and power-outs; Groff’s unreliable Rashomon-esque narrators of sex after marriage. An out-of-print novelist sees a picture of Britney Spears exiting a restaurant holding a pack of cigarettes, her phone, “and then she’s got my second book.” (“Case #2: Britney”– Mystery Show.)
But it is literary reporting that has pretty much become structure’s standard bearer. In Rachel Aviv’s “Where Is your Mother?”, a healthy child cries in an empty apartment, and dust plumes off the bed. “I was born overseas,” the mother says, and nothing else. In “The Strange Case of Anna Stubblefield,” Daniel Engber asks “What if D.J. had a private chamber in his head, a place where grown-up thoughts were trapped behind his palsy?” Story writes itself, as they say. [Nope.] Then again, a sound almost like clockwork accompanies Kathryn Schulz writing of sixth-century tsunamis, barking dogs ahead of the wave, and a number: 243. In the first few paragraphs of these stories, it feels as if inspiration taken from McPhee’s looping squiggles was only ever as important as his old-hand assurance that the storytelling principle is ethically OK in “narrative nonfiction” or where’s-the-line journalism.
I’m not so worried about some moralizing theory of declining attentions spans — our “distraction.” In fact, nothing could distract me from another form of anxiety: I desperately want to pay relentless attention to only the few, mattering things. Structure, truly evident, directs that attention. If stories are a means to tell us what you “think is important,” then by all means.
The policy of bracing honesty has these lesser known clauses: that you have to figure out what most needs to be said, and why anyone should want to hear you say it. If you happen to read pop physics, there’s what’s called the “observer effect.” Any observation affects the experiment (the “collapse of the wave function” — what happens emerges from a prior limbo of possibilities). The observer effect also applies to the question of structure and the black box of process: none of it works, because it cannot be verifiably shown to have done what it intended to do. Writing is nothing until the precise moment the reader intuits a meaning. I want to tell you something. I can draw the map. Only you can tell me if it goes anywhere. Say the word. |
The Obama administration sent a clear message on Friday: if anyone is to blame for the US economy slowdown, it is Congress.
US economy's jobs slowdown raises doubts about interest rate rise Read more
Both Barack Obama and Labor Secretary Tom Perez pointed to congressional inaction on issues like the budget and transportation and infrastructure as reasons why the US economy was not growing at a faster pace.
Their statements were part of a reaction to the worse-than-expected jobs report released on Friday morning. The report showed that the US economy added fewer jobs in September than expected, casting doubts over whether the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates before the year’s end.
The US economy has seen “67 straight months of job creation, 13.2 million new jobs in all and an unemployment rate that has fallen from a high of 10% down to 5.1%”, Obama said.
David Simas (@Simas44) 800k lost jobs in January of 2009. 2.6 million lost in 2008. Now, 13.2 million jobs created over 67 straight months. pic.twitter.com/bYN0uaDU6k
“These long-term trends are obviously good news particularly for every American waking up each morning and heading to a new job,” the president added. “But we would be doing even better if we didn’t have to keep on dealing with the unnecessary crises in Congress every few months.
“This is especially important right now because although the American economy has been chugging along at a steady pace, much of the global economy has softened.”
Obama said part of the reason the US job growth has slowed is because there is a global slowdown, which has affected US exports and made the US economy skittish. As such, the US does not need another manufactured crisis such as attempting to avoid a government shutdown in December.
“I will not sign another short-sighted spending bill like the one Congress sent me this week. We purchased ourselves 10 additional weeks, we need to use them effectively,” Obama said, referring to the short-term extension passed by Congress.
“Congress has to do its job. We can’t flirt with another shutdown. It should pass a serious budget.”
John Boehner, the outgoing speaker of the House, also believes the US economy can do better. However, he blamed the slowed economic growth on the White House.
“Too many middle-class families are still struggling in this economy, and we can do a lot better,” Boehner said. “There is no excuse for the president to continue pushing an agenda that will hurt hardworking families and stifle economic growth.”
Perez admitted that September’s job growth “didn’t meet our high expectations” and that the US could do better, but said it was up to Congress to fix. The Obama administration has a laundry list of ways that the Congress can improve the US economic outlook, he said, including acting immediately to pass a transportation infrastructure bill and providing relief from “the sequestration straightjacket”.
“Those are the things that create jobs. I am confident that there is bipartisan support, there is majority support in both houses of Congress to do all of those things and they need to act immediately,” Perez told the Guardian.
“I am hopeful. Speaker [John] Boehner as he prepares to depart indicated that he wants to leave a clean barn for his successor and a clean barn would mean passing all these initiatives because that’s how you create jobs.”
Congress sidesteps government shutdown as Boehner prepares for exit Read more
Perez also called on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $12 by 2020 and to pass a national paid leave law, which he says would improve labor participation. In September, US labor participation dropped to 62.4% – the lowest mark since October 1977.
Despite its faults, the US economy “continues to be envy of the world,” Perez said. When asked what makes US economy so appealing, Perez said that in other countries people do not have money in their pockets to spend.
“We have the most productive workforce in the world,” he said. “We have a legal system that is fair and impartial. We have incredible advantages now in energy as we become closer and closer to energy independence. It is a lot cheaper to make things here.
“The gallon [of] gas is a boon for most consumers – including myself. Every time I go to a gas pump, I am pretty pumped up because it’s so cheap. But because we are an oil and gas producer, we have seen a job loss of roughly 100,000 in that sector.” |
Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning talks with reporters during a news conference in Jersey City, N.J. The Seattle Seahawks play the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
Jan. 30, 2014 Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning talks with reporters during a news conference in Jersey City, N.J. The Seattle Seahawks play the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. AP
New York and New Jersey are gearing up for Sunday, when the Seattle Seahawks will play the Denver Broncos in East Rutherford, N.J.
New York and New Jersey are gearing up for Sunday, when the Seattle Seahawks will play the Denver Broncos in East Rutherford, N.J.
New York and New Jersey are gearing up for Sunday, when the Seattle Seahawks will play the Denver Broncos in East Rutherford, N.J.
The first time George Toma did this job, some 47 years ago, he ran out of paint for the yard lines and had to borrow some from a nearby ice rink. Then there was the time three years later when a flood turned the grass brown, so Toma covered it in wood shavings and painted them green. A similar solution was necessary 15 years ago, when the band KISS’s fire cannon burned a 30-by-30-foot patch of the field during a halftime show rehearsal.
The 48th Super Bowl will be played here Sunday, Toma’s 85th birthday, and he has been the head groundskeeper for all of them. When Sunday’s game kicks off at 6:30 p.m., Toma and his crew must make sure each of MetLife Stadium’s 1.4 billion blades of synthetic grass form an appropriate canvas for the country’s biggest one-day sporting event.
“I’m just nobody,” he says. “But I appreciate a good field.”
That’s why he arranged for giant rental tents, each of them outfitted with heaters, to place over both end zones and at midfield while painters worked to emblazon team and game logos. See, this is the first outdoor Super Bowl in a cold-weather city, and if the field freezes, the paint won’t hold.
“We can’t do nothing about the weather,” he says now, learning long ago that it’s how he and his crew react that makes the difference. “But we prepare for everything.”
That’s why Toma has been here since Jan. 13, trying to anticipate and avoid problems the way he has for this game since 1967. Back then, he carted a three-by-four equipment trunk onto the field and worked alone; now, the Super Bowl’s groundskeeping crew is 32 strong and pulling expensive equipment from three tractor trailers
Toma began working on playing fields as a teenager. When he was a senior in high school, he was named head groundskeeper for the Cleveland Indians’ Class A affiliate in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and began experimenting with seeds and sod, sunlight and shadows, learning about the right amount of watering and when to get creative. Eventually he became head groundskeeper of the Kansas City Athletics.
That’s where then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle marveled over what he called the most beautiful field he had ever seen. Rozelle concluded that a man who cared this much about grass and dirt was needed for another big NFL experiment: what would become known as the first Super Bowl.
So Toma hauled his trunk to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where he overcame his paint shortage to produce a field that looked so good and played so well in the Green Bay Packers’ victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, he got invited back.
As the game grew, Toma added to his list of possible threats and challenges. He kept a blanket on the sideline in case he needed to chase down a streaker, and if the NFL or a television network thought the field didn’t look green enough, Toma painted it to their satisfaction.
Players and coaches came to know him; Emmitt Smith once asked for a chunk of Toma’s turf after a Super Bowl, and Warren Sapp hugged him for such a nice playing surface. This week, New York Giants Coach Tom Coughlin invited Toma into his office to reminisce.
“I just keep on going,” says Toma, who has also worked two Olympics and has overseen fields in America and abroad.
But last year in New Orleans, something threatened Toma’s streak. Though he felt no discomfort, his right leg had swollen, and a doctor discovered a blood clot above his knee. Blood thinners gave him nosebleeds, and his nasal packing was removed four hours before the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers kicked off and more than 108 million viewers tuned in.
After he returned home to Kansas City, where he retired as the Royals’ head groundskeeper in 1999, Toma had a bad aortic valve diagnosed, and last August he underwent open-heart surgery. Complications followed, and so did seven weeks in the hospital, but when baseball’s spring training began, there he was in Fort Myers, Fla., working on the Minnesota Twins’ field as he had for years. He resumed his exercise regimen of walking, a half-mile and then one and then two, and before long he was pushing a lawn mower in the yards of a few elderly neighbors.
“My grass cutter,” he says, “is my walker.”
Toma shakes his head at the idea of taking things slower after such an ordeal. Even his son says he’d be nervous if his father opted to sit out a Super Bowl.
“The second he stops,” said Ryan Toma, 30, “is the second I think problems start.”
So once again, he made the trip to make sure everything’s right for the final game of the NFL season. As he sat in a hotel lobby this week, strangers and admirers passed. Some stopped. One asked for his autograph.
“You are an idol — an icon,” a volunteer said.
An hour later, after posing for occasional pictures and telling his stories, it was time to return to the stadium across the street. While Toma was away, a dress rehearsal was ongoing, with everything from the halftime show to the coin toss being practiced — all of it on his manicured field. Maybe he’d need to brush the turf to make the blades look fresh, and if there was static electricity on the field, the crew had a machine ready that sprays Downy fabric softener — another trick he knows, just in case.
“Sports has been good to me,” said Toma, who plans on attending next year’s Super Bowl, and as many after that as possible. “When the Lord says that’s it, that’s it.” |
Updated Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017, 9:10 p.m. EST: Several reports have identified the man who fired numerous times inside the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, as 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley.
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The New York Times confirms that at least two anonymous law-enforcement sources told the outlet that Kelley, who lived in New Braunfels, Texas, was the perpetrator in the Sunday-morning attack that left 26 people dead.
Victims ranged in age from 5 to 72 and included a pregnant woman and several children.
The Times reports that Kelley had served in the Air Force at a base in New Mexico and died shortly after he opened fire at the church.
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Kelley was armed with a Ruger military-style rifle when he perpetrated the attack.
Updated Sunday, Nov. 5, 5:30 p.m. EST: The 14-year-old daughter of church pastor Frank Pomeroy was one of the victims killed, CNN reports. Neither the pastor nor his wife was in the church when the shooting took place.
Earlier:
Another mass shooting has taken place in the United States, this time claiming more than 20 lives, according to reports.
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CNN reports that the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and local police are now responding to the scene at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where a gunman opened fire during Sunday-morning church services.
A witness told the news outlet that she heard about 20 shots being fired in quick succession while a church service was underway. A law-enforcement source told CNN that a man walked into the church and began shooting about 11:30 a.m. local time.
According to a local station, KSAT-TV, the unidentified shooter, a man, is dead. CNN reports that he died after a brief chase north into neighboring Guadalupe County. It is unclear if the shooter was killed by police or took his own life, a police spokesperson said.
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The church’s Facebook page shows a recent Fall Festival with parishioners dressed up in Halloween costumes.
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The incident harks back to a 2015 incident at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., where Dylann Roof shot and killed nine parishioners during an evening Bible study. That mass shooting was racially motivated.
The First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs does not appear to be a black church.
President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences from his trip to Asia.
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Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story said that 27 people were dead, per a CNN cable news report, but that has not been confirmed. |
News This Crazy Tree Grows 40 Kinds of Fruit Fruit
Biodiversity
Arts
Trees
July 20, 2015 - Sam Van Aken, an artist and professor at Syracuse University, uses "chip grafting" to create trees that each bear 40 different varieties of stone fruits , or fruits with pits. The grafting process involves slicing a bit of a branch with a bud from a tree of one of the varieties and inserting it into a slit in a branch on the "working tree," then wrapping the wound with tape until it heals and the bud starts to grow into a new branch. Over several years he adds slices of branches from other varieties to the working tree. In the spring the "Tree of 40 Fruit " has blossoms in many hues of pink and purple, and in the summer it begins to bear the fruits in sequence—Van Aken says it's both a work of art and a time line of the varieties' blossoming and fruiting. He's created more than a dozen of the trees that have been planted at sites such as museums around the U.S., which he sees as a way to spread diversity on a small scale. |
Dear Boards, My apologies if you already come across a similar post as this one yesterday. I just trashed some text and some video's into a post and assumed it would be as well-received as the [first post](http://boards.euw.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/community-creations-en/gnXqKrAB-league-of-legends-playing-cards-community-creation) on this playing card topic. I was wrong, and I hope you will forgive me for this somewhat re-post. But a lot of things I didn't cover actually took quite some work. http://i.imgur.com/TJ1aLdB.jpg First for the people that have more important stuff to do: >#**TLDR**; Two weeks ago, I showed a deck of playing cards I made using League splash arts. I got some useful feedback, and a lot of requests on where to buy the cards. With these two things I got to work. The result is a fairly new deck design and a complete website where you can find out more about the deck as well as a place to have them printed yourself. Below I want to show you just that. *** #Table of contends: 1. How is this possible? You are selling league contend, that's illegal! 2. The definitive design. 3. A complete website, all for you! *** #How's this possible? After I posted my first concept on the forums, and someone asked if I would be allowed to sell these cards an official RIOT'er (RiotSargonas) responded: http://i.imgur.com/AO9VVqe.jpg So yea, can't sell it. At first glance, that would make it impossible to get these cards out for the community. Good thing I'm an ignorant little brat that doesn't give up that easily , I did the following: The company that prints these cards allows you to sell your design. The price of this design you can set to +10, +20, +30, +40 or +50 percent of the printing costs. Since 0 wasn't an option, that wasn't an option neither. Unlesss.... yea, you've guessed it, I contacted the company if they could pretty please enable the option to 'sell designs' with a 0 percent profit marge. Surprisingly, they for-filled my wishes, making it possible for me to 'sell' my design for nothing. Meaning that if you would order a deck of cards with my design on it, you would pay just as much as if you would have made and uploaded the design yourself! I'm basically giving out the design for free. which **is** allowed. *** #What's the design? Last time I showed a few of the fronts, and the back design. I'll just do that again: Spades: http://i.imgur.com/hgRg0XC.jpg Diamonds: http://i.imgur.com/ar0itTx.jpg Clubs: http://i.imgur.com/PMXIaaf.jpg Hearths: http://i.imgur.com/9fkqVtX.jpg I had to change a few things due to community input, thanks to your input, we now have: Caitlyn on the **Ace** of Spades Jhin on the **four** of Spades Vi on the **six** of hearths Trundle on the **king of clubs** Besides that, I removed urgot, how harsh it may sound, he's just too ugly :(. Also I changed a lot of splash art's due to bad lighting. The champions however remain. There are now two versions: a blue back design and the original brown back design. I would love to show how the card handle but I'm not really good a that, this video is the best i could do... Sorry :( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAn8gU5r61s *** #Le Website To make all this a little less complicated i set up a website with the very original and thought-through name [LOLPlayingCards.com](http://www.lolplayingcards.com/). here are some screenshots: Front page with the story and stuffs: http://i.imgur.com/qfyB10Z.png A page with all the decks that are printable atm. For now, that's just the original deck in blue or brown, but I'm hoping to be able to print specials like a snowdown one ;). http://i.imgur.com/c44LpjB.jpg A page that should help you through the printing process (although that is pretty simple) http://i.imgur.com/kHxetiR.jpg And a page that will give you the ability to contact me via mail at any time! http://i.imgur.com/syJRLeX.jpg I really hope people can have fun with my creation. All the nice comments on the previous post is what gave me the motivation to push through this initiative. Thanks for reading! -Willie
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It started with the oven. In Singapore in 2001 I bought a used Sharp R-8H50(B)T Rotisserie combination microwave and convection oven from my buddy, Tuck Wai, for S$200. Say what you will about the Sharp Corporation, which is struggling, but that oven was The Bomb. It followed us from Singapore to Beijing to Shanghai and back to Beijing, proving its worth repeatedly in a country where most apartments don’t have ovens. It even survived one front panel change. It was the best S$200 I ever spent in my life. Tuck always regretted selling, a sure sign of a good deal.
Earlier this year the panel started to fail again, and no transplants were available. It was a protracted death, like a person with progressive organ failure. One by one, over the course of a couple of months, the buttons stopped working, slowly narrowing the list of things the oven could do. First we lost the grill. Then the convection function. Then the microwave time entry. The last gasp was the quick start. Goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
Anyway, I’m not superstitious, and I don’t generally believe in portents, but if the death of our trusty Sharp Rotisserie isn’t a sign that change is in the wind, what is? So after eight and a half well-documented years in Beijing and 17 in Asia for me, we’re moving back to Palo Alto in January. I’m going because my company has asked me to move to the Silicon Valley office, very near where I grew up and where most of my family still live.
For a long time I resisted the idea of moving back to the United States. My self identity is largely based on being “the one who’s in Asia.” I was 27 when I left the US in 1995, six months out of graduate school and in most measurable ways a complete doofus. My personal and professional development has pretty much all been in Asia, and most of my friends and virtually all of my experience and network are out here.
Which, when you think about it, seems like a really good reason to do something different, even if that something is going home. Sometime in the last year or two my previously steadfast resistance to going home started to soften. Last May, when my boss proposed I come back to Sunnyvale, which is now where most of our senior execs are based, I found myself much more receptive to the idea than I would have expected.
There is no greater message behind our departure. I’m not disappointed in China. I haven’t been involved in public slanging matches with any Chinese celebrities. There is no shroud of legal action looming above me. I am, in fact, profoundly grateful to have been able to live and work in China for as long as I have. We all take it for granted, and piss and moan about the air and traffic and censored Internet and sketchy food because that’s our version of water-cooler sports talk. And we all rationalize a bit to be here. But step back and think about it for a moment. From your average suburban American perspective, who gets to live in China? Nobody, that’s who. It’s the stuff of fantasy and scarcely-believable tales from exotic relatives, like my mysterious uncle Stephen, who lived and worked in Hong Kong in the late 1980s. It has been a gift, and under other circumstances I would have remained here at least for a while.
But I was never in danger of staying forever, and nor are most other western expats. That’s why I was amused by the mass fluster that surrounded the public departures of Mark Kittoand Charlie Custer. All of a sudden foreigners were abandoning China! I know and like both Mark and Charlie, and admittedly much of the fluster was within our particular echo chamber, but, seriously, coverage in the New York Times, BusinessWeek and The Economist? Both of their personal experiences can be used to tell larger stories about life and power and business in China (and maybe I’m just jealous that my own departure is about as newsworthy as a bad air day), and both of their articles were great reads. But “foreigner departs China” is the very definition of dog-bites-man. The satirical site China Daily Show nailed it with a funny “dear John” letter from a foreigner to China.
“Foreigner stays in China,” now that’s a story. For an increasingly cosmopolitan and globally interconnected country, China isn’t really a place encourages foreigners to settle down. In fact, it goes out of its way to keep us at arm’s length. I should make a collage out of eight years of temporary residence certificates arranged around the confession I had to sign for registering my son’s birth with the police a few weeks late. Economic migrants bleed across the borders in search of something better, and perhaps some Vietnamese mail-order brides wind up here for the long haul, but in general foreigners don’t immigrate to China. We just visit, sometimes for a very long time.
In the end, there are only two possible outcomes for a foreigner in China: you either stay here for the rest of your life, or, sooner or later, you leave. If you were to diagram it, it would look something like this:
That little dot encompasses the handful of old communists who settled here for ideological reasons, such as Israel Epstein and Sidney Shapiro, and maybe Carl Crook, who was born in Beijing. One or two businessmen I’ve met have been here for thirty or more years, and a couple of journalists I know are edging in that direction. Maybe Kaiser is here forever(though I doubt it). But even Sidney Rittenberg, famously “The Man Who Stayed Behind,” didn’t actually stay behind. He retired to Washington State in 1980. Of course, he was thrown in jail in China. Twice. You’d probably retire to Washington State, too. According to the People’s Daily, China has granted permanent residency to less than 5000 foreigners since it started doing so in 2004, and it made the news when Shanghai issued its first batch of green cards in 2005. It’s a safe bet that granting citizenship is even rarer.
We leave. That’s what we do. But just because leaving China is normal doesn’t mean something isn’t going on. Among my friends there has been a tangible change in mood in the last couple of years. A sense of excitement about being here that endured for many years has in many cases given way to a sense of weariness or indifference. The most common reaction when I tell people my company is moving me back to California is, “you’re so lucky!”
There’s nothing sinister happening. It’s just a generational change. My cohort is largely mid-career expatriates, many of whom, like me, had their children in China. As our lives have changed, so in many cases have our expectations and needs. At the same time, the China we arrived in has also changed profoundly. Change is part of what makes China exciting, and on balance much of the change has been good. But people come looking for different things, and for some China today is less appealing or simply different than whatever they arrived looking for.
So they move on, and new people come in. That’s as it should be. Out with the old, in with the new. One thing that has not changed is the number of students and young professionals interested in working in China or studying Chinese. One of the fun parts of my job is speaking to MBA and undergraduate student groups, and I always ask who actually wants to live and work in China. Trust me; the supply of young westerners interested in China is not in danger of drying up.
I quit a perfectly good job in Singapore in 2004 and came to China with rudimentary Mandarin and the dream of living here. It was a crazy stunt that worked out better than I could have ever imagined. I’ve not lived the hard-boiled life of my journalist friends, many of whom are forever getting tossed out of some hardscrabble village by local thugs. Nor did I arrive in the FEC era or spend two or three years in the boondocks. But I’ve had my share of adventures. I’ve bargained for long distance taxis in Yanji and ridden through the Zhalong Wetlands in the back of a xiaobengche, surrounded by crates of live fish. I got caught in a youthful waterfight in the alleys of old Kashgar. I’ve been invited into a Uighur house in Tuyoq for tea and sweets, and into the one-room hutong apartment of a family from Shanxi for homemade noodles. I stood on Tian’anmen Square with tens of thousands of Chinese people during the memorial a week after the Wenchuan earthquake. I was in the Bird’s Nest during its Olympic pomp. I helped companies wrestle with the melamine crisis and the acrimonious collapses of their Chinese joint ventures. I had huge stretches of unrestored Wall all to myself on spectacular, blue-sky days. I scuba dived on a sunken village in the dark and freezing depths of Qiandaohu, on sunken Great Wall in Tangshan, and with a whale shark in Dalian’s morose Tiger Bay aquarium. I walked from one-side of Beijing to the other and discovered neighborhoods I’d have never found any other way, and went for runs in the pre-dawn winter darkness when the city is as still and quiet as it ever gets. I spent a year in Shanghai and learned that it is every bit as cool as Beijing, in its own way. I made great friends and worked with amazingly talented Chinese colleagues who disabused me of every stereotype of Chinese employees. I wrote a silly blog that people actually read. And I raised a little boy who calls Beijing home and speaks Mandarin with an effortless fluency that I am scandalously jealous of.
They’re the experiences of a lifetime. Some scruffy air and occasional difficulty with Facebook seems a small price to bear. I’ll miss it, but it’s time to go. Here’s to the next generation of young westerners who are dreaming of living in China. May they all get the chance, and may their lives in China be as amazing and rewarding as mine has been.
See Also:
Note: Because of the significance of this post to me I have copied forward the comments from the original. |
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Update, August 1, 9:57 p.m. EST: Surprise! A day after House Republicans fell into dysfunctional mayhem, they rallied to pass a supplemental spending bill that devotes $694 million to border security measures. The House approved the bill 223-189, with one Democrat voting in favor and four Republicans voting nay. It was a face-saving measure after House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday pulled the original bill right before it was supposed to receive a vote. But this supposed GOP victory is mostly a meaningless gesture. The Senate has already left town for the August recess, and the upper chamber likely wouldn’t have approved the House’s border bill anyway, with Democrats claiming it doesn’t offer enough additional funds and contains harsh provisions easing the deportation of children.
Boehner managed to win back the tea party wing of his party by pairing the spending bill with a stricter measure rolling back President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an executive order that granted two-year waivers to 580,000 so-called DREAMers, young undocumented immigrants who grew up in the US. The anti-DACA bill—which passed by a 216-192 vote later Friday night—would bar the Obama administration from offering new DACA waivers or renewing current DACA beneficiaries when their two years are up. This bill was a show vote, for the Senate and Obama would never go along with it. But this was the GOP message of the day: in order to win the support of tea party Republicans for a bill with spending to ease the humanitarian crisis underway at the border, Boehner had to give these conservatives a vote to toss out the DREAMers.
The House GOP fell into chaos and bickering Thursday afternoon, when House Speaker John Boehner yanked a pair of bills from the floor at the last minute. The House was supposed to have an easy final day of work before members jetted home for their five-week summer recess. But Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), starring in a cameo role as Speaker of the Tea Party, sabotaged Boehner’s best-laid plans.
The GOP leadership had originally intended to pass a limited spending measure to bolster border security and immediately scoot off, leaving the final tricky decision-making to the Senate. But the tea party wing of the House—inspired and encouraged by Cruz—revolted against Boehner and refused to go along with the spending bill. The House border-security measure would have appropriated $659 million in emergency spending, far less than the $3.7 billion that President Obama had requested. But it was still too much for many GOPers and it lacked the hardline, anti-immigration reform provisions many Republicans craved. With House Democratic leaders discouraging their members from voting for the GOP’s bill, Boehner was left scrambling this week to pull together a majority, and he needed votes from the strident group of right-wingers who have been a thorn in his side since 2010. Those tea partiers don’t want to give any extra money to the president. Boehner wasn’t going to win their support without offering them some large barrels of carrots.
Into all this uncertainty swooped Ted Cruz. Earlier this month, Cruz introduced a bill in the Senate to defund Obama’s policy of deferring deportation for young undocumented immigrants, legislation that was a non-starter in the Democrat-controlled upper chamber. But, according to Politico, Cruz gathered a group of conservative House Republicans in his Senate office Wednesday night and convinced them to insist on a vote to strike down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in exchange for supporting Boehner’s border bill.
By Thursday morning House leadership had yielded to that Cruz-driven demand, and a bill to revoke DACA was on the docket for the afternoon. That bill was more show than substance. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that if passed that measure “would go straight into the trash and never get a vote” in the Senate. But politicking matters to politicians, so Boehner devised a plan for the House to take up the bill revoking DACA after the House approved his legislation for border security funding. It seemed like a decent plan. But…not for the tea partiers.
Throwing the far-right wing the DACA-vote bone wasn’t enough. On Thursday afternoon, Boehner, after meeting with his caucus, abandoned ship. He canceled the vote on the border security measure, no doubt because he didn’t have enough Republican votes to pass it. The Rs then announced they were postponing the Thursday-night departures and held open the possibility of a Friday morning meeting—where just maybe Boehner and his team could figure out a way to save face and round up the votes they need. For the time being, Cruz had won. His Svengali-like hold on House tea partiers was greater than the actual speaker’s grip on his own people. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) declared this outside provocateur “Speaker Cruz.”
Democrats and tea partiers reveled in Boehner’s collapse. “Oh my god. It was so awful,” Nancy Pelosi said of Boehner’s bill. “Thank god.” Meanwhile, Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) offered a telling glimpse of why Boehner failed:
Boehner’s failure is not just an instance of unsuccessful political gamesmanship. It could cause real trouble. If Congress leaves town without appropriating new funds for the border, the federal government’s border enforcement efforts will soon hit a wall. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is set to run out of funds by mid-August, and the coffers at the Customs and Border Protection are expected to dry up by mid-September. So not only are Boehner and the Republicans in the ugly position of having done nothing related to the border crisis (while taking time out to sue the president), they have sabotaged one of the few policy matters they claim to care about: border security. Cruz’s conniving and Boehner’s ineptitude make a difficult combination for the GOP. |
By Mick Krever, CNN
Tensions between China and Japan, at their worst in half a century, are making conflict “much more likely now than it’s probably been in years,” the former top U.S. State Department official for East Asia told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
If a conflict were to break out, Kurt Campbell said, it would likely be a “small skirmish, probably easily contained.”
But the larger context, of "what is really the two great countries of Asia, China and Japan" is hard to ignore.
"Tensions between the two countries are greater now than they've been probably in a half century."
The two countries have long been loggerheads over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea – the Chinese call them Diaoyu and the Japanese call them Senkaku.
The heat was turned up, however, when China declared an “Air Defense Identification Zone” over the chain of islands.
The U.S. military responded by sending two unarmed B-52 bombers through the heart of the contested airspace.
America must make clear to China, Campbell said, that the drawing of a military air zone “is deeply provocative.”
“This is a recipe for the kind of incident that we saw in 1983,” he said, when the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007.
The U.S. has refused to recognize China air defense zone, but has nonetheless advised civilian aircraft flying through the area to notify the Chinese government.
That advice made the Japanese, with whom the U.S. has a military defense treaty, none too happy.
The U.S., Campbell said, has “two imperatives” – one military, and one civilian.
On the military side, he said, the U.S. was very clear that it would not acknowledge China’s new declared air defense zone.
But “civilian airspace monitors,” he said, “have a different set of metrics, and their prime directive is to avoid a mishap in the air.”
“Their initial guidance was apolitical in that sense,” he said. “But I think the problem is that it has created a little bit of incoherence.”
Campbell told Amanpour that he expected that Vice President Joe Biden to clarify the U.S. position. He met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday and was set to talk with the Chinese leadership later in the week.
The U.S. military will continue to operate in China’s declared zone, Campbell said, as it long had.
But he added that he thought there would be “some clarifications” to the guidance from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration “in the coming days or weeks that will make clear that we do not recognize this zone, but certain kinds of communication protocols will be followed to avoid a problem.”
“It’s imperfect, but given where we are that is the best we can do.”
In a larger sense, Campbell said, Biden will have to convince China and Japan to cool their heels.
“This is the cockpit of the global economy,” he said. “They are fighting over a barren rock in a distant part of the Pacific. Now I know it represents larger, sort of nationalist identities and the like, but these problems have existed for decades.”
The key is to “recognize that both countries have much bigger stakes than struggling over the identity of an uninhabited island in the middle of nowhere.” |
An unhappy Katie Holmes was caught sobbing in the upmarket US department store Barneys while shopping for ''tummy-control'' pants.
The humanising moment reminds us that while Christmas is the season when many gossip mags put their ''best of the year'' editions on show, some celebs are really hurting around this time.
And that pain can fill pages. So what was it that upset Holmes? The pregnancy rumours? Being married in the least-fun religion at Christmas time? The store's range? ''Whatever it was that was bothering her, it had to be major,'' a source told NW.
''She was so emotional that staff had to call a police escort.'' Speaking of calling the cops, New Idea risked being booked for ''criminal extrapolation of a story from one undated quote'' after it spun the following from Shane Warne's ex, Simone Callahan: ''Christmas is a big time of year for us and I love it - it's a time of celebration and happiness,'' into a piece about how they'd planned to remarry (or so a friend, insiders and pals say) and, of course, how she was blindsided by the so-called scandal involving Warne and Liz Hurley. Fair enough, she wasn't the only one.
Meanwhile, Woman's Day dredges up something more ho hum than ho ho with its report that when Simon Cowell tried to get the then Home and Away star Melissa George to make an album in the 1990s, she said no. Why? Because ''she really, really can't sing,'' says WD.
Unlike Holmes, however, George has a happy relationship with her smalls - having developed a device which lowers or raises hemlines.
''I'm a recessionista fashionista, so I'm always looking to save money,'' she said. Nicole Ritchie, on the other hand, was looking to make money from her wedding with Joel Madden.
However, NW reports the lavish day was a nightmare after Ritchie's A-list friends Christina Aguilera and Kim Kardashian were no-shows, $50,000 worth of loaned jewellery momentarily went missing and Ritchie couldn't get a good price for the exclusive rights to the photos - details of which were all omitted in Who's spread, where they ended up.
''She was the perfect bride,'' said Madden. She was a ''total bridezilla'' retorted NW, bent on airing dirty laundry - such as claims Ritchie confiscated guests' camera phones so as not to jeopardise the deal.
Follow Life&Style on Twitter @Life_Style_News |
My husband and I have long joked that he is more feminist than I. When Sara Hurwitz was first ordained as Maharat, he was much more comfortable with the idea of female clergy than I was. I have never felt an urge to wear a tallit or tefillin. I did not like some of the changes instituted by my former rabbi to increase the role of women in formal ritual, because I felt it served a broader agenda rather than reflected the wishes of female congregants. I was skeptical of R' Avi Weiss and YCT's claims of 'open orthodoxy' because some of the ideas being generated by that institution seemed to push change simply for the sake of change. It seemed to me at the time that YCT's leadership was overly aggressive and unnecessarily alienating much of the established Orthodox world. In a way, I was proud of being un-feminist (not anti-feminist), because I was truly comfortable in both my femininity and my religious observance.I should clarify that I never had an issue with the idea of women wearing tallit or tefillin in non-Orthodox services. The bulk of my objections were not halachic. The neighborhood I lived in had one Orthodox shul, one Conservative, two Reform, and possibly more that I'm forgetting. It bothered me that women who might feel more comfortable than I would in a Conservative or Reform minyan would come to an Orthodox one and wear a tallit. It seemed disrespectful. After all, I would not go into a church and loudly proclaim that I do not believe in Jesus. So why must someone come into my holy space and proclaim that they don't share my beliefs?I don't feel that way anymore. The two largest influences have been motherhood, and recent statements by Orthodox institutions and individuals.First, on motherhood. I rarely get to daven anymore, and when I do, at least half my attention is on the clock, because it is inevitably almost time for one of my kids to eat, nap, or go to the potty. Or I'm distracted because I'm expecting my older son to come looking for me. My children take up my mental space even when they don't need anything. So I deeply envy any woman who can daven with true kevana. I still don't have a desire to wear tallit or tefillin, but I admire the dedication and devotion of the women who do. I wish I could feel that level of connection when I pray.Now, about that second influence. Not that many months ago, my former rabbi, Asher Lopatin, took the position of president at YCT, and was inaugurated at an event featuring non-Orthodox rabbis. Parts of the orthodox world went ballistic, and engaged in some pretty petty, embarrassing behavior. The fear those individuals displayed, the utter terror that they had of interdenominational dialogue, started to push me away from centrist orthodoxy and into YCT's open orthodox arms. The naysayers displayed the same overly aggressive and unnecessarily alienating attitude of which I used to accuse YCT. I don't want to be associated with the people calling names, the people afraid to talk to their fellow Jews just because those Jews practice differently. I want to be with the people engaged in the discussion. I want to sit at that round table, not hide from it.And then, within the past week, came the story of the school that condoned girls davening at school with tefillin. The rabbis of that school issued well reasoned, thorough statements explaining their decision. Their detractors again started with the fear mongering ("Aaah! Change! The end is nigh!") and the disrespect. And that was, for me, the last straw.Some may not recognize me as a feminist. I don't much care for women's megillah readings, women's tefillin groups, etc. I won't wear a tallit myself. But I'll argue and advocate for other women to be able to do any of these things without facing contempt. I keep thinking of John Locke (on): don't tell me what I can't do!So, thank you, faceless men of the internet. Thank you for your sanctimonious snark and fear of change. I think you may have just liberated me. |
Beginners Guide to Installing and Configuring Django on Linux
Django is a web framework for python. It provides you with the basic components that are required to build your website like HTML templates, User Authentication, Web Server etc.
In this tutorial I will describe how you can install Django 1.7 on Linux with the latest version of Python and PostgreSQl.
Software Versions
Linux(CentOS 6.5)
Python 3.4
Django 1.7
PostgresSQL 9
Step 1: Install Python 3.4 on your Linux machine.
Ubuntu/Mint/Raspberry Pi users can skip this step as these distro's generally have the latest versions of python (check by running "python --version")
[leo@django~]$ wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.4.2/Python-3.4.2.tgz
[leo@django~]$ tar -xvzf Python-3.4.2.tgz
[leo@django~]$ cd Python-3.4.2
[leo@django~]$ ./configure
[leo@django~]$ make
[leo@django~]$ sudo make altinstall
[leo@django~]$ python --version
Python 3.4.2
Step: 2 Install Django on Linux
Before you install Django create a virtual environment, where the project dependencies will be installed and will not conflict with system dependencies.
[leo@django~]$ pyvenv-3.4 venv3.4
[leo@django~]$ source venv3.4/bin/activate
[leo@django~]$ pip install django
Step 3: Install PostgreSQL 9.4 on Linux
Django recommends the use of PostgreSQL for it's database operations. If you are not comfortable with Postgres, then you can configure MySQL or you can leave the settings to default and use SQLlite as well. Ubuntu/Mint/RasberryPi users can follow the PostgreSQL installation guide at http://www.postgresql.org/download/linux/ubuntu/
[leo@django~]$ sudo vim /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo
#add the below line to the base and update sections
exclude=postgresql*
[leo@django~]$ sudo yum localinstall http://yum.postgresql.org/9.4/redhat/rhel-6-x86_64/pgdg-centos94-9.4-1.noarch.rpm
[leo@django~]$ sudo yum install postgresql94-server postgresql94-contrib postgresql-devel
[leo@django~]$ sudo /usr/pgsql-9.4/bin/postgresql94-setup initdb
or
[leo@django~]$ sudo service postgresql-9.4 initdb
[leo@django~]$ sudo service postgresql-9.4 start
Create a Database and assign a user to it.
[leo@django~]$ sudo su - postgres
[postgres@django~]$ createdb yourdbname
[postgres@django~]$ createuser -P yourdbuser #createuser will prompt you for a password, enter it twice.
[postgres@django~]$ psql
postgres=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE yourdbname TO yourdbuser;
postgres=# \q
Now try to connect via the command prompt
[leo@django~]$ psql -U yourdbusername -h localhost -W yourdbname
After you enter you password you will get the below error
“FATAL: Ident authentication failed for user”
This is because by default PostgreSQL uses ‘ident’ authentication i.e it checks if the username exists on the system. You need to change authentication mode to ‘md5’ as we do not want to add a system user.
Modify the settings in "pg_hba.conf" to use 'md5' authentication.
[leo@django~]$ sudo vim /var/lib/pgsql/9.4/data/pg_hba.conf
# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
local all all md5
# IPv4 local connections:
host all all 127.0.0.1/32 md5
# IPv6 local connections:
host all all ::1/128 md5
[leo@django~]$ sudo service postgresql-9.4 restart
Install the PostgreSQL driver psycopg2
[leo@django~]$PATH=$PATH:/usr/pgsql-9.4/bin/ pip install psycopg2
Step 4: Create your first Django website
[leo@django]$ django-admin.py startproject website
[leo@django]$ cd website
[leo@django website]$ vim website/settings.py
DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
'NAME':'yourdbname',
'USER': 'yourdbusername',
'PASSWORD': 'yourdbpassword',
'HOST': 'localhost',
'PORT': '',
}
}
[leo@django website]$ python website/manage.py syncdb #Enter a admin user name and password for Django
#Run the server
[leo@django website]$ python website/manage.py runserver 1.2.3.4:8000
You should be able to access the site at the url http://1.2.3.4:8000 and the admin panel at http://1.2.3.4:8000/admin.
To add your own index template add the following code to settings.py
[leo@django website]$ vim website/settings.py
TEMPLATE_DIRS = [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')]
Create a templates folder and add your index.html file in it along with the default admin templates.
[leo@django website]$ mkdir templates
[leo@django ~]$ cp -rv venv3.4/lib64/python3.4/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/templates/* website/templates/
[leo@django~]$vim website/index.html
<p> Hi this is Leo and This is my first website on Linux </p>
Finally modify your url.py file to look as follows.
[leo@django~]$ vim website/website/urls.py
from django.conf.urls import patterns, include, url
from django.contrib import admin
from django.views.generic.base import TemplateView
urlpatterns = patterns('',
# Examples:
# url(r'^$', 'blog.views.home', name='home'),
# url(r'^blog/', include('blog.urls')),
url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
url(r'^$', TemplateView.as_view(template_name='index.html'), name="home"),
)
Now run your server
[leo@django website]$ python website/manage.py runserver 1.2.3.4:8000
Performing system checks...
System check identified no issues (0 silenced).
February 02, 2015 - 10:44:18
Django version 1.7.4, using settings 'website.settings'
Starting development server at http://1.2.3.4:8000/
Quit the server with CONTROL-C.
[02/Feb/2015 10:44:21] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 1759
Now you can design your own templates or you can use pre-built ones from http://mezzanine.jupo.org/.
Here are some references to help you design your own template.
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/topics/templates/#templates
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/ref/templates/api/ |
Essentials
WHAT Michigan vs Michigan State WHERE Spartan Stadium,
East Lansing MI WHEN 3:30 Eastern
October 25th, 2014 THE LINE MSU -17 TELEVISION ABC TICKETS From 149 WEATHER 60, sunny, 15 mph winds
Overview
I have to change this now. Since the Big Ten season started this section has been a slightly modified assertion that Team X is probably not real good with issues up the wazoo, a resume that does not intimidate, and a reasonably tractable Vegas line.
None of these things are true in re: Michigan State. They are probably real good, they have no wazoo-rated issues, the worst thing on their resume is beating Purdue by two touchdowns, and Vegas is like lol head for the hills.
Rats.
Injury Guesses
PROBABLY IN: Shane Morris is likely available.
MAYBE: Erik Magnuson's rumored high ankle sprain should be healed by now, right? I mean, unless it's one of those high ankle sprains that never do.
Jabrill Peppers is prominently listed on the depth chart but chatter has him potentially out for the season; we'll see if the internet or the program is more truthy. Bet here is internet.
PROBABLY OUT: Delano Hill, Derrick Green, Desmond Morgan.
Run Offense vs Michigan State
Taiwan Jones is going to be making a lot of tackles.
This is not the all-destroying unit of a year ago but it's still plenty good enough to shut Michigan's arthritic run game down. MSU is currently 28th in YPC allowed; notably, they crushed Nebraska to the tune of 47 yards on 37 carries.
Things have gone less swimmingly at other times—mostly times when someone pops into the secondary and there is flailing around him. Shane Wynn broke a 75-yard reverse last weekend; Tevin Coleman added a 65-yard romp; Purdue had rushes of 52 and 36 yards. That has scuffed up last year's national-best rush D.
The problem for Michigan is what happens on carries that don't go 30 yards. Michigan State is in a tie for 116th with 4 rushes of more than 50 yards allowed; they're eighth with 21 rushes for more than ten yards. The secondary biffs at a high rate on a low number of plays that break long. When they don't go a long way they don't go anywhere unless you're Tevin Coleman. This is an obvious problem for a Michigan rush offense with three runs of 30 yards on the year, all of which came against early-season tomato cans.
You cannot run the ball consistently against Michigan State and Michigan has no explosive capability.
The best bet for something that looks respectable is misdirection and frippery, which Michigan has gone to on occasion this year with Norfleet and Funchess; otherwise it's going to look a lot like the Penn State game, in which Michigan was rarely caught behind the line but struggled to scratch out more than a couple yards at a time.
Key Matchup: Braden/Cole/Williams/Butt versus the MSU perimeter. The State DTs are not great and Michigan's interior line is likely to get push here and there; it may not matter if Michigan can win blocks against the LBs and DEs.
[Hit THE JUMP for a THEMATIC VIDEO of QWOP]
Pass Offense vs Michigan State
Ed Davis had 2.5 sacks last year and leads MSU with 6 this year.
Devin Gardner's ribs have trembled at the coming of this day. Devin Gardner is a warrior, but his ribs would really just like to have some tea and read The Economist. Alas, it is not to be.
Michigan State remains the same maniacally aggressive, rib-annihilating defense they were a year ago. They're currently fifth in the country with 26 sacks, and as is traditional a linebacker is plundering his way into the backfield—Ed Davis leads the team with six. The ends have 8.5 between them and then there's a smattering of contributors coming from all angles at all times. Blitz? Yes please. Blitz? Don't mind if I do. Blitz against Michigan? ALL THE BLITZES.
MSU has not backed this up quite as well as they did a year ago, though. The departures of Isaiah Lewis and Darqueze Dennard have downgraded the MSU secondary from impossible to merely improbable. This was most obvious in the Oregon game, when the Ducks downloaded the Michigan State defense midway through the third quarter and shattered their quarters concept with a series of bombs towards vertical-moving slot receivers.
MSU recovered from this to post good days against Nebraska and Purdue before throttling third-string true freshman Zander Diamont against Indiana; a quality team with the ability to threaten vertically down the slot can attack MSU effectively.
Michigan isn't that. They may in fact be able to threaten vertically down the slot with Norfleet and Funchess, but it's doubtful Michigan can protect consistently enough to force MSU to react and they have not put together anything resembling a scheme likely to pop guys open as safeties overplay thing X. Oregon got to be Oregon because they have an offense that ruthlessly exposes and exploits weak points. Michigan not so much.
Protection is going to be an issue. Michigan's tackles have… coped so far. They haven't been put under nearly as much pressure as they will be on Saturday. Meanwhile, non-Funchess receivers have not shown much ability to get open and Norfleet remains an occasionally-used toy. Jake Butt could be a major weapon against a smaller safety if Michigan can get him open—the pop pass can break huge against MSU if you can protect long enough to get guys past the safety-moving-into-robber level.
I just don't think that's at all possible. Michigan will hit some stuff; Gardner will be harassed into turnovers, etc etc etc.
Key matchup: Devin Gardner versus Disintegration. The concept, not the Cure album.
Run Defense vs Michigan State
This is not last year's Michigan State offense. Correction: it may be the Michigan State offense from the very tail end of last year; it's not the one Michigan went up against midseason. Strength of opposition and all that yes yes but you would weep giant frothy tears if you looked at Michigan's rushing output halfway through the season and saw this:
Opponent Carries Yards Avg TD Jacksonville St. 50 221 4.42 3 @ 6 Oregon 36 123 3.42 1 Eastern Mich. 60 336 5.6 7 Wyoming 52 338 6.5 5 16 Nebraska 44 188 4.27 2 @ Purdue 43 294 6.84 2 @ Indiana 51 330 6.47 5
On the year MSU is averaging 5.5 yards a carry.
The thing with MSU this year is the stunning amount of experience they're carrying. In a two-back set nine of their starters are in their fourth or fifth years (third year players Jack Conklin and Josiah Price are the exceptions); their starting skill guys are all fifth year seniors. Everyone who plays save a few backup skill guys took a redshirt, and MSU fills the few holes they find with judiciously applied JUCOs.
The result is an organized, disciplined unit that gets the most out of talent recruiting services have described as "meh." Meh no more:
They've given up just four sacks all year; their 79 yards lost on TFLs is the fifth-fewest in the country. These guys don't blow assignments and don't get overpowered at the point of attack.
Starting center Jack Allen missed the Indiana game with an ankle injury but is projected to return. Dantonio said he could have gone against the Hoosiers if necessary, so don't expect gamesmanship here.
State is deep, if not thrilling, at tailback. Fifth year senior Jeremy Langford is the workhorse back capable of finding the hole and falling forward through it productively; fifth year senior Nick Hill is the quick third-down back alternative; sophomore Delton Williams is an athletic, physical heir apparent somewhat reminiscent of Jehu Caulcrick. Langford's projected as a mid-round selection in the upcoming NFL draft for reasons that used to sound very Michigan and now sound very Michigan State:
Runs low to the ground with excellent pad level and energetic feet to get the most out of every touch. Langford is a workhorse type with a hard-nosed, no-nonsense style of running the ball, getting stronger as the game progresses. Has a little shake-and-bake to him to extend runs, keeping his legs pumping through contact. Langford really shines in areas where most young backs struggle like pass protection, reliability in the screen game and also the ability to get stronger and better as the game goes on.
If State does start rolling over Michigan's defense it'll be a lot like last year, when a tiring defense gave up the ghost once the game was out of reach.
Note that State has gone to a heavy dose of gun this year. Ace's FFFF charted the evolution from the Purdue game:
Formations Run Pass PA Gun 14 17 5 I-Form 8 1 1 Ace 6 1 2 Heavy 1 -- --
Cook is mobile enough to keep 'em honest on the zone read and Michigan State is using that to help matriculate down the field.
Now, State has not played a rush defense in the same stratosphere as Michigan's. M is fifth nationally in YPC allowed, and the next best State opponent is Nebraska in the 40s. They deal with the same strength of schedule issues State does but let's just assume from now on that yes the Big Ten is awful and etc. etc. etc.
This will be an enormous test for no-long-referred-to-as-walk-on Ryan Glasgow, who's anchored the Michigan rush defense with remarkably consistent production at nose tackle; the rest of the line has gotten a lot of space-constricting push. The linebackers have been dodgier but still seem to be B or B+ players, especially if James Ross's recent OL-flattening surge continues.
One issue for Michigan: with Ondre Pipkins seemingly out of the picture things get thin fast if MSU can stay on the field long enough to get a lot of rotation going on the Michigan DL. True freshman Bryan Mone has gotten flung off the LOS as much as you would expect a true freshman to, and he will not cope well with the veteran Spartan OL.
Key Matchup: Glasgow and Henry versus the interior MSU OL. It starts up front with a leg-churner like Langford.
Pass Defense vs Michigan State
Also not last year's Michigan State: this bit of Michigan State. Connor Cook's completion percentage has jumped three points, his YPA has gone from 7.3 to 9.3, and he's going to blow through his 22 TDs from last year sometime in the next month—he's already got 16. ESPN's QB rating stat is duly impressed, shooting from 69 a year ago to 84. That places him 6th nationally, hanging out with guys like Dak Prescott, Blake Sims, Jameis Winston and—sigh—JT Barrett.
While Cook is still offering up the occasional "what are you doing" throw, those are greatly reduced in his second year at the helm; excellent pass protection and a steadily improving wide receiver corps have seen MSU's offense go from rickety to impressive.
The star of that improving WR corps is Tony Lippett. Lippett is not a burner and still isn't getting much separation, but he's making it work Junior Hemingway style. Ace:
Lippett isn't outrageously big or eye-poppingly athletic, but his ability to run good routes and make plays on the ball separates him from your average receiver. Here's a nice example of the latter: Zero separation, but Lippett and Cook are on the same page, and Lippett makes easy work of this jump ball before picking up ample yards after the catch, another thing he does quite well.
He's averaging just over 20 yards a catch on 39 opportunities so far this year and has brought in one over 20 yards in every game so far. He's cracked 30 in five games, usually by skying over defensive backs and using his excellent body control to make contested catches. And sometimes he does pop open deep, albeit with the aid of play action that gets corners involved.
The rest of the WR corps is okay, with Macgarrett Kings your slot threat du jour and MSU featuring a pile of big-ish interchangeable guys with around ten catches. Price, the TE, is actually the second-biggest yards per catch threat—watch out for him on play action.
Michigan's pass defense actually seems to match up well with the opposition here. MSU is short on the athletic speedsters who have given the cornerbacks fits so far and they've been good about walling off go routes. Lippett might not have much room to make the kind of catches he does above.
Coverage breaks down, though, and it's doubtful that Michigan gets sufficient pressure to truly shut down the MSU passing game. They tore Christian Hackenberg to bits last week; this is an entirely different level of opposition and oh God it just occurred to me that Hackenberg has to play MSU later this year. #pray4hack
This will be a bit of a grind for MSU but they'll break through if given sufficient opportunities.
Key Matchup: Kings/Price versus Probably Countess and Clark. Michigan's weak point has been the nickel back and safeties pushed into man coverage, especially when Michigan's obvious man alignment gives opponents the ability to check into rub routes and such.
Special Teams
Previously-reliable kicker Michael Geiger's had a bit of a wobble the last few weeks, going 3/6 after starting his career almost perfect. He even missed one under 40, which had not happened in his career to date. I wouldn't expect that to last but he's not as automatic as you would have assumed preseason.
Punter Mike Sadler has just been okay. He's averaging just over 40 yards an attempt; MSU has allowed returns on a hefty third of his punts and given up a PR touchdown. There might be some room for Norfleet to get upfield here.
Spartan return services are not threatening. RJ Shelton is trundling out to the 25 when he gets a kick return opportunity; Macgarrett Kings is averaging about seven yards a pop on punts. As per usual Michigan's combo of line drives from Hagerup and old-timey punt formations could offer Kings a highway to 20 yard returns—rewatching the Minnesota game was infuriating in this department.
Key Matchup: YOU PUT ELEVEN GUYS ON THE FIELD AT LEAST MOST OF THE TIME
Intangibles
if there was ever a time for grumpycat
Cheap Thrills
Worry if...
You are entering this game with anything resembling hope. I mean, yeah, Michigan has a 10% chance according to historical spread W/L stuff but what about either of these programs would indicate to you that Vegas was off—in a good way?
You have too many nachos
While watching the game you are sucked into a hellish alternate dimension
Cackle with knowing glee if..
Alternate dimension actually seems better than previous dimension
Alternate dimension has nachos
Um, like six Michigan State turnovers?
Fear/Paranoia Level: 10 (Baseline 5; +1 for Boy They Seem Good, +1 for Michigan Has Gotten Outcoached In This Game For Six Straight Years, +1 for We Ain't Got No Big Plays And That's Doom Against MSU, +1 for Maybe We'll Get Positive Rushing Yards… Maybe, +1 for Vegas Says LOL)
Desperate need to win level: 6 (Baseline 5; +1 for MSU Is Bad And Should Feel Bad, +1 for It Would Be Pretty Hilarious, +1 for Here Is One Knife To Your Playoff Chances, –1 for Oh Right We're Rooting To Prevent MSU From Winning A National Title Instead Of Actually Doing Anything Ourselves, –1 for Apparently We Need Yet Further Clarity About Things That May Not In Fact Be Already Decided But Really Should Be)
Loss will cause me to... resume F5-ing every message board that has ever had a post about Michigan football for news about regime change.
Win will cause me to... yodel in surprise.
The strictures and conventions of sportswriting compel me to predict:
Finally, three opportunities for me to look stupid Sunday: |
LONDON — Energy companies have spent months in a state of strategic paralysis, wary of making big moves with oil prices plunging.
Now, the mind-set is shifting, as the industry giants look to capitalize on the weakness.
On Wednesday, Royal Dutch Shell agreed to buy the BG Group for $70 billion. It is the first major deal for an oil and gas producer since prices started falling last summer.
The acquisition could provide a template in the current environment, with deep-pocketed players taking advantage of their competitors’ problems to bolster their own position.
In buying BG, Shell is concentrating on the fast-growing business of producing and selling liquefied natural gas. It will also become a major player in Brazil’s offshore oil fields, where Shell’s exposure has been small. |
This year my boys were about 2½ years old for Christmas, providing an interesting setting to reconcile my views and values surrounding the holiday.
I have lots of fond childhood memories around the magic of Christmas and getting presents; so given my recent philosophical changes how should I approach this topic with my family? Well, now that it’s the New Year, why not reflect upon it?
Leading up to Christmas
The boys started singing and requesting Christmas songs pretty early in December, or late November. We stuck to classics such as Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Deck the Halls. I was pretty amazed actually at their ability to learn and recite songs; this was a fun part of Christmas for sure. Daily we would sing Jingle Bells together in the car on the way home for the day.
I like to push decorating as last as possible, usually mid-December. I grew up in a house where we would get a tree a week or two before Chistmas day and my Dad would ceremoniously toss it out the front door on New Year’s Day. Our decorations are quite modest; consisting of a few strings of lights outside, a small tree and any cards received and other decorations we’ve received as gifts. We don’t like a lot of clutter in general, so we take a pretty minimalist appraoch.
Gifts
The boys got one gift each and a stocking full of little toys and things from Santa. Our families have free reign to give them what they want, but we do encourage them to keep it moderate. My wife and I actually forgot to get them something specifically from us, which was our plan. That being said, the boys received more than enough gifts from family. My wife has a wonderful habit of purging toys occassionally, storing some, giving some away and cycling previously stored toys into rotation. There is no need for more toys at any point.
Santa
When we discussed this topic last year, before the boys were really talking, we both agreed that ideally we wouldn’t even bother with the myth of Santa. We came around thankfully, remembering the magic we each experienced as kids. Our compromise is that we agreed Santa would bring one wrapped gift per child each year along with a stocking full of trinkets and useful items.
Wrapping it up
As rational and logical as I am; this year feeding off of the excitement of my children I got more into the Christmas spirit than usual. My wife and I even broke our rule of not buying gifts for each other and exchanged stockings.
Since Christmas I reached out to get some insight into some other Stoic approaches to Christmas from the Stoicism Group on Facebook. From this, my wife and I agree that moving forward we want to incorporate more charity and community spirit into the holidays; hopefully volunteering at shelters, retirement homes or anything with people, nurturing compassion in our children.
The point of all of this is to hopefully allow my children to enjoy Christmas, but to value what we feel to be important. That is, spending time with and appreciating your family and community first, then experience some sense of wonder and magic. I don’t want my boys having meltdowns over the newest toys or feeling entitled to receive excessive material possessions that they don’t need and don’t truly contribute to their long term happiness. |
Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) said on Wednesday afternoon that their female colleagues can take most of the credit for driving the compromise that is expected to temporarily reopen the U.S. government and raise the debt ceiling before Thursday's deadline.
"Leadership, I must fully admit, was provided primarily from women in the Senate," McCain said after the bipartisan deal was announced.
Pryor said that people sometimes like to joke about women in leadership, but he is a huge fan of his female colleagues after watching them negotiate. "The truth is, women in the Senate is a good thing," he said. "We're all just glad they allowed us to tag along so we could see how it's done."
Following weeks of stagnation, The New York Times reported on Monday that a bipartisan group of women senators was playing a crucial role in opening discussions between Republicans and Democrats over how to move forward and reopen the government. Out of the 14 senators on the bipartisan committee that laid the framework for the debt deal, six were women. Susan Collins (R-Maine) started the group, and Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) took part in negotiations.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that women were so heavily involved in trying to end this stalemate,” Collins told The New York Times. “Although we span the ideological spectrum, we are used to working together in a collaborative way.”
Klobuchar said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday that the friendships the Senate women have developed will help them work together to craft a long-term budget without the counterproductive barbs that some politicians throw at each other when they don't agree. |
A year and a half ago, Amazon opened up its Alexa voice assistant to developers. With the Alexa Skills Kit, Alexa and its hardware hosts—the Echo, Dot, Tap, and now dozens more from third parties—became more than just speakers and digital weathermen. It became a platform, capable of supporting a full ecosystem of skills, which are essentially apps that you talk to instead of touch. Today, there are 10,000 skills available on Alexa. It’s an exponential increase since last summer, a rise that presents a host of new opportunities—and new challenges.
While 10,000 may seem like an arbitrary milestone, it’s an instructive one, especially when you consider how fast it’s come. Last June, a full year after the ASK launched, Amazon announced that Alexa had reached 1,000 skills. By September, that number had tripled. In January, Alexa’s skills catalog swelled to 7,000. It took just over a month to tack on another three thousand.
Alexa still doesn’t come anywhere close to rivaling its mobile counterparts; the App Store and Google Play both count their offerings in the millions. But the 10,000 skills mark represents a beachhead in the the brave new (and increasingly competitive) world of voice assistants. Where it goes from here will help define the next generation of user interfaces. As will, more importantly, how it gets there.
Skills Set
While Alexa became a developer’s playground in 2015, Amazon’s vision for a home-grown voice assistant started a full four years ago.
“We had this inspiration of the Star Trek computer,” says Steve Rabuchin, who heads up Alexa voice services and skills at Amazon. “What would it be like if we could create a voice assistant out of the cloud that you could just talk to naturally, that could control things around you, that could do things for you, that could get you information?”
Amazon’s first key innovation wasn’t voice itself, or even responsiveness; speech recognition has been around for decades, and Apple introduced the conversational Siri in 2011. Amazon’s accomplishment was freeing its voice assistant from the smartphone, nudging users closer to a truly ambient experience. The second breakthrough? Giving those users things to do.
At the end of 2015, a few months after the ASK availability, Echo owners had 135 skills to choose from. Today, they’ll find among their 10,000 options a bevy of smart home controls, multiple car companies, Starbucks, and not one but two national pizza chains. There are even a handful of games, like Jeopardy, and the whimsical Magic Door.
In that time, too, it’s also gotten easier to use those skills. While previously Echo owners would have had to dig into a companion Alexa app to enable, say, Jeopardy, they can now do so with a simple voice command. Similarly, the developers behind the skills have added features as they better understand the way their customers use them. GE Appliances, for instance, noticed that customers frequently used Alexa for hands-free oven operation (the company sells over 70 connected appliances in all; the future is full of odd wonders).
“We saw how popular those features were, so we started rolling in presets,” says GE’s Bill Gardner. Now, customers can simply ask Alexa to set the oven for chicken nuggets, or pizza, or cookies, or whatever else they’re heating up that night. “We tried to make it one step quicker.”
So the number of skills has grown, as has the range of available features, as has the consumer embrace of the platform, which Rabuchin describes as “commensurate” with the hockey stick uptick in Alexa abilities. So far, it’s one of the great tech success stories of the last decade. Now comes the hard part.
Undiscovered Countries
If the Alexa skills origin story sounds familiar, that’s because so far it maps pretty neatly with that of Apple’s App Store. It’s a smaller scale, but the pacing is about right, as well as the types of developers that are signing on in the early days.
For Amazon, that’s encouraging. The App Store is an indisputable success. But its growth wasn’t without pains, some of which Alexa may be feeling soon, if it hasn’t already.
“We know what happened when Apple opened up the App Store and developers started pouring applications in there,” says Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey. “Suddenly it became really, really hard for developers to get in front of their intended customers. There became this big problem of clutter.”
A problem that, notably, persists even today, nearly nine years later. And while Amazon has fewer skills to get lost among, its voice-first paradigm makes searching through those skills much more difficult. That creates potential frustrations for customers and developers alike; the former doesn’t know where to find skills they might enjoy, and the latter doesn’t see a return on the invested time spent creating the skill in the first place.
Not surprisingly, Amazon has taken steps to mitigate the problem. It sends weekly emails to Alexa users highlighting recently added skills. And after a year of the skills interface consisting of just a list within the Alexa app, the company last summer launched a skills store online, complete with ratings and reviews. All of which helps, but still requires staring at a screen—which Alexa was supposed to free you from in the first place.
“We’re working on ways with your voice to better navigate the skills that are there,” says Rabuchin. “You’re able to ask Alexa what the top skills of the week are, what the new skills are, a whole bunch of categories just by voice.”
All of which brings much-needed clarity to the skills search. And at the rate things are going, Amazon will find out soon enough if the same solutions for 10,000 skills can scale up to 100,000 and beyond.
Expansion Pack
Today the skills Alexa offers fall broadly into two categories. There are the hobbyists, who make skills for fun, and the corporations who wring a lot of marketing value out of being on the front lines of the voice revolution. What do they have in common? They aren’t overly concerned with turning skills into profit.
“[Alexa]’s not going to make a real solid transition to professional development unless there’s a way to make money,” says McQuivey. This is how the App Store works as well; even though most apps aren’t cash cows, the chance that one might hit is motivation enough for high-level developers to put resources in.
That’s not to single Amazon out. It’s a common challenge across not just voice assistants but also chatbots and other next-generation platforms. These are early days.
“Everybody’s learning how their business models are going to be set up on these platforms, and these ecosystems, where they’re allowing companies to play and not play,” says Dennis Maloney, chief digital officer of Domino’s, an early Alexa enlistee whose AnyWare program has put it at the forefront of multiple next-wave technologies. “It’s two steps forward, one step back as we continue to grow and learn in this space.”
Amazon declined to comment specifically on monetization plans, but a spokesman says the company is “listening closely to our developer community to identify new features and tools that will improve the ASK experience.”
In many ways, it’s as much an opportunity as it is a challenge. The first company to figure out how to both create and share the voice-enabled wealth will stake out a dominant position, an increasingly heated race as Google Home encroaches on Echo's turf. And Amazon may be better situated than anyone to do so. It has a history of app store experimentation, including Amazon Underground, which normally gives apps to customers for free, and pays developers based on usage time. There could also be more straightforward approaches, especially for retailers; Maloney looks forward to the day that a Domino’s customer can simply tell Alexa what kind of pizza she wants to order from scratch, rather than requiring her to fill out a form on the internet first.
Besides, whatever roadblocks like ahead clearly haven’t hindered Alexa’s growth so far. Rabuchin says Amazon has thousands of people on the team, with tens of thousands of developers signed up for accounts. And while the first batch of skills have been mostly centered around the smart home, streaming music, or simple timers, or marketing tie-ins, there are signs that Alexa’s starting to broaden its horizons.
In fact, Alexa's 10,000th skill, approved just last night, isn't any of those things. It’s Beat the Intro, a “name that tune” game that already found success on the App Store and Google Play. Now, with a few voice-friendly tweaks, it’s going to give Alexa a try. |
https://iwandered.net/temples-of-mrauk-u-burma-myanmar/
The alarm rang. At 5:30 in the morning, my mind was still in a murky haze having arrived in Mrauk U just a few hours before. The entirety of the previous day was spent traveling by plane, boat and jeep and yet there I was, up and on the go once more.
in a dreamlike state…
Burma’s Rakhine state, where Mrauk U is located, is closer to Bangladesh than to Yangon. The roads here are so underdeveloped that an 80 km road trip between two points in the state takes almost 5 hours. We decided to take a longer but less bumpy route, and went on a 6-hour journey by boat after we arrived in Sittwe, the administrative center of Rakhine state.
Sunrise
At 5:30 in the morning, I found myself scaling some unknown peak in utter darkness, with the faint luminance of a flashlight guiding the way. A closer peek revealed a golden pagoda at the top – the Shwetaung Paya, from where the sunrise views of Mrauk U are said to be legendary.
“This better be worth it,” I muttered to myself. The air was a lot colder than what I remembered from when I had arrived. Surely, it wasn’t what I expected for the tropics.
By the time we reached the top, the first sign of daybreak had arrived. I could make out a fog forming in the lower altitudes while the sky turned dark blue and later into purple. What happened a few minutes later was perhaps the most magnificent sunrise I have seen in my entire life. The landscape in Mrauk U in Burma’s restive Rakhaing state at dawn is a mishmash of cauliflower fields and village huts surrounded by the morning fog and punctuated by hillocks with several centuries old stupas – it’s a dreamlike scene made even more apparent by the fact that I was still only half-awake on this pre-dawn hike. The sunrise view also served as my orientation to the scattered temples of Mrauk U. There were about 700 in the horizon, and I would only be able to visit a handful.
How to Go to Mrauk U
One of the things that has deterred many travelers and kept Mrauk U mainly off-the-radar despite its ability to give Angkor Wat a run for its money is the long hours involved in getting there. You can basically look at a few ways of getting here, assuming you take a domestic flight with any of the more reliable airlines like Air Mandalay, Yangon Airways or Air KBZ from Yangon to Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state (around an hour fifteen minutes flight).
By Boat
By far, the most popular method of getting to Mrauk U, it is also one of the longest. You can either take a public ferry which runs every day from Sittwe (similar from the other direction in Mrauk U) at 7AM in the morning. This takes about 6 hours. There is also a fast boat on some days, which takes only 4.5 hours. Alternatively, you can charter a private boat which can fit up to 4 or 5 people. The boat (including the crew) will basically wait for you for a few days while you’re in Mrauk U and will similarly take you back.
By Car
Despite popular notions on the contrary, it is possible to take a car from Sittwe to Mrauk U. But it is a very bumpy ride. According to the map, Sittwe to Mrauk U by road is a 145 kilometers in distance but the roads are in poor shape so expect the journey to take around 5 hours each way.
Temples of Mrauk U
Later that morning, we started our exploration of the fascinating but little known temples of Mrauk U. As we had only 2 full days to spend in the area, we decided to hire a jeep (a normal car isn’t able to withstand the poor state of the roads) for about $40 a day. Our driver was an amiable chap who spoke decent English and tried his best to offer some stories to the temples we were visiting.
Kothaung Temple kothaung temple
We started our exploration at the temple of 90,000 Buddha images or otherwise known as Kothaung temple. To have started here was pretty symbolic. If there was anything that drove me to insanely pursue such a long trip to get to a remote place like Mrauk U, it was the sight of this square-shaped edifice.
From the outside, its large size and cube-like construction gave off a faint reminder of Borobudur in Central Java. The exteriors are replete with hundreds if not thousands of small stupas that give Kothaung a bit of a pointy / thorny look. The inner chambers on the other hand reveal almost life-sized Buddha statues on both sides of the wall. I reckoned the gray monotone construction and exotic looking statues would make the temple a shoo-in if there is ever a need to scout filming locations for the next Indiana Jones movie. The place was just sublime. the exterior of kothaung temple – notice the hundreds of stupas
There are a few other interesting temples surrounding Kothaung – which is one of the farther sites in Mrauk U. The semi-destroyed Pizi Paya for instance, offers a nice hilltop view of the pointy outer shel of Kothaung while Paya Ouk and Mokhong Shwegu served as nice excursions on the way back to town.
Sakyamanaung Pagoda & Ratanamanaung Pagoda the relatively understated sakyamanaung stupa
Heading towards the direction of town, we passed by a couple of working temples. Sakyamanaung in particular seemed quite popular among locals. The temple itself consists of one large, multi-tiered pagoda. At the top, it is bell-shaped but as it extends downwards, it assumes an octagonal shape. It was the only temple in Mrauk U where I saw brightly-colored guardians with sharp teeth by the entrance, similar to what I sometimes encounter in Thailand. Ratanamanaung, which is about half a mile away, had a similar design though it also had a more modern construction next to it with a large Buddha statue and an unassuming souvenir shop. Ratanabon Pagoda and Andaw Pagoda 5 of the 24 small stupas surrounding a large central one in ratanabon pagoda
By now, we were well within the town center of Mrauk U. There were a couple of notable temples here as well, perhaps the most visited among the archeological sites in the area. We stopped by the Ratanabon Pagoda, one of the most photographed in Mrauk U. The massive and bulky stupa is quite unlike others in the area, in the sense that it is ringed by 24 smaller stupas. There is a hill next to the temple from where some people go for sunset / sunrise views. The structure seen today had been extensively reconstructed, no thanks to treasure hunters who looted the place many years back. Ratanabon is translated as “treasure,” and precious objects were said to originally lie in the central stupa.
A few feet away from Ratanabon Pagoda is the Andaw Pagoda. Like Ratanabon, there are numerous stupas surrounding a central one but the difference here is that all of them are roughly of the same size. There is also an interesting inner chamber at the main stupa with a handful Buddha statues inside. However, it was pitch black when we entered and we couldn’t see a thing.
Shitte-thaung Temple scenes inside the shitte-thaung temple, the second photo has lots of depictions of life in medieval mrauk u
Widely recognized as the “main temple” of Mrauk U, the Shitte-thaung Temple is where most visitors start in Mrauk U. The $5 zone fee is collected here. When I stopped by the temple, I scanned the log book for the visitor profiles. Not a single Filipino it seemed, visited in the 2 or 3 months before I did. When I asked the guy at the registration, I was told that I was the first Filipino tourist he had seen around Mrauk U. The log book didn’t reveal many visitors from Southeast Asia either. Around 1 or 2 other Singaporeans, Malaysians and Indonesians; a couple of Thais and that was about it for the past 2 or 3 months. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to react to the guard’s assertion – the brief thought that I may be the only Filipino insane enough to come briefly popped up, but was quickly quelled by the fact that I was enjoying what I was seeing so far.
Of the temples in the entire archeological site, Shitte-thaung probably ranks as my second favorite. The temple itself is divided between a newer and older part. The older part consists of the passageways that run through the temple’s perimeter. Within it, I saw more Buddha statues in stone – though these weren’t as exotic looking as the ones I saw in Kothaung. But apart from that, there were fascinating carvings depicting daily life as well as royal life in the outer passageway. The sheer number of objects in the wall carving as well as the level of detail were very impressive and there’s a walkway from which one can have a great view of a bunker-looking temple down the hill.
Htukkanthein Temple the bunker temple of htukkanthein
That temple that looked like a bunker was actually the Htukkanthein Temple. Again, this is considered to be one of the main temples in Mrauk U due to its sheer size. Like the other temples, the inside is filled with Buddha statues though the difference here is that the passageway coils its way for several times before leading to a large and more modern-looking Buddha statue at the very center. There was a great deal of speculation by the British as to why the temple look the way it does. There were some theories that claimed that the temple doubled as a shelter during times of war. Or that the hard outer shell helped to protect the structure against the fierce winds of Arakan. But I guess we’ll never really know.
Laymyatna Pagoda natural light on the Buddha
Another bunker-looking temple lying immediately west of Htukkhanthein is Laymyatna or the 4-faced temple. Compared to the other temples, the restoration here wasn’t extensive but that served to heighten the atmosphere of the place. The temple has arch-shaped windows that give light to the Buddha statues within. It’s a particularly small temple though at the time of my visit there were quite a few locals hanging around outside, using the tall facade as a shade.
Other Temples some of the other temples around mrauk u
The temples of Mrauk U are spread across the four corners – I only managed to visit the ones in the east, center, north, some southern ones but completely skipped the western ones. With an extra day, a substantial portion can be covered. But to avoid getting templed out, a one or two day trip around the temples should suffice.
Sunrise & Sunset Views
The sunrise and sunset views around Mrauk U alone are worth the long trip to get here. Aside from the classic Shwethaung Pagoda sunrise on my first day, I also ventured to a place called Discovery View (fee of 500 kyats) just north of Ratanabon Pagoda and the hilltop temples of U-mrawa and Haridaung close to town. Here’s a peek of the views from up there:
morning mist – it was a cool 13 celsius in the mornings but quickly rose to a sweltering 35 by noon
just gorgeous!
Where I Stayed
the $25 a night room at prince hotel
I stayed at a humble little place called Prince Hotel. Rooms were about US$ 25 a night. The owners here are mighty proud to have built the very first hotel in Mrauk U. Very simple accommodation run by a family and the owners are quite knowledgeable regarding the area. Service is excellent. I like how they would invite us to sit by the dining table every night to to help us sort out the following day’s plans. They also arrange boat trips to remote Chin villages for a decent price. You can also check and compare prices for hotels in Mrauk U HERE.
Tips for Mrauk U
Avoid coming during the rainy season from mid-May to September. In Mrauk U. When it rains, it pours! The best time to visit Mrauk U is from November to mid-March when it’s cooler in the mornings and you get to see the morning mist Put at least a 1 day allowance to your trip to cater for possible ferry or flight cancellations. It’s pretty common over at these parts Bring lots of insect repellent. You’ll be thankful you did. Myanmar has one of the highest incidences of malaria in Southeast Asia and Mrauk U is considered to be more frontier than Bagan or Inle Lake. While it may still be okay to visit without having taken malaria pills, it’s best to wear long-sleeve shirts and pants to decrease the chances of getting the disease. Change your kyats beforehand. Avoid changing in Mrauk U. The exchange rate here is very bad.
Possible Itinerary
Day 1
Sunrise: Shwetaung Paya
East Group (Kothaung, Pizi Paya, Mong Khong Pagoda)
Central (Shitte-thaung, Ratanabon, Andaw, Ratamanaung, Sakyamanaung)
North (Mahabodhi Shwegu, Laungbwanbyauk, Httuparon)
Sunset: Discovery View
Day 2
Sunrise: U-mrawa Paya
Chin Village Excursion
-or-
Excursion to Vesali and Mahamuni
Bino Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below. Alternatively, you can also email me at bino (at) iwandered.net. You can follow I Wander on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Also, if you liked this article, please feel free to SHARE or RETWEET More Posts - Website Follow Me: |
Giorno Giovanna will be joining Ore Collection!
Giorno Giovanna has a dream! Take over the organization that runs the city. Use his Passione to become the Gangstar!
This event will run during the period: 12/01 12:00 ~ 12/15 11:59
Gangsters Sparkling in the Darkness
A passion filled visit to Italy is happening Weekly Shonen Jump: Ore Collection!
Face up against the Strong gangsters from Passione!
This event has 6 Stages that can be challenged on 3 difficulties:
Beginner – Intermediate – Expert
As with all the events this game has held so far; the harder the stage is, the better the drops are. So for this event, the optimal stage for general farming is Stage 6 on Expert.
The medals for Jump Awakening Giorno Giovanna are available from the store and from farming the stages. The medal drops are random so the best stage to farm medals is Stage 6 because the other drops are improved.
In this event, The Passione Gang and their Boss will appear as enemies. These enemies will be Strength type so Agile units will be Super Effective!
Passione’s boss Diavolo will appear on the final stage! He will use a Special Skill that will roll-back your skill gauges as well as a defence buff skill. Use skills that speed up your cooldowns and lower enemy defence power for the best chance of winning!
Examples of units who charge skill gauges:
Examples of units who lower defence
Ganstars Gacha
This is your chance to get a copy of Giorno Giovanna! He is exclusive to this banner so if you want him in your deck then act now! Banner Exclusive: Giorno Giovanna The gacha will feature all the normal “standard” gacha units but will include a boosted chance of pulling the 5* units : The pleasant rain of Tsunas best friend – Yamamoto Takeshi
Leader of Sket Dan – Yūsuke Fujisaki (Bossun)
Dream to be a GangStar – Giorno Giovanna This gacha will run during the period: 12/01 12:00 ~ 12/15 11:59 More info on these units here
Ganstars Scene Gacha
New Scenes from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and Sket Dance will be added in this gacha!
Additionally these scenes will be made easier to pull during this event
This Scene Gacha will run during the period: 12/01 12:00 ~ 12/15 11:59
What kind of event is this?
In this event you can earn luxurious rewards by defeating enemies from this series and experiencing the world of Vento Aureo. Among the rewards are character gacha tickets and power up gacha tickets.
How to Play
Clearing the event can drop dumbbells and power up gacha tickets but you will also earn “Gang Points” to exchange at the point exchange for valuable prizes.
How do I get everything from the event?
In order to get everything from the event you need to clear all the stage rewards, clear all the missions and earn points in order to buy everything from the shop.
Daily Missions
These missions are not event specific and reset daily at 04:00 JST
Use 30 Stamina on an event – Power Up gacha ticket x2
– Power Up gacha ticket x2 Use 50 Stamina on an event – Power Up gacha ticket x2
– Power Up gacha ticket x2 Use 70 Stamina on an event – Power Up gacha ticket x2
– Power Up gacha ticket x2 Use 100 Stamina on an event – Power Up gacha ticket x3
One Time Missions
Use 200 Stamina on this event – +5 Legend Arena Ticket Refill x2
– +5 Legend Arena Ticket Refill x2 Use 400 Stamina on this event – Power Up gacha ticket x5
– Power Up gacha ticket x5 Use 600 Stamina on this event – 3* Narancia Ghirga x1
– 3* x1 Use 800 Stamina on this event – 3* Aerosmith Detector
– 3* Use 1000 Stamina on this event – Jump Orbs x5
– Jump Orbs x5 Use 1200 Stamina on this event – Power Up gacha ticket x5
– Power Up gacha ticket x5 Use 1400 Stamina on this event – 4* Aerosmith Detector
– 4* Use 1600 Stamina on this event – 5* Aerosmith Detector
– 5* Use 1800 Stamina on this event – Jump Orbs x5
– Jump Orbs x5 Use 2000 Stamina on this event – Power Up gacha ticket x5
– Power Up gacha ticket x5 Use 2200 Stamina on this event – 3* Narancia Ghirga x1
– 3* x1 Use 2400 Stamina on this event – 4* Aerosmith Detector
– 4* Use 2600 Stamina on this event – Jump Orbs x5
– Jump Orbs x5 Use 2800 Stamina on this event – 4* Aerosmith Detector
– 4* Use 3000 Stamina on this event – Jump Orbs x5
– Jump Orbs x5 Clear Stage 3 on Expert 1 time – +5 Legend Arena Ticket Refill x2
– +5 Legend Arena Ticket Refill x2 Clear Stage 3 on Expert 1 time – 4* Aerosmith Detector
– 4* Clear Stage 3 on Expert 1 time – 5* Aerosmith Detector
– 5* Clear all missions above – 50 Jump orbs
Stage Clear Rewards
In order to earn all the Stage Clear rewards you will need to clear every stage once on each difficulty.
Beginner
Stage 1 Beginner – 3* Narancia Ghirga
– 3* Stage 2 Beginner – 3 Jump Orbs
– 3 Jump Orbs Stage 3 Beginner – JJBA Scene + 200 Memorial Stones
– JJBA Scene + 200 Memorial Stones Stage 4 Beginner – 3 Jump Orbs
– 3 Jump Orbs Stage 5 Beginner – 200 Memorial Stones
– 200 Memorial Stones Stage 6 Beginner – 3 Jump Orbs
Intermediate
Stage 1 Intermediate – 300 Memorial Stones
– 300 Memorial Stones Stage 2 Intermediate – 3 Jump Orbs
– 3 Jump Orbs Stage 3 Intermediate – 3* Aerosmith Detector
– 3* Stage 4 Intermediate – 3 Jump Orbs
– 3 Jump Orbs Stage 5 Intermediate – JJBA Scene + 300 Memorial Stones
– JJBA Scene + 300 Memorial Stones Stage 6 Intermediate – 3 Jump Orbs
Expert
Stage 1 Expert – 3* Narancia Ghirga
– 3* Stage 2 Expert – 3 Jump Orbs + 400 Memorial Stones
– 3 Jump Orbs + 400 Memorial Stones Stage 3 Expert – 4* Aerosmith Detector
– 4* Stage 4 Expert – 3 Jump Orbs + 400 Memorial Stones
– 3 Jump Orbs + 400 Memorial Stones Stage 5 Expert – 4* Aerosmith Detector
– 4* Stage 6 Expert – JJBA Scene + 400 Memorial Stones + 3 Jump Orbs
Point Shop Clear
The store has a ton of good stuff in it, buy what you want/need and if needed you can keep farming the event for Power Up Gacha Tickets. This event is a great one to farm though so if you do happen to clear out the store then that wouldn’t be a surprise!
Each day there will be daily store items, these items will only be available for 24 hours then they will switch to the next lot of daily store items;
Every Day Deals
Power Up Gacha Tickets
Support Scrolls (2* and 3*)
All Rounder Scrolls (2* and 3*)
Set Date Deals
A different set of 99 Dumbbells will be available in the store each day! They will cost 50 pts each and days that say “All” will include a set of each colour dumbbells!
12/1 – AGL
12/2 – STR
12/3 – All
12/4 – HRT
12/5 – TEQ
12/6 – PHY
12/7 – INT
12/8 – AGL
12/9 – STR
12/10 – All
12/11 – HRT
12/12 – TEQ
12/13 – PHY
12/14 – INT
12/15 – AGL
12/16 – STR
12/17 – All
12/18 – HRT
12/19 – TEQ
12/20 – PHY
12/21 – INT
12/21 – AGL
*The contents of the store are subject to change without notice
I personally recommend buying the scrolls & Power Up Tickets each day but only buy the dumbbells if you need them. As for my recommendations for the shop, this is my personal priority list:
3* Narancia Ghirga x3 The Aerosmith Detector copies needed to get one copy of Narancia to Victory The Aerosmith Detector copies needed to get the other copies of Narancia to 5* Character Gacha ticket Scrolls Daily Deals Power up Gacha Tickets (these are unlimited) Dumbbells Medals
This will vary from person to person depending on what you want/need for your account at the time but this is just a general guideline. Purchase Power Up Gacha Tickets, dumbbells and scrolls as and when you need them.
Only buy the medals if you summoned Giorno and don’t have the medals already available.
Narancia Ghirga’s Road to Victory!
Joining the Gang for your Friend – Narancia Ghirga
from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
Type: Agile
Class: All Rounder
Era: 1990’s
Leader Skill: Boost the Attack of Agile units by an Extreme Amount
Ultimate Attack: Aerosmith
Inflict 10 random hits of 80% damage to the enemy main team, this attack bypasses defence (Cooldown: 35)
Skill 1: Carbon Dioxide Radar
Boost Attack and the chance of Critical Hits by a Large amount for all main team allies for 4 turns (Cooldown: 45)
Skill 2: Bomb Drop
Inflict 150% damage to all enemies (Cooldown: 30)
Skill 3: Propeller Attack
Inflict 500% damage to the target (Cooldown: 35)
Passives
Boost Attack by a Large amount against enemies with the Evil characteristic
by a amount against enemies with the characteristic Boost Narancias Attack by a Medium amount against Strength enemies
by a amount against enemies While HP is under 30%, Boost Attack by a Large amount
Characteristics
Weapon
Fighting Spirit
Flight
The free unit in this event, Narancia, can be evolved beyond 5* by collecting 5* copies of the “Aerosmith Detectors”!
* The Aerosmith Detectors are a special evolver item for Narancia and cannot be used to evolve other units
This event’s Jump Unit
Dream to be a GangStar – Giorno Giovanna
from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
Type: Agile
Class: Support
Era: 1990’s
Leader Skill: Boost the HP of Strength and Agile units by a Large amount
Ultimate Attack: Gold. E
Inflict 5 hits of 200% damage to target + roll back skills by 20% (Cooldown: 42)
Skill 1: Bring to Life
Boost main team allies chance of Critical Hits by an Extreme amount and they all receive +1 auto attack for 4 turns (Cooldown: 45)
Skill 2: A Golden Dream
Boost all main team allies Attack by an Extreme amount for 2 turns (Cooldown :35)
Skill 3: Body Parts
Heal all allies by a Medium amount (Cooldown: 42)
Passives
Boost defence by a Medium amount for all Agile allies
amount for all allies Reduce Damage Taken from Strength enemies by an Large amount for all allies
from enemies by an amount for all allies Boost Defence against enemies with the Hot Blooded characteristic by a Medium amount for himself
Characteristics
Student
Natural
Protagonist
Stats 100% Max pre-Jump Awaken
HP: 8420
8420 Attack: 1501
1501 Defence: 1145
1145 Speed: 33
Let’s Jump Awaken Giorno Giovanna!
In order to awaken Giorno you will need medals from this event:
1990s Era Medals x30
Giorno Giovanna Medals x50
Gold Experience Medals x50
Arrow Medal x50
Diavolo Medals x50
Jump Awakened
Chosen by the Arrow – Giorno Giovanna
Type: Agile
Class: Support
Era: 1990’s
Leader Skill: Boost the HP of Strength, Physical and Agile units by a Large amount
Jump Ultimate Attack: Gold E. Requiem
Inflict 5 hits of 200% damage to all enemies and rolls back their skills 20% (Cooldown: 42)
Skill 1: Bring to Life
Boost main team allies chance of Critical Hits by an Extreme amount and they all receive +1 auto attack for 4 turns (Cooldown: 45)
Skill 2: A Golden Dream
Boost all main team allies Attack by an Extreme amount for 2 turns (Cooldown :35)
Skill 3: Body Parts
Heal all allies by a Medium amount (Cooldown: 42)
Skill 4: Head of the Power Arrow
Reduce Ultimate Attack Damage from enemy main team by an Extreme amount for 2 turns (Cooldown: 21)
Passives
Boost Defence by a Medium amount for all Agile allies
by a amount for all allies Reduce Damage Taken from Strength enemies by an Large amount for all allies
from enemies by an amount for all allies Boost Defence against enemies with the Hot Blooded characteristic by a Medium amount for himself
Characteristics
Student
Natural
Protagonist
Stats 100% Max post-Jump Awaken
HP: 9210
9210 Attack: 1673
1673 Defence: 1245
1245 Speed: 35
While Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is an 1980’s series Giorno Giovanna will be a 1990s unit. This will not affect his position in the character log but will affect the medals he requires and other instances where passives are mentioned (eg. Kaori Makimura’s passive will have no effect on Giorno Giovanna)
Frequently Asked questions about Jump Units
Is Giorno worth summoning for?
If you like Giorno then summon for him. Right now he isn’t really considered to be “Top Tier” but with the ever shifting meta of the game there is definite potential to be found in him, only time will tell how useful he could be later. It is also worth noting that Bossun is featured on Giorno’s banner, he is a very good unit to have for Legend Arena right now so it’s good to summon on this banner for both those units.
Should I use Girono as leader?
He can be a quality leader for Legend Arena. He’s not game breaking or anything but has a nice HP boosting multi colour lead that can make your units a little more tanky.
What teams can I make for Giorno?
If you are trying to build against the current meta then an Agile front line can be pretty interesting, avoid using Giorno as lead if you plan to use an Agile team, use someone like Yamamoto instead.
Should I use Giorno in Vs. Battle?
Right now? Maybe.
He is a little slow and isn’t considered to be top brass, that being said, his ultimate can be super useful if you have the right set up to get it off.
Which skills should I equip for Giorno?
I would probably recommend skills 2 & 4.
Should I max Overboost and Victory Evolve Giorno?
That is entirely up to you. I would personally use Overboost Soda on other units instead of him if you have them, but take things at your own pace. Victory Evolving and Jump awakening him are recommended.
The Final Stage
Passione’s Boss – Diavolo
Ultimate Attack: King Crimson
Inflict 300% damage to the target, furthermore reduce target skill gauge by 100% (Cooldown: 45)
Skill 1 : Hidden Identity
Boost the Defence of Diavolo by an Extreme amount and auto heal for 3 turns (Cooldown: 60)
Skill 2: Pride of the Emperor
Removes all buffs on the player team and inflicts 250% damage to the entire player team (Cooldown: 40)
Characteristics
Sly
Evil
Cool Headed
Stats
Attack: 1500
1500 Defence: 600
600 Speed: 43
Event Overview
This event is surprisingly easy. By looking at Diavolo’s skills you might expect him to be a nuisance, and if his stats were much better then maybe he would be. Sadly, for those expecting a challenge, almost any team will be able to beat this stage on expert, they even give you Narancia who you can use as a leader to rinse through this event.
Sure Fire Clear
Use a full Agile team with an Extreme Attack leader like Narancia. This stage is not only easy but short too. You can clear this event multiple times in the time it takes you to clear most other events. Agile teams are foolproof and don’t even need high level skills or levels! |
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